Rambling with Words

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Thursday, March 18, 1999

Items heard on the radio today:

    A rainmaker in Kenya was killed . . . by a lightning bolt. It must be an occupational hazard.

    A suspect in a robbery escaped today from an interrogation room at the Tucson Police Department, while wearing handcuffs. They had left him alone for a while and when they checked on him, he was gone. They still haven't found him. They are saying that a back door must have been left unlocked.

I prefer listening to talk and news shows on the radio while I'm at work. Because of this, people in the adjacent cubicles often hear me giggling. I am constantly amused by real life. Any good police blotter would not only bring anyone to tears but to hysterical laughter. I don't understand why people crave conspiracies when real life is so unbelievable.

I'll check out Rush Limbaugh, preferably when his show starts as that is when he usually does a monologue. That alone is enough to make me laugh or groan. Not that I disagree, or agree, with everything he says, but he does put a different slant on life than you hear on mainline news. He really isn't the hate monger that many people say he is but a shrewd observer of life.

I'll listen to Laura Schlesinger sometimes, but I can usually only stand her for a few minutes. While she does bring out the fact that most people do need to take responsibility for what they do and take responsibility for taking care of their children, she does get a bit hateful about it.

I love the National Public Radio shows such as Fresh Air. You get from them a bit more indepth view into stories that are often just skimmed on the network news shows, or ignored entirely. Have you noticed that you can just flip dials and pick up on a NPR radio host just by the way they talk, sort of Garrison Keillorish. I also enjoy how they spotlight various artists and musicians that you don't normally hear about, especially in Tucson.

There are some local talk shows that I also listen to. I enjoy listening to Paul Harvey and "the rest of the story". When I don't have a talk show to listen to or don't care for the topic, I'll listen to music but I've never cared for having music on in the background all the time. Often I'll just turn off the radio when there aren't any talk or news shows to listen to.

Why do so many people refuse to listen to points of view that they disagree with? How do you know that you really believe what you think you do if you are unwilling to listen to opposing points of view? The conservatives I know are always ranting and raving that the "mainline media" (all newspapers and TV and radio) are run by the liberals, but the liberals I know are always ranting and raving that the "mainline media" are run by the conservatives. Uh huh!

Another question, why do conservatives tend to dominate radio talk shows and liberals tend to dominate television talk shows?

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©Rachel Aschmann 1999.
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