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MacBeth walks among us?

Michael 12 Comments

Macbeth was fascinated with murder until he committed his first. Consumed with paranoia, he continued his murderous ways to avoid suspicion and then the fix was in. Or so some may say.  Almost from the moment of the murder, Scotland became a land depicted as one contrary to its natural progression as it was moving under the former king. It took a while longer for the bloodbath to encircle all in, and associate with, the household and drive them mad.

Of course, we know that as the EXTREME synopsis of Shakespeare’s tragedy, not close to what the historical MacBeth went through. Yes, he too killed, and his victim was King Duncan whose reign he then took for himself. But it was on the field of battle and that was how kingdoms were passed around in the eleventh century.

Often fiction resembles fact but not in that case. Perhaps though it does in the fiction we are currently living. We may not have found ourselves in a Shakespearean tragedy but there is at least a figurative bloodbath happening and those drawing the bath are indeed heading toward, if they haven’t already arrived at, insanity.

The seeming victim of our contemporary Hamlet is free speech, with such decrees as remove this comedian, remove that comedian. But no, it’s not about late night comedians. On the plane back from his recent trip to England, the orange menace railed about networks being “97% against me…that’s bad publicity, bad press…they have licenses you know.”

Let’s look at one of those networks and how intricate this really is. ABC claims Jimmy Kimmel was “pre-empted indefinitely” ostensibly because of a remarks made in a recent monologue. Those who have not listened to that monologue assume it was all about a particular right-leaning activist. But in the entire monologue his name was mention once over a 2 or 3 sentence portion of the bit. The vast majority of the time was devoted to our grand(iose) leader. The one who referenced those licenses.

It so happens ABCs parent corporation is negotiating several routine business and acquisitions which would all require federal approval. One of the network’s affiliate voicing most of the initial outrage Nexstar, happens to have a $6.2 billion purchase of a rival group of television stations pending government approval. The other affiliate group, Sinclair, also is pending FCC approval of their proposal to relax the rules limiting broadcaster ownership of its stations. And Disney itself is pending administration approval for the completion of its ESPN affiliate’s takeover of the NFL network.

There may just be more than speech being challenged with that particular incident. Now the Pentagon’s announcement over the weekend that all stories regarding or referring to the Pentagon must be approved by the Pentagon. That might be a different story  if it gets approved.

Maybe not the bloodbath (yet) but indeed we are living in a time when intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people will not be offended. Sane? I think not.

 

This I found out last week

Michael 8 Comments

Trees and apples

You remember last week I wrote about teens’ level of and interest in news literacy. Most consider content presented by celebrities, podcast host, and social media influencers as legitimate as legacy news sources. I wrote, “they [the surveyed teens) are three times as likely to trust TikTok over their local newspaper, and nearly half of those surveyed said journalists do more harm to democracy than good and that news articles are no more trustworthy than other online content creators.” One in five, 20%, are likely to believe whatever is out in front of them in the guise of “news.”

Today’s teens are offspring of those in the cusp between Millennials and Gen Z, the latter particularly social tech savvy. Enough so, it makes you wonder, how far from the tree did those apples fall.

The Pew Research Center may have taken the measure to that answer. A survey of more than 10,000 U.S. adults revealed one in five Americans (a familiar number?) regularly get their news from social media influencers, 77%of whom have no affiliation, or background, with a media organization.

Fly now or pay later

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says the incoming Trump administration will be a “breath of fresh air” for airlines, a sentiment echoed by Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan. The airline industry in general is hoping the incoming administration will roll back rules requiring automatic refunds after canceled flights and requiring airlines to advertise the full price of fares, including mandatory fees and taxes. They were most vocal about relief from advertising the full price to fly, claiming that will confuse consumers by giving them too much information. Clearly they are confusing consumers with the nominees for the incoming administration. 

On a personal note

My small appliances are rebelling. The toaster doesn’t, the spice grinder doesn’t, and only 3 out of the 4 digits are complete in the number display on the microwave. The most frustrating is the toaster. It doesn’t except when it does, and then inconsistently, so inconsistently that I can put two pieces of bread in and get one warm piece of bread and one piece of charcoal back. The entire rest of the world will be lining up in front of all the Walmarts and Targets or sitting with fingers poised over “add to cart” in the hopes of scoring a huge deal on 78 inch OLED TVs, robot vacuums, and new computers come this Friday, and I’ll be looking for deals on a toaster. It just isn’t fair!

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Time again for a shameless plug for the latest Uplift blog post. That’s the one where we encourage you to be thankful for the things that are working out so well. Hmm. Maybe I should be more thankful for my toaster after all.  Take a look at Give Thanks for All That Is Broken  

But before you go look, have you still not thought about joining the ROAMcare community and have the weekly Uplift blog delivered to your email as soon as it hits the website? In addition to an Uplift release every Wednesday, you will also receive weekly a Monday Moment of Motivation, and our email exclusive Friday Flashback repost of one of our most loved publications. All free and available now at  ROAMcare.org.

 

Build Me Up, Margarine Cup?

Michael 5 Comments

Over the weekend I happened across a protracted online discussion regarding a new (to me) product by Melt (also new to me), uh, drum roll — butter (not new to me) (I thought).

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Apparently Melt’s “butter” is what us old guys call margarine. Except instead of corn, soybean, canola, or olive oil, it’s made of this year’s designer oils including coconut and sunflower.

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The discussion centered around that the product is labeled butter. Not butter substitute, not vegetable spread, not even “plant butter” ala Country Crock’s vegan spread. Butter. Unlike most of the European countries and Canada, the U.S. does not have a standard for what can be called milk, butter, or a variety of other dairy products. The “for” group pointed to almond milk, soy bacon, and veggie cheese. The “anti” group pointed to almond milk, soy bacon, and veggie cheese. The logic seems to be that each of those products specify its source in the product name and thus does not mislead the consumer.

Personally I have a problem with calling a non-dairy product butter, although I and millions of other carnivores do it routinely when we reach for that tastiest of all spreads, peanut butter. But again, peanut butter isn’t going to be mistaken for the stuff you create sauces with or turn to into cookies (peanut butter cookies, which also use butter butter, notwithstanding). We also confuse issues with the inaccurately named buttermilk, which unlike almond milk is not made with its modifier, and let’s not even talk about head cheese.

So what’s the solution to this confusion. If I had one I’d be chairman of a high powered, and high price, think tank, not writing a blog on a free domain. Maybe we should get back to calling things what they really are, like beef and pork and sausage. But then would even the most hard core meat eater go for “cow,” “pig,” and “your guess is as good as mine?”