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I’ve been struck recently by the tenacity of the misinformed and seemingly illiterate, Fox News watching, Obama hating, conservatives who comment in public discussion forums. There is a massive, negative response to their posts by the more well-informed and thoughtful, yet mostly average internet denizens. But no matter how well argued and articulated the points against these immovable objects are, I continue to see the same arguments from the same people, issue after issue, article after article, blog after blog. It’s as though they stop reading as soon as information, no matter how credible and/or factual, turns them off as soon as it offends their “densibilities.”

A huge argument that rears its head like an indestructible cockroach in your otherwise clean kitchen (granted, your apartment is above a one-man Mediterranean pizza joint), is that ABC, CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and C-SPAN are liberal news sources, just as much as Fox News is conservative. In fact, the argument goes, in this sea of liberally biased news sources, any criticism of Fox News is dismissible hypocrisy.

And you don’t [take pro-Obama news as gospel] when it’s cnn, nbc, abc and cbs?? Come on….

But for us it’s not the source of the information that matters, it’s how well the information compares to reality. If CNN is reporting that Obama is training a Frog Army to invade our homes and eat our small pets, the source doesn’t matter because that just doesn’t make sense. If several sources are reporting it, then my curiosity is piqued and I want to know why this crazy thing is being reported. When Obama comes on and denies the rumor, explaining that the Frog Army is here to protect our Victory Gardens from insects, then it is confirmed, in my mind, that a Frog Army is not as ridiculous as it sounded and I start scouring other sources for more information. How are these frogs produced? How are they controlled? What can they be used for? Why have I never heard of the science behind this? I go to the library, read science journals, scour news sources and elevate the ones that adhere to the facts above the ones who resort to scare tactics. After all, my kitty’s life could be on the line here!

Unfortunately for all of us, when it comes to a lot of what these people believe, the only sources they can turn to are the opinion shapers weaved into the fabric of their funny little information ecosystem that is tainted with lies, paranoia, and a groupthink agenda. Glenn Beck floats an accusation, “is the CDC maintaining internment camps? I can’t debunk the rumors…” World Net Daily reports on it as fact and cites Glenn Beck, a trusted guy on TV who couldn’t have a job in television news if he was a liar. Digg commenters submit the stories and rush over to FreeRepublic to get the “Freepers” to raid Digg and simulate a groundswell of support for ideas that are being “suppressed by the Mainstream MSM Media!”

Conversely, it’s a rare occasion that I turn to CNN, ABC, CBS, or MSNBC for the detailed information I need to form an opinion. They just don’t offer much beyond what will interest the broadest set of viewers. A recent example was the Balloon Boy story. The major outlets were the only good source of information. Granted, the cynic in me saw a few facts (the family was recently on Wife Swap, the reality show for the least talented of the reality show attention whore hoards, the balloon didn’t look like it was carrying anything more than itself as it tossed about in the wind, and they, themselves, had informed their local TV news station — before, it turns out, they even contacted 911) in the story that had the word “hoax” on the tip of my tongue.

But the conservative sheep need to know, if I don’t get my information from cable, how on earth can I call myself well-informed?

So where do you get your information from?

Let me begin with a list of the RSS feeds I subscribe to for you. This is my first stop for a rundown on what’s going on in the world each morning (and these are just the feeds in my ‘Politics’ folder):

Fark headlines: http://www.fark.com/politics/fark.rss
Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/rss/top.rss
Reuters: http://www.microsite.reuters.com/rss/ElectionCover …
Salon: http://feeds.salon.com/salon/index
Slate: http://www.slate.com/rss/
Christian Post: http://www.christianpost.com/services/rss/feed/
Media Matters: http://feeds.mediamatters.org/mediamatters/latest
538: http://feeds.feedburner.com/538dotcom?format=xml
Reason Mag: http://feeds.feedburner.com/reason/AllArticles
Crooks and Liars: http://www.crooksandliars.com/rss.xml

As you can see, I have a mix of liberal, conservative, non-partisan, and libertarian feeds. I look for headlines that interest me, compare what each source has to say, and try to find out why there are differences, if there are any. For that, I use the following:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org
Snopes: http://snopes.com
FactCheck: http://factcheck.org

Politifact:
http://politifact.com

And a whole lot of google.com and news.google.com. Another great source of information is actually the comments sections of many of the sites I listed above. In fact, I would be comfortable saying that I crowdsource my information gathering.

If an article I read cites sources, I will read the source and then find out what I can about the publisher of that information. Like sometimes people will cite an article on the Center For Consumer Freedom’s website. I have, through the steps listed above, discovered that this is a front group for major corporations whose agenda is to conflate consumer freedom with corporate interests (although, in this case Wikipedia’s open edit policy has failed me!). They want to strike down laws that protect consumers against, for example, unhealthy food additives. But they advocate for the issue by redefining the purpose of the government’s intervention to say that the government wants to take away your freedom to eat food with unhealthy additives. And all they’re interested in is protecting your freedom (to buy their products).

They also like to cite each other. If an article cites sources that cite other sources that then cite no one or they cite other parts of their own site or they cite their own research, I dismiss the article as a partisan lie.

So, yeah. CNN, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC have very little to do with my information gathering. But there’s a lot more to it than that and I think that’s where the divide comes in. Uninformed people criticizing somewhat-informed people, not for being uninformed, but for coming down on the opposite side of the uninformed debate from them. They get all of their information from Fox News and then believe that they are informed.

At least Fox News is fair and balanced!

And because they believe that a cable news station is all they need to be well informed, they also believe that all of the rest of us depend on MSNBC to similarly inform us. It’s like they’re blindly playing Marco-Polo in a crowded public pool. They assume everyone they bump into is the one they heard shouting “Marco!” But it wasn’t. It was Glenn Beck and he’s sitting in a comfy chair two thousand miles away.

Abortion doctors, law enforcement, even employees of national museums. They’ve been targeted by extremists and their right-wing hatred, fueled by right-wing talk radio feeding off of Republican talking points led by right-leaning cable news and driven by an overwhelming fear of facts, science, and progress.

Now right-wing nutjob Michael Savage is threatening to put on his website the names, addresses, and even photos of the employees of Media Matters for his listeners to do with what they will.

He’s not suggesting any violence. He’s just sayin’, if anybody in this great land deserved to die at the hands of extremists, it’s these guys. Not to encourage illegal activities, you know. Just to say that certain law abiding citizens are sometimes driven by their consciences to act. Not vigilantism, per-se, nor is he advocating the taking of the law into anyone’s own hands. But how could you blame an average Joe if he were to just go out and get him some liberal, commie lynching done? How could you possibly blame a guy? S’all he’s sayin’.

Via Media Matters

Perhaps you’ve already seen the news that Michael Savage (née Weiner), America’s third highest rated radio host, has vowed to post “full pictures and other pertinent information about” Media Matters employees on his website. If not, the following links will help bring you up to speed:

Huffington Post: Michael Savage Issues Fatwa Against Media Matters

Examiner.com: Savage vows to post Media Matters staff pictures and ‘pertinent information’ on website

MSNBC’s The Ed Show: In “Psycho Talk,” Schultz says Savage “is pinning a ‘Wanted’ sign on employees at Media Matters“

Watch their response here:

Flipping channels tonight after missing most of the Office, deciding to watch the episode of LOST that I missed last night, and discovering that not only did the cat litter box need to be cleaned, but I also needed to procure, sign, and address a few Mother’s Day cards, I ran across a “special” on TV starring Michael J. Fox explaining his disease, his concern for Americans with health issues, and how derelict we’ve been regarding the care and concern we give to Americans with health issues.

It was a very touching few minutes that I kept my thumb from clicking the “source” button of the remote control. Michael J. Fox is concerned about people and he wonders why Universal health care isn’t a foregone conclusion among Americans who claim to care about their fellow Americans. It was an amazing spotlight on the issue. Where is America right now? Are we sleeping? Dow we believe that that the idea of “healthcare as a right” actually oppresses each individual in this nation so much that we can’t have any empathy for those affected by issues of healthcare and its costs?

I don’t think Michael J. Fox believes it. I am almost 100% sure Oprah doesn’t believe it. I would bet that the average American believes that, even if the government shouldn’t universally provide health care for everyone, no American should be bankrupted by their individual needs. No family should lose their home over the cost of treating their Grandfather’s cancer. Should they?

So why is there so much debate on the subject? Why do Americans believe that there are really two sides of this debate that each deserves as much voice, time, and honest consideration as the other? My only guess is the same reason that I guess some Americans have a non-negative impression of Rush Limbaugh: Their memory is short and they must ignorantly believe that all ideas have an equal and opposite “balance idea.”

So I kind of want to just present this reminder of who Rush Limbaugh is right now:

Michale J Fox and Rush Limbaugh

Is that who we are?

The amazingly ignorant response to Swine Flu by some middle-eastern nations is a prime example of the type of response to a possible pandemic that is going to end up either making us so complacent in the face of future threats that we’ll all die in complete denial, or killing us all with future, uninformed, emergency responses by politicians. From the Huffington Post:

A spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt calls swine flu “more serious than a hydrogen bomb” during a symposium on the health scare. Egypt’s parliament votes to “cull pigs immediately and one parliamentarian proposes criminalizing hog farming. The United Arab Emirates bans the import of pork products as a precautionary measure and several supermarkets in the sheikhdom yank them off the shelves.

If you want induce in yourself a panicked response with a criminally bad misunderstanding of the situation, you can just google it. Here’s what I found when I entered my symptoms – headache, general discomfort, and muscle aches (I spent the weekend in a Mexican spirit…):

You have Swine Flu How you get it: Inhalation of airborne virus, contact with an infected person’s body fluids, intense and prolonged contact with swine. Try stocking up on Tamiflu. Incubation period: 2 to 10 days Early symptoms: Chills, fever, sore throat, general discomfort Symptoms at full disease onset: Muscle pains, vomiting, diarrhea, severe headache, coughing, weakness Final outcome of this horrible disease: Back from your Mexican Paradise vacation, you find yourself sluggish and achy. Writing it off as an extended hangover from all that cheap tequila and spit-roasted pork, you decide to stay home an extra day and sleep it off. Over the next few days, as you slip in and out of consciousness, you notice your headache and muscle pains are worsening, your cough is almost unbearable, and just prior to slipping into one last, fever induced seizure, a final, lucid thought forces its way into your mind: Why did I eat all that chorizo? There is nothing you can do now but wait for death to arrive and hope it comes quickly. Make your peace. get your own internet diagnosis

PRESS RELEASE

SEATTLE (April 28, 2009) – The Renault-Nissan Alliance today announced that Nissan and the City of Seattle are forming a partnership to advance zero-emission mobility by promoting the development of an electric vehicle (EV) charging network. Nissan will introduce zero-emission vehicles in the United States in 2010 and will mass market them globally two years later.

“Nissan through the Renault-Nissan Alliance has committed to being a global leader in zero-emission vehicles,” said Dominique Thormann, senior vice president, administration and finance, Nissan North America. “Nissan and the City of Seattle share in the belief that electric vehicles offer one of the best solutions to reducing CO2 emissions. This partnership expands our infrastructure development efforts on the West Coast, which also includes initiatives in Oregon and California, and is an important step in making zero emissions a reality from Seattle to San Diego.”

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has set a goal to combine clean, green electricity with the city’s transportation system. In Seattle, power comes from the city’s utility, Seattle City Light, the first public utility in the world to be “net zero” for greenhouse gas emissions.

“From light rail to street cars to electric vehicles, we’re reducing the impact of transportation on our climate,” said Mayor Nickels. “Electric-powered transportation is particularly attractive in a city with a carbon-neutral utility, generating clean electricity through hydropower.”

As part of the agreement, Nissan and the City of Seattle will develop plans to promote a charging infrastructure for EVs, as well as the deployment, operation and maintenance of a charging network. The partners also will work to coordinate the establishment of policies and help streamline the deployment of an EV infrastructure. Nissan also has agreed to make available a supply of EVs in and around the Seattle metropolitan area.

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has begun ZEV initiatives in Kanagawa Prefecture and Yokohama in Japan, as well as in Israel, Denmark, Portugal, Monaco, the UK, France, Switzerland, Ireland, China and Hong Kong. In the United States, the Alliance is exploring ways to promote zero-emission mobility and the development of an EV infrastructure in the State of Tennessee, the State of Oregon, Sonoma County and San Diego in California, and Phoenix and Tucson, Ariz.

Nissan North America
In North America, Nissan’s operations include automotive styling, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing. Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010, whose key priorities are reducing CO2 emissions, cutting other emissions and increasing recycling. More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.infinitiusa.com.

Renault-Nissan Alliance
The Renault-Nissan Alliance, founded in 1999, sold 6,160,046 vehicles in 2007. The objective of the Alliance is to rank among the world’s top three vehicle manufacturers in terms of quality, technology and profitability.

After hundreds of billions given and hundreds of billions more promised to the financial industry, its CEOs, its private jets, and its inconceivable multi-million dollar bonuses, benefits, and compensation plans, the Obama stimulus has hit the one hurdle that resonates with the average American: the guy next door.

Like the guy who spent a couple thousand last summer installing an above ground pool. He also poured thousands of gallons of chemical-laden water into it. Then dumped it, further polluted with his kids’ waste and slime, into the sewer. 

The other neighbor, on the other side, with the two car garage, still parks his cars on the street, in front of your house. You hear them shouting at each other as though they’re the only people on the street. As though this is their cul-de-sac, and theirs alone.

Then there’s that one across the street. They probably moved here from Idaho. That state pays so little into the federal tax grid that they actually make a profit, then just tells anybody who’s unhappy with the standard of living there to head on over to a hippy socialist commune in Oregon or Washington. And when they moved here with their countless kids, big hair and big trucks to enjoy the benefits of the big city suburbs, they never changed their small pond, big fish values to fit their new situation.

Now these idiots can’t pay their mortgages because they never learned how to live within the system. They never calmed their frenzied consumerism, they never even figured out that Wednesday was garbage day or that their lids would disappear if they didn’t bring the cans in after work.

Things work differently in the world you’ve inhabited long enough to consider yourself a successful member of it. People live here in a well defined balance of give and take. You don’t move in with nothing to give and then get the federal government to come in and rescue you when you’ve simply taken so much.

It’s like the gentrification of the gentry. Welfare for the goateed. And that is a gentrification up with which one can not put.

Here’s a quick note to update my ongoing struggle to ensure that my Apple TV doesn’t fall out of usefulness before its time. As you may remember I posted several months ago a wishlist for Apple’s next Apple TV update. It included some of the obvious things like responsiveness, performance, and video playlists. Unfortunately, none of these luxuries were included in the last update.

Apple TV 2.3, however, does actually seem to address many of the issues I pointed out in my last Apple TV post. The remote actually elicits an almost immediate visual response from the unit. There aren’t quite so many moments where I’m asking myself, “did that button press register?” It still happens, but I would say it’s quite less frequent now.

Two great features have been added with this update: 3rd party remote control support and video playlists.

Video playlists: Now you can play uninterrupted video through all of your day’s video podcast subscriptions. You can also set a video playlist to last through your New Year’s Eve party. Just create a playlist of videos on either a shared library or on your Apple TV’s main linked and synced computer.

This feature is great because now you can play each of your 2 or 3 minute podcasts from your favorite sources back to back as you turn to jello on the couch after a long day of hard brain stuff. You can create channels based on content and sit, motionless until every last one of those suckers has played.

3rd Party Remotes: Let your inner couch potato rejoice. Finally you can assign 6 of those extra buttons on ANY remote control littering your coffee table to the 6 functions of that little white remote that came with your Apple TV. Just enter Settings, Remotes, and start pushing buttons. It doesn’t matter which button you push on whatever infrared remote you have, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the main function of the device the 3rd party remote came with, you can repurpose the button for your Apple TV.

One sad note, Boxee was wiped out. I no longer have access to Hulu, Comedy Central, MySpace TV, and Torrents. And from what I’ve read, it’s not re-installable at the moment. However, I’d venture that most Apple TV users will enjoy the new features enough to make the update worth it anyway. While the Boxee crew will likely be hard at work creating a new installer and have you back on the Internet TV IV before the DTs have a chance to give you dead ceiling baby nightmares.

Also, I’ve got a few Boxee invites, so let me know if you’re interested in the comments.

The past 8 years represented by my 15 month old son’s 14 second tantrum…

Obama as a symbol of the durability of American democracy? I’ve been a supporter of the Obama presidency since somewhere around January of this year. Prior to that I didn’t believe now was the right time even though, deep down, I yearned for an America that would elect a democrat, a liberal, a young black man with a name so foreign and so easily linked to the Bush definition of terrorist that you’d have to be a masochist to even hope. But even when I didn’t think he could do it, my heart swelled at the thought.

When we elected him Tuesday night, I nearly jumped out of my skin. In one fell swoop, the American people as a whole showed me that Rovian politics is not the achilles heel of our democracy. That ties to radical activists of the ’60s, an undeniably radical period in American history, could be seen less as proof of his anti-American views and more as an indication that those times deserve an intellectual dissection that doesn’t separate the tactics of radicals from their ultimate, some would say patriotic, intent. That being “different” or “unknown” are not in themselves abjectly negative qualities in this country.

Apart from the policies put forth by Barack Obama as part of his bid for the White House, which in any election I hold highly suspect, I revere the American people this time as the true victor in this election. We showed our ability to look past the lies and tactics of 20th century politics. The seemingly unbeatable tactics of the republican “permanent majority” were defeated and my faith in our democracy was restored.

Barack Obama is now subject to all the same standards to which I held Clinton and Bush. He’s got to lead us well or he’ll lose my support and admiration. But this moment in history will always shine for me as the day the American people cured me of my cynicism and despair in the face of what was beginning to look like a permanent fascism in the form of self preservation out of fear of the unknown and blind trust in our leaders.