We live now in the age of the Pretenders.  There are Pretenders in
 government, Pretenders in religion, but the biggest Pretenders of all are
 in the press.  I am so tired, night after night, day after day, of
 watching or reading the dimwitted fools in the press make their conventional
 assumptions; too blind, too stupid, or just too invested to see that
 the conventions they've lived by are at the very heart of the problem.
  When one can only come to conclusions backed by
 irrelevant precedent, one ceases to use the mind for what it is best able
 to do--- to form original thought.  At this point of intellectual
 laziness, one ceases to bring new information, or especially, new insight.
  And if one fails to bring new insight, then what purpose does one serve,
 save that of a pathetic, inconsequential scribe?

The talking heads on television have become so enamored of themselves,
 so impressed by their imagined brilliance, that they no longer serve
 any legitimate purpose.  Why would I need 1000 channels that all run the
 same thing?  

Not only is their a lack of gravitas and original thought, there's also
 a lack of testicular fortitude.  The fact that no one is able to say
 that we were lied, yes lied, into the war in Iraq is ludicrous.  If this
 pussified press corps was worth anything, they could've shamed, even a
 Republican Congress, into impeaching Bush and Cheney.

So how have we come to this point?  We've come to this point because
 the two biggest groups of yellow-bellied weaklings in this country are
 the Democratic Party (and I am a Democrat), and the so-called Fourth
 Estate.  During the 1970s, the press showed that they, in fact were, a
 crucial part of our democracy; they dug up the information and then used it,
 on a criminal named Richard Milhous Nixon.  After that, and combined with the fact
 that press coverage played a crucial role in ending the death orgy known
 as Vietnam, the GOP was fed up  "These people" had to be stopped.

So every chance they had, the whiny Republicans complained about the
 "liberal press," or the "liberal media," the "Hollywood Left," the
 "Academic elites;" and instead of saying, "f--- you, you anti-intellectual,
 Gooberific, lying, hate-spewing little prigs," the groups attacked just
 went away into the corner to cry.  

The contemporary reaction of the press was to begin covering both sides
 of every story, and by both sides they meant the Right side and the
 Left side, not the correct side.  The belief that by covering both sides
 one somehow enlightens is childish in its ignorance.  As my mother has always
 told me, there may indeed be two sides to every story, but their is
 but one truth.   By covering two opposing sides for every story and asking
 the gentle viewer or reader to decide for themselves, the press has
 done nothing more than contribute to mass confusion.  So what's been done
 then is to lend weight and credibility to that which is weightless and
 incredible.  

So now we are trapped---trapped in an age where the lie is no longer
 the crime.  Calling the liar a liar has become the crime.  We are so
 preoccupied with false-civility that these journalists no longer
 investigate, they no longer prod or probe, they just write, or speak.  In that
 sense they've become precisely what the term that describes their
 profession says---journal/ists---just some fools keeping a diary.  

The one thing that journalists do pretend to do---analysis---is usually
 either inept or recycled.  It's always funny to see one journalist say
 something, we'll call him Journalist A; another one says something
 totally opposite on the same day, about the same subject, we'll call him
 B; and then hundreds of other journalists jump on B's bandwagon, and
 before we know it, A is the lead bandwagoneer!  The lack of independent
 thought among these people who claim to be such experts is laughable.  

ON IDIOT DEBATES

As of late, I have been of the mind that the vast majority of people,
 not just in America, but everywhere, are rather dim---not particularly
 intelligent.  As proof of that, we needn't look any further than the
 current immigration debate in our own country.   No one denies that
 illegal immigration is a problem in search of a solution, but illegal
 immigration is not going to topple this country.  And the use of the
 immigration issue for fear is as old as time, and as low as low gets.  

I am loathe to compare anyone to Adolf Hitler, but I'll have to make an
 exception just this once.  Hitler spent years demonizing the Jews,
 why?  Because the real problems facing Germany would've required
 level-headed nuance and years of hard work, but Hitler told the Germans that the
 Jews were to blame for all of their problems.  They were stealing
 German jobs, he said, wrecking the German economy, taking over the German
 society.  Sound familiar?  The scapegoat has been the mascot of all
 minorities at one point in time or another.

Now, what the Fuhrer's ploy was far worse and far more evil in its scope.
  I don't even believe that those who use the issue of illegal
 immigration actually hate illegal immigrants (not that that makes it any
 better).  But the two ploys are far from mutually exclusive.  

Our problem in this country has been, and remains, that we do not ask
 enough questions.  Some of us remain non-inquisitive because we have
 played into the hands of those who thrive on society's cynicism, and others
 of us simply because we are too dense to realize the time for
 questioning has come.   Whatever the causes, our collective silence has cost us
 collective power and collective progress.  

The reporting class---very class that should be inquisitive---has relinquished that role,
 especially when it comes to illegal immigration.  Instead of reporting
 the truth of the issue, that half of the illegal immigration problem is
 caused by illegal hiring; they ask divisive questions.  Questions like,
 should English be the official national language.  

Instead of saying that most of the problems with the economy in this
 country have to do with greed run amok; they report on some possibly
 well-intentioned fools who guard the border themselves, armed only with
 shotguns and ignorance.  Instead of saying that immigration is only the
 latest in a long line of distracting wedge-issues, proceeded by flag
 burning, gay marriage, and the resolution condemning Decepticons for
 infuriating the delicate sensibilities of Autobots; they spend time reporting
 on Brittney Spears' child-rearing habits, and Paris Hilton's substance
 abuse problems.  

ON THE COSUMER SOCIETY

In this era of materialism, it is appropriate, I think, to consider
 ourselves consumers---consumers of goods, of news, of government, of lies and
 truths, of empty slogans and half-hearted promises---consumers of the ideas
 that society offers.  

People often ask me why I get so passionate, and even angry, when
 expressing my thoughts on the current state of affairs.  The question I
 usually throw back is "why the hell aren't you angry?"  The time may well
 be approaching when we cease to be a functioning society, and as a
 member of this society, I refuse to go down quietly while it happens.  What
 we may need now is a revolution.  A peaceful revolution, but a
 revolution nonetheless.  But the time for such a revolution is now, the danger
 of unraveling, I believe, is real; and at that point, history has shown
 that violent upheaval is usually inevitable.  I pray that the people
 will awaken, that the government will be reborn, that the peaceful
 revolution is fully at hand.  But until such time, the age-old admonition
 applies to all consumers---let the buyer beware!