Prolonging The Fast

[poliphilo]

 When I'm on holiday I stay away from the Internet. We had wifi at the rental and Ailz and Ruth had taken laptops with them, but the most I did was look over their shoulders once or twice.  It was so pleasant to be away from the English newspapers that I've prolonged my fast and in more than a week now I haven't even glanced at any of their websites- except on those occasions when Ailz calls me to her computer to show me something particularly funny, gross or annoying in the Mail.

(She's doing it now. Apparently Bruce Willis has a daughter called Rumor who looks just like his current wife and Helen Mirren's first night frock got soaked from walking along a red carpet that had been out in the rain.)

I get my news from the TV. I hate how stupid it is- but the basic info is there- and I can do my own editorialising. I'm taking things steady- a day at a time- but I think I may have cured myself of my addiction to political trivia.

(Here's Ailz again: Kanye West has had his bottom teeth replaced with diamonds and Cybil Shepherd is 62).

Comments

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[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I think I may have cured myself of my addiction to political trivia.

Good for you!

I stopped watching television altogether in November of '08. A few months ago, I realized that it did me little good, though, if I continued to soak up political and national news second-hand, through online commentary, so I gave up all of those, too.

I am much better for the change. I do not get depressed or angry so easily, these days, and find that when something political does intrude on my peace of mind, I am much more clear about it. Without knowing what the accepted narrative might be and how I, the media savvy reader should react to it, I seem to see politics for what it is: stupid, for the most part. This country may be going to Hell in a handbasket, but it won't be taking me with it.

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We had a defence review yesterday. We'll be buying a couple of aircraft carriers- for the single reason that it would cost us more to weasel out of the contract than it would to proceed- only we won't we able to afford the aircraft to go with them.

You couldn't make this stuff up.

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[ooxc.livejournal.com]

Yes, it will, after all, be the Tories who give us unilateral disarmament

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I think this is an historic moment- the moment when we finally own up to being a second or even third class military power.

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[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

And why not? I once had dinner with Her Majesty's former ambassador to Angola. She said that we had to "continue to punch above our weight". I said "why?". She couldn't answer.

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've been saying for as long as I can remember that it was time we stopped trying to be a great imperial power.

It's not as if "punching above our weight" does us any good- it just gets us embroiled in immoral and unwinnable wars.

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[michaleen.livejournal.com]

Small wonder Thatcher is still in hospital...

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[michaleen.livejournal.com]

No, you couldn't make this stuff up.

At least the UK had a soft landing. The final days of US empire are already violent enough and, looking at the shameless denial of Republican Teabaggery, I suspect there are plenty of opportunities down the road for full-on self-immolation.

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[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

Amen to every word.

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The USA is a very uneasy union- held together by flag worship. It wouldn't surprise me if it didn't break down into its constituent parts. I wonder which State or group of States will be the first to declare independence

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[michaleen.livejournal.com]

I wonder which State or group of States will be the first to declare independence.

South Carolina? There is certainly precedent for it and even in these latter days they still tend to be crazier than shit-house rats. One of their Congress Critters screamed out, "You lie!", during Obama's first state-of-the-Union address before the joint chambers.

There has been an Alaskan independence movement for years -- Todd and Sarah Palin were, and perhaps are, involved -- but it has gone nowhere. The Republic of California has been booted about, but since the state is ungovernable now, it is absurd to imagine that independence might change that.

The problem with any such scenario is that those regions in which an independence movement might gain the most support -- the Carolinas and the Deep South, where Republican racism and teabaggery are strongest -- are also the most dependent on Federal tax dollars for their continued survival.

So, within the territorial US, it is all sound and fury, signifying nothing. The big threat to us -- and the world -- are Republican teabaggers gaining unchecked control of the armed forces, again.

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Again?

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[ooxc.livejournal.com]

I had no TV from 1994 until 2004, and I can't say that I missed it - even now, I don't rely on it for political or national "news", except by watching direct "cover" of Parliament and Assembly (and I'm only too aware that even that can be slanted)
I do rely quite a lot on comments from my on line acquaintances - and then pursuing the matter to written reports to make up my own mind

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[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

One needs to know what's going on (at least I suppose one does) but one doesn't need to wallow in it.

I went without TV for a while (in the late 80s) and I can't say I missed it. I used to go to a friend's house to watch Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes.