STUPID PEOPLE

This is a post that I have been preparing for a few days now. The backstory begins with me sitting comfortably at Dad's Place Coffee, enjoying my new MACBOOK, and a double shot sweet Swamp Water. Enter from stage right a stupid person. Now it was not apparent from her just entering the establishment that she was stupid. But, then she spoke. And, she kept speaking. Now here lies the problem. I firmly believe that when a stupid person begins speaking it creates an invisible vortex in the area that draws in all intelligent thought around it. The more she spoke the larger the vortex became. Suddenly I found myself unable to read, type, or add two and two together. My eyes began to water and a strange smell fell upon the room like fog on the coast. That cold winter fog that is half fog half ice. It was affecting everyone in the room. Customers forgot their names and why they were there. I could not remember the name of my own blog. Someone across the room passed out because they forgot how to breathe. In conclusion, if you are a stupid person, please speak as little as possible. If not for yourself for the safety of the rest of us. Because, I have come to the conclusion that you are too stupid to know that you are killing the rest of us.

We Are Not Alone

After reading the article on monticello live, it seems to me that we who want information before making decisions are not alone. I just had a thought. Instead of spending ten million on a community center, let's spend 3 million on a community center and seven million on new facilities for our police and fire departments. Does that make sense to anyone else? Or, better yet, lets spend 5 million on new facilities for our police and fire departments, a couple of million turning the W.C. Whaley property into a public park and call it a day. I am a long time monticello resident, and I cannot see the need for a community center. Someone made a statement to me today that in summary says that kids in this town need something to do. I agree, the question is will they use this facility? Will there parents be willing to bring them there, pay the fee on the chance that they may not use it, or, will this be a community center for those within walking distance. Now as far as the police and fire department facilities go I have some experience in this area. My father was a firefighter here for many years, and a police officer for many more. I used to stay at the fire station with him on the weekends when he would be on call. It needed to be condemned then, and that was twenty or more years ago. I cannot forsee that the conditions have gotten any better. Common sense is being reborn by all evidence, now it is time to take the next step. What is the next step you ask? We will talk more about that later.

Recycled Title: The Rebirth of Common Sense

I believe that the people of Monticello have, without even noticing, witnessed a rebirth of common sense. It seems to me that some of our leaders have finally decided that they will not go like sheep to the slaughter. They have requested what we call "information" before they make a decision concerning extending the tax issue. I must say, good for them. It is nice to know that I am not the only who worries about spending money on something when I don't even know what it is going to look like and no one can show me or tell me. Interestingly enough, no one is really sure how much it will cost either. Some say ten million, some say twelve. It doesn't matter what they say now because we are in wartime. Prices during wartime have a tendancy to rise and then rise some more. You don't build in wartime unless you are homeless. The price of steel is through the roof, lumber and other building materials as well. Copper is on the moon, and you need copper to make the wire to bring electricity through the building. Now, I will admit that an end to the war is not in sight, I don't care what anyone says, so maybe we need to just pull back on the reigns a bit and show some restraint. If we don't get industry and jobs here, and I don't mean Subway and Pizza Hut, real paying jobs and industry, who will be able to afford to pay a membership fee? First thing is first, Monticello is already on it's way to being a fifty fast food joint ghost town, lets secure our people opportunities and assure that they have a desire to stay here before we give them more to pay for. I mean maybe it is just me. Who knows?

Workers, Lurkers, and Televised Blogs....

I have discussed with several people on several occasions how to get more comments on my blog. Interestingly I find that I am not the only one who is frustrated by those who visit the site but stay for so short a time that they cannot see how wonderful it is(shameless plug) read it, or even understand what it is about. Then there are those who stay on for a few hours, reading and learning about who I am or who I want to be, but leave no comment. Those individuals are called “lurkers”.

It was requested that I somehow address those “lurkers”. I was unsure of how to do so. But I think I have come up with the perfect answer.... Televised Blogs. Madness you say. Voodoo you exclaim, but alas, hear me out.

How many of these “lurkers” scream loudly at the television when an umpire or referee makes a bad call in a baseball or basketball game? How many comment on the stupidity of whatever news story is on the television right now. Opinions are prevalent in today’s society. Some are educated, some are less than. But, most people who put their lives out there on the internet, their opinions out there on the internet in the form of “blogs” want to hear your opinion too. We are trying to learn. About our world, ourselves, and we want to learn from you. So, leave a comment now and then, we know you are out there, we see our hit counters going up and up, and still we are not learning. We value your opinion, it helps us keep an open mind about the world. And, who knows, maybe you will learn something too. Nothing wrong with that is there?

How the “WHY??” Generation Has Changed Mainstream News Media.

From The Book "Please Pass The Pork" Politics, Corruption, and Collusion In Small Town America by Terry G. Bernard.

Chapter 7
Don't Trust "Mainstream" Media

I remember the days of news when the purpose of the media was to report news. It seems that in the past ten years, the role, or more importantly, the role of the media as viewed by the public, has become to tell the public “why” and incident occurred and not “what” incident if any has occurred.

It is important to remember that the role of the media never has been or never will be to tell us “why”. Interestingly, the media does not know why. I reported news for many years before deciding to become an author and never during the investigation of a lead, follow up, or during any other part of the reporting process have ever found out why something happened. Do not sit back on your recliner or sofa and believe what televised media is telling you if they are telling you why something happened. It is important to note that whenever a so-called “expert” is professing his wealth of knowledge upon your senses he always at some point qualifies his statements by saying “of course we are merely speculating”. The press should never speculate. That is not their job.

The two most important factors to remember when considering news coverage are ambiguity and protection of rights. At any point where media starts to speculate on why an incident occurred or why someone did what they did all ambiguity is lost. If a member of the press is speculating on an incident with or without all of the facts he is injecting his opinion into the discussion. How can ambiguity exist with personal opinion involved? It is also important to remember that when protecting the rights of all involved the most important person to protect is not the public, the families of the injured, or even the victims. Where the press is concerned the most important person whose rights has to be protected is the suspect. Now, I know many of you are asking yourself “WHY?” Thank you for making my point for me. What if by some chance the individual at Virginia Tech had been misidentified. What if he had not committed both shootings? Before we even knew how many were dead, and if the rest were safe, the media was speculating “WHY?”. Please note that even after receiving the letters as well as the videos that the Virginia Tech shooter sent to NBC news, none of us nor any of them truly know why he did what he did. Even if he had not taken his own life, would we ever truly know why? Who, What, Where----that’s the news and should still be. Sadly this is not the case.

Remember always, especially when you are upset at a member of the media for not telling you “why” something happened, he does not know, and he never will. And more importantly remember that truly, by definition, it is not his job to tell you. If you want to know “WHAT” ask a real “newsman”. If you want to know “why”, ask Dr. Phil.

In closing of this chapter may I say that the media in today’s society is failing you miserably. They are failing you by giving you what you “want”, and losing sight of what they are responsible for. And please notice, that during the writing of this I never asked “why?” But without speculation, and with ambiguity you know why.

New Subtitle.

Please tell me what you think of the new blog subtitle. No more gloom agony and despair for your amusement.

The Rebirth of Common Sense???

Is the rebirth of common sense underway? Is Benton Arkansas the barometer for what is to come? A few days ago the voters of Benton went to the polls to vote on whether or not an extra one half cent in sales taxes to build a new city park. Now the first amazing thing is that the tax was defeated. The second is that it was defeated 87% against 13% for. The third amazing thing is the fact that of the registered voters that qualified to cast their ballot, 83 percent showed up to the polls. Now that sounds like a-lot, and it is, but here is just how "a-lot" it is. It is more voters than turned out to vote for a president nationwide in the last four elections "COMBINED!" Now a friend of mine and I were talking about this and his question was how did they get such a turnout? Maybe it is the rebirth of common sense. Maybe it was just that dramatically stupid. We may never know for sure, but the question must be asked. With the possibility of upcoming votes on local tax extensions, increases, or however they are being defined at this hour, is Benton The Barometer? Remember folks very few of us spend large sums of money on one item without planning it out. Why would we let "someone else" spend large sums of OUR money without a plan? What is the plan? Where are the goals? What is it going to look like? You don't know because neither does he.