CURRENT EVENTS
Next Republican Debate
Tuesday, December 15
Donald Trump, Ben Carson and Ted Cruz during a previous Republican primary debate. | AP Photo
It never fails to amaze me as to how much time many people spend watching sports and yet will devote little time to understanding our political process. If you don’t want to learn about what is going on in the political arena, this will probably still be worth watching than for no other reason but entertainment.
The criteria for CNN’s Dec. 15 presidential debate include a new way for candidates to make the stage: early-state polling strength.
Candidates can qualify for the debate through one of three ways: polling averages nationally, in Iowa, and in New Hampshire.
According to CNN, nine candidates would currently make the cut: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Rand Paul, Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie.
The undercard debate will also live on, despite some calls among Republicans to begin phasing this out. Candidates who reach at least 1 percent in four separate Iowa, New Hampshire or national polls will make the earlier debate.
As of Friday, that stage will be made up of Gov. Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and two candidates who missed the last GOP debate entirely, Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Gov. George Pataki. As of Friday, Gov. Jim Gilmore did not qualify for either stage.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/cnn-gop-debate-criteria-las-vegas-216106#ixzz3twSj6PMh
Media Coverage
I did not believe this memorial would not receive some press coverage and I take the Sunday NY Times, USA Today, Detroit News home delivery, Time magazine and I watch the CNN practically daily. So I checked it out on Snopes.Com and it came up as true.
SELF-HELP BOOKS
Is this a self-help book or not–how about you telling me via a comment.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, often published as 1984, is a dystopian novel by English author George Orwell published in 1949.[1][2] The novel is set in Airstrip One (formerly known as Great Britain), a province of the superstate Oceania in a world of perpetual war, omnipresent government surveillance and public manipulation, dictated by a political system euphemistically named English Socialism (or Ingsoc in the government’s invented language, Newspeak) under the control of a privileged elite of the Inner Party, that persecutes individualism and independent thinking as “thoughtcrime”. (Source: Wikipedia)
QUOTE FOR THE WEEK
Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?
Source: Groucho Marx
MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy
Ron Burgundy is San Diego’s top rated newsman in the male-dominated broadcasting of the ’70s, but that’s all about to change for Ron and his cronies when an ambitious woman is hired as a new anchor. (Source: IMDB)
LAST WEEK’S POLL – Drinking
The results of last week’s poll are:
43% of you have one or two drinks now and then
21% of you routinely have one or two drinks daily
14% of you don’t drink for health reasons
10% of you every so often have more than two drinks daily
7% of you consistently have more than two drinks daily
5% of you don’t drink for religious reasons
I used this same poll last year about this time and found 25% of us have one or two drinks daily and on the other end of the spectrum, about 12% of us abstain from drinking for religious or health reasons. I see there isn’t much change from last year.
THIS WEEK POLL – My Weight
Most people put on extra weight starting from Thanksgiving through New Year’s and so one of the most common New Year’s Resolutions is I’m going to lose some weight this year. It is also one of the most commonly unfulfilled resolutions. So, before we start making any resolutions, I thought it might be nice to do a quick self-assessment via this poll.
Remember, you are what you eat. I recall saying that to a friend and she replied, “In that case I am coffee and wine.”
SONG OF THE WEEK
Since the theme of this week’s post is the media, I thought you might enjoy this song.
Dirty Laundry by the Eagles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzT10MSgKtU
PAINTING OF THE WEEK
I’ve seen this painting at the National Gallery in Washington DC. It was painted by my favorite surrealist artist, Rene Magritte. Magritte was a philosopher, who just happened to communicate via painting rather than words. In this painting, I believe he says that everything you see hides something behind what you are seeing–that is something worth thinking about isn’t it?
The Human Condition by Rene Magritte
The Human Condition (La condition humaine) generally refers to two similar oil on canvas paintings by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. One was completed in 1933 and is in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. The other was completed in 1935 and is part of the Simon Spierer Collection in Geneva, Switzerland. A number of drawings of the same name exist as well, including one at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
One of Magritte’s most common artistic devices was the use of objects to hide what lies behind them. [Source: Wikipedia)
EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE
A newsperson and not an entertainer.
Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow (April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American broadcast journalist. He first came to prominence with a series of radio broadcasts for the news division of The Columbia Broadcasting System during World War II, which were followed by millions of listeners in the United States. During the war he assembled a team of foreign correspondents who came to be known as the Murrow Boys.
A pioneer of television news broadcasting, Murrow produced a series of reports that helped lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Fellow journalists Eric Sevareid, Ed Bliss, Bill Downs, Dan Rather, and Alexander Kendrick consider Murrow one of journalism’s greatest figures, noting his honesty and integrity in delivering the news.
THIS WEEK’S JOKE
BLOG
I always appreciate those that leave comments on my weekly posts, since it encourages me to continue these posts. Thank you Judy, Melissa, Carol, Carolyn, Rick and Coach Jo. Leaving a comment is easy, just click on “Leave A Comment”, which is immediately below the title of this week’s post. And if instead of seeing “Leave A Comment”, you see “# Comments”, just click on that and scroll down to leave your comment.
If you think this blog has any merit, please pass it on to your friends, as well as liking my Facebook page.
MY BOOK
I donated two copies of my book to Angel Kisses for auction/raffle prizes for their 7th Annual Fundraiser on February, 20, 2016 at Woody’s Diner in Royal Oak, MI from 2 to 8 p.m. For more information about this organization and their efforts to improve bereavement care for pregnancy loss, please click on the link below.
My book can be purchased on-line from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Books-A-Million. It is also available in a ebook format. And if you have read my book, please leave an evaluation of it on Amazon. Thank you.
http://www.amazon.com/Tired-Being-Ordinary-Are-You/dp/0990388697
http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Im-Tired-Being-Ordinary/Wm-Allen/9780990388692?id=6429711012885
Harmony Books & Films, LLC 
The tear from Russia: So, I don’t recall seeing anything on the news about this and I watch Good Morning American and CNN daily. Looked it up. Dedicated in New Jersey in 2006. Bill Clinton accepted on behave of America. Neither Putin nor Bush was there. Every name is listed. Should be a must see for many of us.
As for the media, don’t you ever wonder what happens to the stories they obsess about for days. All the Ebola “carriers/patients” in the USA, how are they now? The woman who would issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, what happen? The black churches being systematically burned in some southern states, what’s going on with that investigation? And do we really want to know what the CIA/ FBI/Homeland Security abilities are to read encrypted messages and do we want to broadcast those abilities? What for? Bill, you picked a doozy this time. I could go on for hours.
Will Ferrell was hilarious on SNL as Bush.
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Carolyn, you raise some good points about the media’s attention span. Yes, the Will Ferrell impersonation of Bush was hilarious. I often say the reason things are so funny, is before there is a bit of recognizable truth in the humor. Thanks very much for commenting.
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