War is Big Business, and America has been at war non-stop for 222 years out of 239 (since 1776). Big Defense partially owns all media outlets (along with Big Pharma) and that's where virtually all Americans get their news; so it shouldn't surprise any impartial observer that most Americans think war is a good thing. Or, so we are told by the media…!!

Big Mouths

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 5/10/2006		Page Views: 4,515
Hashtags: #Politics
How to make a person stop telling jokes…or expecting to hear the truth.
Estimated reading time: 7 minute(s) (1598 words)

In fact, I believe the only reason any investigations at all have been undertaken—Enron and Delay and Abramoff and Libby and the rest—is because Internet bloggers, who for the most part are owned by no one and responsible only to their own sense of integrity, have taken over for the now-irrelevant media journalists, using their numbers and geographical distribution to dig out the facts and share what they've learned. And when enough people have heard about the crimes of Bob Ney or the tanker named after Condoleezza Rice by a grateful oil industry, the traditional media has no choice but to say something—or risk Everyman's discovery that the media is, truly, irrelevant.

The Ex-Dem Movement

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 6/6/2006		Page Views: 4,682
Hashtags: #Humor #Politics
CNN's Paula Zahn interviews the head of a group that claims to be able to 'cure' Democrats and turn them into Republicans.
Estimated reading time: 4 minute(s) (933 words)

Is being a Democrat a result of nature or nurture? Tonight's guest is Richard Gone, founder of the Ex-Dem Reparative Therapy movement, which claims over twelve former Democrats as members. Mr. Gone, your therapy is controversial at best, and many psychologists say you are trying to cure a condition that isn't an illness."

The Spin On Bridey Murphy

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 7/10/2007		Page Views: 5,429
Hashtags: #BrideyMurphy #MassMedia #Metaphysics #Reincarnation
How the media responded to a threat to popular belief.
Estimated reading time: 9 minute(s) (2048 words)

Every now and then, I hear someone plead that the government, or the press, or some "them" just tell us the truth. About UFOs—about metaphysics—about 9/11. But, folks, it ain't gonna happen. It isn't in the nature of the beast. The mass media, owned by the global corporate conglomerate, exists only to serve its master: The global corporate conglomerate. Continuing to support it by paying attention to its lies, only allows it to last longer, like patronizing a whining child.

Signs

By: Paul S Cilwa	Posted: 7/16/2007		Page Views: 5,427
Hashtags: #AnimalRights #MassMedia #Language
Talk to the animals?
Estimated reading time: 5 minute(s) (1013 words)

In 1990, when I lived in Virginia and was still writing Midnight Harvest The Lady From Heaven, I took the kids to the National Zoo in Washington. It was a drizzly Wednesday, and the place was almost deserted, with far more animals present than humans. The primate house has a great area in the middle surrounded by the glass-walled cages. The only visitor other than us, was a woman sitting on a bench, making odd motions with her arms. The orangutan on the other side of the glass watched her intently, then made gestures of his own. I had seen enough deaf people in Georgetown (Gallaudet University is there) to know I was watching two beings communicate in ASL (American Sign Language). I knew about the experiments with Washoe the chimp and Koko the gorilla, but this orang seemed to be an ordinary primate in an ordinary zoo.