Snippets

"Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

--Hermann Göring at the Nuremberg Trials

 

On December 26th, a deep-ocean earthquake created tsunamis which devastated huge portions of southeast Asia, causing an appalling loss of human life…halfway across the world from the United States. Day by day, the death toll rose: 25,000; 60,000; 100,000; 140,000. The American press waited a decent interval of approximately ten days before one of the "top stories" became the number of Americans missing in the disaster. PBS’s MacNeil Lehrer broadcast a report last week that included obvious criticism of authorities’ inability to pinpoint the exact number of American dead. Our press has the unerring ability to make any and every tragedy the world experiences "about us." And if it’s not about us, it’s not worth bothering about. Luckily for the southeast Asians, Americans were killed in their disaster, or the American media would have lost interest by now.

 

A Cleveland man is suing NBC’s "Fear Factor" for $2.5 million, saying that an episode which showed contestants eating blended dead rats so grossed him out that he got dizzy, bumped his head on a doorpost on the way out of his living room, and then hurled his guts out. For this he is entitled to $2.5 million? And I suppose he was tied down while someone held his eyes open and forced him to watch this half-witted display of asinine hijinx known as "reality TV?" Not that I wouldn’t love to see this show sued to oblivion, but only someone who would watch this tripe would be stupid enough to think that his body’s natural reaction to these disgusting visual images would be grounds for a lawsuit.