President Obama announced the end of U.S. combat troops in Iraq today. Thank goodness!
Bush, Cheney, and company were dishonest leaders who put young American soldiers in a quagmire. Shame on them...forever...for their recklessness.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Just for the record: Inventions...
Inventions or concepts that started here...
1). The Roberts pyramid...In journalism education, there is a newswriting style known as the inverted pyramid style. It is an upside-down pyramid which explains that the first sentence, or lead, of the story is the important, containing the 5 W's (who, what, when, where, why) and how or how much and sometimes an attribution. The inverted pyramid style of writing is old, dating back to the Civil War days, when news stories told in traditional ways of story-telling, like a fictional story, had to be changed in order to get through before telegraph wires were cut. When I use the inverted pyramid structure as a teaching tool for basic news reporting students, noting that they should eventually write more leads in the structure of nut graphs or featurized leads, I do incorporate a separate inverted pyramid to get them thinking about their lead. Thus, it is an inverted pyramid of important elements within an inverted pyramid of story structure. As the Roberts inverted pyramid concept is intended just the lead, the students are told to consider which one of the elements of the 5 W's and how or how much is most important and to start with that. It does seem to work in helping them design their leads. Usually, leads aren't started with the when or where elements. Usually, the leads begin with the who, what, why, or how much.
2). Pitch Golf...Many decades ago, in my book "Sage Street" and for my weekly newspaper, I wrote a column about my sports innovation of the exciting, but inexpensive game of "Poor Person's Golf." It is the golf game wherein people don't use fancy and expensive clubs to hit the golf ball down the golf course. Instead, they get to throw the ball. Then there is no need for anything but a golf ball. How many throws would it take for you to get down the course to the first hole? And what would be the likelihood of a pitched hole-in-one? They are all challenges in my "Poor Person's Golf" game, which is probably is need of a higher-brow name. Thus,..."Pitch Golf." While I haven't yet gotten a call from the PGA, I did encourage a recent college graduate who is golf club management to give it a promotional try. I am hopefully that it will catch on, especially in a tough economy.
3). We-Mail...I just saw on the Internet that a website called WeBuzz.Im or something like that has a new service called "We-Mail." Alums of a journalism newsletter that I have been writing for years should recognize the word "We-Mail" for its use for the We-Mail newsletter. The We-Mail idea, of course, is that we hear from each other, as a social network of alums using e-mail...Our mail to each other about news which is then turned into one for all--We-Mail. If a company has trademarked it, then it is legally theirs. But, just for the record, that phrase was one I've been using for journalism alums long before a Google search could find it referenced by others.
I have a few other inventions, concepts and developments--one that's even in fashion, if you could imagine--but maybe I actually should get patents and trademarks before I describe them in words. Inventing is tough work!
1). The Roberts pyramid...In journalism education, there is a newswriting style known as the inverted pyramid style. It is an upside-down pyramid which explains that the first sentence, or lead, of the story is the important, containing the 5 W's (who, what, when, where, why) and how or how much and sometimes an attribution. The inverted pyramid style of writing is old, dating back to the Civil War days, when news stories told in traditional ways of story-telling, like a fictional story, had to be changed in order to get through before telegraph wires were cut. When I use the inverted pyramid structure as a teaching tool for basic news reporting students, noting that they should eventually write more leads in the structure of nut graphs or featurized leads, I do incorporate a separate inverted pyramid to get them thinking about their lead. Thus, it is an inverted pyramid of important elements within an inverted pyramid of story structure. As the Roberts inverted pyramid concept is intended just the lead, the students are told to consider which one of the elements of the 5 W's and how or how much is most important and to start with that. It does seem to work in helping them design their leads. Usually, leads aren't started with the when or where elements. Usually, the leads begin with the who, what, why, or how much.
2). Pitch Golf...Many decades ago, in my book "Sage Street" and for my weekly newspaper, I wrote a column about my sports innovation of the exciting, but inexpensive game of "Poor Person's Golf." It is the golf game wherein people don't use fancy and expensive clubs to hit the golf ball down the golf course. Instead, they get to throw the ball. Then there is no need for anything but a golf ball. How many throws would it take for you to get down the course to the first hole? And what would be the likelihood of a pitched hole-in-one? They are all challenges in my "Poor Person's Golf" game, which is probably is need of a higher-brow name. Thus,..."Pitch Golf." While I haven't yet gotten a call from the PGA, I did encourage a recent college graduate who is golf club management to give it a promotional try. I am hopefully that it will catch on, especially in a tough economy.
3). We-Mail...I just saw on the Internet that a website called WeBuzz.Im or something like that has a new service called "We-Mail." Alums of a journalism newsletter that I have been writing for years should recognize the word "We-Mail" for its use for the We-Mail newsletter. The We-Mail idea, of course, is that we hear from each other, as a social network of alums using e-mail...Our mail to each other about news which is then turned into one for all--We-Mail. If a company has trademarked it, then it is legally theirs. But, just for the record, that phrase was one I've been using for journalism alums long before a Google search could find it referenced by others.
I have a few other inventions, concepts and developments--one that's even in fashion, if you could imagine--but maybe I actually should get patents and trademarks before I describe them in words. Inventing is tough work!
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Meringue on a cowpie...
Alan Simpson, former U.S. senator from Wyoming, made the news today for more goof-ball comments--this time about Social Security. President Obama made the mistake of putting Simpson on a national taskforce committee. Another goofy effort to compromise an important issue into diddly-squat.
What really irritates me is Simpson's typical Republican view about Social Security. Simpson, with his undeserved Senate retirement, should keep his hands off my (and every other workers') Social Security, especially if his conservative ideas are for cutting it or raising the retirement age. How about proposing a raise in the Social Security payroll cap of just 2 percent (or even more) on those who have very high incomes (like Simpson)?
Many years ago, in my Medicine Bow Post newspaper in Wyoming, I noted that Alan Simpson's folksy baloney was like meringue on a cowpie. Looks like Simpson is still meringuing and haranguing.
What really irritates me is Simpson's typical Republican view about Social Security. Simpson, with his undeserved Senate retirement, should keep his hands off my (and every other workers') Social Security, especially if his conservative ideas are for cutting it or raising the retirement age. How about proposing a raise in the Social Security payroll cap of just 2 percent (or even more) on those who have very high incomes (like Simpson)?
Many years ago, in my Medicine Bow Post newspaper in Wyoming, I noted that Alan Simpson's folksy baloney was like meringue on a cowpie. Looks like Simpson is still meringuing and haranguing.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
News at 10...
This just in:
The 99-Weeks Club, the group of unemployed people who have come to the end of their unemployment benefits and still haven't found jobs, are hoping members of Congress who won't extend the benefits will join them someday...so they can see how it feels.
Though the government said the security scans wouldn't be kept, the best of the naked scans of people going through airport security were posted this week on the WikiLeaks website.
A woman traveling passenger class on a plane to Butte, Montana, was voted as Miss August by visitors to the WikiLeaks website concerning the naked scans by the airport security machines. A man traveling first class to Littleton, Colorado, was voted most likely to make naked-scan equipment workers laugh.
A teenager took the keys of the family car and then drove the vehicle into the ditch. His father said, "Son, that officially makes you a Republican." (Explanation: President Obama has referred to the Republican condition of the economy that he was left to salvage as a car that was driven into a ditch and that now the Republicans want the keys again to drive it.)
Mad Hatter of the Tea Party has claimed that Alice is an illegal immigrant and should be put in an Arizona jail.
Tea Party members ran for public office and lost in the primary elections. But they sure have funny hats and goofy signs.
It has been recommended that someone chip in a dollar for the Tea Party sign-writers, so they can buy a dictionary. (This is absolute true: A recent message on a sign at a Tea Party rally shown on a TV news segment was "Obama care not fare.")
The primary campaigns really got nasty and mean. One candidate accused his opponent of sleeping with bed bugs. The other candidate responded back that only bed bugs would want to sleep with his opponent. Pollsters are trying to figure out which bed bug accusation hurt the worst.
Obama's press secretary, the guy with the Southern twang in his mouth who complained recently about the "professional left," is trying out an interesting theory: Insult the Democratic base which is the left and remind them that the Obama administration couldn't come close to providing the same quality of a health care system that Canadians enjoy, and then see if they will vote for Democrats in the elections. Maybe he's an Einstein and the theory will work. Or maybe he's a Bozo.
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and other billionaires have promised to give away half of their wealth during their lifetimes. Though on the other end of the economic scale, the Sage Street blogger wants to join the effort and thus promises to give away half of his poverty.
An opposite-sex couple filed for divorce today, saying that the prospects of same-sex couples having the same right to marry drove them to it. The Family Nonsense Council warned that it signals the end of marriage between a man and a woman. "No straight couple will want to get married if gay couples are doing it," said Al Mond, a religious nut.
Ben Nelson the asterisk is the U.S. senator from Nebraska who's a Democrat but who often votes with the Republicans. Well, something very strange happened. Stranger than paranormal activities, jackalopes, and Glenn Beck. Ben Nelson actually turned into an asterisk. A real, tiny asterisk. One moment he was a man, the next moment he was an asterisk. He's been shipped back to Nebraska for immediate display below a pile of corn cobs, with tiny type for explanation.
The 99-Weeks Club, the group of unemployed people who have come to the end of their unemployment benefits and still haven't found jobs, are hoping members of Congress who won't extend the benefits will join them someday...so they can see how it feels.
Though the government said the security scans wouldn't be kept, the best of the naked scans of people going through airport security were posted this week on the WikiLeaks website.
A woman traveling passenger class on a plane to Butte, Montana, was voted as Miss August by visitors to the WikiLeaks website concerning the naked scans by the airport security machines. A man traveling first class to Littleton, Colorado, was voted most likely to make naked-scan equipment workers laugh.
A teenager took the keys of the family car and then drove the vehicle into the ditch. His father said, "Son, that officially makes you a Republican." (Explanation: President Obama has referred to the Republican condition of the economy that he was left to salvage as a car that was driven into a ditch and that now the Republicans want the keys again to drive it.)
Mad Hatter of the Tea Party has claimed that Alice is an illegal immigrant and should be put in an Arizona jail.
Tea Party members ran for public office and lost in the primary elections. But they sure have funny hats and goofy signs.
It has been recommended that someone chip in a dollar for the Tea Party sign-writers, so they can buy a dictionary. (This is absolute true: A recent message on a sign at a Tea Party rally shown on a TV news segment was "Obama care not fare.")
The primary campaigns really got nasty and mean. One candidate accused his opponent of sleeping with bed bugs. The other candidate responded back that only bed bugs would want to sleep with his opponent. Pollsters are trying to figure out which bed bug accusation hurt the worst.
Obama's press secretary, the guy with the Southern twang in his mouth who complained recently about the "professional left," is trying out an interesting theory: Insult the Democratic base which is the left and remind them that the Obama administration couldn't come close to providing the same quality of a health care system that Canadians enjoy, and then see if they will vote for Democrats in the elections. Maybe he's an Einstein and the theory will work. Or maybe he's a Bozo.
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and other billionaires have promised to give away half of their wealth during their lifetimes. Though on the other end of the economic scale, the Sage Street blogger wants to join the effort and thus promises to give away half of his poverty.
An opposite-sex couple filed for divorce today, saying that the prospects of same-sex couples having the same right to marry drove them to it. The Family Nonsense Council warned that it signals the end of marriage between a man and a woman. "No straight couple will want to get married if gay couples are doing it," said Al Mond, a religious nut.
Ben Nelson the asterisk is the U.S. senator from Nebraska who's a Democrat but who often votes with the Republicans. Well, something very strange happened. Stranger than paranormal activities, jackalopes, and Glenn Beck. Ben Nelson actually turned into an asterisk. A real, tiny asterisk. One moment he was a man, the next moment he was an asterisk. He's been shipped back to Nebraska for immediate display below a pile of corn cobs, with tiny type for explanation.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Update on Prop. C vote and other comments...
Update of the news: By 71 percent, Missouri voters supported Proposition C, the measure that opposed mandatory health care insurance. The national TV news downplayed the vote by saying that it didn't matter since federal law trumps state law. But the newspeople missed what the vote really meant: That a majority of voters, from the right as well as from the left, dislike the idea of mandatory health insurance with its costs in a reform measure that offers little change. The right dislikes anything that's Obama. The left dislikes the farce of watered-down health care with insurance companies still in control. That's what it meant. Legislators who continue to dilute measures because they think they will make more people happy by going to the center need to understand what that does to the enthusiasm and support factor.
Concerning the 9.5 percent unemployment nationwide, a conservative commentator on an ABC news show said, "Democrats are at an ideological deadend on jobs." He may have been referring to the Obama Administration which morphed into the Clinton Administration. But he sure wasn't referring to the FDR Administration during the Great Depression which had plenty of creative ideas for job growth. The difference is in leadership and vision.
There he goes again. Ben Nelson the asterisk, who is the Democratic U.S. senator from Nebraska but tends to vote with the Republicans on everything when he's not diluting Democratic measures, was the only Democrat in the Senate to vote against Elena Kagan as the U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Kagan was approved for the position and has become the fourth woman to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court (the others being Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor).
Concerning the 9.5 percent unemployment nationwide, a conservative commentator on an ABC news show said, "Democrats are at an ideological deadend on jobs." He may have been referring to the Obama Administration which morphed into the Clinton Administration. But he sure wasn't referring to the FDR Administration during the Great Depression which had plenty of creative ideas for job growth. The difference is in leadership and vision.
There he goes again. Ben Nelson the asterisk, who is the Democratic U.S. senator from Nebraska but tends to vote with the Republicans on everything when he's not diluting Democratic measures, was the only Democrat in the Senate to vote against Elena Kagan as the U.S. Supreme Court nominee. Kagan was approved for the position and has become the fourth woman to ever serve on the U.S. Supreme Court (the others being Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor).
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Voting for the proposition that opposes mandated insurance...
Here's something you won't hear often...I am joining the Republicans in voting on August 3 for a Missouri proposition that opposes the mandating of people to buy health care insurance. (Of course, a lot of Progressives are also voting for it, so I am not alone with just the Republicans.)
The Republicans are voting for Proposition C because they throw fits about socialism and Obama-Care. However, I am voting for it because the centrists in government failed to provide a public option program in the health care reform measure, so the insurance industry continues to control health care in this nation. No public option, well, then to hell with mandates and padding the pockets of the insurance industry.
On one flyer that I received in the mail, the first argument that the opponents to Prop. C made was this: "By law, Missouri's hospitals must provide medical care in their emergency departments to anyone who is uninsured--even if they can afford health insurance. Hospitals must cover the cost of that care by charging more to patients who do have insurance...So, should Missourians who already pay for health care also have to pay for those who choose not to pay?"
Oh, boy! I really do hate mythical arguments that imply we all have to equally pay for a health care system that stinks and is set-up for the benefit of the middleman called the insurance company. If we all need to pay for health care, then why don't we just pay it directly to our local hospitals in order to keep our hospitals within the community and then, by doing so, we should be guaranteed that if we get sick we can go there and get free treatment. Why do we need to pay our money to insurance companies so they can make profits, spend on ad campaigns, and spend on lobbyists in Washington, D.C.?
The second argument from the pro-mandate group was this: "It is projected that $50 million a year will be directed away from Missouri. That loss will cause the greatest damage to community hospitals in Missouri's small cities and rural areas...perhaps the one your family relies on in times of need."
Well, I am not a fan of blackmail, either. If the government really cares about the health care of all of its citizens, then it won't penalize a state for refusing to force its people into institutionalized-thievery costs in the first place.
I don't even like being forced to buy car insurance when I almost never have had an accident. Oh, well, because I might someday. I might get caught in a flood one day too, but I can't afford insurance for that in the meantime. Nor a host of other insurance coverage for potential problems in life. When did car insurance become the mandated rule in some states, and how about repealing that? Because we are ALL forced to buy car insurance in Missouri, I sure haven't seen my costs decrease. So, the theory of come one, come all, and we'll all be better off, just isn't the reality.
And it is not about cost, it is about real quality. For instance, I greatly support having monthly amounts for Social Security taken from my paychecks, even if I never live to age 65 to get my share. I support it because I know others who need it are getting it and because it makes our society better.
I was more than willing to join the health care reform cause when I thought that the United States would be getting a geniunely good system, like those used in Canada and Europe. But with no public option or no universal health care, I don't intend to support reform that's not reform.
The Republicans are voting for Proposition C because they throw fits about socialism and Obama-Care. However, I am voting for it because the centrists in government failed to provide a public option program in the health care reform measure, so the insurance industry continues to control health care in this nation. No public option, well, then to hell with mandates and padding the pockets of the insurance industry.
On one flyer that I received in the mail, the first argument that the opponents to Prop. C made was this: "By law, Missouri's hospitals must provide medical care in their emergency departments to anyone who is uninsured--even if they can afford health insurance. Hospitals must cover the cost of that care by charging more to patients who do have insurance...So, should Missourians who already pay for health care also have to pay for those who choose not to pay?"
Oh, boy! I really do hate mythical arguments that imply we all have to equally pay for a health care system that stinks and is set-up for the benefit of the middleman called the insurance company. If we all need to pay for health care, then why don't we just pay it directly to our local hospitals in order to keep our hospitals within the community and then, by doing so, we should be guaranteed that if we get sick we can go there and get free treatment. Why do we need to pay our money to insurance companies so they can make profits, spend on ad campaigns, and spend on lobbyists in Washington, D.C.?
The second argument from the pro-mandate group was this: "It is projected that $50 million a year will be directed away from Missouri. That loss will cause the greatest damage to community hospitals in Missouri's small cities and rural areas...perhaps the one your family relies on in times of need."
Well, I am not a fan of blackmail, either. If the government really cares about the health care of all of its citizens, then it won't penalize a state for refusing to force its people into institutionalized-thievery costs in the first place.
I don't even like being forced to buy car insurance when I almost never have had an accident. Oh, well, because I might someday. I might get caught in a flood one day too, but I can't afford insurance for that in the meantime. Nor a host of other insurance coverage for potential problems in life. When did car insurance become the mandated rule in some states, and how about repealing that? Because we are ALL forced to buy car insurance in Missouri, I sure haven't seen my costs decrease. So, the theory of come one, come all, and we'll all be better off, just isn't the reality.
And it is not about cost, it is about real quality. For instance, I greatly support having monthly amounts for Social Security taken from my paychecks, even if I never live to age 65 to get my share. I support it because I know others who need it are getting it and because it makes our society better.
I was more than willing to join the health care reform cause when I thought that the United States would be getting a geniunely good system, like those used in Canada and Europe. But with no public option or no universal health care, I don't intend to support reform that's not reform.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Ben Nelson the asterisk, wolf sex, feeling like you're going to boot, and other facts and information of the summer...a three-part series...
This is part of a three-blog entry series. The next one will involve bewildering, head-scratching moments from the news that I experienced this summer. The third one will be about some summer reading that I enjoyed. But below are some of the many interesting facts and information that I learned this summer...
- New word of the summer: "Vuvuzela" -- The plastic horn that South Africans used to make that annoying noise throughout the World Cup games. The device is also known as a "lepatata." I am not sure which word I like better. Both are fun to say and sound musical.
- New slang of the summer: "Boot" -- In modern college student language, a verb that means "to vomit." According to The Field Guide To College Slang by Natalie Sudikoff, other slang words that may be on campus this year include: "Gut Class" -- An "easy class that everyone does well in. "Blitz" -- Sending a short e-mail, as in "I'll blitz you." "Dormcest" -- Hooking up with someone who lives in your dorm. (Probably meant more for coed dorms, but these are modern times, too.) "Turkey Dump" -- When a freshman returns home for Thanksgiving Dinner to dump his or her "hometown honey." "Midnight Howl" -- A bellowing scream heard at midnight, the night before finals.
- Interesting book of the summer: "The Man Who Stopped Time" by Brian Clegg. It is a book about English pioneer photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who has also been called the father of the motion picture. He is best known for his series of photographs of a horse in a gallop which proved, as moment to moment of the gallop was studied, that a galloping horse can indeed have its four hooves (legs) off the ground simultaneously. He had to use 24 cameras to catch every second of movement. What I didn't know about Muybridge was that he was a murderer. In 1874 in England, he killed his wife's lover. He was facing the gallows and he went to trial with the defense of "marital rights." Did the jury convict or acquit him? I shouldn't give it away in case you want to read the story, but I will mention it in an upcoming blog, the third in the series, about summer reading. If you don't want to know, then skip over the repeated reference to "The Man Who Stopped Time" there.
- Interesting TV show of the summer: "The Human Family Tree" on the National Geographic channel. It was about the history of DNA of all the world's people since the time of early ancestors like "Eve" in Africa. There was a lot interesting information. For instance, there are 5,000 languages in the world today and speech was critically important in allowing the human species to progress. Also, researchers estimate that at one time, because of one terribly dry period in Africa, the human species probably only numbered around 2,000 and was on the verge of extinction. The program also noted that there are 3 billion letters of the human genome and only a few change the race. In other words, race differences are not more than skin deep. Genetically speaking, race doesn't exist.
- Interesting documentary of the summer: "Yellowstone: Struggle for Survival," a three-part TV series by the BBC, which you can watch in its entirety by way of a DVD from Netflix. The film photography of the wildlife and landscape was stunning. Lots of interesting information about Yellowstone National Park. The park contains more geysers than in all the rest of the world. Real mama grizzlies, antelope, bison, beavers, elk, and wolves were featured. I had no idea that wolves have a rather problematic situation involving sex, but there is a scene of the potential hazards of the problem in the film. This is a family-oriented blog, so I will leave it vague, but the film also is great for family viewing. Heck, mammals are just better at illustrating the subject of sex than birds and bees anyway, so if you have children and if it leads to a discussion, you may discover that they know plenty already about the subject or, at least, they probably know more about it than you think they do. If you have teenagers, God bless and help you! In the modern world, college students are the experts on the subject.
- Interesting TV quote of the summer: A TV news story in June 2010 featured author and former lawyer John Grisham. He said there are thousands of innocent people in prisons. About half of the time, the real killer is never found, he said. But here is the quote, pertaining to why it is important for the justice system to get it right, that I thought was very interesting from Grisham: "When you send an innocent man to prison, chances are you've just increased the crime rate."
- Best News Anchor of the summer: Jake Tapper of ABC's "This Week" on Sunday mornings. He challenged guests with insightful questions. The permanent anchor for the show, starting next week, will be Christiane Amanpour from CNN.
- Interesting asterisk of the summer: Ben Nelson the asterisk. Whenever I am speaking about and criticizing the Republican Party of "No," please note that more specifically I probably should be saying, "The Republicans and Ben Nelson." Nelson is the conservative senator from Nebraska who often votes with the Republicans. He's about as much a Democrat as rattlesnakes make good necklaces.
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