Multimodal Rant...For a Better Life

[Cynicism Alert!!]

- So after 2 years, my Win2K desktop install is going south -- spontaneous reboots. I deceide to reinstall everything from scratch -- and count the number of "suggested" reboots. Up to 15 now...and not half-way done.

- I hate javascript. No matter what I do, proxy and settings-wise, half of those damn little javascript menus refuse to work. i hate javascript.

- If Larry King has one more guest on who spins some loopy story about psychic phenomena, I thing I will board an airplane and puke on all of my fellow passengers.

- So Netscape 7 wants me to register. I pick a user name "Team666". Netscape protests and says that it is already taken. I e-mail [email protected] -- "no such user". I think Netscape lies. Try registering *any* user ID with "666" (like zzyyxx666). No dice. Bunch of superstitious bumpkins. And liars. I don't care that they block it. Just don't lie.

- General rant: go to many web sites and try to figure out who's in charge -- how to contact them. I think many sites make this difficult on purpose.

- Over my shoulder, CNN plays an advertisement that has a cheerful, creepy, familiar feel to it -- "Be nice to everyone" (or something like that). I catch the attribution at the end -- the Foundation for a Better Life. Who can argue with that??

I go to forbetterlife.org. I realize that I have seen some of their vague, uplifting billboards on the way to the airport. Cynical old me, I try to figure out who is in charge. Good [censored] luck. Why do I get suspicious when I have to resort to Whois??? Whois reveals (in part):

Registrant:
Anschutz Corp (WN-D-93268011)
555 17th St. Suite 2400
Denver, CO 80203
US

Domain Name: FORBETTERLIFE.ORG

Administrative Contact:
Slawson, Steve (18857367I) [email protected]
Anschutz Corp
555 17th St Suite 2400
Denver, CO 80209
US
303 298 1000 303 298 8881

This would be this mining company . I guess I could live with this, but what's the mystery? Why not even a simple "Contact Us" on the FBL web page? Just some feel-good "Pass It On" exhortation reminiscent of "Pay It Forward".

Oh, and then I find this analysis which, while I might not agree with 100%, does not make me feel any less cynical.

- Oh, [censored]. Larry King hosts Paul Harvey. What *am* I doing running TV in the background?

- Oh, and Altrea is *not* a tobacco company!!

- If Larry King has one more guest on who spins some loopy story about psychic phenomena, I thing I will board an airplane and puke on all of my fellow passengers.

For some anti-Larry-King compensation, Check out Penn and Teller's new show on Showtime called "Bullsh!t". They just re-ran it tonight, and a new episode is on tomorrow. The first episode was exposing those TV psychics like Van Praagh.

God I wish I had Showtime just for that show.

Actually, I think all they're shows are going to be about debunking psycics. They've always been into that. They were once on a sort of mission to expose psycic surgery.

Nope. This week's is ``Alternative Medicine''.

Speaking of Showtime programming, though, I can't wait for ``Family Business'', about no other than Adam Glasser, AKA Seymour Butts, and his porno company.

I tried to read that article on the Foundation for a Better Life. The entire thing is just nonsense, only tangentially related to this Foundation. Most of it is spent talking about biker culture, racism, and other irrelevant drivel. I was interested in what kind of organization is behind these messages, whether good or bad, but he doesn't even seem to talk about that. Instead, he tries to claim that this is propaganda, so therefore it supports facism, without anything backing him up.

There was a small amount of relevant information:
-The man behind this is a Presbyterian and supporter of the Republican Party. He is very rich and is purchasing a lot of movie theaters.
-The advertising company is owned by the Mormon Church

Beyond that, everything is FUD. I really didn't understand the parallel he tried to draw to the holocaust.

-Biscuits

I think all they're shows are going to be about debunking psycics.

They'll all be debunkings, but of various topics. I'm looking forward to seeing the one on alien abductions, because I want to see them openly call Budd Hopikins foul names on national television. Anyway, follow the link and poke around for the show schedule to see the topics they'll cover.

Actually, I think all they're shows

"I think all they are shows"?

"I think all they are shows"?

They think they all that, but they not.

Peter

ARGH!

ARGH!

Careful, or all your shows are belong to Bitt!

Check out Penn and Teller's new show on Showtime called "Bullsh!t".

Dang! I almost forgot to mention my CES brush with fame! When I left Visteon and headed West, I passed Penn Gillette walking toward the convention center.

I saw them in 1996 at Bally's. They were great. They also stood in the lobby afterwards to shoot the breeze. Gillette seemed like the loud, abrasive, somewhat disagreeable person he is portrayed as. Teller was true to stage form -- friendly, approachable...(but with speech!)

I've seen them twice in the D.C. area. One of those times was when I was really young, and I got asked to go on stage! They were doing this bit where they had volunteers throw darts at a dartboard full of biblical names. They made a big deal out of it when I told them my name was Matthew

I tried to read that article on the Foundation for a Better Life. The entire thing is just nonsense, only tangentially related to this Foundation. Most of it is spent talking about biker culture, racism, and other irrelevant drivel.

I went back and read that piece and a few others on ctheory.com (I'm only guessing the "c" is for "critical"). Seems to be a bunch of papers by adjunct sociology professors from West ____ University. Lots of overblown language in places reminiscent of parodies of academia.

I was interested in what kind of organization is behind these messages, whether good or bad, but he doesn't even seem to talk about that. Instead, he tries to claim that this is propaganda, so therefore it supports facism, without anything backing him up.

Well, given that forbetterlife.org pretty much *refuses* to tell you anything about the organization behind the message, that hyperbolic fascism essay was the best I could do. Plus, I think I took a little more factual value away from it....

The homey forbetterlife.org espouses Dependability, Do the Right Thing, Ethics, Honesty, Integrity, and Responsibility among many others. From the ctheory essay, I find a reference to:

"Anschutz is the majority shareholder in Qwest Communications. Qwest is currently under investigation by the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission for $1.4 billion in "accounting irregularities," similar to those of the recently bankrupt WorldCom. Because of these "irregularities," Qwest has been compelled to withdraw its original earnings reports between 1999 and mid-2002, as its stock plummeted to levels that triggered its delisting by the New York Stock Exchange. "

Hmmm, perhaps Anschutz was off that day. But, really, we're receiving homilies on ethics and honesty from this guy? Perhaps things have gone so wrong that a mere 1.4 billion "mistake" just doesn't rate anymore....


There was a small amount of relevant information:
-The man behind this is a Presbyterian and supporter of the Republican Party. He is very rich and is purchasing a lot of movie theaters.

Also from the essay: "As the Portland Independent Media Center article notes, the sum total of all this activity is that Anschutz is assembling a production, distribution and point-of-sale nexus that has all the economic characteristics of a vertical monopoly. And, the Foundation's claim that its messages play in more than 6,000 theaters every day can be taken at face value. After all, Anschutz owns both the message and the means. "

This certainly aims to make things sound sinister, but, on a more factual basis, it does not seem unsupported. That's a lot of theaters.

-The advertising company is owned by the Mormon Church

I wasn't sure what to make of that, but it appears that the ad campaign may be recycling previously-developed LDS ad content. I didn't pay much attention to the billboards, but that is one of the similarities that made me look up at the TV when I heard one of the TV spots for the first time last night. OK, I admit it, those syrupy Ozzie and Harriet LDS ads give me a case of the ass. They just feel very smug.

Beyond that, everything is FUD. I really didn't understand the parallel he tried to draw to the holocaust.

The author might believe all of that, but I found it to be a stretch/hyperbole.

Still, I have what I guess I would say is a basic distrust of "feel-good" media, especially when the provenance is murky. I do believe that forbetterlife.org is propaganda...of some sort. It's my feeling that true examples of heroism from the media (say "Band of Brothers") are being expanded with other imagery to create a broader "feel good" foundation. And, yes, I fear media consolidation and homogenization, whether Sony, AOL/Time-Warner, or this Anschutz.

I have this vision of 27 million Americans sitting in a United Artists theater on a Friday night watching a 1-minute warm-up about Compassion as, 12,000 miles away, some staff sergeant points his laser at an Afghan hillside to direct the first of the tactical nukes.

Tried the link and got:

We at Showtime Online express our apologies; however, these pages are intended for access only from within the United States.

So rude !

So rude !

Expect more of this if the current trend of getting dragged into court in other jurisdictions than where you publish the pages, goes on...

/Michael