Day 237: The Readings of the Day

 

August 25th, 2011After my brief adventure at EHS this morning, I decided to carry out mundane tasks of the day by first busing home to my apartment, and then walking to McDonald’s for a quick and unhealthy lunch. Fast Food = ERROR IN MY STOMACH. Big Macs are so bad for you, but also very delicious, so I jammed them down my stomach before heading back home, where I accidentally fell into a deep food coma, taking a 2 hour nap (instead of doing P90x, sadly). When I woke up, I was hungry again, so me and Pam went ahead and got more fast food (Gross) at Carl’s Jr. In comparing a Star burger to a big Mac, I must say the Star tastes better. Nevertheless though, the two trips to fast food locales makes me officially $18 over budget for the month and my stomach in a very bubbly and unhealthy state. Sad Times. Afterwards, we headed to Barnes and Nobles so Pam could study, while I caught up on summer reading. I read some tween magazine, the terrible Time and Newsweek magazine (which oh so blatantly ignores Ron Paul as a legitimate candidate running for 2012 office), and some self-help books. One fascinating one was the “Happiness Project” which lured me into deep hypnopsis with its wonderful tips for being happy. We talked for a bit before I ultimately headed home, where I saw Tyler in crutches. Sad Times.

On this day in 1835, the first in a series of six articles announcing the supposed discovery of life on the moon appears in the New York Sun newspaper. Known collectively as “The Great Moon Hoax,” the articles were supposedly reprinted from the Edinburgh Journal of Science. The byline was Dr. Andrew Grant, described as a colleague of Sir John Herschel, a famous astronomer of the day. Herschel had in fact traveled to Capetown, South Africa, in January 1834 to set up an observatory with a powerful new telescope. As Grant described it, Herschel had found evidence of life forms on the moon, including such fantastic animals as unicorns, two-legged beavers and furry, winged humanoids resembling bats. The articles also offered vivid description of the moon’s geography, complete with massive craters, enormous amethyst crystals, rushing rivers and lush vegetation. IS IT TRUE?!?!?!?

Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, an Iowa native, won the Republicans’ Ames, Iowa Straw Poll on August 13. That fact was reported by most of the national media. However, in an incredible display of conformity bias, virtually all of the major media blacked out the fact that Rep. Ron Paul of Texas came in a close second, in a virtual tie with Bachmann, with less than one percentage point difference between them. On many of the major media news shows and Sunday talk programs, the network “analysts” and guest “experts” mentioned every GOP presidential candidate (and some who are not candidates: Palin, Trump, Christie) — every candidate, that is, except Ron Paul, who had just accomplished a huge underdog victory. The glaring hypocrisy of the “lamestream media” commentators in pretending to be objectively reporting on the event while blatantly censoring Ron Paul out of existence was too much for liberal comedian/commentator Jon Stewart of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. Stewart blasted (see here and here) the media, using clips from CNN, FOX, NBC, etc. to show their almost comical uniformity in declaring Bachmann, Mitt Romney, and Texas Governor Rick Perry to be the designated “top tier” GOP candidates, and to expose the media’s outrageous and unfair efforts to consign Ron Paul to political oblivion. The Stewart media spanking went viral, with hundreds of versions of the video being posted on YouTube and other Internet sites (most of which have since been removed by Viacom, Comedy Central’s parent company, for copyright infringement). INDEED. RON PAUL 2012!

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