Huff vs. Ailes and Beck: Do Words Matter?

It's getting so I don't have to even watch TV anymore. All I have to do is go to Huffington Post or YouTube and I can watch little three-minute videos of all the latest media chatter without having to view the whole program. I had stopped watching all the Sunday shows because of my disgust with spineless Democrats. So I was able to see the few minutes of This Week on Huffpost in which Arianna challenged Roger Ailes on Glenn Beck's inflammatory language. And I didn't even have to sit through windbag George Will's stern lecturing as if all America were a fifth-grade class guilty of talking out of turn during algebra.

The pity is the whole argument is down to a squabble over whether or not Beck used the word "slaughter" in describing what the Obama administration wants to do to the American public. Beck said he never used that word. Huffington played the tape where he said it. Beck says of course he didn't mean it literally. The whole thing is petty. I wish they would debate the tenor of fear and paranoia Beck is creating rather than nitpicking over a single word. This just makes Arianna descend to Fox's level and the argument becomes "No I didn't say that." "Yes you did."

Keith Obermann is becoming just as bad for his over-the-top slamming of Senator-elect Scott Brown of Mass. by taking minute details and blowing them up to label Brown as racist, sexist, homophobic, and advocating violence against women. Most of the time I agree with him, but he just went too far this time (and Jon Stewart called him on it.)

Late Night Ramblings: From Politics to Continuity on the Golden Girls

I despair of civil discourse in this country. Corporate lobbyists and radical right wingers are encouraging people to riot at town hall meetings--filling their heads with lies about health care reform. ("It will kill your grandpa, and your daughter will be forced to have an abortion.") They are employing the tactics they deplored 40 years ago when kids protested the Vietnam war. Limbaugh compares Obama to Hitler every chance he gets. Olbermann and O'Reilly have broken their truce and are ratcheting up their attacks.

For every piece of good news--Sotomayor is confirmed, the two journalists are released from North Korea thanks to Bill Clinton--there's more bad: health care reform is in danger, crazies are getting into the mainstream media.

It's so much easier to watch Jonny Quest at midnight on Boomerang and the Golden Girls 24-7 on the Hallmark Channel or WE. Did you ever notice Blanche, Dorothy, Rose, and Sophia never mention their children, grandchildren, siblings, etc. except on the episodes where said relatives appeared. It's as if they vanished from mind when they weren't present. Let's see, Blanche had a sister (played by Barbara Babcock and Sheree North on separate episodes) and a gay brother (Monte Markham). But her father Big Daddy (David Wayne and some other guy in another episode) never mentioned his other children when he would visit Blanche. Meanwhile Dorothy also had a sister played by two different actresses (Doris Bielack and Dena Dietrich, Mother Nature on those margarine commercials) and a brother Phil who was into cross-dressing. Yet when Blanche had a tough time dealing with her brother's sexuality, Dorothy never mentioned her experiences with her sibling's transvestitism. Neither did Sophia. Strange.

Jonny Quest is a different story. Jonny's mother is dead before the series starts and she's only mentioned briefly in the first episode. She never comes up again. I guess Dr. Benton Quest is having too much fun with Race Bannon.