Payson Roundup

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

The President just made his avowed LAST appeal for the passage of his Socialized Medicine bill.

At LAST!

I wonder how long will this avowed promise that this will be the LAST appeal will LAST? Longer than LAST time I hope.

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

Tom, You know how much a politicians promise is worth! I think he's pretty desperate and would be happy if the congress passed any health bill. That way he could claim he brought heath care to the country.
-Fred

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“I think he's pretty desperate and would be happy if the congress passed any health bill.”

You are no doubt right.

I think he sees the HC bill as a referendum on his presidency, and I think he's correct. I can hardly wait for November.

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

Yeah Tom, I'm sure you would vote him in again. :-) “I will change America” Uh huh! We are getting our change.
-Fred

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Actually, Fred, what he said was, “I will shortchange America.” He just slurred his words a bit.

Hm-m-m-m. I see that NBC is saying that if the election in Iraq goes all right the “war in Iraq will be over.”

Where have they been? The war over there ended in about four weeks, didn't it?

And see, Pat. I know how to get off the subject too.

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

OK, Tom, shortchanged by how much? About $73 trillion? Sorry Pat,
I get off the string too.
-Fred

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

More like $730 trillion.

Did Pat tell you to get off the spring, or did you tell her? :-)

There talking about the %$#@! Hc bill right now. NBC doesn't get it. The Democrats are falling back and regrouping and getting criticism from NBC for it. Hey media folks! That's how a democracy works. When the folks in office see that the folks who put them there are getting angry enough to yank them back out again over an issue, then the folks in office are supposed to change.

I am always surprised to see that the electronic media folks fall just to the left of the fallen USSR. Is there some kind of course I missed in college? Socialism 101?

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

I think that Pat implied that we both got off the post string. Aren't we all guilty of it?

I miss all that video media and not worried about it. I do receive some of the political cartoons. The last one was Obama trading his 2000 page version for the Republicans 2000 page version.
Socialism 101? No just Congress USA, depending on the source.
-Fred

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

” Aren't we all guilty of it?”

I used to stay strictly on the subject, but I've learned that's not the way to go.

“I am always surprised to see that the electronic media folks fall just to the left of the fallen USSR.”

Actually, in the book “Bias,” which everyone should read, the author actually points out and documents the fact that the media really is to the left of left. That's why we just can't get news that's news anymore.

What kills me is this: A giant corporation (read that as Republican stronghold) sponsoring TV media that is after its throat. Why? Surely the news media don't make that much money for the networks since they became self-paying, which they never used to be when they weren't biased. If I were GE I would can the whole %$#@! staff of NBC News and replace them with people who signed a contract to remain unbiased at risk of their jobs.

It's really weird. Things have gotten so bad over the past few years that Fox News, which I used to see as the most biased of all and steadfastly refused to watch, is now just about the least biased.

I don't watch Fox. I only watch NBC because that's the station that Lolly relates to. But every once in a while I go out and check something, and invariably Fox's reporting is the nearest thing to unbiased we now have.

What happened? What did I miss?

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

Things change Tom. Fox may have new management? I'm still depending on NPR and Christian Science Monitor. I haven't noticed any horrible bias lately, but it's difficult for me to tell with the limited sources. I do read some of the independent blogs occasionally. I think I looked once for an all text site for Fox, but found nothing.
-Fred

Ruby_Finney (Ruby Finney) says…

Fred
Try checking the newspapers and news networks on the internet. You will find pretty constant updates on their pages and you can get a cross section of reports for comparison.

I have to agree that Fox is probably less biased than most.

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

Ruby. Since I have a dial-up connection, I don't browse the internet. Most web pages are loaded with pictures which take too long to sit and wait for. So I read the news on web sites which have a text-only service. NPR has the best one so far. If you know of any others, let me know please.
-Fred

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“I'm still depending on NPR and Christian Science Monitor. I haven't noticed any horrible bias lately…”

NPR is a bit biased (to the left). Their text site is also somewhat slower than it used to be, but still useful.

“If you know of any others, let me know please.”

Try this one:
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/textonly/…

You'll have to be a tad careful (read where you are actually going) or you'll hit some leads that go to text plus graphics pages. But other than that… good stuff.

Here it is inside quotes so you can copy the whole thing. The Roundup program truncates URLs.

“http://www.pbs.org/newshour/textonly/home_text.html”

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

Why not leave it an active link?
A person could click on the link and then add it to their favorites / bookmark it.
Some users don't know how to copy and paste!

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Go ahead Shovelhead. I don't know how to do very much on this computer.
First off when I am typing a post all of a sudden the page goes to something about this website isn't working. When I click on for help it tells me to call a friend. (:

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

You have my phone number!

fred_franz (frederick franz) says…

OK Tom, PBS chops up its pages into blocks which I find distracting. Thanks for the url.
-Fred

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

My apology sir, I didn't notice that you posted both the active and copy and paste version.
I must start paying closer attention :)

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“A person could click on the link and then add it to their favorites / bookmark it.”

Right. No doubt. But I did it both ways, Mike. Wanted to help people who wanted to copy the URL without going straight to the link.

Some people don't know how to set up bookmarks. Why I don't know, but I'm willing to bet that the browser they have didn't come with an instruction manual. Anyway, I just try to be as helpful as I can. This stuff is as clear as mud to a lot of people (me too at times).

Also, every one in a while the Roundup program seems to actually truncate a URL, not just apparently truncate it. We had a problem with that a while back. Don't remember what string it was, but it made problems. I put up a link and it didn't work, even though it looked fine.

“PBS chops up its pages into blocks which I find distracting. ”

They do that! And watch yourself. They will slide you off the news page into something else by getting you to click on a block which sends you off somewhere, thereby wasting your time. But it is text, and it is fast, so-o-o-o….

I'd like to see a lot more text news.

After all, news IS text.

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Gee, Mike, thanks for the apology, but it wasn't necessary. Personally, i think it's great that the Roundup uses software that allows pasted in URL's to be live links.

If you start paying close attention to all this stuff you may have to go in for counseling. :-)

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

I think we all need group counselling.

Shovelhead (Mike McLaughlin) says…

I suppose you want to be the leader of the group :)

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

I think you could handle it better (:

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

Just once in my life I got into a “group counseling” thing. It was at Fremont Junior High in Mesa, where some dingbat from the main office set up something for some “troubled” kids. I just happened to be in the room when it started (I was there fixing a computer) and got sucked in. It was the silliest piece of fluff I've ever seen. At the end we were all in a ring and stepped forward at the same time for a “group hug.”

My attitude toward life, though very understanding of the problems of others, is something like that of the general, who hearing that the sky above Antarctica was missing some ozone, said, “Well just send some back up there.” In other words, quit talking and do something.

patrandall (Pat Randall) says…

Tom,
There is counseling and there is counseling. Depends on the person who is in charge.

SantaBerry (Bernice Winandy) says…

Gee, Tom, I thought you were going to say that you were one of the “troubled kids.” :-)

I agree with Pat — it all depends on the counselor, or the person in charge. Tom, sometimes you have to do some talking in order to figure out what to do. Life's problems can't always be solved by “sending up some ozone.” Although a good spanking on the part of some parents could have possibly prevented some problems from starting. :-)

Tom_Garrett (Tom Garrett) says…

“Tom, sometimes you have to do some talking in order to figure out what to do.”

Amen to that!

I agree with you. My problem with counselors starts with school counselors and runs from there to goody-two-shoe, simplistic-answers-to-complex-problems, complex-answers-to-simple-problems, make-it-sound-good-and-don't-worry-about-content, I'm okay/your okay, isn't life just the most wonderful thing, daytime television programs.

As to sending up some more ozone, I'm a person who believes that too much time is spent talking and not enough doing, but oddly enough I am also a person who believes that there are times when people do things when they would have been a lot better off, and maybe the world would have been better off too, if they had talked to someone first.

An example? GW would have been a lot better off, and so would we, if he had sat down and read a few good books about what war is really all about. So would his secretary of defense. Neither of them had the slightest idea what they were doing. I don't know this to be a fact, but I will always suspect that they listened to some %$#@! fat cats talking about turning Iraq into an economic dependency of the United States. Know what I mean! “Gee, George. Think of all that oil over there. First we knock out the fields and then we sell them everything they need to restore them. And when it's all up and running again we've got a friend in the Middle East who can work to hold down the price of oil. Not only that, but blah blah blah ad infinitum.”