Today they focused on an American who is missing in London, and it seemed like they were forgetting the 50+ British citizens who perished. Thankfully I can get the BBC, and I saw a whole new side to the terror, with interviews from King’s Cross (the main subway station where the most deaths occurred).
Many have noted the “liberal bias” in the American News media, but it’s most interesting to see the world from the eyes of a foreign national. I wish I’d been forced into learning a foreign language in school like the Europeans, as I basically “stuck” in English speaking countries because of communications problems.
USA public schools suck
Even my son, who had three-years of German classes, cannot even put a coherent German sentence together. When pressed, I discovered that his classes were all-about THEORY, sentence structure, etc., with no focus on actually SPEAKING GERMAN, the whole point.
When I visit Germany, I bring this “pocket electronic translator” doo-dad where you can choose a phrase in English and it “speaks it” in Deutsch. Cool right? When I use it the German’s say "Ist Gut, Ist Gut", and then proceed to reply in German words that I cannot understand. . . .
I had great fun with it. I would type-in phrases like "Can you give me an enema, please?" and play it to German's on the street, all while acting as-if I was asking for directions. . .
I've been saving-up for the “Berlitz Study Abroad” implosion courses where you live in a German home for a few weeks, and allegedly come-out with some sense of how to understand and speak German. Why can’t they teach some “real-world” skills in Colleges today?
Oh, I couldn’t get any valuable language classes for my kids either, like Greek or Latin. Even in College, I could only get them to take a "survey" class, taught by Prof. Steven Cerutti, the author of the bestselling “Cicero: Pro Archia Poeta Oratio” book (Do you like Greek puns?). But is it’s not a bad course, and it is one of the most popular classes on campus, and for very good reason.
Press Freedom Curtailed?
With all of the hoopla about Karl Rowe and the imprisonment of a confidential news source, what’s with all of this “Chicken Little” crap in the press? For God’s sake, we are talking about disclosing their identity of an undercover CIA agent!
Me, I think that disclosing a CIA agent should be punishable by death (many CIA agents are killed after their disclosure), but hey, I also thought that the military should have imprisoned Geraldo Rivera for treason for disclosing U.S. troop locations.
Check out this link, “Geraldo Betrayo”. . . Errr.. . . .
American Dad!
Speaking of Karl Rowe and the C.I.A., I just love the new FOX TV show “American Dad”. It’s is classic comedy, and clearly written by someone with insight far beyond the I.Q. of the target audience.
I’m betting that the writers of “American Dad!” have had teenage kid’s, as some of the wet-your-pants jokes could only have been done by the parents of teens:
“Dad, can you get a little MORE insane?”
Only a real Dad could have written that. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of viewing “American Dad!”, it’s the daily stories of a typical CIA agent who loves in suburbia with his wife, teenaged kids, and a live-in space alien named Roger (who sounds just like “whiney effeminate” Paul Lynde from the Hollywood Squares TV show of the 1970’s).
Really, just click here and listen to Roger talk. It's Paul Lynde parody, no question.
Now, here’s my point. American Dad is targeted at teens, but it’s clearly written by some far more worldly, like a ”real” American Dad who remembers ole Paul Lynde, and his genius for hilarous snitty tirades:
See where I’m going? My generation is dictating “cool” to the teens! YeeHaw! For example, consider the scene in which American Dad! Has Karl Rowe doing a hilarious performance when Stan seeks to be elected Deacon of his “Episcopalian” church (get it? Understand why “Episcopalian” is funny? My kid’s don’t. . . )
Neither of my kids read much news (I try though, and mail then weekly copies of Newsweek, which they seldom read), and they had no idea who Karl Rowe is, nor why the scene was funny. . .
Whenever my own “worldly adults” (ages 19 and 20) diss me, I remind myself that the “cool” TV shows (and music) are written by folks my-age. . .
