Sometimes They Get It Right

Hello everyone!

After my post about Bill O'Reilly a few days ago, I thought it would be appropriate to point out that while he is typical of the corporate media, occasionally one of the talking heads on network TV gets it right:



Granted, Olbermann is no Any Goodman, nor even a Jon Stewart, but these days I'll take what I can get.

Heck, even Chris Matthews jumped in on the act:



Here you have a guy who keeps repeating the same right-wing talking points without even knowing the history behind them. This is nothing new, but a TV host calling him on his ignorance is pretty rare these days. I like it!

By the way, I personally discussed Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement in a post right here on Rob Dow's World last November. Wouldn't that make me more qualified to host a radio talk show in the second largest radio market in the country than this chump, Kevin James? I'm just saying...

Rob

Carrots and Sticks

Hello everyone!

In my "Causes and Prevention of War" class, we've been discussing the concept of "Carrots and Sticks". Carrots are rewards that one country offers another to keep peace, and sticks are threats, usually military ones, but sometimes economic or diplomatic ones. For example, right now the Bush administration has been using nothing but sticks with Iran, surprise, surprise. Unfortunately, sticks usually backfire, but people are too stupid to realize it, so they usually get used.

Anyway, this concept also shows up in relations among individual people, too. Take this myspace bulletin I came across:

Subject: STOP... Thief!!

Body: whoever stole a keg tap from my party last night, you're a fucking douche and I hope karma beats your fuckin' ass..

you can still bring it back.

Here we see the thief being threatened with an ass-beating from karma (sticks), but the person is also offered a chance to become less of a douche (carrots) by returning the tap. We can learn much from this parable. There is always a chance for redemption.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Rob

PS: Don't forget to vote on the Rob Dow’s World One Year Anniversary Spectacular Special Extravaganza! As of 4:30 pm Wednesday, only two people have. Please don't make me downgrade from three to two readers in future columns...