blog on blogging

arianna huffington was on tavis smiley tonight. she was on charlie rose last week. she is promoting her new book about blogging. she looked beautiful, spoke intelligently, and was very sweet. and the script was almost identical on each show.

i met arianna huffington at a day spa in the valley many years ago. she was a regular client, i had an office there. we only said hello and im sure she has no recollection of the event but i have followed her press ever since. and im sure it is that meeting that stimulated her blossoming in the world. she has come a long way since then.

annie leibovitz was also on tavis. she also has a new book. i never met her but i think she would be great to have a glass of wine with. she was unpolished and real. i wish her segment could have been longer -- to let the artist reveal the art... but im sure she will be on charlie rose soon... if he can ever get done with politics and the economy.

i bet charlie rose would be great to have a glass of wine with too... but he would do all the talking and im not so good at listening. oh well. im sure the wine would be good.

wright or wrong

did hilary clinton start the reverend wright controversy? she should be ashamed. or was it john mc cain? he has plenty to be ashamed of... bill moyers hosted jeremiah wright on his pbs talk show a couple days ago and showed clips from the "offensive" sermons. the sermons were not offensive ~ i have said much worse... they were inflammatory, they were righteous, but they were not hateful, unamerican, or lunacy. the man himself presented as very intelligent and compassionate. he was a good preacher. he was literate (besides the bible) and charitable. he may come from a place of anger (a result of the american history of slavery and racism) but it was not blind anger nor illogical.

one sound bite the media has embraced is wrights comments on aids as a government engineered disease to decrease the undesirable and surplus population. an indictment of our media is that no one has mentioned the fact that this idea did not originate with wright. theories such as this have been around since the 1980s and have some plausibility. the media never researched the history of the theory to understand where wrights ideas come from. he is not a lunatic, he just has an unconventional point of view. like einstein or (insert your favorite revolutionary here).

charlie rose hosted a panel on his pbs show last night to try to understand reverend wrights impact on america and the presidential election. it was inadequately stated that right or wrong reverend wrights words are not barack obamas thoughts and it is a shameful example of dirty politics to try to tie them together. and a shameful example of the stupidity of the american public to believe it. no one blames hitlers mother for the holocost.

barack obama who started the campaign as a light and hope has turned into a politician. his disowning of reverend wright was a brillant and necessary political move that should clear up this problem and alleviate the damage. it was however not a brilliant nor necessary spiritual move. while reverend wright could have behaved with a little more dignity and charity when this situation came to a head (and i think in retrospect he will wish he had taken the higher road), the great flaw, the great disappointment, the great tragedy is that obama put politics before loyalty and friendship. a good man abandoned a good man for the "higher good".

the making of the candidate (think robert redford) that is barack obama has also caused him to back pedal on issues like the war. he had been opposed to the war. now, pope benedict and ted turner are the only ones who do not waffle on this. and im not voting for the pope.

now you see why im not political ~ the whole process is full of politicians!