The weekend where the uber-heated debt ceiling debate was finally resolved in Washington, DC, I got a haircut. As I sat at one of my wonderful hair stylist's workstations, she and her assistants were heralding the arrival of her next appointment. who allegedly loves to talk current events. I didn't get her name, but, for the purposes of this blog, let's call her Miss Frosted Tips. She was there to get some work done on her hair which would make her look only ten years older than she really is as opposed to the usual fifteen year differential.
Nevertheless, the folks at the salon always anxiously await the next scheduled peroxidization of Miss Frosted Tips because she's always amusing and opinionated. She has a lot to say about the world and wants everybody to hear it. And you can't possibly have a viewpoint other than ours because she is eternally correct.
In swooped this bitch and she started yapping as soon as her ass plopped down into the chair. Oh, boy, oh, boy, this debt ceiling debate had her all riled up. Those damn Tea Party people. Racists. Klu Klux Klansmen. Idiots.
On and on and on she went, sucking the air out of the city of West Hollywood. A wide-eyed, screaming Liberal and she was proud of it. I pretended to nap with my eyes closed, but my ears were wide, wide open. As she regurgitated one Democratic talking point after another, she sounded as wrong-headed as somebody on the far right. I listened closely and could have easily countered every single statement she made. Her opinions were that convoluted.
But I didn't. Because I knew that, whenever it comes to a debate on today's issues, Miss Frosted Tips can never be beat.
At one point, she was asked how she knew all this "information."
"Oh, well, I try to keep myself educated on all the issues."
Uh-huh. How?
"The New York Times."
Umm, not the newspaper it used to be and clearly biased.
"MSNBC."
Umm, the network created by NBC for the liberal viewpoint and now is known as being more wide-eyed slanted than the conservative Fox News Network.
"I love Bill Maher and Jon Stewart."
Okay, they are comedians, first and foremost. Maher is a schmuck who has vacillated uneasily between libertarianism and liberalism and usually lands on the exact spot where he can get the most laughs. Jon Stewart? I hear from lots of folks in the know that he's not that bright and, let's face it, his real name is already a sham---Jonathan Stuart Liebowitz. Next?
"And, of course, the Los Angeles Times."
Miss Frosted Tips is now officially insane.
The Los Angeles Times as a news source. The newspaper that chose not to include in any of its stories about the Dodger Stadium parking lot beating that the alleged perpetrators were Mexican.
I'll go one better with a very recent piece of evidence. You may have heard about all the flash mob frenzy going through major metropolitan cities. You see photos of these acts of sheer violence and you see nothing but Black kids involved. That's a fact. And, just last week, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, a Black man, imposed a curfew on the city in an attempt to stop the flash mobs in his city. In his statement, he was very specific. These incidents were caused by Black youth in the urban sections of town.
The very next day, in the Los Angeles Times, there was a story about Nutter and the Philadelphia flash mobs. Nowhere in the article was the very specific mention of Nutter's comment. For all we were led to believe, these flash mobs could have been a by-product of a concert by the kids in "Glee." Shameful journalism and, unfortunately, repeated over and over.
This is what Miss Frosted Tips uses to form her opinions.
Her inane comments stayed with me long after I left the salon. How terrible that this woman was spewing off one ridiculous notion after another based on her "journalistic" sources. I thought one more time about a phenomenon that I have witnessed in this country for the past two decades.
The long and systematic death of journalism.
Where does one go for news that is not opinion? How many young people based their choice in the last election on something that the snarky Jon Stewart said on last night's "Daily Show?" How many folks listened to Keith Olbermann or perhaps his equivalent on the conservative side and considered it gospel? How can anyone in 2011 form their own intelligent viewpoint about anything?
I listen to talk shows and have to filter out the garbage from the truth. But I supplement my daily education not with the latest one-liner from Bill Maher, but with another snapshot from a history book. I've always been a fan of Presidential history since 1900. Because of that, I can diffuse and correct all the political talking points I hear around.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's economic programs pulled the country out of the Depression. Er, not so much.
John F. Kennedy was extremely liberal. Er, not so much.
Richard Nixon was a complete fraud. Er, not so much.
Ronald Reagan was the most successful President of the 20th Century. Er, not so much.
On and on and on.
If you want to understand what's happening right now, look at how it was framed in the past.
From time to time, I also reread the United States Constitution. Still a spectacular document that is being ignored more and more and more.
Yet, the one part of that embraced by assholes like Miss Frosted Tips is still alive and well on the parchment it was first inscribed on.
The freedom of speech. Who knew that, with morons like Miss Frosted Tips, this would be such a double-edged sword???
Dinner last night: Pulled pork sandwich.
1 comment:
Women do tend to babble on. I'd much rather listen to Lisa who's funny and has good gossip. The clients? Meh. Hausfraus.
That reminds me. Need an appointment.
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