Radio show update and New D2 Rule

Just wanted to update you guys with the latest about the radio show.

Been talking with RJ, who just got back from a great vaca with his wife. I won't bore you with the details. Then we went right to work talking about the radio shows.

We will be making a schedule change for 2012. Don't worry, I'll make sure you guys know about it when I figure it all out myself. We'll have all-new promos and plugs airing when we get all the details settled down.

One of the things that will also be going away real soon will be the "replays". In other words, if you missed last week's "Rock & Roll Diner", then you missed it, period. Same for "Hard Luck Chuck's Juke Joint" when it returns... thankfully, though, it will be back at an earlier time. Repeats during the normal scheduled time will still go on every so often, but there won't be the "second serving" if you missed out the first time around.

There will be a few more things going on that I can't talk about right now, but it will deal with one of the more nagging questions asked about the ShockNet Radio programs. Sufficient to say, for those that have asked, you'll get what you want, but it won't be AS you want it.

The radio show archive is still down because Ourmedia.org is still down. There is no ETA when it will be fixed. I just hope that iTunes doesn't decide to give up on it like they did the last time around. The previous shows are still in the Internet Archive, but Ourmedia is the engine that makes the links to iTunes possible, so no Ourmedia means no iTunes link. Sorry; I wish I had better news in that regard.

And finally...

New D2 Rule: the people who come up with slash-fanfic need to admit their own sexual preference.

Now I say that as a fiction writer myself... I understand Rule 34 and Rule 35, but just because you CAN create it doesn't mean that you should be poisoning every male friendship into something that you'd have to pay $19.95 a month for and making sure the kids aren't watching over your shoulder. Seriously guys, if you have that on your mind so much so that you have to write about it and share it for the world to see, then maybe there's something about your own lives that you have to be honest about.

Two quick thoughts...

First from Neal Boortz, formerly a libertarian, currently neo-con...

Dirty little secret: Boortz has a handler who does his website. Some of it is his, but the rest is by his handler who speaks for him. The handler usually posts the "Reading Assignments"... or did you REALLY think that Boortz spent that time going through news stories?

So on Monday morning, his handler posts this on his behalf:

Al Qaida is warning us about more attacks on America .. .and that the new attacks will kill even more Americans than 9/11. Oh thank God for Barack Obama! I just know he is the best man to protect us out there.

Now if this came across his desk three years ago the jerk-jerk reaction would be something along the lines of... Now do you understand why we need to fight two wars and kill them over there?

Ladies and Gentlemen... here is the walking, talking, online definition of smarky.

Oh, by the way, I have a prediction for Gen. Stanley McChrystal. I predict that following his departure from the military (be it sooner or later) he will be courted by FoxNews media personalities. He will be lionized, defended, and praised. Sarah Palin may wink at him. Glenn Beck could even honor him by saying McChrystal's departure was part of some master plan whipped up by ACORN, George Soros, and Barack Obama and stick a picture of him on his blackboard.

And then, a few months later, the now-former general would become the newest military consultant for FoxNews. He'll probably get a book deal and speaking tour out of it as well.

Hell of a scam you got there, guys. Hell of a scam indeed.

Doing Nothing For Something

Nice idea but I think this should be other way around...

Holiday bailout?

It's sad when you look at this...


It's sad because we ALL seem to be victims of this cruel hoax.

And the solution? A Neo-Con wet dream? THAT'S the solution to get Yule going again? That certainly was last year's wet dream, and it apparently is this year's wet dream as well.

This describes it

2009 - Worst Ever?

I can relate...


I can give a few more numbers...
100 - the number of times this past year I played the lottery
0 - the number of times I actually WON playing the lottery
2 - the number of consecutive months I had to hear about "family values" politicians who got caught cheating on their wives
0 - the number of days that I even thought I had a chance at a relationship
3 - the number of times I wanted to punch out my HDTV after hearing about South Carolina Governor Sanford gush about his "soulmate" while still wanting to mend things with his scorned wife
31 - the number of years that have gone by that I have never EVER been in a relationship, never mind have a "soulmate".

Now I'm in trouble...

Oh, wait, it's Onion... whew!

This is the great disconnect.

THIS is the problem right here!!

Unfortunately you can guess who Congress and the White House will listen to... and it ain't the guy on the left.

I gotta call BS on this!

Check out this picture..
This was taken from my cellphone camera in a local Target store on September 29th!

SEPTEMBER TWENTY-NINTH!

Halloween decorations displayed prominently in front, all sorts of costumes and decorations and candy, and certainly the aroma of chocolate is in the air.

But what's that in the back?

Yes, that's an illuminated display for a co-opted pagan season that does not belong there for a few more months! And it's surrounded by decorations that have nothing to do with the current holiday season.

Have they confused their pagan rituals, you wonder?

No, because when I was in that same store just a couple of days previously, they were still full of Halloween celebration and still had a mix of lawn-and-garden and discount back-to-school stuff.

And behind me when I snapped this quick picture were shelves of wreaths. GREEN wreaths. Not for Halloween or Thanksgiving, mind you, because those would normally be brown and orange. GREEN wreathes are for the OTHER pagan season... the one in DECEMBER. The one that was co-opted by self-righteous crusaders.

The CREEP is in full effect.

Another week, another technical FUBAR (fixed)

Sorry folks, but I'm currently having problems uploading the archive.

Last week it was because Ourmedia was down. This week I can't get the upload program to log in.

Oh, and for those who were having problems hearing the show last night, I apologize. We had a double-fail between the scheduling program and the backup computer shutting down. Couldn't happen at any other time, right?

Well the show DID go on, even if we had to restart it, but if you missed out on it, you can sign up with iTunes and get the archive next week... presuming we can get the archive software to work THIS week.

Par for the course for me this week, unfortunately.

---

Update 09/14: The problem has been fixed and the archive from September 5th is now online and available through the Archives or iTunes.

The Mourning Line grows

This past week has been full of passings....

• Eternal Sidekick Ed McMahon

• South Carolina Governor Mark Stanford's morals and credibility

• Original Angel Farrah Fawcett

• King of Hype Michael Jackson

• Ponzi Schemer Bernie Madoff's fortune

• Michael Bay's credibility

• TV Pitchman Billy Mays

• The presidency of Honduran leader Manuel Zelaya

Sort of makes you wonder what else will happen.

Yes, the economy is THIS bad

Obviously it's supposed to be satirical, but this is exactly the kind of gutless measure that corporations would come up with.

Me... today

AIG in a nutshell

No, that really sums it all up...

Dueling toons

Because...

Jon Stewart Slams CNBC

I hope Fox News is paying attention. If you think Keith Obermann comes down hard, Olbermann has NOTHING on Jon Stewart!

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

CNBC Gives Financial Advice

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things With Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Joke of the Day

The sad part is that Stewart is a COMEDIAN, but what he exposed WAS NO LAUGHING MATTER!

By the way, if you can stomach a little HuffPo, here's a great article on the problem with stations like CNBC and the mainstream media and their brown-nosing ways. And here's one more just to be on the safe side.

Brutally Honest Rant - 09/19/07

Brutally Honest Audio Rant: Comedy and the REAL Meaning of PC
Audio Transcripts
09/19/07

[Start Program]

(Computer – Introduction)
(Music intro – “American Idiot Remix” – by Green Day and David Matthews 2)

Good evening and welcome to this week’s Brutally Honest Rant. I’m David Matthews 2, writer of the weekly online column Brutally Honest.

When it comes to minority groups in the United States, there is one that is both the smallest group possible and the one that is often attacked, marginalized, and discriminated against.

Anyone want to guess what that group is?

Well obviously I’m not talking about Christians… because they’re not the smallest group possible. And contrary to the ongoing delusions of certain Christians, they’re NOT the ones often attacked, marginalized and discriminated against. In fact, Christianity itself is guilty of BEING the persecutors more times then they ever are persecuted against.

In fact you can toss out pretty much every organized religion from this category as well. Toss out the atheists and agnostics as well, although they actually come CLOSE to fitting the description, and some of them may even know the correct answer to the question!

Likewise, toss out the gender groups and the racial groups and even the ethnic groups.

You want to know what is the SMALLEST minority group possible and the one often attacked and marginalized and discriminated against?

It is the minority group of ONE. It’s the individual.

Think about it for a moment. How many times has individuality been trashed? How many times has it taken a back seat to some whims and demands of any number of groups? “The needs of the many…” how many times has that been invoked in one way or another?

We treat individuality as a luxury at best… and at worst we treat it as a crime against humanity.

Comedian Kathy Griffin probably gave the best example of how badly we treat individuality in her recent speech at the Emmy Awards. When she got an award for her cable show “Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List” she announced that she would NOT give thanks to Jesus, because she said that Jesus had the LEAST to do with her winning the award. She then announced that the Emmy statue itself would be her new god.

Well obviously that invoked the WRATH of the self-righteous goon squad over in the Catholic Church, because you don’t DARE trash Jesus while the Catholic goon squad is around! They asked for and easily got their demands for censorship, even though the rest of the thinking populace was wondering what the hell the fuss was all about!

Well I’ll TELL you what it’s all about! It’s all about two things.

The first is the REAL definition of “PC”. People keep on saying that “PC” stands for “politically correct”… well that’s a load of BULL! You want to know what “PC” really stands for? POWER and CONTROL! That’s how it is used! You have some special interest group that gets “offended” by something someone else says and they use THAT as the means to seize POWER over the masses and thus CONTROL what they say and think!

Good squad leader William Donahue has been wielding that power UNCHECKED of late, going so far as to actually threaten to HARM someone who dared disagree with his goon squad mentality. THAT’S what I mean by power and control, folks.

Oh, and by the way, thanks Mr. Donahue for showing your TRUE Christian motives on camera. If those are the rules that you wish to go by, then don’t be surprised if someone takes you up on that offer to “take it outside” and gives you the judgment that has been LONG overdue! Just don’t expect any sympathy afterwards because you have already publicly forfeited any and all claims of injury.

And the second thing is this… the whole phony “outrage” excuse being foisted on us by the Catholic goon squad is to keep people from understanding the TRUTH… and the truth is that Kathy Griffin IS RIGHT! Not about making the Emmy statue her god, mind you, but in her assertion that Jesus is the LEAST responsible for her winning that statue!

Let’s get brutally honest here… I am SICK AND TIRED of hearing people marginalize individual achievement!

Kathy Griffin didn’t win that Emmy statue because some higher power so declared her. She won because OTHER PEOPLE decided that she was the best option of the group! She won because of HER TALENT! HER talent! Not God’s talent! Not Jesus’ talent! HERS!

You want to know if her win was TRULY the will of some higher power? If NOBODY voted for her at all and yet her name showed up on all the ballots. THAT would be a sign of a higher power at work!

Oh, but wait a minute, that would also be called “voter fraud”, wouldn’t it? Boy the almighty just can’t catch a break, huh?

But we don’t really RECOGNIZE individual achievement! We marginalize it! We condemn individual success just like we condemn and marginalize everything else about individuality.

We have sports teams that actually believe that their wins are ONLY because GOD is on their side, but their losses are somehow all because of mistakes made by INDIVIDUALS. The funny part is that a SMART person would to it in reverse… give credit for individuals and blame God for their mistakes. But then again, thinking and belief really have a hard time getting along.

I’ve been talking about this for quite some time on a variety of subjects, but little by little we are losing any kind of meaningful sense of SELF. Liberals and conservatives argue over which collectivist mentality is superior, but they both seem to tacitly agree that individuality in and of itself is EVIL.

Little by little, they both try to DEMONIZE individuality. And the BEST way to do that is to deny individual achievement. YOU can’t achieve anything… it’s all gotta come through some external factor. You have to thank your parents or your friends for being who you are… or you have to thank some kind of deity for it. You can’t say that it was YOUR talent and YOUR imagination and YOUR skills that do it. Oh no… that’s somehow WRONG, but they can’t understand WHY it is.

And THAT is what Kathy Griffin was exposing when she exclaimed that Jesus had the LEAST to do with her Emmy award. She’s telling all of those people who start out their acceptance speeches with praising God and praising Jesus to get over themselves. How you were brought up only plays a small part of the things that make you a success. It’s using what YOU have that makes it unique. YOU make it what it is. Not God. Not your parents or your friends. YOU do. It’s all on YOU because YOU are the one that put it all together and made it happen.

If you’re going to blame individuals for mistakes then you also have to credit them for their successes. You’re not going to get good behavior from people if all that you’re doing is demonizing what they do.

(Computer – some VERY appropriate stuff)
(Fade Music In – “Mythodea” by Vangelis)

If you think about it, every exercise in the virtues of individuality seem to all come from comedians. Lenny Bruce, George Carlin, Rusty Warren, Sam Kinison… sure they take the lumps for what they say, but it’s really ironic that some of the most serious and profound debates about our look at society come from people who make us laugh.

Maybe instead of needing more churches, we need more comedy clubs. At least the comedian has better hours. Who really wants to get up early on the weekends anyway?

(Pause)

Brutally Honest is a Get Brutal production; all opinions expressed are those of the commentator, and may or may not be shared by the online provider. This is David Matthews 2 saying good night, and I’ll speak with you soon!

(Fade out)
(Computer – Ending/“End of Recording”)

[End of program]
------------------------------

If Trump hired another Apprentice, would anyone care?

Okay, so there was yet another Apprentice finale last night. I think we pretty much jumped the shark on this whole series, because I couldn’t find a more lamer run than this one.

First of all, the whole “haves and the have-nots” concept was lame. Here you have the cream of the crop, and they’re living like homeless people. Instead of the “final three” or even “the final two” there were “the final two teams”. That in and of itself was lame. The final tasks used to be HUGE productions designed to show off the creativity and managerial skills of the finalists and to prove their worthiness, and instead this final task is another lame task.

And the person who won pretty much stayed under the radar the whole time! There was no clear leadership moment for this candidate. There was nothing that screamed “Apprentice” until we saw her individual profile video.

The whole thing screamed “waste”! Many of the shows were airing at 10pm, including the finale, which in and of itself takes out potential viewers.

The only good thing about this finale was that it was only an hour long, and most of that time was in recapping events and eliminating the worst of the two teams before focusing on which one of the two remaining candidates should win. Most of these finales dealt with either there was too much time or not enough time.

At this point, though, I think this is it for the Apprentice. At least it really would be for this viewer… unless someone I knew ended up in the next one. Trump kept on saying he wanted an LA run… he had his LA run… it sucked… that’s it. I really don’t think he can make things better at this point. His best bet is to give it a rest, maybe bring it back after a season or two of other programming if he feels so inclined.

I wish this applied to me...

Okay, check out this picture....
What's wrong with it, you ask? Well let's think about it...

Unless this guy is somewhere along the lines of Bill Gates, he will NEVER get a girl like that! Sorry, just doesn't happen. Your typical geek is just looking at that kind of girl from his computer, not live and just a few feet away from him, and he's just WISHING she was asking HIM that question.

In reality she's looking over at her rich, cocky, suave, alpha-male boyfriend or husband - who doesn't even remotely look like that geek in the picture - while he gives off that arrogant smile that says "I've got plane tickets to the Bahamas and a diamond the size of your little finger ready for you on Christmas. Those losers can't even come close to topping that!"

Plus, let's face it... your typical geek's desk doesn't look that clean!