Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for October 30, 2009

That must be at the intersection of Fox and Murdoch.

The key to overreacting depends on whether or not you want your fellow Americans to succeed, if you do, you’re probably a liberal.

If you already have success and you’re a selfish greedy pig, then you probably hate everything that isn’t a pasty white reflection of yourself, then of course, you want to hear the most convoluted pejoratives about liberals, after all, fox news wouldn’t report it if it wasn’t true, right?

If you feel angry while watching the news, you’re probably a conservative watching fox news validate another liberal stereotype, without any facts, (like that’s ever stopped them before?)

I would rather be able to listen to the likes of Walter Cronkite (sigh……….) now there was a news reporter!! Today’s “news” isn’t. All it is is one or another networks sad conspiracy vs another’s. Was stuck at JFK for 10 hours. Heard the exact same “news” (with the exact same misques…) about every 15 minutes on “live” CNN. Same pathetic attempts to turn little things into big conspiracies with no regard for reality. FOX is even worse.

Poor liberals. They just don’t get it. The latest poll shows they are only 20% of the population, with the remaining 80% being conservative or moderate. Fox News is watched by all three groups. Fox viewers outnumber MSNBC (the admitted far left network) by more than three times. People want to hear the truth, even if it is slanted to the right. If you want proof that Fox is telling the truth, listen to Obama and his team whine. They can’t point out errors, but don’t like the “tone” of the coverage. “Tone” meaning they are being questioned instead of being slobbered over.

All of the news agencies are bad. You really have to keep one eye on each one to get a handle on what the news really is because each one has its biases. As much as people want to rag on Fox constantly, there is a reason its ratings are increasing while CNN’s are dropping like a rock. There are some stories that they are the ONLY ones reporting. it might be overreactive or sensationalistic, but at leas they have the balls to ask the questions and run the stories and they are breaking a lot of news right now. MSNBC is so far up GE’s backside that they will miss no opportunity to sing Obama’s praises and run an environmentalist angle on every story they can. CNN is so pro-obamacare that you can barely get a single news story right now that they don’t connect to the need for healthcare reform.

If you want news, turn off your TV. And don’t go to blogs. The best sources – or at least the only to really balance your news reporting – is to read or listen to news agencies from a variety of other countries. They give it without the biases (toward sensation and profit) that most American news agencies live by.

“Cable News” has become an oxymoron. When CNN began it all, one could turn on the TV at any hour and get a news report - with very little opinion. Now all those networks are full of “personalities” pushing their own agenda and there is very little reporting.

Of course, it is cheaper to subscribe to a wire service and pay someone to be on air than to send a real reporter into the field to do real research….

Obviously this cartoon is referring to Fox. But what does “too much influence” mean? For a real leftist it means ANY influence. It’s a common symptom of leftists to think that freedom of expression means freedom to agree with them and anyone who disagrees gets called names.

The right is under the mistaken impression that they’re right. Still doesn’t explain why they are acting like paranoid imbeciles. Who is gonna vote for abunch of morons who don’t believe in science? Or, think the government has plans to kill people? Or think air polution has no effect on the environment?? We need stable people in the government, not reactionaries..

I don’t think there’s any single “obvious” allusion here. The strip’s simply referring to cable news as a whole. FOX, CNN, MSNBC - doesn’t matter which way they lean politically, they’re all hysterical propagandists.

‘Course, I’d argue none of them have any real political bias. What they really have (and in spades) is corporate bias - as in the corporation that owns the network. Rupert Murdoch is an Australian businessman. He doesn’t give a flying rat’s bleeep about American social conservatism, he just wants to make money. Same goes for Jeffrey Bewkes and Jeffrey Immelt. Politics has nothing to do with it, they’re simply pandering to their bases in order to increase profits. It’s Capitalism 101.

I get all my news from NPR, and everyonce in a while I will actually watch a few minutes of CNN and sundays I actually read a few op-ed essays.

OH NO… I heard noises coming out of the sewer drain that’s polluting our stream… Danae was right it must be aliens! Quick call Fox, CNN and MSNBC… only they can get the facts right.

And round and round we go, and where it stops, nobody knows!

Are you freaking kidding me? All the government does is to raise the alarm repeatedly to keep us all in butt-puckering terror. They do this to keep people from knowing that whoever is in power is screwing us. Whoever is in power. Get it? Think about it. Republicans/Democrats? It doesn’t matter. They are all about keeping us in the dark to keep us in power. Think about it. Think! THINK! The media is the government’s lapdog. It’s not “Money 411” segment any more, it’s “MONEY 911”. Most are truly blind to this.

For the best, un-biased news reporting in America, try the Christian Science Monitor, www.csmonitor.com

The masthead reads “To bless all mankind”. Mrs Eddy started it in 1907 to address the “yellow journalism” of the early 20th century.

There is a “religious article” at the end of the paper, but the majority is devoted to concise, truthful, un-biased reporting of world & national events.

Try it - you’ll like it.

OMC

Dracip: Your name-calling helps make my point.

On the other hand, you have a point if by not believing in science you mean the people who think Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs. By adhering to faith, they admit they don’t have reason or reality on their side. They are the reason I dropped my Republican registration back under Reagan.

But if by not believing in science you mean people who question global-warming dogma, you ignore the growing numbers of scientists who resist the bad science, alarmism, and political radicalism behind the “climate change” movement. It is interesting that as many Baby Boomer scientists are retiring, they no longer have to worry about losing their jobs and are beginning to speak freely.

By planning to kill people, you apparently refer to claims of “death panels”. I doubt anybody is actually intentionally planning any such thing, but recent events in Britain show how it is an unavoidable result of cost-cutting government end-of-life care when they start cutting services to people who would otherwise survive for many more years. Not plans, just consequences.

Gee, I would have thought reactionaries would be the most stable people. I think we have a disagreement on definitions here. But the real disagreement is the implication that because you think the Right is wrong, the Left must be right. Right?

Just a matter of keeping things in perspective. Cable is for entertainment, reading for education.

pshearer, at least you’re fair. I was using the vernacular that neo-cons use and speak so fluently, because I knew they would be able process it better, I.. But what do you call someone who shouts down cripples at town hall meetings? Upstanding citizens? I guess I’m talkng about the extream cases (the kind that are in the news), not republicans. I’ve known republicans all my life, none of them ever acted like the neo-conservatives do these days. I was using the part of the definition of reactionary that referes to them apposing political or social change. I think the definitions of republican and conservative have gone their separate ways. They used to have a similar meaning. Don’t think they do anymore…I get particulaly irked by “social conservatives”, the ones who want to control what other people do. Economic conservatives have a legit arguement, and I have no problem with them….

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Better uninformed than misinformed. No news is good news. Silence is golden. Que sera, sera. Maranantha. Chill.

Sadly, it isn’t just Faux, but “saturation of the inane” all day long on all of the “news” outlets. “Liberal” just means concerned about facts, open to learning and new ideas, accepting of others- which is why there really isn’t any “liberal” media any longer.

Wiley is good BECAUSE he punctures balloons of all stripes, with a pen, not a pinhead.

Good analysis, Doc.

Joe Allen Doty….The truth is the word “Bible” isn’t in the Scriptures either . You nailed the “Christianity” isn’t in the book either.”

http://www.tyndalearchive.com/Scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/heathen.htm

“MarkH77 said, about 5 hours ago

gbruce shows perfectly why watching Fox is so dangerous. He gets the numbers exactly backwards. The only thing worse than an uninformed voter is a misinformed one.”

Read the paper, though he is a tad off. It’s about 30% liberal.

“billdogGenius_badge said, about 4 hours ago

The latest CREDIBLE polls show only 20% of Americans are still willing to admit they are Republicans. This commenter must get his “news” from the extreme right wing echo chamber ONLY!”

NBC news: about 30% claim Democrat. That’s down from a half a year ago.

Pew: (which leans a slight left) Fox News has been found to be more reliable than MSNBC, CNN, and the network news.

I wish many of you who claim be be “Liberal” really were. And I can say the same for some “Conservatives.”

Both are Libertarian, those who claim “Liberal” or “Conservative” have shown themselves as Authoritarians.

Socialists-Fascists.

Here’s some news; all these “Czars” show Obama as a Fascist, or if you wish, a Right Leaner.

They have 24 hours to fill, with over 10 minues per hour of commercials to sell. The higher the rating the more they can charge the advertisers. Their job is to hold your attention between ads. WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE. It’s just the flu.

“WileyGenius_badge said, 38 minutes ago

I truly wonder why some of the folks posting here bother reading comics. Lighten up.”

I agree, bring back Lars and Capt’n Eddy. I think Eddy should be in charge of the country.

All that soap boxing over a comic strip, one would think they would go before congress with their stuff, anyhow, it looks like those folk are on the corner of “walk” and “dont walk”.

Aposteriori, going back a few hours to your remark about, among other things, liberal stereotypes… Does it occur to you that in the preceding paragraph you employed a number of conservative stereotypes?

Oh, I can believe that only 20 percent of the public will answer a pollster by saying “I’m a liberal…” Just as only 20 percent will answer “I’m a Republican.” These are just labels, and we assign our own meaning to them. Hence, the 60 or so percent that labels itself “moderate” or “centrist” includes those who support single-payer health care and return of the 90 percent marginal tax rate, plus those who believe Medicare and income taxes should be abolished. We are all “moderate,” because that’s what we like to think we are. The only meaningful polls are those that ask specific questions about what people support or oppose. On these we find a majority supporting “liberal” causes like increased taxes on the wealthy and a public option health care system.

But… does cable news really have that much influence? David Brooks, the kinda-conservative NYT columnist, thinks not and backs it up with this evidence: the Fox Brigade went tooth-and-nail against John McCain during the Republican primary season last year, claiming he was too liberal… but McCain won the nomination handily. Then Beck, Limbaugh, etc., slandered Obama left and right while practically nominating Sarah Palin for sainthood… and Obama won big anyway. Maybe, just maybe, big ratings aren’t the same as actual influence over how the people vote…

Don’t believe everything you read. I was curious if Joe Allen Doty was correct, so I used Google and found that the term Christian or Christianity is in the New Testament three times. Not trusting Google, I checked the New Testament that a Gideon gave to me, which I have kept in my desk, and lo and behold Google was correct. Check out Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and 1 Peter 4:16. Who knew! Isn’t the Internet wonderful? :-) Happy Halloween!

The News Hour . PBS .

Actually, the fact is “Trinity”, and “homoousios” (of one being) are not in the Bible either. Lots of things are not recorded in the Bible, as John himself says at the end of the Gospel. Which is why Jesus did not write a book, but found a community.

Wiley, A. It’s fun. For political junkies it’s like a spirited rugby match. B. The signs in your cartoon, explain it. C. To win friends and influence people (OK, scratch that first one there.) D. It’s good practice for when you encounter a drunken uncle. E. ” Discussing” the news of the day has been a folk tradition for thousands of years F. Everyone, not just cartoonists sometimes play to an audience, And last but not least, G. Isn’t reading comics at least an attempt to lighten up? ( I teach middle school, so I’m tempted to add H. “He started it!, but I won’t….”)

Wiley, I wouldn’t explain it if I were you, might lose half your following…

Wiley, what’s the problem? You got all of us posters to either react or overreact…

Jacqueline0818…It maybe in your Bible , but not in my Scriptures .

Come Out of Her, My People. Pages 68-71.

The Greeks used both the word Messias (a transliteration) and Christos (a translation) for the Hebrew Mashiach (Anointed). The word Christos was far more acceptable to the pagans who were worshiping Chreston and Chrestos.

According to The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, the word Christos was easily confused with the common Greek proper name Chrestos, meaning “good.” According to a French theological dictionary, it is absolutely beyond doubt that Christus and Chrestus, and Christiani and Chrestiani were used indifferently by the profane and Christian authors of the first two centuries A.D. The word Christianos is a Latinism, being contributed neither by the Jews nor by the Christians themselves. The word was introduced from one of three origins: the Roman police, the Roman populace, or an unspecified pagan origin. Its infrequent use in the New Testament suggests a pagan origin.

http://www.tyndalearchive.com/Scriptures/www.innvista.com/scriptures/compare/heathen9.htm

christianos (G5546), “Christian,” a word formed after the Roman style, signifying an adherent of Jesus, was first applied to such by the Gentiles and is found in Act11:26; Act26:28; 1Pe_4:16. Though the word rendered “were called” in Act_11:26 (see under CALL) might be used of a name adopted by oneself or given by others, the “Christians” do not seem to have adopted it for themselves in the times of the apostles.

chrematizo (G5337), occasionally means “to be called or named,” Act11:26 (of the name “Christians”) and Rom7:3, the only places where it has this meaning. Its primary significance, “to have business dealings with,” led to this. They “were (publicly) called” Christians, because this was their chief business. See ADMONISH, REVEAL, SPEAK, WARN.

G5547 Χριστός Christos khris-tos’ From G5548; anointed, that is, the Messiah, an epithet of Jesus: - Christ.

http://www.tgm.org/bible.htm

pro⋅fane   /prəˈfeɪn, proʊ-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [pruh-feyn, proh-] Show IPA adjective, verb, -faned, -fan⋅ing.

characterized by irreverence or contempt for God or sacred principles or things; irreligious. not devoted to holy or religious purposes; unconsecrated; secular (opposed to sacred ). unholy; heathen; pagan: profane rites. not initiated into religious rites or mysteries, as persons. common or vulgar.

Uh, Wiley, the reason people post on here in the manner that they do is because your comics ARE commentaries, though you persistently claim that they are nothing more…

As far as cable news causing people to “overreact”…pretty sure Orson Welles caused a stir with his War of the Worlds radio-cast, which is just one example of human nature throughout history. So why pick on “cable news”?

My favorite strip.

Episode 237