Here is the beautiful thing about social media (things like Facebook, Youtube, etc.).
It gives us normal folks a chance to be heard, and even to ask questions of our leaders.
Here is a question on YouTube that President Obama will answer today:
You might not know enough about this to answer it yet, but how do you think you might answer this question now? Should we DISCUSS or CONSIDER legalization drugs as a serious alternative to prohibition?
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Even the founder of Facebook is not sage on Facebook
But good thing his page is "only for fun."
Computer hacking is a crime, by the way.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/sns-cnn-zuckerberg-facebook-page-hacked,0,4370718.story
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Jon Stewart takes on the local news
You remember the story of the homeless man with the golden voice discovered on the street who was given a job and house? Well, why not go on a hunt in your area by the local news to discover other homeless people with talents? Maybe we can get them jobs, too?
Amazing!
Click on the link below. After the commercial, jump to the 1 minute, ten second mark and watch Jon Stewart address how the local news LINK a previous story to their own area to try to make more news relevant to their own viewers.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-25-2011/indianapolis-homeless-talent-show
Oh my God, RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and why should I care about this in North Carolina?)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_odd_lost_lizard
Reaction to Obama's State of the Union address
It was a very good speech. On Facebook immediately afterward, I have him a B+. I'll stick with that this morning. (I wanted to see a bi-partisan type speech, and that is what I saw).
He stressed about 10 things that Republicans have historically liked. Things like tax cuts for corporations. A simpler and more fair tax code. Deficit reduction. Spending freezes. And tough talk on terrorism (albeit at the end of his speech).
He also stressed about 10 things that Democrats have historically liked. Things like increased spending on education. Alternative energy sources. Equal opportunity. Cuts to the bloated military defense budget. And he continued to defend health care reform.
Clearly, this is no "socialist" president, so I was still shocked to see some politicians react to it in the mainstream media by calling it a socialist speech. Nearly the entire speech was about the importance of the economy, capitalism, jobs, "big business," and corporations. Anyone who thinks Obama is a socialist is, excuse my French, a fucking idiot.
(I don't often cuss, but when I do, I do it for effect. Saying you are an idiot if you believe Obama is a socialist just doesn't quite get it. No, you are a fucking idiot. Try looking up the definition of socialism in a dictionary, or better yet, an encyclopedia. Study how it is has been implemented in the world before you spout off with such nonsense.)
The media are fact-checking President Obama. For example, see:
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/State_of_the_Union/state-union-2011-fact-check-president-obamas-address/story?id=12760731
Or if you want to see a more "fair and balanced" view (ha ha), see:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/01/25/fact-check-obama-imbalanced-ledger/
One thing I noticed was the word "crime" did not get mentioned once.
As a criminologist I say, "Finally!"
The New York Times also has this cool feature showing common words in previous such addresses by presidents.
And the Republicans are being fact checked too.
Another reason NOT to smoke
"Those first few puffs on a cigarette can within minutes cause genetic damage linked to cancer, US scientists said in a study released.
"In fact, researchers said the 'effect is so fast that it's equivalent to injecting the substance directly into the bloodstream,' in findings described as a 'stark warning' to those who smoke."
Tobacco kills 440,000 Americans every year, and about one out of every two people who smoke will die from it, losing on average fourteen years of life, then dying a slow, agonizing, expensive death. Compare this with marijuana, a drug that kills less than two people per year every year.
Which is illegal? Yep, the safer one.
To put it in perspective, Appalachian State University has about 16,000 students. If 30% of those smoke tobacco (seems like it), then more than 5,300 students smoke. More than 2,600 of them will one day die from smoking-related conditions.
How many are being arrested for tobacco? None.
And for marijuana? Dozens every year.
And the Chief of Police at Appalachian says marijuana is safer than alcohol, yet keeps arresting people for smoking pot.
Makes sense to me.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthussmoking
Should young (accused) murderers be tried as adults?
He then supposedly goes to school after dropping the spent cartridge outside, leaving the victim's four year old daughter to discover her mother's body.
This is a heinous muder.
But the suspect is an eleven year old schoolboy.
And if he is tried as an adult, he could spend virtually the rest of his life in prison.
Should seriousness of the crime determine how suspects are treated? Or should it be their age and mental capacity?
The latest brain research shows people don't tend to fully develop self-control until their mid- to late-twenties. If he did it, this kid probably knew what he was doing was wrong; the relevant question is whether he really understood it and could stop his behavior?
Another way of killing people that is perfectly legal
I remember the days when I used to poke fun of people who drive Ford automobiles.
Because Ford made the Pinto.
Then the Explorer.
Both were found to have serious safety issues, known in advance to the manufacturer, that the company KNEW would lead to injury and death. Yet, the company decided that, since it was cheaper NOT to fix the cars, it would let people be injured and die, pay their lawsuits, and still save money.
All the while I was proudly driving my Toyota or my Honda, thinking, at least there are some ethical car companies.
Oh well.
Turns out, greed is good. And our lives matter less than profit.
Now, compare this type of "crime" to the everyday murder. Which is worse? When a poor person or a drunk person or an angry person or a jealous person kills someone who made them mad or sad or desperate or when a wealthy company with no hardships kills dozens of us for money?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110126/bs_afp/japanautocompanytoyotarecall_20110126060619
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
11 police officers shot in 5 states in 1 day
"That's not normal."
But it is news.
And when they are all connected together, it's called linkage.
Except it's completely random and none of the events are actually connected to the others.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110125/ap_on_re_us/us_florida_police_shooting
Fast food crime
But it probably should be.
Instead, Taco Bell is being sued in civil court for what it sells as "ground beef."
From the article:
"Taco Bell's ground beef includes ingredients such as water, isolated oat product, an anti-dusting agent, an anti-caking agent and modified corn starch, as well as beef and seasonings.
...
"Just 35% of what Taco Bell calls its "taco meat filling's" ingredient list was a solid and just 15% of it qualified as protein."
Ironically, the company that owns Taco Bell is called "Yum Brands."
Talk about false advertising.
And here is what is in their "beef."
Water, isolated oat product, salt, chili pepper, onion powder, tomato powder, oats (wheat), soy lecithin, sugar, spices, maltodextrin (a polysaccharide that is absorbed as glucose
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10984822/1/yumstaco-bell-meat-prompts-law-suit.html
Connect the dots, LA LA LA!
Connect the dots, LA LA LA!
It's a song I sing with my kids.
Seriously.
It's also what the media do whenever a crime happens that can be connected to previous crimes.
It's called linkage (search this blog for other examples).
In this article from Newsweek magazine, the author calls the Arizona shooter "a crazed loner, but he’s one in a long line."
See what the author did? He acknowledged the assassin was acting alone, but then connected him to previous assassins anyway, as if there is some assassin club that all these guys belong to (well, they are all guys, so maybe it is the Y chromosome that is to blame).
Quick, how many people have assassins killed in all of American history?
It's actually less than will die today from smoking tobacco. But you don't see that in the news!
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/16/american-assassins.html
It's a song I sing with my kids.
Seriously.
It's also what the media do whenever a crime happens that can be connected to previous crimes.
It's called linkage (search this blog for other examples).
In this article from Newsweek magazine, the author calls the Arizona shooter "a crazed loner, but he’s one in a long line."
See what the author did? He acknowledged the assassin was acting alone, but then connected him to previous assassins anyway, as if there is some assassin club that all these guys belong to (well, they are all guys, so maybe it is the Y chromosome that is to blame).Quick, how many people have assassins killed in all of American history?
It's actually less than will die today from smoking tobacco. But you don't see that in the news!
http://www.newsweek.com/2011/01/16/american-assassins.html
How Video Games Can Make Us Heroes
Nearly everyone agrees that violent video games are bad for kids. Scholars just disagree about how much they are bad for kids.
But here is an interesting read arguing video games are good for us, based on this new book.
Play on! (just don't hurt anyone in the real world, please).
http://www.slate.com/id/2281931/
Proof that humans are stupid
So stupid that we need legislators to tell us that walking while texting and running in traffic with IPods blaring music in our ears are so dangerous that they need to be illegal.
And I wonder just whom will enforce these laws?
Just the other day I was being followed by a car filled with young women (high school or college students), each of them texting while riding down the street, including the driver. Made me want to pull them over, take their phones and smash them on the ground while yelling, "THE REAL WORLD IS OUT HERE!"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110124/ap_on_re_us/us_distracted_walkers
Crime locally
| Zionville man arrested for meth production The Watauga County Sheriff's Office arrested a Zionville man Friday after finding a methamphetamine lab in an outbuilding. |
| Man sought by officers overturns vehicle A man being sought by Watauga County sheriff's deputies overturned the Jeep Cherokee he was driving Saturday afternoon -- right as he met an oncoming officer on Old U.S. 421 in Vilas. |
Recent rash of police shootings nationwide
So says CNN.
In the book I show that stories about crime and criminal justice rarely offer important context. That is, they typically fail to show the important details needed to give the story meaning.
Here is an example of the opposite. Even the headline offers context:
"Dangers real, but deaths increasingly rare for police officers."
Exactly. It is a dangerous job. But officers are rarely killed on the job.
As noted in the article: "Police shootings are very, very rare events in this country," said Peter Manning, a professor at Northeastern University's College of Criminal Justice. "When they happen together (like this week), it's even rarer."
With this context -- if the news and entertainment media just showed cops being killed -- we'd all carry around misconceptions of the realities of police work.
Kudos to CNN for providing this context.
As for me this one hits way too close to home. Two officers in my hometown of St. Pete slaughtered in an ambush. It's a horribly sad day.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/25/police.officers.shot/
Monday, January 24, 2011
No more lethal injection?
It's national and international news.
The US has no more of its supplies of the drugs we need to kill murderers. And there is no company in that makes them in the US.
From the article:
"The sole American manufacturer of an anesthetic widely used in lethal injections said Friday that it would no longer produce the drug, a move likely to delay more executions and force states to adopt new drug combinations.
"The manufacturer, Hospira, of Lake Forest, Ill., had originally planned to resume production of the drug, sodium thiopental, this winter at a plant in Italy, giving state corrections departments hope that the scarcity that began last fall would ease.
"But the Italian authorities said they would not permit export of the drug if it might be used for capital punishment. Hospira said in a statement Friday that its aim was to serve medical customers, but that “we could not prevent the drug from being diverted to departments of corrections” and the company did not want to expose itself to liability in Italy.
"Hospira does not have domestic facilities that can make sodium thiopental, said Daniel Rosenberg, a spokesman, and has decided to “exit the market.” No other American companies manufacture the drug, which has largely been supplanted by alternatives in hospitals but is used by 34 of the 35 states that use lethal injection to carry out the death penalty."
Just another cost of outsourcing jobs!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/us/22lethal.html
Economic elites making us crazy, literally?
Once one understands the role played by elites in producing economic disasters (e.g., major recessions), one can better understand my claim that those are the folks responsible for much of our suffering:
"The recent surge in ... staggering [economic] statistics reflects two types of economic side effects. First, the rise in mental health disorders has increased as economic certainty has deteriorated: joblessness, crippling debt and home foreclosure. Second, the problem is only exacerbated when those with newly-developed or pre-existing illnesses can't seek treatment because they don't have health insurance due to unemployment."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/2011-01-22-mental-illness-financial-problems_N.htm
Save the planet, poison your family?
Those reusable bags you take to grocery stores to help save the planet contain high levels of lead, according to a recent investigation.
What does exposure to lead do to you? Brain damage and lower your IQ score, potentially.
When does poisoning people for profit become a crime?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2011-01-23-reusable-bags_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
It is crimes that this that get followed all the way to trial
Those that lead to arrest are regularly reported in the news.
And those that make it to trial sometimes make it too.
Crime like this. At least on Fox News.
Me thinks they want us to stay afraid of folks like this.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/23/opening-statement-begin-monday-arizona-honor-killing/
Corporate and Congressional Disasters
"Corporate crime and wrongdoing is an everyday fact of life in the United States and around the world. Still, the last year has been remarkable for a series of high-profile, deadly corporate disasters: the BP Deepwater Horizon catastrophe that killed 11 workers and spewed millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the deadly explosion at Massey's Upper Big Branch mine and unintended acceleration of Toyota cars.
"You might think that these disasters, singly and together, would impel desperately needed legislative reform. You might think that, but if you did, you would be wrong.
"Despite blanket TV and newspaper coverage of the corporate wrongdoing in each case, despite deep public outrage and fear, despite public clamor for action to prevent the same things from happening, Congress has done - exactly nothing.
"And the situation is about to get worse."
And it's all reportedly about corporations blocking reform.
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