The truly frightening state of Americans, media and our sources for news

I saw the scariest study of Americans and how we get our news now. Check this little beauty out:

Survey: More Americans get news from Internet than newspapers and radio

The headline alone was enough to frighten a person. Unfortunately, if not surprisingly, it went on to get only worse:

(CNN) -- More Americans get their news from the Internet than from newspapers or radio, and three-fourths say they hear of news via e-mail or updates on social media sites, according to a new report.

Sixty-one percent of Americans said they get at least some of their news online, according to a survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

That's compared with 54 percent who said they listen to a radio news program and 50 percent who said they read a national or local print newspaper.

There was one little glimmer of hope in all this:

Almost all respondents, 92 percent, said they get their news from more than one platform.

Thank goodness for that last little tidbit, anyway. At least people arent' completely "single-sourcing" their news. At least as far as they admit, anyway.

Thinking of the situation, that online, we all merely tune in to those sources that tilt or lean to our preconceived, already decided upon views, that's disheartening.

In the past, the news was the newspaper in the morning (and evening, if you're that old). It was a better, more overall look at our society and the news. Yes, newspapers still might lean "Left" or "Right", more or less Conservative or Liberal but they were a broader, more encompassing view of what was occurring in the nation and world. We didn't have control. We couldn't turn it off. 

Sure, you could ignore different editorials and columnists but by and large, one was given a better view of what was going on in the world.

Turn to today, with the internet and media, especially since the Republicans had us throw out the more balancing "Fairness Doctrine" in our laws which forced media sources to give two sides to each issue, and now we're far more tuning in to what we merely already agree with and what we want to hear.

It's truly scary.

Naturally, it's extremely polarizing. It makes us far more Republicans vs. Democrats or Liberals vs. Conservatives or--probably worst of all---"Left Wing" vs. "Right Wing."

With that same study, recently, though, yet more information came out:

One-third of U.S. adults get news through Facebook: study

This is one more big, rather new though not fully surprising development.

News? People getting their "news"? From Facebook?

I can't think of any more shallow or slanted source to get your "news" from than Facebook since most people, especially there, just "like" what they agree with and only follow such. Heaven knows I'm guilty of that. I don't even keep old friends from high school as Facebook friends after I've found they've turned into Right Wing and/or Republican shills.

We're bad and getting worse, clearly.

And the thing is, for all the great things coming from the Millenials and "X" and "Y" generations---like watching less and less television, needing, wanting and buying less automobiles, their turning away from the hates and prejudices of their parents and society and wanting to pollute our world less, etc.--this whole trend will no doubt get worse and worse with the oncoming of yet more and more technology on their part and that of our society.

It doesn't give me hope. At least it doesn't on this one topic.

With all that sour news, due to that study, comes this news, today, to prove the point:

Thursday Cable Ratings: Fox News #1 During NYC Ebola Breaking News

Here we have a serious situation in the country, responding to a possibly, even likely deadly disease and what "media" outlet is the number one source for people for news on it?

Fox?  Fox "News"? Faux News?

Go ahead. Shoot me now.

Sociological work that needs to be done

There seems to me to be a great deal of people in the nation--whites, mostly, if not exclusively--who have come to the conclusion that black Americans are violent, culturally, rather intrinsically, and that there is really nothing anyone can do about it.

I see and read it all the time.

Sure, it's by people who aren't sociologists or doctors or professionals in any way but it's not only a deeply held belief but it's a widespread one, too.

I see it online, written in comments sections, I see it over in the comments on Tony's Kansas City blog, I see it on Facebook. It seems to be a fairly ubiquitous opionion.

And every time some new article or news story comes out about black on black crime, the opinion gets made stronger.

This is only the latest such article:

Two former Auburn players killed, one player injured in shooting

"The Auburn community is mourning after former Auburn football players Ed Christian and Ladarious Phillips were shot and killed during an off-campus party Saturday night. Offensive lineman Eric Mack also was injured in the shooting, but his injuries are not considered life-threatening. A third person, who was not a football player, also died in the shooting."

The people with these opinions point to cities like Detroit, St. Louis, now Chicago and--yes--Kansas City, sadly.

So I think it's important that someone, somewhere do some in-depth research on this topic so we can put this idea and assumption to rest. And the sooner, the better.

Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/two-former-auburn-players-killed-one-player-injured-211745842--ncaaf.html

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/11/12166475-chicagos-bloody-weekend-8-dead-40-plus-wounded?lite?ocid=twitter

Hate from within the Catholic Church

The following was written by a member, apparently in good standing, of the Catholic Church and then posted online on their Kansas City Conservative Examiner.


First, a formal announcement:

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, commonly known as "The Redemptorist Church", on Broadway in "mid-town" is presenting the Faure Requiem on Sunday, February 27th at 2:00 PM as a fundraiser for a new pipe organ. The musical event features the Heartland Men's Chorus.


Admission is free but a free will offering is suggested.


The Heartland Men's Chorus (HMC) was formed in 1986 in Kansas City. It describes itself as,

Heartland Men’s Chorus is the largest and highest profile gay organization in the Kansas City region. As such, we are much more than performers: we are one of the most powerful agents of change in the area as each and every performance allows HMC the chance to display a positive face of the gay community.

The Redemptorist church is a Catholic parish under the care of the Redemptorist priests and brothers. The church's website lists eight priests and 2 brothers as clergy of record. This is amazing considering that this urban parish is dwindling in parishioners while suburban parishes with massive populations of "cradle Catholics" and burgeoning graduates of RCIA are trying to get by with one or two priests and a handful of lay pastoral associates. 
The Redemptorists are an order of priests, rather than diocesan priests, who take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience not unlike Catholic nuns.


Redemptorists, also known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, were founded in 1732 near Amalfi, Italy as a society of missionary priests to serve the neglected country peoples of Naples.
The training for Redemptorists today includes a deep grounding in philosophy, moral theology, natural philosophy, canon law, and so on.


The Heartland Men's Chorus describes its purpose as, 

The members of HMC have joined together for the purpose of making music as a not-for-profit, volunteer chorus of gay and gay-sensitive people who are making a positive cultural contribution to the entire community.

We are a member of GALA Choruses, the international association of the lesbian and gay choral movement.

The announcement is followed by this hate ranting:

It seems a stretch to find the nexus between a choral group whose mission is to showcase not just beautiful music but more importantly their alternate homosexual lifestyle and Catholic teaching on Divine and natural law. Maybe it is that the HMC is also a missionary society, one that takes its message of cultural change to any venue of convenience, no matter what the alleged good result promoted. 


Free will offering or free love? Music is a common denominator of harmony. Surely there will be many who will argue some tenet of social justice supporting this blatant promotion of homosexuality by the local Catholic community: compassion, human dignity, fair treatment.


The fine fathers at Redemptorist might consider that the faithful continue to chafe at the mere suggestion of the pedophile scandal that has plagued the Church for decades; a betrayal of the greatest order done by adult men and their diocesan enablers who ostensibly consecrated their lives to Christ and his Church but nonetheless continued to molest predominantly male children.


With revelations of the behaviors found in modern day seminaries found in sources such as "Goodbye, Good Men", the Catholic Church may want to consider what message it is sending to the public by turning to the gay community, especially a group with an open agenda of proselytizing their message of first tolerance, then acceptance, finally conversion. 


What will we see next from the fine fathers at Redemptorist? Gay wedding services?


Heck, Obama will not defend DOMA, why would we expect that one of Obama's largest constituent groups, Catholics, not follow suit?


A gay group fundraising for a new organ. There must be a joke in there somewhere.

By Stephanie Williams

• Kansas City Conservative Examiner

Stephanie Williams lives in metro Kansas City with her husband and three Siamese cats. She earned a B.A. and M.A. and takes her socio-political commentary quite seriously. Steph is a fully recovered 60s liberal and like so many others from that heritage sees conservatism as the only sane answer in a society turned on its head by progressives, "social justice" agendas, and Chicago thugs. You can reach her at momusings@sbcglobal.net

______________________________

Nice, huh?  Hate, straight out of the Catholic Church.  And on a local level, too.

Thanks, guys!

I swear, I can't figure why any gay person would be either Republican or Catholic or Mormon or, God forbid, Southern Baptist, at the far end of the spectrum, since they all clearly have no use, if not out-and-out hate for, gays and homosexuals.  

Forget that same-sex attraction transcends both nature and time, throughout millenia---just keep putting out the hate.  What you don't know and/or understand, hate.

I don't believe Ms. Williams is aware of the "judge not, lest ye be judged" thing, out of that pesky Bible, let alone Jesus' admonition to "love one another."

Gotta' love those religions and "religious" people, eh?

Spreading God's love.  Yeah, definitely.

Link to original source:  http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-kansas-city/kc-catholic-church-turns-to-gay-community-for-new-organ

Things I'm tired of

Yesterday, I was listening to KCPT and NPR as usual and, as usual--at least of late--they were speaking of the oil mess in the Gulf and I got to thinking, "Man, I'm tired of this."

And that got me thinking.

It got me thinking of all the things I'm tired of and tired of hearing about.

In spite of what anyone might think or say--you know who you are--this is not a negative entry/post. It's not. This is just a list of things that, yes, I'm tired of but that, if they weren't in the world, it would be a better place.

Herewith:

Oil
British Petroleum
Gulf Oil Spill
Israel
The Middle East
The Middle East War
Iraq
Afghanistan
Soldier Casualties
"Earmarks"
Politician's hypocrisies
Terrorists
Terrorism
Murder/homicides
Religious intolerance
Bigotry
Discrimination
Famine
Pollution
Religious Fundamentalism
Sunni Muslims
Shiia' Muslims
Hate
Al qaeda
Pakistan
WMD's
Recession
AIDs
Closed-mindedness
Ignorance
SUV's
Urban sprawl
Poverty (we should have solutions for this, that's why I'm tired of it)
Facebook (actually, a friend thought of and added this but I have to agree)

Mind you, I think it's important we hear about these, in some ways, so we can create solutions but, really, they can get so tiresome.

Later today---the positive and good things in life.

Yeehaw!

Let's have a great weekend, y'all.