[Typed for Facebook, but Deleted. Because I'm Tired, Boss. I'm tired.]

Headline: "Neighbors asked a man to stop making noise so a baby could sleep. He then opened fire, sheriff says."

But yeah. 2nd Amendment. Muh rights, and all that. Carry on, citizen. Nothing to see here.

Stupid arguments for and against gun control, post them below. Won't change the fact that five people are dead because someone else thought his right to shoot guns in his front yard at 11:30 at night trumped others' rights to sleep. Or live.

THEY SHOULD HAVE HAD THEIR OWN GUNS AND USED THEM, AMIRITE? Go ahead. Type it. Or it was the alcohol. Or brute stupidity. Type all of it. For heaven's sake; they just wanted it quiet so their baby could sleep.

Have all the guns you want. But use them responsibily. Balance your Constitutional rights with obligations of treating your fellow man with respect, and if that means you shouldn't be shooting your damn gun off in your own front yard at twilight, I guess that's what it has to mean.

And if you're drinking, or high, or whatever, put the damn guns away. Or don't drink or get high.

Make all the clever arguments you like. But remember, what we need more is kindness, not cleverness.

Maybe if I play it extra loud, for those in the back:

More than machinery, we need humanity.

More than cleverness, we need kindness.

Don't give yourself to these unnatural men;

machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts.

You are not machines; you are men.

 

Bad, Bad Reporting

It's a shame to see how some California bloggers and mainstream media outlets are twisting the latest filings made by supporters of Proposition 8, the successful measure meant to ban gay marriage in the state.

The Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Chronicle and other sundry media outlets are falsely reporting that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints underreported by as much as a factor of 20 the money the church spent supporting the measure. Additionally, these outlets are also reporting that the church's filings of Jan. 31 are in response to an investigation prompted by opponents of the proposition into the church's financial dealings in the measure.

"Mormon church officials," writes the SF Chronicle, "facing an ongoing investigation by the state Fair Political Practices Commission, Friday reported nearly $190,000 in previously unlisted assistance to the successful campaign for Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California."

What the Chronicle and other outlets are not reporting is that the report is one of several the church filed, according to California election law, detailing the amount of money the church spent shortly before and after the Nov. 4 vote.

"The church has been filing required contribution reports throughout the campaign," a church spokesman says here. "Those earlier donations 'initially stated' were filed for specific time periods prior to this last reporting period."

In other words, the church has not underreported a thing. It has complied with California law that allows groups such as the church up until Jan. 31 to report the full amount spent. When these outlets say the church underreported what it spent on the proposition campaign, they're comparing the final tally to only a portion of the amount spent and previously reported.

In other words, what bonehead writers and editors made this dumb, elementary reporter's mistake of letting bias get in the way of fact?

Anyone who thinks the church would make such an elementary mistake as to underreport what was spent is foolish. Again, they are grabbing at straws to find a way to overturn the will of California voters. TIME magazine has gleefully described church heirarchy as "hard-nosed businessmen." As such, they're not likely to make such an elementary error.

The Associated Press has reported this information correctly here.

That the Chronicle and other outlets have grossly misreported this story shows their bias, and shows that the writers and editors of these pieces prefer to frame their stories in ways to please Proposition 8 opponents rather than in a way that states fact. That others are spreading their errors on the Internet is shameful. I'd like to see corrections made, but I'm not holding my breath.

Rexburg Needs These Lumps

There's been a lot of hand-wringing in Rexburg the past week over the negative attention the town has received since news of a handful of school children chanting "Assassinate Obama" on a school bus spread worldwide. Both the mayor and the superindendent of schools issued apologies over the incident, at the same time engaging in damage control over the sullied reputation of "America's Family Community" -- Rexburg's motto.

Most of the community, however, remains in denial, choosing instead to blame "liberals" for making a tempest in a teapot.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: These kids didn't say anything they haven't heard at home. I can't count the lies I've heard spread about Barack Obama here, nor the many times I've heard him referred to as Barack HUSSEIN Obama, as if a middle name is enough to make someone the epitome of evil. I've heard adults here say Obama should be shot before he tkes ofice. I've heard people say George W. Bush should refuse to leave the White House rather than turn it over to Mr. Obama. I didn't dare put an Obama sign in my front yeard prior to the election because I didn't want my house vandalized. So to hear that kids are repeating what they've heard Mommy or Daddy say at home doesn't surprise me much. Because those little pitchers, they have big ears, you know.

And we've heard it all before. I can't count the number of vile things I've heard said about Bill and Hillary Clinton, including that both of them deserve to be shot, buried alive, et cetera, et cetera. Maybe these things are said in jest. But kids don't know that. They take what parents say as gospel. And they repeat it.

To those who are upset that this has turned into a "liberal" shitstorm: Wake up. Rexburg, I've noted in eleven years of living in town and in the vicinity, has a penchant for sweeping its ugliness under the rug. Alcoholism just doesn't exist here, of course, but there are many people who are chronic "Nyquil" drinkers. Drug addiction and dealing doesn't exist here, and if it does, it's the fault of the "Mexicans," and if there are troublemakers at school, its highly likely that they're not members of "the Church." Kids here are lily-white. Nobody ever does anything wrong.

This is all, of course, a load of bull cookies.

I'd like the message to get out, though, that not everyone is oblivious here. Thankfully, one concerned parent spoke up about the Assassinate Obama chant. Others speak up about other concerns. I'm fortunate enough to be part of an Elders quorum where we discuss concerns like this openly. We're not all Democrats -- in fact, it's likely that I'm the only Democrat in the room. But we all realize that the ills that beset our society cross partisan lines.

Then we run into people like a BYU-Idaho freshman who wrote a letter to the editor of the college newspaper, basically saying that those in the LDS Church who vote Democrat shouldn't get temple recommends. (Read the paper editor's fine rebuttal to that argument here.)

That being said, I enjoy living here. I like the quiet here. We ahve our problems here, but in many respects there are fewer problems here than in other parts of this nation. I just wish we could discuss this partisan/little pitchers problem more openly, without people once again hiding behind the town's lily-white facade.

From One Olympiad to Another

One of the things I enjoy most about being a technical writer is that it means I’m no longer a newspaper writer. Being a technical writer means I’m part of a club of writers who fidget and fussbudget about getting things right without necessarily marrying ourselves to the rightness of what we produce. Fact is fact. Argument, even, must be supported by fact. The facts we deal with are rarely nebulous. In journalism, however, while we occasionally juggle such non-nebulous facts, we’re more often called on to wrestle with the nebulous “facts” that are, in fact, opinions of those who hold them to be facts. As I look back on the failings of my journalism career, I can see that it was juggling these various areas of “truthiness” that burned me out. I wasn’t the journalist I wanted to be, and realized that what I wanted to be I didn’t want to be any more. So I got out.

That brings me to this: Jon Stewart’s skewering of the media as a minor warm-up act to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

What he says, I have to agree with. Too many reporters are on that gerbil wheel when it comes to news coverage, any coverage at all. I know. I used to be on that wheel, inuring myself to the squeak-squeak of the wheel’s wire fittings. This is not to say, however, that there aren’t fabulous journalists out there who are far from the wheel as possible, but are rather scooting through the tubes and tunnels of the Greater Gerbil Playland. I am saying I’m not one of those journalists. I am saying there are plenty of journalists like the journalist I was, just stuck on that wheel, either unwilling or unable to recognize that they’re on that wheel, running, running.

I’m also saying this – too many (like the reporter here at CNN) believes he or she is not that type of journalist. It’s the “other” journalists that are on that wheel. Not me. The others. THE OTHERS. I can stand aside with Jon, wryly observing their futile journeys, while I am off in those tubes, scurrying about, doing better things. (There is another journalist specie I should touch on here: The ex-journalist, happy to be out of the industry and self-righeous about his or her exit. I mention this for obvious reasons.)

Mr. Stewart knows where he is, vis-à-vis the candidates’ use of his show: “Even as Stewart shredded reporters for, in his estimation, getting too cozy with and used by political candidates, he readily admitted that candidates flock to his show to attract his much sought after younger audience. ‘It's just one part of their sales pitch,’ he said.” But the smug journalists (I was one of them, I know) say, “See! Even Jon gets used! He’s on the wheel! Sqeeek squeek squeek!” Not so, folks.

Bah. I think they say it best in Fiorello!: “Politics and poker, politics and poker! Deal out the cards and find the joker!” (This may not be an actual quote, but it in harmony with the son’g message. Finding a quote on the Internet has proven difficult; obviously they don’t want the lyrics to fall into enemy hands. Anyone with a correct quote is welcome to help me out here.)

Olympian Fatigue

I, for one, am glad the 2008 Olympics are over.

Not that I watched them much. Not that I watched them at all. I knew enough of them from randomly-gathered news bits to know that Michael Phelps is a phenomenal swimmer, footage of the opening ceremony was augmented in spots, a Jamaican named Bolt broke the record in the 100-meter dash and various teams and individual athletes got chided either for posing in “slant-eye” pictures of for wearing masks.

I’m still glad they’re over. That means I don’t have to hear incessant rabbiting about one other thing: How the USA counts medals as compared to how the rest of the world counts medals. I don’t care that China won more gold medals. I don’t care that, overall, the USA won more medals of any metallic form. I don’t care that people got arrested or detained in China for protesting this or that, or that many people were rolling their eyes at the protesters – specifically the American ones – because protest or not, practically everything we buy is made in China. I’m just glad the Olympics are over.

The Olympics: International sport only thinly veneered over international jingoism. True, there are those athletes who can rise above the politics and simply excel at the sports they love. But everyone at home (and it doesn’t matter if that home is in the US, Britain, China, Australia or wherever) gets the Olympics only through that veneer, no matter how schmaltzy the coverage might get in bragging about heroes, moms, dreams and apple pie.

Truth be told, I expect there to be scandal at the Olympic Games. I look back at 2002, when the Olympics were held in Salt Lake City, Utah, which is so squeaky-clean in the eyes of many that no one could believe the organizers were involved in that old game of bribery and glad-handing and general monkey-shining. When you’re talking about money and sports and national prestige, there will come the flies to the ointment.

So the US media gets all self-righteous about the overall medal count. So the British media gets all self-righteous about the self-righteous Americans. The birds still sing, the brooks still babble, and the King is still a fink.

Windicanes

Here in Idaho, the joke is if the wind quits, all the buildings will fall over.

Then there are days like today. Constant winds gusting to 40 and 50 miles per hour, totally demolishing the greenhouse I made for the tomatoes. Fortunately, the tomatoes have not been planted, otherwise they would all have been crushed. You can tell I'm an American because that's the biggest stresser I've had today. Well, that and the stock market falling nearly 400 points. I'm so tired of watching my tiny investments get even tinier. Reminds me of the old Steve Martin routine: "Yeah, I got ten dollars, I think I'll just throw it out in the street. Oh, I can get in here (Steve's show) for ten dollars? OK."

Went to the post office today and on the way in I ran into an old guy. He asked what I thought of the wind, and even before I could answer, he said "I hate it!" You know it's windy in Idaho when the old guys start complaining about it.

I think it's evidence that Mother Nature officially hates humanity. She's tried shaking us off with earthquakes, drowning us with floods, hurricanes and the like, vacuuming us up with tornadoes, burying us with snow and mudding us to death with torrential spring rains. Not all of that has happened in Idaho of course, We haven't had hurricanes, at least.

On windy days like this, our eight-year-old refers to the wind and "windicanes." I like that.

Things I'm Tired of Vol. 1

Just for entertainment value, let me go over the things I’m tired of. They’ll likely still be going on when you get out at the end of the month.

• Dramatic promises of waaaaay exciting news stories from our local TV news stations, advertised on the radio. Life hanging in the balance! Only tonight on News Channel 3!
• Used car dealerships. Specifically, “Right Price Auto,” which seems to think the theme to “SpongeBob Square Pants” is free for their use as an advertising jingle, and “New Ride Auto,” who recently fired their Really Loud Car Sales Announcer in favor of an Ear-Ripping Loud Car Sales Announcer.
• The Clinton/Obama race: She’s a Woman! He’s a Black! Less Filling! Tastes Great! What’s a Liberal to do?
• The McCain/Romney race: Both: You’re an idiot! I know you are but what am I? You’re a nerd! I know you are but what am I? I know you are but what am I? I know you are but what am I? Infinity. No! I’m not! You are! Shut up, Francis! Why don’t you make me? Why don’t you make me! Because I don’t make monkeys, I just train them! Makes me want to vote for Ralph Nader. Again. At least he acknowledges that he’s a moron.
• Steve Jobs. If I have to see that smug picture of him holding up that new Mac laptop, I’m going to puuuuuuuuuuke. Thank the stars if you’ve never seen it. He makes Bill Clinton and Rush Limbaugh appear to be humble bumbles.
• My, I’m a negative vibe merchant. So sorry. But it feels good to get it out of the system. Sorry you had to be on the receiving end.