(Originally published 12/07/13.)
Concerning Baltimore City’s recent ordinance about panhandling, Dan Rodricks complained that the ordinance didn’t address “the underlying issues;” but then, he didn’t, either. So I thought I would, here. These posts pertain:
(1) I stay at the best shelter on the East Coast;
(2) Obstacles to my prosperity;
(3) Baby steps.
Monday, May 8, 2017
Church member Joe Stocks died suddenly Saturday. Natural causes.
Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” That’s the kind of man Joe was. All kinds of men and women glorify God because of Joe’s good works.
All kinds.
(Originally published 10/17/2012 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reblogged 10/24/13.)
During the 2012 Presidential race, a Democratic party operative secretly recorded Mitt Romney’s remarks to potential donors at a private fund-raiser. Those remarks included that 47% of voters pay no taxes and thus have no interest in the Republican message. The release of that recording caused quite a stir. See “* We are the 47%.” There are other features of who Romney is and what he does with his money, that got far less media attention. Like, this one.
The media have been bringing us contradictory reports of how Malala is viewed in her homeland.
Conspiracies do occur. In my previous work as a legal secretary, I was privy to secret campaigns to manipulate public opinion in various ways. That often comes to mind when I see a flurry of media coverage on any given subject. In recent years, for example, there was an explosion of coverage of the creation of vaccines for new, terrifying strains of the flu — that may not have proved so terrifying after all, but for the media hype itself — that impressed me as very likely a campaign to raise public esteem for pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Here we have two competing constituencies that, for whatever reason, are competing for U.S. public opinion concerning this woman.
(Originally posted 10/14/13.)
on air talent, radio talk show, talk show host, the homeless blogger
But for the racial aspect, the Trayvon Martin case would not be noticed.
I admit being less concerned about him than about the dozens of other teens who are gunned down every month across the country for no better reason and by people of their own race. Someone will object that a black perpetrator would have been arrested. I answer that an arrest and prison term won’t bring back the dead.
(Originally posted 04/16/12 at Trojan Horse Productions. Reposted 11/27/13.)
(Originally posted 11/11/13.)
Something struck me in the TV footage of this 11/04/13 demonstration, perhaps given the fact that it’s a challenge for me to buy coffee at McDonald’s.
This was not spontaneous. There was some big money behind it. Someone paid for the big effigies/pictures of Obama; for the American flags that got burned; for the signs, including a mural that read “Down with America” in English. Someone organized the presence of the tens of thousands; someone called them out, saying be at this place at this time.
Who?
What does this say about demonstrations we see in this country?
Previous pertinent post: Will the real Malala please stand up?
The seductiveness of turmoil.
Thursday, August 25, 2016
My foremost task for today is to keep myself focused on the practical things I need to do to improve my lot in life.
They can be seen as boring, mundane, dreary, tedious, and so on — if I fail to love myself enough to actually want to do them.
Accordingly, this morning I was reading through various news articles, and on one page, at the end, the links to “related” articles included this:
I didn’t read the article, but boy, just that headline really got my engines going. I can’t remember the last time I was in a setting where someone might have been told, “Check your privilege.” Normally this is addressed to a white person, and, as I’ve noted before, in my world there aren’t enough white people to matter.
An orthodoxy is a system of ideas that adherents insist one must accept without question. In other words, a set of dogmas.
Every media outlet has one. It may be implied or explicit; flexible or rigid; narrow or broad; but it’s there. It defines what ideas that media outlet will allow to be expressed. In publishing media, it determines what will and won’t get published.
An obstacle facing me in my hopes of getting published, is that I seem somehow always to run afoul of a given media outlet’s orthodoxy.
The entry below for December 30, 2015 was the last straw, moving me to “out” this information as a post.
For some months, I have made a good faith effort to note every headline my Yahoo! News feed captured from Salon.com that touched on religion.
Salon.com holds itself forth as, in effect, the voice of progressivism.
The headlines themselves display a pronounced bias on the topic of religion. Not all, but almost all, are hostile.
Not skeptical. Not indifferent. Not equanimous.
Hostile.
I am struck that this posture cannot possibly be intellectually honest.
