turmoil
now playing: marty higgins, "california"
dylan spent the night last night - he's getting bogged down with homework, and i'm starting to feel ill-equipped to help him deal with it all. i feel as though i should be able to provide him with a certain amount of guidance, but i find myself having to make assumptions about his instructions, and second-guessing myself with regards to the help i'm giving him. last night, he was pretty lethargic and ended up going to bed early - although he was still awake an hour and a half later. (i had to enforce a lights-out to get him to finally go to sleep.)
the guidance counselor at his school has been operating on the assumption that he'd be out for two weeks - the initial word from the doctor was that he'd probably only be out for a week...it's starting to look like mr. hoover had it about right. his mom wants him to go back mid-week this week, but i don't know how this is all going to play out yet. right now, he seems to have his good days and his bad days.
i need to call blake and check in...he went through something of a work crisis recently, a bit of an "agree to disagree" moment with one of the customers he's responsible for. i don't know how he does what he does - i mean, i can see where the job fits into his life, in terms of allowing for other things...but i'm not sure how he manages to deal with some of the people he has to deal with. (this spoken from a person who has to deal sporadically with raving lunatics as part of his routine) at any rate, his conflict was apparently refereed by someone higher up in his company - and he seems to be ok with the way things panned out, judging from his outlook when i last spoke to him...but he's rounding the last turn with his record, and i'm hoping that his decision-making apparatus is intact and that he's able to fully concentrate on the task at hand.
i have a few opinions about making a record in the midst of personal turmoil...although while i might advise against it, certainly history has proven that some great art comes from said turmoil. i can't help but imagine that plenty of absolute horseshit has come from the same turmoil...but horseshit generally goes unnoticed by the world at large, so it's hard to say.
an example of horseshit that hasn't gone unnoticed would be practically every song written in the aftermath of 9/11... i've yet to hear one that hasn't been a trite collection of rhyming cliches. it's a subject that really defies the act of committing it to verse, i think. certainly, it defies being committed to verse by anyone whos' trying at the moment. i wonder if even dylan at his most relevant could've done it in a way that didn't seem blatantly opportunistic...certainly alan jackson never had a shot. the closest anyone was able to come was springsteen's my city in ruins.
says a lot about the state of creativity in our times.
and i'm not even gonna get into the whole ashley simpson thing again.
(except to say that i hope her band walks the hell out on her and she has to tour with mannequins - that is, to say, if she even bothers to tour, save for the occasional tv show.)
OK, enough of all that. here's this month's newspaper article:
Do You Know Your Candidate?
Tom Hampton, Kutztown Patriot
As the election draws closer, I’ve noticed a distinct trend in the media to concentrate their collective attention on issues that only the most partisan of chest-beaters could possibly consider issues that affect this election and the direction of the country. Does America’s fate truly depend on John Kerry’s mention of Dick Cheney’s daughter during the last debate, even though she’s openly professed her sexual orientation for some time now? Do we need the talking head parade to parrot an insignificant tiff between Teresa Kerry and the First Lady?
We’re barrelling towards November 2nd at a breakneck pace, and it seems that our media has opted to while away the space between the final debate and election day with such non-issues as these.
Conspicuous in its absence from the news of late are the results of a joint study from, among others, the Program on International Policy Attitudes and the University of Maryland that comes to some disturbing conclusions regarding those who support the President.
On the heels of Ron Suskind’s recent New York Times article, “The Faith-Based Presidency”, this new study reinforces some troubling trends about our gullibility as a nation. Here’s a sampling of the study’s conclusions:
* Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a program for developing them (25%).
* Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program.
* Seventy-five percent of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found.
* Fifty-five percent of Bush supporters believe, incorrectly, that the 9/11 Commision found evidence of Iraqi support for Al Qaeda.
* Fifty-seven percent of Bush supporters believe, also incorrectly, that the majority of the world’s population favor his re-election (A recent poll by GlobeScan and PIPA of 35 of the major countries around the world found that in 30, a majority or plurality favored Kerry, while in just 3 Bush was favored. On average, Kerry was preferred more than two to one.)
Interestingly, Kerry supporters held opposing beliefs in each of the polled scenarios. Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, "One of the reasons that Bush supporters have these beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration confirming them. Interestingly, this is one point on which Bush and Kerry supporters agree."
Respondents were also polled on their candidate’s position on several issues, and failed just as miserably in that arena. For instance, only 39% knew Bush’s stance on the Kyoto global warming treaty (he opposes it), 38% were aware that he opposes US participation in the International Criminal Court, only 20% knew that Bush stood in opposition to an international land mine treaty, and a scant 13% correctly perceived Bush’s opposition to labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. In comparison, 81% of Kerry’s supporters correctly perceived his support for such a standard.
Kull continues, "To support the president and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about prewar Iraq."
That seems to me a rather tactful way of saying that some of us are more than content to bury our heads in the sand in light of information that might cast our man in an unflattering light.
dylan spent the night last night - he's getting bogged down with homework, and i'm starting to feel ill-equipped to help him deal with it all. i feel as though i should be able to provide him with a certain amount of guidance, but i find myself having to make assumptions about his instructions, and second-guessing myself with regards to the help i'm giving him. last night, he was pretty lethargic and ended up going to bed early - although he was still awake an hour and a half later. (i had to enforce a lights-out to get him to finally go to sleep.)
the guidance counselor at his school has been operating on the assumption that he'd be out for two weeks - the initial word from the doctor was that he'd probably only be out for a week...it's starting to look like mr. hoover had it about right. his mom wants him to go back mid-week this week, but i don't know how this is all going to play out yet. right now, he seems to have his good days and his bad days.
i need to call blake and check in...he went through something of a work crisis recently, a bit of an "agree to disagree" moment with one of the customers he's responsible for. i don't know how he does what he does - i mean, i can see where the job fits into his life, in terms of allowing for other things...but i'm not sure how he manages to deal with some of the people he has to deal with. (this spoken from a person who has to deal sporadically with raving lunatics as part of his routine) at any rate, his conflict was apparently refereed by someone higher up in his company - and he seems to be ok with the way things panned out, judging from his outlook when i last spoke to him...but he's rounding the last turn with his record, and i'm hoping that his decision-making apparatus is intact and that he's able to fully concentrate on the task at hand.
i have a few opinions about making a record in the midst of personal turmoil...although while i might advise against it, certainly history has proven that some great art comes from said turmoil. i can't help but imagine that plenty of absolute horseshit has come from the same turmoil...but horseshit generally goes unnoticed by the world at large, so it's hard to say.
an example of horseshit that hasn't gone unnoticed would be practically every song written in the aftermath of 9/11... i've yet to hear one that hasn't been a trite collection of rhyming cliches. it's a subject that really defies the act of committing it to verse, i think. certainly, it defies being committed to verse by anyone whos' trying at the moment. i wonder if even dylan at his most relevant could've done it in a way that didn't seem blatantly opportunistic...certainly alan jackson never had a shot. the closest anyone was able to come was springsteen's my city in ruins.
says a lot about the state of creativity in our times.
and i'm not even gonna get into the whole ashley simpson thing again.
(except to say that i hope her band walks the hell out on her and she has to tour with mannequins - that is, to say, if she even bothers to tour, save for the occasional tv show.)
OK, enough of all that. here's this month's newspaper article:
Do You Know Your Candidate?
Tom Hampton, Kutztown Patriot
As the election draws closer, I’ve noticed a distinct trend in the media to concentrate their collective attention on issues that only the most partisan of chest-beaters could possibly consider issues that affect this election and the direction of the country. Does America’s fate truly depend on John Kerry’s mention of Dick Cheney’s daughter during the last debate, even though she’s openly professed her sexual orientation for some time now? Do we need the talking head parade to parrot an insignificant tiff between Teresa Kerry and the First Lady?
We’re barrelling towards November 2nd at a breakneck pace, and it seems that our media has opted to while away the space between the final debate and election day with such non-issues as these.
Conspicuous in its absence from the news of late are the results of a joint study from, among others, the Program on International Policy Attitudes and the University of Maryland that comes to some disturbing conclusions regarding those who support the President.
On the heels of Ron Suskind’s recent New York Times article, “The Faith-Based Presidency”, this new study reinforces some troubling trends about our gullibility as a nation. Here’s a sampling of the study’s conclusions:
* Even after the final report of Charles Duelfer to Congress saying that Iraq did not have a significant WMD program, 72% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq had actual WMD (47%) or a program for developing them (25%).
* Fifty-six percent assume that most experts believe Iraq had actual WMD and 57% also assume, incorrectly, that Duelfer concluded Iraq had at least a major WMD program.
* Seventy-five percent of Bush supporters continue to believe that Iraq was providing substantial support to al Qaeda, and 63% believe that clear evidence of this support has been found.
* Fifty-five percent of Bush supporters believe, incorrectly, that the 9/11 Commision found evidence of Iraqi support for Al Qaeda.
* Fifty-seven percent of Bush supporters believe, also incorrectly, that the majority of the world’s population favor his re-election (A recent poll by GlobeScan and PIPA of 35 of the major countries around the world found that in 30, a majority or plurality favored Kerry, while in just 3 Bush was favored. On average, Kerry was preferred more than two to one.)
Interestingly, Kerry supporters held opposing beliefs in each of the polled scenarios. Steven Kull, director of PIPA, comments, "One of the reasons that Bush supporters have these beliefs is that they perceive the Bush administration confirming them. Interestingly, this is one point on which Bush and Kerry supporters agree."
Respondents were also polled on their candidate’s position on several issues, and failed just as miserably in that arena. For instance, only 39% knew Bush’s stance on the Kyoto global warming treaty (he opposes it), 38% were aware that he opposes US participation in the International Criminal Court, only 20% knew that Bush stood in opposition to an international land mine treaty, and a scant 13% correctly perceived Bush’s opposition to labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. In comparison, 81% of Kerry’s supporters correctly perceived his support for such a standard.
Kull continues, "To support the president and to accept that he took the US to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance, and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about prewar Iraq."
That seems to me a rather tactful way of saying that some of us are more than content to bury our heads in the sand in light of information that might cast our man in an unflattering light.
posted by tom at 13:42
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