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Truth and consequences in the woodsJuly 27,2013
In response to Department of Fish and Wildlife Commissioner Patrick Berrys recent commentary and comments in this newspaper, I would like to clarify several issues that I feel have been distorted over the past couple of weeks.
As I said in my original letter, my neighbors, Jerry and Jean Healy, first found a dead doe with full udder in their woods on about May 30. The next day they found two fawns. They called the state police dispatcher, who told them that Fish and Wildlife would shoot the fawns if called. They left the fawns in the woods and listened to them cry. On June 2, after a devastating storm in Marshfield, Jean told me about the orphaned fawns and I was able to find one of them. I put it on my back porch, to protect it from predators, not to make it a pet. I fed it goats milk from a bottle because that is what wildlife rehabilitators told me it needed in order to survive. From the first day, I was calling wildlife rehabilitators to find out how I could get this fawn into their care.
Mr. Berry says we refused Fish and Wildlifes request to show them the dead doe. About a week after the fawn was shot (two and a half weeks after the doe was originally found), Shawn Fowler, a local Fish and Wildlife officer, arrived at the Healys house and asked to see the dead doe. Jerry brought him into the woods to the area he had found the deer, but the area was littered with downed trees from the storm, and Shawn gave up after looking for a bit. The body had also probably deteriorated or been food for other animals by that point.
It is still surprising and disappointing to me that Mr. Berry refuses to believe what we have told Fish and Wildlife officials from the beginning.
Why does Mr. Berry, who has heard these facts consistently, continue to present a distorted picture of what occurred?
I did not illegally seize a fawn from its natural environment while likely waiting for its mother to return. My neighbors and I knew its mother had died and the fawn was starving to death. We did not yet know the laws in Vermont (which actually allow rehabilitation of fawns) or Mr. Berrys firm policy. We were looking for a way to help this fawn and assumed there would be some humane assistance available.
I was careful to follow the advice I received from rehabilitators and never for one instant planned to keep this animal and make it a pet. If Mr. Berrys policy is such a sound one, why does he continue to make assertions, which his own officers have told him are untrue? The officer who shot the fawn told me he knew I was trying to get this fawn to rehab and it was never in question with the department.
As Mr. Berry continues to point out and I agree, many fawns may be mistakenly seen as abandoned when their mothers are alive and well. It is important that the public be educated about this so that fawns are not removed when their mothers are nearby. It would seem important that citizens of Vermont are able to see Fish and Wildlife officers as sources of information and help, if they find a fawn.
From the beginning, the issue I have raised has been about the orphaned fawns that are found each spring, after their mothers have died. Next spring there will be more cases like mine, where a fawn is shot in Vermont instead of being taken to a licensed rehabilitator and released when it is old enough to return to the wild.
Since first writing my letter, I have heard other stories from Vermonters who tried to help an orphaned fawn by calling Fish and Wildlife only to have the fawn shot or listen to the animal slowly starve to death in their yard.
One family in Northfield had to wake their three children on a Sunday morning to say goodbye to the fawn that they had tried to help. The children were devastated when the Fish and Wildlife officer told them that he was taking the fawn and would have to shoot it.
I thought it worthwhile to ask: Might there not be a better way for this group of fawns? I was told about the concern regarding chronic wasting disease. But my question remains: Would it not be better for orphaned fawns to be taken to a licensed rehabilitator than for folks, who dont want to see it shot, to end up caring for it themselves without guidance or assistance?
It seems that it would be worth considering whether this policy might create an unfortunate situation, rather than prevent it. Could that be part of the reason why Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and New York all allow the licensed rehabilitation of fawns? It is hard to believe that they are not equally concerned about the possibility of disease.
Mr. Berry cites scientific evidence: two studies involving the release of rehabilitated fawns.
The first, from Connecticut, looks like it should never have been published, as two-thirds of the fawns were already sick with pneumonia when they were released. As everyone knows, the devil is in the details when it comes to statistics and studies.
The second study of released fawns in Missouri looks more scientific yet; the fawns were trucked to a new habitat, at only 10 weeks of age, and were released just before the beginning of winter. Their rate of survival was dismal. From talking to experienced fawn rehabilitators, apparently this study did not employ best practices, which would have involved providing open pens and some food support throughout the first winter.
Licensed rehabilitators are volunteers and do not generally have the money to do formal radio-collar release studies. Yet they tell me they recognize deer they have released and often see them year after year in the wild. They do not at all agree with Mr. Berrys assertion that deer brought into captivity will never again live as truly wild animals.
Fish and Wildlife licenses rehabilitators in Vermont, and so it is difficult for them to speak out as strongly and freely as they might like to regarding their beliefs and opinions about this issue. That leaves it to the general public to raise questions and concerns about the policies of Fish and Wildlife.
I wish that Vermont citizens who are concerned about this policy and would like to explore what other states are doing and why, could sit down and have a respectful conversation with Mr. Berry and the department. From the beginning, I have wanted to learn and understand the issues involved here, and I have spoken to a number of Fish and Wildlife employees who have been sincere and respectful.
I do not feel that has been the case with Mr. Berrys response to my concerns, and that is disappointing.
Julia Gresser lives in Marshfield.MORE IN CommentarySure, you can buy your uncle a necktie that he wont wear, or your niece an Amazon certificate... Full StoryFor the past month, I have been watching close friends and family descending into a pit of... Full StoryAdjusting to snow, sleet and cold after spending over a month in an exponentially warmer climate ... Full Story
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By Marlena Hartz: CNJ staff writer
She settled into a seat in the front, hugging her oversized sweater closer in the chilly, air-conditioned classroom.
Practical, with steady, dark brown eyes, Denita Wilson is planning for her future, so the topic of discussion in the chilly classroom, "Understanding your Finances," fit.
The finance session was one of 10 offered through Clovis Community College's second annual women's conference. The mantra of the day: Empowerment for women.
For Wilson and others who attended the conference, fellow women are the best legends in life.
Wilson was raised in a broken home, her mother a single parent.
"I learned a lot from her mistakes and her successes," said Wilson, a Clovis nursing student.
Her older, nursing home co-workers imparted the importance of being financially savvy, the 27-year-old said.
"Some of them have been working for 20 years and they have nothing. They have always had low-income jobs and now they have low social security," Wilson said.
"In our culture, we emphasize men should be the providers in a family, they should take care of you," Wilson said. "But they don't always do that. I don't think anybody should be a fool."
Roughly 100 women gathered at the college for the conference, which spanned nearly five hours and danced over a range of topics, from how to dress well at any age to breaking barriers in parental involvement in education.
"The goal of the sessions was to give a message of self-confidence, image building, and networking to the masses — whether you are a stay-at-home mom or in charge of company," said conference coordinator and CCC Director of Marketing and Community Relations Lisa Spencer.
"Men get (that message) every day," Spencer said.
Several powerful women in the Clovis community, including Rhonda Seidenwurm, superintendent of Clovis Schools, Jan Garrett, municipal judge, and Sistar Yancy, a drug abuse prevention expert, shared their stories of struggle and triumph.
Her hair streaked in silver wisps, conference attendee Cathy Estes welcomed the wisdom showered through anecdotes and advice.
More programs geared toward women are vitally needed in the community, she said.
"Especially in this part of the state," Estes said. "By culture, men are more dominant. We (women) need to be less submissive."
The empowerment of women, she said, is "a slow process."
But, "women are progressing," Estes said. "It just takes time."

subset: commoncrawl


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GV Now
Art by Grand Valley grad placed in Michigan Legislature
Posted on October 30, 2012
For the next year, artwork by Grand Valley State University graduate Maria Schultz will hang in the Michigan House of Representatives' Anderson House Office Building in Lansing. It was selected as part of the Art in the House project that displays artwork by one student from each of Michigan's 15 public universities.
Schultz graduated from Grand Valley in April, 2012, with a bachelor's of fine arts degree with an emphasis in illustration. She currently resides and works in North Carolina, with her husband, Justin, who is stationed at Fort Bragg. He is the subject of the piece titled "Port Arms."
"The subject of my work is often related to my life as a military spouse," said Schultz. She met her husband while both were students at Grand Valley. After they married in 2011, she stayed for another year to complete her degree. Meanwhile Justin reported for duty at Fort Bragg. "During our year apart, I connected with him through my art. Spending a great deal of time on my drawings helped me to physically retain memories I cherished and might otherwise have lost during our long-distance relationship," she said.
"Port Arms" is one of 11 in a series Schultz completed throughout her senior year. Eight of the pieces were included in her BFA exhibition prior to graduating. See more at mariaschultz.wordpress.com. "Port Arms was the most complex piece in the series and I saved it to work on last, so I could devote my full attention to it," said Schultz, who spent more than 50 hours on the piece. Like much of her work, it shares the viewpoint of a photographer through the medium of charcoal.
A print of the original was purchased by Grand Valley its permanent collection. The piece will be returned after the yearlong exhibit in Lansing. "I'm honored to have my work selected to represent Grand Valley," said Schultz, a native of Grand Rapids. "It is a wonderful opportunity to showcase my work."
Art in the House is a partnership between the President's Council, State Universities of Michigan and the Michigan House of Representatives to promote art in everyday life.


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New York Times
The pathetic bias of the New York Times, summarized in two pics
(This screen cap done at 9:00 AM CST 15 June, 2014)
We've known that the New York Times has been part of the palace guard for Democrats for quite a while.* But this is a new low.
If 18 minutes of lost taped conversations in Nixon's White House is good for weeks of coverage, surely close to two years of lost emails from someone accused targeting the president's political opponents is even more important.
The story has been on the networks' web sites since Friday (NBC, CBS, Fox) plus outlets like Forbes, the Fiscal Times, and lots of others. Given that, no serious, objective media outlet would ever ignore the lost IRS email story for two days, and leave it out of their biggest edition of the week. Not the "paper of record". Not the publication that brags it contains "all the news that's fit to print".
But that's exactly what the Times has done.
The Washington Post is marginally better. No front page story, as the story manifestly deserves. No original reporting, even though the story is in their own backyard. But they do have a couple of Associated Press reports in two sections Politics and Business (yeah, Business – I don't get it either).
If you still think the Times and Post have not chosen sides politically, then you are a willfully blind, naive fool.
*Occasionally a decent article slips through, or perhaps is done as camouflage to bolster the idea that they are serious objective journalists. They stopped fooling anyone connected to reality quite a while back.
Obama's lies and the media's betrayal
How little interest has the media show in the actual facts of Barack Obama's history?
The simple answer is "very little". For instance I expect a minute and basically negative examination of the Mormon religion when Mitt Romney is officially nominated. That's already being set up by numerous of those type articles already beginning to surface.
But Obama's 20 years in a church with a reverend who basically preached anti-Americanism and black liberation theology? Meh.
A great example of what I'm talking about is covered by Jonathan Tobin in Commentary's "Contentions" blog. It is about the story oft repeated by Obama. It is his version of his mother death of cancer because those nasty old insurance companies wouldn't pay.
It's a lie. Again, I use the word "lie" much less frequently than do many in the press or around the blogosphere. A lie is a knowing falsehood. I try to restrict my usage to that tight definition. As it turns out, the story Obama has told repeatedly as the truth about his mother's death is, in fact, a lie. Oh, and the mainstream media knows it.
Proof? Well, they said so.
Never let it be said the New York Times is afraid to tackle an unflattering story about President Obama, even if it's often a delayed reaction. The paper's political blog The Caucus deigned to notice today that the new biography of the president by David Maraniss uncovered the fact that much of Dreams From My Father, the highly praised Barack Obama autobiography, is either fabricated or exaggerated. The Times's Michael Shear opines that having its author now sitting in the White House has brought Dreams more scrutiny than its author could have envisioned when he wrote it in 1995. But the problem with contemporary analyses of the questionable personal history in the book is not so much the peril associated with being a famous political author but whether the book provides proof of a pattern of falsehoods and distortions about his past that has been one of the hallmarks of the president's public career.
The answer to that question is contained near the bottom of the piece in which Shear lets drop that proof of such a pattern was already provided by his own newspaper last year. Though the Times buried the story when it broke and then never followed up or editorialized on the scandal, it was their own reporter Janny Scott whose research on the life of the president's mother Ann Dunham revealed that the oft-told story of her dying because of the failure of her health insurance company to pay for her cancer treatment was a flat out lie. But while Shear is right that this year's election will not turn on how Maraniss's book is received, the unwillingness of the Times and other mainstream publications to call out Obama for writing fiction and calling it autobiography gives us a good indication of how much of an advantage having a quiescent media is for an incumbent president. [emphasis mine]
You know the standard line here: imagine them discovering something like this about someone on the right. Do you suppose it would not be followed up or be editorialized? Do you suppose they'd skip pointing out it seems to indicate a pattern?
As to that pattern and the specifics of his mother's death:
The fables Obama seems to have told about his alienation, his girlfriends and the rest of his over-intellectualized voyage of self-discovery actually pale in comparison to the whopper he told when running for election in 2008 that his mother died because she had been denied coverage and treatment of her disease. Scott revealed that in fact the expenses relating to her cancer had been paid by her insurance. Though she had a separate and totally unrelated dispute relating to disability coverage, Scott's research proved that Obama's statement during the 2008 presidential debate was fiction:
"For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong about that."
It bears repeating that the president knew this account was false because he served as his mother's attorney in all her dealings with the insurance company. [emphasis mine]
And where did the Times run this revelation? What was the White House reaction?
When the Times ran that story (on page 14 rather than on the front page), the White House chose not to deny the truth of Scott's reporting. But that didn't stop the Obama campaign from refloating the same falsehoods about Ms. Dunham having perished for lack of insurance coverage in an autobiographical campaign film narrated by Tom Hanks.
So the Times discovered what would be a bombshell revelation were it anyone else, they plop it out on page 14, the White House denies it and that ends it?
Now that's journalism isn't it? Duty fulfilled, even halfheartedly, and now safe to ignore. Meanwhile the lie lives on and no one even bothers to address the fact that's what it is. It is pure political propaganda designed to demonize an industry in order to gain popular consent to all but wreck it and have government take its place.
Yet, it's only worth page 14 in the "paper of record" and zero followup.
Not only has the president never apologized for lying to the American people about his mother's plight, he rightly assumed that even though the truth was uncovered by the New York Times, neither that paper nor the rest of the mainstream media would follow up on it as they undoubtedly would had a Republican ever tried to sell the voters such a transparent whopper.
There's the bottom line.
Another example of how poorly a biased media is serving the public. Yet they wonder why the public's confidence in them continues to drop and newspapers all over the country are dying.
Twitter: @McQandO
New York Time editorial declares war on GOP [update]
I sometimes wonder what world the editorial board of the New York Times calls home. It certainly isn't the one the rest of us live in. But I guess it is necessary to live in an alternative world to be able to push narratives like it pushes in an editorial today. The NY Times has decided, to use a poker term, to go "all in" on Obama's "right-wing extremism" and "dishonesty" meme.
Referencing the Obama speech yesterday, the editorial board says:
Mr. Obama provided a powerful signal on Tuesday that he intends to make this election about the Republican Party's failure to confront, what he called, "the defining issue of our time": restoring a sense of economic security while giving everyone a fair shot, rather than enabling only a shrinking number of people to do exceedingly well. His remarks promise a tough-minded campaign that will call extremism and dishonesty by name.
Remember Obama, who's answer to the "defining issue of our time", submitted each of the two years (I'm talking about his budgets) has gone a collective 0-511. That's right, the two budgets he's submitted to address the "defining issue of our time" hasn't garnered a single vote in two years.
Why? Primarily because neither of the budgets convinced a single legislator of either party, to include the President's own, that they addressed that issue at all.
Yet he presumes to lecture the GOP on the failure to confront this issue? And the NYT somehow manages to buy into that nonsense?
The GOP budget at least passed the House. The NYT presumes that no negotiations are possible because, again, it buys into the Obama claim that the GOP won't compromise. Nonsense. Compromise doesn't mean wholesale capitulation. In an negotiation or compromise there are lines drawn over which the two parties won't give in. Each side has them. The NYT and Obama, naturally, want to characterize the lack of movement as GOP intransigence. But the Democrats are equally intransigent. They want more money in taxes. The GOP continues to point out that taxes aren't the problem. The problem is spending.
Says the NYT:
Mr. Obama has, in recent months, urged Republicans to put aside their destructive agenda. But, in this speech, he finally conceded that the party has demonstrated no interest in the values of compromise and realism. Even Ronald Reagan, who raised taxes in multiple budget deals, "could not get through a Republican primary today," Mr. Obama said. While Democrats have repeatedly shown a willingness to cut entitlements and have agreed to trillions in domestic spending cuts, he said, Republicans won't agree to any tax increases and, in fact, want to shower the rich with even more tax cuts.
Ronald Regan agreed to raising taxes in return for what from the Democrats?
Spending cuts. In fact as I recall, his deal was 1 1/2 to 2 times the spending cuts to the tax increases. Guess what never happened?
That's right – spending cuts.
So call it a lesson learned. What the GOP is pointing out that until the spending cuts are implemented and take effect, there is no reason to discuss revenue increases.
That's a common sense approach that best safeguards the citizenry's money and is based on a history that says the Democrats don't keep their word about spending cuts.
I don't blame the GOP for refusing to compromise on taxes.
Finally, and I've flipped the paragraph order in the editorial, consider the NYT lede:
President Obama's fruitless three-year search for compromise with the Republicans ended in a thunderclap of a speech on Tuesday, as he denounced the party and its presidential candidates for cruelty and extremism. He accused his opponents of imposing on the country a "radical vision" that "is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity."
There has been no search for compromise with President "I won". None. And it is amazing to see smaller and less intrusive government being characterized as a "radical vision" that is "antithetical to our entire history". It is the basis of our entire history up until the welfare state came into being.
"The land of opportunity" was such because of a lack of government interference, not because of it. Obama and the left continue to attempt to rewrite history in a manner in which they redefine the words and key phrases that characterized our nation differently than they'd like prior to the institution of the welfare state.
The radical vision is that which Obama, the NYT and the Democrats continue to push, not the GOP. They don't seem to understand that the majority of the American people have come to understand that we just can't afford their radical vision and that government control of more and more of our lives is not a "good thing".
If there is anyone out of touch with the American people it is Mr. 0-511. He hasn't a clue.
And neither does the New York Times editorial board.
UPDATE: A further thought sparked by a comment by The Shark. If compromise is what Obama and the Democrats really want, they've had two opportunities to actually force that or at least make the argument they attempted it. For two years the GOP House has passed a budget. The way the Congress works is the Senate then passes its version of the budget and the two houses of Congress get together and hash out the differences (known commonly as "compromise).
Except the Democratically controlled Senate hasn't passed a budget in over 1000 days. So who isn't interested in compromise, Mr. President? And why aren't you exerting a little leadership and confronting the Senate about its dereliction of duty? If "compromise" is so all fired important to you, why are you neglecting the easiest way of forcing it?
Twitter: @McQandO
NYT: Dealing with reality by calling the result racist
Perhaps not openly, but certainly more than just by implication.
Here's the problem as stated in the lede of the NY Times editorial:
Buried in the relatively positive numbers contained in the November jobs report was some very bad news for those who work in the public sector. There were 20,000 government workers laid off last month, by far the largest drop for any sector of the economy, mostly from states, counties and cities.
Oh, my. So, it would seem that city, county and state governments are finally dealing with the reality of their fiscal condition and, unfortunately, doing what must be done to meet the new reality of limited budgets, right? It's about time. Many of us pointed out that the "stimulus" only put off reality, it didn't supplant it. At sometime in the near future (like now) those government entities were going to have to deal with the reality of decreased tax revenues and shrunken budgets.
Well, not according to the NY Times which manages to stretch this into something completely different. You see, it is a grand plan being pushed by the racist GOP in case you were wondering:
That's one reason the black unemployment rate went up last month, to 15.5 percent from 15.1. The effect is severe, destabilizing black neighborhoods and making it harder for young people to replicate their parents' climb up the economic ladder. "The reliance on these jobs has provided African-Americans a path upward," said Robert Zieger, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Florida. "But it is also a vulnerability."
Many Republicans, however, don't regard government jobs as actual jobs, and are eager to see them disappear. Republican governors around the Midwest have aggressively tried to break the power of public unions while slashing their work forces, and Congressional Republicans have proposed paying for a payroll tax cut by reducing federal employment rolls by 10 percent through attrition. That's 200,000 jobs, many of which would be filled by blacks and Hispanics and others who tend to vote Democratic, and thus are considered politically superfluous.
Wow … in a world of groundless claims, that's perhaps one of the most groundless I've seen. The case isn't even cleverly built. I mean how do you like the claim "many Republicans … don't regard government jobs as actual jobs". Really? Since when? As I understand "many Republicans" they support a small and limited government but see this one as an outsized behemoth. I agree with them. What they talk about is cutting the size of government. And the intrusiveness of government. That necessarily means cutting jobs. But they don't support cutting the size of government because it will make those that are "considered politically superfluous" unemployed. That's just race baiting nonsense. They support it because that's the conservative ideology based in a foundational concept of this nation.
By the way, unlike the NY Times, most people don't consider the government to be a "jobs program". Government is a necessary evil not a method of "getting ahead". It is there to serve, not provide "a path upward" (although there is nothing wrong with those who've been given the opportunity to take advantage of it). It is there to be just as big as it needs to be and not one bit bigger. But who or what color those who work in government are is irrelevant … even to the GOP.
Finally, what you most likely won't hear is the NY Times whining about are any cuts in defense which will see troop strength radically reduced. Those are good government job cuts too. And many blacks and Hispanics have chosen that field as "a path upward" too. But those are jobs they're fine with being cut. After all, if they cut more of those they can probably fund the 230,000 new bureaucrats wanted by the EPA to enforce it's regulations.
How lame is the "racist" argument today? Well, here's your latest example. I'm sure your no more surprised at the source than I am.
Twitter: @McQandO
The NYT on the UK riots — the Grey Lady still doesn't get it
The New York Times published an editorial today that reminds one how liberally biased the paper's editorial board is. In its editorial it claims that all of the problems the UK has recently undergone are the result of the current administration and their austerity measures.
Cameron has been talking tough, suggesting that perhaps eviction or cutting off benefits to looters who are on the public dole might be one means of punishing offenders and making others think twice about committing such crimes again. He's even talked about cutting off internet service in areas hit by flash looting mobs to cut their communication links.
The Times finds all of that an abhorrent over-reaction, and there are some good arguments against such moves by government. But that's not where the NYT editorial board gets it wrong. It is here:
Such draconian proposals often win public applause in the traumatized aftermath of riots. But Mr. Cameron, and his Liberal Democrat coalition partners, should know better. They risk long-term damage to Britain's already fraying social compact.
Making poor people poorer will not make them less likely to steal. Making them, or their families, homeless will not promote respect for the law. Trying to shut down the Internet in neighborhoods would be an appalling violation of civil liberties and a threat to public safety, denying vital real-time information to frightened residents.
Britain's urban wastelands need constructive attention from the Cameron government, not just punishment. His government's wrongheaded austerity policies have meant fewer public sector jobs and social services. Even police strength is scheduled to be cut. The poor are generally more dependent on government than the affluent, so they have been hit the hardest.
What Britain's sputtering economy really needs is short-term stimulus, not more budget cutting. Unfortunately, there is no sign that Mr. Cameron has figured that out. But, at a minimum, burdens need to be more fairly shared between rich and poor — not as a reward to anyone, but because it is right.
This is utter nonsense. As with most on the left the Times prefers to cast blame at those who they disagree with ideologically instead of actually analyzing the problem and admitting that perhaps it is their ideology which has led to these problems.
Point one – these riots weren't a result of several months or even several years of austerity. They are the culmination of a decades long social engineering project that has created a culture and is dependent upon government for everything. It has coddled it, excused its behavior and now finds it can't afford it. The socialists have finally run out of other people's money and are now paying the price for such foolhardy social engineering.
Point two – the answer to the problem isn't now nor has it ever been more "public sector jobs and social services". Instead the answer is to entice the private sector into these areas and have them produce productive jobs. Of course, if the benefits program, i.e. the dole or "the game", continue as it has, there's absolutely no incentive for anyone to take a job. One of the standing jokes is about an government appeal for businesses in the UK to hire Brits instead of Eastern Europeans. But British businesses know that Eastern Europeans will actually show up, on time and work, whereas Brits won't. That is a cultural problem – not an austerity problem. And it is a cultural problem that has been caused and nurtured by the likes of those who write editorials for the New York Times.
Point three – it won't get better by doing the same thing again. As has been said by many, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting different results. This is a social engineering project that has failed. Committing money they don't have to recreate it is the height of idiocy.
The Times also stoops to a bit of class warfare by claiming David Cameron is a product of "Britain's upper classes and schools". The implication being he has no concept of the problem, being so far removed by class, and thus "he has blamed the looting and burning on a compound of national moral decline, bad parenting and perverse inner-city subculture".
Janet Daley at the UK's Telegraph rips into that premise and calls the Times on its hypocrisy:
Yes indeed he has, thus putting himself in agreement with about 90 per cent of the British population. But the New York Times in as uninterested in the overwhelming majority of British public opinion as it is in the great mass of American public opinion. It is as smugly and narrowly orthodox in its Left-liberal posturing as its counterparts in Britain. (If the BBC were to be reincarnated as an American newspaper, it would be the New York Times.) So it carries on in class war mode with accusations about Mr Cameron's blithe imperiousness: "Would he find similar blame – this time in the culture of the well housed and well-off – for Britain's recent tabloid phone hacking scandals or the egregious abuse of expense accounts by members of Parliament?"
Well as it happens, the MPs' expenses scandal is pretty small beer by comparison to the "pork barrel" and lobbying scandals which have dogged the US Congress for generations. Would the New York Times like to opine on how much relevance the class backgrounds of Washington legislators have to those problems?
If the Times could find an angle that would help it push its outmoded ideological argument, probably so, but her point is well taken. Dailey concludes with the real reason for the editorial, fact free as it is – it's all about certain politics:
The remedies which it criticises Mr Cameron for adopting are, in fact, not within his personal power at all: evicting tenants from council housing is a matter for local councils not for the Westminister government. And he has not proposed "shutting down the internet in neighbourhoods [where there is civil disorder]". As far as the New York Times is concerned, the riots of last week were all about the state of the economy and the Government's spending cuts: an argument so untenable that even the Labour party does not advance it. In its pious conclusion, the editorial states unequivocally that "what Britain's sputtering economy really needs is short-term stimulus, not more budget cutting." Barack Obama couldn't have asked for a more generous endorsement. And that, one assumes, is what this ludicrous exercise in Schadenfreude was all about.
I couldn't have said it better myself.
Twitter: @McQandO
NY Times still clueless about economic woes
Cluelessness seems to be a fairly rampant disease among those who seem unable to peer objectively at reality and analyze it. They prefer to pretend they know what they're talking about and unhelpfully prescribe exactly the wrong antidote every single time (in this case, more of what we've watched fail for two plus years). And, as it turns out, the New York Times editorial board is peerless among that group:
It was not surprising to hear the Republican presidential candidates repeat their tiresome claim that excessive government spending and borrowing were behind Friday's terrible unemployment report. It was depressing to hear President Obama sound as if he agreed with them.
And the NYT's claim as to why that's not the case?
There has never been any evidence that the federal debt is primarily responsible for the persistent joblessness that began with the 2008 recession. The numbers have remained high because of weak consumer demand and stagnant wage growth, along with an imbalance between jobs and job skills.
Who has ever argued that "federal debt is primarily responsible for the persistent joblessness?" Certainly there are other factors. However, there's no question that excessive government spending – i.e. borrowing to spend – has had a hand in the stagnation we're now undergoing. In fact, increased and excessive government spending has had no effect and, given the promises made, could be argued to have had a negative effect.
The debt is the indicator of the problem – excessive and unaffordable spending. As we've been pointing out for months, revenue isn't the problem – spending is. So pointing to this strawman, as the NY Times does, is just more politics from the side who thinks it prudent to penalize those who produce in order to bail out those who spend what they produce (and the reason the Democrats insist on calling the present income tax levels "Bush tax cuts"). What doesn't seem to penetrate the thinking of those who continue to push this line is one of the reasons we've had weak consumer demand and stagnant wage growth is the unsettled business and regulatory atmosphere this administration has created in its 2 plus years. That, of course is pushed aside by the NYT in favor of this argument:
The president may have a nebulous approach to unemployment, but he is hardly indifferent to it. His re-election hinges on reducing it. It is hard to understand, though, why Mr. Obama has adopted the language of his opponents in connecting the economy to the debt. To his credit, he talked about the one step that would work — investing money in rebuilding the country. But the debt-ceiling ideas he is now considering would make that investment much less likely by pulling hundreds of billions of dollars out of the economy at precisely the moment when the spending is needed most.
Yeah, there's absolutely no connection between the "economy" and the "debt" is there? Of course there is? And pretending that borrowing money we don't have to push it out in the economy and calling it an 'investment' doesn't fool most rational folks. The NYT even points out that the last time the money was thrown out there is it mostly went to service state debt which only delayed the inevitable. Now, apparently, that will somehow be different in the face of "weak consumer demand". Really? And, of course, the jobs the NYT laments about aren't private sector jobs but government jobs (state and local) which we all know are the engine of our economy (/sarc).
The types of increases in revenue that government should be encouraging are those that come from private sector jobs. They provide tax revenue from created wealth. They don't require the government to borrow money to "invest" (i.e. borrow money, create jobs and then tax the jobs created with the borrowed money and claim "increased revenue". Make sense to you?).
So while I don't disagree with the Times when it says "his re-election hinges on reducing" unemployment, it appears the Times would opt for the easy and wrong way to do it – borrow more money, pump it into creating make-work jobs just long enough to get Obama past the 2012 election. Then, who care? Debt ceiling, increased drag on the economy's GDP and all that stuff, forgetaboutit. Well, at least till they get this guy re-elected. Then, of course, I expect a clarion call by the Times wondering how this could have all be so mismanaged and spinning and twisting it, as they have in this editorial, so it all ends up being the fault of the Republicans.
Twitter: @McQandO
New York Times: NY is not like WI
The NYT editorial board has decided it is time to rein in the compensation that government union employees get:
That huge increase is largely because of Albany's outsized generosity to the state's powerful employees' unions in the early years of the last decade, made worse when the recession pushed down pension fund earnings, forcing the state to make up the difference.
Although taxpayers are on the hook for the recession's costs, most state employees pay only 3 percent of their salaries to their pensions, half the level of most state employees elsewhere. Their health insurance payments are about half those in the private sector.
In all, the salaries and benefits of state employees add up to $18.5 billion, or a fifth of New York's operating budget. Unless those costs are reined in, New York will find itself unable to provide even essential services.
So to review – government unions conspired to elect union friendly Democrats to the state legislature who in turn then granted, via "outsized generosity [with other people's money]", incredibly expensive benefits that cost those union members next to nothing.
Uh, yeah, I think that's what has been said about Wisconsin as well. But in its very next paragraph, the NYT says, presumably so as not to seem too anti-union or anti-worker, that pointing this out isn't either of those things, but that darn GOP is both:
To point out these alarming facts is not to be anti- union, or anti-worker. In recent weeks, Republican politicians in the Midwest have distorted what should be a serious discussion about state employees' benefits, cynically using it as a pretext to crush unions.
The NYT provides one of the perverse joys I look forward too each day – trying to figure out how the editorial board will torture both the language and logic to come up with the positions it assumes. This is another example. What is happening in Wisconsin – almost precisely the same scenario – is anti-worker and anti-union because good old Governor Walker is one of them – a Republican.
But Governor Cuomo? Why the model of what it means to be a union friendly Democratic governor:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has pursued a reasonable course, making it clear that he expects public unions to make sacrifices, starting with a salary freeze. He wants to require greater employee contributions to pensions and health benefits, with a goal of saving $450 million.
Negotiations begin this month, but so far union leaders have publicly resisted Mr. Cuomo's proposals. If they don't budge, Mr. Cuomo says he will have to lay off up to 9,800 workers.
Wait, what? Capitulate or he lays off 9,800 workers? Wow, that sounds pretty familiar. So that's a reasonable course, but what Walker has proposed (do the same or he lays off 1,500 workers) is a "cynical…pretext to crush unions".
Got it.
By the way, in WI, government union workers are being asked to pay 12% of their health benefit costs, up from 6%. In NY, government union workers only pay 3%, far below the 20% private workers pay. And, NY government union workers have received pay increases every year (3%), to include last year (4%) in the middle of the downturn.
The average salary for New York's full-time state employees in 2009 (even before the last round of raises) was $63,382, well above the state's average personal income that year of $46,957. Mr. Cuomo's proposed salary freeze for many of the state's 236,000 employees is an important step to rein in New York's out-of-control payroll. It could save between $200 million and $400 million.
Pay freeze? Huh. Reasonable in NY, not reasonable in WI?
And pensions?
In 2000, employee pensions cost New York State taxpayers $100 million. They now cost $1.5 billion, and will be more than $2 billion in 2014. Wall Street's troubles are a big part of that. But so are state politics. The Legislature, ever eager to curry favor with powerful unions, added sweeteners to pensions and allowed employees to stop making contributions after 10 years.
Of course the salient question avoided by the Times (and the coverage in WI) is "which politicians were "ever eager to curry favor with powerful unions"?" In WI we know – they're hiding out in IL. In NY? Well simply look at which party has controlled the Assembly for decades, including a supermajority now. It wasn't that cynical union crushing GOP (they've held off and on slim majorities in the state's Senate).
Ironically, the NYT points out why government unions are problematic and should be "crushed" without knowing it. But, and here's the magic part, – apparently when the NYT makes note of that it has nothing to do with being "anti-union or anti-worker", it is just pointing out "facts".
It is also worth considering giving new employees the option to join what is known as a defined-contribution system, similar to the 401(k) plans widely in use in the private sector, and reducing the reliance on a guaranteed benefit system that has proved so ruinously expensive. The 401(k) system shifts the risk of a falling stock market to the employee instead of the state, but in the long run may be necessary to protect vital state services from economic downturns.
Nice … a device that has been in the private sector for decades, has been pointed out by critics of the defined benefit system for just as long as a means to drastically cut the huge benefit hole the states have dug themselves and the NYT finally gets on board. The horror, no? A quasi-privatized pension system that requires workers to contribute to their own retirement. What's next, paying more for health care benefits!
Health care – another area the state has managed well.
Current state employees pay 10 percent of their health insurance premiums for single policies, and 25 percent for family policies, which is roughly in line with national averages for the public sector. But it is considerably less than most private workers pay — 20 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
And that has the state paying about $3 billion a year in health care costs with projections seeing that rise $300 to $400 million a year.
Opines the NYT:
If the state is unable to achieve the necessary savings in wages and pensions, it may need to seek higher insurance contributions for all state workers. That benefit is not protected by the state Constitution.
You think?
So again,let's review. The NYT thinks wages should freeze, pensions need to be privatized, and government workers must contribute much more to their medical benefits/care, right?
Unlike Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Governor Cuomo is not trying to break the unions. He is pressing them to accept a salary freeze and a reduction in benefits for new workers. The unions need to negotiate seriously.
You have to laugh at this sort of nonsense.
But then there's this, so you can again be assured that it is indeed the NYT spouting the nonsense:
We are also urging the governor to rethink his pledge to cap property taxes and allow a tax surcharge on high incomes to expire at the end of this year. That would bring the state an additional $2 billion this fiscal year, and $4 billion the following year — not enough to solve the fiscal crisis, but a serious down payment.
That's right, the editorial board thinks solving it by increasing property taxes and taxing the "rich" is a wonderful idea.
And in an attempt to put a spin on the plea for more taxes:
The state's middle-class workers will have to make real sacrifices. New York's many wealthy residents, all of whom are benefiting substantially from a new federal tax break, should have to pay their fair share as well. That would bring the state an additional $2 billion this fiscal year, and $4 billion the following year — not enough to solve the fiscal crisis, but a serious down payment.
The middle class workers the Times is talking about are government union members who, on average, earn $16,425 a year more than the private sector "middle class" employees. The government employees would have to do something the average middle class worker in the state has been doing for decades – pay more for their benefits.
But, this gives the editorial board's an opportunity to talk about its favorite method of problem solving – raising taxes on the rich and on property owners. And you have to love the language of class warfare – "the state's middle class workers", "fair share", "wealthy residents" (they're citizens, NYT, just like the middle class workers) and a "serious down payment" on solving the fiscal problem. Of course, not a word in the editorial about spending cuts.
Oh, and union, you need to "negotiate seriously.".
Uh huh.
But remember, none of this is like Wisconsin. And don't you forget it.
NYT: Blogs "wane" as young set moves to sites like Twitter
In another example of how little the NYT knows about blogging (but fervently wishes for the day they'd just go away and the Times could get back to the good old days of deciding what is news or just flat making it up), it reports today that blogs are on the "wane". Check out this paragraph:
Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit, he instead started posting his clips on Facebook, where his friends were sure to see and comment on his editing skills.
"I don't use my blog anymore," said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. "All the people I'm trying to reach are on Facebook."
This is the lead for the story. It is clueless.
Some 17 year old who likes to make videos doesn't use his blog to show them off anymore, but instead uses Facebook – and that sounds the death knell of blogs?
What this youngster wanted to do was show his vids off to a few (tens? hundreds?) friends at most. Facebook is a much better venue for that. In fact, it's an even better venue than YouTube because your friends have to go to YouTube to find your vids vs. having them delivered to their Facebook page via your posting. It. Makes. Perfect. Sense.
But … it says more about the misapplication of blogging (for what the young man wanted to accomplish) than the demise of blogging.
Twitter – same thing. For some things it's perfect. For others, a blog is perfect. Depends on what you want to do. Like say anything that takes more than 142 characters. Blogs, Twitter and Facebook are all networking tools that provide an application that helps accomplish what the user wants to accomplish.
The case the NYT is trying to make is blogs will die out as the younger demographic moves to different venues:
The Internet and American Life Project at the Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children ages 12 to 17 fell by half; now 14 percent of children those ages who use the Internet have blogs. Among 18-to-33-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped two percentage points in 2010 from two years earlier.
Well here's a news flash – I don't read "children" or their blogs and they most likely don't read mine. But note the next demo – 18-to-33 year olds – suffered a whole 2% decline from two years earlier.
As of Feb. 16th, 2011, according to Wikipedia, there were 156 million blogs in existence. A two percent drop in two years is simply statistically insignificant. And, blogs aren't just for "social networking" as the Times would like you to believe. Nor do they require writing "lengthy posts" unless you want too.
Blogs went largely unchallenged until Facebook reshaped consumer behavior with its all-purpose hub for posting everything social. Twitter, which allows messages of no longer than 140 characters, also contributed to the upheaval.
No longer did Internet users need a blog to connect with the world. They could instead post quick updates to complain about the weather, link to articles that infuriated them, comment on news events, share photos or promote some cause — all the things a blog was intended to do.
Phenomenal – I never had to blog to "connect with the world". Nor was any blog I was a part of "intended" for comments on the weather or to just share photos.
I hadn't waited on blogs to "connect with the world" – that had been available for years via email, first through bulletin board systems, then through Usenet and Google Groups. Blogs are just another method of doing so and may someday be supplanted by something else. But on the wane because of Facebook and Twitter?
All I can say is if Twitter is now the first choice of someone who was once blogging, they were never a serious blogger to begin with. And, if Facebook is now the choice of a blogger, they've greatly narrowed their outreach to only those who subscribe to them. The fact that they're on Facebook, even with an open page, doesn't mean anyone is going to read them any more than when they had a blog.
Obviously things are going to change and evolve in the online media and social networking world, but as much as the NYT would love to declare the blog dead and gone, it's not even close.
And a little note for the editors and publishers of the Times – when blogs have finally gone the way of the dodo bird, the NYT will most likely have predeceased them by a substantial amount of time. My guess is Hot Air has as many or more readers than the Times does. HuffPo just went for 300 plus million to AOL. Point me toward the last major newspaper that sold for that much.
NYT screams for adults while acting like a child
Reading the first paragraph in an NYT editorial gave me a rather cynical chuckle this morning.
Are there any adults in charge of the House? Watching this week's frenzied slash-and-burn budget contest, we had to conclude the answer to that is no.
Really – is that the answer? Or is the answer there haven't been any adults in charge for years – decades even – as evidenced by the horrendous fiscal mess we're in today.
The NYT's answer? Apparently the status quo is alright with the Grey Lady. Check this out:
First Speaker John Boehner's Republican leadership proposed cutting the rest of the 2011 budget by $32 billion. But that wasn't enough for his fanatical freshmen, who demanded that it be cut by $61 billion, destroying vital government programs with gleeful abandon.
Here we go … speaking of acting like adults, it would be nice if the NYT would try it. As Rand Paul pointed out, $32 billion is about 5 days of government spending. $61 then would be about 10. And the $81 billion they're now talking about – tack on 4 more days. The NYT wants you to seriously believe that eliminating that pittance would destroy "vital government programs"? We're talking a multi-trillion dollar budget here guys. Until we're talking trillions in cuts, we're not talking about serious cuts.
In fact, what the NYT is worried about is cuts to some programs it considers to be vital but apparently others don't.
If the Republicans got their way, it would wreak havoc on Americans' lives and national security. This blood sport also has nothing to do with the programs that are driving up the long-term deficit: Medicare, Medicaid and, to a lesser extent, Social Security.
Well here's the bad news for the NYT – to get the budget back on a sustainable track, it is going to require a little "havoc" within the budget and certainly a dramatic lessening of spending.
Obviously I agree that the programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security have to be addressed. But that doesn't exempt the other areas where spending may be less in terms of those programs but just as wasteful, unnecessary or unneeded. You aren't going to address the problems of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in a Continuing Resolution – that's a 'red herring'. The fact that the big 3 haven't been addressed yet doesn't mean they won't be nor does it mean discretionary spending shouldn't be.
So, if the mean old Republicans end up cutting $81 billion out of the 7 month Continuing Resolution to fund government (since the Democratic Congress didn't do its primary job and pass a budget) what will that mean?
Several credible economists have said that an $81 billion cut could result in up to 800,000 layoffs throughout the American economy.
The House freshmen seemed even less concerned about the effect of their budget slashing. "A lot of us freshmen don't have a whole lot of knowledge about how Washington, D.C., is operated," Representative Kristi Noem, a Republican of South Dakota, told the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. "And, frankly, we don't really care."
Frankly, he shouldn't. My guess is government will trundle along without a hiccup if the worst case (and you know that's what is going to be presented here) scenario of 800,000 layoffs materializes. It won't, of course. We all know how this works – if in fact the cuts were to cause layoffs, most would come through attrition and early retirement packages vs. being "let go".
No, this is the usual "if they do that, the baby ducks will die" rhetoric in which any cut is countered with the worst imaginable scenario whether feasible or not. Government's job is not providing employment. It is doing the people's business and protecting the nation. And it should do that in as lean a posture as possible. That's what an adult would say.
Of course Obama has bowed up and claimed he will veto any such "job killing" measure. If I were the GOP I'd be saying "go ahead, make my day", because it then becomes a matter of explaining that the GOP attempted to cut spending and the size of government, but Big Government Obama, who depends on the votes of public service unions to win reelection, opted for them over the will of the people.
Was it bias or lack of time that caused the NYT to get the Giffords story so wrong? Or both?
The New York Times public editor, Arthur Brisbane, engages in a little self-criticism of the Times. It is about the Giffords shooting, and it highlights one of my critiques of the media for years.
That is, it feels the need to get the story out first rather than getting the story out right. Or perhaps "feels the need" isn't the right way to say that – the media has devolved into an industry where getting the story out first has become more of a priority than getting it out right.
The Giffords shooting and the Times give us the perfect case study. First the premise:
JIM ROBERTS, the assistant managing editor who has helped create today's NYTimes.com, likes to call it the 1440/7 news cycle — 1,440 minutes every day, seven days a week, each one of those minutes demanding news for delivery to a networked world.
In a word – wrong.
I don't know about you, but as a consumer of news, what some might call a news junkie, I'm not demanding "news for delivery" in every one of those minutes. Heck, I couldn't absorb that much news – nor could anyone else. What I want is factual, complete and comprehensive news delivered when it is ready to be delivered – i.e. confirmed and out of the realm of rumor.
In the case of the Giffords shooting the Times failed miserably at meeting my demand. Brisbane details the failure.
A major breaking news event, occurring on a Saturday afternoon with a small staff on duty, with print deadlines to worry about and a Web site that needed to be fed as fast and as frequently as possible.
The Times' first online posting came at 1:47 p.m., followed by two quick updates — at 1:53 and 2:16. These stories, pieced together from other news organizations that were on the ground in Tucson, reported the shootings and other basic facts, attributing word of the shooting to the congresswoman's spokesman, C. J. Karamargin. At this point, her condition was described as "unclear."
At 2:27, though, the story was revised to say Ms. Giffords had been shot and killed, attributing the information to Mr. Karamargin and "news reports." Lower in the story, those news reports were identified as coming from NPR and CNN. As it turned out, the information was incorrect. The Times compounded the error by appearing to attribute it in part to Ms. Giffords's own spokesman, who was not the source of the error.
Or said another way, the Times got it completely wrong and really didn't know they had. The question then is this – did anyone get on the phone to NPR and CNN or Rep. Giffords spokesperson and try to confirm the details? Apparently not.
Enter the infamous "3 layers of editors":
Here's how the error was made. It was hectic in the newsroom with many news reports flowing in as Kathleen McElroy, the day Web news editor, was trying to decide whether The Times was ready to report Giffords's death. She decided against it and was telling Web producers to hold off reporting it in a news alert when J. David Goodman, who was writing the story, told her he had a few changes he wanted to make.
Ms. McElroy said, "I should have looked at every change," but she thought Mr. Goodman was referring to small stuff. Mr. Goodman told me he then erred by reporting Representative Giffords's death in the lead as though The Times itself were standing behind the information. In any event, Ms. McElroy had said O.K. without seeing that change, so Mr. Goodman pushed the button.
And suddenly, the Times was reporting, unedited, the death of Giffords.
Brisbane entitles his critique, "Time, the enemy". I call BS. It wasn't time that was the enemy, it was the unspoken premise that says "it is more important to get it out first than to get it out right" that seems to have infiltrated the media. Brisbane sort of admits to that in another paragraph:
The Tucson shootings afforded another, quite different illustration of the pressure of time in news coverage — not pressure measured in seconds and minutes, but pressure that news organizations feel to define the context of a story, to set up a frame for it, sometimes before the facts can be fully understood.
Note his choice of words. "define the context of a story" – "to set up a frame for it". He claims that has to be done "sometimes before the facts can be fully understood'".
Really? How in the freakin' world does one "define the context of a story" without knowing the facts? Well, as it turns out, they're reduced to making assumptions and those assumptions, in the case of Giffords, were wrong.
The Times's day-one coverage in some of its Sunday print editions included a strong focus on the political climate in Arizona and the nation. For some readers — and I share this view to an extent — placing the violence in the broader political context was problematic.
It wasn't "problematic", it was, as one reader claimed "a rush to judgment". So what was that rush to judgment based on?
One would have to assume, given the Times admits it didn't have all the facts, it was based in bias. How else does one "set up a frame" for a story for which it admittedly doesn't have all the facts or "before the facts can be fully understood"? You go with what you believe to be true, that's how.
And, apparently, that's precisely what the NYT and a whole bunch of other news organizations, politicians, pundits and bloggers did.
So strong was this bias that the Times admits it missed even more facts available and germane to the story:
Meanwhile, opportunities were missed to pick up on evidence — quite apparent as early as that first day — that Jared Lee Loughner, who is charged with the shootings, had a mental disorder and might not have been motivated by politics at all.
Fancy that – with the story framed the way the bias dictated, the Times wasn't looking for facts that might contradict or dispute their frame.
Is that what happened? Well, not according to Brisbane. You see, it was a function of "framing protocols" developed "generations ago".
My, my – you mean like this nonsense? If this is the function of generational framing protocols it would seem to me media organizations would be taking a serious look at modifying them.
Jerry Ceppos, dean of the journalism school at the University of Nevada, Reno, said journalists' impulse to quickly impose a frame on a story is "genetic."
"Journalists developed automatic framing protocols generations ago because of the need to report quickly," he said. "Today's hyper-deadlines, requiring journalists to report all day long and all night long, made that genetic disposition even more dominant."
Nonsense. It may be "genetic" to an organization, but it is hardly "genetic" in the real sense to reporters. It is what is demanded of them by the media organization. And when that is what is demanded, inaccurate stories and bias are what you will get. And that's precisely what the Times got.
A self-imposed dictum of "publish or die" has overridden that of "get the facts, corroborate them and get the story right" that should be dominant in any media organization. This internal requirement to "get it out first" instead of "get it out right" has naturally led to short-cuts – like pre-conceived frames which can be imposed even "before all the facts are understood".
The editors simply make assumptions based on what they initially have heard and then select the "facts" that support those assumptions. In short, they establish a bias and then "support" it. Brisbane's two pages of equivocation and "transparency" aside, that's the short version of what happened.


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How to Deal With a Cubicle Invader
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Open offices are meant to encourage the free flow of ideas and can be great for group collaboration with teammates and managers, but they don't offer much room for privacy. Employees with open offices often find themselves holed up in a conference room or bathroom to take a personal call -- or possibly retreating there when a co-worker gets too chatty. Unfortunately, even workspaces with walled-in cubes offer virtually no protection from a determined cubicle invader.
Thankfully, there are strategies to keep visitors at bay and preserve the productivity of your workday. Here are five nice ways to encourage sociable co-workers to pay someone else a visit:
1. Be honest
When you want to be left alone to complete your work, just be honest about that, says Mark Hemmeter, CEO of Office Evolution.
"Don't be passive-aggressive by putting on headphones or leaving a 'do not disturb' sign on your cubicle," Hemmeter says. "The best way to prevent this type of interference from recurring is to be upfront and clear about what you need."
There's no harm in letting your co-worker know, "I have to finish this report before lunch," or "I have to get this done for a client before the end of the day," says Matt Rivera, director of customer solutions for staffing company Yoh.
"It's perfectly acceptable to say you have a call to make or work to do," Rivera says. "After all, you're at work -- you're not at a social hour."
If you're worried about hurting your colleague's feelings, you can preface the conversation with a compliment, says Steve Moore, director of human resource operations for HR and business consultancy Insperity.
"Let him or her know that you value the friendship," Moore says. "But that you often get distracted at work and it affects your performance, or forces you to work later hours."
2. Ask them to do you a favor
"This one could backfire, but you can always try asking the person to help you with something," Rivera says. "If you know they're going to stop by unannounced, have something ready they can help you with -- something they can take to the mailroom, a fax they could send, or have them help you organize receipts for expenses."
Although asking for favors constantly may deter your cubicle invader from coming around as often, there is a danger they'll feel like you "owe" them something, Rivera cautions.
"They may feel like you owe them a favor because they've helped you, but I think it will probably just make them less inclined to engage you. It only takes once or twice before they're less excited about the conversation that's going to ensue," he says.


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Ohio State makes playoffs
Daily log, Sept. 11
Tiffin reports
A 17-year-old male from Tiffin was charged with juvenile delinquency and underage possession/consumption Sunday night.
A first-block East Davis Street person reported the theft of a lawnmower Monday afternoon.
A 200-block Eighth Avenue caller requested to speak to an officer Monday afternoon about a stolen bicycle.
A 200-block West Perry Street caller requested to speak to an officer Monday evening about a stolen Xbox.
A person went to the station Monday evening to report an iPod was stolen from a house near Applejack Park.
A 500-block East Market Street woman reported the theft of medication Monday night.
A 200-block Jefferson Street man reported Monday night his apartment was broken into.
A 100-block Webster Street man reported Tuesday morning his truck was entered overnight.
County reports
Jeffrey R. Cook, 36, of Flat Rock, was charged with violating a protection order and false statement Monday.
A woman went to the station Tuesday afternoon to report a fraud.
A 200-block North Leonard Street person reported Tuesday afternoon a window had been shot out with a BB gun.
State Patrol
Robert Kautz, 52, of Michigan, was charged with possession of marijuana Thursday.
Fostoria reports
A woman took her son to the station Monday evening to report he was assaulted again by a juvenile.
A woman reported Monday evening a man riding a motorcycle struck a wall in the area of State and East Clark streets and then got up and left. A person was taken to the station where an ambulance was requested for a laceration.
A caller from Certified Gas, 100 E. Lytle St., reported Tuesday morning someone used a stolen credit card at the store.
Tiffin firefighters were called to 161 Maule Road Monday afternoon for a system malfunction.
Tiffin firefighters were called to 193 S. Monroe St. Monday night for a gas leak.
Tiffin firefighters were called to 116 Greenfield St. early Tuesday morning for a smoke detector activation due to a malfunction.
Tiffin EMS had one squad run Monday afternoon, one squad run Monday evening and one squad run Monday night. Ambulances also were needed twice Tuesday morning.
Old Fort fire, Bettsville EMS and the Echo unit had a squad run Monday evening
Bloomville fire and EMS had a squad run Monday evening.
Bloomville fire and EMS and the Echo unit had a squad run Tuesday afternoon.
Clinton fire had a squad run Tuesday afternoon.


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Dordt College News
Dordt Professor Nathan Tintle receives award for teaching statistics
August 12, 2013
The American Statistical Association (ASA) awarded the prestigious Waller Education Award to Dordt College Professor of Statistics Dr. Nathan Tintle. He was honored at a ceremony held August 4 during the Joint Statistical Meeting in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
The Waller Education Award was established by retired ASA Executive Director Ray Waller and his wife, Carolyn, to recognize a statistics teacher, early in his or her career, for excellence and innovation in teaching introductory undergraduate statistics. Tintle was honored for his outstanding contributions to and innovation in the teaching of elementary statistics.
Tintle has earned several awards during his two years at Dordt College: a best paper award from the Journal of Statistics Education, the Award for Noteworthy Scholarship by Dordt College, and three external grants worth more than $588,000, including a substantial National Institutes of Health grant for work with the Human Genome Research Institute.
Tintle is also active in the development of new curricular materials and pedagogical strategies in undergraduate statistics education. He has published 12 peer-reviewed articles, delivered eight conference presentations in the last two years, and has mentored more than 40 undergraduate research fellows since 2006.
The American Statistical Association is the world's largest community of statisticians and the second-oldest continuously operating professional society in the United States and operates in more than 90 countries. For additional information about the American Statistical Association, visit www.amstat.org.
Media Access: Download Word Version | High Resolution Image: 1


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10 U.S. Code § 12406 - National Guard in Federal service: call
§ 12406.
National Guard in Federal service: callWhenever—
the United States, or any of the Commonwealths or possessions, is invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation;
there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States; or
the President may call into Federal service members and units of the National Guard of any State in such numbers as he considers necessary to repel the invasion, suppress the rebellion, or execute those laws. Orders for these purposes shall be issued through the governors of the States or, in the case of the District of Columbia, through the commanding general of the National Guard of the District of Columbia.
(Added Pub. L. 103–337, div. A, title XVI, § 1662(f)(1), Oct. 5, 1994, 108 Stat. 2994; amended Pub. L. 109–163, div. A, title X, § 1057(a)(5), Jan. 6, 2006, 119 Stat. 3440.)
Prior Provisions
Provisions similar to those in this section were contained in sections 3500 and 8500 of this title, prior to repeal by Pub. L. 103–337, § 1662(f)(2).
2006—Par. (1). Pub. L. 109–163 substituted "Commonwealths or possessions" for "Territories, Commonwealths, or possessions".
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


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New construction, new runoff concern
INWOOD – South Berkeley residents are excited about the new W. Randy Smith Recreation Center that's still under construction on part of the Musselman High campus, a long-awaited and needed facility that is set to open sometime this year.
But as with all construction, there's a price to pay environmentally, according to Cacapon Institute Executive Director Frank Rodgers, who knows that buildings – and related facilities such as parking lots – means the addition of more impervious surface to the natural landscape.
These types of primarily artificial surfaces can't be penetrated by water and contribute to rain water runoff, Rodgers said.
However, the approximately 100 trees planted by students Thursday can do a lot to help because their root systems help hold water and don't allow it to flow as quickly across land, he said.
A non-profit organization dating back to 1985, the Cacapon Institute's mission is to protect rivers and watersheds through the use of science and education, Rodgers said.
"As a result, I'm happy to work with these students who today are doing a watershed conservation project by planting trees at the school, which will help reduce the amount of stormwater runoff that is leaving the Mussleman campus," he said.
This kind of environmental awareness is especially important since the Eastern Panhandle is growing so rapidly, Rodgers said.
"In fact, the region from Hagerstown to almost Winchester is the fastest growing urban area in the mid-Atlantic. The U.S. Census Bureau found that between 2000 and 2010 the impervious surface in this area grew by 73 percent. Not only is that incredible but it is also the fastest growth on the East Coast, and as a percentage of growth it is the fastest in the whole Chesapeake Bay watershed," he said.
"So when you break that down it means more buildings and asphalt but less actual ground. And with impervious surfaces it is impossible for the water to act naturally, to get down into the surface, and it ends up running off sideways which causes the volume to increase rapidly," Rodgers said.
Asphalt, whether found on rooftops or roadways, also causes the water to increase in temperature, he said.
"Rain water will super heat on those surfaces. In the end, it is terrible for fish but if we reduce some of this runoff our local stream health – as well as the Chesapeake Bay – will get better. It's also important because one of the major expenses in treating water for drinking water is removing all of the particulates, so the more we can reduce erosion the lower the cost to consumers," Rodgers said.
– Staff writer Jenni Vincent can be reached at 304-263-8931, ext. 138.


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Tag Archives: Soldier Stories
The It List: Five things to do in Berkeley this weekend
NOW IS THE WINTER OF OUR DISCONTENT It seems appropriate that during after such a contested and divisive election The Actor's Ensemble of Berkeley is performing Richard III, the classic Shakespeare tale of "the lust for power gone berserk." The king won't let anyone stand in the way of his desire for the crown of England. Richard III, directed by Sharon Huff Robinson, is the Actor's Ensemble's final production for its 55th season. It runs Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until Nov 17 at Live Oak Theater.
BOOKS OF ALL STRIPES, GALORE Every book lover in town knows that the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library's annual book sale is a great place to pick up tomes at a discount. All books, CDs, DVDs, and records are only 50 cents apiece. This year the Friends have added new categories such as sexuality, humor, and vintage. The sale takes place on Saturday Nov. 10 on the third floor of the Central Library at 2090 Kittredge Street and runs from 10 to 4 pm. Lines can be long, so arrive early. … Continue reading »
Tagged Adam Hochschild, Andrew David King, Berkeley Public Library, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse, Friends of the Berkeley Public Library, Julia Flynn Siler, One Family's Journey through 250 years of War and Service, Soldier Stories, T.J. Stiles, The Actor's Ensemble of Berkeley, The Lost Kingdom, What to do in Berkeley this weekend


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Real Steel
Just watched The Amazing Spiderman.
Mr Popper's Penguins
The Amazing Spiderman.
-Best Spiderman moviein my opinion. o-o
Man on Fire
Public Enemies
The Fog
Last night I watched paranormal Activity3 movie with my friends.
Journey 2 and chak de india
Ted :p
The Amazing Spider-Man
Ted . This movie is hilarious .
batman: the dark night. i'm waiting impaciently for TDKR
I don't watch a lot of movies, but the last one would have to be Snow white and the huntsman in the cinema.
Snow White and the Huntsman
The Amazing Spider Man
just rewatch Pirates of the Carribean at World's End
The Amazing Spider-Man, Dr. Seuss: The Lorax, Law Abiding Citizen
Forum Rules


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Out of stock items are built on demand. You buy it, we build it. Ships within 5 days.
In stock orders ship same day if received by 4:00 PM Mountain Standard Time!
Finding a cool color wallet has always been a challenge. Each person has their own idea of what the perfect men's tri-fold wallet should be. The Red Oxx version is as classic as your favorite pair of 501s.
Back in our military days a Rigger Wallet was highly sought after. We Parachute Riggers would trade making a wallet for covering a weekend detail, for example. The Red Oxx Rigger Wallet gets the same high quality attention to detail as all our gear. Imagine a wallet that is rugged, reliable and tough.
CORDURA® Nylon and Velcro make a great combination for a durable field wallet. If you're constantly getting soaked and dried out, a leather wallet will crack and then rot away. Thus the origin of the surfer wallet and their popularity among surfers. The Rigger Wallet is modeled after these surfer style wallets.
Deliberately designed to be extra deep to carry foreign bills from countries where inflation is rampant and the cash is extra large. Ahem, beware America! The zippered coin pocket is the perfect place to keep a few Kopecks handy for the parking meter or stuff your hideaway key in there. Another favorite feature is the clear vinyl window for your I.D. This makes for a quick and easy trip through security checkpoints.
"I tested this on several flights and had no problem leaving my I.D. in the wallet." ~Jim Markel CEO
Our wallet materials are designed to handle field abuse. Since it's made of water resistant CORDURA® Nylon fabric, instead of leather, it's classified as a "vegan wallet."
Featuring 12 vibrant colors to choose from, finding a favorite colored wallet for your cash, cards and IDs just got a little easier!
"Having lost a black wallet in the field, I now carry a red one..."
U.S.A. Dimensions:
Closed 4.75"L x 3.5"W x 1/2"H.
Open 10.75"L x 4.75"W.
Featured Men's Gift Idea at the RebateZone.
"No Bull" no question's asked Lifetime Warranty. Red Oxx lasts longer.
Designed AND hand made in Billings, Montana U.S.A..
UPS Transit Shipping Time Map.
Meet the thundering herd who build your gear with pride.
Red Oxx is a Veteran owned and operated US Manufacturer.
EMAIL POLICY: Online orders will receive an order confirmation email, a UPS tracking information email when your order ships and a product review request follow-up email eight weeks after delivery. In addition, backorders beyond a dozen working days may receive an order follow-up assurance email. During checkout purchasers have the option to opt-out of our other occasional email notifications. Your email address is always secure.
Rigger Wallet Color Translator
Keep in mind: Colors on your monitor will vary from the actual color of the wallet's fabric. The only way to accurately gauge a color is to request a swatch.
Questions? Visit our Customer Service Help Desk or call our Toll Free Hot Line: 1-888-733-6999.
As time rolls a ceaseless course, only the genuine guarantee remains. The mountains will persist, the oceans are bound to endure and Red Oxx will continue to be rugged, reliable, and tough.
To the depths of the Amazon basin to the peaks of the Himalayas, Red Oxx Manufacturing is infallible.
Red Oxx Bags are guaranteed forever, be sure to include them in your will.
Red Oxx Bags are handcrafted in Billings, Montana. U.S.A.
Red Oxx
© Red Oxx Mfg, Inc.


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CFLs haven't been the lightbulb of choice for many people. "It doesn't give off enough light." "I prefer the incandescent." "I know that you just can't throw them away when they go." BUT in Consumer Reports' latest tests of more than 26 of the newest CFLs, they've improved.
Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman Consumer Reports "Some of the ones we tested this year use about 60 to 75 percent less mercury than ones we tested just three years ago."
And testers found today's CFLs do a good job mimicking the light of incandescent bulbs. That's a CFL on the left and an incandescent on the right. But it is important to shop carefully. Celia Lehrman, "You want to check for the Energy Star logo. That means that the bulb has met strict standards for energy efficiency and durability, but also standards for color and brightness." And to get light that's like an incandescent's, check the label to make sure it has a color temperature of about 27-hundred K, or Kelvin. Celia Lehrman "More Kelvins doesn't necessarily mean a brighter bulb. A bulb with 4000 or more Kelvin is actually going to have a bluer light, not necessarily a brighter light, and that may not be what you're looking for." For table lamps, Consumer Reports says a good choice is the 60-watt equivalent Eco-Smart bulbs from Home Depot. They cost six dollars for a four pack, and their light is like a traditional incandescent's.


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A major news announcement issued at an American Astronomical Society meeting, the premier astronomy conference.
June 8, 1993: A NASA Hubble Telescope (HST) image of NGC 1741, a pair of colliding galaxies undergoing a burst star formation as a result of a collision.
Credit: Dr. Peter Conti (University or Colorado) /NASA & ESA; Alex Filippenko, UC Berkeley; Claus Leither, STScI; Carmelle Robert,
STScI; Wal Sargent, CalTech; and William Vacca, UC Berkeley


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By Kevin Wilson: Freedom Newspapers
The Eastern New Mexico Rural Water Authority has long held public education and federal authorization as its two biggest keys for the Ute Water Project.
If the next few months go to plan, they'll take care of both.
The plan is to have two hearings related to the pipeline project, ENMRWA Chairman and Clovis Mayor David Lansford said. The first hearing would be in eastern New Mexico, prior to an authorization bill being introduced into the 110th Congress. The second hearing would be in Washington.
The first hearing, Lansford said, would be a public hearing with the Interstate Stream Commission playing a role. The ISC would give its objections and recommendations to the authority.
That information, Lansford said, would then be on public record and would be addressed during a hearing in Washington.
"Hopefully, we can show them this project is needed, it's the only project for our needs … and there's no way for them to object," Lansford said.
Members wanted to schedule the first hearing in either May or June.
The project involves building a pipeline that would take water from the Ute Reservoir near Logan to participating communities. The current price tag is $432 million, with the federal government paying 75 percent, the state 15 percent and authority members 10 percent.
Authority members hope they'll be able to build federal support with a good showing in the state Legislature.
Project Chairman Scott Verhines updated members on 14 bills currently in the House or Senate that affect the project.
"There's been a lot of water rhetoric in the Legislature," Verhines said. "It remains to be seen … whether (lawmakers) did any good."
Verhines said he had yet to see Gov. Bill Richardson's $5 million commitment to the project, but authority Vice Chairman and Portales Mayor Orlando Ortega said Rep. Jose Campos, D-Santa Rosa, was putting it into a capital outlay request bill he was carrying for the governor.
In other business:
• Walter Hines of the Albuquerque-based CH2MHill firm said a report was almost finished on the possibility of building a wind energy plant to help offset Ute Water Project costs.
Hines said a 200-megawatt plant could cover 40 percent to 50 percent of the project's cost, and there is space for such a plant in Logan, Caprock or Grady.
Grady Mayor Wesley Shafer joked the plant could be in his back yard if it helped offset project costs.
Obstacles to such a measure, Hines said, included startup costs in the "hundreds of millions" and finding a power company to take the power. Ortega added doubts about long-term profits, since wind energy gets much of its funding through tax credits that may not last.


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Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation
The Coast Guard enforces the laws of the United States on waters under U.S. jurisdiction and on the high seas. The service's many missions include search and rescue, illegal drug and migrant interdiction, oil spill prevention and response, maritime safety and security, maintaining aids to navigation, icebreaking, and enforcement of U.S. fisheries and marine pollution laws.
The Subcommittee also has jurisdiction over regulation of ocean shipping and the merchant marine, except as it relates to national security.
Issues and agencies under the jurisdiction of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee include:
Recent Activity:


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The Internet's great. You should use it for lots of things. It's also terrible. You shouldn't use it for the following things.
4Try to Launch Your Music Career (As a Child)
On your mark. Get set. Real talk.
When I was 12 years old, I built miniature versions of everyone I knew in my middle school out of clay. All together, I had maybe 150 tiny figurines (some students, some teachers), all arranged on a little table in my bedroom (what I referred to at the time as "my lab"). Late at night, I'd steal my parents' VHS camera (note to the children who read this column: VHS tapes are what we used to have instead of DVDs, and VHS cameras are what we used to use to make movies instead of digital cameras, iPads and phones. Also, stop reading this column, it is not for children), and I would make short stop-motion movies with me and my massive cast of clay schoolmates. I was basically doing a one-man version of Saturday Night Live as understood by a child; I'd have me and all of my friends play different characters and shoot a bunch of sketches, including my best attempt at making a Weekend Update that tied into what happened at school that week. Why did I make a little clay Daniel and little clay Daniel's best friends dress up in costumes to play different characters when I could have just built characters out of clay? I don't know. No one will ever know.
I was REALLY into clay, is the point.
I'd also write songs in my lab, songs I would share with no one. There was one song about school being out for the summer, and "I'm So Happy, Someone Slap Me" was both the title and the only lyrics in the song, repeated over and over again. I also wrote a song about what I wanted to be when I grew up. There's a really cool key change in the song that would be enough to make it my best work, but it also featured the lyric "I don't wanna be a crocodile, I just wanna make you smile," which I guess cancels out whatever goodwill I'd earned with the frankly inspired key change.
Why bring all of this up? Because, every night before I go to sleep, I thank God or Aliens or Neil Tyson or Luck or the Spectacular Randomness of the Universe that YouTube didn't exist when I was a kid.
See, when I was a stupid kid, making terrible midnight sketches or embarrassing music videos in my lab, I just recorded it onto a VHS tape. And then I'd stick the tape in my TV, watch it, conclude "Nope, there's nothing wrong with that; that's as good as anything I've ever seen on television, I'm gonna be famous," and move on. I'd film my SNL knockoff sketches one week and then erase them the next week to make room for my new SNL knockoff sketches. Then I'd erase that a week later and replace it with a song about my dog, or a song about how I wanted the girl who sat in front of me in English class to notice me, or a song about professional wrestler Sting, and how cool it would be if the two of us solved mysteries and were friends.
Stingin' the Blues is what our album would be.
But if YouTube had been around and as stupidly easy to use in 1996 as it is today, those videos would be uploaded straight to the Internet for absolutely everyone to see, because as a kid, you have no objectivity whatsoever. Or taste. Or skills. Nothing. Children are terrible.
Unfortunately, YouTube is here now, for everyone, forever. Which is how a video like this can hit the Internet.
The video linked above is of a young kid, Max Harris, performing an original song of his called "High." He is, I'm assuming, 13 years old. I assume 13 because everything about this music video -- the lyrics, the dancing, the deep and thoughtful staring into the camera -- just screams "I am 13 and this is what I think a serious adult song looks and sounds like."
The video is destined to become Internet famous. It hits that perfect intersection of "alarming terribleness" and "total earnestness." There's even a part where the poor kid whispers about how he's on a sinking ship, and he cries into the camera with the kind of shameless, childlike conviction that I will never again feel about anything. There's no way he doesn't become the next Internet "thing." Reddit will end up making image macros featuring Max's likeness. People will do soulful, hipstery piano covers of it, like they did for Rebecca Black's song. Someone will Auto-Tune it (or, more likely, a hundred freaking people will Auto-Tune it). This kid, whether he knows it or not, is now a meme. Forever.
I have a hard time watching that video, with its "artistic" low-angle shots and its ... you know, all that other stuff. Not because I'm laughing at or mocking the kid, but because I was that kid. Sure, my songs never featured intense whispering, my dance style was less "hip-gyration" and more "robot who can jump," and my songs were largely about corn dogs and not the pursuit of getting high (he means emotionally), but other than that, the only difference between this kid and me is that I didn't have YouTube or anything like it. And I guess it's impossible for me to know for sure, but I'm almost positive that my life is better because of that.
This could have been me.
YouTube gave children an audience, but no one ever told those children, "Hey, you're not going to make a decent piece of original work for over a decade, so please keep the creative stuff to yourself and your small group of friends (clay or otherwise)." Little kids all over the Internet are putting up videos of themselves singing. Some of them will never break 25 views. Some of them will be shockingly great. And some of them, like poor Max's, are headed straight for Internet stardom, and not the good kind. That's got to be terrible for a kid, right? Being a 13-year-old kid is already kind of awful on its own; no child anywhere should have to deal with becoming an insulting Internet meme. The Internet hasn't been around long enough for us to figure out what that does to a child's psyche, but I can't imagine it's great.
3Ignore It
Have you guys ever heard of the actor Brian Presley? He's got a few IMDb credits under his belt, and he's a pretty good-looking guy with a relatively well-balanced life. He's got a wife and a kid, apparently. And a few days ago, he attempted to cheat on his wife with a famous supermodel on a plane. Who tweeted the entire gross ordeal.
Model Melissa Stetten live-tweeted every single detail to her 22,000+ followers. This includes some of Brian's sleazier bits ...
... plus just some general embarrassing dumb-guy stuff.
My favorite (least favorite?) part is when Brian (who told Melissa he only wore a wedding ring because he "liked it") tells Melissa that the two of them sitting together on a plane must be "divine interception." There's so much wrapped up in that phrase. He has communicated A) that he thinks God put them together for a reason; B) that he thinks that reason is fucking on a plane; and C) that he's a total idiot. "Divine interception" isn't a thing, or, at least, not yet, but it will be once my movie about Eddie Murphy dying and then returning to Earth as an angel who has to help his old football team of scrappy underdogs win the Super Bowl gets funding.
I'm sure Brian was going through some ... things. Apparently, he's supposed to be clean and sober, but was clearly drinking on this flight. It sounds like he isn't in a great place right now, so he doesn't need some other shitty Internet writer making stupid jokes about his life while it falls apart.
But I will say that the Internet's been around for sort of a while now. The first time a celebrity's sex tape or embarrassing email leaked to the Internet, every other celebrity should have immediately thought, "Ah, yes, the Internet, big opportunity to publicly embarrass myself, every second of every day. Probably best if I just shut up, forever." We KNOW how the Internet works, so if you're trying to commit adultery with someone who is clearly not interested who keeps typing on their phone and even takes a picture of you, it's safe to assume that you're being Internetted. Gawker will write three different stories if Johnny Depp takes a shit; you'd better assume that someone will cover your public adultery.


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Props go to Mike at IHaveAZune.com for putting these pieces together in an email conversation we were having.
Earlier the code for this infamous Zune bug showed up on Digg. This code is actually code written for Freescale's MC13783 PMIC (PDF Whitepaper) and it seems like its affecting other players that have this PMIC like the Gigabeat S Series. This makes a lot of sense since the Zune 30 was heavily bases off of the Toshiba S series. So far it looks like the Gigabeat owners are trying the fix as the Zune 30 owners, letting it fully discharge. So far one user has been successful using this method and changing the date on his PC.