Podcast 259

Road Trip Pt 1. From southern Minnesota to Iowa, over to Indianapolis in one night, on the first leg of the East Coast Road Trip, Pt 1. A stop at the largest truck stop (anywhere?), along I-80 in Iowa. Or somewhere. How do you get from Minneapolis and Saint Paul to Virginia? Do you go 94 to 39 to 74 to 65 to 64? Do you go across the Indiana, Ohio and Penna Turnpikes? Do you go the southern route? A tortured path to Virginia, avoiding snow squalls and winter warnings all the way. Anything for Thanksgiving with the family, right? Especially when you’re cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Hauling ass! Along the way, breaking news coverage of the two big stories; No indictment from the Grand Jury in Ferguson, Missouri … and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is resigning … some say due to pressure from the White House. (Editors note: Somehow I find myself out of synch with the two big stories of the week; Ferguson and Bill Cosby.) More and more it seems the media has a symbiotic relationship with victims, protesters or the otherwise aggrieved. They seem to feed on each other, whether there is a story there, or not. Meanwhile, the media continues to ill serve the American people. Forget ‘objective’, as in ‘both ‘ sides of a story. We’re talking about just getting the facts out. They just can’t seem to do it. Witness the actual live reporting as we drive across the Midwestern US, via scratchy AM radio. “Yes, I hear pops. I can’t say its gunfire, but…”. Really? All you need is a Guy Fawkes mask and a hoodie these days, and you’re a bonafide protester. Now. What to protest. Hey, my neighbor says he was raped by Bill Cosby! Is that good enough? Procedure? Evidence? Well reasoned arguments for and again? Forget it. The road beckons, and it is a good thing. Only thing to think about is avoiding black ice, and keeping your speed up. Sponsored by X Government Cars

Podcast 215

Back In The Studio. After almost ten days on the road, back in the home studio for this podcast. And what a news weekend it was. The US sends ‘troops’ to Africa to provide logistics support and training in the effort to combat the spread of Ebola. Meanwhile, a movie executive says ‘apocalyptic tentpole movies’ are boring audiences. When you consider people getting their heads chopped off, and a raging epidemic of the world’s most deadly disease, maybe some people actually think we are living in a future-post-apocalyptic-dystopia. What does the media report, and what are the real facts on-the-ground in any of the situations we’re watching in the world today. We have no way of knowing. Do our subconscious minds know the difference between the news, and Game Of Thrones, Walking Dead, or any other end-of-the-world themed venue? More and more the commentariat really is an echo chamber, where pundits and presenters are talking to each other. This was one of the primary reasons for the ‘News Cleanse’, and the ‘Road Trip’. It doesn’t appear that these events – as horrible as they are – have negatively effected the people in the many states I drove through last week. I hate to say it, but life looks like it is pretty good for some pretty normal looking people, despite The Pope saying we’re in a sort of ‘low-grade’ world war three. Are we? What do really know about anything going on these days. The pollsters told us Scotland would break off from the UK. Scotland voted No. Do we make our own luck, or live in fear? Also some quick views on what passes for local TV Broadcast news, how the most quiet Atlantic Hurricane season since the early 90’s has effected cable television news, and the latest scare in the virus world (besides Ebola) EV-D68, now ‘flooding’, ‘mobbing’ and ‘crowding’ ER’s in New York State, where there have been dozens, dozens mind you, of this respiratory virus which is also known as a bad summer cold. It never ends. But…that’s what makes my job fun. Sponsored by Baklund R&D