June 10, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Why does Fox News have such influence?

Seriously, why are they allowed to set the agenda so often? Why doesn’t the rest of the news media just ignore them instead of taking the stories they create and making them appear as something?

Fox News gets better ratings, but the average age of its viewers is 71. I am not making this up. It’s the network for old retired people who sit at home, angry at the world, holding onto biases and prejudices thrown out by the generations that followed them. Why are we letting a bunch of cranky 71 year olds dictate our media policies?

Fox has consistently been found to be promoting lies and disinformation. The watchdog web sites have called them out many more times than they have the real media. It’s hardly “fair and balanced” (in fact, that is one of their biggest lies).

They post misleading charts that their gullible viewers believe. They push rumors as if they were facts. They continue to insist that conspiracies exist behind every door, despite being called out over and over again about their lies.

And they don’t care, because they’re not a news network — they’re a propaganda machine. So why do rational news reporters feel like they have to cover the same stories just because Fox does? Why don’t they just ignore Fox when it says outlandish things about our veterans or when they say that Hillary Clinton has brain damage and so on?

That’s the mystery.

They certainly give political satirists like Jon Stewart plenty of source material, though.

(And no, just to cut off the inevitable bitching that “MSNBC is just as bad!” there are huge differences between the two.)

Editorial cartoon: Every man left behind

June 9, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Republicans know what them women folk want

A few weeks ago, Republicans in Colorado had a debate about “women’s issues” so their all-male slate of candidates could discuss the things women want. MichGOP They ran the debate like “The Dating Game” — including the theme music — because women clearly want their representatives to woo them like a suitor.

I am not making this up.

This week, Michigan Republicans wanted to show their solidarity with women by tweeting a picture of the all-male group reading “women’s magazines” with the text “Don’t say we don’t understand women.”

If I have to explain to you why this is wrong, you may be a Republican.

Editorial cartoon: I’m not a scientist…

June 8, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

The Beatles remixed and remastered

I was thrilled when Apple released the remastered Beatles albums a few years ago. The songs sounded so clean and crisp. It was immediately noticeable on songs like “Dear Prudence” and the early work (wow, you can actually hear the bass now!). They even fixed the mistake on “Day Tripper”!

However, it was not all that I had hoped for.

While the songs were remastered, they were not remixed. The Beatles worked in mono up until “Abbey Road”, and the stereo mixes were an afterthought. The earlier albums have all the instruments on one side and all the vocals on the other, which is very jarring and not pleasing. Later albums are almost as bad.

When Apple released the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” they remixed and remastered the songs, and the results are wonderful. Compare “Nowhere Man” to the original version on “Rubber Soul” and you can hear the difference. The multi-tracked vocals surround you. I can imagine that if the Beatles had the technology back in 1966, this is how they would have wanted it to sound. And then on the “Love” album, we finally got “I Am The Walrus” in true stereo, something I had waited 40 years to hear.

So my dream is that Apple is doing this for all of the albums. I mean, why wouldn’t they? People like me will rush out to buy the whole set, and they’ll make another vault full of money.

I also would love for them to get rid of the “Past Masters” albums and add those extra songs onto the CDs, where there is plenty of room. I’d also include songs that were completed but never released (until the Anthology albums.) Here’s where the extra songs would go:

PLEASE PLEASE ME

Love Me Do (single version)
From Me To You
Thank You Girl
How Do You Do It

WITH THE BEATLES

She Loves You
I’ll Get You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
This Boy
Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand
Sie Liebt Dich

A HARD DAY’S NIGHT

Long Tall Sally
I Call Your Name
Slow Down
Matchbox

BEATLES FOR SALE

I Feel Fine
Leave My Kitten Alone
She’s a Woman
Bad Boy

HELP!

I’m Down
Yes It Is
If You’ve Got Troubles

RUBBER SOUL

Day Tripper
We Can Work It Out

REVOLVER

Paperback Writer
Rain

SGT. PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND

Only a Northern Song

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

Hey Bulldog
All Together Now
It’s All Too Much

THE BEATLES (WHITE ALBUM)

Not Guilty
Across the Universe (original version)
Lady Madonna
The Inner Light
Revolution
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (“Love” version)
Hey Jude

LET IT BE

Don’t Let Me Down
The Ballad of John and Yoko
Old Brown Shoe
You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)
Get Back (single version)
Let it Be (single version)

ABBEY ROAD

Real Love
Free as a Bird

Editorial cartoon: Opening floodgates

June 6, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Wisconsin joins the 21st century

I love writing these posts.

Wisconsin has now joined 26 other states where either the legislature has passed marriage equality or a judge has ruled that they anti-marriage law was unconstitutional. (In some of those states, those decisions are still on appeal.) Like Pennsylvania, it is surrounded by states that had been performing gay marriages for years without a single adverse affect.

It’s inevitable. It’s been inevitable for years. And finally, many on the right are acknowledging it. The fever in their fight is gone. Governor Corbett, here in Pennsylvania, didn’t even appeal the decision, and there’s no great movement in the state to urge him to do so (since the majority of people here are in favor of gay marriage).

Still, there are some who continue to argue that laws preventing people from marrying are perfectly constitutional. Their reasons make no sense (as every judge has held) but yet they keep making them.

These people are overwhelmingly elderly. They’re stuck in the 20th century. And I know it sounds cruel, but they are dying off — along with their antiquated notions of marriage.

Editorial cartoon: Before and after

June 5, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

A warning to soldiers

If you lay your life on the line for America, be forewarned: We may not try to rescue you if you get captured.

This is a new policy, urged on by Republicans. Yes, yes, I know — they always claim they “support the troops” but it’s similar to the way they are pro-life. Their love for babies ends after birth, and their love for soldiers ends after they enlist.

From what I can gather, the GOP supports a policy of not making sure every soldier that is captured is returned. Apparently if they think you might be someone they don’t like, then we should not rescue you. A trial to determine your guilt is unnecessary.

This is completely unprecedented in American history, as all the Generals and military personnel have explained. In fact, this is the exact same policy that got John McCain freed from an enemy prison, something he has apparently forgotten (which is not too surprising, because months ago he was criticizing Obama for not making this deal).

So no matter what we used to do, things have changed! Once more, the goal of destroying this president outweighs whatever harm comes to this nation. (A side note: A few responsible Republicans have refused to jump on this anti-American bandwagon, and they should be applauded.)

Obama has refused to back down or give in to the complainers. Here’s what he said:

“This is not some abstraction; this is not some political football. You have a couple of parents whose kid volunteered to fight in a distant land, who they hadn’t seen in five years, and weren’t sure whether they’d ever see again. And as commander in chief of the United States armed forces, I am responsible for those kids. I write too many letters to folks who unfortunately don’t see their children again after fighting a war. I make absolutely no apologies for making sure that we get back a young man to his parents, and that the American people understand that this is somebody’s child, and that we don’t condition whether or not we make the effort to try and get them back.”

So it’s time to rethink our recruiting posters. “I Want YOU” needs to have an asterisk, with the note “unless you can be used in a way that harms our political rivals.”