Week 3 Foreign paper -This was posted before req. for foreign paper changed

This week I am commenting on an article I found in the Scotsman entitled "Two-fold Rise in Offenders Let Off with Warning Letters" by Michael Howie( http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=154592006)

Evidently Scotland is suffering under some of the same delusions we in America have labored under about dealing with crime There is a policy in Scotland in effect that provides for "fiscal warning letters" for approximately 10% of the people who are arrested for criminal offenses. Some of these offenses are indeed "trivial" as these things go, littering, no seatbelt use, or no tv license, but many are for far more serious offenses, such as illegal drugs, assault, and weapon possession. This scandalous perversion of justice was uncovered by a member of Parliament who was dismayed to learn how widespread the practice has become. The MP, Mr. McLetchie, suspects that the entire operation is solely designed to keep people out of the penal system, thereby keeping costs down. MP McLetchie said, "The justice system is effectively being subverted by overuse of the fiscal's warning letter, which has allowed thousands of people to escape scot-free. There's been an extraordinary explosion in the number of letters issued and this is symptomatic of an approach which is damaging public confidence in the system. It's short-changing the victims of crime, whether it's crime against property or people." The government, not surprisingly, asserts that the increase is due to the police reporting such crimes in a different manner than before.

When perpetrators are not punished for criminal acts, it causes a loss of respect for the justice system. The offender often becomes emboldened, while the victim of crime ends up victimized twice, once by the criminal, which is bad enough, but then again by the justice system that should be protecting them. The victims deserve better, and we should know better.

Saying of the Week

Opportunities multiply as they are seized. -Sun Tzu

Week 2 Opinion - In My Opinion.....

Bob Woodruff, the co-anchor of the "World News Tonight" was seriously injured in an IED attack while covering a story in Iraq over the weekend. Was he a brave journalist risking all to get a story? Or was he foolhardy, risking both his and his cameraman's life for nothing? The major media seem to have taken the position that he was doing his job and was cruelly injured. I have read that some people feel that Woodruff was acting irresponsibly by standing up top in a stopped vehicle in an area known for problems of this type. Certainly he was advised that this was not a good idea.
His boss at ABC, a Mr. Westin, declared pompously that the injury to Woodruff and his cameraman "brought the war home to us". What planet have some of these media people been living on? They have been giving us nightly body counts, at times almost breathlessly, complete with sad music and with heart rending pictures or little stories about killed soldiers, their hobbies, likes, pets even, all to make us feel grief for what has happened. I believe most Americans have grieved over the number of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. That being said, it took one of their own people, who was in the minds of many grossly overpaid, and who CHOSE to go to Iraq ( unlike our service people, who do not make much money and did not have much choice in the matter) to "bring it home to them". That would be laughable if it were not so offensive to contemplate. Last night on the ABC network news, a large chunk of the beginning of the program was devoted to covering the incident, and what happened in the aftermath of it. How the two men were immediately taken to a field hospital, from there to the main American hospital in Iraq, from there loaded on a plane and flown to the American hospital in Germany. I often watch the evening news, and never had I seen such coverage about how our service people have received such care. But now, because it is one of their own, they will take the time to show us in depth coverage. We were even "treated" to a brief interview with Woodruff's brother, why, I am not sure, we don't see interviews with the families of most injured servicemen. If I had had a loved one injured in Iraq, I would be livid that all this coverage was for one media star while my loved one and everyone else he'd served with was given short shrift.
I suppose I should not be too surprised by all this coverage, that seems to be the way media reacts when it is one of their own who is injured or killed in one of these war zones. I am sorry, while I feel badly for Mr. Woodruff, the cameraman and their families, my sympathies don't go very far, because the war has long since been "brought home" to me. The foolishness, or hypocrisy, of the media in their coverage of this particular incident has only served to annoy me, and probably to alienate more viewers.

Week 2 Anachronisms

anach·ro·nism 1 : an error in chronology; especially : a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other 2 : a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present

I have been asked to give three examples of anachronisms. Hmmm. In my opinion, three current anachronisms are:

#1- Lincoln Continentals/Cadillacs/SUV's

#2 -record players

#3 -Teddy Kennedy

They are all still here, they may have once served a function in our society, but they are throwbacks now to a different age, virtual dinosaurs, a sort of cultural flotsam that is already going out on the last tide.

Week 2 Opinion Have you checked out "The Drudge Report"?

Matt Drudge is one of the most influential members of the electronic media. His website, http://www.drudgereport.com/ is one of the top rated websites for "hits" on the internet today. Mr. Drudge is known for ferreting out stories that the other media often spike. The flavor of the website overall is conservative, ( ok I admit he occasionally features some “weird things in the news today” type of stories such as the frog fried into the French fries, or the deformed cat with an extra eye ) with stories one would generally expect to be of interest to conservatives, but the interesting thing is that his site appeals not only to conservatives, but also moderates and even some thoughtful liberals also. Perhaps it is his even tone that lures them in, for there are not many websites that do not trumpet their biases towards the left or the right. He has the current news for each day as headlines, and updates the site as events may warrant.

There are two features that I particularly like about the way Drudge has set up his site. First, he offers a list of interesting columnists to choose from, most conservative or moderate/centrist, but with a few liberals thrown in for contrast. All you need to do is scroll down through them clicking on your favorites. For the most part these featured columnists are adept at their craft, and offer insight on various topics of current interest. Since I enjoy well- written wit, I am delighted at the choices available. Additionally, I appreciate the fact he has links to many of the major newspapers in the world. Therefore, I don’t need to keep any links to them in my “Favorites” list; I can just click the links on them and search through them for whatever interests me.

I would recommend that anyone who is interested in current events but is not familiar with the Drudge Report site, to go check it out.

Week 2 Wikipedia Topic-Nathan Hale

I am distantly related to Nathan Hale and have had an interest in his story for a long time.
Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut in 1755 and after an uneventful, ‘average’ childhood, was sent with his brother Enoch to Yale University in 1769 . He graduated with honors in 1773 and obtained a job as a school teacher, serving in two posts. Upon the start of the Revolutionary War he signed up with the Connecticut Militia. The following year, 1775, Hale joined the regular army in the 7th Connecticut Regiment and was promoted to the rank of captain in 1776. He served honorably and participated in the defense of New York City. In September of 1776 the Americans needed more information on the movement and placement of the British Army around the New York City area. What they actually needed was a spy. (In the 18th century spying was considered a despicable thing, and an activity certainly not worthy of a gentleman. For that reason no one would volunteer to do it.) Hale, seeing the necessity of the operation, volunteered to do it, even though his friends tried to dissuade him from going on the mission. He decided to use his civilian persona as a schoolmaster, and set out for the British lines on Long Island. He was able to pass through the British lines undiscovered, and was also able to travel about and gain the needed information. He foolishly hid the information which he had written down upon his person, and set out to return to the American lines. He was captured by the British on September 21, 1776, was searched, and the incriminating papers found. Hale was immediately brought before Sir William Howe, the supreme commander of British forces in North America. Howe ordered him hung as a spy the next day. The article goes on to say that there is no evidence for Hale's famous words, " I regret that I have but one life to give for my country." ( which was a tag line from a popular play of that time), however, in research that I have done I found that he spent his last hour while the British constructed his gallows, with a Colonel John Montressor. Later that day Montressor was part of a group of British officers who went under a white flag to the Americans on some other business, while there, he reported to one of the American officers what had happened to Hale. When the Americans had prepared their reply to the British , one of Hale's friends managed to get a place on the delegation traveling to the British camp, and that man was able to meet with Colonel Montressor. According to the man, Montressor told him what had transpired with Hale, and the man then told the rest of Hale's friends.

Week 2 Opinion Re:Article on Problems with Wikipedia

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm

Regarding the maliciously false posting about Mr. Siegenthaler on Wikipedia, that is the reason I seldom, if ever, go to Wikipedia. One never knows if what is read there is actually correct in its entirety. It could be completely correct, may have a good faith error, a careless mistake, or even a malicious entry, and the reader might never know. We were discouraged from using Wikipedia as a cited source for papers in my English classes for that reason.

Week 2 Journalism article

I have read a Wikipedia article on online journalism. I agree that online blogs often seem to dissolve into "he said, she said" back and forth battles that generally do nothing to further either side. That being said, however, there are a number of very good online sources for news, and I think the online format will continue to take a larger share of the potential viewers from the traditional mainstream media. This may be a good thing if it results in the traditional media actually examining why people are turning to the net for news, if they don't, then they will go the way of the dinosaurs.

Saying of the Week

"Respect is what other people think about you, self -respect is what you know about yourself. "- me

Week 2 Is there Media Bias?

This comment is based on two articles, one at the "Media Research Center" ( a conservative group) which I will abbreviate MRC, http://www.mediaresearch.org/biasbasics/biasbasics1.asp, and the other at "What Liberal Media?" ( a liberal group) which I will abbreviate WLM http://www.whatliberalmedia.com/ , both of which deal with the topic "is there bias in the media?"

Is there media bias? Almost everyone ( other than many people in the media) will say that they believe the media is biased, that is almost a given by this point in time. The majority of people in the media, however, will unfailingly proclaim their scrupulous even handed treatment of issues they report on. They either will not, or can not, admit the obvious, that all of us come to issues with our own biases, which we must always be aware may, and probably do, color our perception of what is news and how to express what we want to say about the news. The question should not be" is the media biased?", but rather "how is the media biased and what is the effect of any bias on their reporting of news?".

After examining the WLM site ( which consists mostly of the comments from the book they are trying to sell) I came away with the impression that the writer, Eric Altman, sincerely believes that the media has a decidedly right tilt. He waxes on and on, through a pdf of 13 pages, about how many errors he found in the sayings of outspoken conservative luminaries, most of which seem to be more of the nit picking type of errors than substantive ones. He dances around the premise of media bias by doing the journalist's verbal equivalent of a drive by shooting, he tosses in a comment about the person he quotes, usually of a personal or unsubstantiated nature, and then speeds off to something else leaving me wondering what happened and is there anything there or is it just sniping? Throughout his lengthy writing, he repeats the mantra of a conservative bias to the news, but offered no real evidence of any such thing. There is a whole lot of opinon here, but not many concrete facts for the question he purports to address, is the media biased? He believes the media is biased to the right, but offers no concrete proof or even examples, of why he should be believed.

I also examined the MRC site, which I must confess was not only much more concise, it was easier to find what they believed. On the home page they stated their premises about why they believe the media has a liberal lean, and each statement had links to a complete article on that particular topic. They did not go as far into the personal attacks as did Mr. Altman, confining themselves to advancing a reason why they believed the media was biased to the liberal side, and then cited actual quotes or statistics to support their position.

In short, my own thoughts on the subject are that the media is not balanced, and worse yet, for the most part they either do not see it, or will not admit it. Additionally, I think there is sufficient reason to suspect that the media generally biases the news in favor of liberal views. Not so much because of a vast conspiracy, but because they are overwhelmingly liberal themselves. If one is coming from the viewpoint that your views are the only possible ones a thinking person can have, it becomes more difficult to present the views of the other side in a neutral fashion. A bias may be seen in what they decide is newsworthy, how much time is given to a piece, and proceeds forth from there. Even the vocabulary selected for a piece may, deliberately or not, subtly shade the perception the person reading or watching the piece receives. One of the items that was very interesting on the MRC site was a piece about how an overwhelming number of journalists consulted identified themselves as Democrat or liberal. This could indicate that conservative views may indeed not be receiving a balanced, fair share of coverage. The very fact that so many people have given up on getting their news from the traditional "big media" print and network outlets should tell us something about the perception the public has about the quality of the news being offered.

There is indeed media bias, and as long as we are all accepting of the fact that none of us is unbiased and that our biases will inevitably influence our thoughts and reporting, then there is no great problem, we just must ascertain that there are people doing the reporting from both major viewpoints. The real problem is when we are so arrogant that we are blinded by our own biases into thinking that we have none.

Week 2 Foreign paper Today in the news....

These items will be presented periodically as I find something noteworthy, amusing, or of interest to me. Due to the requirements of the assignment for my journalism class, all postings under this topic will be from one online newspaper only, The Scotsman, from Edinburgh. I have included the entire article for convenience, and the link to it. I have also included a picture of the last tractor that attempted to go 85 mph.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/uk.cfid=95152006

Speed camera clocks an '85mph tractor'

SPEED camera operators have apologised to a Wiltshire farmer after they tried to fine him for doing 85mph in a tractor, it emerged yesterday.
Steve Crossman was puzzled when he received a ticket saying he had been snapped by a camera in Wales. But he was even more surprised when he realised that he was being fined for speeding.
With a top speed of 26mph it would take Mr Crossman's tractor more than four hours to cover the distance from his farm in Horningsham to Abergarwed, south Wales where the offence took place. The Mid and South Wales Safety Camera Partnership admitted that they had misread a letter on the registration plate on the film and had got the wrong vehicle. They apologised and retracted the ticket.
Mr Crossman said: "It's a good tractor, but not that good."

This article just goes to show me that interaction with the government is often the same the world around. The article does not mention if the ticketing process is totally automated, or if there was any part in this in which humans were involved. If it was all done by computer it is somewhat understandable, but if humans were involved in the process, it begs the question what semi alert civil servant thought that tractors could go 85 mph? Tractors don't often go much over 25 mph, and then only going downhill with a stiff tailwind when driven by the farmer's son. If tractors could indeed travel that fast, we would be treated to the sight of farmers strewn about the countryside after having been flung from their speeding machines. This does not seem to have beeen the case, at least not any place near here. Of course should tractors actually travel that fast attendance at the local tractor races would no doubt increase substantially. But unfortunately the tractors would probably disintegrate long before they reached anything near that speed.

And, when Mr. Crossman said laconically "It's a good tractor, but not that good", didn't he sound a wee bit wistful?

Week 2 A Personal Comment

Hmmm, a personal comment, eh? Well, I've already written that I have my own opinion about art and music, and my blogsite wasn't even online 24 hours before I was told by a poster that my interests are "weird". I'm not sure what the poster meant, am I weird, or just my tastes? I had not comprehended that liking classical and contemporary Christian music, Carravaggio and Thomas Kinkade would place me so far outside the mainstream as to be "weird". While I cannot speak for Caravaggio, Thomas Kinkade has been "laughing all the way to the bank" with the loot he has made with his artistic "weirdness", we should all be as fortunate with our individual weirdness. The poster may have meant that I am unlike his acquaintances, that may be true, but then perhaps I am not the weird one, perhaps it is his acquaintances who are outside of the mainstream. If he was referring to my liking for contemporary Christian music, he may have a bias against me because since it has the word "Christian" in it, most likely that would indicate a direction of my spiritual thinking, and perhaps he thinks I am totally "out of it" from a secularist viewpoint. Alternatively, he may not have any such bias against me, but against the term "contemporary Christian" music. He mentioned that he was French, and I do not know how much, if any, of this style music is available in that language. He may be so unfamiliar with it as to think it is the "organ playing, old fat lady sitting in the back of the church" type of music that people find so deadening in today's church. If that is the case, and he would like to know what exactly is this type of music, and he is not afraid to try something different, I suggest that he to go to :
http://www.klove.com/ (They have an online broadcast 24/7), hope he checks it out.
Other than that, I will say that I am enjoying this blog more than I would have thought. Not only do I get to write, I even have people who read what I say! Life is good.

Week 1 Moments with Marta, an Interview

I recently sat down with Marta, one of my classmates, for a brief interview for journalism class. Marta is a lovely woman who was born in Rome and grew up on a dairy farm. She is the youngest child in her family, the only girl, and has three older brothers. One of her brothers is married and has a four year old son, making Marta a very proud aunt. Farm life can be a tough way to make a living, and she admits that she does not miss that part of farming, but she does miss the farm animals. As a child she had the task of tending the calves, which she enjoyed doing. She has many pleasant memories of growing up on the farm. Her father no longer has the farm, but works for another farmer nearby. Her mother is a seamstress and often tailors clothing that Marta has purchased. Unfortunately, Marta and her mother have very different fashion tastes so Marta does not usually have her mother make her clothing, but still they are very close.

Marta is currently majoring in General Studies/Liberal Arts, but is considering changing her major. She would like to become a certified sign language interpreter, and fortunately she can get the necessary education for this here.

Among her many interests, Marta likes to make jewelry, loves to read, and enjoys hiking, swimming and many outdoor activites. She particularly enjoys doing counted cross-stitch, and is at this time working on a cross-stitch wall hanging of a Victorian lady in a garden . This will add to her collection of cross-stitching, among which her favorites would be the ones with an Oriental motif.

Marta likes most Italian food, but her favorite food is lasagna. She is also a "recovering chocoholic" whose favorite form of chocolate is Hershey's Kisses with Caramel. Blue is her favorite color. She enjoys most kinds of music, but does not really care much for heavy metal music.

In short, Marta is an interesting person and a woman you would like to know.

Saying of the Week

"What is right is not always what is popular, what is popular is not always what is right" -C.S. Lewis

Week 1 My Interests

My interests are somewhat narrow. I enjoy reading good science fiction, and good historical fiction. Unfortunately, neither is plentiful. Most of what is out there is either trite, boring, or just plain awful. I am not averse to reading nonfiction, primarily history, and in fact, I find 15th century English and 18th century Mohawk Valley history fascinating. I am totally disinterested in any history after the 19th century.

I usually listen to contemporary Christian radio, and that is my favorite music genre. Among that style, I like the Newsboys, Third Day, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Michael W. Smith.
I also enjoy light classical music, and among my favorites are Mozart and Vivaldi. My favorite works by them are "Ein Kleine Nachtmusik" and "The Four Seasons Concerto". For relaxing I also like Pachelbel's "Canon in D" and Ravel's "Bolero" . I dislike most jazz, and do not care for most late rock music either, although I confess I enjoy listening to those "oldies"rock stations, LOL Hip hop, rap and polka are all so far down my list of musical likes that they are in the negative numbers, LOL.

As far as art, if we are talking of pre 20th century art, probably I best like the work of Caravaggio. The realism that he was able to obtain in his works never ceases to surprise me. Perhaps his painting of the apostle Thomas touching the wounded hands of Christ is my favorite. That a man who lived such a wild life as Caravaggio did (he was on the run for killing a man!) but yet was able to portray Biblical scenes with such skill and nuance intrigues me. For modern, 20th or 21st century art, most of it is much over rated hype, sort of like the "Emperor's New Clothes", everyone knows what it really is but no one will call it junk for fear of being labelled a barbarian. That being said, I do like the work of Thomas Kinkade. Call it "bubble gum " art for the masses, or whatever you will, but I like it. There is enough ugliness in the world, I want to see beauty and order, and I see that when I view Kinkade. The world he shows us is beautiful, unscarred by sin and unmarred by ugliness, the world I would portray if I had artistic skill.

I also enjoy gardening. A year ago I turned an old, ugly sandy poolyard into a small circular rose garden. Evidently the roses are very happy there, because they have flourished. I hope to add another garden arch and some more climbing roses this year. I would also like to add a solar powered water fountain and another garden statue.

Week 1 Who am I?

Who am I? That is the question. I'm a returning student in my second year at a two year school. I will graduate in May '06 with a degree in general studies, however, my main interest is writing. I am currently taking three (!!) writing courses so I should have a very good idea by the end of this semester whether I have any future in writing.

This blog is part of a project for a journalism class, so sometimes my posts may seem to have odd topics. Don't be concerned, it may just be the requirements of the course. Then again, it may just be me. Hope you enjoy your stay here.