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Africa is Burning
Author: BobR    Date: 02/28/2014 13:43:00

Conflict is the bread and butter of television. Whether it's between political parties, or the U.S. and "terrorists", or the "real" housewives of some random city, the media loves to show it. If we can take sides, we can be coerced into watching. Eyeballs on the screen translates into advertising dollars, and the dollar is the bottom line.

That makes international news a little dicier for the American consumer. The conflicts in Egypt hold some interest because it appears to be Muslim -vs- non-Muslim. The power struggle in the Ukraine is a little more difficult. Everyone is white, so the bad guys aren't immediately obvious. There is concern, though, because we can see what looks like cities and white faces getting hurt, and explosions which look scary (yet safe) in HD.

But what happens when the victims AND the villains are both black? Africa as a continent is huge - much bigger than the U.S. and Europe combined. It contains over 50 countries and 15% of the planet's population. Yet discussion and footage of power struggles and war and the downright horrific atrocities occurring there are practically non-existent on TV. The continent is on fire with violence and suffering, and we go about our lives, complaining about our 1st-world problems, blissfully unaware of it all.
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60 comments (Latest Comment: 03/01/2014 05:47:59 by Will in Chicago)

Mid morning, things will be getting interesting.
Author: Raine    Date: 02/27/2014 14:07:47

For those that watched the Rachel Maddow Show last night, it was revealed the embattled former Christie ally, David Wildstein will be revealing his un-redacted emails to the NJ state legislature -- and in turn the public.
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70 comments (Latest Comment: 02/28/2014 02:08:14 by TriSec)

Gay is the New Black
Author: BobR    Date: 02/26/2014 12:39:52

The history of humanity is certainly a mixed bag. For every hero of human rights, there is a villain. Every time there is a significant advancement in law securing those rights, there is a lawmaker looking for and exploiting loopholes. Slavery required the 15th Amendment. Jim Crow laws required the 24th - and then the Civil Rights Act. Even those have been circumvented via voter ID laws and limiting the number of voting machines in minority districts.

The latest battlefield in the fight for equality is in the LBGT arena. The overturn of DOMA and Don't Ask / Don't Tell, and the victories in the courts against state-instituted measures have turned the haters into creators of anti-LGBT legislation and other initiatives. It's the final frontier in hate.
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37 comments (Latest Comment: 02/27/2014 01:35:08 by clintster)

Ask a Vet
Author: TriSec    Date: 02/25/2014 11:08:44

Good Morning.

Today is our 4,524th day in Afghanistan. We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing war, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

US Military Deaths - Afghanistan : 2,310
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,111

We find this morning's Cost of War passing through:

$ 1, 516, 624, 125, 000 .00


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55 comments (Latest Comment: 02/26/2014 00:26:10 by Will in Chicago)

Christie is the victim here.
Author: Raine    Date: 02/24/2014 14:19:17

Watch this:


Now tell me again, why people aren't getting the funds? Governor Christie is blaming the President first, and a little bit of Congress... however.... Could this be part of it? I'm well aware of the source I am using.
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53 comments (Latest Comment: 02/25/2014 04:03:46 by Raine)

El Pug Face
Author: velveeta jones    Date: 02/23/2014 15:17:31

Velveeta has some good news to report today. Although, this probably won't last long, so put on your party hat and celebrate while you can.

The Mexican Drug lord known as El Chapo, which loosely translates to "Short ugly man with butt-face & lots of money" has finally been arrested for his many crimes.
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1 comments (Latest Comment: 02/23/2014 17:31:14 by Will in Chicago)

No, it's not a sale.
Author: TriSec    Date: 02/22/2014 12:05:28

Good morning.

February is winding to a close, and with it, hopefully the end of what our friends in the auto business consider their "peak" season. Hell, perhaps you've even bought one.

Most TV commercials are things I can tune out and pretend don't exist. Rare is the one that annoys me or causes me to have some sort of editorial comment. I don't pretend to know the advertising market, but maybe you've seen the trippy dancing avocado singing about toast and breakfast recently? Dear Avocado Guys: this isn't really going to improve my opinion of what is essentially wood putty, but I digress.
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1 comments (Latest Comment: 02/23/2014 02:16:12 by Will in Chicago)

Friday Stub
Author: BobR    Date: 02/21/2014 13:39:15

As always - posting this stub while I am working on the blog
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32 comments (Latest Comment: 02/22/2014 02:29:22 by TriSec)

Being sick sucks...
Author: Raine    Date: 02/20/2014 14:03:56

I will truy to get something written today, unless anyone else wants a stab at it.
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42 comments (Latest Comment: 02/20/2014 22:31:00 by livingonli)

Slip-sliding Away
Author: BobR    Date: 2014-02-19 12:08:40

Yesterday in the blog comments, Scoopster posted two seemingly unconnected stories. One was about the sudden death of a guitarist, the other about the retirement of a congressman. But in an odd way, they sort of are connected.

The retiring congressman is Rush D. Holt, Jr (D-NJ). He is actually a research physicist from Princeton University who has long advocated for science:
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47 comments (Latest Comment: 02/19/2014 21:52:19 by Will in Chicago)

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