Today’s Heroine – Janeane Garofalo

For no particular reason, I always liked the actress/comedian Janeane Garofalo. There is just something about her that interests me, maybe it’s her anger, or her glasses, or her general dislike of idiots and the fact she is not quiet about it. Anyway, it was no big deal, just a general liking that if asked, “Hey, do you like that actress Janeane Garofalo?”, I’d say, “Yeah, she is great in Wet Hot American Summer. I love that flick.”

Then the other day I watched this documentary narrated by Janeane Garofalo entitled, “Dangerous Living: Coming Out In The Developing World“. It is about the lives of gays, lesbians and transgender people living in the Global South in the present time and the homophobia and injustice they face. I found it interesting that a heterosexual comedian/actress was narrating this indie documentary about homosexuals. I remembered someone telling me awhile back that she was a part of this liberal internet radio station Air America and was crazy political, so it made some sense I guess. I was interested and decided to do some Garofalo investigating. What I found out is she is no longer with the station and is acting on some TV shows [not sure which and it doesn’t matter as I don’t have a television]. The station itself was sold to some corporation that recently suspended this host Randi Rhodes for calling Hillary Clinton, a whore over and over again at some Air America, San Francisco event she was doing some shtick at. Here is my opinion on this; I feel whore is a negative term created by men to degrade women. I personally am not into women degrading women in an unproductive way, but I am into people having the right to say whatever they want, I just prefer it to be intelligent. Anyway, after the station suspended her, she resigned. I would have staid and fought, but not knowing the whole story I shouldn’t really say that…but I will anyway!

OK, sorry back to Janeane. During my Garofalo investigating/stalking I found this video on YouTube of Janeane in an interview on Fox News with Brian Kilmeade and two other reporters I don’t care enough to find out the names of, from February 2003.

This is why she is today’s heroine, not only is she well read and intelligent, she did not jump up and sucker punch Brian Kilmeade, who was trying desperately to silence her voice and make her out to be an anti-American, Saddam supporter. Fox news is disgusting. The reason they were number one at the time is they are an entertainment, fluff network. Their news is a joke, and yes all network news is a joke, but Fox News is the champion of crap.

Do not support America’s televised news! It only exists to sell you crap and distract you from the truth.

-Cara

Reason 88 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Just as smokestack emissions result in acid rain, toxic fumes from decomposing livestock waste in open-air lagoons on factory farms become poisonous to fish when returned to waterways via rainfall. The errant ammonia also ravages terrestrial ecosystems. Since Earth’s plant species evolved to efficiently use scarce amounts of nutrients, today’s gluts will generally kill them. Fallout can degrade environments as far away as 300 miles.

Stop Big Media Dot Com

A topic I have left alone so far is big media. It is such an enormous issue to discuss, much less conquer, that I am brought down just thinking about it. I was doing research today on who own what media firms. Who has their little dirty fingers where and in the process I found this site StopBigMedia.com.

What’s So Bad about Big Media you may ask, well according to StopBigMedia.com,

• Big Media fail local communities. Big Media companies get a sweet deal from the government. They get to use the public airwaves — for free — to make billions in profits. In exchange for this government handout, broadcasters are supposed to serve the public by offering quality programs that meet the needs of local communities. Instead, Big Media companies gut local newsrooms and ignore local issues.
• Big Media ignore diversity. Big Media have limited ownership opportunities for women and people of color, pushing them off the public airwaves and stifling vital voices. Coverage of issues that matter to people of color, women, the middle and working class, and rural communities has disappeared. The result? Media that fail to represent our nation’s diversity.
• Big Media are bad for democracy. Democracy can’t exist without an informed public. We rely on unbiased news from independent sources to stay informed and to hold our government accountable. But media consolidation means fewer sources of news, opinion and information. Instead of hard-hitting critical journalism, Big Media give us a junk diet of celebrity gossip and sensationalism.

I like what I have seen so far, but I haven’t spent hours on it. I think is cool and their site is not saturated with ads for crap pens and free credit reports like most media companies’ sites.

Turn off the news, stay off their web sites. They are perpetuating the belief that the world is much worse than it is, but wouldn’t you feel better if you bought something…anything…

I would prefer a hug.

Turn off your TV!

-Cara

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Reason 26 from, 101 Reasons Why I Am Vegetarian:

Birds are cheap and cages are expensive, so battery hens live out their dreary days in space just about the size of their own bodies. No hen gets to run, build a nest, enjoy a cleansing dust bath, protect a chick, forage in the sun, perch, fly, or even lift a wing. Instead, this creature will crouch and suffer and fend off the feather pulling of cage mates. And every egg that is laid will roll away down the slope of a wire floor, which will also cripple her legs and feet.