Advertisers for Mark Levin

I live in Cheyenne, WY and have just tuned in to a streaming web site for 77 WABC Radi. I thought it came out of Wyoming, but an advert I just heard said New York.

Anyway, prior to that ad came one for the Mark Levin program.

The ad had excerpts from Levin's show which were presumably used to encourage new people to tune in to show.

So - what were these excerpts? "Who is the worst commentator on MSNBC.com?" He then disses Chris Mathews, and various other people whose names I don't recall (I don't watch MSNBC), making snide comments about each one.

Is that why Mark Levin is so popular? Because people tune in to hear him insult others? Is that why Rush Limbaugh is so popular? He doesn't really insult people, just makes fun of them...

But it's interesting - and sad - that radio advertiser makers know that if they want to attract people, they need to have advertisements that consist of people insulting each other or making fun of them.

Every single media covering the Casey Anthony Trial

The top story at Google News, from ABC News, has this headline: "Casey Anthony Trial: Jury Deliberates as Anticipation Grows"

What anticipation? Faux anticipation. (And no, I'm not making fun of Fox news.)

There has been TV coverage of this trial since its inception - no one cares. (Or ghouls care, same difference.)

Now the jury is deliberating...and I'm sure if there was a way for news media to get their cameras in there, they would. I also have no doubt that a few jurors are planning to write a book about their experience, and I'm sure some other authors are writing books about the case themselves.

And it's just ridiculous. The woman killed her child. Lots of women do (either themselves or by standing idly by while their boyfriend or husband does the deed, either quickly or over a period of time - i.e. constant abuse, either physical or mental).

Just more contribution to the coarsening of America.

Captain Morgan Rum (I think) Commercial

I've always found the Captain Morgan Rum commercials offensive, with guys - always guys - doing something stupid and then lifting up one leg as if they were standing on a keg of beer or something.

I saw a commercial yesterday which I'm pretty sure was a Captain Morgan commercial - lots of guys dressed in pirate costume relaxing in a boat with lots of beautiful wenches lying on top of them, then another, smaller boat - same thing, and finally, a very tiny boat, with one man in it, not looking happy, rowing them all toward shore. He is the designated driver.

What message is this commercial sending to kids?

That being a designated driver is not fun. That if you're a designated driver you won't get a woman. That if you're a designated driver you have to do all the work while everyone else gets to enjoy themselves.

That's just a bad message.

What they should have done was have a wench in that single row boat, and each time the rower leans forward to row, the wench gives him a kiss on the lips.

But that didn't occur to 'em.

Connecticut Library Encourages Kids to Believe in the Supernatural

I'm an atheist - so I don't believe in God or the Devil. Nor do I believe in witchcarft, yet witchcraft is quite popular these days, with young girls trying to get young boys to fall in love with them by various encantations and spells.

You doubt me? That's the same reason why vampire novels are so popular these days...vampires being sexual creatures who have the power to enslave the people they bite to be their servants forever...unable to betray them, etc.. Exchange "servant" for "boyfriend" and there you have it.

Now we have a library in Connecticut holding an overnight camp for kids about ghosthunting. Ghost hunting!

The Middletown Press: Ghosthunting workshop offers spookiness at Deep River Library

DEEP RIVER – With a few screams and a lot of panting, a group of kids and teens rushed out of the dark reaches of the library basement and into the comparative safety of a meeting room.

“Holy crap-a-moley,” said Alexis Hartman, 11, of Deep River, recounting her experiences in the basement. “That was like… I had a big experience with that.”

Hartman and several of her friends were participating in a ghost hunting workshop at the Deep River Public Library on Saturday evening, and before they fled, had been listening for ghosts in the basement with an adapted radio. The ghost hunters at Haunted New England Paranormal Research hosted the workshop for kids and teens to show how they search for spirits. The kids had a chance to see the ghost-hunting equipment – cameras, digital voice recorders, and electric meters – and then hunt for ghosts inside the library.



So is the building haunted? HNEP founder Mike Krause and his colleagues think so. He said they’ve visited numerous times, and they’ve captured multiple voices, belonging to men, women and children. The library building, built in 1881, was once the home of Richard Spencer, his wife, Julia, and their children.

Over multiple visits, Krause’s team has also captured a picture of what looks like a woman in a purple dress, which they think might be Julia and a face that looks like Richard coming out of a wall.

“Whatever’s here likes it here,” said Rodney Wilson, one of Krause’s colleagues. “If they’re attached to a place, they’re gonna come back to the place.”

After demonstrating the equipment, Krause, Wilson and coworker Tina Listro broke the audience up to teams and took them to different parts of the building. In the attic, Listro tried to speak to the Spencers, particularly the children. On a previous visit, she explained, she left flour on the floor of an unused room to see if the flour was disturbed by any ghostly presences.

In the pitch-black, dusty basement, things got spookier. Using a device created from a radio, which scans through different frequencies for a split-second at a time, Listro and the audience thought they heard a voice responding to their questions. The voice, which might have been one of the Spencer children, identified himself as “Nick.”

“I’m interested in ghosts,” said Grace Martorelli, 11, of Deep River. “I wanted to know if they’re really with us. I’ve seen a lot of ghost shows and know what they look like.

Old Lyme resident Zach Welch, 12, said he enjoys watching shows like ‘Ghost Hunters.’

“I watch those shows a lot,” he said. ‘It kinda seems real. It makes you want to feel it and see what it’s like.”

“It’s validating some of the things I’ve seen or heard,” added Zach’s mom, Lisa, who went to the attic and basement to look for ghosts. But, she added, “I’m still a little skeptical.”

Krause said he got into ghost hunting as a teenager, when his family moved into a Victorian house in Manchester.

“From day one of being in that house, I had an uneasy feeling,” he said. Sometimes, he said, he was awoken at night by a shadow moving back and forth in his bedroom. When the shadow was there, he said, he couldn’t turn on the lights or open the door. If he started yelling, the shadow would leave, and the lights would come on.

Spooked by the experiences, Krause moved out within months to stay with a friend, and his parents moved out within two years. After moving out, Krause did some research on the house, and became intrigued with ghost hunting. He officially started his business in 1992, and it’s expanded to have a team of eight ghost hunters, including Listro and Wilson. The researchers don’t charge money to investigate a possible haunting, so all of them are involved because they’re genuinely interested in the paranormal.

In the last five years, Krause said, the percentage of hunts that have turned up paranormal activity has increased, which he thinks is because of his team’s increased knowledge.

“Once the bug catches you, you can’t get rid of it,” said Wilson.

Listro said that while she sometimes got nervous with her early ghost experiences, she’s gotten used to it. The job, she said, “is like anything else.”

“I don’t believe that there are things out there that really want to hurt you,” she said.

Still, some of the people who participated Saturday said they were intrigued, but despite assurances from the researchers, a little nervous.

“I think I was just totally interested in it,” said Deep River resident Mary Beth Kiely, one of the adults who tagged along on the tour. “I’ve always been interested, but a big chicken.”

“I might get a little freaked out and sleep with the lights on,” she added.

Newsweek Plumbs the Depths of Bad Taste

Not quite as stupid as OJ Simpson writing a book called, If I'd Done It, Here's How I Would Have Done It (or whatever that abomination was called) and not quite as in poor taste as those fools who were actually going to publish that OJ book, but right up there.

Diana returns from grave in shocking Newsweek cover
Princess Diana has returned from the grave on the front cover of Newsweek in a picture that imagines her, and her life, as it might have been had she lived to mark her 50th birthday on Friday.


But the picture and story - which speculates that Diana would have twice remarried, used Botox, and been slightly jealous of new daughter-in-law Kate Middleton -- provoked mostly howls of disgust as they arrived on U.S. newsstands the same week that Prince William and his new bride begin an official visit to North America.


"Shocking, brilliant or just plain cheap?" asked the Los Angeles Times. News blog Mediaite.com called it "disrespectful on so many levels", while The Atlantic Wire ran the headline "How Creepy is Princess Diana's Ghost?".


Newsweek editor-in-chief Tina Brown, a Briton who wrote a gossipy 2007 biography about the late princess, imagines that if Diana had not died in a 1997 Paris car crash, she would have moved to New York, remained "great-looking," been friends with her ex-husband Prince Charles and his new wife (and Diana's old nemesis) Camilla, and have 10 million followers on Twitter.


But it's the digitally-enhanced front page photo of Diana -- imagining her as still slim and chic, if a little wrinkled -- that has caused the biggest outrage. Diana is shown walking alongside a smiling, and admiring, Kate Middleton.


"This is beyond tacky", commented one writer on the New York Magazine website.


"Ugh this is SO tasteless . . . let the poor woman RIP . . . if i were any of her family members i'd be so offended and upset by this," wrote a woman on the Newsweek comments page. Some others said they were canceling their subscriptions to the U.S. weekly news magazine.


The Newsweek feature also fantasizes about Diana's Facebook page, imagining her "liking" the movie "The King's Speech" and TV series "The Real Housewives of New York", hanging out with David and Victoria Beckham, and sending supportive messages to spiritual physician Deepak Chopra and Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei.


But it is her supposed relationship with the new bride of her eldest son, Prince William, where Brown is perhaps most controversial.


"The rising public adoration of Kate would have afforded Diana some tricky moments. Pleased, yes. But . . . .Diana would have had to adjust to a broadening of the limelight," Brown writes.


She also speculates that Diana would have been a defender against royal snobbery of Middleton's non-aristocratic upbringing "and ostentatiously made Carole Middleton, Kate's dynamic mother, her new BFF."


Prince William and Kate Middleton, now formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge, arrive in Canada on Thursday for their first official visit overseas as a married couple.


They will also visit southern California from July 8-10.

Bristol Palin: Sarah Palin "Definitely Knows" What She'll Do in 2012

Bristol Palin is nobody, but an unwed mother. But she has the fortune to be the daughter of Sarah Palin...so although Bristol isn't a politician, isn't anybody, she gets a book deal, she gets to be on dancing with the stars, she gets a multi-million house of her own.

International Business Times: Bristol Palin: Sarah Palin "Definitely Knows" What She'll Do in 2012
Bristol Palin said today that Sarah Palin "definitely knows" whether she will run for president next year -- but she's not sharing what those plans are.

"She definitely knows. We've talked about it before. But some things just need to stay in the family," the younger Palin said in an appearance on "FOX & Friends," where she was plugging her book, "Not Afraid of Life: My Journey So Far."

In her memoir, the 20-year-old takes shots at the family of Arizona Senator John McCain -- whose choice to make Sarah Palin his 2008 running mate catapulted her to political stardom -- and reveals how she drunkenly lost her virginity to Levi Johnston.

She also writes about being in the media spotlight when she was pregnant during the 2008 campaign, saying, "For some reason, I didn't realize the ripples my pregnancy would cause throughout the nation."

"Not Afraid of Life," written with Nancy French, was published last week by HarperCollins (272 pages, $25.99).

After a bevy of television and radio appearances today, Bristol Palin will have her first book signing tomorrow at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota -- with her mom, who will be signing her latest book, "America By Heart."

Sarah Palin has called her daughter's book "shocking, refreshing, honest, inspiring, and perfect." In a new statement, Sarah Palin said she is "so proud" of Bristol Palin and "thrilled to be joining her to kick off her book tour," according to the Associated Press.

Bristol Palin will then promote "Not Afraid of Life" at a Books-A-Million in Birmingham, Alabama next Tuesday, followed by what is sure to be a gabfest on "The View" on Thursday, July 7, according to HarperCollins.

Ryan Dunn Death: Is the Jackass star car crash news the biggest hoax ever?

This just goes to show the dangers of perpetrating hoaxes on other people - when you finally do die - in a way that should show your fans that you're an idiot - they just think its a hoax. "No consequences for your actions" is the message delivered by Jackass, unfortunately.

International Business Times: Ryan Dunn Death: Is the Jackass star car crash news the biggest hoax ever?

Jackass star Ryan Dunn died in a fatal car crash on Monday but many people believe that the prankster is pulling his most elaborate prank ever, possibly to promote his next movie 'Living Will'.

Although reports are flooding the Internet that the 34-year-old is really dead after crashing his Porsche 911 GT3 into a patch of trees at a speed of nearly 140 mph, yet many of Dunn's fans believe that the Jackass star is playing an elaborate hoax on them.

A private funeral service was held on Wednesday but Dunn's fans think the car crash is a joke (and possibly the most elaborate one so far). They think Dunn has played the prank to promote his next movie 'Living Will,' where he is supposed to come back from dead as a "ghost" to hang out with his friends.

The doubt is understandable, considering how Dunn lived his entire career life, performing ridiculous, crude and dangerous pranks in Jackass, Viva La Bam, Homewrecker, and Proving Ground.

Some media have fueled the rumor as well.

According to Jalopnik.com, Fox News even published an article headlined: 'Jackass' Star Ryan Dunn Killed in Car Crash, Found To Be a Joke! Fox News allegedly said TMZ ran the story, reporting that 'Jackass' star Ryan Dunn "has not really died in a car crash in pennsylvania early this morning."

According to the report, April, mother of Dunn's friend and Jackass co-star Bam Margera, played a major role in the gag.

Fox even quoted Dunn as saying, "I'm not sorry for making everyone think I was dead. I actually thought it was pretty funny."

The story later was taken off the Internet.

A thread group was also started in MTV.com by a user with the ID 'Harley Colbert,' which was titled, "BREAKING NEWS RYAN DUNN IS NOT DEAD!!! READ THIS!!"

Another user with the ID 'aporter17,' who claimed to have worked in law enforcement wrote in the threaded discussion, "Unless you were there or seen the body it’s hard to believe!"

"It's ******** saying if the news says it happened it's true!!! That's not the case, I have worked in law enforcement and been a firefighter for awhile, and one thing I know the news will make up or play along with anything!!!! Unless you were there or seen the body it's hard to believe!!! Maybe he really is dead which is pretty sad, but maybe it was a joke which is pretty messed up. But these guys are known to do some crazy ****, and look back in a lot of their movies, they pay people and places to play along. So no one knows at this point until he shows himself confessing it was a joke or him really being dead!!!!" 'aporter17' said.

Users on cloakanddagger.org have also raised doubts whether Dunn is really dead, asking "Is this another celebrity stunt for publicity?" and "Is Dunn making a JACKASS out of the American people?"

Is Ryan Dunn really dead, or is this another of his elaborate prank? When Michael Jackson died, nobody believed he was dead. Will people believe that Ryan Dunn is really dead? Or is this his most elaborate prank ever?

It does beg the question - if this jackass did fake his death, and does come back to life, what will the consequences be? Will he be fined megabucks for wasting the police's time? Will he have to explain where he got the two bodies incinerated in the crash. Will his family and friends forgive him for putting them through the hell of thinking he'd died?

And how many teenagers today are even now plotting their own deaths in order to escape from home, or just as a prank?

Devolution media at its finest.