August 28, 2016

Expecting More from the AP

The AP misled its Twitter followers with this tweet. Per CNN
In examining people Clinton had met with during her tenure at the State Department and how many of them had given to the Clinton Foundation, the AP had excluded those with whom Clinton would be expected to meet as Secretary of State -- U.S. government employees and officials from foreign countries, for example.
Kathleen Carroll, the Executive Editor at AP, defended the tweet saying that it was "sloppy" and "imprecise," but would not admit that it was incorrect. Additionally, the tweet did not include a link to the full story. In my opinion, the phrase "more than half those who met Clinton as Cabinet secretary" is an exact number that can be measured and has no ambiguity. The tweet was incorrect and misled the AP's Twitter followers.

August 27, 2016

Today's STFU Award





...and today's STFU award goes to filmmaker Nate Parker for his comments about gay film roles, specifically “to preserve the black man… you will never see me take a gay role.” Shame on him and his ignorance.

August 22, 2016

Voting is a Right, Not a Privilege

August 17, 2016

The Empire of Illusion

"I am not naïve about violence, tyranny, and war. I have seen enough of human cruelty. But I have also seen in conflict after conflict that we underestimate the power of love, the power of a Salvadorian archbishop, even though he was assassinated, to defy the killing, the power of a mayor in a small Balkan village to halt the attacks on his Muslim neighbors. These champions of the sacred, even long after they are gone, become invisible witnesses to those who follow, condemning through their courage their own executioners. They may be few in number but their voices ripple outward over time. The mediocrities who mask their feelings of worthlessness and emptiness behind the façade of power and illusion, who seek to make us serve their perverse ideologies, fear most those who speak in the language of love. They seek, as others have sought throughout human history, to silence these lonely voices, and yet these voices always rise in magnificent defiance. All ages, all cultures, and all religions produce those who challenge the oppressor and fight for the oppressed. Ours is no exception. The ability to stand as 'an ironic point of light' that 'flashes out wherever the just exchange their messages,' is the ability to sustain a life of meaning." ― from Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle by Chris Hedges