Monday, February 27, 2023
In bed at 8:45, up at 4:22. Let Lilly out into a strong ESE wind of 20 mph, the temperature at 35℉. She stood on the walkway staring into the dark distance for perhaps 4 minutes, turned around, came inside, and went back to bed. Winds will be strong all day with gusts up to 40 mph, temperatures pretty steady in the mid-30s, wintery mix expected to be about 3.5 inches today with 1.35 inches of rain expected in the next 24 hours. The current wind chill is 25 and is expected to vary between 20 to 31℉, Sunrise at 6:31, sunset at 5:38, 11+6.
Reality TV Attracts More Applicants Than Ever. For Reality-TV Coaches, It’s a Gold Rush: Casting consultants are helping regular people get on their favorite shows From this weekend's WSJ: "Ms. Wincheski is part of a growing cottage industry of former casting agents and contestants who are now working directly with people who want to be on reality TV. It used to be that a single casting director or producer could make or break an applicant’s chances at getting on a show. Now, independent coaches are offering wannabe stars the chance at a do-over. Part career counselor, part therapist and part drama instructor, they help clients overcome rejection and put forward their most camera-worthy selves using tips from the trade. According to Lynne Spillman, a two-time Emmy-nominated casting director, getting on reality TV is more competitive than ever, as applicants look to parlay contestant roles into lucrative influencer gigs or bona fide acting careers. To stand out to the producers and directors eyeing their applications, it’s key to convey that they can elicit a range of emotions.".
There is nothing 'real' about 'reality TV'. We live our lives surrounded by lies, deceptions, half-truths, myths, misinformation, disinformation, "spin", 'hidden persuaders.' It comes from all sides, from everywhere, but mostly via our televisions. It would be comforting to think that our educational systems gird us to see through all this, to become 'critical thinkers,' but our educational system is a purveyor of much of it, especially when it comes to its treatment of American history and our consumerist capitalist culture and economy, all the hogwash about 'freedom' and 'democracy' and 'majority rule', etc. Ditto religion. Ditto politicians and political consultants. Ditto PR firms, marketers, and organizational spokespersons. On and on and on.
I am reminded of Diogenes. From the World History Encyclopedia: "According to Diogenes, society was an artificial contrivance set up by human beings which did not accord well with truth or virtue and could not in any way make someone a good and decent human being; and so follows the famous story of Diogenes holding the light up to the faces of passers-by in the market place looking for an honest man or a true human being. Everyone, he claimed, was trapped in this make-believe world which they insisted was reality and, because of this, people were living in a kind of dream state. He was not the first philosopher to make this claim; Heraclitus, Xenophanes, and, most famously, Socrates all pointed out the need for human beings to wake from their dream state to full awareness of themselves and the world. Plato's famous Allegory of the Cave is devoted to this very theme. Diogenes, however, confronted the citizens of Athens daily with their lifelessness and shallow values, emulating his hero Socrates whom he never met but would have learned of from Antisthenes. Although it seems many people thought he was simply mentally ill, Diogenes would have claimed he was living a completely honest life and others should have the courage to do the same." (Bolding added.)
I am also reminded of the red pill and the blue pill in The Matrix. And no surprise, thinking of liars and lying, I am reminded of our own Senator Ron Johnson, not just for January 6th, but also for his medical delusions. In this morning's WaPo, a story about an "alliance" pushing ivermectin as a panacea for covid, influenza, and RSV. "The alliance gained national prominence in December 2020 when Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) invited [Wisconsin physician Dr.] Kory to a hearing on early covid treatments, and Kory’s comments promoting ivermectin as a “miracle” drug went viral. Powered by conservative voices, ivermectin became a flash point in the ongoing covid culture wars, with many Republican legislators and officials pushing to protect access to the drug. The nonprofit alliance received nearly $5 million in donations in 2021 as its platforms grew increasingly influential. . . . Some of Kory’s telemedicine appointments, where long-covid sufferers can receive prescriptions for ivermectin, cost $1,650 for a video consultation and two follow-ups. His subscription-based newsletter on substack, “Pierre Kory’s Medical Musings,” boasts thousands of subscribers who pay between $6.50 a month to $200 a year to access some of his writings."
Today;s FB Posting: Sharing Margaret Renkel's NYT piece on the Okefenokee Swamp. "Margaret Renkel is one of my favorite opinion writers and this impassioned plea is one reason why. In 1964, I was stationed at a Naval Air Station outside of Brunswick, Georgia. A Navy friend of mine named Andy Furlong and I drove one weekend from Brunswick to the Okefenokee Swamp. When we arrived, we learned there was an admission fee - something like $4 apiece. Andy was a low-paid Navy ensign and I was a low-paid Marine 2nd lieutenant and between the two of us, we didn't have the $8 or so we needed to gain admission. We did have enough to stop in a local watering hole in Waycross for a beer. However, 1964 was the year of the civil rights "Freedom Summer" bringing many Northern volunteers south to register Black voters and the bartender in Waycross made it clear he had no love for a pair of White Northerners, one from New Jersey and one from Wisconsin, patronizing his establishment. We returned to our air station outside of Brunswick disappointed in more ways than one."
The hopeless situation in Israel. This morning's WaPo: "HUWARA, West Bank — Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged through Palestinian towns, torching cars, homes and killing a man, hours after a Palestinian gunman killed two Israelis The scenes from the hours-long rampage Sunday night bore the trademark of a once-active settler movement known as “price taggers,” whose mission is to extract a “price” for any Palestinian attacks or threats to the settler movement. . . . . It also came after a rare meeting between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Jordan in which Israel promised to halt settlement expansion in the West Bank — the land Palestinians envision as part of their future state. . . . “A Huwara that is closed and is burning — that’s the only way we’ll achieve deterrence,” Tzvika Foghel, a lawmaker from the far right Jewish Power party, told Galei Israel radio the next day. “We need to stop shying away from collective punishment.” . . .But far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have indicated that they were not beholden to the promises made during the meeting, which took place with U.S., Egyptian and Jordanian officials. Bezalel Smotrich, the leader of the Religious Zionist Party, the third-largest bloc in the coalition, said that he had “no idea” about the discussions at the “unnecessary conference” in Jordan, but that Israel would not agree to a settlement freeze, “even for one day.” “What happened in Jordan (if it happened), stays in Jordan,” tweeted National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Last month, Ben Gvir, who has long."
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Record Rainfall already today. 2 inches by noon. 2.05 total.
F
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kk
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