Tuesday, September 05, 2006
According to the News...
We're back from our honeymoon and I'm looking forward to posting a couple pictures of the wedding day and the honeymoon for all to enjoy. To my pleasant surprise, I had a number of people come up to me to ask when I was going to start blogging again. Apparently they were giving me grace with the wedding to plan, but now it's time to get back on the horse. I don't have all the time in the world, but let me at least share something that's been on my heart this week.
Last week we went to lunch one day, and CNN or MSNBC or one of the news channels was playing on the television that was stationed just over my shoulder at the establishment we paid to clog our arteries. I was keeping tabs on what was considered news that day, so I say the following literally (with the exception of commercials). They spent 40 minutes on the anniversary of Katrina and 20 minutes on JonBenet Ramsey's not-actual killer.
I think it's important that we think about where we've come as a country since Katrina, and it is good to be aware of what's still happening in the aftermath of Katrina. What got me was this statistic rolling on the bottom of the screen:
2,600 U.S. soliders dead since war in Iraq began.
I feel like that is worthy of some talking-and-video time, and not just a quick one liner on the bottom of the screen. Made me wonder what else they were not reporting.
Last week the Census Bureau released their report on income and poverty. There was a rise in the median household income for the first time in six years. However, as some analysts have pointed out, wages seem to be decreasing relative to inflation, suggesting that the median income is only rising because more household members are working, many at minimum wage or close-to-minimum wage jobs.
The number of Americans living in poverty was mostly unchanged at 12.6 percent, but 6 percent earned less than half the poverty-line cutoff of $20,000. An analyst working with the New York Times said that this was the highest such percentage ever recorded.
The number of people without health insurance and the number of uninsured children rose slightly.
And the College Board reported the largest decline in SAT scores in 31 years.
That is relevant news that people should know about and news channels should be reporting. Anyway, now you know. And knowing is at least the beginning of the battle.
Good to be back. The next posts will be about music and love (not necessarily in that order), just wanted to get that off my chest first.
Last week we went to lunch one day, and CNN or MSNBC or one of the news channels was playing on the television that was stationed just over my shoulder at the establishment we paid to clog our arteries. I was keeping tabs on what was considered news that day, so I say the following literally (with the exception of commercials). They spent 40 minutes on the anniversary of Katrina and 20 minutes on JonBenet Ramsey's not-actual killer.
I think it's important that we think about where we've come as a country since Katrina, and it is good to be aware of what's still happening in the aftermath of Katrina. What got me was this statistic rolling on the bottom of the screen:
2,600 U.S. soliders dead since war in Iraq began.
I feel like that is worthy of some talking-and-video time, and not just a quick one liner on the bottom of the screen. Made me wonder what else they were not reporting.
Last week the Census Bureau released their report on income and poverty. There was a rise in the median household income for the first time in six years. However, as some analysts have pointed out, wages seem to be decreasing relative to inflation, suggesting that the median income is only rising because more household members are working, many at minimum wage or close-to-minimum wage jobs.
The number of Americans living in poverty was mostly unchanged at 12.6 percent, but 6 percent earned less than half the poverty-line cutoff of $20,000. An analyst working with the New York Times said that this was the highest such percentage ever recorded.
The number of people without health insurance and the number of uninsured children rose slightly.
And the College Board reported the largest decline in SAT scores in 31 years.
That is relevant news that people should know about and news channels should be reporting. Anyway, now you know. And knowing is at least the beginning of the battle.
Good to be back. The next posts will be about music and love (not necessarily in that order), just wanted to get that off my chest first.
*************************************************************
As an addendum to my last post, I would recommend just a couple sources for news. I really made an attempt to find an unbiased, tell-it-like-it-is news source. The best I've found is this weekly magazine that's affordable that makes for excellent Metra and El-riding reading material. I read it cover to cover each week. Anyway, it's called The Week. While it sometimes leans a little left, it always provides a fair point of view from both sides of the political spectrum, and I appreciate that. It collects news from around the world, with a natural focus on the United States, including the straight-forward news, what different papers and magazines are saying about it in their analysis and even includes a small dose of celebrity and a good-sized dose of pop culture news each week as well.
They also have a free e-newsletter that gets delivered each Friday with highlights from the web site and the magazine. Truth be told, you can get almost everything on the web site, but I pay for the magazine because I can devour it over the course of a week, and I like holding it in my hands. For whatever reason, it makes me want to read it more.
And that's the moral here - find some way to stay just a little more connected that you find fun and easy. If you like reading on the web, there are tons of options. I don't. I almost always print out the articles I want to read or else I don't read them. I also don't like television news (mostly for the same reasons as the last post) and newspapers can be a bit thick for my tastes. I tried Time magazine for awhile, but it left a lot to be desired in my opinion. They tend to jump on the latest trends and fads and 'popular' opinions a bit too much for my taste.
Bethany pointed to the BBC news in her comment, and I used to do that one as well, but I found that I rarely clicked on my link, and that unless I set it as my homepage, I never read the thing.
So anyway, The Week gets my vote. If you have other sources of news that you like, I've found that comments are good for my soul.
be blessed... be loved...
They also have a free e-newsletter that gets delivered each Friday with highlights from the web site and the magazine. Truth be told, you can get almost everything on the web site, but I pay for the magazine because I can devour it over the course of a week, and I like holding it in my hands. For whatever reason, it makes me want to read it more.
And that's the moral here - find some way to stay just a little more connected that you find fun and easy. If you like reading on the web, there are tons of options. I don't. I almost always print out the articles I want to read or else I don't read them. I also don't like television news (mostly for the same reasons as the last post) and newspapers can be a bit thick for my tastes. I tried Time magazine for awhile, but it left a lot to be desired in my opinion. They tend to jump on the latest trends and fads and 'popular' opinions a bit too much for my taste.
Bethany pointed to the BBC news in her comment, and I used to do that one as well, but I found that I rarely clicked on my link, and that unless I set it as my homepage, I never read the thing.
So anyway, The Week gets my vote. If you have other sources of news that you like, I've found that comments are good for my soul.
be blessed... be loved...
Labels: Jesus
1 Comments:
Library
June 2005July 2005
August 2005
October 2005
November 2005
January 2006
February 2006
April 2006
June 2006
September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
January 2007
February 2007
March 2007
June 2007
September 2007
October 2007
November 2007
December 2007
March 2008
May 2008
June 2008
August 2008
September 2008
October 2008
December 2008
June 2009
"An uninformed citizen is useless" -Unknown