Bowling Alley Revisionism

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For several years now, up to a million of my potentially close and personal friends here and around the San Antonio area have had access to a kick-ass radio talk show host in the form of one standard sized Joe Pagliarulo. Millions of my neighbors to the southeast in Houston have that same access as well.

Don’t feel compelled to pack up the family in the new powder blue Prius so as to move either to San Antonio or Houston if you would like to listen to him on a regular basis though. The internet is a wonderful thing nowadays. You can go there to listen to him if you like.

The cool thing about Pags (as he likes to be called) is that he’s pretty quick to call shenanigans and/or bullshit on whatever verbal diarrhea escapes a callers mouth. A member of TharpSter.Org spoke to him on the air several months back with a Swiss cheese argument about some hot topic of the day. I tried to warn the Board Member that the argument would be fruitless; however it fell on deaf ears. Pags tore them apart.

Here at TharpSter.Org, the content of my dispatches to the web range somewhere between rarely and never when it comes to talking about radio talk shows. I generally avoid it because I don’t want to parrot the content of these shows on my site. It diminishes the challenge I desire in coming up with new and/or original content. That’s not to say I don’t listen to them though. If my schedule allows for it on any given day, I will listen to the big three on the national scene and Pags locally.

In yesterday’s show, one of Pags’ producers recounted his trip to the bowling alley this last weekend. Cosmic bowling seems to be the entire rave nowadays, so the guy shelled out his hard earned and overtaxed cash to go throw some ten pounders at neon pins with the distraction of epileptic fit inducing strobe lights working off to the side to help generate that seven – ten split. Video screens were strategically placed throughout the alley showing whatever is considered to be hip and trendy among the cosmic bowling crowd. Along with the videos, there were crawlers going across the bottom of the screens which said things like “9/11 was an inside job.” There was another blurb which pointed people to a specific website which had all sorts of material which espouses the mindset of the truther movement.

Allow me to make two very specific and separate points here. If I didn’t feel that passionate about them, I can assure you that you wouldn’t be reading about my thoughts on the matter here.

On May 16, 2002, I took that Thursday off from work to go see a movie. Tell me this, my dear reader. Who in his or her right mind takes a Thursday off of work with intention of going back on Friday? It must have been a highly anticipated movie in order to get me out of my fabric covered box to go see it.

Certainly, Episode II: Attack of the Clones was highly anticipated. As a lifelong fan of the Star Wars series, I had looked forward to it. The acting sucked, but Yoda wielding a light saber was pretty cool. Yes George Lucas dialed back the presence of Jar-Jar Binks; however he replaced it with incredibly bad dialogue between Anakin and Padme in a pathetic and gratuitous attempt to build and define their relationship.

As offensive as the second installment of the Star Wars prequel was, it failed in comparison to what I saw on the big screen just before the movie started. In addition to the previews of movies coming out that summer, the theater aired a Coke commercial. I honestly don’t remember seeing a commercial for a certain product in a movie theater before that date. For all I know, I may have and it just didn’t register at the time.

Why on God’s green earth have I just paid a buttload of money at the box office in order to secure for my butt a red, fabric covered, reclining seat so as to be potentially awed by a veritable collection of picture and sound which is presumably free of commercial interruption, only to be looking at a computer generated polar bear enjoying a soft drink?

I am not interested in paying to see a commercial at a movie theater. In my mind, it ranks up there with double taxation. Even more so, I’m not interested in paying to go to any concert, event, or other form of entertainment only to be blindsided with political speech. That’s regardless of whether I agree with what’s being said.

For those of you playing the home game, bowling is a form of entertainment. Cosmic bowling is also a form of entertainment too. It’s just flashier.

If I had been at the bowling alley that evening, I would have scuttled my communal pair of size 11 bowling shoes, and promptly demanded a refund. It wouldn’t have been for my views on 9/11 as much as it would have been for my opinions on whether I should pay to be subjected to the free speech rights of others.

That was point number one. Point number two follows.

The 9/11 Truther movement is probably the most exquisite example of doosh-baggery I’ve ever encountered. As I’ve said before, I spell it that way because to spell the word ‘douche’ correctly when referring to this movement implies that their ideas hold water.

I could spend a great deal of time debunking the myths and providing you with all the evidence and links you need to understand my views on the subject matter. Instead, I’ll give you a Penn & Teller video to watch at your own leisure. The language is colorful, but it makes its point quite well.

Naturally, the mindset of this movement is not commonly held, or even a popular point of view. Van Jones was forced to resign his position as Green Energy Czar to the current administration when it was revealed that the vetting process of the Obama transition team was a few Google searches short of being thorough. Go figure. It seems that Mr. Jones had signed a petition in 2004 demanding a “What did the President know, and when did he know it” type investigation over the events which took place on 09/11. Texas gubernatorial candidate Debra Medina (Tea Party favorite, I might add) killed her own campaign earlier this year when she couldn’t give Glenn Beck a straight answer off of the top of her head as to whether she felt our Government was involved in a plot to perpetrate the attacks on American soil.

Up until now the noise borne of the sour pieholes within this movement has been relegated to the media. We’ve had the option to change the channel, turn the page, and even click to another website. As the events of this last weekend tell us, things have gotten worse. The truthers have now spread their filth to that portion of Americana which has maintained a certain level of wholesome dignity over the years without being sullied by the muck and mire of political correctness, social justice, and whacked out conspiracy theories. I’m talking about the bowling alleys.

Geez, what’s next?

Truly, the saddest thing about the 9/11 Truther movement is that their mindset has the potential to prevail many years down the road when our memories of that horrible day aren’t so vivid. Many years ago, I either heard or read a story that FDR allowed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to happen so that he could build a national consensus for the U.S. to enter the war. I’m no fan of FDR, however I tend to lump the entire premise into the doosh-baggery I described before.

Fortunately, the entire incident with the bowling alley has a happy ending.

It would seem that the owner of the bowling alley in question is a regular listener of Pags’ show. As soon as Pags announced the name of the alley, friends and acquaintances of the owner called in to advise that such behavior was not part of the owner’s beliefs. The next thing you know, Pags managed to get the owner on the air. He had no idea that such material was being broadcast in his alley. He had an idea of who the culprit was, and the matter would be addressed immediately.

I can only guess how this incident will show up on the next performance review or even the next resume of the individual who made the brilliant decision to poison the beliefs of America’s bowlers, one alley at a time.

The final outcome is unknown at this time. Pags has promised an update today, so be sure to tune in.