a Thanksgiving Prayer from William Burroughs

Did Talk Radio Kill Conservatism?

Nate Silver [NS]: Do you stand by all the statements in the survey as being unambiguously true?

John Ziegler [JZ]: I stand one hundred percent by the notion that there is absolutely zero ambiguity as to what the right answer is to any of the questions.

And then a bit later...

JZ: [Laughs]. In your world, the question that I would ask you is what question [in the survey] is there any ambiguity as to what the answer is?

NS: Well, that Obama 'launched his career' at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground --

JZ: That happens to be one of the questions that Obama supporters did the best on! They did better on that question than on any other Obama-related answers! And here you’re telling me that it’s not true?

NS: What do you mean by "launched his career"?

JZ: The first campaign as told by the person whose position he took in the State Senate, as told by her admission, his first campaign event was in the home of Bill Ayers and his wife. [Laughs] Unless you live in the Obama kool-aid world! That is astonishing to me that you would not accept that! And by the way, when you're given four responses to that question, what else was the response going to be? Sarah Palin?

Emphasis mine.

This might be the key passage of my interview with John Ziegler on Tuesday, for it is, in a nutshell, why conservatives don't win elections anymore. It is not that conservatism generally permits less nuance than liberalism (in terms of political messaging, that is probably one of conservatism's strengths). Rather, the key lies in the second passage that I highlighted. There are a certain segment of conservatives who literally cannot believe that anybody would see the world differently than the way they do. They have not just forgotten how to persuade; they have forgotten about the necessity of persuasion.

John Ziegler is a shining example of such a conservative. During my interview with him, Ziegler made absolutely no effort to persuade me about the veracity of any of his viewpoints. He simply asserted them -- and then became frustrated, paranoid, or vulgar when I rebutted them.

I didn't quite get how someone like Ziegler, who is usually fairly poised, who solicited me to interview him, who has years of experience in the media, could so completely lose his cool. This was until last night, when I read David Foster Wallace's profile of him, conducted in 2005 when Ziegler was hosting a fairly successful talk radio program in Los Angeles.

To understand Ziegler, you have to understand that he's a radio guy. And you have to understand that radio is a very strange medium. As Wallace writes:

Hosting talk radio is an exotic, high-pressure gig that not many people are fit for, and being truly good at it requires skills so specialized that many of them don't have names.

To appreciate these skills and some of the difficulties involved, you might wish to do an experiment. Try sitting alone in a room with a clock, turning on a tape recorder, and starting to speak into it. Speak about anything you want—with the proviso that your topic, and your opinions on it, must be of interest to some group of strangers who you imagine will be listening to the tape. Naturally, in order to be even minimally interesting, your remarks should be intelligible and their reasoning sequential—a listener will have to be able to follow the logic of what you're saying—which means that you will have to know enough about your topic to organize your statements in a coherent way. (But you cannot do much of this organizing beforehand; it has to occur at the same time you're speaking.) Plus, ideally, what you're saying should be not just comprehensible and interesting but compelling, stimulating, which means that your remarks have to provoke and sustain some kind of emotional reaction in the listeners, which in turn will require you to construct some kind of identifiable persona for yourself—your comments will need to strike the listener as coming from an actual human being, someone with a real personality and real feelings about whatever it is you're discussing. And it gets even trickier: You're trying to communicate in real time with someone you cannot see or hear responses from; and though you're communicating in speech, your remarks cannot have any of the fragmentary, repetitive, garbled qualities of real interhuman speech, or speech's ticcy unconscious "umm"s or "you know"s, or false starts or stutters or long pauses while you try to think of how to phrase what you want to say next. You're also, of course, denied the physical inflections that are so much a part of spoken English—the facial expressions, changes in posture, and symphony of little gestures that accompany and buttress real talking. Everything unspoken about you, your topic, and how you feel about it has to be conveyed through pitch, volume, tone, and pacing. The pacing is especially important: it can't be too slow, since that's low-energy and dull, but it can't be too rushed or it will sound like babbling.

Not to reduce Wallace's fine prose to a catch phrase, but the distinguishing feature of radio is that it exists in a sort of perpetual amnesiac state. In a book, you can go back and read the previous page; on the internet, you can press the 'back' button on the browser. In radio, there is no rewind: everything exists in that moment and that moment only. This is, theoretically, a problem with teleivsion too, but in teleivison you at least have context clues -- graphics and what not, and what falls under the heading of "non-verbal communication". In radio you do not. Just a sine wave in the ether.

Moreover, almost uniquely to radio, most of the audience is not even paying attention to you, because most people listen to radio when they're in the process of doing something else. (If they weren't doing something else, they'd be watching TV). They are driving, mowing the lawn, washing the dishes -- and you have to work really hard to sustain their attention. Hence what Wallace refers to as the importance of "stimulating" the listener, an art that Ziegler has mastered. Invariably, the times when Ziegler became really, really angry with me during the interview was when I was not permitting him to be stimulating, but instead asking him specific, banal questions that required specific, banal answers. Those questions would have made for terrible radio! And Ziegler had no idea how to answer them.

Stimulation, however, is somewhat the opposite of persuasion. You're not going to persuade someone of something when you're (literally, in Ziegler's case) yelling in their ear.

The McCain campaign was all about stimulation. The Britney Spears ads weren't persuasive, but they sure were stimulating! "Drill, baby, drill" wasn't persuasive, but it sure was stimulating! Sarah Palin wasn't persuasive, but she sure was (literally, in Rich Lowry's case) stimulating! By the way, let's look at another little passage from Lowry's paragraph on Palin:

A very wise TV executive once told me that the key to TV is projecting through the screen. It's one of the keys to the success of, say, a Bill O'Reilly, who comes through the screen and grabs you by the throat.

I'll bet you that TV executive began his career in radio. Television too has to be stimulating (although perhaps not quite so immediately, since the television viewer is usually giving you a larger proportion of his mindshare). But it can stimulate you in a variety of different ways -- through visual cues as well as verbal ones.

FOX News is unusual television, really, in that almost all the stimulation is verbal, and almost all of it occurs at the same staccato pacing as radio. You could take tonight's broadcast of Hannity & Colmes or the Factor and put it directly on radio and you'd lose almost nothing (not coincidentally, Hannity and O'Reilly also have highly-rated radio programs). That wouldn't really work for Countdown, which has higher production values, and where the pacing is more irregular. It certainly wouldn't work for the Situation Room -- or moving in a different direction, the Daily Show.

Conservatives listen to significantly more talk radio than other market segments; 28 percent of conservative Republicans listen to talk radio regularly, as opposed to 17 percent of the public as a whole. (Unsurprisingly, conservative hosts also dominate the the Arbitron ratings). It may have gone to their heads a little bit; they may have forgotten about radio's idiosyncrasies as a means of communication. The failures of the Bush administration have woken the country up; conservatives now need to find a way to communicate with people who are actually paying attention.

-- Nate Silver at 9:40 AM
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/did-talk-radio-kill-conservatism.html

Letter from Dr. Blackhirst (Australia)

Religious literacy is vital to a tolerant world

LA Trobe University’s decision to downgrade its successful religious studies program at Bendigo is the latest episode in the decline of such studies in universities throughout Australia. There are now very few places left where students can study religion in a secular context. This makes no sense in a multicultural and multi-faith society.

Surely the events of September 11, 2001, underlined for us how dangerous it is to leave religion to the religious.

After those events it was hoped that our education system would acknowledge the importance of religious literacy to a sane and tolerant world.

It was hoped that religious education might be one of the cures for fanaticism.

This has not happened.

Surveys reveal stunning levels of religious ignorance among the general population and even more among the supposedly educated classes.

It must be admitted that often letters to The Advertiser illustrate the alarming degree of religious ignorance, among believers and non-believers alike, in our society.

The thing that should worry all of us is that ignorance, hatred and violence all go hand in hand.

In this sense our universities are failing in their duty to a free, informed and tolerant society.

As university curriculums become narrower and universities become overly focused on training, the level of basic ignorance in our society increases.

Surely anyone who claims to have a liberal education needs to know something about the Bible, the Koran and the religious ideologies that - for good or for bad - continue to shape our world?

Sadly, our universities are no longer producing graduates with a knowledge of such basics.

Yet, quite plainly, it is only through teaching such things and raising levels of religious literacy that we can address the root causes of religious strife in the world.

In Britain and other countries the teaching of religious studies is increasingly regarded as a vital element in building tolerance and social cohesion.

Alas, not in Australia.

Dr RODNEY BLACKHIRST,

Olbermann on CA Prop 8

Cornel West on Obama's Win

The Indescribable

music: Gustav Mahler, the last 6 minutes of Symphony #8

photo: Joe Corrao 11.04.08

One Week!

Here's a silly question:

Why the hell are we still in Iraq???

Baseball Statistician Predicts the Election

One last Obama/McPenguin debate!

Is this YOUR crowd?

10.3.8 - The Bailout becomes The "Rescue"

The government takes $700 billion away from you and gives it to the banks... to loan back to you.

At least OR Rep. DeFazio got it right:

Election Prediction

"Obama is going to win. He will win BIG...and his win will be solidified by people casting their votes based on the negative impact of the economy on their lives."

4.4.7 - Home

Unity08, a fledgling organization seeking to nominate a credible third-party candidate for the 2008 presidential campaign, released the rules for its online nomination process today.

Candidates seeking the Unity08 nomination must pick a running-mate before the balloting starts, and must be “serious about public service.” Tickets must be bipartisan, formed with at least one Republican and one Democrat, or with independents running as part of a unity team.

Convention “delegates” will vote to select the candidate. Those delegates must be registered voters and sign up online. A first round of voting in May 2008 will narrow the list of contenders to five candidates. In June 2008, there will be multiple rounds of balloting held until one candidate wins a majority of the vote. The voting will all be conducted online.

“Unity08 is proud to be getting down to brass tacks, crafting the process by which the people will be empowered to take their country back,” said Unity08 co-founder Doug Bailey in a release. “We think the new political paradigm of Unity08 is the precise answer to today’s broken political system, and we urge Americans to come to Unity08.com and become delegates today.”

According to the Web site, “the millions of Unity08 convention delegates” will be organized to get the chosen candidate on the ballot in every state.

3.14.7 - Seattle to Libby, MT

1.11.7 - Home

As my wife and I watched Bush's speech last night, our intuition was that he was either slightly drunk, or medicated on somekind of tranquilizer. He looked very tired. Lorraine didn't think he believed what he was being told to say. She actually felt sorry for him. (astounding: my wife having sympathy for Bush!)

And so it went...Dubya hitting on all the predictable propaganda points: how a retreat from Iraq will dishonor the soldiers who died "defending freedom" there, or how if we don't confront Iraq now, we will face catastrophic results in our future, blah, blah, blah...so predictable and very near the same sort of stuff said 40 years ago to justify "one more push" in Vietnam.

We watched as Bush finally admitted--what has been obvious to all--that he intends to widen this "war" from Iraq into Syria and Iran.

Unreal. To listen to last night's speech, you would imagine that al-Qaeda has occupied most of Iraq with the aid of Syria and Iran and is brandishing missiles at the US mainland. That Bush can come out after nearly four years of such lies and try to put this fantasy over on the American people is unconscionable.

"This seems a lot like the Nazis heading off to Russia in WW2," Lorraine said in disbelief, "or maybe like Napolean's two-front war mistake."
"Yeah, but 20,000 more troops?" I wondered, "from where? This seems more like Hitler in his bunker ordering thousands of imaginary and non-existent troops to defend Berlin as it collapsed in ruin."

The Bush/PNAC idiots are reacting, not to the disaster that they have created in Iraq, but rather as a desperate attempt of damage control to salvage any remains of their initial pathetic policy.

Bush's attempts to praise the US troops while calling for more "sacrifice" carry as much credibility as his old claims about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. A burden of proof was on him to prove his case last night, and in that regard he failed miserably.

It was interesting to watch FOX-News scramble away from the clever Democratic response and cut to a blatantly preplanned presentation of why "we" (meaning us and our $) must stay in Iraq.

One of the dictionary definitions of insanity is: "the inability to understand the nature and consequences of one's acts, or of events, matters, or proceedings in which one is involved."

They've really lost it people.

God help us all.

-Tom

12.13.6 - Longview to St Helens

There's nothin' like a rainy, cold morning with the loadin'-dock forman in Longview. Honestly, I was surprised he was even out in the elements and from the looks of things, he was too.
"Grab me a cup-a-coffee Tom, willya?" he asked me in a subdued (and somewhat-shockingly) civilized manner.
And I figured, what the hell - it's the Holiday season: even a loadin'-dock foreman could catch the 'bug'.
So following his first short-sip from the hot cup-a-joe I brought him from the Dispatch-office, why was I actually surprised when he winced at me and said, "Christ T*******," (he usually calls me by my last name) "I could get used to yer brown-nosin'." (followed by his reknown cynical laugh)
I just about blew a gasket on the spot. And in fact, I actually did a few minutes later when Lorraine happened to call me on my cellphone remindin' me about pickin' something up on the way home.
"Just let it go Tom," she advised in her beautiful forgiving voice. "He always likes to push your buttons, because he knows it works...I think it's sweet you brought him his coffee this morning."
And with that, dear readers, it all went away. Poof - vanished in an instant- courtesy of my wife's angelic mind and voice.
And I'm here to tell ya that a few minutes later, I was still feelin' grateful and lucky after signin' his log-papers and handin' him back his pen with a, "Happy Holidays Jimmy, I'm glad I could getcha yer coffee this morning, not that we'll make it a habit or anything."
"Screw you T*******," was his reply.
It didn't faze me in the least as I climbed into my truck and headed off. I mean...sure, he knows how to push my buttons, mainly because he 'installed' a lot of them over the years we've worked together.
One thing y'all should all know about me: I'm a man who still believes in Santa Claus. I believe in the 'bug' of Christmas. Because as I see it, if I ever lose that, a LOT goes along with it. I always give it my best every year to reconnect with my childhood wonder. To never lose touch with my inner hopes and beliefs of Mankind's good-will, grace and love for one another.
Merry Christmas Lorraine!
Happy Hannukah loadin'-dock foreman Jimmy!
Merry Kwanzaa to the invisible mayor and shifty council!
Feliz Navidad to Muchas Gracias! (who feeds me when I'm in town)
Happy Holidays Bill, and to all of you sthelensupdate readers!
Happy Everything St Helens!
This sure is a nice little town y'all got here.
-Tom

11.30.6 - Home

It's December again, and there you are with all your co-workers at the office Christmas party and everbody is drinking a lot, having fun and then drivin’ home. And since you see everyone drinking and then heading home in their cars, you figure “I can too”.
My friends, this is just the beginning of how alcohol can affect your driving. It doesn’t just include the obvious vision and reaction time; it impairs your mental judgment as well. The fact is that alcohol quickly disrupts your normal thinking patterns and you’re suddenly not in the condition to recognize and adjust for it. Therefore, you can make these critical errors in judgment. And we’re all celebratin’ this time of year. And this is the problem.
Scientists have discovered that alcohol in the brain causes the mind to magnify certain things and minimize other things, so essential facts become distorted. For example, you can talk yourself into thinking that you are an exception to the rule since “I can hold my liquor, so it is ok to drive.” Or you might convince yourself that it’s ok to drive since the streets are mostly empty anyhow and you won’t run into much traffic. This is what is called impaired thinking and can also be an example of denial. And denial – which prevents you from taking corrective action of any impaired decision - can be the greatest impairment of all.
Sadly, most drivers are unaware of how alcohol impairs their driving. Many think that in order for driving to be seriously affected, you need to see double or be unable to walk a straight-line. Nope. The fact that you’re actually unaware of the affect of the alcohol on your vision makes it especially dangerous to rely on your judgment at that moment whether you can drive or not. Besides your vision, alcohol in the blood and brain influences you motor reactions. You do not have to feel drunk. In fact you can feel quite awake and energetic. Yet, your reaction time has slowed down. If ordinarily you need a quarter of a second to hit the brake, with alcohol in your bloodstream, you might need a full second or possible two seconds. But you don’t give yourself two seconds so you crash into the car ahead of you.
All of these factors combine to increase the probability of a fatal accident due to the consumption of alcohol and driving under its influence. Especially this time of year. And since I’m on the roads for a living, I am askin’ you to take a risk assessment of your plans and situations and make intelligent choices and appropriate actions to save your life, the lives of your loved ones, and my life as well. Take responsibility for your decisions and make the right choices about your drivin’ during the holidays, don’t become a statistic and a memorial service.

11.21.6 - St Helens to Seattle

My dad used to say, if ya want to find out what's going on in town; "go getcher haircut".

Well, it's been damn-near two whole months since I posted anything - Partly me and some long trips, and partly some trouble with blogspot, (that's pretty-much all fixed now...hopefully).

I was really glad to hear about Phil Barlow winning his election a couple of weeks back. I've always enjoyed spendin' time gabbing with Phil in the old Waynes parking lot, he'll be a great asset in City Council. And I hear tell that Phil is quite upset about some kind of a push to finish up with "some items" on the "agenda" before the new Council-elect takes over in January.
This is to say that the St. Helens City Council is working against the clock to push through a City Charter change. Some in town say that the real purpose of a charter change is to upgrade the City Administrator position to City Manager.
ok...The first thing I heard that struck me was the fact that they are citing the ridiculous City Satisfaction Survey from a year past as their reason for the change. If it's the same Satisfaction Survey that I recall, there was nothing in it from John Q. Public screaming for upgrading any city positions at all. Actually, as I remember, most people seemed to think that the city was not very responsive to the public need and were very unhappy with BOTH the City Administrator and the City Planner. The citizens surveyed didn't want them to have more power...rather, they wanted them both fired. On top of all this: Council never published the satisfaction survey results publically, which were in fact, quite harsh and damning.
So what we seem to have is an outgoing council, hell-bent on changing the City Charter, whose decisions seem to be counter to the will of the people...but then again, THAT'S really nothing new, is it?
So the scuttlebutt I hear is that the outgoing regime has hand-picked a "committee of friends" to put together this new "Charter", and they need to get this done ASAP, before Phil and the new council comes in.
A Charter Change Election would not be until 2008, but a new charter can be presented to the public - along with what ever spin they would like to include - and unless there is any publicity to the contrary, a few people think it'll probably pass.
Keep your eyes on things here! It's a nice li'l town y'all have. Good to be back for a day or two.
-Tom

9.20.6 - California

back next week!
-Tom

OPERATION
(Tony Hoagland)

In autumn, Operation Enduring Freedom commenced,
which some party-poopers wanted to nickname
Operation Infinite Self-Indulgence.
We tied flags to the antennae of our cars
that snapped like fire when we drove.

In winter there was Operation Gentle Sledgehammer,
which seemed linguistically a little underdigested,
but we lined up squads of second-graders
to stand at attention while we beat a drum.

Let me make it clear that I was
as doubtful as anyone about Operation Racial Provocation
but I loved Operation Religious Suspicion,

which led to Operation Eye For An Eye,
which was succeeded by Operation Helping Hand;
—Let me tell you that was a scary-looking hand!
But that was also a very successful Operation.

Someday you will be required to perform a terrible deed
in order to save yourself,
but save yourself for what?

That would be a question for Operation Self-Examination to answer,
which is a very painful operation
performed without anesthesia
in a naked room full of shadows and light.

Perhaps I might suggest, instead,
Operation Self-Medication, or Operation Endless Mindless Distraction?
In the meantime Operation Collateral Amnesia
is proceeding very smoothly

When it is over we want call it Operation One Big Happy Family—
Is that okay with you?