The Deterioration of TV Standards

For years, I watched Good Morning America.  I stopped when Diane Sawyer left.  I watched the CBS Morning Show until they changed to their current and very boring co-hosts.  When The Today Show dropped Ann Curry, I stopped watching because I was angry.  Occasionally, I watch one or the other but I am always displeased with either the show hosts or their celebrity-focused content. 

In the past, I liked Matt Lauer, but in recent years he has become weasel-like, and I have this gut feeling about his relationships with his co-hosts that I just can't get past.  When Ann Curry was co-hosting, I watched because she could be counted upon to present professional and generally unbiased stories. No one will ever convince me Lauer didn't have anything to do with Curry's firing.

Lately, I've been watching Good Morning America, but I am not liking what is happening there, either.  George Stephanopoulis seems like the fatherly figure who sits there watching his offspring with amazement.  Robin Roberts is much the same as she was when she co-hosted with Diane Sawyer.  The problem I am having is watching what appears to be a rivalry between Lara Spencer and Josh Elliot.  The latter increasingly seems to be trying to steal the spotlight from the others, possibly with the goal of taking over for George.  Lara Spencer, delightful as she can be, appears to be in competition with Josh for that coveted limelight.  When all the younger people are placed around the table with the co-hosts, they all talk at the same time.  Believe me, show producers, viewers can not hear anything that is being said when you permit this kind of behavior.  It isn't a party we are attending.  It's a tv show and only one person should be speaking at a time. 

The morning shows can't take all the guilt for the "everyone talk at once" syndrome.  Political programs are worse when they have opposing opinions presented by guests.  Fox News is guilty of that, with Bob Beckel and Juan Williams talking over everyone else on all the shows upon which they appear.  Many of us change the channel when this happens, and rightly so.

Maybe talk radio is the answer.  TV is, pardon the pun, going down the tubes.  Apparently, TV is following the US education goals - reaching the lowest common denominator.  Anyone with any sense realizes where that kind of pandering to the uneducated and intellectually lazy leads - nowhere.  It could have been so much better. 

A Special Valentine

Valentine's Day.  Females have long been seduced and targeted by the corporate world to expect the men who love us to bestow us with cards, flowers, chocolates, and diamonds.  It can be wonderful if you have a sweetheart, but demoralizing if you don't.

Back in the nineties,  I was alone and when Valentine's Day arrived, I often found myself in a depressed state of mind.  The mantra repeating itself in my head was, "No one loves me."   I never spoke to anyone about it, because I found it embarrassing to not even receive a card in the mail, let alone flowers or candy. Just like many other single females, I dreaded this day as well as all the other holidays I would spend alone.

In 1998, I attended a few Christian counseling sessions with Ann, a woman who was a recognized Prophet in her church.  This church was a non-denominational and charismatic type of church where speaking in tongues, prophecy, and being slain in the Spirit were all part of the services.  I was attending counseling with her after experiencing a very painful break-up with someone I had loved.

A week or so after Valentine's Day, I went to see Ann and she started the session, as always, with a prayer asking for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Her prayers were powerful, and when that Presence joined us, it was palpable and emotional. During the sessions, Ann would occasionally tell me that the Lord had a message for me.  Always, it was about something which was causing me concern or sadness, and frequently wasn't concerning anything which we had discussed.  On this day, she closed her eyes during the session and held up her hand signifying I should be quiet.  When she spoke, eyes still closed, she said, "The Lord wants you to know that he has something to tell you.  He seems to be holding something out to you.  I can't quite see it....oh, yes!  It's a Valentine and it says 'Be Mine'."  I was astounded and deeply moved.  God knew my heart.

Because I had never mentioned anything to Ann or to anyone else about my unrealistic expectations on  Valentine's Day,  this message held great meaning for me.  On every Valentine's Day since, when I haven't received a declaration of love, all I've had to do is remember the most special Valentine of all - the one that told me I am loved by God. 

America is Being Changed for the Worse

Every week brings new "changes" to the American way of life.  The American people, for the most part, ignore what is happening and blissfully continue to purchase the latest technology, cars, and clothing as they continue to watch their media-created heroes in the throes of phony social dilemmas.  America is on the brink of the kind of social change our forefathers went to great lengths to avoid.  One usurper to the presidency of the United States of America is making changes that contradict everything for which our ancestors fought.

Today, the Senate Democrats changed the rules and the future will be very different because of them.  The next changes to the Constitution will address gun contol and term limits, and when those changes are made, not only is our Republic lost, but so is our Judeo-Christian philosophy in favor of a Socialistic and godless society.  America is being changed, but for the worse.

Rules for Radicals

The truth may never be told as history is recorded, rewritten, and recited over and again.  Some of us must try to preserve the facts.

In 1971, I was hired to become a community organizer by a county organization which operated under the federal Office of Economic Opportunity, or O.E.O.  This organization, which was a forerunner of A.C.O.R.N., was disenfranchised by then President Richard M. Nixon.  The latter stated that OEO duplicated social programs such as the Department of Public Welfare.  This was true, except for the fact that DPW had the power to actually help the poor and OEO didn't.  I learned early on the true purpose of OEO.

Training consisted of reading, memorizing, and understanding Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:  A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals.  Below are the tenets of Alinsky's way to social change:

  1.  Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
  2.  Never go outside the experience of your people.
  3.  Wherever possible, go outside of the experience of the enemy.
  4.  Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
  5.  Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
  6.  A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
  7.  A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
  8.  Keep the pressure on.
  9.  The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
10.  The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain constant pressure   
       upon the opposition.
11.  If you push a negative hard and deep enough,  it will break through into its counterside.
12.  The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
13.  Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

It is my most fervent hope that people read and study these tenets and think of all the ways they have been and are being used by our Administration, and then, hopefully, understand the purpose and intent of using Rules for Radicals.  Don't forget, Obama himself studied these rules as a community organizer and is notably a follower of Alinsky and his Marxist beliefs. He was raised by and associated with known Communists.   Learn what Marxism is, learn how it affects a population, and learn how to counteract it in the United States.  If we don't, we will soon not live in a free country.

Conspiracy Theories?

Were I a follower of conspiracy theories, I would be searching for information regarding the random shootings which have been occurring in the USA.  One of the theories I either read about or heard about is that the anti-psychotic medications currently being prescribed to people who would probably be better served in a controlled environment, are actually causing the psychic breaks that cause the shootings.  I don't know because I am neither a psychiatrist nor a pharmacologist and therefore cannot speak intelligently about the topic.  It does, however, seem a reasonable explanation.

Another aspect of the medication theory is that "puppet masters" (people like George Soros) are actually locating the people on these medications and using these ill people to create havoc and bloodshed.  Why would these unseen "puppet masters" engineer this kind of behavior?  Some folks believe it is to create a diversion from a sticky situation our government and its leaders find themselves trying to escape, or to divert attention from some new rules, laws, or plans that would be unpopular. 

It may be coincidental that every time media topics concern disapproval of the public over a public policy, program, or action, another shooting occurs.  Not only does it move the spotlight from our governmental leaders, but it also stirs up all the anti-gun people who I imagine wait with bated breath for any crisis involving guns.  Any intelligent person surely understands it isn't the gun, it's the person who pulls the trigger who kills others.Such demented people would use a knife, a bomb, or a poison to kill if they hadn't access to a gun. 

I received my new Medicare Insurance provider's formulary for 2014, along with what my costs will be.  Unfortunately, my prescription co-pays for preferred drugs will increase by six times.  Most service co-pays will also increase, with the exception of visits to my general practitioner.  The latter will drop very low, and I am hoping what the insurance provider pays him will not drop so drastically.  If it does, I have a hunch I won't be able to see a general practitioner any longer.  Dire conclusions may be reached about the future of senior citizens.

The Peter Principle, 2013 Variety

I would seriously begin to doubt my sanity or intelligence if I permitted myself to believe anything I read in the mail I am sent.  Today, I received three letters from Advantra, my Medicare Health Insurance provider.  The first letter states my prescription co-pays are going to be less, the second states my prescription co-pays are going to go up, and the third states I might not have paid enough so far this year and may have to refund any overpayment.  I know from experience that picking up the phone and dialing either the Medicare number or the Advantra number will only let me speak with people who will confuse me even more.  These people never give consumers the same information; each will tell you something different.

I have reached the conclusion this is a new social phenomenon.  Those people hired by our over-large government agencies, as well as those employed by supportive or parallel companies are not hired for their intelligence, education, or common sense.  This type of "dis-information" is inexcusable.  Circular thinking should not be an option in the United States of America, a country built on and ruled by laws that are based on Western linear thinking.  We have a problem, my fellow Americans.  The Peter Principle has reached its apex.  If you have a good brain, you will be lost in the shuffle of the incompetents who have to trample you down in order to keep their own brainless heads above water.  Tsk-tsk.