Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
“All the news that’s fit to print” has been replaced with “all the news we want you to know.” I didn’t realize that news in America is on a need-to-know basis. The media decides what we need to know and who we need to hear it from.
That’s thoughtful. Screening the information I’m given avoids confusing me with troubling thoughts and all that messy thinking for myself. Makes pulling the level for “D” much easier. Reminds me of my youthful Catholic catechism. The nuns flat-out said “Don’t read the Bible: the Pope already read it. We’ll tell you what you need to know.”
Today, network anchors act as if they’re the Pope, telling me only what I need to know.
Works for me.
Joe Doakes
I suppose that makes Lori Sturdevant “doctrinally infallible”…
…but then, other than a brief stretch when the Jamestown district rented a couple rooms at the local Catholic school when our school was being torn down, I’ve never really had any Catholic education.
Media catechism, on the other hand…
For example, ABC and CBS have gone two years without having a global warming critic on the air. If you got your news from them, it would be easy to conclude that AGW is settled science, not one single person disagrees.
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You’re lucky, Joe! I was raised Catholic, but I was a heathen that attended publik screwals, so I had to go to catechism. When we had nuns as teachers, as well as some of the lay teachers, we were knee deep in bible studies!
Remember the meme that the Obama administration is deporting more illegals than any other administration? Turns out that they are counting illegals caught at the border. These illegals caught at the border were not counted as deportations previously.
When a Democrat speaks your BS meter should peg, if it doesn’t it’s time to recalibrate.
Priests of the Temples of Syrinx would be more appropriate…
In Mark Helprin’s book, “Winter’s Tale”, a newspaper editor (Praeger De Pinto) presses the mysterious builder/architect, Jackson Mead, to reveal his plans, based on the public’s “right to know.” After Mead questions that right:
It pertains to them, Mr. Mead. They don’t always see everything – which is no reason to fault them, since they have to get on with their lives. Sometimes ships pass down the Hudson at night, big oceangoing ships, and no one, literally no one, sees them. I’m the watchman, here to make sure that the people know what is on their horizon, what ships pass down the river at dawn or, in your case, come upriver in the evening.”
“Mr. De Pinto, the dog who protects the sheep quickly learns how to direct them, and it becomes a habit. The people have been trained by their watchmen to jump, and to trample what the watchmen want trampled.
“I have found, in many cities and in some places that were not yet cities, that those who would guard the people are their governors. The government admits that it is a government. The press pretends that it is not. But what a pretense! You orchestrate entire populations. They get all worked up, like children, running here and running there. It is certainly no coincidence that advertisers use your pages to influence the public. What do you think your editorials, your selection and emphasis, your criticisms, even your use of quotations do? And who elected you? No one. You are self-appointed, you speak for no one, and therefore you have no right to question me as if you represent the common good. When I’m ready to let the public know my purposes, I will.”
Whether or not one “believes” in Global Warming/Climate Change or “Not”, when the Democrat Dominated Media Culture or any other Lefty notes that their opinion in the consensus opinion and any other opinion is heretical, remind them that at one time the consensus opinion was that the earth was flat and the sun revolved around it. And any person who held a differing opinion of this “settled science” was deemed a ‘heretic’ and killed in some gruesome way like being burned alive.
Now I hope I’m not giving the Soul-less Death-cult the Democrat Party has become any reason to burn people alive. That would cause more Global Warming/Climate Change and Gaia wouldn’t like that.
I’m still in recovery from 14 years of Catholic education; kindergarten through my first year of college. Everything you may have heard about it was true. Back then it was just an equal alternative to public school; nothing fancy or expensive. Couldn’t afford it now days. I did learn to appreciate those plaid skirts, though.
I spent my formative years in a virtual panic because sister said that we had to “love God, and love him even more that we did our parents.” I was rather fond of my parents, and God sounded like a pretty decent Guy, but there was no contest as far as affection went. Consequently, I was assured that I would deservingly spend eternity in flames. Took me a while to sort that out.
I never did understand the Bible disconnect. All my heathen protestant public schooled friends knew the Good Book inside out from Sunday School. I, of the one true religion, was taught nothing of it. Perhaps it was as Mr. Doaks said …
For what can be imagined more beautiful than the sight of a perfectly just city, rejoicing in justice alone?
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We had one old nun, Sister Mary Margaret (go figure!) that told us sixth graders that if we ever went into another church or left the Holy Catholic church, we were sinners, making it sound like we would turn to stone. The first time that I went into a Lutheran church, I edged my toe in first to see what would happen. Thankfully, Monsignor O’Sullivan, who probably came to Minnesota with the first missionaries, told me that I had nothing to fear, because even though other religions worshipped differently, we all worship the same God. I was able to kick a football barefooted though, My friends called me granite toe! 😉
Amen, Nate! (btw, don’t waste any money on seeing the movie “version” of Winter’s Tale).
Another Helprin quote, this one from A Soldier of the Great War
I love Helprin, and “Winter’s Tale” is my all-time favorite. I read “A Soldier of the Great War” while in Italy in 2012. He writes with eloquence, artistry and power and takes on great themes; he should be part of any Conservative’s library.
That said, there’s something else I heard just recently that speaks to the point PM just made: “If you only believe the parts of the Gospel that are reasonable to you, then reason is your gospel.”
Slight modification to the last quote I tried to pull, intact, from my memory. It’s actually from St. Augustine, and is as follows:
“If you will only do the part of the gospel that is reasonable to you, then Reason is your gospel.”
Night Writer, I think that this thread is helping me to understand why the new Cosmos series makes me a little queasy. I should love it. I am not a scientist (scientists do research), but I am in the science business.
What bothers me about the worship of science is that science is not Truth. It is not the absolute, Science is a human activity like any other. If physics is God (the source of Truth), then what about those who can’t do high school math? The mark of a Religion, as opposed to a cult, is that it accessible to everyone. The simple peasant at his prayers apprehends the Truth of God to no greater or lesser an extent than the bishop in his palace.
Science is not like this.
PM, though this thread is wandering far from the original point, I will throw this in, also from “Winter’s Tale”:
“…this marvelous graceful thing, this joy of physics, this perfect balance between rebellion and obedience, is God’s own signature on earth.”
Also, as a minister has shown me, the word “mystery” in the world means “knowledge withheld”. The word “mystery” as used in the Bible, means “truth revealed.” Both forms are used in another quote from “A Soldier of the Great War”. I believe you can tell which is which:
“As long as you live and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe. Never give up, never despair, let no mystery confound you into the conclusion that mystery cannot be yours.”