The Machine.

Picture America as a giant machine. Now the purpose of this machine is to grow and expand its power. Now inside the machine are big gears such as: major businesses, federal govt agencies, beauracracies, interest groups, military indrustrial complex, etc. Medium gears: State governments, national guards, major state businesses, state beauracrasies, etc. Lastly there are small gears: Small bsuinesses, individuals, and the minor things that contribute to society.

Say a scandal or controversey occurs, these will be knows as jams or cogs well say if they jam a major gear the machine cant fuction if the major gears are jammed, they can if small gears are jammed though. Let's take a couple conspiracies and apply the machine analogy to them. COINTELPRO this was a series of covert ops carried out by the fbi and they would spy, infiltrate, have the media run smear campaigns, start fights in, or break up and arrest members of activist groups like Civil rights groups, womens rights, black panther groups, etc. If you were a major movement of dissenters COINTELPRO would screw up your life. Now the media did NOT report on this at all because it affects the individual(small gears) not the major gears. So COINTELPRO is one of the few legitimate conspiracies.

Lets talk about watergate and the lewinski scandal. These affected the machine and the major gears, so the media had to go into damage control to remove the cogs otherwise the machine wouldn't be able to function. This is one among many reasons why things like 9-11 or this birther controversey aren't true. They affect the major gears of the machine, and the machine can't function if the major gears are jammed.

Person of Interest

The new CBS drama Person of Interest is a phenomenal show! The premise of it is simple. Harold Finch(played by Michael Emerson) is a mysterious billionare computer genius who after 9-11 built a machine for the government that watches people around the world 24/7. The machine was designed to use algorithms to predict acts of terror before they happen, and it does but the focal point is that it detects other crimes such as murder, rape, theft, what have you. And the government doesnt care about that. Now the machine has a backdoor that Harold created it gives the social security number of a person who will either be a victim of a crime or commit one, Well due to injuries and age he cant fight this alone. So he requits a former green beret and CIA operative John Reese(played by Jim Caviezel) who is believed to be dead. The two then form a partnership where Reese prevents the crimes using his skills and Finch is behind the scenes offering tech support. This is pretty much the formula for the show each week they get a new number and the two go to work to stopthe crime. With them are two police detectives as allies.

What makes this show exciting is the plot which follows a formula and a simple story. And some of the best movies and television shows have simple plots. Not to mention they have to battle the government and police as Reese is a rising as a vigilante known as the "man in the suit" because John Reese always wears a black suit even when fighting crime. So in a way the show is like Batman in the sense that it involves a billionaire and a vigilante. Not to mention as an added bonus they frequently bring up topics as the Patriot ACT and the NDAA, which is good to get that into the mainstream more. All the 4 main characters are terrific at acting, which is rare because usually a show only has a couple of people that can actually act on it.Check it out its pretty good. It's a mix of a thriller, spy drama, and police drama

Why Jack Colvin is my favorite television actor.

Many of you probably wonder who Jack Colvin is. His most famous role was that of reporter Jack McGee in the Tv series The Incredible Hulk.

 A photo of Jack Colvin

Jack was a phenomenal actor and my favorite television actor because of the way he played his charater Jack McGee. When the Incredible Hulk first aired the fans like most fans of a series cheered for the protagonist and despised the antagonist. Well as the series progressed fans started to sympathize with McGee. This was because Jack Colvin could portray McGee as a character who on the surface seemed like he was in control of his life and that when he had to he wouldnt allow his obsession with the hulk to consume him, so he gave the audience this false hope that McGee isnt a slave to his obsession all while knowing that the audience knows deep down that Jack McGee is completely driven and consumed by his obsession. As the series progressed the audience started to see Jack McGee as less of an antagonist and more of an anti hero or as someone they could symphasize with, many people began to actually wish that McGee would discover that David Banner was alive and that he was the hulk. Colvin was PHENOMENAl because of this abillity. One of the few actors who could bring the audince onto their side and wish they achieved their goal. Jack Colvin is my favorite televison actor because his character of McGee reminds me of myself. I'm very obsessive and sometimes the things I obsess and fixate on can consume my thoughts, but on the surface it looks like I have everything together.

Sadly Jack Colvin died in 2005. After the hulk he acted in movies and tv shows but nothing major after that really. He taught the Checkov method of acting at several colleges for most of his life. It's a shame because he was such a talented actor!

The best LIVING comedians out there.

The best living comedians are......

• Louis Ck
• Bill Cosby
• Dave Attell(ONE OF THE BEST comedy writers out there. He is often reffered to as the comedian's comedian, and every joke has multiple one liners in it and each one progresses into one final obscen punchline)
• Ellen Degeneres(the female Bill Cosby)
• Ricky Gervais
• Doug Stanhope
• Joan Rivers
• Natasha Leggero(although Natasha needs to be more subtle and hone her jokes a little better but none the less watch her videos and marvel at what she's doing. She's a satirist).
• David Cross
• Bill Engvall.

There is no liberal bias in the media!

Many people still have the belief that the media has a strong liberal bias.
This has been disproven many times by famous academics and media critics such as Noam Chomsky and Michael Parenti. The media follows a propaganda model in democratic countries that has a pro business/pro government slant to it. In his 1988 book Manufacturing Consent Chomsky and his coauthor Edward Herman list a five tier propaganda model that explains the news media bias. I will list the five tiers and explain them. Remember if one wants to know how something works start with the internal and institutional structure.

 

1. Ownership of the medium- One needs to think, Who owns most news and media mediums? Well most are owned by major corporations or conglomerates. The majority of newspapers are owned by publishing companies, and most news mediums are owned by their own corporation or a subsidiary Such as CNN being a part of Time Warner, CBS is owned by CBS, Bloomberg is owned by Michael Bloomberg(who is a crook in so many ways but that's a rant for another day), and Fox is owned by News Corp who is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Now since most business are conservative or moderate it t's logical that the companies they own(news mediums) will reflect the desires of their owner. After all it's a law of the jungle that you do not piss off your boss.

 

2. Funding- All news mediums are funded mostly through advertising. So a company is not going to want to fund something it does not agree with. For instance Why would walmart want to sponsor a business that always slams them about how they should unionize or pay higher taxes? They wouldn't its illogical for any business to do so.

 

3. Sourcing- The mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with major sources of information due to economic necessity. So a news medium is not going to report on anything that can offend major business or government unless they have to. Let me explain this another way. In the 1960's the FBI carried out a series of covert and often illegal projects to discredit activist groups and major social movements. this was called COINTELPRO(short for counterintelligence program). Basically the jist of it was if you were an activist group like a civil rights, feminist, women's rights, or environmentalist group COINTELPRO would have people infiltrate and try to break them up, have the media run smear campaigns, have people arrested etc. Because every system of power throughout history wether democratic or not has always feared rebellions and uprisings from its citizens, all governments used some forms of social control, they have to otherwise there would be anarchy. But back to my point COINTELPRO was largely ignored by the news media because it affected individuals not the major institutions that play large parts in running the country (we only know of it now through declassified government documents. Now things like the Clinton scandals were reported by the media because they effected the major institutions and if they didn't report on them they would go down with them, however they watered down things like they would portray people who believed Clinton had those women threatened, as people who believe in a vast right wing conspiracy or as lunatics, which was the opposite, several of Clinton's people had to plea the 5th under oath when asked if Clinton had women threatened. They had the media portray monica lewinsky as a blackmailer and a stalker(now this was before they knew she had evidence to support the contrary. Now take something like Ralph Nader's run for president in 2000. The media left or right engaged in a Nader smear campaign, the left would say he cost gore the election(which isnt true the supreme court awarded the presidency to bush), and from every election onward ralph nader was used as a scapegoat and a reason not to vote for a third party,and to vote for dem or republican. Now if the media was truly liberal wouldn't they welcome an ultra progressive like Nader with open arms? The right wing media portrayed him as a lunatic and a threat to freedom. So this is an instance where the media was on the same page with one another.

 

4. Flack- The media portrays individuals or groups that don't agree with them as fringe or lunatics, a good example of this is the alternative energy people. The people who believe Hydraulic Fracturing by companies is evil are discredited and attacked and debated. In 2003 MSNBC fired two of their hosts Jesse Ventura and the host of their highest rated show Phil Donahue(sp?) because they opposed the war. In his 2008 book Jesse Ventura explains that MSNBC paid out the rest of his contract(despite the fact his show was only on air for 2 months) with the condition that he not do any press interviews for 3 years.

 

5. Fear and social control- The media elicits control over people by feeding them fear and keeping them divided by the social controls of the times before the 90's the major social control was communism. There was a communist on every street, now since the 2000's its terrorism, you have to be afraid that there's a terrorist around every corner. Fear divides people and keeps them from coming together on ideas and as a whole.

Now I'll give you some more examples of things. During the whole occupy movement, when it first started it was ignored at first, then they started to smear the people they would show photos of people dressed funny or like hippies, then they would redirect it as people were against the rich and wealthy banks. Which wasn't the cause at first, people were fed up with the companies owning politicians and lobbying. Now because of the media it has become what they made it into where people hate the rich because they believe the wealthy banks cause the great recession(which is not true the financial crisis was caused by the mortgage companies giving loans to people who couldn't afford them just so the workers could get commissions, because god forbid people start small with starter homes. Then the occupy movement attracted populists and socialists who cried "Its the banks fault they have record amounts of cash". Which is stupid because yes the banks have record amounts of cash but its because their reserves are so high since they couldn't make loans during the recession. Now the media had to redirect the original purpose of the occupy movement which was for the businesses to stop buying our politicians and lobbying. Now because that's a tremendous influence powerful interest groups, the media redirected it to the rich vs. poor and that's exactly what it became.

Now you might be thinking well ok if the media isn't liberal why do they promote things like gay marriage and abortion(very liberal ideas)? Well think about it if they offend major groups of buyers they cannot sell their products and the businesses that sponsor the media institutions will withdraw sponsorship so they aren't affiliated with them otherwise they'll lose major groups of buyers, and businesses NEVER want to offend major potential buyers. Now after reading this I want you to know that I am ABSOLUTELY NOT anti business! I love business and capitalism and would like to own my own someday once I save up money( and don't worry I am fiscally center right, I believe in lower taxes and slight deregulation in business, I only want govt regulation in things like the environment and energy and education. I am a realist though I realize that you cannot have a democracy without having it controlled by the private sector, instead of govt. And while yes at times it may seem bad its the best system a govt controlled by the private sector. Remember Aristotle once listed 6 forms of government in order of how terrible they were. The worst was a Monarchy and The least worst and most stable was democracy.

 

In the video above Dr. Noam Chomsky, who is regarded as one of the world's leading intellectuals, and others explain why there is no liberal bias in media

 

Another academic Michael Parenti explains the same thing as well

I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN MOST CONSPIRACIES

The title of this is pretty self explanatory. Since about las march I have really stopped believing in most conspiracies. I was focusing on how there could've been instead of how there couldnt be conspiracies. Once I looked into the opposing viewpoints and videos and evidence debunking them it became clear that I was brainwashed. There is no 9-11 conspiracy, no New World Order, no Illuminati, The birther/obama is a muslim thing is crap, and austrian economics has all but been discredited by academics.

There are a FEW legitimate conspiracies such as COINTELPRO, Wilson's red scare, Iran Contra, Watergate, The clinton scandals, but most of our countries nefariousness is carried out through foreign policy if you read the works of Academics and intellectuals such as Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, and Michael Parenti.

Below are a few videos that opened my eyes.

Noam Chomsky discussing 9-11 conspiracy theorists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrEDo9ChSdQ

Noam Chomsky dispels 9/11 conspiracies with logic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwZ-vIaW6Bc

Michale Parenti on Conspiracies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31iwRoyhoX4

Remember you can find evidence for anything, if you don't believe me play 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon, but the evidence must pass logic and survive Academic peer reviews. If anyone wants to debate me then drop me some comments. BE WARNED ANY ANTI-SEMITISM OR RACIST REMARKS will result in deletion and not even be worth arguing

ALSO I WILL BE CHANGING THE DIRECTION OF THIS BLOG, to include social criticisms, injustices, movie, tv, and actor reviews as well as comedian reviews.

Photos of Ron Paul at his Rally in Ft. Worth

These two photos are the best out of several that I took at the Ron Paul Rally in Fort Worth 4-11-12. There were 3,000 people at the Will Rogers Center in Ft. Worth. Some of the profound things that he said that I can remember was "You don't change the world by going to war with people". He said we should tolerate everyones freedom of religion, even be tolerant of atheists. This appealed to me becuase I am an agnostic(note any comments that try to start a religious debate will be deleted. This site promotes freedom of all beliefs). Dr. Paul also said his usual stuff, end the fed, end wars, balance the budget, etc  I had a fun time and so did my friend who went with me.We sat 10 rows away from the stage. I dont agree with every one of Dr. Paul's beliefs, I am socially liberal where he is not, but I agree with about 70% about of what he says. He is the best man for the job of presidency. See the whole speech here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Clx3YSnzSaY .