Is it really a work day?

It is so quiet here at work. The building I work in usually has about 50 people in it. Today I have found 5. I spent part of the morning putting stickers and labels on some stuff and attaching lanyards to USB keys. It will actually be nice when people show up again on Monday so all the things I am waiting on will get done and I can get back to actual work. I will be happy to discontinue toiling in the doldrums of blue collar pain.

I thought about my posting yesterday and decided I should post an example of the poor editing I see on major websites these days. This ran on the front page of CNBC for several hours back on December 10th, 2008:

"Stocks Pushed Hire By Auto Bailout"

What!?!? I know it would pass a freaking spell checker, but, did anybody even take a second to read the headline? It was on the front page as the link for the story and was the lead story. It was also the title of story when you clicked on the link. Just unbelievable....

Enough about that though, but, while I am on a mini-rant about news organizations... Why are we such sick human beings? I was driving home yesterday and CNBC was on commercial, so I flipped the XM to CNN. For one, I see that CNN is trying to be all hip now and is using Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. I love the way they try to pimp it. I hope the anchors are sick of it. But, the main thing that got my goat was just how callous news coverage is anymore.

The main example I am thinking of is as follows. The anchor was talking to two bloggers (ha ha ha) one in Isreal and the other in Gaza. They were each giving their accounts of what was happening on the ground. So, the Gaza dude is talking and the anchor kinda cuts in and says (I may not have the quote exact, but, you will get the gist), "Ok. So, we get a picture of your day to day, but, can you give us more insight on the women? And what about the children? How are the children? Are they scared?" I mean come on. That the heck do you think? I'm going to guess that the children don't want to get blown up and think the F-16s are pretty freaking loud! When you step away from the whole thing and think about it though, it is pretty sick. What the anchor is saying in different words is: "Your story is getting boring and it just isn't dramatic enough to keep our viewers. Can you knock it up a level and tell us more about the people our viewers would be more interested in? Can you focus on the little kids? Like, are there any dead laying around you or anything?"

How is any of this garbage healthy for the average person, and more importantly, how can it serve any useful or noble purpose? The sickest part of this was when he tries to wrap it up with a little commentary at the end. The anchor talks to another person in the studio and says that hearing from these bloggers really shows you the human side of this conflict. It shows that there are really people hurting and the war is just about politics and those politicians never see the human side of this conflict. BULLSHIT. That anchor is no different than any politician. He just got done exploiting two people to further his agenda (ratings). He doesn't give a crap about their struggle outside of how it will excite the people who listen/watch the program.

I'm not going to try to break it down and say there is a simple solution to this or that it can be easily explained. It is freaking war. There is no simple answer and there really never is any decent solution. That is why people bomb the crap out of each other.

I just wish people would say what they mean instead of trying to cover their real agenda all the time. It is so useless.

On a happier note… The pond is frozen over again. So, pond hockey season is a possibility in the next few weeks if the weather cooperates. Ice thickness is about ¼-1/2”. So, it is far from ready. But, it is at least going in the right direction!