IS THE 99% THE UNINVOLVED MAJORITY?

One of the things that really bothers me about today's journalism is the lack of relevant facts in the name of making a story, what?  Palatable, punchy, easy on the brain? 

Regarding a study of the differences in politics of the 1% and the 99% authored by the political scientists Benjamin Page, Fay Lomax Cook, and Rachel Moskowitz and recently released by the Russell Sage Foundation, found that the politics of the very wealthy are strikingly different.

Wealthy Americans are far more active in politics than less affluent citizens. Nearly all respondents said they voted in the 2008 elections; half of the respondents said they had contacted at least one type of government official in the past year; 41% reported attending a campaign speech or event and 68% said they donated to a political cause or campaign in the past four years. Roughly one of five respondents said they "bundled" contributions from other people for a party or political cause; on average, respondents reported giving $4,633 to political campaigns and organizations in the past year.



Lets look at 41 percent of the very wealthy reported attending a political meeting.  Only 9 percent of Americans did so in 2008.  But no definition of a political meeting is included.  So my cynical mind says "Well of course!  The 1% can afford those gazillion dollar a plate dinners."

The thing I like about reading news on the internet is that a little thought and a few clicks and you can usually find out what the story leaves out.  Turns out the study considered attending a campaign speech or event as attending a political meeting. So that rally at the fairgrounds would count as much as a fund raising dinner. 

I would still argue that rich folks have better attendance because they can afford travel to attend events held far from their residence; but I also admit that I didn't go to see McCain when he was in town during the last election.  Actually, I didn't even know he was here, so the word must have been spread through GOP channels only.  Guess they wanted to limit the hecklers. Would I have gone if I known about it and  free tickets were available and I was free that day?  Probably not.  but I have attended  "meet and greets" of local and state candidates.

But really, how accessible are most political events for the average Americans?  And is it getting harder to actually see a political candidate in person without some sort of group affiliation?  Do you accept the concept of saying the 1% is more involved in politics and so have earned the right to have more say?

RESOLUTION - TO KNOW LESS

Christmas has been put away so I guess it's time to get focused on the year ahead.  As trite as it is, resolutions or any other sort of plan makes sense.  Otherwise, the year just seems to pass with no markers, no successes or failures to recognise.

This past year I was pretty much adrift.  There were milestones in the family, but for myself, with no set goals except to be employed full time and get those damned benefits, there was nothing else on my radar.  The get myself together and lose weight thing is perennial.  Will the fact that my 40th high school  reunion is this year make a difference?  It didn't for the 30th...

No, it is time to move on to bigger things. Things with more weight than my ass. I read about the dismantling of  women's reproductive rights and I get mad, but don't do anything - and that is why those rights are eroding - we who believe sit and don't do anything about it.

It ticks me off that I know about the damned Kardashians even though I have never watched their show(s) on TV.  I am sick of reports about Dancing with the Stars on the morning news shows.  And why is Entertainment Tonight reporting on political scandals?    In my line of site at the gym is the Maury show which is apparently a program "helping" women determine who is the father of their baby.  I don't plug in to hear the show, in fact I have taken to using my exercise machine with my eyes closed rather than see the daily parade of sloppy, swearing, angry, tacky and defiant people on the screen. And worse yet, the cheering and jeering audience.

On The View a while back Whoopie Goldberg said instead of petitioning to get the Kardashian show off the air (which some people are trying to do) just don't watch the shows.  Well, I don't watch a lot of shows that I end up knowing about.  I end up knowing about "celebrities", toddler beauty shows and dance moms.  I hear about weddings, divorces, bankruptcies, thefts, car crashes, hook ups, break-ups, trials,  text messages,  and tweets.  I wonder how far underground I have to go to avoid Snooki, the bachelor, the singers, the housewives, the losers and the makeovers?

So this year - that is what I plan to find out.  It means I can't watch The Today Show which I have enjoyed for years - or at least up until the past 4 or 5 years when seems to have left the news department. If another show I happen to be watching - like The View - starts in on the gossip or features people from those tacky shows, I will turn them off.  It means no more Bravo because the programming I watch isn't worth seeing the commercials for the shows I don't.  I can record the shows and speed through the crap commercials when Project Runway, Work of Art or Mad Fashion is on. 

On the internet I will stop reading the Huffington Post, Jezabel and avoid clicking on  many of the links I run across here and there.  There is so much smart content out there I will have more time to seek out.

My resolution this year is to become more ignorant of some things in the world around me - but it is also to get involved in the stuff that matters.  That part I'm not so sure about, aside from blogging (preaching to the choir for the most part) I will need to explore ways to make a mark and make a difference.

That and reduce the size of my ass.

JOGGING THE BLOGS

It was verrry slow this weekend at work.  I spent some time looking at some of the media sites I like to read online, but I had finished that and didn't feel like reading the book I brought.  So I read a couple of blogs I wanted t catch up on and then I clicked that thing on the top of Blogger that says "Next Blog".  Ever done that?  It can be sort of interesting.

The first one that came up was written by a 26 year old man in England who is touting his RC lifestyle.  I read through a few posts and find that RC stands for restricted calories.  He listed his daily calorie intake at 1400 and is saving up to move to California to meet his online girlfriend who shares his interest on healthy eating.  He seems to be very concerned with looking younger.  When I was 26 I wasn't thinking about looking younger.  As I recall I was thinking about whether having great sex was a good enough reason to keep seeing the guy I was going out with.

So I moved along past 3 blogs in a row that mentioned Jesus in the first few lines and found one by a woman who was very into scrap booking.  I can't identify because I am about 76 years behind on my scrapbooks and none of them have pretty little cut outs and fancy paper.

The next one was all about MMORPG and how they could be improved.  I had to look up what MMORPG was and the definition is:  Massively multiplayer online role-playing game, a genre of computer role-playing games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world.  The links have many boobalicious babes in leather or armor and muscle bound guys with clubs, swords, dragons and stuff like that.  Okay.  Moving on. Oh, no!  The next 5 blogs are all about gaming and computers.

Sensing a some kind of trend I changed over to another blog I like with a political bent to see what followed it when I hit "Next Blog."  It was nature photography in New Zealand!  Next it was one about fostering greyhounds, then one written by a dog named Sunny all about living with her human mom.  The next 5 were about dogs and goats and then suddenly we switched subjects to the America's Cup Race.  The next 7 were about boats and sailing.  Then suddenly...embroidery, quilting and fibre, whatever fibre is.  There are a lot of really talented women out there, but I stopped clicking through after 10 of those.

After that I decided to read my book for a while.  But not until I came up with a name for what I was doing.  I wasn't surfing the net so much as I was jogging the blogs.

SURFING THE NET

When I am restless and not wanting to clean something, read my book, and there is no good TV (hurry up Mad Men!) I find myself spending more time looking around at sillier and sillier websites.

This is from a site called "My Food Looks Funny" there are some amazing things there. Some are creative like this melon shark, some are natural phenomenas:

Some have been helped along by someone with a creative eye:

Then there are always the baby zoo animals which will make you feel better on any day, no matter how crummy.  There is frequently video, as there is of this baby otter.

Then I go over to The Sartorialist to see how the tres chic are dressing these days:

Then I might jump over to  Brand Freak to see what the corporations are up to when it comes to new products and marketing.  We have this to look forward to hearing about on all the news shows with a tie in to the war on obesity.  Maybe someone needs to talk to the fast food chains about that war...

And a good surf would not be complete without a stop in to There, I Fixed It.

And then there is Poorly Dressed People.  The photo is suggested as a good screen saver for an unsuspecting co-worker!

Well, enough of my wandering the web.  What have you found there lately?