Priorities

Well, so much for me posting briefly, more frequently.  Right after my last post, I ended up over my head in homework.  Study, study, study is all I do anymore.  I have to keep reminding myself that this was my idea!  Hopefully, it will be worth it in the end.  I’m trying to keep my priorities in order.  No fun online until the homework is done!

With the union protests around the country and the tragedy in Japan, I have been trying to keep up on things, since it is now spring break and I have a break from studying.  I don't find the cable news channels help very much.   Luckily, I have found some terrific online news sources.  Believe it or not, outside our realm of CNN, FOX and MSNBC, all saturated with too much biased commentary, bogus information and arguing guest pundits, there exists a world of genuine journalism, reporting the facts without revealing the opinions of those doing the reporting.  It’s refreshing.  I have some links to a few of them at the bottom and will add them to my favorite links list.



I am concerned that most people now need to be signaled about what they should agree with.  Judging by several people I’m acquainted with, if a news story doesn’t have the word “liberal,” “conservative,” “Democrat” or “Republican” in it, then they don’t know what to think about it.  They are unable to read and form their own opinion about what is happening without being led by buzz words.  It’s pathetic. 

In the same way, those same people can’t decide if they agree with a politician or not until they see if they have a “D” or “R” after their name.  Sometimes “D” means Democrat and “R” means Republican, but sometimes, if you really pay attention to what some politicians say and do (especially what they do), and process it with your own brain, you’ll find the “D” stands for “Douchebag” and “R” stands for “Repugnant.”  Neither political party is perfect and, in my own humble opinion, many elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, are not there for the people who voted for them.  They’re there for the corporate lobbyists who funded their campaigns in the first place.  Priorities, you see.  They know who butters their bread and, when all is said and done and they’ve been voted into office, it’s usually not us.  It’s the corporation whose industry’s lobbyists promised to give their precious little sons and daughters jobs as overpaid, over-bonused, Vice Presidents as soon as they graduate from college.  If that means the bought-and-paid-for politicians must travel around saying leprechauns are real, then that's what they'll do.  They'll go up to Capitol Hill and pass "The Leprechaun Initiative" if that's what their corporate owners want and everyone who is charmed by the "R" or "D" after their names will agree that we must stand up for the Leprechauns and the people who aren't charmed by the "R" or "D" will argue that Leprechauns are bad for the economy.

I did turn to CNN earlier to see what they had on Japan and the big protest in Michigan.  It was a mishmash of back and forth reporting and useless commentary.  I did find out, however, that the cast of “The Facts of Life” will be reuniting at the TV Land Awards.  Priorities, once again, rear their shiny heads.

Though I suspect absolutely no one is still reading this blog, and I can’t say I blame them, here are some links to some sites with actual, real, genuine news!

For a good look at what the most popular stories are, with convenient links to them, try newsmap.  The bigger the block, the more popular the story.  You can even remove the categories you don't care about and you can look to see what other countries find interesting using the country links at the top of the page.

There is a reason why Americans are turning to Al Jazeera for world news.  It's because, unlike much our news, it really is news; journalism.  I once mentioned Al Jazeera to a lady and she gasped saying, "But they're terrorists!  They're Al Qaeda!"  Uhhhh, no, they're not.  They are a legitimate news organization.  Check 'em out!

Surprisingly, CNN doesn't suck all over the world.  Most of the rest of the globe still demands actual news.  So, if you go to CNN.com, and click on the "International" link at the top, you'll actually get a decent news website, without top American-style stories about Justin Bieber's hair.

 For anyone who's perfectly happy with their cable news choices, then here's a very important link for you, too.

I'm going to call it a night, or by now, a morning.  My schedule is all out of whack due to spring break, so I better go to sleep.  Priorities!