season 3

With everything there is a season...

No truer is this than the beginning of an exciting new era for Debatable News. Two former cohosts have moved on and new blood is injected into the Debatable News team. My sincerest thanks and congratulations to Chris and Steve for making this the most successful news commentary show on Montco Radio and here at Eclecticasts.com.

This season Shannan Strickland, and Nakila (Nikki) Hargrove join me, Dave Aston and returning cohost Murray Monastero for a deeper, grittier, more intense season of Debatable News. As you'll here during the first show, the gloves have come off. And while I'll try to be Mister Nice Guy, unlike the previous seasons of Debatable News, I make no promises.

Why? Well, for starters, we have a race issue in the United States we as a nation are still not solving. We have the most polarizing, divisive presidential election season since James Buchanan in the years leading up to the Civil War. And we have a public that would rather run into traffic playing augmented reality games than deal with reality.

Hang on to your hats, Season 3 of Debatable News will get the world talking!

In the first show, Shannan and Nikki introduce themselves then we get right to deciphering whether there really is a war on cops. It's hard to piece together because there were many incidents in the recent past that make us all wonder and the media buzz spins things so fast, it makes our heads spin. Murray, Shannan and Nikki's perspectives give some real eye-opening solutions to this on going problem.

Despite our decidedly different political views (Shannan's a hardcore Democrat and I'm the exact opposite), she, Murray, Nikki and I were all on the same page about this one. Politicians don't know what the average person goes through. BUT does that mean they don't care? Listen to our take and you'll be surprised. But not as surprised as what you find out people do with umbilical cords as the Are You Kidding Me segment makes its triumphant return.

When life gives you lemons.... You know the old phrase. Except this time, when life takes away a cohost, what do you do? Instead of making a sour drink you put sugar in, you just make the drink sweet all the way. Cohost Nikki Hargrove was in an accident, thank G-d, not life-threatening, and she was not able to make this show. Nonetheless, Shannan Strickland, Murray Monastero and I moved on with figuring out if Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality were both just Distracted Reality. You'd think it straightforward, but no so! Especially after what I found out the Japanese are doing to advance virtual reality. Are You Kidding Me got cut short due to a technical glitch. Thankfully, despite mt initial fears, that's all that happened.

It's been more than 40 years since Roe v. Wade and almost 25 years since a compromise deal was struck with women of religious sensitivities. So, call me curious, but why is there still a debate? To me, it came down to the concept my cohosts and I never really got to dive into. Instead, Shannan, Muray, Nikki and I kicked around the same subjects that have been kicked around for at least the last century. That, and although she came in after the show started, I felt it appropriate to indulge Nikki in her favorite subject. Fortunately, our Are You Kidding Me segment sneds you off with a smile into our long one month break.

To all the Jews visiting this site and listening to these shows (and those who don't) K'sivah Vachasimah Tovah L'shana Tovah Umisukah! Be sealed and inscribed for a good and sweet New Year!

So what's next?

You guessed it. Our presidential picks and prolific, pedantic prognostications.

This will be fun.....

...And it was fun. Although Nikki Hargrove couldn't make it, we still hammered in on our keep reasons for supporting our favorites and knocking down their opponents. My hoarse voice, acquired through a cold I weathered the previous weekend, somehow made it through to the end.

As the season starts to wind down, so do the cohosts. Shannan Strickland, Murray Monestaro and I press forward with diving into the media scene courtesy of Rolling Stone "wrong" retraction. We intended to spend most of the show talking about how their rape on campus article is making the prestigious magazine lose its credibility when the facts were trumped-up.

(Yeah, I went there.)

But, the lure of the close of one of the longest presidential primaries in the United States combined with our need to talk over one another got the better of us. I promise, we do talk about Rolling Stone but not until more than halfway through the show. Enjoy.

We start with the presidential election again! But how can we not? Especially when New York billionaire Donald J. Trump stunned the country and the world by becoming President of the United States of America. With history hitting us like a slap in the face (or a cinder block for the liberals out there), we spend another half of another show just on the aftermath, or after-shock, of the election.

Once we get that out of our systems, we get serious with immigration. Numerous questions are asked but one conclusion is drawn: None of us, not Shannan Strickland nor Murray Monastero nor I, think "The Donald" ever REALLY wanted "the wall".

I put it off for almost three whole seasons, but no longer. Coming off of a week after my cohosts got sick but then managed to enjoy their Thanksgiving break, Shannan, Murray and I talked without a break about the title below. Nothing else need be said. Listen and learn.

Just when you think life can get lighthearted again, a knife attack on Ohio State's campus prompts Shannan, Murray and I to revisit college campus attacks and shootings. Why Ohio State? Because an acquaintance of mine, who is also an alumnus of Montgomery County Community College, is a student there. Since it hit home, it seems right to talk about it. But as always, our Are You Kidding Me segment lightens the tension.

A good discussion about good movies always brings alive a warm spot in peoples' hearts. Especially when you aren't having a verbal battle with a certain former cohost about The Hunger Games and Battle Royale. The third season wraps with laughs and good-natured ribbing about the movies Shannan, Murray and I liked and the movies we want to see.

Season Three is fun. Pure and simple. Shannan, and even Nikki's brief, presence gave the show a twist and a perspective it needed. I tip my hat and give a hearty thanks to Murray and Shannan especially who have agreed to come back for Debatable News' fourth and final season starting January 2017. Happy Holidays and a Sweet New Year filled with more learning and more debating.