The Good Life

So, I've been living the good life lately. That is why I have not blogged for a while. I am putting in sixty hours of work last week, and this week. Perhaps this is but a little taste of Wendy's life. No end in sight, though. Once I finish this Art On a Grand Scale project I have a wedding to finish and several segments of momumo to edit. This is all good, but exhausting.

This brings me to my quote of the week.

The quality of life depends upon the choices we make, moment by moment, to do exactly what we sense is right...I would like to call [this] a life of goodness (p.319, Bonds That Make Us Free).

Listen to your heart. It will tell you what you really want to do. Do it. It will lead you to a Life of Goodness which, so I hear, really is the Good Life.

Self Worth

During sacrament meeting last Sunday I pondered what has worth? I spend my life worrying about my time, now forced to devote it to ARUP. Or how I need more money. How am I going to make ends meet? I also want to buy more and more cool gadgets. I love gadgets. They make me feel more masculine or something. I don’t know, but I have rooms full of them.

Is any of this of worth? Do my possessions add to my worth? Does making more money than you add to my worth? No. It is of no importance. It is all illusory fluff that distracts me from the one and only thing that has any importance whatsoever: myself. What matters is how I perform my job, earn my money, and grow personally. “There's nothing of any importance in life - except how well you do your work. Nothing. Only that. Whatever else you are will come from that. It is the only measure of human value” (p.99, Atlas Shrugged).

It suddenly appeared odd to me how desperately I cling to all those other modes of worth. I cling to my physical possessions. I cling to my habits. Charles Du Bos advises “to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.”

Am I too caught up in my accumulated ‘worth’ to now see the way to what I can become? I think that is worth thinking about. What do you think?

Proud to be an American

I sat down this morning with a bowl of Fruity Cheerios and the Saturday paper and was greeted by the following stories:

Man killed in Wal-Mart stampede
"A Wal-Mart worker was killed Friday when "out-of-control" shoppers desperate for bargains broke down the doors...other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man...at least four other people were taken to the hospital including a woman who was eight months pregnant."

When the police tried to make the people leave after the man's death and as the ambulances were showing up, "people were yelling, 'I've been on line since yesterday morning.' 'They kept shopping.'"

2 men shot to death in California toy store
"' I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toy's "R" Us?'"

As I finished my Fruity Cheerios and drank down the leftover sugary, purple colored milk, I asked myself, "Is this my America? Are we proud of ourselves?"

Obama and the Media

In May I did a quick study of political coverage in all the main news sources I follow. I had a hunch. Everything I read or heard seemed to be about Obama or Clinton. Clinton has since dropped out.

Some of the sources I tallied, for an idea, were BBC World News, CNN Politics, KSL, MSNBC, NPR, Washington Post, Yahoo, etc.

What I found was that since March 2007, Obama had cornered 30 percent of all political stories. John McCain had only 22 percent. That may not seem like much, but the difference over one year is quite large. It equates to more than 1000 stories about Obama than McCain. Counting Hillary, the Democratic party received 61 percent of the news. The Republicans, less than 39 percent.

Glenn Beck stated for CNN today, "According to the Tyndall Report, a service that monitors the three network news broadcasts, ABC, NBC, and CBS have spent a total of 114 of their national airtime minutes covering Obama since June. They've spent 48 minutes on his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain." So Obama is getting over double the airtime.

Who is the media's baby?

I find it odd, though, that the media has so happily fawned around Obama, the same media that attacks big business and complains frequently about an interfering federal government. The irony being that Obama is funded solely by big business and promises to give the federal government more control of our daily lives.

"He's [Obama] been on the cover of U.S. News and World Report, GQ, Rolling Stone, US Weekly (twice), Time and Newsweek (a combined 12 times) and will soon be on the cover of Men's Vogue for the second time. To be fair, Men's Vogue also did an in-depth story on John McCain but, strangely, a photo of McCain didn't make their cover.

"Why the disparity? According to Men's Vogue deputy editor Ned Martel, there's a simple explanation: Obama 'is what is called in the magazine world an "interest driver." ' Translation: Obama sells magazines."

Of course. It all comes down to ratings and money. The media, in general, doesn't care about Obama. He is simply their new cash cow and they are milking him for all he's worth. What bothers me is that by doing so, they are avoiding many other important issues. I know very little about McCain because what little I find in the media is a cowering shadow of the many news stories on Obama. I know when and how Obama exercises, I know his favorite drinks; all thanks to the in depth media coverage. But with McCain, I barely even know his entire platform. To find it, I have to actively search for it.

"We've become a country that continually chooses the sizzle over the steak. McCain may not get my vote, but he gets my admiration for at least offering some substance and new ideas when he speaks. Obama, meanwhile, is like the rock star who's realized that he can just scream unintelligible words into the microphone between songs, and the entire stadium will still scream. When your fans already love you, there's no reason to risk it by offering anything that might be controversial. Remember the Dixie Chicks?

"As candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain are ironically a lot like the way the media treats them: Obama is the glitzy magazine cover that screams for people to buy the issue, and McCain is the fact-filled article buried inside that makes you glad you did."

For the full article, see http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/23/beck.obama.media/index.html?eref=rss_mostpopular

And did you know Ralph Nader is running for President? I didn't. I found that he received .3 percent of political news coverage. That is 36 stories in the last year to Obama's 4000. In these same news sources I found Jesus Christ in 222 stories, or 1.7 percent of the political news. So He is getting better coverage, and at this rate, I'd say has a better chance of becoming the next President than Ralph Nader.

Ralph, buddy, you've got to get your message out there better.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=3827127