AWAY

It is no secret to any reader that I have been away from my blog since Father's Day. Not away from the computer, but I haven't been able to say much. Most of what I have had to say I have slipped into the commentary of some of my friends. I will really be away for the weekend, though I will take my little laptop and try to write some stuff that has been constricting my brain for awhile.

As a parting jab though, I don't like to post about politics anymore (well, that's a darn lie, but if I get up into politics I get angry, blustery and don't like to look at what I have done. I have, however made some comments about media, and today I will throw a little media bomb.

I have been a casual fan of Bill O Reilly for awhile, but I also find his program very irritating. A couple of days ago I figured out why. I will begin by restating that I think Obama will be elected and I think he will be a lousy president, but I have seen who would be worse - - much worse. It is Bill OReilly, and I have figured out why, and why his title "The no spin zone" has almost no validity. What he means, is that he doesn't want anything on the program with which he disagrees (But what about the shouting match with Geraldo about immigration?/ or???? He rather likes to get into a shouting match once in awhile, usually with folks he really disagrees with, and he does rather well in that circumstance. Where he HATES disagreement is with folks whom he seems to respect, and who disagree with him politely and with well formed argument.

At that time he turns into the classic "Don't confuse me with facts when I have made up my mind" mode. With those folks, he throws out lines like "we all know that's not true" or other statements like "everybody knows it's the oil companies and the speculators that are keeping the prices up", but he doesn't want to hear logical argument that would put him on the defensive. This was particularly clear in a discussion with Carl Rove whom he obviously expected to agree with his argument that those dealing in oil futures are deliberately making life miserable for the rest of us, and Rove simply and logically pointed out that he didn't know his ankle from his elbow on the subject. OReilly looked frightened threw out some one liners and got Rove off as quickly as possible. He gets defensive and tosses vapid generalizations in almost all similar situations. I have been able to enjoy OReilly more now that I see what he is doing, and I check off the number of times he does it. Watch him when someone he "should" like is on who disagrees with him and see him blow them off with vapidity. Why would he make a worse president than Obama? Because he makes up his mind on limited evidence and simply refuses to listen to any other point of view. If you watch closely you can almost see him as a child on a playground putting his hands over his ears and screaming "I'M NOT LISTENING" , or "I CAN'T HEAR YOU."

Try watching for this, it makes the program more enjoyable and you can still get fun from the Pinhead or Patriot segments etc.