First things first.
Thanks to everyone who has been contacting me and offering ideas or their own material to post. Your response is much appreciated. If I haven’t gotten back to you in a timely fashion, my apologies.
For those of you who don’t know much about me, a quick review.
Personal information: I’m about to turn 58 years old and I suffer from a rare chronic autoimmune disorder (Google TRAPS disease if you have any interest). My energy level is much lower than it used to be as my illness has worsened as I’ve aged.
I started posting here in 2005. Martin has had other people to whom he offered front page privileges, but for some reason I have been the person who stuck around the longest, though, in a greatly diminished capacity the last two years.
Martin/Booman and I usually focus our attention on different areas of the political blogospheric spectrum. I’m a just person with opinions and interests regarding a mixed bag of topics, on none of which I have any great expertise: climate change, war, healthcare, police brutality, foreign affairs and general outrage at the views and insanity of the right wing.
He’s someone with a great deal of hands on experience in the political arena, and a remarkably hardworking, intelligent analyst of the current political scene. Booman covers a variety of issues, of course, as any blogger does, but in my opinion, his experience as an activist and organizer (among others) adds a level of insight I simply do not possess. Roughly speaking, I’m more id, and he’s more ego if you want to go all Freudian on it. However, it is his voice that defines Booman Tribune, the one that readers primarily associate with this place.
Until he returns, the front page will be presenting a different voice, or to be precise, many different voices, and they will differ in tone and writing style even if the basic subject – matters relating to politics and current events – remain the same. I’d ask that everyone here remember the primary rule of this place: don’t be a dick. It generally works well.
Ok, please treat this as a morning open thread. I’m heading out for coffee.
Ps. Apparently, in the alternate reality known as our broadcast Sunday political news shows, the massive climate march in NYC yesterday, the largest in history, wasn’t worth talking about. How convenient for them.
Little coverage of the March but much coverage of the 10 million iPhones sold this past weekend. Sigh.
But those iPhones are so pretty! And sexy! And …
Hey, I’m going to enjoy my new iPhone and not feel guilty about it despite the media insanity. (Yes, I wisely decided to buy the 4.7″ phone, not the monster.)
Just briefly turning on TV yesterday I noticed BBC channel was covering the March, but MSNBC was doing either NFL or racial tension reporting. Someone pls let me know whether MSNBC covers the March tonight with their regular liberal lineup of hosts. I won’t have TV until tomorrow.
I ordered the 4.7, then changed it to the 5.5 last week after I read that they were scaling the size of text for the bigger phones. My eyes are just not as young as they used to be.
I actually just got a 5C about 2 weeks ago. I’m so retro.
Speaking of I Phones, will consumers embrace Google internet interfaced glasses with all the I Phone goodies built into their sturdy frames? With everyone walking around with thick framed glasses that are internet connected will handheld, bulky I Phones and I Pads look horribly outdated in five short years? The Daily Show parodied the Google glasses recently. It seems that there is a backlash against them. People don’t like being filmed secretly in public places with a camera concealed in the glasses. They have a very strong aversion to them, so perhaps they won’t catch on, only a minor blip on the cultural radar.
kind of a Darwin thing, perhaps. The ppl wearing them will get hit by vehicles when crossing the street, in cities anyway
LOL
I coulda predicted THAT.
The politicians and the corporations that own them don’t care about your march, any more than they did in 2002..
You wanna make a difference, vote in EVERY ELECTION.
Marching does nothing.
Forgive me if I’ve got this all wrong, but didn’t the Sunday talk shows air in the morning? Before the actual climate change march happened?
They were well aware it was coming. It was a scheduled event, so yes, they could easily have discussed it and the upcoming summit.
We had plenty of coverage of the march here in NYC — all of it contextualized as a traffic and transit story. “Sixth Ave closed, plus CPW, so…avoid the area!”
Same thing happened in 2002 when a million showed up to suggest that invading Iraq was stupid.
In other news, two guys at ‘the border’ said they were citizen-militia (or something) and were actually covered ahead of the march-cum-traffic story on my local news/chat fest (Ch 11, I think).
Of course, we’re doomed.
Saw photos of the march on a friend’s FB profile. Looked impressive.
The March was, or should have been, part of the morning’s news. Chuck Todd found time to deliver some profoundly original analysis of the November election results, which won’t exist for several more weeks:
Ironic that such limited people get to decide what is and what isn’t “worth talking about”. I guess we talk about the Sunday shows in turn because some of the 47 people in the audience are pretty powerful. We’d be better off if those people would turn off their TVs and spend more time reading, or going for long walks, or even going to church.
Hi. Please check your email account. Sent you a message.
One interesting bit I heard on this weekend’s edition of Bonjour Africa, a radio program featuring “the best in African music” (as opposed to the so-called World Music, as they point out).
http://www.bonjourafrica.com
One feature of this recent program focused on African artists who were using music as an educational tool to educate young people about Ebola, and ways to protect themselves from infection.
Apparently, Senegal now has a sizable immigrant/refugee population, which contributes to the information gap.
One particular concern was in educating “young men on the streets” who study the Koran (and presumable little else), and so do not watch television or the internet. So to get information to this demographic, a number of well-known artists have written songs to address the topic. The program played several songs in French and African languages on this topic. Very interesting.
I’m not an expert in either Ebola or West Africa by any means, but I thought it was worth a mention.