As IF Times

link The Clicker – How does Oprahs farewell compare to other TV greats?.

Please, please, enough already.  The long kiss goodbye is nauseating.  It’s not as if Oprah is hanging them up never to be seen again.  She’ s moving on to her very own TV network.  The whole bandwagon is just moving down the block.  With all the sobbing and crying, you’d think Kleenex is a sponsor of the show.

For reasons mysterious to me, Oprah was able to establish herself as the indisputable icon of daytime TV.  As one writer coined it, she brought weepy emotionalism to the mainstream, in particular hooking white, middle aged women into her shtick  of empathy TV.  Her struggles with her own weight alone was enough to draw in a sympathetic audience.  By virtue of her hold on this female demographic, she wound up influencing the other big demographic, the women’s husbands.  Because of this derivative leverage, Oprah’s influence on America was undeniably immense.  In American homes every night, husbands were exposed to “Oprah said this about …” whatever the issue was.

In some ways, Oprah became Mr. Rogers for adults.  Years ago, Mr. Rogers hosted a relatively banal children’s show which had at its core, one consistent theme.  That was, you are special and no one is like you.  That was the underlying appeal of the show, children were subtly coerced to have a high sense of self worth.  Certainly a good message for impressionable children.  Oprah carried this idea to the next level.  Her theme was consistently, I’m OK, you’re OK as well as the notion of recovery from emotional pain.  Who knew that so many people could identify with personal redemption?  Emotional navel gazing became a national obsession.  But it also meant that every fringe personality or lifestyle received validation and blessing from her as well.  Any book authored with compelling personal stories became instant best sellers.   Unfortunately, this gave rise to charlatans and con men who tried to tap into this commercial lotto ticket by being featured on her show.  James Frey and Margaret B. Jones are examples of authors who fabricated heart wrenching stories to be featured on Oprah.

While embarrassing, these missteps didn’t matter to the loyal fans who are generally pre-disposed to tear jerkers.  It’s a certainty she would have been acclaimed as President if she ran, but instead she anointed another.  No one can deny the influence of Oprah on the election of Obama.  But enough is enough. After 25 years of emotional blood letting, it’s time to move on as did the kids who grew up with Mr. Rogers.  You can’t cry all the time.

link Its not the end of the world when doomsday prophets get it wrong | World news | The Guardian.

There was no point in putting in the effort to comment about this until the fateful moment had passed.  So whew, here we are. Preacher Harold Camping was wrong.  Again. Good news for us.  Bad news for those who stopped bathing, brushing their teeth and who recently took out big loans.   It’s easy to dismiss this recent call for the apocalypse as just another quack job by some fringe nuts.  Until you read about how much money had been spent spreading the fear and the amount of people involved in the doomsday publicity.  From some accounts, over a hundred million dollars was spent to publicize the end of the world, not to mention the untold numbers of followers, new and old.

To most rational people, the level of interest in the campaign must have been a mystery.  Really?  One person was endowed  with the ability to foresee the future, or at least the end of the present?  As preposterous as this seems, how is it any different than any other religion?  Notwithstanding Stephen Hawking’s ruminations, whether  there’s a heaven or a hell may be up for debate, but it may be prudent to hedge your bets.  In the case of some faiths which promise a fixed number of virgins upon death, that claim may be iffier.  Certainly it would be discouraging for the women of that faith.

Still, even more preposterous is the idea that killing certain groups of people in real life will ingratiate you to the supreme poo bah in the next.  But in matters of faith, it’s hard to belittle anything that may give people structure and comfort.  Faith happens to be one of the good traits of human nature.

On the other hand, it’s hard to explain willful stupidity.  In matters of faith, proof is elusive.  In matters of ideology, the evidence is easier to discern.  At the moment, the ideological battle going on for the hearts and minds of the  U.S. voter being waged in the media  has never been more laughable.  Infinitely more stupid than the Rapture claims are the utterances from some media personalities who mysteriously still have jobs.  One of the more recent doozies is from Bill Maher, whose tenuous grip on sanity is slim indeed.  According to Maher, the GOP want a “misogynist, racist and homophobic presidential candidate”.   Hmm.  According to Democratic ads in support of the despised Obamacare program, Republicans want to dump grandma off her wheelchair over a cliff.  And how can we forget the articulate Alan Grayson who stated that the Republican solution to the health crisis is for people to die.  MSNBC talking head Dylan Ratigan says that Republican rhetoric is “based on abandonment of arithmetic and fact”.   According to an AFL-CIO union stooge named Damon Silvers, “republicans literally deny clothing to foster kids to give rich people tax cuts”.  We’re on watch now to see which GOP candidate will be accused of eating babies and small dogs. These are only some of the well known  loons that cater to the contingent of idiots who believe their pearls of wisdom…despite all evidence to the contrary.

Like the Rapture preacher, people are free to say whatever they want in a free society.  And like the Rapture congregation, people can believe what or whom they like when it comes to the media.  However, the sheer scale of naivete at best or stupidity at worst is frightening.  Even more frightening, they all get to vote.  Oy.