The Truth Bias

Happy New Year. Sincerely.

I'll skip the typical recap of the year just passed. Every year is interesting, every year is unique. 2007 was no exception. Every year brings joy, sadness, despair, elation, anger, laughter...name your favorite emotion, I'll second it like Smokey Robinson.

So what of 2008?

The Presidential election coming is huge. Every election is huge. There are always stakes so high that it's difficult to comprehend their enormity. Just seems like this one is slightly higher, the last ante before the call. All you can do-should do, as an obligation of American citizenship, living a participatory democracy, is vote. Maybe a little research too. Don't let the mainstream mass media fool you. Get your news elsewhere, from a credible source that doesn't lead off with the latest on whichever Spears is pregnant today. NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX, NPR, The New York Times (like bringing Bill Kristol aboard will suddenly muzzle the liberal-bias drumbeat), Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Newsweek, talk radio...they have all either abdicated their responsibilities as the unbiased, uncompromised reporters of the unvarnished truth or never were in the first place, depending. Making your lead story about the antics of one fuckhead celebutard after another whilst our nation is bankrupted, corrupted and downright eviscerated by greed and avarice is damn near treasonous.
Search elsewhere.
Save for people like Keith Olbermann and John Stewart, David Letterman and Howard Stern, Matt Taibbi...speaking truth to power and telling it like it actually is, rather than how they want you to believe it to be. There's not much else in that realm worthy of your time or trust. Ignore the sensational and distracting. Most of world history is a direct result of the principles of divide and conquer. It's all a smokescreen meant to distract you, unless you're among the top 1% or so gaining from it. It's Democrats and Republicans alike. It's Christians and Jews and Muslims and atheists and pagans.
You want news? Try BBC News, or read a European newspaper online. Some of the Huffington Post. There are hundreds of credible outlets. The blogosphere has plenty of analysis and accurate reporting. Plenty of sources out there.
It's neither a liberal nor a conservative bias. It's a truth bias. Just gimme some truth, as John Lennon sang those simple words. Such a simple request. People who do tell the truth get laughed at, marginalized, disqualified. The spin machines go into overdrive to continue pressing The Big Lie. Agendas must be maintained. There's more money to be made. The blood washes right off. Just gimme some truth...I think I can handle it. A little bit of it at a time maybe. I'm just so sick of the steady diet of bullshit, of lies and deceit said with a smile and a wink, the written word just more of the same, the truth parsed so thin as to make splitting hairs equal to splitting firewood.
I'm a grown man, I know the world can be a cold cruel place. I also know it to be a beautiful place with occasionally transcendent moments of love, of happiness. Just seems like the balance is off, like we've lost our way but aren't quite yet too far off the path to find our way back. There is still hope. Perhaps a viable third-party will emerge, another way home. In the meantime, I don't care whether it's Ron Paul, Hilary, Obama, Edwards, McCain, Romney-bot, Bloomberg, Biden...I don't care who they pray to, how they laugh, what they may have smoked 25 years ago. I don't care how many times they've been married or what their favorite movie is or what color they are. Can you find our way out of the quagmire? Can you treat our veterans with the respect and dignity they deserve, and make sure every one of them gets all the care they need? Can you stop spending taxpayer money on frivolity and pay down the debt? Maybe balance a budget, and a dollar strong enough to buy back part of our country? Can you truly educate our youth, level a very unequal scholastic playing field? Can you point us toward an energy source that isn't oil or gasoline, or ethanol for that matter? (Look it up-ethanol is bullshit too.). Can you ensure that the top-notch health care you get as a member of the federal government will be the same quality of care that I get for my $500 monthly COBRA premium? Will you be vigilant in fighting terror, yet vigorously embrace diplomacy as a first resort?
Lennon wrote this song, out of disgust, over 35 years ago, and it's perhaps more poignant and accurate today than it was then. When Nixon was president. Think about that. George W. Bush makes Richard Nixon look like Thomas Jefferson. Happy New Year.
Im sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocritics
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
Ive had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of hope
Money for dope
Money for rope

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Money for dope
Money for rope

Im sick to death of seeing things
From tight-lipped, condescending, mamas little chauvinists
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth now

Ive had enough of watching scenes
Of schizophrenic, ego-centric, paranoiac, prima-donnas
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth

No short-haired, yellow-bellied, son of tricky dicky
Is gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
With just a pocketful of soap
Its money for dope
Money for rope

Ah, Im sick and tired of hearing things
From uptight, short-sighted, narrow-minded hypocrites
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

Ive had enough of reading things
By neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians
All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now

All I want is the truth now
Just gimme some truth now
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth
All I want is the truth
Just gimme some truth