respublica

How the AP Style Book affects reporting

The AP Style Book is the journalist's bible, it gives reporters everything they need to know to correctly report on stories including spelling, grammar, terminology, finance and bankrupcy, and law. What is now common practice is the elimination of the word 'life' when it comes to reporting on abortion foes. It is not right to life or March for Life when it comes to telling the story, it is abortion opponents, or anti-abortion activists.

Andrea Mitchell describes using "anti-abortion" instead of pro life as more value neutral. The AP Style Book tells journalists to Use anti-abortion instead of pro-life.

"We call them pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion rights because it's the right to abortion that we're talking about," said Linda Mason, CBS senior vice president of news and in charge of standards. "What does pro-life mean? That leaves people scratching their heads."

How interesting this is. Keep life out of the conversation so we don't have to look too deeply into what abortion really is. Today is the March for Life in Washington DC to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Roe v Wade and the beginning of the legal abortion era. It will be interesting to see how this is reported on the news, if it's reported at all.

I did a quick Google search for March for Life and most of the reports say that this year should see record numbers of people attending and other than calling the march by its official name, March for Life, the word life is not used, but rather 'anti-abortion activists' is the term. Just like the stylebook decrees.

A prediction for 2016

As exasperating as it is to listen to media people talk about the 2016 election when we've just gone through an endless 2012 election, I have a contrarian POV about a couple of the possible candidates.

I really believe there is no way either Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden will win the election or even get out of a primary although a primary may be possible. Both of them will be in their 70's, both will face younger more energetic opponents in the primaries and general election. The contrast will be stark, much starker than now and I doubt the country will want someone of that age in the White House. Reagan pulled it off, but it is a rare thing indeed.

Just looking at Clinton during the hearings yesterday you could see age taking its toll and it will only be more obvious in 4 years. Joe Biden is a somewhat silly guy and getting older will only emphasize this trait. No matter how much some in the media want this, it just won't happen.

Preppers

Until last week's horrific school shooting in Newtown Connecticut I had never heard of people known as Preppers. It seems the shooters mother was a prepper, one of a larger than might have been believed, who prepare for the worst that could happen. They stock up on everything they think their family might need to survive some sort of cosmic disaster and also to survive is the breadwinner loses his job, house fire, floods etc.

They stock up on unperishable food, water medical supplies and the like and tell no one where this place is in order not to be inundated with people needing the same after the above disaster. It's a survival place for family most often.

Reminds me of those who built bomb shelters during the 60's. But what motivated Nancy Lanza, her sister in law said it was to be ready when the economy collapses. Am I the only one who did not realize there were so many people Prepping?

Sleep in Heavenly Peace

After Friday's horror in Newtown Connecticut not one thing came to me to blog about which would not have been trivial. So for the second time in 8 years I let a day go by without posting. But last night's opening of Saturday Night Live was a beautiful reflection on grief and peace. The New York City Children's Choir sang Silent Night without preamble or one mention of the lost children, but it was one of the best things they have ever done. My only quibble is that NBC might have left out the 30 second ad preceding this video just this once.

 

Cyber Monday deals

If you didn't get out on Black Friday to shop for deals, well now is your chance to catch up. Today is Cyber Monday and tons of stores will be having online sales. Here is a list of many popular places to shop and what they're offering.

Et Tu Petraeus?

So General Petraeus has resigned for personal reasons involving an affair with his biographer and will now not be testifying before the congressional hearing on Benghazi. The question all day yesterday and again this morning is why would his resigning mean he won't testify, afterall, he was in the forefront of the Libya business. Why would his leaving the CIA preclude his testimony?

The only answer which makes sense is that the request for testimony is made by position not by name, in other words, "We want to hear from the director of the CIA".  So that means the director is now someone else, Acting Director Michael Morell.

Also now that he is a private citizen, he can only testify by subpoena and only then in public hearings. This hearing is closed to the public. 

Boy this happened fast.

Photoshopping the arrest

Of the anti Islamic filmaker. At midnight. From his own home. Food for thought. More here.

If you think this was warranted you're either a dyed in the wool liberal or part of the national press corps.

Shuttle's last flyover

Katie's husband Charlie stepped outside from work this morning and got this picture of the space shuttle Discovery being carried over the capitol before being retired.

Very cool.

New land use proposals

I find this rather intimidating. All of a sudden we're seeing new plans for how we will live and where we will live. I don't know where this is coming from or how widespread this will be or if any of this will see the light of day, but I've now seen two examples in two days. Actually 3 but I can't find the link to the third so I'll put it aside for now.

In San Francisco, city planners using two California Sustainable Communities bills as guidelines are looking at ways to bring people closer to jobs and well, just plain closer together. "For example, any new developments in the San Francisco Bay area will have to develop the property with no fewer than twenty housing units per acre. Instead of single family homes, most of the future development will be duplexes, triplexes, condos and apartments."

Seems the planners don't like people living out in the suburbs or countryside because they have to use cars to get to work and use more gas which adds to emissions. So they want to get people crammed tightly into urban areas. There is hope in California that by 2035, more than two-thirds of regional new housing developments will be condos and apartments.

Ok, that's California. That can't happen here can it?

Well, Steve Patterson of Urban Review in St. Louis, a long time blogger on St. Louis urban issues, has a post up on an upcoming speech by Katherin Perez on building around light rail. He finds many things lacking at most St. Louis Metro stops which would currently preclude building condos and other housing, but the idea is similar. Get people all together in places where they do not have to drive. This may not be as emission minded an idea as in California, but the theory seems rather similar to me. Suburbs and rural living='s not so good.

Mega Bucks frenzy

There is a lottery ticket craze going on this week, the Mega Bucks game with tickets sold in 42 states and and the District of Columbia is currently at 540 million dollars. The odds of winning are 176 million to 1.

Lot's of daydreaming today among those holding tickets, I'd wager.

But winning the lottery is not all it's cracked up to be, we've all heard stories about the mess former big winners get into. But let me tell you a personal story about how winning a lottery can change not only a winner, but how it changes those close to him/her.

Back in the day when I was teaching at a local high school, I had a small general math class. About halfway through the school year we found ourselves going through a chapter on 'odds'. I decided that a good way to demonstrate odds was not rolling dice a certain number of times to see how often 6's came up, but to use the Illinois lottery scratch off cards. I purchased one of the dollar cards and saw that the game figured the odds of winning were 1 in 4 and miraculously the class had 8 students so it divided perfectly.

I brought 8 scratch off cards in the same game to class and spent the first part of the class going over what we'd do if someone actually one the huge prize. We talked about greed and unselfishness. We tossed around ideas and decided most of it would go to the school and other charities. The excitement to get going scratching off their cards got more palpable as the time went on. And as time went on they went from being charitable in their thinking to totally materialist and selfish.

Finally I gave them the go ahead to scratch off their cards. Whoosh. Out came pennies and off came the black coating. As it turned out there were two winners, exactly 4-1 odds. That struck me as fantastic, finding the odds as written worked out perfectly.

The two winners held a 2 dollar card and a 'free' card and those 2 students were fist bumping the air while the others sat back resentful and actually jealous. Why them? Why them? One of the winners, the two dollar guy, was the shyest person in the class, someone who never said one word to anyone. Suddenly he was smiling and gloating. The others were in almost physical pain, they'd so begun to count their winnings and their spending.

I learned that the thought of big winnings changed people in a heartbeat and did not like what I saw among even the nicest of kids. It's a lesson I carry with me even today when I listen to the excitement of the 540 million dollar lottery payout. I will not buy a ticket.