A Little Fed Up

I'm kinda pissed. At pretty much everybody. What do I mean? Politics of course. It seems you are either a tea party banger or a liberal scumbag. I don't think I am either. But that is what the media along with the politicians are having you believe. I want fiscal conservativeness with social liberalism. Really I don't care who has sex or doesn't have sex... that is none of my concern. I tend to lean to the more conservative candidate... that is until the right gets holier than everybody else and starts preaching from the stump. And I tune the whole mess out.

Why doesn't anyone get it? I'm not picking out my next babysitter or doctor I just want someone who is moderate. Who knows how to get things done and who isn't so busy scratching somebody else's back that they can't get the job done. I doubt this person exists, but that is all I look for. We have the same problems as we have always had... and I don't think we are any closer to solving them than we were 50 years ago.

Are we doomed to repeat the same silly mistakes over and over and over again? She got his seamen on her dress, he has a bastard son, these people has shown pictures of their private parts... remind me again why I should care? The thing is I don't. It is what I do that has the most effect on me. If the person was too busy having sex or being promiscuous instead of doing his job, then I might care... maybe. But the media loves shit like this, thus the real issues get tossed to the side and we become voyeurs in the sideshow instead. Yeah not so good. Maybe I should just turn it all off. I think I could be a much happier person... but then what would I talk about?

Media

I get this feeling that the "news", that is the papers, TV, and radio, and their online presence are all just a bunch of hypocritical liars. Maybe it is just me, but it seems like they are in the business of building people up, only to tare them down again. Look at anyone in the "news", and you'll see it too.

I'm not saying they report wrongly, but in a way I guess they are. Whatever is popular, or seems to be the current thing to do, that is the media. Blah, I just ignore it and make up my own mind instead.

Uniforms

So the paper, the daily wipe, also known as Bluffton Today says in their We Say column that teachers should wear uniforms just like the students. All students will have to wear a uniform in two years. Yes I know, you can make all kinds of arguments for or against the uniforms. The School Board made that decision, not the teachers. They can suppose anything they want to, but teachers are professionals, highly educated ones at that, and they need to attract more of them to the profession, not less.

The editorial seems like it was written by a middle/high schooler, because I sure can't make sense out of it... Kids, our kids, should not wear uniforms because teachers don't have to? Huh? Good God I think there's more than that, that the teacher's do that the students don't or vice versa. I'm not sending my teacher, my wife to learn or be taught anything. It just doesn't make sense. I went to Catholic school, and there never was anything brought up about what the brotherhood was wearing. If that is the best you've got then you really don't have anything at all.

If someone is dressed improperly, then let the right people take care of it. Believe me, if somebody flubs up on a given day, wears something inappropriate, I hear all about it...a little bit of kangaroo court if you will. But professionals don't need a uniform, or a shirt with their name on it (that's fine if you have your name on your shirt, but anyway) . I don't happen to believe we need a uniform at the high school level, but somebody does, and you have to ask "why?" and I bet your answer will be "if only those parents would have done their job..." But they didn't, and now we have what we have. Probably it won't work, but whether it fails or passes should not be teachers fault, they have enough blame already.

Got Media?

I read something the other day about the media, and how we are better off (or not) by having this kind of 24/7 news cycle. I think it's probably closer to not simply because I don't think my life is better with it. Sure I can watch or read whatever I want, and I do but just the other day I was getting a hair cut, and the TV was tuned in to MSNBC and they had some lady spouting off how Barack Obama was good and how John McCain was evil. And this is news? I don't think either candidate is very good, but I wouldn't put somebody who basically is a supporter on TV. Or at least put two opposing views instead of just one. And I'm sure it happened on the right side too.

I know we have a right to know any and everything in our world, but what do you do when you get so many different views you just say "fuck it" and don't listen to any of them? I've taken nightly news out of my programing, really for the most part any and all news. And I'm no worse off for it. The newspapers around here... well I've already taken them to task and really they haven't talked back. Now I understand that this is a small town, but there could be so much better reporting. So what to do?

I think this is wear I get in my sail boat or get away to the mountains and never look back. Of course I still have 20-30 years until retirement so that's how much longer I'm going to be stuck listening to all of that partisan, space-brained, bullshit. I wish somebody would really take a deep breath, try to do what is right and all that jazz. But I can't see it.

POOL POOPING

So it all started here. A year ago today it happened. The final straw that broke my camel's back. Now I've been back, a few times, but now I don't want to be associated with that site at all. It's just smoke and mirrors, fluff, and yellow journalism. I think I really need to thank them, because they're so stupid, so outrageous, so incompetent that I'm a better person.

At first I was going to stick it out with them because of the obvious reasons, they have a lot of people visit their site, and when I said something on their site, I got a lot of hits on mine, but then I had my stroke, and I let some people have it (that had it coming anyway) and BOOM, I completely quit that scene. If you want to hear what I have to say, you'll just come to my site... the end.

I've had my own trials and tribulations, but I felt if I stick with it long enough I'd get a second wind, or third or fourth wind as it were. Yes this one year anniversary has seen all kinds of different things, people coming and going, deciding whether or not to blog at all, sickness, pretty much everything and anything. So yep thanks BT, for providing me with a voice, and then making me search out an even louder one, that lets me say whatever I want, even four letter words like fuck and shit. I've taken off the training wheels and I'm not even wearing a helmet. All I am looking for now is more people like me... who are not spoon fed, who have an ability to think outside of what they're told, who have a brain function higher than a tomato. So where you at?

Junk News

Something that's been bothering me lately. If you look on any of the popular websites, like msn for example (though you local papers are just as much at fault) and you see stuff that really isn't news it's just opinions... which means I could write it, or you, or basically anyone. You don't have to have any credentials, or go to any kind of school, or pretty much do anything.

I know that puts me in a precarious position, because anyone who reads this can say the same about me, but I think the readership of any blog knows what they are getting into, the news sites, well you expect the truth... not to get misled or bamboozled by somebody who you thought was better than average or at least more in the know.

Is it a sign of the times? Hell network TV is full of Master of Dance or Big Brother or American Idol type crap. Is this what we can expect? Maybe that's why I don't watch much TV. Or I should say don't watch TV the way anybody else does. I'll give the perfect example. Ghostbusters came on the other night. I thought thats a pretty good movie, let me see if it is on Netflix instant player, it was and suddenly I don't have to wait on some 45 minutes of commercials and I can see it, unedited. TV is a waste of time.

Anyway back to news, if they think spoon feeding me crap is going to work they're wrong. If it works on some people then good for them, but really I think the stories are the product of certain companies writing in such a way to make you visit their site. It really is just another way to make money. Oh boy. These websites are nothing more than SPAM instead of promising a bigger penis or sexual satisfaction they're peddling a better career or investment opportunity. Lovely world we live in isn't it?

Beaufort County School District's Summer Institute

Sorry to interrupt the comic, but I have to say something that's getting to me.

My wife has been going to school this week, part of the Beaufort County School District's Summer Institute. It's a good thing, not that you'd know it if you look in the local paper (Bluffton Today) because what is Front Page to the Island Packet is just a minor by-line in the "daily wipe". Why is it like that? I think, and I can only guess because I'm not in the newspaper business, it's because one person didn't know or care or forgot that this was happening. In fact the one picture that says "Sizzlin' Summer Institute" isn't even correct. Shameful if you ask me, mislead, misdirect and misinform. God I hope nobody thinks they're reading actual news in that rag.

You can read about what they're doing here. It is pretty big, like 700 teachers, so you'd think that it might be important. It is in The State, which granted is a sister paper of the Island Packet, but still. The institute is going on all week at Bluffton High. Everyday they have a keynote speaker and after that person finishes speaking, they then break up into some 45 different groups, depending on what you want to learn about. It's kind of like a conference without all the travel, hotels, and drinking afterward.

Back to the comic... and here is another one for your trouble, aimed squarely at the people who bring you "news".

VOX

I know I said no shooting straight from the hip, but this thing bothers me. And at first I thought it was a good thing, but now I don't. I'm talking about the VOX or Latin for "voice". People basically call in to the newspaper and say pretty much whatever and then that gets put in the newspaper (which is free).

You could say, "uh hey MH, that's pretty much what you do" and you'd be right, but believe it or not I do feel some responsibility in my posts, and for the most part if anyone cares to reply (in the comments or by email) they can, but there is absolutely no account in the VOX. And maybe that's the problem, it's not really communication because the transmit button is stuck, there really isn't any receive in there... if you know what I mean.

Then we come to the really bad part, the paper is low on content just throw some VOX in there. Literally they don't need anything but one person, to copy down what they say, and you have pages and pages of content. No investigative reporting, or any reporting at all. It's cheap, it's prevalent, and the dumb public loves it.

Maybe instead of VOX it should be called rapere, lethe, or simply the plagiarization.

A History Lesson...

...of sorts. Basically the birth of Mad Hatter, and of this blog.

I first started out as a much different creature, but through a course of events, not all controlled by me I have changed. It began as me posting as myself, then my pet, but those things were too easily identifiable and I had some not so nice things to say about the school, etc. So the creation of a totally unrelated blog persona, the Mad Hatter, was necessary. People say if you want people to take you serious you post your name... well those people aint me.

First of all the blog we're talking about is The Bluffton Today, and it really isn't a blog rather a message board. I actually own a blog that predates this one, by almost 9 years, but in it I've only given about 10 people access to it. The BT site nothing at all like that, but still rather than argue about it, I'll leave it alone.

Next we have the weirdo factor. That is the amount of people who would talk to me as if I knew them all their life... or in the case of my particular pet, felt a need to personally connect with him/her... I'm not telling you what the sex is because people are strange. I got some rather peculiar notes left on my car as well.

Then there was the policy holders there at the paper. They could do whatever, whenever, however. You didn't control anything put up there. In fact they even went so far as to manipulate what you said or how it was to be presented. This is where the name poolpooping came from, because one of the editors said we were pooping or peeing in his pool, because they went through all the trouble to create this site, we better appreciate it... so says him.

My argument all along is that you can't really say what you want to and there isn't any control over what goes into your blog then all its worth is what I call fluffy, those nice conversations you have with grandma or basically something pleasant to talk about, nothing controversial. And so the poolpooping blog came to its existence, because I did want to control what I said and what I thought and how I have for the most part outgrown the small daily (and free) paper anyway. I won't say I don't miss some people there, because I do, but in a lot of cases most of those people have moved on to brighter pastures anyway. The idea was a great one, to take citizen journalism to the next level, however in reality what we got is a mixed bag at best, and certainly not worthy of anything other than the fluff moniker its been given.

So you see I didn't even really want all this, but this is what I got. I aimed to start a blogroll of people around here but unfortunately most of them are too lazy to start up their own blog (or post regularly in it). They would rather have the audience built in that the paper brings, regardless of the fact that they'll change what you write, or post something you say in the paper, or somehow become a poolpooper. That is just a brief overview, really but it gives you a basis of who and what I am all about, pretty much... Well sorta, we're all much deeper than that, but you get the idea.

Good News? Bad News? Who's to Say?

I can’t help but comment on yesterday’s newspaper articles concerning our public schools. The Island Packet presented a glass half empty story, while The Bluffton Today presented a glass half full piece. Both periodicals presented the same information and yet both twisted the government data to tell their own story. What gives?

From the IP: Bad grades: Majority of county's schools post below average academic ratings on state report cards

From BT: Elementary schools close achievement gap, pull district up to average on report cards (page 8, Nov 15th edition)

You could read either report and make your own judgment call, but I have to give the nod to the IP here. Though both pieces were near vacant of named sources, the IP listed both BCSD Superintendent Truesdale and State Education Superintendent Jim Rex, while BT only quoted Truesdale and honestly came off more as a propaganda tool for the school district.

I think those requisite 5 named sources really could have made a difference here. What’s the school board got to say about these report cards? Or local government representatives? Parents, teachers, and/or principles of failing/excelling schools?

Lazy reporting only leaves me wondering.

DIY journalism anyone?

Sex Sells... Again & Again

Nothing gets the emotionalism pressure cooker up to full steam like adolescent sex. The national fervor over a Maine middle school passing out birth control pills has everybody’s panties in a collective wad.

First off, I’d like to go on record as saying THIS IS NOT NEWS. Well, it is news, along the same lines as Brittney’s exposed cooter or the latest update in Hollywood rehab/divorce court/adoption service is news. What this issue lacks in celebrity it makes up for in scandalous supposition. 11 year olds having sex?!? Oh my!!!

Nope, still not news.

That said, I think the school board and the school nurse made the right call. Offering birth control isn’t going to make kids go out and have sex. If it does, your parental skills (or the decision making ability you taught your kids) should be called into question more so than the offering of contraceptives. But of course the way the reports play out over the TV make it sound like a school sponsored orgy and that scares people. Never mind the fact that if you’ve guided your children throughout their lives and helped them understand what is considered appropriate behavior according to your values that this hubbub about birth control would be nothing more than a blip on the social radar... free, non-parental solicited birth control equals a school full of horn dogs having gratuitous sex anywhere and everywhere.

I have a middle school aged child and as she gets older I realize my control over her is waning. It is scary and I don’t like it, but sticking my head in the sand and pretending sex doesn’t exist isn’t an effective plan of attack against teen pregnancy. Did the school in Maine take a nanny-government stance in its drive to offer birth control to middle school aged girls? Without a doubt, YES. But if everyone was living the prim and proper life they all like to pretend they are living, the birth control thing would be a moot point now wouldn’t it? I’d go so far as to applaud the girls who seek out birth control from the school or health department, at least they’ve demonstrated better life choice skills than their parents who chose to avoid the issue altogether.

How About a Fake News Conference?

As if media outlets making up the news wasn’t bad enough, who can you trust when the government plays both sides of the field? For those that don’t know, FEMA orchestrated its own fake news conference in relation to the wild fires in California. Since no actual news agencies were available (mainly because it gave such short notice) FEMA staffers played the roll of interviewers.

Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff promised “appropriate disciplinary action”. I hope that includes canning the brazen idiot who thought he was smarter than the rest of the world. Let’s bump our collective bullshit alert system up to fuchsia.

Just don’t depend on the inconsistent news organizations to help you stay informed.

Latest Weather Forecast: 100% Chance of High Drama

I got a phone call from my mother last night, and it was rather frantic. She is due to fly out here to see us next week and all she could talk about was the status of the tropics and the oncoming hurricane. Puzzled, because I didn’t realize there was any such development, my deductive reasoning kicked in. I asked, “Mom, are you watching the weather channel?” She admitted that she was. With a sigh and phone in hand I logged on to wunderground.com to see if I could make any sense out the latest hubbub Jim Cantore is spewing in order to terrorize the naive amongst us (again). I found there was NOTHING. Well there was a small “disturbance” of the coast of Florida, but it is far south of us and is predicted to travel west, not north. I didn’t even bother to turn on the TV, what’s the point?

Ah yes the Weather Channel, the same respected cable network that pollutes our brain cells with garbage like "Tornado Week" and "Storm Stories." The Weather Channel is yet another “news” entity looking to profit from info-taining the public (i.e. scaring the bejesus out of little old ladies) rather than unbiased and yes sometimes BORINGLY reporting actual events. It’s a shame it can’t just rain anymore, sans the dramatic music, flashy graphics, and consummate video footage of stormy destruction.

Make no bones about it, TWC wouldn’t broadcast this crap if people weren’t watching it. Like rubberneckers at the scene of an accident we simply can’t tear our eyes away from imminent carnage. This link from Scientific American tries to explain our obsession with weather and its destructive power. Heck I even considered putting a weather widget on this site (and still might!) but by in large I’ve already tuned out the high drama weather coverage. If only I could convince my mother to do the same...

Non-Breaking News Flash: War Takes Forever

I hate to ruin the mood of Classic Film Friday and I swear I’m really not politically active but, after taking in the morning salvo of “news”, which is a subjective term at best, I find myself more than a little pissed off. George Bush (who gets no love from my house, just so you know) declared yesterday that we’d be in Iraq for a while.

How is this news?

Any idiot could have told you when we invaded Iraq that we would be there far beyond the terms limits of our current president. In fact there’s only one country that we’ve engaged in a military conflict (either for the sake of invasion or liberation) that we don’t currently maintain a military presence in… that being Vietnam. The one we lost. The Korean War took place over 50 years ago and World War 2 some 60-odd years ago and the United States maintains military personnel throughout Europe and Asia. We’ve been in Kuwait since The 1st Persian Gulf conflict and will probably still be there 50 years from today.

War is a messy, monotonous, and very painful process. Which is why it shouldn’t be waged with bad information or the full realization of what the consequences entail. Yes I’m angry about the fact that many of our troops have been killed and maimed in what seems to be a fruitless war, but that’s not the point. My point is the fact that the president admitted that roughly 100,000 troops will remain in Iraq for years to come is not news. And the politicos standing upon the altar preaching the sermon of Bush’s atrocity take us all for fools. Seriously, people are dying everyday over there, come up with something better than “let’s go home”.

Even if Mr. “It Was Wrong to Ever Invade Iraq” Barack Obama (and I happen to believe he’s right) were sworn in as president this morning, we’d still be stuck in the deserts of the Middle East for years to come. The debate about whether or not we should have waged war on Iraq has expired. It’s time to look at viable ways to get the hell out of there without creating another Saddam or bin Laden and somehow foster an environment non-conducive to America hating jihadists with a death wish and an explosives hobby.

And oh yeah, it’s time for news people to stop trying to invent or embellish the news and simply report it. Personally I believe we’ll be out of Iraq (and on to some other war) long before that happens.

Photo Illustrations on TV

To those who might not know, a photo illustration is a photograph that has been somehow altered, usually to help to support a story or help convey an idea. It’s important to remember the ratio (and believability) of “photo” to “illustration” varies wildly with each particular case, but ultimately the piece is never anything more than a work of art, emphatically not a factual representation of anything. That said, photographic illustrations bother me. I’m not against the practice completely but when they are used to depict an idea or story as true there’s potential for crossing a line. Take the infamous fake hurricane photo illustration for instance.

Ok so we’ve been here already what’s this about TV?

I’ve noticed a common practice in TV sports coverage (NFL and NASCAR in particular) where a representation of a giant screen is used to give the appearance that a humongous video screen lives atop the stadium. These resemble large screens found at many sporting arenas, except they are quite a bit larger (perhaps 10-fold), and the engineering required to make something like this a reality would be astronomical. ESPN even makes the screen fold out as if it were the convertible top on an automobile. These pretend screens are almost always used when cutting to or from a commercial and (to me anyway) give the impression that the stadium experience is much more technologically advanced than reality would prove.

So what’s the big deal?

I can only answer that by saying nothing in sports is supposed to be “enhanced” or “altered”. Why then do we need a visual lie to somehow improve the viewing experience of an inherently “real” event? Also consider that these jumbo screen illustrations are so good, more than one person I know has asked “is that real?” I searched for the actual depictions I mentioned but came up empty handed. Perhaps this means nobody else notices or even cares. But I say if they’re willing to go through so much trouble to fool you here, who’s to say they aren’t lying to you about something else... oops, maybe they already did.

Ethics of Photo Illustrations

This is an old subject (about 6 weeks old now), but it is important enough to me to revisit, because, well it’s my blog dammit, and I’ll do what I want (plus I'm woefully lacking on content at present)… that and I think public trust is an imperative part of journalism. Besides if I keep rubbing people the wrong way I might get completely deleted and I’d like to have this down somewhere.

Is it ok to lie if/when it’s for someone’s own good? There’s no right or wrong answer to this question by the way, but in my opinion in this particular instance:

From There goes the neighborhood

My answer is no.

Does this photo look familiar?

You’ve probably seen this picture or rather this original version in your inbox.

What we have here is a fake of a fake… I’m not exactly sure the double negative rule applies. Urban legends and the proliferation of bad information via e-mail are a personal pet peeve of mine, imagine my distain for the editors that allowed this into the paper (on the front page no less). Not only did they pass off an already well-known fake hurricane Katrina picture, they doctored it up with people (pointing at the coming onslaught, which was a nice touch) and a beach to reflect this type of event occurring locally. Clearly this melodramatic picture was designed to incite emotionalism at the cost of the truth. Where's the public good in that? Beats me.

So what’s the big deal? It was captioned as a photo illustration.

I’m not looking to pick fights but the University of Wisconsin–Madison reveals why people like me get upset when journalists take liberties such as the above. Below is an excerpt of the link given.

Photo illustrations

Photo illustrations differ from news photos in content, creation, and purpose. They are staged or produced, and are manufactured situations. They often are set up in a studio and are used for fashion, food, and product promotion. When an existing photograph is altered for artistic purposes, such as by adding or deleting content, it also is considered a photo illustration. Environmental portraits shot on location are not considered photo illustrations.

Use caution when creating a digital illustration on a computer that uses a photo as its base material. The final image should not be so photorealistic that a reader could perceive it as being real.

When publishing a photo illustration, it should be made clear to readers that the image does not represent a real situation. In all cases, photo illustrations should be labeled as such. Any permitted alteration changing the original content of an image must be labeled as a “photo illustration.” The credit line should read: “Photo illustration; original photo by XXX.” Artistic use of images, as in a collage, is permitted.

Remember, however, that no amount of captioning can balance a visual lie. Carefully consider any consequences, including jeopardizing credibility with readers, before creating a photo illustration.

***

The underlying gist of a situation like this is that journalistic credibility can be damaged. If you have to ask, then it probably isn’t safe to go there. Meanwhile, take everything you read (and see) in the local papers with a grain of salt, which isn’t at all the way it should be.