NPR sucks

I'm driving a rental car this week because the fuel pump died in my car. Anyway since it's a rental, I'm not listening to any of my music since I know I'll forget and leave the disc in the player. Which means the radio. I can't stand commerical radio, so it was either NPR or my own thoughts. I tunes into NPR.

Once upon a time we listened to nothing but our local public radio station. But over the last two years I've been growing increasingly unhappy with the NPR's news coverage. Dan Shore and Scott Simon are still wonderful but the rest are pretty biased, imho. I first noticed it when they began attacking Howard Dean. And then during the general election they gave way too much air time to the trivial and nothing to really substantial issues.

But today was the worst. Top story over and over was the shrub denouncing the Senate for being "political" and not confirming Bolton to the U.N. They played experts from his speech and quoted him and made it sound like the only thing holding but the nomination is the Democrats playing "politics." Nothing about how Republican senators are having doubts. Nothing about the increasingly substantiated charges against him. No news, just repeating endlessly Bush's lies.

I was actually considering rejoining our local station this past membership drive because they are nice folks, play nice classical music, even if their blues show is weak and jazz is nonexistent. What was I thinking?

Slime mold beetle named after Bush

Cheney and Rummy also get slime mold beetles of their own.

Spring at last

Lovely, lovely spring is finally here. It's currently 81 degrees here in Central PA. I had a great workout — did almost a mile on the treadmill, plus everything else. My trainer sure can pack a lot into an hour. I also clean out some kitchen cabinets and scrubbed all the bathrooms. Now we're off to the dairy for ice cream. Oh and I wrote a letter to Rick Santorum. But I don't know if I'll mail it or not. I may have to wait a bit. Looks like Casey Jr., son of the "beloved" late Governor, is running on the Democratic side. Casey is Catholic and anti-abortion, but he's a zillion times better than Santorum. Although both Joe Hoeffel and Barbara Hafer have apparently dropped out of the primary, I am intrigued by Chuck Pennacchio.

Out of touch

I know the pope died and that the Schiavo woman finally died. But aside from that I am woefully out of touch, delibrately so. I cancelled cable. I sometimes read Frank Rich's column in the NY Times, and an occasional book review, but that's about it. The rest is too depressing. NPR is no longer a trusted news source. Instead I'm rediscovering my old CDs, most of which I haven't listen to in ten years. Guess what. I still like them. I am getting my life in order so that when the time comes again to wage the good fight, I'll be ready.

In the meantime, I am lightening our load, so to speak. I took four bags of old clothes to Goodwill today. That's a total of fourteen bags, plus an armload of my husband's old suits. I am cleaninf out closets and cupboards like mad. We just have too much stuff. The rampant consumerism in this country is sickening.

Hello Spring

I had an excellent workout today. I can't believe what I am able to do. I still have bad pain, but I can finally see the day when I can start running again. I am getting my life back. Now if only I could get my country back as well.