IF YOU GOT NOTHING NICE TO SAY...GRIPE!



Public television isn't.

And it shows. The programming is safe, predictable, politically correct and paternalistic in tone and manner.
PBS is underwritten by the biggest corporate names in America. As are Opera Companies, Symphony orchestras, Repertory Theatres and Art Museums. Subscriptions and audience support represents a small fraction of the dollars necessary to keep these institutions afloat. Subscription television (like the kind produced by the company I work for) is far less risk averse and conservative. You won’t see Paul Provenza talking about the CIA being in bed with Halliburton or Penn Gillette still questioning the Warren Commission report and comparing it to the 9/11 commission on PBS. But you will see Peter, Paul and Mary in concert with six 20 minute breaks for fund-raising and historical dramas that bring us World War I as if seen through the eyes of Jane Austen.





Same Highway. Different names. You’re looking for the exit to the Whitestone Expressway. You see a sign for I-678…which is the same thing, but it doesn’t say Whitestone Expressway. Are we all expected to know the names and the numbers for everything?



Can’t walk on sidewalk because The Today Show is taping a segment on the street. It’s their street now? Gotta walk 3 extra blocks to get to work so NBC can look like they’re in touch with the people on the street.



Cops on Horseback. Must be a reason for it. Gotta be some rationale. Is this an effective crime deterrent? Are they going to gallop down Broadway chasing the Dalton Gang riding in to scalp tickets to The Book of Mormon?


Obama gives State of the Union address. Followed by panel of pundits deconstructing the speech to tell us what he really meant and really said. And we accept this as a matter of course. This used to bewilder me when I was a kid. Why listen to the speech if the guy giving it isn't meaning what he says or saying what he means? Is politics so debasing a game that it requires interpreters to translate words into their unspoken intentions? Why would anyone want to join this game if it’s all about bluffing and phony posturing?

And what chance does someone who really does mean what he says and says what he means have? Bill Bradley couldn’t handle it—cause I suspect that though he appreciated a good fake move on the hardwood as a way to scoring a legitimate basket, he could never get used to it as a way to block legitimate legislation.



“It is much difficult to focus on God as the unmanifested than God with form, due to human beings having the need to perceive via the senses.” --Lord Krishna

Don’t virtually all religions warn against idol worship? In fact, don’t they prohibit it? And yet we encourage and celebrate idolatry as something uplifting and good. From the generally benign kind on American Idol to the canonization of Ronald Reagan by people you would think would have more on the ball than to fall for such revisionist myth-making.



Does this explain the burgeoning business of nail salons?
Gotta keep those nails short enough for good touch sensitivity and long enough for good looks. Or is it just another escape into vanity and self-involvement in stormy weather times?








We need the Janitor who did this to run for higher office. Or at least let him be in charge of a Think Tank.





Did you see the Nole/Rafa match? If you did, I think it's safe to say that it ranks up there with the most intense ever. I was jumping off the couch so much that I almost needed to call for the trainer. Unfrigginbelievable!