(no subject)

[which_chick]

Today I realized that the Sean Hannity music (where it says "From coast to coast, Sean Hannity is on") is O Fortuna (from Carmina Burana, by Orff). I was not, mind you, listening to Sean Hannity on purpose. (I wouldn't do that, at least not with out serious ironic intent. The man's an asshat. Conservative talk radio, it is full of asshattery.) Given my druthers, we would listen to the local country station which has (a) country music (b) the weather and (c) a half-hour call-in show every weekday where people call in to sell shit. However, others at work prefer the talk radio and so there was talk radio today.

And then I got to thinking. Is there a liberal talk radio? I mean we know there's conservative talk radio. There's Sean Hannity and there's Neal and there's Rush and there's G. Gordon. Conservative talk radio, right? So what do the liberals listen to? (I asked this of brother-the-elder, who totally stole my punchline when he said NPR.)



In other news, cousin Heather visited my house today, where Youbee (not socialized for strangers and especially not for toddlers) freaked out and leapt from the top of the TV to the bed to the dresser to the open window (screen kept cat from falling out and it's a first floor window anyway) and back again. Tess laughed her ass off, which scared the shit out of my cat even more. (Youbee, who felt somewhat put upon, eventually fled under the house but did come back out about an hour or so after the cousin and her delighted toddler left, so no harm done.)

Heather said my decorative skills were mad leet and that the only thing my house need to look proper was a bong. I'm pretty sure that this was not a compliment but I can't argue that it's a fairly realistic assessment of my housekeeping skills. (I am many things, but a housekeeper is not one of them.) Maybe I should straighten up a bit... or buy a bong.

Finally, because you waded through all that other crap, I was trolling the craigslist ads this evening. I read the personals, you see, because I find them fascinating. Some of them are lonely, exemplars of our isolation as human beings in these modern times (the number of "is this thing even on?" postings is higher than I think it should be). There's a recurring theme of "Please be real" because apparently a lot of the replies people get are from those other, y'know, fake people. A lot of the m4w personal ads include pictures of genitalia, which I don't really get. Maybe guys think it helps their case. Anyhow, this evening, I read an ad that was particularly worthy of mention... http://westmd.craigslist.org/cas/818381096.html Now, I certainly hope they are not serious, but assuming that they are, I, for one, would love to see video of the intervention. (They had me at the phrase "Vagina is mandatory." and the writing throughout the ad was a fucking delight to read.) Excelsior, boys. Best of luck with that.

Comments

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

"Air America" was an attempt at the liberal analogue of Rush et al. AFAICT it failed immediately and vanished from the scene. I think they made the mistake of trying to be funny and smart instead of just riling people up by saying "all those people on the other side are scum and should be killed".

Liberals do listen to NPR; it has a pretty good chance of being smart and funny (so presumably people who want that already had something to listen to). But (what with being publicly funded and all) its politics are kept quiet and middle-of-the-road.

[electroweak.livejournal.com]

Google informs me that Air America still exists, both on standard broadcast and satellite radio.

[en-ki.livejournal.com]

Hm, so it does. I merely assumed that they were gone when they filed for Chapter 11 and left my market and never came back.

[cousinsue.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my spouse says the same thing.

He's apparently not listening when they do their coverage on The Right, because I hear it. Just not as foaming at the mouth as Rush.

[ladyivy.livejournal.com]

That ad was just too funny. "Irrational fear". It has to be for fun, because really, A) what guy would admit a fear like that to his friends, and B) what person would think that was the way to help a friend overcome said fears?

But it gave me a wonderful laugh to start the day.

[moeckie.livejournal.com]

Dear David used to listen to Rush and those asshats - then his brain switched on shortly after he met me and my liberal ass ways. He now listens to Ed Schultz and Randie someone (female, hence the "ie") on XM (he drives a truck and thus has much time to listen to this stuff). They are/were AirAmerica shows. If I remember correctly what he recently told me, they started their own station after being "fired" from AirAmerica for doing something either too liberal or not liberal enough. But yes, they are just as rabid at times. I believe David's brain switched on the day he was complaining about the "name-calling liberal media" and I pointed out he and the asshats were doing the exact same thing. Thus began the transformation...

[cousinsue.livejournal.com]

My issue is with the rabidity.

I don't like either side (as in I do not have a preference), and have seen both sides become rabidly against moderates. Which just struck me as really stupid.

[sector-r.livejournal.com]

It's gotten to the point where I'm fed up with the extremist language of both sides. Political discourse these days is all Us vs. Them: nobody is saying "Let's figure out where we want to be and solve the problems that keep us from getting there," at least within my range of hearing. The wannabe demagogues on talk radio are doing nothing productive for this country, whatever justifications they offer for their activities.

As far as I can tell, all it takes for the Conservatives to demonize someone or something as 'Liberal' (the Commie, Mutant, Traitor part is assumed) is for whatever it is to be less than 100% in lockstep with whatever the Right/Conservatives are currently thinking/feeling.

NPR strikes me as being moderate overall: it isn't 'Liberal' except in the sense that it isn't 100% 'Conservative' which I guess is the litmus test of political suitability these days.

Back when there wasn't a Republican administration for them to kick around, NPR's news organs were quite content to repeatedly ask their prying, sensationalistic-by-implication questions about the competency & intentions of the government under the Democrats.

The poor, little Conservatives think that they're being picked on by the big, mean (Liberal) media? Well duh, they've been in power for years now: this is America where the media pays attention to those in power to keep them acting for the good (not bad) of the people (and not for themselves).

Don't want media scrutiny? Give up the halls of power and live a quiet, non-public life supporting your family.

It's the job of the media to be asshats, not the job of the politicians.

[carv1982.livejournal.com]

There has been liberal talk radio, but it tends to fail miserably. See en_ki's post about Air America. I think he's also spot on about why they fail. They seemed like such pretentious snobs. It's unbearable.

I think he's also right about NPR. I think a lot of liberals listen to that. I even listen, and I'm a conservative. I'd call NPR more moderate.

If you want a real laugh, look up Michael Savage. The guy is actually pretty brilliant, but his commentaries are psychotic. He's the most rabid of them all. It's part of his shtick.

[ksleet.livejournal.com]

The difference between conservative and liberal talk radio, based on my experience, is that the conservatives are having a good time while the liberals are angry at everything. This applies to the blogs, too.

(I don't quite think this is a "party out of power" issue either. Rush Limbaugh was probably enjoying himself more when Clinton was president.)

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

I'll freely admit to listening to Glen Beck. Most of his show isn't really about politics on a national-type scene, but is instead about interesting news stories and the like. And I think he's pretty hilarious, so it makes it a lot easier to stomach.

Rush and Sean make me want to poke myself in the eardrums with an ice pick. How can you talk about one point on one subject for three straight hours?