Return of the Prodigal Hater: The Media, Still Blowing it on the Iraq War. Me, Trying Not To Blow it.

After a blissful couple of weeks of being low on hate and high on love and liking, I'm back to hating man.

I consider myself a part of the periphery of the media. I'm a staff writer for these guys; I'm a skateboard writer, hence, I'm a part of the fringe of the periphery of the media, but still, I try to take media matters seriously, and if in some meager way, apply it to my "journalism."

One of the ways that I attempt to bolster my media mind is by listening to On The Media; I've posted about these guys before. I rarely catch them on the radio, so I've taken to downloading them weekly. Recently I got behind on listening to my downloads, which meant that I started out today with their show from March 21, '08. I'd gotten rather behind.

The 03.21.08 show happened to be a re-cap show of all their coverage of the coverage of the War in Iraq; what a way to ring in a "Fifth Anniversary"! While I was well aware that the media, for that matter, most of the media, had blown their reportage of the war, what I found in the above episode of On The Media was nothing short of puke in your mouth sickening at times. Download it, pod it, and then find an activity where you can listen to the entire episode in entirety. (Note: I'm well aware that On The Media is a criticism show, and that they damn well intended to make me throw up in my mouth. Still, the fact that they can compile 50 minutes of audio that has the ability to do that to me is telling.)

Here's what bums me out, beyond the tragedy that is everything regarding the current war. The whole thing was a good slap in the face for me to get way more proper about my own work. I'd been making a push to slip in a little bit more "real talk" into my pieces, but really, it's a dicey activity. Piss off the wrong people and advertisers walk. Call out a skater and all of a sudden there's someone who will actually try to kick my ass for some dumb comment. Ridicule a video worth ridiculing (or supposedly ridicule a video), and I end up with someone saying "Fuck Gerbik". I don't want to sound like some gigantic pussy for stating all this, but I also want to have fun doing something I love and not worry about bullshit. All the while I find myself cringing while I dance around the fact that so and so skate video should never, under any circumstances, be purchased, and I worry about the feelings of some 16 year old kid while he blatantly lies to me in the middle of an interview.

Fuck it. Time for some "smart real talk," keeping my job, and having fun. And calling out teenagers; we hate them more than ever.

Eternity in a Black Hole

According to Jack Van Impe ministries this is the time line of upcomming events which we need to prepare ourselves for. I am not sure how it works in other parts of the United States but here in Minneapolis at 11:00 pm on Sunday nights Jack Van Impe and his wife Rexella (yes, ironically, she is named after a Dinosaur...or as SNL put it, a "Jesus Horse") have their weekly television show in which they discuss the comming of....you guessed it....Jesus Christ. This show has been on the air for as long as I can remeber. On the show Rexella reads current headlines which Jack then analyzes using bible verses (on the televangelist scene he is known as "the walking bible"). Recently Jack has predicted that the Apocalypse will begin in 2012. Prior to this he predicted that there would be wide spread catasrophe surrounding Y2K (this proved to be inaccurate). He was also quoted as saying, "black holes fulfill all the technical requirements to be the location of Hell." Mostly Impe preaches an "end of times" philosophy which puts him at odds with other religious leaders. (In 2005 he hated on Pat Roberson by comparing him to the likes of Osama Bin Laden.)

The question I often grapple with when thinking about the current Evangelical slant in the United States is, "What is motivating these people?" Are we really expected to trust televangelists? are there really that many people out there who buy this stuff? Why are they all white, middle class, old guys?

Since when has the book or revelation become the basis for the way many people think? More important than the idea that church and state should be seperated...one of the very concepts that this country was founded on. Does Democracy mean anything anymore?

Stephen Colbert put it quite pointedly what he asked, "why can't these people just say 'I don't know'?" Is the fear of the unknown so difficult for us to comprehend that we have to scare people into believeing a book that is most probubly a work of fiction? I am not saying that the prophesies found in the book of revelation are impossible I am just pointing out that they are highly improbable. Evangelicals make up a minority of United States citizens yet their presence is having an extreme impact on us all. This can be seen in environmental legislation, money for wars, etc. . .

Why can't people keep their dooms day babble to themselves?