Shooting too big to ignore

The massive shooting of 50 people in Orlando brings great sadness to my heart.

There are those who will use this shooting to push political agendas. People demand that “something be done,” but decisions made in the heat of the moment are rarely good ones.

As for myself I'm going to pray for those who've lost their lives and for the families and friends of those who remain.

That's all I can say for now.


-Sixbears

Problems of the press

Journalism isn't what it used to be. Of course there never was a time of perfectly independent hard hitting journalism. However, that's what good reporters strove for.

There are some built in problems to the way news is produced. One major issue is the way most news is financed: through advertising. It doesn't matter if you are a national TV network or the local town paper, writing bad things about your advertisers is not encouraged.

Another huge problem is access. If you write bad things about politicians, no matter how true, your access to the whole political class will be curtailed. Those who are willing to softball questions will get to ask them and they will get in print. A journalist can only go so long without getting articles printed. Those articles often require at least some access to the primary source.

It's not just politicians anymore either. Powerful business people can do pretty much the same thing, plus they have the additional power of advertising dollars -double threat.

War zone journalism has gotten a lot more dangerous. Those not embedded with the military are treated like enemy combatants. Do you think those embedded journalist will write a lot of negative things about the people they are sharing day to day life with?

At one time so called terrorist groups rarely killed journalists. They were useful. A “revolutionary” needed the press to get his message out. Now, thanks to being able to put their own message out on the Internet, the outside journalist is not needed. More often than not they are considered a threat.

We are at a weird point in history. At one time independent people like the best journalists would get the facts out. Different political factions might have strong disagreements how to deal with the facts, but the facts themselves were generally accepted by all. Now every faction has their own spokespeople, claiming to be journalists, who can't even agree on the basic facts.

What's a person to do? It's easy to just list to the “journalists” who say the things you want to hear. It's much harder to hear things that disagree with your own prejudices. It's troubling to discover the world is not the what you believed it to be. No matter. Force yourself to get information from outside your bubble. Listen to those who's politics you disagree with.

Another good source of news is foreign news services. Their, outside-looking-in, viewpoint can have a much clearer take on the situation. It's tough to see the forest when surrounded by all those darn trees. I find foreign news sources to be good, except for the times when they have a dog in the race. For example: don't expect Russian news to give unbiased views of increased US military presence in Europe. With that in mind it is possible to get a clearer view of things from someone outside.

While good journalism is rarer than ever, the need for it has never been greater.

-Sixbears

Post Election

I started writing a blog post about the current election -compared it to being inside a horror movie. After a few paragraphs I became too depressed to continue.

Let's skip right to 2017. First of all, almost nobody is going to move to Canada. If Liberals didn't move there during the Bush administration and Conservatives didn't flee after Obama, it just ain't gonna happen. Besides, Canada is not a bolt hole. It's a real country with issues of their own. I do encourage people to visit, if for no other reason than to get a bit of perspective on what living in another country is like. Canada is the training wheels version of foreign travel.

The economy is going to present some serious challenges. Ignore what the stock market is doing. It's not a good indicator of the real economy. Look around and see what's happening in your city or state.

Everyone is focused on ISIS and terrorists. Get real. The odds of running into an ISIS terrorist in the US is vanishingly small. However, it does keep everyone in fear.

There are serious conflicts in motion that are not in the news. Africa is being totally ignored by the average person who has no idea what's happening on the ground. One day the US could be heavily involved in more countries the average American cannot find on a map.

Personally, I don't have a clear idea what 2017 is going to bring. In some ways it feels a lot like the years leading up to WWI. Not WWII, but WWI. If we do enter a depression do not be surprised if a major war is soon to follow. Civil rights around the world would be seriously curtained -all in the name of National Security.

World leaders, just like the leaders of WWI, don't know what the heck they are doing. (a short quick war where everyone is home for Christmas) Historically, things snowball.

Avoid living in fear, but don't let wishful thinking blind you to reality. Ignore what leaders say and watch what they do. Preps will be useful during the coming troubled times but having a clear and focused mind will be even more important.

-Sixbears