Couch 248: Curiouser and Curiouser

There's some sort of organized run in the park next to my house today. People are already starting to line up at this ungodly hour in the morning and parking is tight so the runners are parking all over my neighborhood. It has my dogs all in a dither.

Hmm. My mother had several long-term lesbian girlfriends over the years, but she said that was them, not her. She was just very open-minded. Just about this one thing, apparently! Ha ha, at first i wrote thong, not thing.

Lemon, @@ ran into her t at a gym locker room. Nudity ensued.

Comrade, i have a Calphalon teapot and a Coach coin purse.

I had a deeply closeted acquaintance who had been married for 35+ years and had two children before finally getting together with a good friend of mine the last few years of their lives – at the funeral for the closeted acquaintance they had a video put together of photographs from her life – aside from her sons there were absolutely no photographs of men – all of the photos were of her with women which was hilarious to us because she had constantly denied being lesbian – she wasn't lesbian she was just in love with Jane

Thanks, Lost. I did really enjoy the show! I think it's what I needed. Not just from the Dr. T thing, but from the stress of life in general the past couple weeks (mold remediation mainly). Dancing and singing along with the audience was just very freeing and connecting at the same time.

Thanks for the explanation Una.

Not directly related to your comment, but oooh you’re so fancy! I am lusting after a heart jshaped Le Creuset pot. Will get an Amazon dupe, when I move again.

H is on his way to El Paso again on a job; he won't be home til probably 3am. And like a dummy I'm sitting here depressing myself writing a poem borrowing a line from an Edgar Allan Poe poem, using it as the first line of mine. Oh well. It's working, for sure, I'm actually quite liking it, it's just a tad dark. I'm putting it away to come back to later; time to go feed Penelope and then go watch some mindless TV for a while.

Maybe you do need to get the dark feelings out Art. Come back to it with a cup of tea and see how you can improve on it.

Did you guys see that article in the New York Post . They sure threw Dr F under the bus.

We now know the likely truth about COVID, and how scientists lied

The £1 Billion pound court case against AstraZeneca also started in the UK and a new case also filed against them 5 days ago by an American woman. In addition to a second Pfizer whistleblower cropping up.

It’s lawyers who run the world, only they can get to the truth.

FYI. I'm not sure if you're aware, but the NY Post is a right wing tabloid owned by News Corp/Murdoch family. Here in the U.S. it is not a well regarded or respected news source due to publishing mostly click-bait style sensational stuff -not based in facts or fact checking.

I'm not going to comment on the article itself, but NY Post is definitely not a source where you will find anything written by professional journalists who adhere to ethical guidelines for gathering and writing the news.

Thanks for saying this! As a former journalist, it's hard for me to see people put their trust in publications that are clearly biased (I mean, not counting editorials and things like that).

I wonder what news sources are neutral and impartial. For example, the BBC are well regarded (by most, not all), but are not the impartial reporters which their reputation claims. They are pro-monarchy; they are often a part of the news creation rather than external observers; they frequently make factually incorrect statements about internal politics such as devolution; are pro UK union; etc. I think people tend to consider left leaning or liberal news sources as more credible (such as The Guardian or Al Jezeera or Channel 4 News), but they are not impartial - albeit arguably less sensationalist. I am not defending tabloid news, but I don't think truly credible news is easily accessible.

The tone of the article was very much "gotcha!" Facts should speak for themselves. I don't like a news article to sound like it is rushing to a conclusion, skipping over a fact or two, and this one definitely gave me that impression.

Most all news has some lean- whether right or left. Some more than others. However, there is a difference between a slight lean (or bias) and outright unethical and untruthful reporting. The latter seeks primarily to confuse and muddle the facts in order to instill fear, propaganda and misinformation. News tabloids fall into this category.

And while many respectable news sources may have a lean, they don't all attempt to hide their bias by presenting it as fact. So when reporting news (rather than opinion) they adhere to ethical principals of presenting both sides while sticking to verifiable facts that will not spread misinformation and/or known propaganda. The NY Post is not a reputable news source. That is a fact.

There are a few neutral news sources. One can do their own research to figure out what those are if they are so inclined. There is quite a bit of research out there on the subject. I get most of my news from a variety of news sources (on the spectrum from neutral to left leaning). Consume whatever media you want- just educate yourself on where it is coming from and what the goal of the source may be.

But that is my point - even supposedly reputable news sources spread misinformation either by error or hidden agenda. Presenting both sides of an argument as balanced news reporting is actually an example of creating news which is based on opinion rather than simply presenting fact. It involves a kind of insidious bias which feeds polarisation, affords value to both sides, explores argument rather fact. As I said, I am not supporting tabloid journalism and I agree that people need to consider the bias of the source - but even your examples of neutrality do not qualify as such. Neutrality doesn't mean presenting argument A alongside argument B, it means sidestepping argument altogether and unfortunately, most people don't want dry fact. They (we) want something instructive which chimes with their (our) approach to information.

Agreed. At the core I think my point is the same as yours. To be aware that media is biased in some form and we should educate ourselves about that and be very mindful of that. And more specifically that there is a big difference between biased yet credible (fact based) news and biased yet non-credible news (ie: with little to no basis in fact).

The only reason I commented in the first place was to point out that the source in question is absolutely a tabloid and not in any way a source of credible fact-based information (regardless of the bias). If you love reading that kind of tabloid stuff and wild opinion is your jam (whether it skews left or right) then more power to ya. I've heard that the NY Post has an outstanding horoscope section.

Edited for clarity

Thanks LT. Vomiting stopped that morning. L thinks it was just my body literally and figuratively getting stuff out. I think it was a diabetic med tbh.

Move is almost done. One more run to get left over things. We're two nights here and both H and I haven't had nightmares about my sister.

Dogs are adjusting pretty well. They know where their pee pads are and where water is. The poor puppy though learned what a screen door is last night. She ran into it 6 times in a row.

It's a lot of work organizing and unpacking. I have the kitchen almost done. But I don't have any other room started. We're going stinky for right now.

Oh and it's so nice being in a place that allows smoking. Last place didn't allow it even though I did it for 2 years.

Last thing that really sucked. I fell over the tv counters equipment yesterday. Banged up my knee and elbow really bad. Just bumps, scratches and bruises.

I think you might be misinterpreting my intention and stance. I don't enjoy tabloid reading and I don't think it advances our understanding. I agree that such news sources are unreliable and dangerous. However, I think that reliability in news is more nuanced than credible vs uncredible source. Anyway, must dash. My moon is rising in Aries and it's playing havoc with my ascending Uranus (this one is for you, una).

I’ve personally followed the Covid story for a long time, so wouldn’t rely on the general newspapers, but posted the article because it was recently retweeted by Elon Musk who has a huge following on Twitter. The NIH admitting to gain of function research is not new information, but it meant that it gained greater visibility because of Mr Musk.

For Covid information I followed Jikkyleaks, all the risks.com (Jonathan wiseman). Arron Siri (the lawyer who sued the FDA for access to the Pfizer documents) for the group PHMPT.

PHMPT
Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency - Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency

React 19 for the largest database of studies
Published Science Database - React19

Also other doctors like Angus Dalgleish and Masanori Fukushima who had spent more time in research than I had been alive.

I also always liked the Metro, because it would publish Horoscopes. We would read them in class in year 11. Even the Evening Standard had them. I’m a Virgo, but not sure what my rising and moon status is .

I understand your stance and agree. Of course there is nuance within the human tendency/construct of bias, particularly as it relates to media consumption and creation.

However, I personally don't think there is much nuance to be found in the following statement: The NY Post is a right wing tabloid and generally considered to be an unreliable news source. Period.

Whether there is or ever can be such a thing as a completely reliable news source is nuanced and complicated. I don't claim to know the answer, so I do my best to aggregate news from a variety of sources that I personally find to be credible, if not biased. Like I said, I'm aware that the sources I tend to read range from leaning neutral to leaning left.

Curious, where do you get your news if no source can be trusted because all sources contain bias?

I don't follow horoscopes, but yours sounds serious. Best of luck to you.

I am not sure how to say this more clearly: I am not defending the NY Post or any other tabloid news. It's obviously unreliable, there is no interesting debate to be had on that point.

Lemon - well, virgo. Im aquarius. How have we managed to stay friends for this long?! Also, i am in my twilight years, so i am way to tired to join you in your stance now, altho perhaps 50 years ago we would have been shoulder to shoulder in fighting to discover the truth.

Sorry, I edited my post before you replied. Then it sounds like we agree on the points that media is biased and the NY Post is trash! Done and done.

Don't know if this link will work but here is a pic from a recent hike I took in the Bay Area.

Back to a mental health topic for the couch. I've found that hiking or even just being outdoors is very helpful for my mood. It is rather hot and humid where I am today but I'm heading out for a bike ride now.

It is 92F here today - the humidity is not super high for here -but it is a bit unnatural to be this hot in May. Sadly, in the swampiness of the area I live, if you didn't go out because of humidity - you would be huddled inside year round. I have been emptying the portable dehumidifiers more than we usually have to do in spring.