As you have gathered from the title of this post I'm sick in bed trying to find something to watch on TV and some interesting things have come up and I'll just lump them all together here.
I was flipping channels and came across a movie channel I generally have luck with and I saw an add about John Travolta. Now, I don't have a problem with John Travolta, he's a decent actor and isn't too terribly crazy. The ad was all about some of his more recent great roles (the ad even said some of his best) because they were having a Travolta-Thon soon. Now what confused me was the following: they left out Hairspray but kept Battlefield Earth. Yes. The kept Battlefield Earth... Words fail. I get they were advertising action movies and therefore wouldn't want to show him in drag, but seriously keeping what is widely regarded as one of the worst movies of all time in your marathon and a prominent place in the advertisement for it? Why? Why? Why?....................Why?
The other day I was trying to decide wheter to watch History Channel or OWN. They were the only channels with something good on that day. History Channel was showing Apocalypse stuff, which I maintain is not History in the slightest. Oprah was showing Mystery Diagnosis. Now, nothing against Oprah, but I think History channel has a serious problem when HISTORY channel is losing the fact war to Oprah Winnfrey.
Which brings me to this problem: When did History stop being history? I mean sure, when I was younger I enjoyed the Nosteradamus special they showed on that very day. The differences are 1) I was thirteen. 2)There was actual fact to Nosteradamus as in he was a real person and his prophecies may (in hindsight) be applicable to certain historical moment as well as plenty of people who debunk this sort of things providing both sides of the argument. Now a days: The newer specials (especially the ones about the Mayan Prophecy) have very few skeptics and debunkers and when (and IF) they are featured are on for a little bit and not featured well at all. Yes, History Channel, is resorting to basic Creationist tactics. I honestly was watching a show called "Ancient Aliens" and the whole premise of this episode was "What if Angels were Aliens?" And that's it. Just a bunch of people talking about the bible saying, "Well, you see it makes sense if angels were aliens because... because!" and "It's obvious they meant aliens because humans couldn't have done any of this on their own and wings represent flight not actual wings." I don't see how this is historical in anyway. The Bible is not an accurate historical recording, even the parts that try to be. On top of that there was no evidence, just speculation. Following that interesting program I watched two episodes of "Brad Meltzer's Decoded" where one episode ignored history until the very end (This largely consisted of the eponymous Brad with his fingers in his ears going "NO, IT WAS THE MASONS!" which it wasn't.) and one episode that actually did stuff and proved some history, so at least that show was 50/50.
More thoughts in another one, because this post is too long.
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