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Propaganda

Hypothetical Question: If the United States were a fascist dictatorship with state run media, how would that state run media be any different than the mainstream news media we have today?

Personally I am disgusted with the mainstream news media in the United States today. The news organizations are all tightly controlled by a very small number of “competitors” – all of whom have the exact same motivations, to expand their revenue base through targeted advertising. This leads them all to get very friendly with the government that helps the big corporations who have things to sell. The good news is that there are a few voices in the wilderness willing to speak out and tell an alternative point of view. Here are my current favourite sources of news:

  • Deutsche Welle is a great source of world news, lately surpassing the BBC in professionalism and impartiality. Aside from their website, DW is carried on several smaller public television and public radio stations around the United States as German Journal.
  • Democracy Now is a strong alternative voice to the mainstream U.S. media. While it is very definitely biased, it’s bias is eloquently stated and maintained specifically because the mainstream media news sources are all biased the other way. Democracy Now is carried on Pacifica Radio and on Free Speech Television (aka: Dish Network channel 9415). By the way, both Pacifica and Free Speech Television are excellent examples of what radio and television could be. Pacifica has excellent jazz music as well as political commentary and world news. Locally we can pick up WPFW, 89.3 on FM radio. Sadly they only have a RealAudio feed, and I do not trust RealNetworks’ software on my computers.
  • BBC News is still a pretty reliable source for world news, though they have not been very critical of the Blaire decision to support Bush’s private war on Iraq, and they appear to have been manipulated from time to time by very large corporate interests lately. They are no where near as biased as any of the major U.S. media news channels. Many National Public Radio stations carry a BBC News feed from time to time, and some university based public television stations and BBC America all carry BBC News.
  • WAMU, 88.5 is my local National Public Radio station, and the home of both the Diane Rehm Show and the Kojo Nnamdi Show (both are excellent talk radio shows with very good moderators and lively discussion about current issues). WAMU is also the home of The Big Broadcast, which is rebroadcasting of classic old dramatic radio shows. We pick up WAMU on FM 88.5 or via the internet.
  • NewsChannel 8 in Washington, D.C. is a 24 hour local news service, and though they are a subsidiary of Allbritton Communications Company and biased much like the big national U.S. news media, they are more tightly focused on local issues.

I hope you can find reliable and unbiased news sources in your area.:

2003 10 06 Scott Nolan News Comments (0) Permalink

Politics: A People’s History of the United States

According to Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States the following quote can be attributed to Gustavus Myers’ History of the Great American Fortunes:

    The whole institution of Law saw nothing out of the way in these conditions, and very significantly so, because, to repeat over and over again, Law did not represent the ethics or ideals of advanced humanity; it exactly reflected, as a pool reflects the sky, the demands and self-interest of the growing propertied classes…

Wow. That was 1910 and yet Mr. Myers quote nearly exactly describes the situation we have in America today:

    The current Bush administration ruthlessly and efficiently represents their constituency. It exactly represents the demands and self-interest of a small selection the extremely wealthy, and it manipulates the law, and the American people into serving those interests without regard to human life, human suffering, and human rights. The really, really sad thing is that roughly fifty million voting Americans still believe the illusion rather than opening their eyes to see how they have been exploited, again, by their government.

Sad. Frightening. Any suppressed society, held down long enough with no peaceful way out will eventually rise up in violent revolution. America appears to be a long way from that, but how far is it really?

2003 10 06 Scott Nolan History
Politics
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Falconry and Hawking

I just found out that my cousin Kyle has trapped a Red Tailed Hawk he is calling Red October and he hopes to hunt with her this Autumn. I am somewhat envious of Kyle, in a good way. I have been fascinated by falcons, owls, and hawks as far back as I can remember. That fascination was honed when I first read Phillip Glasier’s beautiful book “As the Falcon her Bells” (which covers forty years of the author’s experiences with raptors of all kinds). I never got involved in hawking myself, and I am fascinated that Kyle (many years younger than I) is doing what he wants to do. Go for it Kyle! I am very much looking forward to seeing Red October fly this Thanksgiving when Erci and I head out to Arizona to visit family.

Speaking of Red Tailed Hawks, one visited my workplace on September 26th and I was fortunate enough to have a camera in my office. There are several pictures of our visitor here, and to the right is the best of them for your enjoyment.

photo of hawk

2003 10 05 Scott Nolan Environment
Local
Nature
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October 4th

Personal:
Today is my mother’s birthday, and I was able to call her but unable to talk a lot because I have a very sore throat. I am extraordinarily fortunate to have a mother with whom I am very close. She is someone I can talk to, someone I love, someone I respect enormously. She has spent most of her life helping people struggle through their lives and find happiness and delight in the little mysteries of life. I am looking forward to her next visit (she lives a few states away) later this month.

Bookshelf (politics and history):
I am currently reading “A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present” by Howard Zinn, which is a real eye-opener of a book. U.S. History completely unlike I learned in school. This book is already on my must read list, get a copy now! The world dislikes our government for many, many reasons and this books helps us understand those reasons and perhaps with that understanding we can do something about it.

Computers:
I am writing this on my Apple PowerMac G4 Cube, which is silent, operates on very low power, and plenty fast at it’s original 500MHz. I deplore the trend in consumer desktop computers to race faster and faster without any regard for energy consumption nor ergonomics. Most modern multiple gigahertz computers are far too noisy to be near our ears, yet people spend their money on these odd contraptions and then spend more money on expensive speakers for them so they can play music louder than the noisy machine. Seems silly to me. I want more computers to come out like the nOrhTec GP+ or the Apple G4 Cube. Both are cool, quiet, energy efficient, fast machines. Neither runs the crap operating system from Redmond.

2003 10 04 Scott Nolan Computers
History
Personal
Politics
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First Posting

This is a first post to my new blog space, powered by the web application Blogger (www.blogger.com). I hope to share a few thoughts here, and perhaps someone will find it useful or entertaining, perhaps not. I decided to set up a blog a while ago, and Erci embarrased me into setting one up by doing her own blog, and then I got pushed into it even more by being asked by my local Soka Gakkai District to update the District Calendar using blogger.com’s web application.

2003 10 04 Scott Nolan Blogger
Blogging
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