Whenever I see clips from FOX News, I tend to worry about our American neighbours down south. This “fair and balanced” news station feels more like some kind of republican propaganda machine that tries it’s best to cause as much separation from left to right instead of just reporting news. Obviously not everybody that works for FOX News is some kind of evil doom-bringer, but they do have a few slightly insane hosts who grace the screen such as Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Now these two guys have the right to say whatever they want, which is fine, but what terrifies me the most is the massive following these two have, and thus makes me a little afraid of Americans.

White House Communications Director Anita Dunn was recently quoted as saying “The reality of it is that Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party” and “They’re widely viewed as part of the Republican Party. Take their talking points, put ‘em on the air.” [source]

Recently FOX News has also been promoting it’s so-called “Tea Parties”, gathering together questionable groups of people to get them on film while they send FOX employees to rouse the crowd for some good TV [source]. That is not reporting, that’s basically creating their own news for their own agenda. Ministry of Truth doesn’t sound too far off at this point.

But enough of my ranting, I’ve included a few video clips from FOX News that show off a bit of their right-wing agenda and what I believe to be mean spirited nastiness that lies behind some of these on-screen personalities.

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Lets talk about religion.

Well first off I would like to start by letting you know I am agnostic  but I’m open to belief. I am very much against organized religion. As I see it, organized religion turns reasonable people delusional and justifies them in commiting horrible acts such as murder in the name of a god that has no place in a sane and reality based society. More wars have been started and more murders have been committed in the name of god then I would like to imagine and I think it’s about time the human race started to think rationally about this and realize that the world we live in today has no room for such nonsense. I don’t mean any offense to the people who hold their faith to themselves if it helps them live day to day but when it comes to deciding our future as a civilization and the continuation of the human race something has to be done about the role religion holds in deciding such things.

If you in some way agree with what I say, you should check out The Reason Project, here’s a link to the site http://www.reasonproject.org/

Apocalypse, dystopia and survivalism are all on the rise in popular fiction since 9/11. Think about how many zombie films have been made since those towers fell. So, it’s no wonder there is interest in the Mayan calendar as 2012 approaches and speculations abound. Why would a civilization so well versed in time envision themselves a calendar with an end-date?

Let’s consider the possibilities. First off, we’ve got two extremes: either they had some sick non-western knowledge and something is going down, or we’ve got this wrong and it’s Y2K all over again. If something does goes down, the extremes are utopia or dystopia. I don’t pretend to have any faith one way or the other. Life happens. I roll with it as best I can.

What I am willing to accept is that massive empires end, sometimes quickly and usually due to some oversight. I’m also willing to recognize the value of setting goals.

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Everyday we are bombarded with information about all kinds of things: news, science, weather, advertising, to name but a few. Much of this stuff offers us a few numbers to assert the claims made therein. These can be as simple as Vince from sham-wow telling us his product soaks up twice as much as the competitors, the weather network telling us there is 30% chance of rain this afternoon, or the news reporting on a scientific study saying the stuff a hard plastic water bottle is made out of can cause cancer.

Now most of these things use math, or more precisely statistics, to back up their claims. Most people think that when a percentage shows up, or these facts are presented by some authority figure like a scientist, one could reasonably assume them to be true.

Well guess what folks? A good chuck of everything you’ve ever been told that has a % in it is flat out wrong. That’s right – flat out wrong. Statistics works in the realm of probability and likelihoods, not in absolute certainties. If you watch the news often enough you will see an opinion poll on one thing or another. Next time check out the fine print. It should say something like, “This poll is accurate +/- 2.3% 19 times out of 20.”

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Ian smash!

Frustrating. The quick willingness with which people will categorize the others. You know the others? The stupid ones that don’t have your history, english or philosophy degree? Those idiots that lack your specialized knowledge of computers or nutrition. Taste my sarcasm here. A whole world split between the knowledgeable few who know what you know and the rest of us.

I think this is a problem of associating with too many like-minded people. Its too easy to self-congratulate when you are surrounded by people who benefit their own egos by sharing in your belief, your superior moral code, your high class taste, your intellectualism.

Of course, this brings me ‘round to my own all-too-obvious hypocrisy. I rant because I know better, I surround myself with people who know better. You know, the superior few, not those ‘others’.