Segment 1
VOTERS DIM ON GOVERNMENT, BRIGHT ABOUT FUTURE.
Most U.S. voters think the country is on the wrong track and remain deeply unhappy with President George W. Bush and Congress, but still feel good about their finances and optimistic about the future, according to a recent Reuters/Zogby poll.
“Voters unhappy with Bush; Congress”, http://news.yahoo.com, Wed., July 18th, 2007
Is this political cognitive dissonance healthy? Are people becoming less involved in politics because they feel what politicians do have little relevance to their daily lives? Have we chosen to ignore politicians because they have chosen to ignore us?
THE NEWS MEDIA IS OLD NEWS WITH YOUNG ADULTS.
Most teenagers and adults 30 and younger are not following the news closely at all. This is the finding in a report, titled “Young People and News,” released last week by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
“Young adults are giving newspapers scant notice”, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/16/business/media/
”Breaking the News”, Wired Magazine, pp. 86, August 2007
Are these media habits a result of the rejection of the content of the traditional media outlets or just a reflection of new habits based on the change in media delivery options? Why do young adults place little value in consuming traditional news?
WATCHING TV IS COSTING YOU MILLIONS
A recent study found that it would take $1 million for someone to be willing to give up TV for the rest of their lives. Guess what? If you decided to give up TV and invested the money you saved, you would get that $1 million -- and probably a lot more. People rarely consider the cost of watching TV, and when they do, they usually focus on the cost of their monthly cable bill. The truth is that there are a wide variety of costs associated directly and indirectly with having a TV.
“How to earn $1 Million dollars not watching TV” http://biz.yahoo.com, TheStreet.com
So if people turn off their TV for an hour a week and listen to “The HUB Radio Show” instead, it will save them $200 a year in consumer spending.
Segment 2
Live Talkback segment
So does watching TV keep you out of the store because so that it saves you money or does it just make you a more impulsive shopper so you actually grab up more when you’re there? What about the loss in productivity/creative energy? Passive pursuits verses active pursuits?
Segment 3
HEALTH CRISIS – SICKO OR FATSO?
Michael Moore’s mockumentary “Sicko” is once again stirring up debate over our overburdened health system. One of the proven causes of many of our health related problems is the preventable problem of obesity. A recent report from John Hopkins University found if people keep gaining weight at the current rate, fat will be the norm by 2015, with 75 percent of U.S. adults overweight and 41 percent obese.
“75 percent of Americans overweight by 2015”, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19845784, July 07
It seems Michael Moore wants to blame the medical establishment for the poor health of our population when the real problem seems to be our own unhealthy lifestyles. Why does our culture tend to demand that the government must bail our fat butts out of situations we create for ourselves?
“Obesity – How We Grew So Big”, Time Magazine, June 7, 2004
Can we blame it on society? New types of leisure habits? Technology making us more sedentary?
Faceoff Debate – Wendy Wright vs. ????
(Topic in Washington Memo section, Time Magazine, July 30)
Segment 4
THE AMERICAN HEALTH CRISIS (cont’d)
Segment 5
VICK’S VICE IN A DOG EAT DOG WORLD
So Arthur Blank’s Falcons have found a way to put Atlanta back on the map with the federal indictment of one star quarterback, Michael Vick. It seems the man loves a good dogfight and loves punishing the loser with more spunk than a German Olympic boxer during the height of the Third Reich (in other words, tortured or dead).
“Falcons’ Vick indicted by grand jury in dogfighting probe”
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn, July 18, 2007
What is it about professional athletes that causes them to pursue such destructive hobbies? Too much idle time? Too many resources? Is it nature (the environment in which their placed and anyone would have a tendency to act the same in a given environment) or nurture (the way in which they were raised). In other words, bad parents or wrong place/wrong time? What does an interest in something like dogfighting say about someone? How does one become so sadistic when they’re surrounded by such a high society and public professional world? What causes people to develop a dark side when they have everything anyone could supposedly want in life?