Have I mentioned lately how much I despise Bill O'Reilly? I don't have cable tv these days (the only shows I really miss are Monk and the 4400, but I'll just rent them on Netflix when they come out) so he's been off my radar lately.

Lately he made a hyperbolic statement about how Al Qaeda should bomb Coit Tower. The thing about the use of hyperbolic statements is that people sometimes use them to say the things they really want to say with none of the responsibility that comes with it.

But that's not my primary concern. The thing that irritates me is the confidence he has that his thinking is actually clear. It is confidence without a basis in reality, which is perhaps the definition of arrogance.

Here's two examples: Bill O'Reilly says that San Francisco shouldn't receive Federal dollars because of their stance on military recruitment. Doesn't California in general pay more in taxes to the Federal Government then they receive in Federal Monies? I don't know this for a fact, but I wouldn't be surprised if the residents of the San Francisco Bay area and San Francisco proper were a more exaggerated version of this asymmetry. California stays in the Union not because we are economically dependant, but because we love our county.

Second: The tactics of persuation used by military recruiters are, I'm told by friends in the military, notorious. Giving recruiters unfettered access to 18 olds makes about as much sense as allowing used car salesmen the same sort of access. The reality is, most young people have a sense of invulnerability that includes their own assesment of how gullible they are. I haven't seen this idea be introduced as part of the discussion on Fox. But maybe I just missed it. Instead I've just seen inflamatory rhetoric about how liberals are anti-military, blah, blah, blah.

I get the distinct sense that there is a great deal of people misunderstanding the actual situation on purpose so that they can cherry-pick examples that support their ideology. If that's the case then of course this is antithetical to any kind of serious critical thinking.

Have I mentioned how much I love the Colbert Report? I hope the satire will, like the Daily Show, immunize the American culture to this bizarre disease of the mind which is ego-driven editorial journalism. It would be nice.

That's what I think anyway.

I don't know how I can say this in a manly way, but I love Veronica Mars. The tv show, that is.

I just watched some of the older episodes (ones I hadn't seen before) and I am very impressed by the show.

I've been trying to remember why I didn't watch the show when it first came on. Maybe I thought it was a cheap ripoff of Buffy. I couldn't remember until I saw those first few episodes and now I think I know why I didn't see the show orginally.... Paris Hilton. She was playing to type: a rich, thrill seeking badgirl and her inclusion was offputting enough that I didn't watch the show.

There is something, I'm not sure what, that makes me despise Paris Hilton. It's not the being famous for being famous thing, because I don't mind Anna Kournikova. I despise her in the same way I despise Tori Spelling, although that hasn't really come in to play lately since I never see her on tv any more.

Perhaps this is a hasty generalization, but I wonder if Paris Hilton's addition to the early episodes of the show are what caused it's initial low ratings. Like Buffy and Angel, the show's writing is targeted at a smart audience who, like me, may be inclined to feel revulsion at someone, like Paris Hilton, who seems to epitomized one of the opposites of smart.

Let's see, while I'm on the topic, who else do I depise:

those stupid pseudo-muppets on the Round Table commercials. I compulsively change the channel every time those commercials come on. Again, I'm not exactly sure why I hate them so much, I just do.

John Edward (from Crossing Over with John Edward, not to be confused with John Edwards, the v.p. candidate who is a good man who does good work). If you get a chance see Penn and Teller's expose' of the hot and cold reading that goes on with these psychics. John Edward did a interview for Fox News during the discussion of Terry Shiavo. What a complete ass. Here's a link:

John Edward on Fox News

Of course I despise a ton of political hacks and Fox news in general, but that is a rant unto itself.

I should stop ranting and get back to prepping for my lab.