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Showing posts with label news media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news media. Show all posts

Monday, June 10, 2019

Tony Snow's faith


Tony Snow was an American journalist, news anchor, columnist, radio host, musician and White House Press Secretary under President George W.Bush. There have been about 30 Press Secretaries in 4 decades and none came close to handling the difficult job so smoothly as Snow. His dad was a social studies teacher and after college Tony taught physics for a year, but soon began his career in journalism. He was an avid musician who played in a rock band with musicians who later played with Jethro Tull and the Doobie Brothers.  He began work for a newspaper in Greensboro, then went to Norfolk, Newport News and The Washington Times.  In 1991 he quit the Times to become a speechwriter for Pres. George H.W. Bush, an unusual move since he was a Democrat.  In the 90s Snow appeared on radio and television programs worldwide including The McLaughlin Group, The MacNeil–Lehrer NewsHour, Face the Nation, Crossfire, and Good Morning America. He was host of the PBS news specials The New Militant Center. He substituted for Rush Limbaugh and became the first host of FOX News Sunday. (He also worked for CNN)  In 2005 he was diagnosed with colon cancer and fought losing 4-year battle, yet in 2006-7 he was Bush 43’s Press Secretary.

            “Painful experiences can lead to big questions and critical insights in the state of one’s soul,” he told the usually hardened press corps at an awards gathering. “The key is to look in the mirror, stop making excuses and move forward with open eyes.” At his commencement address at Catholic University in 2007, he added, “You begin to confront the truly overwhelming question: Why am I here? And one more thing.  It’s hard to ask ultimate, eternal life-and-death questions without thinking about God.  You see, it’s trendy to reject religious reflection as a grave offense against decency.  But faith and reason are knitted together in the human soul.  Don’t leave home without either one.”  Clearly, Snow had decided long ago not to be crushed by the question of death.  His one-liners as Press Sec. were always sharp and he handled the kind of tough questions that haunt a Pres. with declining approval polls.  Contentiousness seemed to fly out the window at his conferences.  Bill Kristol summed it well in the NY Times, “His deep Christian faith combined with his natural exuberance gave him an upbeat worldview. The Jew in me came to wonder: Could it be that a stance of faith-grounded optimism is in fact superior to one of worldly pessimism or sophisticated fatalism.?” 

            In his Catholic U. speech, Snow urged the grads to take risks and to always strive to serve others.  “Religious faith is not an opiate that helps people avoid hard questions.  Instead, the ups and downs that accompany the life of faith should be seen as part of the ultimate extreme sport.” About his cancer battle he concluded, “Our maladies define a central feature of our existence.  We are fallen.  We are imperfect.  Our bodies give out.  But despite this—because of it—God offers the possibility of salvation and grace.  We don’t know how it will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet Him face to face.”

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Monday, July 3, 2017

They analyze Trump


So what are the opponents and Europeans alleging about Trump and the Republicans?  I sit here reading Economist, “A Divided Country” which is in full lament of Trump’s Presidency.  They’re worth studying.  Amid the cacophony of hyenas and apes from the MSM, Economist represents Europeans and learned elites.  Americans are riven by mutual  incomprehension. They’re talking R’s and D’s as well as city and rural, factory and universities. Donald Trump is not only a symptom of America’s division, but a cause of them, too.  Always the equivocation.  No, it didn’t start with Trump and he’s not the sole cause.  But then they never name anyone else nor detail other faults.  Thus, Trump is in effect the cause alone.  Mr. Trump has fueled the mistrustA political culture that is even more poisonous than when he took office…poor judgment, missed opportunities.  The federal government is already showing the strain. Gee, I didn’t know how he could have made it worse when the Dems wanted him impeached before he took office.

 I guess it must be my perspective.  I was rather hoping the federal government, which gave us Obamacare that only raised insurance rates, kicked people off policies, made docs quit, might show a bit of strain. And concerning the mistrust, that’s what happens when the left-leaning party adopted a platform of neo-fascism, a platform sans God. And, you see, some of rather like God, count our lives as lost without Him, and attribute all that is the experiment of Exception called America to Him. “Our Father’s God, to Thee/ Author of Liberty” and “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights.”  In myhumble perspective, there seems to have been an uprising of common people against the left.  Democrats lost 1200 seats over 6 years, the Congress, most governorships,Presidency, and now only control 4 state legislatures.  Quite a come-down for the majority party!  All this erosion came, not during Trump, but via Obama and friends. 

Disillusion only grows…because of his own incontinent ego. As harmful as what Mr. Trump does is the way he does it.   Now we get to the heart of the matter.  True, Trump has ego, but the true rarity among politicians is the one who doesn’t have a big ego.  The writer here is a journalist and makes a living with yap.  Trump has changed the rules of yap. He’s bombastic, rude and blunt, He punches back at a negative press.  Hence their conclusion is Trump Is Not One of Us by his manners and the way he talks. Secondly note the missing title.  It’s “Mr.” not “President”. Distaste for Trump has misled them to think he’s illegitimate as a President, even though elected by 30 states.  I learned a long time ago that in US politics we have to learn to live with the winner.  It doesn’t always suit me either, but I live under it.  And finally the parochialism of journalists is why they are in false-panic over Trump.  Republican Presidents are supposed to meekly sit silently as the press gets glee from running them down.  When someone does slam their analysis, they think it means government repression.  In other words, free speech is for them and their allies, but others must be mute.  They dish it out but they can’t take it. 

Political bias shows as well.  Reform plans show every sign of turning into a cut for the rich…Instead of reforming Obamacare, Repbulicans are in knots over a bill that would leave millions of Mr. Trumps’s own voters sicker and poorer. This is what I call the Thomas Frank effect.  His book, “What’s the Matter with Kansas” was a hit with New York libs but left Kansans baffled and angry.  In it, he argues that Kansans don’t know what’s good for themselves.  They should crave socialism and entitlements.  Instead, the silly little people opt for Liberty.  To back it up, he cites examples in Kansas that don’t exist—an Emporia fallen into near ghost town status and Kansas City suburbs become unlivable. Here, the writer for Economist avows that Obamacare should be saved because surely only that will help Trump voters.  And when all else fails, criticize with class warfare. Oh! The evil rich! 

Nor can the Economist seem to find much wrong with Obama’s tenure. Well, they concede Pres. O had competing agencies spun too much red tape. Yet its [Trump’s] attempt to reform this ‘administrative state’ is wrecking the machinery the government needs to function. Contrarily, most of America seemed tense over wrecks government had caused the previous 8 years—Middle East policy, Obamacare, National Debt, illegal immigration and crime/terrorism.  The bottom line is that the Europeans have a lot of political/cultural bias towards the ever-necessary welfare state.  America is biased in letting people live freely.

The miasma of scandal and leaks surrounding Russia’s role in the campaign have made chances of cross-party co-operation even more remote…undermined the courts…lack of respect for expertise, such as the attacks on the CBO…Mr. Trump’s disregard for the truth. Hmm, well the leaks were all designed to support leftist narratives.  We know in one case, spread by a Bernie fanatic.  Russian collusion was made up by the media.  CBO said Obamacare would decrease expenses (and dozens of other embarrassing predictions).  Did I mention most conservatives love Trump’s court picks?  And concerning the Truth, Trump seems to forever stun his former naysayers in the R-party by raw, visceral tweets that actually turn out true and shrewd.  He really was surveilled by the Obama admin.  CNN really did have an agenda to get rid of him.  He really wasn’t under investigation by Comey.  Cripes!

The bottom line is that the Europeans and the Left don’t get it.  Their intellectual giants were Marx and Hugo, and they scoffed at C.S. Lewis.  They hate Trump’s talk and his social media method. He’s unwelcome at their table. They fear for their ease in the US markets and cost-free NATO protection.  They can’t understand conservatism, refuse to acknowledge Trump’s win and agenda, or observance of leftist activists throwing pussy marches to try to disrupt the inauguration. Leaks leave no concern, nor surveillance by US Intel on US citizens. [Odd.  They went bonkers of Merkel getting bugged.] They think “Gov is Good”.  Meanwhile, Americans fret over a jobs-smothered economy full of restrictions and high taxes. I suppose we don’t understand their fawning and drooling over that socialist Macaroon guy who won in France, either. Vive le difference, tout le monde.

And they advance no solutions except bipartisanism.  So, I note he’s signed 39 bills, many of which slap down the bureaucracy.  There’s his budget for cuts in the worst bureaucracies.  Illegal immigration is down 70% and we have barely started building the wall. The foreigners now say they are scared to come illegally because Trump is serious about the borders.  Stocks are up and optimism is sky high.  Health care has to be reformed and we are working to get 51 egos to sign on to a compromise bill.  Ditto tax reform.  And the opposition, instead of being loyal opposition with well-considered alternatives, is batshit crazy. The MSM is dying. Wouldn't it be really crazy if Trump confounded them? 

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Easy chair debate


Long, hard day remodeling.  I spent the evening sitting in my easy chair watching the Republican debate.  My Ted Cruz did quite well.  I prayed that he not get into a donnybrook with Donald, since that only drags one into the mud and one doesn’t look Presidential.  But Ted didn’t.  He took questions from Martha Radicalass which had false premises and Ted patiently turned the question around and answered with 4 or 5 fabulous points on what we must do. That’s what we look for in a Prez! 

But the media hardly mentioned his name afterwards.  They were continually obsessed with Christie pouncing on Rubio and the donnybrook between Bush and Trump.  They replayed those exchanges over and over like a major polio vaccine discovery, so every pundit panelist could give detailed analysis.  Later, Howard Kurtz of Fox was asked what he thought of the performances of various candidates and when it came to Cruz, he just shrugged and gave him a B+.  No A, I guess, because he didn’t stir up anything crazy. 

And it occurs to me how differently the guys in the easy chairs think from the media.  Guys in easy chairs are looking for a future President, a person with answers for the problems of our time, with level head and wise judgment.  Media wants entertainment.  They want he-said-she-said and “blood coming out of her whatever” and “what difference does it make!”  Because in their world it doesn’t make any difference unless it’s entertaining, emotional, or erotic. 

It is for this reason, they secretly love Trump.  He’s entertaining and a certain portion of Republicans are so angry over Washington that they like Trump. The pollsters and media pump up his numbers.  13 straight polls had him atop Iowa when he wasn’t at all.  But has anyone, among the learned pundits, pointed out the following?  First, Trump has the highest negatives since Gallup began polling opinion on like/don’t like.  Trump is 60%.  Bernie is 31% (Nobody knows much about Bernie yet; just a nice old man who the kids like.). Rubio is 36%. Cruz is 39%.  All the failed Republicans who ran for President since 1972 have been in the 40’s. Hillary is 52%.  What Trump’s negatives mean is that for every supporter he gains, he gains almost 2 R’s who don’t like him and probably 3 D’s who hate his guts.  You can’t win with numbers like that. Likewise Hillary is in disastrous shape.

Trump has no policy statements.  Beyond his bombastic comments he has nothing about what he’d really do either on his website or in his books.  From this, we cannot know what he stands for.  Thirdly, even in his recent statements, he espouses practices that are unconstitutional and un-Republican—banning a religious group from travel back into this country, raising taxes, and doing a trade war with China.  Fourthly, he’s narcissic like Obama.  All the horrible, merciless dictators in history since Caligula have been narcissic characters and we should be on guard for them. Such a guy is unelectable.  But the media loves his “bullying” and edgy dialog and they keep the cameras trained on him continually.

I just pray that there are enough thoughtful guys sitting in easy chairs after a hard day’s work.