LA FLORIDIANA Book Review: “Seasons of Real Florida” by Jeff Klinkenberg  by Will Moriaty
THIS WEEK'S MOVIE REVIEW "Mr.  3000"  by Mike Smith
ODDSERVATIONS How Pop Culture Drives Horror/Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films  by Andy Lalino
COUCH POTATO Fanzine Memoirs, Part 3....Advent #2 Memoirs by William Moriaty   by Vinnie Blesi
SPLASH PAGE It Begins In The Fifth Grade?....Andy Is Right....Coming Soon To A Message Board Near You  by Brandon Jones
MATT'S RAIL I'd "Rather" Not....Rodney, You Have My Respect....Top Ten Challenge  by Matt Drinnenberg
MIKE'S RANT Gabba Gabba Hey....Get Well....Thanks, Hugo....What The....Passing On....Meet The Beatles, Part 35  by Mike Smith
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IT BEGINS IN THE FIFTH GRADE?

I vividly remember my first school dance, particularly my dance with a girl. Her name was Melissa and I only spoke to her on the bus as our “school lives” went in opposite directions. Petrified to ask her to dance, I waited until the “last call” and she accepted. We danced to Journey’s “Open Arms”. My confidence was shattered as I actually had friends picking on me for slow dancing with a girl. Of course, they looked on from the sidelines.

Fast forward to last Friday night, when my eldest, the 10-year-old genius, has her first dance. My wife embraced this far, far better than I could have ever dreamed. The dance however, was not formal in any way, and in fact, was more like a DJ orchestrated music video.

All in all, it was fun and kids were having a great time and then it happened…

“Boy’s choice” then “Girl’s choice”: two slow dances to finish up the night.

I was tortured just watching my nervous daughter and he friends. They surveyed the crowd as they chomped on their nails. Horrible!!!

Fighting back tears she returned to me and we left. The soap opera of my kid’s school was briefly outlined for me, but in a nutshell: there’s the boy she likes, but he may not like her, because he danced with the picked the pretty girl that none of the other her friends like because she’s stupid. Should I even go on?

The point is this: she is ten. In fact, there are younger kids at the dance. Do we really need to ruin the energy pumping, fun filled evening with the socially stressed decisions of slow dancing.

Silly me, the schools are full of experts that no what’s best for my kid. That’s why they’re editing textbooks, eliminating organized physical education activities and focusing on the standardized tests that determine funding.

How come no one was there to help with damage control to my daughter’s social confidence?

ANDY IS RIGHT.

I’ll say it again, so Lalino can use his cut and paste. Lalino is right.

The bias in the news is NOT the same as Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly. The term media is thrown around WAY to loosely and I admit that I’m guilty also. The Dan Rather scandal is such a BIG deal because CBS was involved in the fabrication of a document that they claimed was true. This whole situation was very Nixon-esque.

The message boards house most of this general conversation, because the topic bears discussion. The “media” is composed of news and opinions and the general public can’t seem to keep that straight, particularly when there’s no effort to do so.

Andy mentioned how many of the conservative shows that are pointed right are for entertainment purposes, not reporting the news (of course, there’s FOX news.) But the bigger problem is two fold: first, Matt’s comment last week “Just watch the news.” Or read the paper – this isn’t true anymore. The agendas mask the news. Read Goldberg’s book entitled “Bias” and you’ll see a completely new world out there.

Second, what is the news anymore? We have countless sources, websites etc…but the main news centers still remain and the stories are passed along. Remember the experiment in school where you told the person next to something and then they told another and another and when it gets to you it has morphed into a completely different story.

That’s it entirely.

Rush tells his story, O’Reilly another, Chris Mathews, and now CBS? I disagree repeatedly with others on the message boards and Nolan himself, particularly because I don’t see the source material mentioned. What the NY Times and CNN says can’t be taken for fact. Michael Moore’s movie is great for the fact that it should instigate you to research the WHOLE truth not just the nugget he gave you.

Dan Rather’s apology was with the source NOT the story. I don’t personally care about the story, but do personally believe Bush got a few favors during National Guard. I don’t care about it any more or less than I care about the validity of Kerry’s purple hearts. But that’s still MY OPINION and it’s Rather’s and CBS’ that the story is true.

But they can’t prove it, so it’s NOT news and they should apologize for that.

COMING SOON TO A MESSAGE BOARD NEAR YOU

I wasn’t a big fan of the message board, but one thing is for sure – it’s easy to get information and exchange opinions with the readers and writers. I enjoy the bantering and your comments.

Expect to see more political ranting and my review of the new Star Wars DVDs.