Why listening to NPR makes you depressed

Everyday I'm on the road, I listen to the archaic car radio and always catch a news cycle from National Public Radio. Known to have a very liberal slant, I have always listened intently from the days of my own college liberalism, all the way through my move towards the center, and slightly past into conservatism/libertarianism. I listen to the local Christian radio station as well if the topic is good and I think both are equally amusing and at opposite ends of the political spectrum. I find I agree with some of the opinions of both, but definitely not all, and I'll find myself laughing out loud most of the time at both. However, I'm always left thinking about the vast difference in their target audience's perceptions of the future, which brings me to a topic I have been wanting to write about, but was beaten to the punch by two great posts from HotAir.com, one of my daily reads.

It was always my assumption that the Mainstream Media (MSM) lives by the motto, "bad news is good news", but my opinion was validated by a Pew poll about how the media stopped reporting on Iraq when things and news began improving. For me, this is the main reason I rely on the blogosphere for my news rather than the old brick and morter news media that assumes what you need to know and usually has an agenda.

My main hypothesis has been that liberals are way more pessimistic than conservatives, but I hadn't had a chance to get down in the gritty analysis of why this is. Just listening to the depressing state of our economy, country, culture, war, etc. over at NPR and jumping over to Christian radio to hear about how simple faith and prayer will solve all of the world's problems and bring about paradise is one example, but mainly based on the differences between atheists and true believers. Since I'm neither, I consider myself generally happy, but I'm tired of hearing bad news and overly unrealistic, blissful news at the same time. Lucky for me, the Economist had a great article about this topic that focused more on political perspectives and was featured as the Quote of the Day at HotAir.

Old funny: McCain trades jobs with Streisand on SNL

This is old, but the first time I have seen it. It's a great example of people doing jobs they are unqualified for and a statement on today's extremely opinionated entertainers that assume people respect them equally for their political opinions as their talents.



(hat tip HotAir.com)

Down goes Kwame! Down goes Kwame!

There's probably a saying somewhere that goes, "If you want to clean up a city, start with it's dirty leaders" but I think it's pretty self-explanatory for (metro-)Detroiters by now. Well, after years of shady business, affairs, corruption, strong armed tactics, cronyism, unsolved murders, etc., the Hip Hop Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, "was charged Monday with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appear to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide". For many of us, it's about damned time. Some will argue that Kwame finalized the casino deals and cleaned up the downtown waterfront, but hey, even Mussolini made the trains run on time. Detroit needs a lot of things, but bad PR is not one, so for that I say, good riddance.

Obamania means not having to say you are sorry

I've been saying there is a lot of hypocrisy in the Obama campaign for a while now. I can't understand how a person who surrounds himself with so many people that believe America is evil, wants to lead that same country. And while I've been away, some right wing radio host put up a new Youtube sensation that calls Obama out with his own words:



(hat tip to Hotair.com)

Save the environment, potentially poison your family

I've been out of the news cycle recently, and while trying to catch up with my RSS feeds, I came across this blog post about the CFL or compact fluorescent lightbulb that environmentalists have bandied about and used as a carrot for the average Joe like me to "do my part" to save the world, and myself a little money after a hefty initial investment of course. I don't know about you, but I'm sticking with my old fashioned, energy guzzling 99 cent lightbulbs. Just wow. What's next? That the globe may not be warming after all?

Czech President Vaclav Klaus Part 2

Here's the second interview with Vaclav Klaus about socialism, communism, global warming, Russia, and democracy, mainly.

Search Attitude

I love this guy on HBO's Flight of the Conchords, I complain about Google's politics though I use all of their apps, and I'm working on a search project at work, so this was perfect to stumble upon while staying up late working:

Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus Compares Global Warming Movement to the New Communism

This is Part 1 of 2 interviews. I will post the second one when it comes out. The topic is similar, but different, as the president talks about why there are more Marxist (idiots) in Berkeley, California than in the entire country of the Czech Republic. It has to do with experiencing the horrors of Communism and the pathetic nature of Socialism that people disassociate themselves from it, while in the US, the counter-culture believes in the idealistic, Utopian view of forms of government that have been proven as failures. Poor naive fools. That's why I always say, go live in a place that has nationalized health care first before believing the liars like Michael Moore and the ignorant like Hillary and Obama.

In this interview, he explains why the Global Warming Alarmists are the new socialists, trying to hamper democracy, freedom, productivity, capitalism, and overall, human progress. The 60's are over. The "revolution" failed, and now they need some other way of sticking it to "the man".

I've always had an interest, admiration, and empathy for Czechs since reading a lot of Milan Kundera, but this guy is my new hero:



UPDATE: More hero worship here!