Dumb Information Nation Revolution
A recent Huffington Post article reveals a churning in the waters of America, a possible Wingnut Revolution in the making as super rich citizens are irate at the new political situation. Doomsday scenarios explained as to who and how the takeover is spelled out, as what is going on in Washington is not the answer. Huffington Post did not receive the memo, put out world wide April 11th 2008; it’s not the Wingnut Revolution, it’s the Dumb Information Nation.
This time, individuals from all parties will unite in the fight against stupidity and greed, the fight to rid the world of hatred and incompetence; it’s not a one sided bashing whether Republican, Democrat, or Independent. The simple thought process that maybe not benefiting me as an individual, it will benefit the masses that stand before and around me.
We do not have to agree on everything out there, but we do have to live together, and no matter who was behind the collapse of this nation, we are all in it together, win or lose (I for one am in it to win it, no matter who I call my Commander-in-Chief, because after all, if I win it, I win it). The recession is not discriminating while washing over the lower and middle class, it chooses no sides. I am not going to lose sleep or divert focus because the gentlemen down the street believes that all criminals regardless of the offense should die of natural causes; there is bigger and more dire concerns at hand.
Simple yet effective thoughts and ideas will get us through the toughest of times, the KISS method if you will.
Keep It Simple Stupid, because all of you have to agree, sometimes ignorance is bliss
Unbiased Media Works Hard to Sway your Opinion
Binyam Mohamed is finally going home, or the last home he legally had, back in Britain. His stay in Guantanamo Bay is nearing its end, as British doctors have reviewed his condition and tagged him as fit to fly.
“A newspaper has reported that the Foreign Office solicited a letter from the US State Department that forced British judges to block publication of evidence of torture,” is how the article ended conveniently. Something to make the reader wonder, possibly ponder on for hours on end. Was there actually torture going on worlds away? Did they actually rub red paint on people’s faces to try and get them to talk?
Facts, much to the chagrin of the mainstream media, speak louder than rumors or gossip. But they know exactly when to throw in the bait, just when to add the possibility of something or where in the article to insert the maybe it actually happened to create a thinking tornado for the reader. The mainstream media has honed its skills over the course of the last century, and is as close to perfection as possible, possibly.
The hard facts are thrown in for this story, such as Mohamed being an Ethiopian Muslim convert who was granted asylum in Britain in 1994. He was also arrested in Pakistan in 2002 on “suspicion of involvement in terrorism.”
Once an Ethiopian slash British immigrant, he was in Pakistan during an American led campaign to rid that area of insurgency. He was in a region of the world that had severe travel warnings from Israel to Jamaica. He was caught up in a Taliban led area of Pakistan, in an area of the world that had been war torn for centuries. Government issued travel warnings, both U.S. and Britain, told him not to go, yet he did anyhow. He was caught up in a war, those are the facts.
Throw in what ever else you like to provide the “fat” of the article; I do it as well, but only to poke fun at something or to try and evoke a quick laugh. Rumors to try and make the reader wander in their thinking are something else; it’s what most would call propaganda, which is information being disseminated aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of the intended audience.
Propaganda is the deliberate, systematic attempt to shape perceptions, manipulate cognitions, and direct behavior to achieve a response that furthers the desired intent of the propagandist.
—Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell, Propaganda and Persuasion
Well, we here at Dumb Information believe that the reader has a brain of his or her own, and have the ability to decide for themselves what is in front of them. We will continue to provide you with real world problems, throw in our two cents to try and pull out a smile or two, and let you decide. It’s up to you, now go out there and make your mind up.
Some analysts claim that Mohamed will be one of the many that end up back in the war zone assisting either the Taliban or some other insurgency based organization, crap I just did it didn’t I. Sorry, it possibly won’t happen again.
Stimulus and Bust
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/amxiaynvarlg
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090213/bs_bw/0908b4120034085635
New research claims that even with a nearly trillion dollar stimulus package, if foreclosures in regards to the tanking sub prime market continue at their record pace, even the most thought out plan “wont spur an economic recovery.”
I am going to sit up on my high horse for just a minute and play devils advocate. If many out there don’t think that this massive infusion of government and taxpayer money isn’t the answer, then why are we continuing the path forward on spending it?
I, like many others that I know, was unfortunately intimately involved in the sub prime mortgage catastrophe. Through the several years that I spent in that industry, I found thousands of ways to cut corners and dodge bullets to get deals closed as quickly as possible. Thank god, if only for my own conscience (I have much more to worry about and really don’t need to add anything else to the pile), I never did anything to jeopardize my professional integrity, such as pushing a re-finance at 130% loan to value of the property or 55% debt to income ratio, almost guaranteeing a foreclosure when the inevitable happened. I do however know when something is askew, because I have learned through my many professions and employers what is right by being taught the wrong way, and something is very askew when it comes to the nearly $800 billion stimulus.
America, chew on this thought for as long as you wish.
It took on average longer to get an approval to re-finance a home during the peak of the sub prime boom then it did to pass the nearly trillion dollar stimulus plan, and look where our sub prime industry ended up. And in the middle of the sub prime frenzy, home owners re-financing their property received a three day window in what is know as a right of rescission to think about what they have done and if they made the right decision; do the taxpayers get this same luxury when it comes to the stimulus package?
Bring Out the Lawyers… Pansies
Yet another sports controversy, this time in California high school football; a high school football team is under fire for running the dreaded A-11 offense. Players wearing jerseys with numbers typical of running backs and wide receivers are eligible to receive a forward pass, and Piedmont High School became one of the few in the nation to begin putting most of their players in those threads. All players on the field with the exception of the quarterback would be eligible to run downfield in hopes of catching history, just as in sand lot rules. Now, the California High School Association wants this nonsense stopped, as they have petitioned that it be barred from competitive competition. DI asks the question, where has all of the competitive spirit gone?
What does this teach our youth? In the case of Jericho the Great, his fastball was just too dangerous to allow others to face him (yet he had total control of his pitches, and up to that point never hurt an opposing player), so they banned him from the taking the mound. Now, California high school defenses are having a tough time defending this offensive monster scheme, so its time to ban it. It may be just a slice of America, little league baseball and high school football, but the defense of a tough competitor is becoming more and more the same. The best defense in America is just to find a way to stop the competition, no matter what has to be done. Legal systems aside, this is one of the biggest problems America faces today, the lack of competitive nature.
This is what we are teaching our children, that when your back is against the wall, its time to bring in the legal system. Stop the offense, and you have won the game. Problem is America; this is not typical in society, so when our youth get to that certain working age and land that dream job of working in a steel factory, the pressure is on them to produce.
They work it out for a few months, but begin to fall behind to the Paleolithic man next to them that works like a mule, never takes breaks, and swallows his spit to curb his hunger until the final whistle blows calling it a day. The boss comes around more frequently now, checking on the limited production that our youth is giving the company. Meanwhile, mule man over in the corner is now not only producing more, but balancing accounting sheets after school because he has no home life. Our youth have the answer; they will confront the boss and ask that an injunction be placed on mule man limiting his daily production so that no one looks bad. They have been taught this from an early age, that when the going gets tough, its time to bring in the legal system. The issues are that in real life, things are not that easy. The old adage of “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” is not what we are teaching the youngsters of today. Unfortunately real life brings different results, and mule man is now bringing home a little extra money because he can do his job as well as our now unemployed youth. I know that this must sound like I have just lost my mind, but trust me; it’s been lost for sometime now.
This is our fault, as America has lost her teaching ability. We teach our youth to find the easy way out, to take the road most traveled. We have done this to ourselves, as we have not instilled what is needed in the ones that will soon be our nation; pride, intestinal fortitude, strength, longevity, persistence, and fear. Working through problems, working to figure out how to defend that pesky offense, or how to figure out that tough tax problem for the company that pays our bills, that is what needs to be taught. The art of never giving up, never giving in, no matter what the odds, is exactly what our youth needs. Whether its cancer or a baseball game, learn to win with guts and determination, just as many before us have. Because without those characteristics in man, without the teachers that forced those qualities down the throats of so many, we would have never been able to enjoy a speech from Martin Luther King Jr., or had the privilege of watching Jim Thorpe and Jessie Owens run, or been able to enjoy movies such as Rudy and Rocky. Robert Frost said it best when he penned “I took the one (road) less traveled by”. What he meant, if only in my mind, was that tough times demand tough people, and that we should never give up when we are faced with obstacles. We should gut it out and find a way to win, whether it’s underneath the Friday night lights, or if its in a board room in San Francisco, or if its in a hospital in New Orleans. Never give up, never give in; it’s in all of us.
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