Les Paul, and Misplaced Outrage...
I’ve mentioned this many times before, probably, but one of the great things about being a photojournalist, is the interesting people you meet.
The other day, guitarist and music recording icon, Les Paul, passed away. He was 94. It turned out that there were a couple of men in the area who had personal relationships with the man. Larry Muller, a dentist in the area, and an avid guitarist, has a custom-made Gibson Les Paul guitar signed by Les, “Larry, keep pickin’, Les Paul”, it says.
That he had a guitar signed by the legend. But Paul Wolff, his friend, a recording console designer, and founder of Tonelux, had some stories to share about the music recording industry, along with Les himself.
What turned out not to be less interesting was the caption on the cover of our next day’s paper: their names ran incorrectly. Doh! I promise that wasn’t my doing. I wrote in my caption that Paul was looking at Larry’s signed guitar, and somehow that evolved into getting the names reversed.
So speaking of people passing away, the health care debate has gotten feisty, eh? Not only is blatant misinformation being passed around, but so is the fake outrage. Or maybe I should say misplaced outrage. How’s that for a segue?
In today’s Washington Post a story ran about the mounting dissent and opposition to the health care proposal. In the article, a woman is quoted expressing her opposition at a recent town hall meeting featuring Sen. Arlen Spector. “What are you going to do about upholding our freedoms? We are the land of the free and the home of the brave!”
Huh?
What does health care reform have to do with upholding freedoms? If anything you could argue that the health care reform movement is about giving more people the opportunity at a level playing field. Which might equate to more freedom.
I wonder if the same woman marched around the streets when the Patriot Act was being rushed through, or when we discovered our phone conversations weren't necessarily private? It’s ridiculous.
If you have a problem with the plan, why not argue about the costs, or it’s sustainability, or maybe ask how we can possibly have private insurers compete with gov’t subsidized care?
“We are the land of the free and home of the brave!” What an idiot.
That makes no sense and blurting it out that way only makes me think of Lois Griffin running for Mayor of Quahog in the show, The Family Guy. She rapidly realizes that in the debates, if she spoke about the issues, no one listened. Her best strategy was to answer every question with “nine-eleven”. Immediately everyone got behind her with raucous cheers and rabid support.
I can’t get beyond the fact that there are a lot of uninformed lemmings out there, and it frightens me that the debate for health care is now centering on debunking ridiculous claims of “death panels” or forced “end-of-life care”.
Have I read all of HR3200? Hell, no. I couldn’t tell you half of what was in there. But as soon as you see a claim of “death panels”, I tippy tap on my computer, and voila! There are a dozen links to web pages devoted to facts and analysis.
In fact, check it out. Here are some links, stay informed:
http://pol.moveon.org/truth/lies.html?rc=ads.adwords.ad12
Yeah, it’s Move On.org. not exactly unbiased, but still, some info in there…
http://factcheck.org/
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/health-care-fact-check/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/22/fact-check-obama-health-care/
The other day, guitarist and music recording icon, Les Paul, passed away. He was 94. It turned out that there were a couple of men in the area who had personal relationships with the man. Larry Muller, a dentist in the area, and an avid guitarist, has a custom-made Gibson Les Paul guitar signed by Les, “Larry, keep pickin’, Les Paul”, it says.
That he had a guitar signed by the legend. But Paul Wolff, his friend, a recording console designer, and founder of Tonelux, had some stories to share about the music recording industry, along with Les himself.
What turned out not to be less interesting was the caption on the cover of our next day’s paper: their names ran incorrectly. Doh! I promise that wasn’t my doing. I wrote in my caption that Paul was looking at Larry’s signed guitar, and somehow that evolved into getting the names reversed.
So speaking of people passing away, the health care debate has gotten feisty, eh? Not only is blatant misinformation being passed around, but so is the fake outrage. Or maybe I should say misplaced outrage. How’s that for a segue?
In today’s Washington Post a story ran about the mounting dissent and opposition to the health care proposal. In the article, a woman is quoted expressing her opposition at a recent town hall meeting featuring Sen. Arlen Spector. “What are you going to do about upholding our freedoms? We are the land of the free and the home of the brave!”
Huh?
What does health care reform have to do with upholding freedoms? If anything you could argue that the health care reform movement is about giving more people the opportunity at a level playing field. Which might equate to more freedom.
I wonder if the same woman marched around the streets when the Patriot Act was being rushed through, or when we discovered our phone conversations weren't necessarily private? It’s ridiculous.
If you have a problem with the plan, why not argue about the costs, or it’s sustainability, or maybe ask how we can possibly have private insurers compete with gov’t subsidized care?
“We are the land of the free and home of the brave!” What an idiot.
That makes no sense and blurting it out that way only makes me think of Lois Griffin running for Mayor of Quahog in the show, The Family Guy. She rapidly realizes that in the debates, if she spoke about the issues, no one listened. Her best strategy was to answer every question with “nine-eleven”. Immediately everyone got behind her with raucous cheers and rabid support.
I can’t get beyond the fact that there are a lot of uninformed lemmings out there, and it frightens me that the debate for health care is now centering on debunking ridiculous claims of “death panels” or forced “end-of-life care”.
Have I read all of HR3200? Hell, no. I couldn’t tell you half of what was in there. But as soon as you see a claim of “death panels”, I tippy tap on my computer, and voila! There are a dozen links to web pages devoted to facts and analysis.
In fact, check it out. Here are some links, stay informed:
http://pol.moveon.org/truth/lies.html?rc=ads.adwords.ad12
Yeah, it’s Move On.org. not exactly unbiased, but still, some info in there…
http://factcheck.org/
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/health-care-fact-check/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/07/22/fact-check-obama-health-care/
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