Penchuk.com

As everyone knows, today is April 15, Tax Day here in the States.  This year we have the grassroots phenomenon known as The Tea Parties.  There is a ton of news and criticism about these events happening around the country and I thought I’d add my two cents to the conversation.

• The Boston Tea Party – The modern day Tea Parties have the symbolism all wrong.  The actual event in Boston was a seminal event in American history and the culmination of anger against “taxation without representation”.  The British monarchy was taxing tea and the colonists had no one to represent their interests.  Today’s events are about taxes, the deficit and the national debt all being too high.  The 2009 version is completely different, has very little to do with the original and has a confusing message.  It also comes across as being anti-Obama for the sake of being anti-Obama rather than a principled disagreement with the policies.  The symbolism that it does highlight is that oh so unfortunate tea bagging visual.  It’s crude and allows those on the opposite side of the debate to have a very effective and humorous counter.
• Fox News – I’m a fan of Fox News.  I honestly feel that they are fair and balanced.  Yes, they do come at most everything with a tilt to the right (everyone else except C-SPAN comes with a leftward tilt), however, they almost always show both sides.  Conservatives are balanced with liberals and that’s how it should be.  Well, lately, I think they’ve lost their way.  They’re still much more equitable than other news outlets, but their standard has dropped.  Not replacing Colmes when he left Hannity and Colmes was the first step.  What happened to the balance?  Now it’s just one-sided.  As for the Tea Parties, I really feel Fox News has promoted rather than cover them.  By hawking the appearance of various folks at events around the country and shilling that they would be happening, they’ve taken a side.  This is different from having the anchor approach a situation from the right.  Everyone brings some kind of bias to the table.  In this case, they advocated for the Tea Parties.  In my opinion, that’s wrong and they should go back to being truly fair and balanced.
• MSNBC – Their biggest celebrities have made lots of on air jokes about tea bagging and I don’t mean the parties.  Isn’t there a line that shouldn’t be crossed?  Isn’t this phrase something that doesn’t belong in mainstream news?  It’s not appropriate.  I’m not a prude, but I tend to think that I have a sense of civility and boundaries on what should be discussed in the public arena.  Leave this kind of trash to the Daily Show or late night comedians.

Frankly, I hope these Tea Parties don’t became an annual event.

In the last two days, Benjamin has lost a tooth per day.  Both of his lower front teeth finally fell out after hanging on by the proverbial thread.  He now has a big gap but he already has replacements breaking through the skin.  Our boy is growing up quickly.