MY "PROBLEM" with "ISSUES"

It would seem lately that for the same reason as "misinformed" or "untrue" has replaced "lied to" or "lie," or how "detention center" is the new word for "concentration camp" or "prison" or "jail," or even how "person of interest" is the new term for "suspect," I have no idea why so many people are increasingly using the term "issue" instead of "problem"? Perhaps I guess it means the anonymous corporate cubicle lizards get to talk about things going badly, without a negative word leaving their mouth or keyboard.

I have latelynoticed this particular instance of sanitized language twisting and it seems to be becoming more commonplace. If this continues, then I imagine the word "problem" will seem unusual and alarming, and the word "issue" will no longer be able to be used in its usual sense of not implying "good" or "bad," because it will be understood to mean that something is "wrong." No matter how you look at it, if you are having an "issue" with your car or computer -- it is more honestly a "problem" with and you can't get where you need to go and you can't get your intended work done.

While similar, in a sense, these linguistic dominoes have fallen in the past, I'm happy to see that the word "handicapped" is becoming again more commonplace after being dethroned by "disabled" has taken its place. The emphasis is "disabled" is on not having something, rather than being held back.

I understand that all sorts of words have fallen into disrepute due to politically correct pressures and people's desire to to whatever they can at the time to slip out of causing a fuss or sidestep being honest about what they are talking about. One can hardly say that someone "died" without it seeming a bit harsh or callous. Apparently "passed away" or now "passed" is thought to be less jarring. But then, this makes the ordinary use of "passed" difficult by the its own.

A saving grace is that all of these euphemisms enables the creation of pleasant sounding insults, such as "cognitively challenged" rather than "stupid".

Twice lately when I have addressed someone of African descent as an "African American" versus "black" and have been loudly redressed by those as "I'm not directly from Africa nor is my family." "My family has been in American for many generations and I am 'black.'"

Part of the problem is the pressures on people, particularly in the litigious workplace and in public discourse, not to cause offense and walking on linguistic eggshells is more appropriate. Therefore, they tone everything down. Instead of the manager telling someone they did a bad job of some task, they tend to come up with a string of weasel words such as "You know, you 'could' have done a little better..."

Perhaps it is the culture of political correctness and the overabundance of lawyers -- or should I say "legal professionals" -- that is changing language so right when you come down to it one ends up uttering a bunch of words that really don't mean anything.

Tonight on HBO I watched the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

When the movie was in the theaters I decided I would boycott it in that I thought it would be a slam on the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, and being of Latvian/Estonian descent (part of the mix) I tend to be a little more sensitive on those kinds of things. The movie was on DirecTV pay-per-view several months ago and figured I would still boycott it until it showed up on HBO which I already pay for every month.

While the movie has some crude humor and situations, comic Sacha Baron Cohen juxtaposes it to illustrate a way more serious, bigger and deeper meaning and subtext. Just like the movie "Crash" -- the movie illustrates how people these days love to be "politically correct" in public, but when you get right down to it, Americans are still just as suspicious and racist/xenophobic/homophobic as they always have been. The recent debacle of radio shock jock Don Imus is just another example of that. (Not only that it honestly reflects what I have always felt when trying to get a job in my field of interest. People often are very friendly with me and tell me how talented I am, yet I know behind my back that they will NEVER hire anyone simply on the basis of my unusual name.)

7 stars out of 10 stars.

A friend of mine this evening suggested that he swears that some "born again Christians" grind up Bibles and snort it up their nose. "It affects their brains."

He continued to say, "Hell of a visual huh? I dont get it...Ive read the Bible...studied the Bible...consider myself Christian...am comfortable in my relationship with God and Jesus Christ...and those people...I think Jesus would be giving them all noogies if he was down here..."

"Read the New Testament...Jesus was not the hate filled freak they paint."

GREAT Video! The song could be a little better...but I get you can't ask for everything......

Who came up with this saccharin slobbery verse inside of my just opened tub of sour cream?

YECH!

"You don't drop a piranha in the kiddie pool and stick around to watch the bubbles!"

Some people were a little surprised when I supported the notion of the Napolean-like Iranian dictator visiting the United States last week to speak in front of students at Columbia University and at the United Nations. In the United States we still more-or-less have a concept of freedom of speech, but with it comes the right to practice of freedom to be considered an idiot and asshole.

Apparently this idea was not alien to the producers and actors at Saturday Night Live last night...

This was a great dialogue tonight on Showtime's mini-series, "Weeds."

Reservist: I clearly am not fit to serve.

Recruiter: In case you haven't noticed, this country is at war. Actually technically authorization has been given by an act of Congress. That's enough to activate you.

Reservist: I'm clearly am not fit to serve.

Recruiter: Can you walk?

Reservist: Not in long step. I tend to weave.

Recruiter: I didn't notice.

Reservist: I'm a drug addict.

Recruiter: We'll clean you up.

Reservist: I'm gay.

Recruiter: We have a unit for that.

I LOVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

The other morning I was traveling down Highway 94 to Downtown San Diego when I spotted a most responsible fellow driver in her news Prius listening to her IPOD. Of course, you could say that I was just as responsible taking the picture from my cell phone with my right hand while holding the steering wheel with my left hand.

THis has been celebrity with his botched nose and face job has been so fortunate that any one is interested in his has been fame and career and that he is not performing in an airport bar in Poughkeepsie.

Barry to Elisabeth: Your "View" is Dangerous

Posted Sep 17th 2007 1:16PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: TV, Celebrity Feuds
UPDATE: A source tells TMZ that it's not Barry who's writing this song -- in fact, "View" producers pulled the plug on Manilow's performance when his people demanded that he appear on the show without Elisabeth. Manilow has in fact performed on the show twice before -- both last year -- when Hasselbeck's been co-hosting.

TMZ has learned that legendary singer Barry Manilow has pulled out of his scheduled appearance on "The View" tomorrow -- because he strongly disagrees with host Elisabeth Hasselbeck's conservative view! Paging Rosie O'Donnell!

In an exclusive statement to TMZ, Barry says, "I strongly disagree with her views. I think she's dangerous and offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her." Barry, taking a stand!

Manilow is currently on a press tour promoting the release of his new album, "Greatest Songs of the Seventies."

A network spokesman had no comment.

After having my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day last Monday, tomorrow could just be the reverse, as I'm going to be able to get into another media performance class. Albeit that it is not focusing on television as the original class, it will be a good opportunity to get where I potentially want to be.

Update on Monday afternoon......

Like I said to someone recently...the current batch of politicians in Congress and Senate will NEVER get health care reform resolved because they are not motivated to do so (except out of political expediency and to get brownie points for the drive-by "I care" quotient and be able to say "I tried" and be done with it). The millionaires on both sides of the political aisle are taken care of by their own privileged system and simply don't care.

The latest antic comes from the vile and putrid mouth of Hillary Clinton, who in her pursuit to be crowned "Queen Hillary" and continue the Clinton dynasty, does not have the political savvy or ability to get things done without antagonizing everybody.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is unveiling a sweeping health care reform proposal Monday that would require every American to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage. With a price tag of about $110 billion per year, Clinton's "American Health Choices Plan" represents her first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since 1994, when the plan she authored during her husband's first term collapsed.

The former first lady says she has learned from that experience, which almost derailed Bill Clinton's presidency and helped put Republicans in control of Congress for years to come. Aides say she has jettisoned the complexity and uncertainty of the last effort in favor of a plan that stresses simplicity, cost control and consumer choice. The centerpiece of Clinton's plan is the so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance — just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Rival John Edwards has also offered a plan that includes an individual mandate, while the proposal outlined by Barack Obama does not.

Hey, Brainiac Hillary...what about the people who can't AFFORD it, hon?

Information Week magazine reports that...

In a mobile phone variation of the "shop 'til you drop" phenomenon, Sprint Nextel (S) has launched a free shopping service for its subscribers.

Announced Thursday, the Mobile Shopper service enables subscribers to purchase products from more than 30 retailers including Target and Wal-Mart. The service, powered by mShopper, is the company's first mobile shopping service to be offered in the U.S., Sprint said.

Sprint said the service is offered free-of-charge, although subscribers will be charged for Internet access. Mobile Shopper will enable users to instantly compare online prices with in-store prices, enabling them to find the lowest prices for products. Mobile Shopper accounts can be established directly on mobile phones or on subscribers' PC. A secure PIN protects shipping addresses and credit card information.

Sprint's demo of mShopper notes that the browser interface allows the shopper to send the information to a friend's phone, e-mail the information for future reference, talk to a live sales agent, or purchase the item. The shopper must have a Web-enabled phone for the service to work.

How about a phone that doesn't drop calls while I stand still, works in most rooms of my house, etc. Huh?

Monday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Although I had some reservations about it, my class in TV Media Performance (TV Newscasting) was cancelled by some eunuch administrator at San Diego College because of "low enrollment." We had ten people in the workshop class and even that was too many because of the one hour allotted by the college for us to utilize the college television studio.

I was taking the class in order to brush up on my media presenting skills in anticipation of finally getting a job in the San Diego media which I would actually enjoy doing, instead of sitting for hours on end doing graphic design which I really don't doing anyway. It was really my first chance to get out of the house and be productive, meet new people, etc., since mom's passing over a year ago. I really felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me AGAIN when I'm trying to do something constructive.

I returned home really downcast, and even dinner didn't seem to go down right. I did go to the gym and benched 310 lbs. which got my mind off of things. I went to bed, woke up crying, etc. It was actually the first time I had the gall about doing something extraordinarily stupid....not that I would do it because I'm such a coward on such things...and that's a good thing.

I got up and went online and was in touch with an old online friend who has gone through a horrible hell himself. I shared what was in my heart and brain when he told me:

One: when we reach the end of all the light that we can see and walk into the unknown... either one of two things will happen there will be something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly.

Two: life isn't a journey into the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up and loudly proclaiming... "WOW! What a ride!"

Definitely another perspective.

SYDNEY, Australia - President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.

He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers. Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops." That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying "Austrian," the official text released by the White House switched it to "Australian."

Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way. He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.

The event had inauspicious beginnings. Bush started 10 minutes late, so that APEC workers could hustle people out of the theater's balcony seating to fill the many empty portions of the main orchestra section below — which is most visible on camera. Even resettled, the audience remained quiet throughout the president's remarks, applauding only when he was finished.

A logistical glitch added to the woes. APEC security workers would not allow the members of the media who travel in Bush's motorcade to enter the Opera House along with him. This even though the journalists allowed into the president's entourage are extensively screened and guarded by the Secret Service, which has more stringent security standards than about any operation in the world. And even though they always accompany him into public events. As a result, while Bush spoke, the traveling media cooled its heels outside the landmark Opera House, shooting pictures and watching boats in the harbor.

I'm not President Bush's biggest fan, but I think he's just plain emotionally and physically exhausted and burned out. The guy can't escape anywhere without being constantly hounded.

Of course it is kind of fun for me to watch the Democrats fighting each other and being obviously disappointed that things may be going a bit better in Iraq (as it would seem). Al Gore has failed to be able to sustain the propaganda about global warming...a ploy which I think the Democrats tried to use to hang their hat on in the coming election as an issue, but has gotten very limited traction. Gore turned out to be his own worst enemy in trying to beat the drum on the subject. He was found to be consuming 40% more electricity in Tennessee than the average Tennessee resident, and now there is the video that someone took of him boarding a jet fuel hogging Gulfstream after he said that he would only use commercial airliners. You have Patrick Kennedy yelling and screaming about the Republicans being non-ecoconscious, yet the Kennedys of Hyannisport have spent millions in attorneys fees fighting the erection (oops...why don't I say "building") of wind generators in their neck of the woods.

Just as Gov. Dukakis said several weeks ago, the Democrats attempt to recapture the White House is not going to be the cakewalk they had anticipated and hoped it to be. Just as we were talking the other night, even mainstream Democrats have grown very weary of the superhyperbole of the left wingers in the party.

The American people are beginning to figure out and spit on the hypocritical nature of the whacked out right wing whacko Bible thumping Jesus freaks, as they have figured out the hypocritical nature of the the left wing whacko Kumbaya singing Cindy Sheehan adoring unwashed masses.

Am I opinionated?

Tonight on HBO I watched the blockbuster horror film "Snakes On A Plane" starring Samuel Jackson... I can see why it was such a success...it is one great movie! A good and well written plot, great acting, and the effects are superb.

Movies are supposed to be entertaining....and "Snakes On A Plane" fills the bill!

I don't expect though this movie to be shown on a transcontinental airliner....along with ConAir, Turbulence, the Airport movies, etc.

What's funny is that I've learned not to go camping because of the movie, "The Hills Have Eyes" (the latest version), and now..."Snakes On A Plane."

The video for the movie is great as well.

Here's a parody of the movie trailer for "Snakes On A Plane."