Odds and Ends, Fall Edition...

First, allow me to apologize to all of you who have stopped by to read my day to day rants. It has been 20 + days since I have logged on and posted any thoughts, and for that I sincerely apologize. The life of the Undecided Philosopher has been unusually hectic, causing my windows to write and think to shrink and dwindle with each passing day. Rest assured that many, many rants have been thought through and outlined in my head as I drive through the Tri-Cities and parts in between; not to mention the inspirations that have been cataloged as I have absorbed much of the political fodder spewing from my TV over the past few weeks. I play on covering as many thought as possible in the coming days, especially leading up to November 7th.

Speaking of November 7th, while listening to/watching/fuming over the Tennessee-Alabama football game this past Saturday, more than one announcer and call-in guest referred to Alabama as the "Red Elephants" coming to Knoxville to wage war with my beloved Volunteers. By the end of Saturday night, Alabama had lost a hotly contested battle in Tennessee. "Red Elephants" losing a hard fought, somewhat dirty and poorly managed contest in Tennessee....hmmmm....premonition? You decide....

Another note of importance involving colors, though in no way related to politics....Last week I found myself driving to work via an alternate route. Instead of my usual sprint up Interstate 81 to Northern Abingdon, I wandered off the Interstate early and drove up Main Street, through the heart of Abingdon proper. I would like to say this journey was out of a sense of nostalgia or a respect for the wonders of a historic town, but, in all honesty, I had forgotten my dry cleaning the afternoon before and I was in dire need of an ironed shirt. That being said, before reaching the dry cleaners, I came to a red light at the bottom of a hill on Main Street just below the Washington County Courthouse, the road angle all but forcing me to stare upward. There before me was a beautiful palette of fall colors, with maples and dogwoods and all other manner of trees displaying their red and orange and yellow leafs. I was basically taken aback and humbled by the beauty and simplicity before me. Right then I was struck by the power of my surroundings and overcome with the sensation that I do not appreciate the area of the country in which I live. Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia is saturated with natural beauty of an almost endless variety. From its mountains and valleys to its forests and rivers, this area is blessed with resources too numerous to mention and we as its inhabitants should be sincerely grateful for all this area provides us. I know at that moment I was. Take a moment this fall season to stop and look around wherever you are. Soak in some of the color and depth that fall in the Appalachians provides. You will be happy you did.

I have much more to say, but no more time to type this evening. Many more thoughts to come, so please keep visiting and reading and commenting as you have time. Until later my friends...

Mr. Fair and Balanced....

I wish to send out my best wishes for a swift recovery to Bill O'Reilly and the staff at Fox News. Obviously, though nothing has been made public, there must have been some type of horrific accident in their studio facilities a couple of days ago resulting in massive head trauma for the entire staff including Mr. O'Reilly. What else could explain the blatant and repeated mis-labeling of Congressman Foley as a Democrat from the state of Florida. This screen tag was posted no less than four times during the initial live broadcast of the "No Spin Zone" on Tuesday evening. Apparently, the mistake was noticed and corrected by the re-airing of the show at 11:00pm that same night, after much of Fox's targeted audience was safely tucked away in their beds.

I normally choose to make no assumptions about motive or intention when issues like this arise because I recognize the natural flaws of humanity and realize that mistakes are made. That being said, the conspiracy theorist in me wants to look at this mistake on Tuesday and scream from the rooftops the obvious hypocrisy saturating the halls of the self-proclaimed "No Spin Zone". My minds eye can envision our Nation's Vice President on the phone with executives at Fox News making comments like "...mistakes happen...I am not asking you to lie, but imagine how helpful it would be if a little problem happened during primetime to muddy the waters..."

According to reports on MSNBC this morning, there have also been reported incidents of confusion in the headline "crawl" on Fox News in which the word "Dems" has replaced "Republicans" in obvious statements about the Foley scandal. I refuse to cast blame on an entire news organization because of the actions of a few individuals, but I do believe it is possible someone at a keyboard somewhere in the studio has been drinking a little too much of the Kool-Aid.