Month: April 2008

It’s always been a policy at Sparrow Chat to answer individual comments, where time allows. With regard to the comments relating to the post below, I would like to take this opportunity, on the main page, to whole-heartedly (no pun intended) thank all of you who have left comments, and those who have emailed, sympathizing with our recent troubles and wishing me well for the future.

I am now fully recovered and feel in the best of health, indeed ten years younger than the old bugger who had begun to puff and blow each time he got out of his chair, less than one week ago. Such crises are a warning, however, and while I lived an active life until 2002, when I moved to America, I have slowly drifted into a more sedentary lifestyle, spending far too much time in front of the computer, and too little outside in the real world.

For me, it’s not easy living in Illinois, with its hot, humid summers and man-eating mosquitoes, quickly followed by the searing cold of mid-western winters. I once kept fit by climbing Welsh mountains and hiking trails, but there are no mountains in Illinois, and the only trails are through miles of cornfields and traveled by farm machinery.

In three years, we will move to either Maine or Upper Michigan, where the winters may be hard but the scenery wonderful, and the summers gentle. Until then, I must do whatever I can to stay fit and healthy.

This means there must be some minor changes at Sparrow Chat. Much as I enjoy commenting on your comments, I have decided that in future I will only do so when the content warrants it. After all, my greatest pleasure is reading them. Similarly, I endeavor to comment on many of the posts you write, even if only to add my own support for a view or observation. In future I will only comment when I feel I have something pertinent to add.

All writers appreciate feedback, and comments help provide that, but one of the best blogs on the internet, in my opinion, receives hardly any comments at all and yet must be read widely. I’m referring, of course, to the excellent “Vineyard Views” of one of my earliest blogging pals, Al DeVito.

Hopefully, by denying myself these simple pleasures I will leave time to keep fit and still write Sparrow Chat fairly regularly. One thing I can promise all my blogging friends out there, I’ll still be reading. So if you don’t hear from me quite so regularly, don’t assume I’m no longer perusing your pages.

Remember, you can’t escape me, I have your site feeds!

Once again, thank you all.

Filed under: Good friends

With the possible exception of the cemetery, almost any place would be a welcome escape if it prevented the viewing – the humiliation – of the United State’s three presidential candidates, as portrayed on a popular wrestling program last Monday evening.^[1]

Presumably, there must be many Americans who find this kind of thing amusing, enlightening, perhaps even an aid to resolution for those last-minute undecideds?

Frankly, to this more-conservative liberal, it sets the seal on how low America has allowed itself to sink, while still screaming from the rooftops of its ‘superlative’ world status.

I was spared all this hype, apart from a brief few moments caught on a recording of last night’s Daily Show, because I was in the hospital. Not wishing to bore with minute detail, but suffice to say I arrived at the ER with chest pains and within twenty-four hours my coronary artery was being fitted with a stent, following diagnosis of a 99% blockage.

It happens to thousands of people every week. There’s nothing unusual about it. Frankly, though, it gave me cause to speculate. You see, I’ve always kept reasonably fit; lived an outdoor lifestyle, never allowed my body an excess of things not good for it. Rarely has alcohol been abused, usually sticking to the occasional glass or two of red wine, even less frequent measure of good Scotch whisky. I don’t smoke. There is no whisper of genetic heart defect within my ancestry. In fact, most doctors would agree I was the most unlikely candidate for coronary artery disease.

I even, meticulously, swallowed a low-dose aspirin daily – just to err on the side of caution.

Consequently, when even the slightest exertion brought on a stinging pain behind the breastbone, I wrestled with it; told myself it could only be due to that one problem from which my body has ever suffered: esophageal acid reflux.

I was fortunate; a caring wife, insisting she drive me to the ER, “NOW!” cheated the Grim Reaper as cardiologists rapidly diagnosed a condition they colloquially refer to as the “Widow-Maker”. I was weeks, possibly only days away from a massive, and likely fatal, heart-attack.

It happens to thousands of people every week. I’ve known friends die from it, so suddenly they’re there one moment, gone the next.

I was fortunate. Had I listened solely to my own irresponsible, “That can’t ever happen to me,” I may not be writing these words now.

The truth is it can happen to anyone, however fit, however healthy their lifestyle, however free of heart disease their family tree.

If in doubt, get checked out. It’s a corny slogan, but it’s a damn sight more corny to die when you don’t have to.

You can do as I did, and Obama, Clinton, and McCain: hang about stupidly wrestling, or you can behave as the good US president would, by making when necessary a firm, positive, and right decision.
^{[1] “A Smackdown Among Presidential Candidates?” YouTube.}

Filed under: On the ropes

It could be suggested that the US media is nothing more than a pig trough, or possibly the heap of dung that surrounds one, but to do so would insult the hogs. Pigs have better manners, and a cleaner aspect than the miry, preening, egocentric, swamp rats that infest the public face of American television news these days.

One can only wonder where these mealy-mouthed, insipid, individuals were educated. Surely not in America’s colleges? After all, the American president attended one of those…..

To even suggest Wednesday night’s fiasco, dis-organized by the ABC network, was a “political debate”, would be enough to send any normal, mature, individual into a paroxysm of hysterical laughter.

Is this the esteem with which the US media holds its audience? We may have felt more intellectually stimulated had they screened two hours of the TeleTubbies.

The media regards it audience as big kids, whose only desire is to sit back and enjoy the back-biting and shallow name calling that kids like to do. And, maybe they’re right. After all, according to ABC:

“……it was the most-watched debate of the 2008 cycle, with 10.7 million people watching. ‘For the 8-10 p.m. time period, this marks ABC’s best total viewing audience since 11/28/07, its largest adult 18-49 rating since 2/27/08, and its best adult 25-54 rating since 1/9/08.'”^[1]

Not to be outdone, a bimbo make-up queen of MSNBC stuck her nose out the swamp and attempted to turn an obviously innocent scratch of Obama’s cheek, while he was addressing a rally in Pennsylvania, into some great ‘finger’ insult to Hillary Clinton.

One can only wonder where this country is headed when supposedly responsible media anchors behave in so sick and immature a manner.

Not by any stretch of the imagination, Miss Vacuous Mind, despite much obvious manipulation and editing of the video in a vain attempt to make an innocuous movement appear suspect.

In truth, it’s not the politicians who have used this campaign as a lesson in just how low it’s possible to sink. The media have done the job with no help from them.

Given that the US media is run by those with a vested interest in keeping ordinary folks from learning of, or even showing interest in, the real matters of political importance in this country, it’s little wonder those before the cameras excel at inanity and a serious lack of professionalism.

No doubt, it’s in their job description.

On a final, more positive note, one journalist who rarely disappoints, and whose professionalism shines out as a beacon in the blackness, held a superbly informative interview this week with Leila Fadel, the Baghdad Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers.

At the tender age of twenty-six, Ms Fadel is as far above the US media’s general standard of journalism, as Heaven is above the Earth. If you want to know the true situation in Iraq, rather than the distorted, blatant propaganda generally aired, be sure to watch Bill Moyer’s Journal.^[2]

Leila Fadel also has a blog called simply, “Baghdad”, and her staff in Iraq write the blog, “Inside Iraq”. Links to both can be found in the “Blog Nest” of Sparrow Chat’s sidebar.

Of course, you could always watch the Fox News Channel, but only if truth is secondary to biased sensationalism in your sad and wasted life.

^{[1] “How Much Did You Loathe ABC’s Debate Coverage?” San Francisco Chronicle, April 18th, 2008.}

^{[2] “Leila Fadel Interview”, Bill Moyer’s Journal, April 18th, 2008}

Filed under: Media manure