A weird day yesterday, weather-wise. It was rainy, but not rainy enough to make a difference -- just light spatters and droplets here and there. We haven't had much rain at all in the last few weeks, and the ground is hard and cracked. I've been watering in the garden, but we could stand some decent showers.
I mostly stayed inside and worked on sorting and mounting those stamps I bought several weeks ago. Here's what that process looks like:
As I wrote before, there's a lot of duplication, so not all of those stamps will need to be mounted in my albums -- just one of any that I don't already have. I have no idea what I'll do with all the duplicates. This will teach me not to buy an unsorted package sold by weight!
Anyway, I worked on those much of the morning, and then read a while. The New York Times published a massive three-part series of articles about Tucker Carlson -- too massive, in my opinion, but I plowed through. It left me feeling that Carlson's conservatism is a reaction to his own unstable family life as a child, and that he's basically an opportunist milking Trumpist populism for all it's worth. I think he probably feels he's giving a voice to a segment of the population that has historically been denied one -- but to my way of thinking, it's not his job to vocalize and justify the misguided perceptions and paranoias of his viewers. It's to set them straight with the facts.
I've only ever seen short clips of Carlson's show -- I've never watched it in its entirety, and don't plan to. I have enough aggravation in my life. It concerns me, though, that more and more Americans get their "news" from pundits like Carlson who aren't reporting news at all. They're spinning opinion, which is a different thing altogether. This shift isn't new, but the problem is becoming more and more dire, as we saw on January 6th of last year. Oh, for the days of Walter Cronkite, who for all his flaws at least made objectivity the goal.
Olga and I went to the cemetery in the afternoon, and she had a good walk with some squirrel-barking and tennis-ball-chasing. Those flowers are creeping buttercup, the weed that I pulled out of our own garden on Saturday. They're pretty, but man, they do take over.
Finally, last night, we watched the movie "The Duke," starring one of our celebrity neighbors. It was light and entertaining, and I didn't know much about the episode it depicts -- the theft of a painting of the Duke of Wellington from the UK's National Gallery in 1961. (It was soon returned.) I'm curious to see the painting now. I probably have seen it and just didn't know the story at the time.
30 comments:
What frustrates me is that when Fox News was sued for airing distorted news that was not factual, they won on the basis that they are entertainment not news, and that no reasonable person would believe them to be the news. That is their defense.
AND THEY WON.
Yet there is a whole dangerous segment of population that quotes these people as legitimate news.
This blurring of fact and fiction is very disturbing. Our local paper (Ogden News owned) began printing crazy letters to the editor from these whackos, saying completely provably incorrect information. I challenged the editor. Is that not his job to separate truth from lie? Why were these letters even being printed? He did not feel that this was his job. I stopped the newspaper. What's the point of paying for a paper that is run by a editor who does not feel it his duty to edit?
PS I saw The Duke in the Chester Storyhouse. I thought it was sweet and funny.
Olga is looking good, has she lost a little weight?
That's a LOT of stamps.
Lovely photo of Olga in the yellow!
Yes, we do need some good rain. The water butts are both nearly empty, and the ground so hard. Trying to keep everything watered enough to survive!
I could use some light and entertaining.
Great photo of Olga and ball amid the buttercups.
I don’t tend to miss the good old days, but I DO miss the days when TV news was more likely to be news and less likely to be opinion. A pox on Fox.
Do you sort the stamps into piles for different countries?
I've never heard of Carlson, and that may be a good thing. I share similar concerns to you about where people get their news. The old commercial media was not perfect but did have some kind of morality about it, maybe kept in check somewhat by ethical journalists. But you are not talking about journalism really. People of Carlson's ilk know no bounds, ethics, decency or objectivity.
Your lack of rain is of concern, but of course nothing to do with climate change.
I don’t watch any shows of this type, especially on the subject of politics. Anything I watch on politics must present both sides which as you might expect, is rare these days.
I'm glad we don't have to suffer Tucker Carlson on British TV. Wikipedia says, "Carlson is an opponent of feminism". Opinionated, outrageous and someone who influenced and continues to influence Trump, he is surely what we would call in Yorkshire, "a right twat".
Fox and Tucker are NOT news, they are spin, and I agree that Tucker probably doesn't believe a word he's saying, but it gets him noticed and gets him a paycheck.
Stampsforthewounded.com could use your duplicate stamps.
Olga looks so happy!
Tucker's the one who advocates testicular tanning, right?
Need I say more?
I've actually never once seen any of his shows.
That picture with your stamps makes a lovely still life.
Stamp sorting is a good hobby for a rainy day. I like the suggestion by krayolakris for your duplicate stamps, altho, when I checked the website address is .org (not .com)
Such a sweet picture of Olga with the flowers! She looks quite trim and perky in that photo!
When my husband mounted my mother's stamps, he placed every duplicate she had collected side by side in the albums, figuring they would be more safely kept there. I don't know if this is the way it's supposed to be done, but that's what he chose to do. Re Tucker Carlson, I don't think we can characterize what he's spinning as opinion; he is a purveyor of outright falsehoods and toxic declarations that have no basis in reality, but inflame ancient hostilities in the most crass and ruthless way. Well, you see what I think of the man.
I like how the stamps look on the table there. It looks like an interesting piece of scattered art.
I didn't read the Tucker Carlson article in the NYTimes. His presence on earth annoys me, and I couldn't stand the idea of filling my head with his dangerous nonsense. Now I wonder why it's called FOX NEWS. It's not news at all. It should be called FOX BS.
Olga looks very happy.
Good points on news. It's too easy for a personality or company to get on a soap box and spin issues to extremes. These characters have never stopped and given their head a good shake.
Your blog is delightful but the comments you get are truly gems! I didn't know that anyone still collected stamps and that is quite a lovely thing to do :)
Olga looks so sweet among the yellow buttercups.
Your choice of a movie sounds much better than mine. I watched a 1989 movie "Ten Little Indians" that was the worst version of that story I've ever seen.
What is that gorgeous tree in the first picture? And I guess I missed you post about buying the stamps. Maybe after you sort out the ones you want you can package them back up and sell them to the next sucker.
I have never watched even minute of Tucker's show. It's just lies and hate mongering and he knows it and doesn't care. He's an opportunist, he'll say whatever it takes to get attention.
Excellent photo of Olga and the buttercups! The tennis ball fits right in. :)
I only watch the half hour of national news that airs in the evening, and even that's difficult for me to do. Everything (or almost everything) leans one way or the other, neither of which I can stomach.
p.s. I'm glad I missed the report about the bees. Stuff like that distresses me! People don't realize how important they are!
Lovely photo of our girl! But really, there aren't ever any unlovely photos of her.
Tucker Carlson is the devil.
Oh, I love that photo of Olga! She looks great in yellow :)
FOX News is an insult to foxes.
And I apologize for my comment yesterday - I was trying to tease you about your reaction to Dave's weather forecast. I know how much work it is to cover and move plants. We used to do it every spring and fall for weeks, because one cold night can kill everything but the plants need to be outside during the day. It's a drag and it's one reason I don't get many plants now. The work needed exceeds my energy level.
I started the Tucker series and decided I just did not care enough about the entitled fish heir to dedicate any more time to it.
Those stamps are all so colorful. Collecting them must be a fun hobby.
TC is a POS. Full of BS and due in great part to that, we are FUBAR.
Olga Girl, You Are Such A Ham - So Dang Cute - Life Is Better Walking On Four Legs - Bark On Girl
Cheers
Tucker is quite a likeable character and no harm in listening to him, i always like to hear all sides to politics.
Debby: And yet they're called "FOX NEWS"! One of the worst things the USA ever did was eliminate the fairness doctrine.
River: She's a bit slimmer but I think the effect is exaggerated by the perspective of the photo, which makes her head look huge and her body small.
Frances: I'm worried about a new street tree down the hill. I carried it some water the other day but that's a chore!
Mitchell: I mean, old-fashioned TV news had its problems too, but we really have been living in a period of low-quality information for the last couple of decades.
Andrew: Yes, exactly, a pile for each country. I'm surprised you haven't heard of Carlson, given that he's apparently one of Rupert Murdoch's favorites! I'm surprised he's not on TV in Australia. (Count yourself lucky.)
Ed: It's a challenge! Remember "Crossfire"? Where did shows like that go?
YP: He IS indeed. I am so glad he's not on TV here. Perhaps his local equivalent is Piers Morgan.
Bob: They ARE spin, but their viewers regard them as news, which is dangerous.
Boud: I'm unclear on exactly how much money Carlson inherited from that empire. The story says his natural mother disinherited him, and he has apparently often fretted about money. (The frozen food heiress is his stepmother.)
Krayolakris: Thanks for the info! That's definitely an option!
Ms Moon: Yeah, he's got some very bizarre ideas. He's a weird character and I think like many people his eccentricity grows as he gets older.
Ellen D: Thanks for the correct URL! I might send those stamps there. Or some of them, anyway.
37P: My mom used to do that with her duplicates, but it's hard when you have four or five of the same stamp. I generally don't put duplicates in my album, but that's just me! And yes, Carlson is base propaganda.
Robin: "His presence on Earth annoys me." LOL! I love that!
Red: I'm amazed that there's such an appetite for all these angry falsehoods. It shows people are not as reasonable as we'd like to think.
Miss Kim: There are indeed a few of us philatelists still out there! But I suspect it's an aging hobby.
Sharon: I've never seen that. And now I probably won't!
Kelly: Yeah, I'm sorry I brought that bee story to your attention. It made me pretty upset! I miss a world where we just have half an hour of world news in the evenings.
Bug: He IS the devil! It's true!
Jenny-O: Oh, don't apologize! I wasn't offended! (Did I sound offended?) I wonder how Fox News got its name? It IS an insult to foxes.
Allison: It IS ridiculously long. I don't know why he merits quite that much coverage. But the third part, which is an interactive video feature, is quite interesting.
Colette: I have always loved stamps. They present a neat, optimistic, interesting view of the world. (Not entirely realistic, of course!)
Padre: She IS a ham!
Rachel: I don't mind hearing all sides, but his "side" is invented paranoia. I could watch him the same way I read The Gateway Pundit, knowing that it's all BS and being entertained by the extremism -- but it alarms me that many people take what he says as the gospel truth.
I'm spot on with you on everything you said. I never mind disagreements but they need to be in fact and Tucker is anything and everything BUT factual. It's scary that people believe it. Fox News. Appropriate -- as crafty as a fox -- but not nearly so honorable.
When I see you with your stamps it's a reminder to dig out my dad's...why do I drag my feet?
PS -- your neighbor is a favorite of mine!
Steve: I wasn't sure, and thought it was possible, so ...
I'm glad you were okay with it.
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