Got back last night from the wedding in DC.
My number three son and a wonderfully funny, smart and very pretty lady got married at the Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown. Great wedding and lots of fun. Got to get together with some old friends, make some new ones, and act as tour guide for my wife's relatives from Spain. They loved the Smithsonian Air and Space museum (possibly the greatest museum in the world), the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the time we spent at Ford's Theatre delving into the story of America's Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln by a Shakespearean actor who became obsessed with killing Caesar--hmmm, sound familiar?
The weather was great, and DC, a city for which I never had any love when I worked there, was actually pleasant, clean, efficient, and even civilized. Everybody, and I mean everybody, I encountered on the street, in restaurants, in stores, at monuments, etc., was very polite, well-mannered, and helpful.
I was there for almost seven days and had not one rude or untoward experience with anybody, be they American, foreign, black, white, brown, or any other of God's brands. How can this be? Are things on the ground perhaps not really as bad as pretentious pundits declare? Is it all "fake news" a la CNN? Is the grief and conflict we see, hear, and read about in the media just the handiwork of power-mad politicians and unscrupulous "journalists" and "activists"? The Diplomad will explore this matrix and get back to you . . . and, meanwhile, enjoy yet another Trumpian victory over CNN. Gotta love it!
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ReplyDeleteI'm trying to compose a Iimerick about CNN and its fake news ... what rhymes with Zucker? (Previous try its got changed to it's.)
ReplyDeleteIt's Times like this when I lament not having taken Irish Lit~~~
DeleteA Poem entitled: "Doon by da Bows"
There was a cultch of nay sayers.
Who taut dat dey was News players.
Soooo, night, after, night,
da Cable dey cast on their set,
jest anglers l@@k'n ta Net'em'sum suckers!
But panic'd they was by the end o'the run,
wnen thar yacht-sh!t went doon wit a gurgle~~~
OW~~~
WHER"S THE EDITOR!
CNN reporter from Spring Lake
DeleteFiled a story t'was clearly a fake
To cover his tushy
For sources so squishy
He called The Dodald a snake
Trump then riposted a tweet
That this libel was very effete
So Jeff Zucker couldn't keep
A reporter who seemed such a sheep
His insult was merely a bleat
I see Mr. P,
DeleteSo that's a Limerick!
Thought you needed a "sucker",
to rhyme with Zucker, I had
others, tho not quite appropriate
for the Diploblog Press...
OW~~~
Congratulations... get those grandchildren rolling!
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing they'll come up with the same line Dan Rather did "the story was fake but true!"
- reader #1482
- reader #1482
Since many of your tax dollars get lavished on DC I'd hope it was a pleasant place. Remember that incompetent government spending occurs when they are spending your dollars on someone else. I'd expect a better performance when they are spending your dollars on themselves.
ReplyDeleteWelcome home! It is nice to hear that D.C. is not the bubbling cauldron of hate one expects it to be after all the anti-Trump marches and rallies. But dearieme has a good handle on it: D.C. and environs are still rolling in cash.
ReplyDeleteThe media is the only private organization to have direct Constitutional protection and since 1931 everywhere in the US after incorporation under the 14th Amendment by the SCOTUS. The SCOTUS expanded the word press in the Constitution to cover just about all forms of media. Yet this honor bestowed on the press by the Founders is being dishonored.
ReplyDeleteSince government cannot legally interfere with the 1st Amendment, President Trump is using his power of selectivity to show his contempt of their fake news. Good for him.
I am a news/political junkie and there is so much fake news being presented that at times I am not sure which is which, so I KNOW that regular folks are taken in by the fake news; I see it with friends to back up this belief.
Palin suing the NYT because of their reissuing of a debunked fake news story is a start.
amr, I must disagree with your opening sentence. Media freedom doesn't go to an organization called the media, but to all of us. Everyone who owns a laser printer is 'the press' and has freedom of the press. Extending that to other forms of written media, as you note SCOTUS has done, means everyone with a blog has the same freedom as the big media web sites. It's my freedom and yours, not the media's. The rest of your post is of course spot on.
Delete"Everyone who owns a laser printer is 'the press' and has freedom of the press." A.Non at 11:25 AM
DeleteDamn!, if I knew that Nonie, I woulda traded in my Ink Jet and had my Fedora reblocked!
As to the elevation of blog owners to "Big Media" stature, may we American deplorables, now safely assume that the indefatigable 'commenters' thereon, are in fact underpaid,underappreciated, overworked underclass of reporters, on whose stooped shoulders, and lowered gaze, resides the very bedrock of the 4th Estate, nay the very Edifice of Truth, Justice, and the American way! Or Not?
On Watch~~~
Good lord no, don't reblock the Fedora. A 50-mission crush is just the thing for an itinerant newsie (bloggie?). Don't forget the laundry ticket in the hatband with PRESS written in black sharpie.
Delete"The media is the only private organization to have direct Constitutional protection "
ReplyDeleteThere were no big media organizations when the Bill of RIghts was enacted. There *were* printing presses, and it was freedom to use these without government oversight that 'freedom of the press' refers to...it does not represent a grant of special privilege to media corporations.
They are cordial in DC for the same reason they are cordial in Silicon Valley -- they are rolling in dough.
ReplyDeleteYes, they are doing very well at the taxpayers expense! It's also been my experience to observe, whilst in the belly of the beast, that much of the joviality is the product of liquid lunches and early quitting times! In addition, they so earnestly try to convince one another that, all is well, and the party will go on forever- Bottoms Up!
DeleteOn Watch~~~
P.S. Glad Mr. Dip' and Fam had a wonderful time! His, joy is infectious, but, was he able to keep a sharp crease in his suit pants? Maybe we should request a report by Mrs. Dip'? V/R OW~~~
All of the places you were in DC were places where there were people with money. DC is rolling in other people's money. All of the tourists at all of the nice touristy places you went were there to have fun and be pleasant and enjoy themselves like you and so you ran into no unpleasantness.
ReplyDeleteThere was a great deal of tension out here in dirt people land, it is palpable on the street. I get stink eye from minorities all the time now, just for being a white male. I have tried speaking to people and been denied any response at all or even acknowledgement.
They hate me now, because they've been told to, and just because of what I look like.
We're going to war.
Glad you enjoyed the wedding.
"They loved the Smithsonian Air and Space museum (possibly the greatest museum in the world)..."
ReplyDeleteThere are only three planes in the entrance, each a non government endeavor. All three a tribute to the American spirit. Wright Bothers, Spirit of St. Louis, and Burt Rutan's VariEZE. Rutan's design is recent (mid 70's) and he continues with Scaled Composites, proving that the American spirit is alive and well if we can just keep the progs at bay.
Glad you enjoyed the trip, and congratulations to your family!
Barry
"I get stink eye from minorities all the time now, just for being a white male."
ReplyDeleteYes, this is the worst consequence of the Obama regime.
I was in Chicago this week, where I grew up. I pointed out to my wife as we drove (quickly) past the location, the black tavern where I and a buddy used to hang out in the late 1950s when we were 18. We were the only white faces in there and everyone was drinking and playing bumper pool. My buddy had gotten to know the owner while working on a beer truck and they did not know we were only 18. We were very good at bumper pool and rarely lost a game. The black guys would line up to play us for beers and it was a rare Friday night when either of us ever paid for a beer. We took a couple of them on our high school graduation ditch to Indiana Dunes park.
I would not dream of walking past the place today, let alone into it.
Yes Brutha Mike, it is remarkable how fast in our lifetime, so-called 'race relations' have soured... I too came of age when we didn't see differences so sharply, since they were only skin deep. Nowadays, and probably since the droopy drawers craze swept out of the prisons, onto the streets, way too many blacks employ the stink-eye-attack, if whitey dares to share their space. Disrespect has been festering for a couple of decades now, and has become something much worse when the Progs gave US Obama, and his in your face Mau-Mau faction - constantly stoking the flames of prejudice and hatred, apparently to ignite Hell in America -- bad tactics, imho! Our 1st Black President could have been a healer, too bad he chose to be poisoner.
DeleteOn Watch~~~
"Let's Roll"
Ahh, you obviously didn't drive there and have to look for parking. Parking in DC is how they tell tourists 'you suck and we hate you, now pay up.'
ReplyDelete:)
DeleteBarry
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ReplyDelete