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The Facts, Auto-Tuned

If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem tends to resemble a nail.  
-Abraham Maslow.

What do Don Imus, Howard Stern, and Rush Limbaugh have in common?  All of them can be keen observers of the cultural landscape.  All can be hysterically funny, very entertaining, and then… they go too far.  They cross a line of good taste and drive people away.

Rush Limbaugh, in particular, has changed his tone over the years.  In the early days of his radio show, he used shtick to make his point, and to great effect.  His skits lampooning topics in the news were laugh-out-loud funny.   While I never agreed with his ideology, I listened to his program every day at work.

Then something changed, and it was no longer shtick; now he was – and is – just preaching to the choir.  I stopped listening years ago when it became one long, endless monologue about why liberalism is the country’s ruin.  When he said on the air that he wished for President Obama to fail, I realized that the tone of the show had changed dramatically.

But he’s got every right to say what’s on his mind.  It’s that pesky First Amendment thing.  Keeps rearing its head at inopportune moments.    There’s no question in my mind that they are well within their rights.  My issue is:  is it impossible to find a balanced, open-minded – and wildly popular - voice in the media?  Why is it that those on either side of the political spectrum view all issues through their party’s filter?

When President Obama decided that it was time for US troops to leave Iraq even though there was not yet an autonomous government – the benchmark he had stated during the election that would determine when our forces could leave – he simply changed the benchmark.  He said that there had been a “change of mission” and now it was fine and dandy for us to leave a country that we tore up from the floor up.

When did spin become conventional wisdom?  Doesn’t anyone believe that the facts should dictate our opinions, not the other way around?

Sometimes when I hear a politician tell me something is shine-ola, when I know otherwise, it’s like hearing T-Pain “singing” – it all sounds kind of like words, but with a whole lot of distortion.

All I can say at the end of the day is that everyone is entitled to their opinion.  The thing is, many people listening to the shock jocks and political pundits may not realize that what they’re drinking is Kool-aid until it’s too late.

Perspicacity

It's not just that I'm asking for wisdom,
I'm requesting a truth detector.
Please give me vision that can see the genuine article,
hearing that senses a Big Lie,
and a taste for what is substantive.
Please grant me a connection to what's pure and right and just.
Protect us from the disingenuous, and those with a hidden agenda.
Surround the young with good influences
and the ability to think critically.
Bolster them so they protect themselves and each other.
Help them to stand for something,
so they don't fall for just anything.

-Ruth Williams

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