Hard Times

I'm glad that someone is defending bears out there!

Setting aside the merits or effectiveness of the policies in question, it's mostly just amusing that the one thing we can conclude about Obama's gun control policies is that they've led to more gun and gun-related purchases.

What kind of feminist (or anti-feminist) are you?  (This is the story that accompanies that quiz.  Also, I got "certainly not a feminist.")

Those guys at Uber are so innovative.

Responses:

1. That comment more or less sums up the problem with loneliness.  I think it's so scary for people that any solution that isn't the magical discovery of a robust social network seems bleak.  These people (especially the old people) are lonely in a way that doesn't seem possible to fix.  They have makeshift solutions that will tide them over until the inevitable.  That's a hard realization.  Also, don't ever leave me! :P

2. What if you don't have those things???

3. If I just do what he says, can we not call him please?

4. I want that kitchen!  Give me the kitchen!

5. That's a nice story, and it's nice that he'll have the legacy of his life's writings to pass on.

6. NSFW!

R2R:

2. That may have been a rash judgment.  That said, I'd like for there to be a resolution to the refugee issue sooner rather than later.  Even so, we can come up with some travel ideas.

3. Agreed.  That argument proves too much.

4. That's a possibility, although it might be more expensive and disruptive since Verizon/Comcast/Time Warner would likely charge the a la carte rate for everything if done seasonally.  It's certainly worth considering, though, as long as it wasn't disruptive to other viewing.

R2R2R2R:

2. When the U.S. government budget deficit is $500 billion, it's easy to feel as though your net worth is small.  Something my mom's pastor told me that I thought was helpful was that, as an individual, you have to find the thing that you can do, your small contribution.  Many progressives see big problems and require big solutions that are so expensive that they require other people's money.  I think if we foster a belief that people can voluntarily come together to solve problems on a small scale, those small solutions will add up to something far bigger.  But it's harder to persuade society than it is a majority of Congress.

3. You add it to yours, and I'll add it to mine.  That's easy enough...

R2R2R2R2R2R2R2R:

1. That's a factual question at least in part, but the basic principle is that the media's job should be to inform the public about matters and events that impact their lives both personally and in their capacity as members of a self-governing republic.  To the extent that reporting on these events contributes to or takes away from that, fair enough.  That said, I don't believe in keeping people in the dark except if there is a risk of immediate incitement.  Yelling "fire" in a crowded theater is the classic example of that.  But some people want to argue that, for example, reporting on the San Bernardino incident is akin to doing just that, and in my view that's too attenuated.

The San Bernardino incident in some ways is a hard case, and I think it's much harder than, say, some serial killer operating far from the community whose news service is reporting it.  In my view, the role of journalism school should be not only to help aspiring journalists to figure out how to report the news, but also to think about questions like the meaning of "newsworthiness" in a manner that can consider the factors that you and I have both raised.

B