Monday, May 30, 2005

Memorial Day anti-musings

I had a relaxed holiday and I hope everyone else did, also. I don't care to comment on Veteran's Day. It's a day for inflated rhetoric, melodrama and flag-waving, none of which I'm particularly fond of participating in, especially the last one. As Zinn is quoted as saying regarding the flag, "there is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people". That's my take on Vet's Day. You're entitled to yours.

Well, I visited Arianna Huffington's newest creation, The Huffington Post.

Since I've written about the problems I see with her blog in another post, I won't go into much detail. I will say however that her blogroll is just another excuse for promoting more tripe from the rich and the famous. I mean, give me a break! Mark Cuban? Andrew Sullivan? Dave Barry? Plus the usual stars of the new media crowd such as The Daily Kos, Atrios, TalkLeft, etc; they of the proper "liberal" persuasion, just left-leaning enough to be hip, but god forbid that you skewer any of their sacred cows. Then, they unleash a fury upon you just as hate-filled and vitriolic as any Freeper or other fascist from the right.

Can you tell I'm weary of jumping through hoops and toeing the line, even if it's the so-called "right (or left)" side of the line?

On an upbeat note. While it's pretty low-key around the keyboard tonight, this writer just put the last few lines to bed on When Towns Had Teams. Clocking in at around 80,000 words and still in need of an intro and epilogue (pieces of cake, dude), the hardest part is done. My goal was to have a manuscript done by the end of May, and I'm pretty much on schedule. Now comes the next challenge--getting the book out to an audience by Christmas (A year later than intended). I'm relieved and feeling good in that I accomplished what I initially set out to do, which was to write a book about town team baseball. I'll have an announcement about something definite in the works over the next three or four weeks, so stay tuned. I guess I'll toast it with a cold Bud Light.

3 comments:

Wisdom Weasel said...

Nice to see you out ahead of the pack on Memorial Day- I have come to expect no less. Thought you might find this interesting: Memorial Day

Wisdom Weasel said...

Oh, but no bloody Bud Light or there will be trouble... Foul liquid.

Jim said...

Thanks for the props. What a great article, which of course wasn't picked up in my local paper (probably not yours, either?).

I especially liked the last paragraph, "Memory with integrity should inform our understanding, on Memorial Day and every day. If we remember the Americans who were killed but forget the people they killed -- if we remain silent while media scripts exclude crucial aspects of history that demolish Washington’s claims of high moral ground -- the propaganda system for war can remain intact. When journalists defer to that silence, they’re part of the deadly problem." Memory with integrity, indeed, should inform all our media, but, due to it's genuflection to our corporate masters of war, our media forfeits any rights to our respect.

I threw in the Bud Light reference specifically because I know how much you love our cheap, watered down, American Pilsners.

I drink what I have on hand and unfortunately, all I have in the house is my Bud Light and PBR.

I'll have to pick up a good, robust Porter for some summer celebrating.