State of The Union

He's talking about me:

> Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have
> lost faith that our biggest institutions – our
> corporations, our media, and yes, our government
> – still reflect these same values. Each of these
> institutions are full of honorable men and women
> doing important work that helps our country
> prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for
> failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for
> his own selfish gain, people’s doubts grow. Each
> time lobbyists game the system or politicians
> tear each other down instead of lifting this country
> up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce
> serious debates into silly arguments, and big
> issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away.
>
> No wonder there’s so much cynicism out there.
>
> No wonder there’s so much disappointment.

I lost any such illusions ages ago.

The bit about TV pundits came on the heels of having deliberately tried to watch the run up to the address on Fox News. Bill O'Reiley was hosting. His guest was some cretin whose name escapes me who responded to a prompt about climate change by saying words to the effect that he wanted to drive his huge SUV down is long driveway from his huge house, and that if you couldn't do that without worrying about carbon dioxide then what's the use of having a planet anyway.

What an asshole.

Right about then my son looked over at me and asked if they weren't showing the address on PBS. Having had my fill of TV pundits and silly arguments, we switched to PBS.

in reference to:

"Unfortunately, too many of our citizens have lost faith that our biggest institutions – our corporations, our media, and yes, our government – still reflect these same values. Each of these institutions are full of honorable men and women doing important work that helps our country prosper. But each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people’s doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates into silly arguments, and big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away. No wonder there’s so much cynicism out there. No wonder there’s so much disappointment."
- 2010 Barack Obama State Of The Union Address (view on Google Sidewiki)