You go, green dinosaur

I know the green dinosaur is right. I know it. I sometimes fall prey to being upset by the outwardly bias that fox news and company spews as news, I have to admit it. It wasn't until least semester in Cross Cultural journalism that I learned that it was actually intended that way. That made my firey hatred to clearly biased news outlets dull down quite a bit. But despite this, I will never accept news from either one.

These networks are certainly on the extremes. Non-24 hour news networks like nbc and abc, do present a bias, but I believe, for the most part, double sided coverage. It is not completely objective, no, but I don't believe any human can be, when it comes to reporting news.

A thing happens. Sure, that is a fact. But no one, no one on earth can speak of anything while disregarding their personal views and experience. The comic uses the example of the indisputable fact that the sun is hot. Obviously, that is true. But what about suicide bombing? As Americans, we all have unanimously agreed that suicide bombing--- not cool. We will never accept that as a means of justification, and as both an American and a citizen of the world, I don't think I will ever be able to justify a suicide bombing. It seems like black and white to us, but in reality, it is not.

Countries and cultures that practice suicide bombing do have these justifications. They understand, and sometimes support the individuals that make these decisions. I could never, in a million years do this, but I cannot deny that some people do.

Does this mean that because some people support suicide bombing, US media coverage should give it a chance? Should it try and preach to the American people that, yes, this person killed himself and over a dozen people, but he was doing it for his god, so it is kind of okay?

Absolutely not. This comic uses the argument of science to support this. I would prefer to use the argument of society. Killing yourself and others for your religious belief is not something that Americans believe in. To try and report and justify it, show us their point of view, is a waste of time. Trying to justify attacks on another country because of religious beliefs to a country with no universal religious beliefs is just not right.

Whether or not an individual supports or dislikes its society, it is undeniable, society exists. If journalism does not cater to the society it is broadcasting to, it is simply not doing its job. If doing its job means not justifying a select group of people across the globe, then that is okay. Exposing its citizens to the viewpoints of others, sure, but convincing them that every way of thinking is alright and okay, is something that will never logically happen.

So if the orange dinosaur wants to keep arguing that, it's cool. He is going to be extinct anyway.

Closed county

This blog post is in response to this article http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/09/231086726/county-in-utah-threatens-takeover-of-national-park-areas?utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=20131013&utm_source=mostemailed

I never thought of the shut down of National Parks as an actual problem, but rather as a more of an inconvenience. I forget that National Parks are not just a luxury, but an actual source of revenue for certain places.

I think that this county has every right to stay open, if that is what takes to stay alive. This entire government shut down is very sad, and I wonder if they realize how many people's lives they affected by their stubbornness. As well-off, educated people, you would think that they would, yet here we are, coming off the tail-end of a government shut down that jeopardizes so many people's well being.

I wonder if the government will enforce the fines and punishments for trespassing. While they could certainly use the money, they look bad enough as it is. To punish people for trying to maintain their well being would be absolutely atrocious.

What I don't understand is whether or not they are just reopening the parks and doing the work without getting paid, or how they are funding the reopening. Everything costs money, and I imagine National parks don't just have a lot of spare cash sitting around just in case.

I am very happy that the government shutdown is over, but I wish more would have come out of it. The polarization of our politics is so terrible. When it comes to election time, of course I want to vote, I think that its hard to complain about how the government is running if you decide not to vote, but I really don't want to vote for anyone. The only candidates I would truly stand behind would never win. I think this government shutdown could've done more to change things, and make an example of how bad it is when things are like this, but I don't think it did.

Malala

I don't think there was a preasssigned blog topic this week, so I am going to talk about Jon Stewart's interview with the 16-year-old Pakistani girl, Malala. She was hunted by the Taliban, yet maintains a pacifistic attitude that has shocked the world.

She says in the interview that if she were to be confronted by a member of the Taliban, that she would, rather that throw her shoe at them, which was her first thought, she would speak to the man about the importance of education and take a non violent route. It was this reasoning that shocked pretty much everyone. For so many years, we have been engaged in such brutal violence to fight them that it is hard to imagine dealing with it any other way, but this girl did.

If we could stop violence all together, obviously that would be great. I feel like we are probably in too deep. To stop fighting now and switch methods, it doesn't seem very plausible. What I don't know is how much discussion actually has gone on. We see on the news all of the terror and violence, but you don't see much discussion. I understand why this may be difficult, the Taliban doesn't seem like the kind of group that would subject themselves to such a discussion, they aren't really looking for compromise.

In the context in which Malala explained it though, it could happen. What has captivated so many people is the thought of what would happen? Although the Taliban might be bad guys, they are humans. Would they listen or would the continue to shoot? I honestly don't know, fortunately I have never had any run-ins with the Taliban, but in my mind, they have to be so messed up to do the things they do. I don't think they have any trace of humanity and decency to stop them from killing yet another person.

Despite all of this, her comment is still striking and her goals are still honorable. I believe she will get what she wants and I think she could play a big role in the future of Middle Eastern relations with the Taliban, because obviously she is very different, special, daring and smart, all qualities that an impactful leader needs.

No Comment

I don't really know how to feel about the whole no commenting thing. I think their reasoning itself is what bothers me the most

Most commenters are stupid, I completely agree. I feel like commenters on "Popular Science" are, on average, more educated compared to the average YouTube and Facebook commenter, though. I cannot be sure because I have never read any of the comments on "Popular Science" and that is no longer an option, so its hard for me to judge how much they might have influenced the reader on how they viewed the content of the article. 

I know on other sites, comments have swayed my feelings on the subject I was reading or watching. They do affect me, to the point that I wish I had not read the comment in the first place. I, and I think many people, use the comments to have their opinion validated. When someone says something to the contrary, naturally that is upsetting.

I always thought that was the point of a comments section, to foster a conversation. If they didn’t want anybody putting their input in on the articles, why did they make a comments section in the first place? I think this concept is very strange to me, and I don’t understand it.