Even More Radio Fun: The Audible Blog

This page will contain selected clips of ranting, raving and bloviation on various subjects, some serious (and some not so much) from my PowerTalk 1210 radio program.

The Sex Box:   Bold Television for a Bold Age
Or is it amoral television for an amoral age?  You decide.  My goal with this rant was to make our board operator and producer, Mark Ulm, blow coffee out his nose, and I pretty much succeeded.  And everything I said was true.

 

Video:  The Sexual Harassment of "Pretty Woman" deconstructed and fixed
Now we know:  thanks to ihollaback.org opening our eyes, we understand that saying "hello" to a woman on the street constitutes sexual harassment.  This video shows us precisely how Roy Orbison steered us wrong, and offers a fix.

The "we love our country" flash mob:  A couple of hundred people came together at the Tucson Mall for a really simple reason:  To express their love of their country.  This cell phone video clip contains some of the highlights, a quick interview with a couple of fans who explain why they came, and some shots of PowerTalk 1210 host and station manager Jim Parisi greeting participants.  Many thanks to everyone who attended for making this event a huge success.

Immigration Policy Deceptions
On Thursday (10/23) I read brief excerpts from a USA Today news item showing how the Obama administration had misled the public regarding the release of 2,200 illegal immigrants in 2013.  It sparked quite the discussion.  Here, I go into more details about what the article meant, and how it fits a pattern of deception and stonewalling from this administration.

Martha McSally, Ron Barber & Guns

One of our loyal listeners wanted to know where District 2 Congressional candidates Ron Barber, the Democratic incumbent, and Republican challenger Martha McSally stand on guns.  That subject has been an acrimonious one in this campaign.  Here we look back on what's been said and done.

Is Ron Barber a "lapdog?"

A flurry of political ads, fueled by money from outside Arizona, is trying to convince you that Ron Barber, the Democratic incumbent in Arizona's Congressional District 2, is a stooge for his party, unable to think for himself.  Is that true?  The actual facts may surprise you.  I looked into that just on my PowerTalk 1210 program; this is the excerpt, and I made some interesting discoveries.  (Note:  I take no position in this race, and I admire both Barber and Republican Martha McSally.  This just looks at this one flight of attack ads.)

The VA Scandal
We spent the entire (shortened) show on Thursday (9/18/14) digging into the Congressional hearing on the VA scandal.  Here's the discussion, minus commercials.   (Hearing audio is courtesy of CSPAN.)

My Mom vs. Jerry Lee Lewis
According to family legend, rock 'n' roll pioneer Jerry Lee Lewis once placed a call to my mother.  It didn't go as anyone expected.

Empire State Building vs Cancer Moms
Fooey on those mean old flinty-hearted you-know-whats at the Empire State Building, who told parents and supporters of young cancer victims that they're a bunch of bullies.  The World Trade Center, technology permitting, will step up for kid cancer awareness, joining Times Square and the Coney Island Parachute Jump.  Good on you, New York City!

The Empire State Building tells cancer kid parents they're a bunch of irresponsible, abusive bullies.

In Praise of the TV News Swooshie
When news breaks on television, do we really need all that dramatic music and those swooshie sound effects?  Apparently we do.  Confessions of a former TV news director, as heard on the Forrest Carr show on PowerTalk 1210.

The Vom Com
Celebrating Hollywood's exciting new genre:  The VomCom (radio version).  Lately Hollywood has become obsessed with -- well, give it a listen.  If you dare.

A foolproof way to get rid of a telephone solicitor:  Listen to what I said when one called me.  Yes, you can do this at home.

What the Philly doctor shooting says about the media and guns:  We now know that the Philadelphia-area nutjob who killed his mental health caseworker probably would have taken out many more victims at the hospital had his psychiatrist not been armed and fought back.   The killer came with 39 more rounds than he got a chance to use.  We discussed this issue at length on my radio show Friday.  Shortly after the story broke, the vast majority of the initial media attention focused not on the shooter and the question of why a mentally unstable man was in possession of a gun, but instead on the doctor, questioning why he was armed.  We broke this coverage down on my show from a journalistic standpoint.  That clip is below.

DHS' Ingenious Catch-23  To understand the Department of Homeland Security's near total blackout on news about the current immigration crisis, it helps to know this: the agency has come up with an absolutely brilliant system for deflecting media inquiries--as I found out personally. It is, in fact, a stroke of pure genius that more properly belongs within the pages of an absurdist novel.   (The video clip below is an experiment in posting a video blog.)

I am not late with my medical payment.  So why are these people yelling at me?