Climate Change, an Update (You're Lucky to Get This Post)

Due to a full dead week here at Iowa State and a more than overloaded Blogger named Moi (not actually my name), I wanted to dive into a topic that I really care about: Climate change.

As we all know, world leaders are lined up in Copenhagen today to make non-committal and probably weak agreements regarding the future of our planet and while I know this is slightly hyperbole, it really isn't.  Here's a video about the event.

While the fanfare is all well and good, I do have to address Alex K's fear: what if we reach the tipping point?  For those of you without nerd-like knowledge of the topic, the tipping point is the point where the climate has changed enough that the effects are irreversible.  According to a recent article on NPR, the public's concern for climate change is dwindling (though not by direct choice) and with industrialized nations hesitant to jump into concrete goals for carbon emissions reductions, it seems more and more every day like the tipping point is a real possibility.

So my question for you is this: what's next?  What is the best move politically and socially for you and I and the government to take in order to prevent this catastrophe?  Is it President Obama enforcing emissions reductions on his own now that the EPA has ruled that greenhouse gases are a danger to human life?  Is it coddling Congress into another slow and arduous "bipartisan agreement" on climate change?  Should we even leave the decision to the flawed logic, swiftboating, and PR funding of climate skeptics vs. science and reason showdown?  What is next for the administration and for you and I?

Feel free to leave your comments at the front desk.

I No Longer Know Who To Blame

Growing up we all learn to believe in certain things.  Things that become unshakable, the bringers of justice and peace in a world full of chaos and wobbly foundations.  For me, one of those things, was the Federal Reserve.

In hindsight, it was a silly assumption but as a kid growing up, is it hard to believe that the one thing I believed in was the economy?  The ubiquity of capitalism, the penetration of the dollar into our hearts and our conversations, and furthermore the body that regulates all that all seemed like pretty immovable objects to my uneducated brain.

And even in hindsight, maybe I was right to believe in their unstoppability.  The capabilities of the Fed and the apathy that most Americans graced it with did lead it to become that unflappable, unstoppable entity of capitalism.  They were powerful and, most importantly, they had full faith from the American people (or at least the standing administration).

So here we are today: I'm all growed up and after a decade of blind faith, the Fed may have put us in the mess that we're in.  My childhood hero is shattered.  But is it there fault?  Or was it Obama's?  Was it Gramm-Leach-Bliley or Goldman Sachs alone that tipped the house of cards off the table?  Was it Bush's deregulatory policy or the current administration's coddling of "too big to fail" banks?

I no longer know what to believe in but worst of all, I no longer know who to blame.  But I do know this: you guys probably do.

Feel free to leave your comments at the front desk.

Movie Stars and Politicians

Since most of us remember the 2008 election pretty well, I think it's safe to say that none of us have forgotten that darling in red, Sarah Palin.

Her new book is due to hit shelves soon and currently its highly anticipated debut has placed it at the top of the New York Times Bestseller list and the Amazon book pre-order list shortly before release.  But even with all this mass hoopla, most of us have at least the brain to wonder why.  Why would a woman who's manufactured appearance and mental incompetence wrecked a perfectly good political campaign be of such interest to the American public?

Furthermore, she's a quitter!  We praise the heroes of the Iraq war who stayed and fought, not the New York Knicks (do they still play basketball or is it like a guest appearance at each game?).  None of us have praised Iowa State's football team for their ability to give up the ghost before gaining any real progress have we?  So why on Earth should anybody purchase a book by the defunct governor of Alaska whose reign there is currently pending an ethics investigation?

Simply put: she's relatable.  She's dressed in shiny clothes, keeps a smile on her face, talks about her kids, and possesses an ignorance that's borderline intoxicating to the American public.  When you turn on Troy you want Brad Pitt, not a moral lesson, at least if you belong to the American non-intellectual masses.

In a recent NPR story, Palin was noted as having a particularly sour view on Katie Couric's journalism.

Palin also writes harshly of CBS anchor Katie Couric, whom she describes as "badgering" and biased. Palin's series of interviews with Couric were widely regarded as disastrous, leaving the impression of an ill-informed candidate who was unsuited for the job.

Funny since it seems like the only real scrutiny she received in the mass media was from Katie Couric.

Update: And who better to ask about the media's treatment of Sarah Palin and Carrie Prejean than Meghan McCain and Bill O'Reilly.  Thanks again Fox. Folks, enjoy the hilarity.

Did Meghan McCain, in defense of women, just call them too scared and frightened to enter politics?

Celebrity or legit politician?  We all know the answer to that.  Feel free to leave comments at the front desk.

Well if I Can't Trust Fox Who Can I Trust?

Let's face it, if we're completely honest with ourselves, it's ridiculous to consider Fox News, CNN, or even MSNBC as credible news sources since each have sponsorship details that require embellishing some facts if not with lies then with sensationalist rhetoric to attract viewers.

So with this in mind, who can you trust?  Cable news networks dominate the airwaves and trying to find non-biased news sources yields results that are both slim and esoteric.  Let's face it, MoveOn.org ain't exactly filled with open-minded individuals...

Through my experience, however, I feel that I've found a handful of resources for finding the (mostly) unvarnished truth behind what goes on in our world today.

NPR: Radio and Podcasts

Ask anyone who's been looking for a reliable and unbiased news source for a while and they'll inevitably recommend National Public Radio to you.  Their ability to report the facts without embellishment is as impressive as it is rare in a world dominated by blatantly biased journalism.

The first place to start would be the NPR website which I've posted in the Links section on the homepage.  From there you can find the same daily stories that you get from other news outlets but without all the fluff.

The next place to go would be NPR's podcasts.  Just search NPR in the iTunes library and you'll find a bevy of shows on both general news and more specific topics.  One of my personal favorites is "It's all Politics" which features a poignant appraisal of the supposedly earth-shattering gubernatorial elections that took place recently.

Finally, if you have an iPhone, NPR makes it very easy for you with their app.  Download it from the App Store and say hello to integrated radio stations, up to the minute updates on daily news, and audio from the stories as they are reported on the radio.

Mediamatters.org: Fact Checkers and Heartbreakers

Remember when John Kerry saved several of his military colleagues from certain death and was awarded the purple heart for his courage?  Neither does anyone else because in today's politics, "Swiftboating" or lying/distorting the facts frequently enough that the distortion becomes truth has replaced real debate in our political discourse.  That's where MediaMatters comes in: they are a staff of qualified and often award winning journalists who analyze the news and point out distortions and falsifications.

Many of my favorite items have come from this site because let's face it, when you're sitting in front of the TV watching CNN, you want to accept everything they say as truth.  Lately, however, the introduction of right-wing (or left-wing for that matter) political analysts billed as unbiased experts has so far distorted honest journalism that we need an entity like MediaMatters to keep things straight.

You: The Final Word

At the end of the day, here's the bottom line: you are the one accepting what's given to you on news networks and so it's up to you to examine what you're hearing to find out if there's any truth in it.

The process is simple: if the anchor makes a comment about a bill or an event, look for editorial comments.  Often times it's subtle: using words such as "deadly" or "decisive", over-the-top adjectives that overemphasize the importance of an event or, in some cases, underemphasize it.  Sometimes its even bigger: Fox News recently displayed doctored video footage of a Republican Tea Party to exaggerate its turnout.  Look at news with an incredulous eye and I think you'll be surprised at what you find.

No human being is capable of viewing something without their perspective coming in to play, but journalists should be able to report facts without fiction.  Have you seen poor journalistic practices lately?  Feel free to leave comments at the front desk.