[ok - just had to EDIT this a little ...
to add some YOO-MA ... ]
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Man, oh, man ... I am way too old ...

I have about had enough of pop culture. Even though YES - my blog entry title is an homage to Simon & Garfunkel. And this is a "Star Wars" blog.

Reason behind this statement: What is the latest sign the Apocalypse is upon us???

Quote I heard/saw spoken in hushed, reverent tones while channel surfing and stumbling upon Headline News Showbiz Tonight: "...and we'll be right back with more - on this very special 'Michael Jackson Verdict' show..."

... Did you catch that??? "hushed, reverent tones" (!!!)

Yeah, I know ... it's the latest sign that Erelannon is getting OLD ... I would never claim it as a right, and will instead only mention it as a fact: the older I get, the more the news irritates me.

I mean, I consider myself a smart and competent viewer of events going on around me. I may over-react sometimes, but all in all, I like to think I take "events" in stride, roll 'em around the empty space I like to call a "brain", and file them away or ignore them as appropriate. I also like to think that I am fairly moderate. Middle-of-the-road. Not milquetoast nebbishy worthless gray no-opinion moderate, but staunchly fiscally conservatively Republican Libertarian civil rights moderate. So, for example, I don't go overboard bashing Bush without facts to back up my points, and I don't go overboard gushing about how great a conservative he is either.

I do, however, like to call him a Texas twerp, an idiot, and an all-around zit on the backside of America....

*sigh*

The approval numbers for Bush are plummetting. I think that's a good thing. But I don't think the Democrats are a good alternative. I think Libertarians are too ... well ... liberal. Cliche as it is, I think the Moral Majority is neither moral nor a majority. I feel like starting my own sensible political party rooted in common sense and calling it the "Republitarians" - conservative monetarily, but liberal socially.

But how do I know that I know these things about myself? (I mean other than knowing that like many Americans, I am big, round, and loud.)

Well, because of the way I react to the news. To what I see and read and hear and watch and absorb and surf and learn every day from the radio and TV and Internet and friends and enemies and dumber people I run into and smarter people I run into. To my thoughts after I restrain myself from jumping off the roof of the nearest skyscraper... I mean my thoughts as a result of what I get from ... pop culture.

Unfortunately, that includes all types of mass media news. You got Jon Stewart and the Daily Show on one side, and just about anything on Faux News on the other. Local news, too, qualifies as "pop culture". It appeals to the lowest common denominator. It's all about the latest car crash, natural disaster, and friendly neighborhood murder victim. Newspapers as well....everybody hates everybody who doesn't agree with them, and people listen to and read about things they agree with. News programs and newspapers are either liberal as a whole or conservative as a whole. Nobody is fair and balanced anymore.

So in short I feel like thanks to pop culture, my news is skewed and I can't really trust anything I read/see/hear/surf. I have to rely more and more on MY OWN BRAIN and what it tells me about where something I see or hear *fits* in the grand scheme of things. And then let my heart go WILD on it to develop opinions. In short, I believe it vitally important to logically and objectively evaluate a thing/event/item before I allow my opinions/heart go crazy about it.

And no, I don't mean *those voices* in my head ... the other ones ... the ones that make sense ...

But am I right? Do I really know what's going on because I hear something on NPR, or the local Sports Radio, or see it on Headline News, or CNN, or read it in the newspaper??? The truth is very obviously a resounding NO - there is no way a second- or third-hand account can adequately and accurately describe anything.

How does that old proverb go? Oh yeah - "There are three truths: my truth, your truth, and the truth." "THE truth" is key - and it's so so hard to get to it.

OK - that's enough pointless rambling. "Pointless" only because I don't have the answer. I don't want to sound harsh, snake-bit, or cynical. It's an interesting fact that "The TRUTH is hard to come to..." and I actually enjoy it. There's just too much uncertainty. In my (oh so humble!) opinion.

Oh well ... YMMV.