I Love Dumb Americans

I admit that I don't know everything there is to know about the rest of the world. Unlike some other students my age however, I do care to learn. I'm interested in international issues and I always read world news before national and local. One thing that I find hilarious though is a good ignorant American joke.

Nation Of Andorra Not In Africa, Shocked U.S. State Dept. Reports
To be serious, I honestly do think that if American's could pull their heads out of their asses and realize that we are not the end all be all of the world, we could gain some international respect. No wonder other countries hate us, we don't know anything about them! We don't even know what countries exist and what countries don't. Of course, I know this video was probably edited and re-edited and re-edited to find the more ignorant southerns they possibly could. Even still, it's pretty sad to hear some of the answers they give.

I'm not being anti-American when I say this. I actually do love America and the idea of what it stands for. Through and through patriotic ideals. Because of that I think it would do a lot of good in a day and age where there are people that would risk their lives to bring down America, to be able to see things from another perspective. To actually get a worldly view on things.

McCain Is Old

Talking to my roommates the other day I realized a fact that I have overlooked so far: John McCain is old. I'm not talking about president old, like my dad's getting kind of old. I'm not convinced he would live long enough to spend two terms in office. Not that I'd want him to but still, it's a little unnerving.

I found a pretty hilarious video appealing to any possible voters older than McCain. But besides the fact that it's funny that he is REALLY getting up there, the fact is that the president's job is pretty overwhelming. McCain has not only lived a long life but he has lived a hard life. Being a Vietnam POW is a pretty rough event in one's life. It's not like what most of us go through, and it probably ages a person faster than their friends and families who didn't spend years in a torturous environment.

If we go along with Anna's proposal each year in the presidential office is 7. I think that's steep so we'll say every year is equivalent to 3. So lets add 8 years of life onto what he already is--that would make him 79 with the extra stress put on him from the POW experience. If he became president, at the end of his first term, he'd be 91. That's pretty much dead, not to be harsh. At least that makes the vice presidential candidate an exciting pick, you'll never know when we'll really need him. Ouch.

Really? Asking for Comments About Someone's Death?

Ok so I'm not picking on any specific site right now, but it does anger me when I read a blog post about someone's death and then at the bottom it enthusiastically asks for comments! Seriously? What is there to comment about? This seems like a true disrespect for the person who has just lost their life. Who really cares what other people think about this person's death? Certainly not the person who died and certainly not friends and family of the person who died. This is plainly just a way of exploiting their death. Lets see what people can say about this intersection where someone died. "Oh I've almost got in an accident there." Really? That's not exactly the same as someone dying and it's not exactly benefiting anyone to hear about that.

I understand that this is probably just the standard way to set up a blog by adding the comment feature, despite the content of it. Still, there ought to be some filtering of comments in some way. If I were the friend or family of this person I would be offended by the passing comments of readers about their death. It's almost disgusting that people want to comment about it. This is one of the downfalls of blogs as I see it, an inability to distinguish important matters from unimportant matters, and sensative topics from selfish entertainment purposes.

Bloggers Should Be More Like The Middle Man

When the debate about the difference between journalists and bloggers occurs I find myself usually getting angry and a little offended. Maybe I'm being snobby, but I honestly think theres a big difference and there should be. And if others saw it the way I did maybe the two could co-exist pretty peacefully.

Journalism is a profession just like doctors, lawyers, accountants, and salespeople. Theres a reason I'm spending $30,000 a year on tuition and when someone tries to tell me my next door neighbor who never finished high school but could sign up for an online blogging site is essentially doing the same work as I am and their work is just as worthy, I get a little defensive. I understand that blogging is popular. If writers from the New York Times are blogging, it's got to be catching on.

I'm not saying that blogging is pointless or ineffective. I'm just saying maybe we need to make a place for bloggers that can be separate from journalists. Although the general public has information that publications often don't, I think theres still a need for professional journalists who know the consequences of their actions and are familiar with the steps journalists need to go through for the sake of the public.

I think that bloggers have an unmistakable job, one that they're already doing and one that I think is very important to the future of blogging and journalism. Most bloggers don't actually go out and do the reporting themselves. Instead they comment on stories that have already been broken, or state their own observations. Although Universal Hub links to other bloggers as well as publications, I believe they have the right idea.

Bloggers ought to bring readers to a place where they can get information from a variety of sources. They ought to present different locations of different articles that discuss similar subjects. If they have any personal information, they should share it, but people ought to know that these claims are not backed up by solid fact checking. Obviously the general public doesn't have access that journalists have. They might not understand all the ethical issues either. It's important to get information from bloggers but then journalists ought to double check these claims and put together a fuller more comprehensive piece on why and how something happened. Until then, let the discussion continue, but lets be more thoughtful about the process.

The ONLY Good Thing About John McCain

You've read it in the papers and the magazines, the right hates McCain. Well obviously not the entire right, actually the majority must like him for him to have became the only possible GOP party nominate. But there is truth to the statement that much of the right dislike him. He's not appealing in his speech, he doesn't have strong stances, and is criticized for not being a true republican.

I, much like other republicans around the country, am extremely disappointed in this race. I have become what Barack Obama calls a "Obamacan"--a person who converts from the republican party to Obama. I don't necessarily believe in his position, I believe in his character and faith in the ability to change things. The republican candidates turned out to be duds, I couldn't connect with even one of them. My sister, a staunch republican, always says that the worst republican in the white house is better than the best democrat because he will always do things in line with the parties beliefs. I don't know how much I believe that, I'm not even sure if I'll vote in this upcoming election. Not because I don't think it's important, but simply because I don't want to vote for someone who I don't like. Pretty simple.

The one issue that I disagree with Obama on and actually agree with McCain is on the war. Many people argue about whether we should have gone to war in the first place. I think this argument is irrelevant at this point. We're there and if we leave now, the result will be disastrous. McCain's ad on the war is actually insipiring so I thought I'd give him some props...just a little not a lot.