MEDIA MADNESS

When did it happen, that the Media became the adviser to the President, to the White House, to the nation, to the world?

The media is a bunch of salespeople, educated, nice looking sales clerks who are shaping your life and mine.

They are vocal, assured. They've got big words and factual references that a staff digs up. They're telling Obama what the "global new deal" ought to be, and selling the media's new deal prospectus to us.

Yes, selling it. And they themselves are gussied up, advised, directed by advertising experts in convincing the market place -- that's us, the audience. They're putting down, demeaning, minimizing, psychoanalyzing Obama. They're patting him on the back with condescending compliments -- "Obama's nice idea is all wrong," and showing photos of his downcast, worried face.

They are Joe the plumber. We are Joe the plumber. Yes, I'm Joe the plumber, but I stand back and look at the words like birds in the air -- pigeons flapping their wings and dropping their excretions wherever, whenever nature calls.

We have Pew Polls, Gallup, Nielsen, Rassmusssen, YouGov, Zogby, Ipsos, Harris, etc etc. We have preachers, politicians, commentators, authors, editors, staff writers, all manner of news personnel birding out strong convictions, judgments, critiques.

I can't plug my ears. I don't close my eyes. I like to see the lay of the land -- squint sometimes and see the sparkle dust in the air. But statistical numbers and warnings are opinion shapers that confine me to what the media ladies and gents are selling.

Also, we've got housewives from everywhere, Jersey shore folks, winners, losers, celebs, talky talking telling their tales about nothing and nasty news, nifty news, nerdy news, all the latest news about e v e r y t h i n g.

None of it is news. It's views. It's do-do.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT (Video)

What about those doomsday predictions? Bombs, another 9/11 disaster, what about the end of the world in 2012?

John Cullum says he's not superstitious, but nevertheless, he pays attention to the don't whistle, knock on wood traditions, and develops a few superstitious routines in rehearsal that he maintains during the run of a show. For instance, Cullum goes over certain lines before each performance -- makes his entrance, the same "good luck" way.

Do the Cullums believe in fortune tellers? ESP? NO, they both say. Yet they chat about the plans they made, a long time ago, in fact, about where to meet IF disaster hit New York.

SOCIAL NETWORKING KIDDIES

Some of your dear friends, even peers with whom you're chatting about LIFE, are probably kids.

Consumer Reports, [June], said 7.5 million Facebook users are younger than 13 -- five million are 10 or younger. (FB says users must be 13 or older, but as you know, a birth year can be fixed.)

Actually, you're already sharing things with people you never met. Still, "likes, bulletins, Tweets, latest news from kids -- doesn't it sort of reduce the feeling that you've communicated, and shared things with friends?

Want to get rules passed and make sure kids will be banished from Facebook? From Twitter? From wherever you're chatting, browsing, exchanging ideas? I'm not sure it can be done.

Kids find ways to do whatever they really want to do. Yes, as a parent, or employer, you can find out where they hang out, who their friends are, do they have "bad" habits -- drugs, booze, smoking? Do they sniff illegal substances, have sexual doings with friends, or themselves? Do they steal, shoplift, borrow money -- are they involved with anything evil? There are many perilous places on the internet that anybody can access -- dangerous, even deadly activities.

Oh yes, you can protect the kids -- with rules, drug tests, advice from sociologists, psychoanalysts, pills for depression, attention deficit disorders and allergies. You can supervise, say stop, mustn't do that, that's wrong, that's bad. You can check, guard, make rules, put up fences, gates, walls.

You can enforce all your no-no-no admonitions.

That's why I'm writing this post.. I think no-no admonitions are producing anger in children, and more rebellion, and deeper, uglier, killer-kill-'em-feelings. inspiring all sorts of creative ways to circumvent what their elders want.

I think -- instead of "no" say YES.
Make "stop" into START,
Turn "don't" into DO.

Starting someone's mind -- not stopping it, thwarting it --but encouraging action is much easier. You can promote recreations, activities, things to do. Including browsing, social networking stuff and other Internet things that interest YOU, while educating yourself on how to educate the kid.

How much time do YOU spend social networking -- messaging, chatting, absorbing weird, amusing, sometimes just plain boring bla bla on the Internet?

Kids are THERE -- they're already opening your mind, probably, even though you don't realize they're kids. Remember, what's old for you and me, is not old for them, and new ideas, new things are cooking and brewing in their lives.

Try a YES. Challenging kids might challenge you. Aren't there new worlds for you to conquer?

MADELINE ALBRIGHT

I like our former Secretary of State -- her wise ideas, her ability to speak directly and honestly, and feel she did a good job, communicating America's concern with other countries.

Actually, after I wrote this essay, I put it in my discard pile. Albright is not HOT or even lukewarm these days. I figured most of my readers wouldn't be intrigued by her. I could hear younger readers muttering, "Why read about her --I'd rather hear about Rihanna, or an older movie actress who's singing now, like whatshername -- Gwyneth?"

Well ... Albright has been a major person in the world. She was never very pretty, and now she looks thinner, older, and more fragile, but gee -- her energy is inspiring.

I've always admired her for being tough like TV's "Judge Judy," though never harsh. (Click and read what I wrote about Judge Judy Sheidlin in My Pal the Judge. )

Like Hillary Clinton, Madeline A. seems to have an extraordinarily broad grip on facts, geography, and international politics. Both women retain their femininity, even their sweetness and grace, when dealing with over-bearing macho men. And yes, both these women, major women in the news, in the world, are slipping out of the limelight.

Okay, Albright is more or less retired, but she teaches at Georgetown University, lectures, gives speeches, and writes. Madeline Albright knows when to take a back seat, and she definitely knows when to take over and drive the car.

M.A. has said important things:
"There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women." (Oh boy, do I ever agree -- when I meet a woman like that, I sense it, feel it, and head for the other side of the room.)

M.A. said: "I was taught to strive, not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life." (Hey, that's practically my motto.)

M.A. said. "What people have the capacity to choose, they have the ability to change." (Powerful, somewhat complicated thought to dig into -- it helps you discover what's important to YOU and go for it.)

In her published "Memo to the President Elect, How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership," M.A. wrote:
"There is a significant moral difference between a person who commits a violent crime and a person who tries to cross a border illegally in order to put food on the family table. Such migrants my violate our laws against illicit entry, but if that's all they do they are trespassers, not criminals. They deserve to have their dignity respected." (Oh my yes -- this needs to be loudly declared and publicized in all those states that are now jailing immigrants.)

Albright's books. "Madam Secretary: A Memoir," and "The Mighty and the Almighty: Reflections on America, God, and World Affairs," have been best sellers. Also. "Read My Pins, Stories from a Diplomat's Jewel Box"-- published in 2009, it's reverberating in my mind.

Albright loved to wear pins and chose to wear what reflected her mood -- flowers, butterflies, balloons, insects -- she wore a huge bug pin when she discovered the Russians were bugging the conference room. She tells how her three monkey pins -- see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil -- annoyed Russia's Putin when she told him she'd worn them because of his policy toward Chechnya.

Her pins speak to me in the way that current fashions speak, and tell me what's going on in the minds of the men and women who wear them.

We reach into closets and drawers and grab the clothes, the colors, that say what we're feeling today.

Okay, showing your belly button. the "crack" in back, your muscularity where ever it is on your torso -- showing any of your lovely bulges -- says what's on your mind, and IF that's what's on your mind.

Well ... Sloppy is sloppy; shabby torn holes in your jeans means shabby and torn; and very tight, revealing low cut -- well, sexy is interesting but ...

I'm affected by M.A. Like her, I think it is important for women to help one another -- help males and females -- remind one-and-all, that how you dress, your style, the fashionable way you present yourself, is fashion and fashion is temporary.

So here's why I'm publishing this, here's my big message:

Don't just do what others do, guys.

Pick your pins carefully. BE YOU!