7:13 am - Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2003
Sounding off

I bet Mark Z. knows this--Who was it that said something like "The mark of genius is being able to hold two conflicting ideas in your head at the same time"?

This is wrong in so many ways...

I wouldn't have imagined you could trademark as generic a phrase as "fair and balanced", for one thing--and as phrases go, isn't that one kind of redundant?--and for another thing, it's certainly not the first phrase that springs to mind when I think of Fox News (And doesn't the fact they're suing Franken for an upcoming book attacking the right suggest they do have a bias, and are not "fair and balanced"?).

If anything, it's the lawsuit that will connect Fox News to the book, and not the title of the book itself. It's a "nuisance suit", pure and simple (I hope Fox News hasn't trademarked "pure and simple", or else they'll be coming after me next!). It's an effort to suppress opinion from someone Rupert Murdoch doesn't like (Punishment for making Bill O'Reilly look bad awhile back, perhaps? Though Billy-boy does that pretty well all by himself). It's Un-American, a perversion of the law, and not something a theoretical "news organization" should be doing. (Editors note: Reading the article over, it strikes me that they're just asking for him to remove the phrase. I still think it's a stupid nuisance suit, but it's overstating things a bit to refer to it as "suppression of thought".)

Well, I've been a Californian less than three years at this point, and already I'm embarrassed at what the rest of the country must be thinking of us...

I think this recall is nothing more than an attempt by the right to grab what they couldn't get at the last election. Shame on them, and shame on all the morons who've jumped into the race for publicity purposes, making this even more farcical than it would be anyway.

(Beyond voting, I'm not a very "political" person, and I don't have much of a grasp of the ins-and-outs of California politics. But I don't think a recall is warranted by the current situation, I think it makes a bad situation worse, and it's millions of dollars spent foolishly, at a time when California can least afford it.)

As for "Governor Schwarzenegger" (sp?), I'm simply baffled at how he's immediately the front-runner, and a serious threat, for no apparent reason beyond the fact that he was "The Terminator".

In a poll after he announced he was running, a majority said they'd vote for him over Gray Davis.

Based on what? Some snappy sound bites? We haven't heard opinion one out of this guy, and what are his qualifications (for city coucilman, let alone the governorship)?

(Former "Mr Universe", fading big-time movie star, and "rich guy" are not "qualifications".)

I'd better get off the subject here. I'm starting to get myself riled-up...

Still thinking about the harmonica stuff (My mediocre harmonica playing being a "microcosm" of my life in general and all that).

Feeling a little stupid about it, actually.

How about this--How about if playing the harmonica is just playing the harmonica, and doesn't represent anything but playing the harmonica?

Cause that's kind of what struck me the other day, when thinking about what I'd written; Where's room for doing stuff--playing harmonica, playing guitar, drawing, dancing around my living room, whatever--just because I enjoy it?

It might be nice to just "enjoy" a few more things in my life...

When I wrote the other day about commercials, and how you had to be "flexible" (If you can prepare, it behooves you to be prepared, but if you can't, you have to roll with that and just have fun), it got me to thinking...

I need to get a lot more serious about my life and career and all that, and at the very same time, I think I need to "lighten up".

It sounds like a paradox, but it's really not--Thinking over that last entry, it hit me that I really have a problem with putting the weight of the world on everything I do. Everything is an opportunity to be frustrated, to be mad at myself, so is it any wonder that I'm not motivated to do much? If anything I do leads to feelings of frustration and failure and anger at myself, what's the point of doing anything?

A while back, I saw a guy with a t-shirt that said "Life is short. Laugh at it".

I think the man's t-shirt might have had a point...

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