Dedicated to offering a unique and thoughtful perspective on what's going on in politics, pop culture, science, art, and current events. The One About... Definitely not more of "that"!
Hello loyal reader. As you may have noticed it's been a little bumpy here over the last few days at The One About... Basically your humble blogger has been fighting a mighty case of burnout. Basically with a whorejob that while it takes up more energy than I'd like, but does pay the bills, and having a home net connection that is spotty at best, I'm going to be altering the way I cycle for news. Basically I will be going through the weeks news on Saturday afternoon, saving any news that looks worth writing about. Then over my weekend (Sunday, and Monday) I will write up articles to run Tuesday thru Monday. Then on Tuesday I'll put them all up to Blogger, add pictures and links, and pre pub. All of the articles for Sunday and Monday will be published on Saturday, and then I will set pre timed tweets for those days.
This will allow me a little bit more time to read and think, and instead of trying to come up with something on the day I will be able to get ahead, this will free me up to work on my traffic exchange and blog promotion work.
Anyway that's what I'm going to try and hopefully it will get things back on track.
It's recently made news that Democratic Congressperson from Florida, Alan Grayson is going to be introducing legislation that would make offering people a paid vacation mandatory.
The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week.
This of course has set off a fresh spate of whining from the anti worker crowd.
The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week.
The idea: More vacation will stimulate the economy through fewer sick days, better productivity and happier employees. Read the full thing at Politico
The thing is, it's not even the silliness of the idea that bothers us (we'll just pass on that for now) it's the way our politicians conduct business.
The dude thought of this idea at Disney World? And then he's all "Ok, now I'm going to make this a law"? In terms of yes, this is what your politicians do with their jobs, this is one step below the Senate holding hearings on a playoff system in college football.
And then finally there's the gossamer thinking. Hey, burnout sucks! This will stimulate the economy!
Puh-lease.
hmm. Well that is one way of looking at it. Or perhaps he realized his amazing good fortune in being in a position to be able to take a vacation and thought, "Hey, maybe this is something that everyone should have a chance to do, not just the elite." That of course is considered by some as specious reasoning and worthy of ridicule.
Of course it seems that when it is the high toned executives and their perks, suddenly things like comp time, and paid vacation, and other goodies become not just a good idea but absolutely mandafuckingtory.
The Journal observes that despite growing public anger and supposedly stricter regulation of executive pay, "The protests and rules had limited impact. Equity grants, which account for roughly two-thirds of CEO compensation, changed little from 2007." The newspaper notes that while many companies are reporting plans to cut executive income, and a considerable public relations campaign is under way, "For some CEOs, executive perks flourished, despite searing criticism."
This is of course only right. After all these people are the natural betters of worthless scum like the working classes and are entitled to have whatever they want.
Ultimately I think that this is an excellent idea. Where I worked used to offer all and sundry one week of paid vacation after they'd been there for a year. And it was nice. It gave one something to look forward to, even if all that you really did was just hang out around the house. A week to relax, and destress, and know that you would still be able to pay your bills helped a lot. But then because they reduced the perks available to lower ranking managers, they took vacations away from rank and file employees. So now? A break is an extra day or two off, if you think you can afford it. But I don't believe that anyone should be forced to do anything against there will. So to those vacation haters out there, when the time comes if (please Jebus) that this bill passes, then if you really don't want your week of vacation I'll happily take it. I'll even send you a nice thank you card.
When I am writing, or doing traffic exchange work for The One About... I like to listen to music. I have a decent little collection but I get bored easily. At the same time as much as I like the radio, especially Pandora, I tend to be rather fussy. But I am not made of money. In the past I would cue up YouTube videos and then just run the sound. But that was before I found Imeem.
Imeem is really quite incredible. It has videos, but it's real strength lays in the number of mp3's it has available to stream. Lots of songs, lots of artists, and often complete albums will be available for you to listen to. Like for example today I listened to Marilyn Manson's latest. Complete and uncut. This has become one of my favorite sites. And I figure that once they are done screwing over the radio stations the
RIAA (Righteously Idiotic Asshats of America) will then turn their attention to sites like Imeem. After all we wouldn't want people to enjoy music without the greed squad making a penny off of it now would we?
This past weekend was The Love Of My Life's birthday. We took the day (Saturday to be prexact and excise) off and had originally planned to come into town, see a movie and have some Chinesebuffet. However she was not feeling terribly tip top, so we just wound up staying home. But it was nice. We had rented a couple of movies (Frost/Nixon and Last Chance Harvey) and just relaxed. On Sunday we made bacon and fried green tomatoes for breakfast. This was a real nice surprise because we'd bought the tomatoes almost two weeks before and expected them to be turning toward the red side, but they were still green as could be, and fried up beautifully.
During that time while my beloved was able to get a wi fi signal for her horse training/racing sim game, when I got online I had no such luck. But I really didn't mind. I started a story for her that once it's finished I may share with you lot, and I just generally caught up on my sleep.
On Monday I was able to get online for a bit to post two articles, and tweet them. And then I went back to bed.
I am generally more than a bit obsessive compulsive, so sometimes it's helpful when external events force me to unplug a little, because I still to this day have a hard time giving myself permission to relax.
You may notice in the next week that I don't seem to be writing about politics much, especially at a time when there is so much going on. Frankly the reason for this is that I am going to be taking a step or two back and try to get a better handle on what is going on in our country right now.
I started the Transparency Tuesday theme, because I wanted my readers to understand where my head was at, so that when you would read what I write, my biases, and I do have them, would be clear and could be taken into account when weighing whether or not you believed my opinion about something to be valid.
And right now? I am angry. Angry at Republicans who continue to play brinkmanship games, because there is seemingly no consequence for them so they lose nothing by politics as usual. But I'm especially angry that not only are the Democrats doing the exact same thing, but also that President Obama who got elected by giving the appearance of intending to be a transformative leader, has played it so Conservatively on so many fronts. He's claimed to want to reform healthcare, yet refuses to even talk openly about the one path that so many people agree would work the best, Single Payer. He's claimed to want to end our presence in Iraq, and yet even as he is against the advice of many amping up in Afghanistan, on the rare occasion Iraq even gets mentioned, it seems like there is always a "but" when it comes to a definitive answer in regards to getting our people home. Furthermore, not only has he steadfastly refused to see true justice done with regards to agents of the United States using torture, but he has basically reaffirmed this countries "right" to detain people, for any reason, or no reason at all, and to do so nearly indefinitely. On the job front, he has talked a great game supporting Unions, but pretty words with no force behind them ultimately mean nothing. And anytime he or anyone talks about increasing takes on the top ten percent, the cry of "Wealth Redistribution" goes up. So what do you call taking all this money to bail out banks, and brokerages, and car companies, that have not been made to change their ways one little bit?
Meanwhile, and in other news, we have a mass murdering sociopath released from prison, while everyone carries on about American Idol. And in California, same sex couples are reminded again that they are considered in the eyes of a bigoted few, as second class citizens.
It's angering, and sickening, and disheartening.
So I need a little time to get my feet back under me, and figure out how best to deal with all this. Because I don't intend to give up.
I can assure you of this.
In the meantime I'll try to find the lighter side of life and perhaps put up a few happier posts.
I am someone who likes to know my own mind. I like to know why I do the things I do. While I am able and willing to act on instinct, I ultimately want to know why I decide the things I do so that I can make better decisions. This even extends to my entertainment choices.
From the moment I heard about Christian Bale being cast as John Connor, I have to admit I was pretty uninterested. Which kind of surprised me. I don't hate the Terminator movies (I will confess I have not seen 3) and I love Christian Bale. But even with good pre release buzz, I was still disinterested. And finally I put my finger on it.
Terminator Salvation, is when you get right down to it a war movie. And generally speaking I find war movies boring. There is generally a sameness to them that just doesn't do a damn thing for me. War movies are usually loud, and frenetic, with not much in the way of character development, or plot. And from what the reviews have been saying TS is not doing anything to shake up the genre.
Plus there is an added dimension to my disinterest. Basically with Salvation it seems as if they are simply following the plot line established in the first movie. There is nothing original or surprising. Basically this is the worst kind of fan service.
And then it dawned on me, what they could have done that would have made me want to watch this movie.
(who goes back in time in the first Terminator movie) does not appear except towards the very end. A movie in which John Connor attempts to rally a nearly defeated humanity with the help of a few close confidants. One of which we'll call Joe Smith. Throughout the movie John risks his life time and again until about half way through the film he is killed. Now Joe has to pick up and attempt to lead, but he constantly gets flack, until finally he starts claiming that John is on this mission or that mission and that the orders he is issuing are coming from John. Finally Joe realizes that John Connor has become a symbol, and the only way he is going to lead effectively is to take on the name and there by take on the symbol. So at the end when he is introduced to a new recruit in the war against the machines by the name of Kyle Reese, he introduces himself as John Connor.
Now that is a movie that would interest me. Because with that twist the whole concept of the first movie while not violated is turned on its ear. But since I don't make movies, I'll have to content myself with writing up my idea and hope someone will steal it. I promise I won't tell.
In the United States today is Memorial Day. Ostensibly this is the day to honor all those who serve in the military and have given their lives in the line of duty. Many use it as a day to honor all those living and dead who are serving or have served.
I'm not a military kind of person, but I see nothing at all wrong with this. However, I would like to suggest that we should perhaps find a little time to honor a few other people, and while I don't think it's appropriate to change the focus of Memorial Day, I figure there are enough days in the year that I'm sure appropriate days could be found for what I have in mind.
First off all, why is there not a day to honor the spouses of soldiers? These are the people who in choosing to spend their life with a soldier are suddenly subject to the military life. They are the ones who get to sit at home and wait when their loved one is deployed often getting no information until that person either returns home, or they receive an officialvisit from someone who "regrets to inform them". These people often have to be both mother and father to young children, and also must carry on in a civilian world that has a distrust ranging from healthy and reasonable, to paranoid and bigoted of the military and the way it is used by our government. And when their loved one returns from duty, they are the ones who must help them cope with the issues that can come from combat, and even non combat duty.
Secondly, how about a day for the children of soldiers. People who marry a soldier at least are making a choice based on at least some knowledge of what they are getting into. The children of soldiers are not given any choice. They are in a sense drafted into a life where birthdays, sports games, first steps and more may be missed because their parent has made a commitment to something they consider more important. To me it seems only right to recognize the sacrifices that such children are expected to make.
And what of the parents of soldiers? Who raise a child they love, and hope when they choose to serve, that they will not have to attend the funeral of that child, or see them come home damaged in body or mind. A good parent never stops wanting to protect their child, even when such protection is simply not possible.
Finally, I would like to suggest that those who offer reasonable protest to the abuse of military power, are deserving of recognition. Especially since many such people once served themselves. Sadly some who protest are narrow minded bigots, but many believe that the sacrifice of military service is a noble and honorable one, and they do not wish to see that sacrifice wasted on conflicts that did not need to happen, and in truth often are for no reason that truly increases the security of our nation and people, nor the people of other nations either. Since those who join the military choose to give up their right to protest, some of us who are outside of this structure feel that we are honoring them by speaking up on their behalf, in the hopes that their service and their lives will not be spent senselessly.
Alright. Since one of my posts today is super short I figured I'd give you a second super short one to make up for it. Besides it's germane to the Michael Vick article. See I've been walking around all week kind of under a black cloud because, what do I hear every where I go? People carrying on about American Fucking Idol. Now normally I just don't care for the show and leave it at that. But the idea that the American people are basically so unaware that the eminent release of a mass murderer from prison doesn't even make it onto their radar and a faked up contest does, kind of pisses me off. So I figured out a solution.
Serial Killer Idol!
Take seven young hopefuls and follow them as they vie to be America's new favorite serial killer. It will be great. There can be theme episodes just like AI. Have the contestants recreate famous serial murders from the past. And then when the flamboyant and obviously gay serial killer who is the obvious favorite to win loses to the nice clean cut young heterosexual male, they can talk about how he was "robbed" of the title.
In listening to the more extreme members of the Right carry on about this boy and how the courts insisting that he must undergo traditional therapy for his highly treatable form of cancer, I can't help but marvel at the incredibly audacious hypocrisy of these people. Let me see if I've got this straight. It is not okay for a woman to exercise sovereignty over her own body, and abort an unwanted potential child. But it is okay for a parent to keep an actual child from treatment that would most likely save their life, and that if they didn't have it would most likely result in the child's death? I don't get it. I mean that really. I'll even be nice and leave out the part about your delusions that your holy book is some how the only true one in the entire history of the world and all that. I just don't get it. The worst part is that I knew my grandmother, who held some of these beliefs. And what made her hardest to deal with, was that she didn't hold them out of arrogance. Rather she was sincerely concerned for the well being of those who she viewed as spiritually "in the wrong". And how do you counter that without seeming mean? Frankly I haven't got a clue.
I'm just going to level with you dear reader. When I was doing research for a totally unrelated article, I had no intention at all of touching the Michael Vick situation with a ten foot pole. That was until I found this.
So here's the deal, at least as I see it.
There probably should be a place in the NFL for Michael Vick.
I'm not sure any player in the history of the league has paid a greater price for his misdeed than Vick, and he will continue to pay for the rest of his life. I don't have a problem with that. But to exclude Vick from a league that still accepts players who arguably have committed greater misdeeds is hypocritical at best.
Besides, it might be the only way to actually get some good out of all this.
I respectfully disagree. Are there people in the NFL who have done horrendous things? I have no doubt. Are there people in the NFL that have done things worse than what Vick did? Well personally I have my doubts but since I do not have either the time nor the inclination to go wading into the deep end of the cesspool I am willing to allow that it's possible. Has Vick paid enough for the crimes he committed? Not even close.
Here's a report from back when Vick was first arrested, that I found through a blog called The Constitution Club.
The dog fights on Michael Vick's land followed very strict rules, authorities say. Weighing in just half a pound too much or too little disqualified dogs from matches. Dogs were bathed immediately before fights to make sure their coats were not "tainted" with a drug or poison that might hinder an opponent. Sometimes they were starved to make them more vicious in the pit. For owners and carefully screened spectators, these fights sometimes offered purses worth thousands of dollars. For the dogs, losing could lead to a gruesome execution. This is how federal prosecutors describe a large dog-fighting operation that they say operated out of Vick's 15-acre property in Surry County, Va. They have filed no charges. And Vick, the Atlanta Falcons' quarterback and one of the highest-paid players in the National Football League, has denied any involvement in dog fighting. His lawyer did not respond Friday to a request for an interview. Regardless, in detailed court filings, prosecutors are sending strong signals about their investigation's focus. They say the dog-fighting organization, known as Bad Newz Kennels, violated federal law by sponsoring or otherwise taking part in fights for which animals were transported across state lines. Federal authorities in Virginia declined to comment this week. The documents, filed in U.S. District Court in Richmond, do not name Vick or anyone else. Nor do they say how authorities learned the details of a typical fight night at Vick's property. But the specificity with which they describe the culture of dog fighting, particularly as it allegedly took place on Vick's property within a year after he purchased it in 2001, suggests that one or more informants guided investigators on two recent raids. "They got good, solid evidence from somewhere, either an informant or a psychic," said John Goodwin of the Humane Society of the United States. "Someone is providing very accurate information." Surry County officials may present the case to a local grand jury on July 24. They have sent mixed signals on whether they have enough evidence to file charges. But federal authorities appear to be taking control of the investigation, which began when local police searched Vick's house after his cousin, who lived there, was arrested on drug charges. On a judge's orders, U.S. marshals last week took custody of the 53 dogs that local authorities seized from Vick's property in April. Many of those dogs, court records say, had scars or injuries that appeared to come from organized fights. Prosecutors are asking a judge to force the dogs' owners to forfeit their ownership of the animals, since they are considered the gains from illegal activity. If Vick wants to stake claim to any of the animals, he'll have to file a notice in federal court by September. "The dogs are currently being cared for at facilities in the Eastern District of Virginia," Jim Rybicki, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in Alexandria, Va., said by email Friday. "However, they remain under U.S. government custody. They will continue to be held in government custody until the court adjudicates the forfeiture action." Along with the dogs, authorities seized performance-enhancing drugs that, court records say, were used to make dogs fight better or to help injured animals fight longer. They found equipment associated with dog fighting operations, including a "rape stand" used in forced breeding, a digital scale used to weigh dogs before fights, and a fighting pit, stained in blood. Authorities also confiscated two handguns; court records say some dogs have been shot to death after fights. Despite the illicit nature of the enterprise, the fights operated under a strict code, court records indicate. The two dogs entered in each fight had to be the same gender and weight. Participants would agree on a fighting weight in advance, and each dog had to weigh within a half-pound of that mark. Any greater deviation would result in a dog being scratched from the fight; its owner might have to pay the opponent's owner to make up for the forfeited purse. Bathing the dogs also was part of the pre-fight ritual. This prevented owners from gaining an unfair advantage for their dogs by placing poison or drugs on an animal's coat. Otherwise, when an opponent bit the dog, it might be sickened or sedated and lose the fight. Each fight, according to court records, would "last to the end" — the point at which one dog surrendered or died. For defeated dogs, though, surviving the fight could lead to an even worse fate. "At the end of the fight," court documents say, "the losing dog was sometimes put to death by drowning, strangulation, hanging, gun shot, electrocution or some other method." Other dogs, though, died before they ever got to a formal fight. If animals belonging to Bad Newz Kennels did not test well in training, court records say, "the dogs deemed not to be good fighters would be put to death." Authorities say seven dogs were killed for that reason and buried on the property in April. Vick has bred and sold pitbulls and other breeds through two companies: Mike Vick K-9 Kennels and MV7 Inc. (named for his initials and his football jersey number). The companies' Web site — recently taken offline — described their animals as "family pets." "We do not promote, support or raise dogs for fighting," the Web site said, "and will not knowingly sell, give or trade any dog that may be used for fighting."
Read that. I dare you. Read it and then tell me that this son of a bitch has even begun to pay for what he's done.
Sadly the rush to ride on the coat tails of the publicity that this case generates has already begun.
As Michael Vick waits for a second chance in the NFL, the Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal welfare group, has decided to offer Vick the opportunity to help prompt change in society.
It is a development that certainly will go a long way toward helping Vick rehabilitate his image in the eyes of the public at large and potential employers in particular. Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society, says the group plans to partner with Vick in developing programs aimed at eliminating dogfighting.
Vick is scheduled to leave the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., sometime Wednesday, and finish the rest of his 23-month sentence for a dogfighting conspiracy in home confinement in Hampton, Va.
Pacelle said he was approached with the idea of working with the former star quarterback several months ago by Vick's representatives. After meeting with Vick at the federal prison camp, Pacelle said, he decided just within the past week that working with Vick was the right move for the society and its missions.
Pacelle continued: "If he's sincere about it and in it for the long haul, then he can be an agent for change. If he's not sincere about it, it's a failing of his, not of ours. He needs to prove himself to us and the rest of the country. We're just giving him better platforms to prove himself. We're about the business of change. Michael has a real opportunity here."
Great. So he'll play nice in public, in a venue that you are willing to hand to him on a silver platter. And then when the public with their notoriously short attention span has moved on to something else, and once thanks to the whitewash of his image that you are helping with he's back in the NFL making more money than anybody should for playing a fucking game, you can shake your head and cluck your tongue when he's caught doing the exact same thing. Because I can pretty much guarantee that he will. And frankly even if he doesn't. Even if he goes forth and does nothing but good on this earth from here on out, he still will never have, can never have paid enough for the harm he's done. He has tortured, aided in the rape of, and murdered living beings! Not fucking furniture, not killed a tree, or squashed a bug. These are living, intelligent creatures. They have feelings. They understand terror, and pain, and Michael Vick and his "posse" abused and tortured and mutilated and murdered these living creatures for their own sick amusement.
Quite frankly Mr. Vick deserves to spend the rest of his life, working a crummy minimum wage job, kept away from children, animals and any other living creatures outside of what is required by his work. Or if he's allowed to resume his NFL career then every cent over a certain amount should go to ensure the life time care of the survivors of his death camp.
But that won't happen. Because this is America and apparently torture and murder are the new "My bad".
Personally though I'll not be the least bit surprised the day that the news reports about human skulls found in Vick's basement and his connection to a string of missing women.
Abusing animals is one of the first signs of a serial killer after all.
And if that happens I hope every member of the "Hey hey Vick's okay" club can live with themselves.
(I'm sorry. I normally try to be more dispassionate when I write these articles but all I see is my little Margaret Audrey or Evelyn May Rose if they had been under Mr. Vick's tender "mercies" ripped to shreds, held in a rape stand, or electrocuted while Mr. Vick and company laughed and frankly it takes all my will power not to throw up)
Let me start off by being perfectly up front. I don't want to have children. I am blessed by a life partner who also does not want children. To take it a step further, I really don't like them. However, I do my best to be reasonably tolerant. I don't sneer at every child I see. I don't go out of my way to upset them. Generally I try to simply ignore them when I can. However there are people in this world who are working from the misguided belief that there children are special and magical and should be allowed to behave however they want, and no one should say a word against them.
This ranges from people in Barnes and Noble with a screaming new born who are more into their lattes and books than in quieting the child, to a woman with a sixteen year old daughter in KFC who acts outraged that we would object to one of the girls friends singing Happy Birthday in a screech at the top of her lungs.
Almost any time that I have the awful temerity to say something to these people, they almost invariably offer the same reply, "This is a public place so they can do as they please."
WRONG!
Wrongo!
Wrong wrong wrongity wrong wrong wrong!
See also incorrect.
A public place, means that we all moderate our behavior. It means that I put up with more noise from your child than I would if said child were in My home, and your child makes less noise than they would be allowed to make if they were in Your home.
It does not mean that your little squatlet gets to run around and do whatever in the hell they want just because you are to lazy, or weak to say no to the kid and actually mean it.
Now be good before I go and find a nice evil murderous clown with candy and turn him loose on your little hell spawn.
Recently there has been a lot of debate, some of it intelligent, some of it not so much about whether or not Facebook, should allow a Holocaust Denial group to exist within its environs. A great many people think that because they find such a group and its views supremely distasteful, that Facebook should not allow them to exist. Others, argue that even though Facebook is essentially a private entity, they still serve many of the same functions as a public square. And as such they should allow such a group to exist so long as it does not break any laws.
I am in agreement with the latter opinion, and frankly I think that it is a standard that needs to be brought back into vogue, in a great many aspects of our lives.
While I am no fan of racist groups, nor homophobes, nor sexists, I don’t believe that you accomplish anything positive by removing from people who hold views that you find distasteful, any legitimate outlet to have their voice heard. I believe that by squashing them so completely that they go almost totally underground you actually make them harder to monitor and more dangerous. Plus you miss out on a chance to engage them openly, and perhaps give some people who might have their mind opened by a differing view point a chance to hear something other than the narrow minded rhetoric that they may have been raised with.
Not to mention there is the question of where exactly is the line drawn between ideas that are not fit to heard and those that are? Who is to decide? After all I’m sure that the more narrow minded zealots of the Religious Right, would love to see Atheist groups denied their right to free speech. I have no doubt that there are those who consider people like myself who believe that if some reasonable plan of population control is not achieved than there will be no real hope for improvement of humanity’s lot.
The bottom line as I see it is that there is the road of censorship and suppression, or there is the road of the marketplace of ideas. While the latter is a much more challenging road, I think that it is also the one with the greatest potential rewards.
Since I highlighted some Star Trek related articles for Science Saturday, it seems only fair and right to do the same with this weeks Website Wednesday post. Now if you already know about this wonderful resource than you'll have to forgive me for boring you with a rehash. However I figure that the new movie has resulted in a lot of new fans of the Star Trek Universe that would love to know more about what has come before.
Memory Alpha is a Star Trek Wiki that is so thorough and well presented that you'd almost think that it was run by the people at Paramount. It's not, and frankly I think they put what Paramount offers through its Trek site to shame. Not only is it exhaustive, but also because they focus explicitly on only those things that have appeared on screen, be it live action television, movie, or the short lived animated series, they make it easy to do research without the clutter of the novels and comics which while wonderful are not considered even remotely part of canon. Best of all though is that there is a companion wiki called Memory Beta, which is regularly referenced that can lead one to information about the novels if one wants to learn more about Trek in print.
I visit MA regularly and always come away thoroughly entertained and enlightened about one of my favorite science fiction universes.
I have been more than a little bit torn. I've been reading a lot in the news about a new hate crime bill that is in the process of being made into law. And while I oppose hate crime laws in principle, I have to be of the opinion that at the current time they may be a necessary thing. The main reason for this is that while the United states has made giant steps forward in attempting to apply the law, in a more egalitarian way to all citizens, the simple sad truth is that there are still failures of the system. Crimes against those who are lacking in money and power, and sometimes unpopular often times are not prosecuted with the zeal that perhaps they should be. And sometimes the penalties given are not as stiff as the law allows. As a result, although ideally things like race, gender, sexual orientation, sexual proclivities, etc. should not enter into the picture, often they do.
It seems to me that laws that make attacking a person based on their being believed to be part of a so called minority group, (gay, black, homeless, etc) worthy of harsher punishment than so called "random" crimes of violence, or crimes of passion, may serve as a deterrent. It certainly seems worth a try. What I find ironic, is that the very people who want to carry on about what a great deterrent Capital Punishment is, which so often tends to be used against the lesser segments of our society, are unwilling to consider the validity of a law meant to protect those very same people, and deter those who would seek specifically to harm them. The Conservativedouble standard at its finest.
One of the things that is important to me, as I try to find news worth sharing, is that the sources I use be as ethical as possible, in a journalistic sense. Now admittedly this is a very grey area, and I’m not generally looking for some kind of ideological purity. I’ve used articles from The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post from time to time, when it is well known that they have a much more Conservative slant to their coverage of most events. However there are times when a source will go to far. Fox news, is an excellent example of one that has gone too far too often for my tastes. In all honesty the final straw was the fact that they were if not out right sponsoring the so called “Tea Parties” they certainly were helping to create the appearance of frenzy, when I still question if there really was one. It seems like their coverage is routinely slanted, not only what is offered by their opinion journalists like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity, but their so called “regular” coverage as well. The bottom line is that I have decided that they are not trustworthy and I will not use them. To be clear however, most of the Fox network affiliates that offer news use the term “My Fox” before the channel number will continue to be evaluated on their own merits as they are not actually part of “Fox News” proper.
Also, I will be increasing what has been a partial practice of mine, and whenever possible will attempt to use more primary sources. For example if I find a news report through someone else's blog, unless my post is about the blog authors opinion, I will instead use the original report. When it is a news report about a speech given by someone, say President Obama for example, I will attempt to find a transcript of the speech, rather than rely solely on an articles analysis, unless I’m writing about their analysis. It is my hope by doing this to offer greater clarity and originality of thought about important news and issues of the day.
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