Today, the so called broadcast journalism in the United States reached a new low. The NBC and ABC television channels have earned the distinction of being the lamest lamestream media in the world. Referring to the kind of television we now see in America, as the mainstream media, is an insult to America.
I turned on the idiot box in the morning, ABC came on and George Stephenopoulous was talking about the tornadoes. Soon after, the coverage shifted to London, where Robert Robins and Diane Sawyer, made a customary reference to the tornadoes with a faux sad face and started yakking about the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Here’s the scope and the damage caused by the tornadoes:
- Number of tornadoes=160.
- Number of people dead=300 (210 in Alabama, 33 in Mississippi and Tennessee, 15 in Georgia, 5 in Virginia and 1 in Kentucky.
- Number of States affected=7.
- Jerry Mays, Mayor of the small town of Phil Campbell in Alabama said,
We’ve lost everything. Let’s just say it like it is. I’m afraid we might have some suicides because of this.
I switched to NBC, Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera were in London covering the royal wedding. As far as I am concerned, the wedding is a personal celebration between the parties involved. I couldn’t care less about the wedding. Are there Americans who give a hoot about the royal wedding given the tragedies in Southern America and our country hanging on the precipice of insolvency?
On the flip side, I reckon I must be naive and wrong. The royal wedding was a juicy ratings opportunity for the corporations. There is a market for everything, particularly in our country. And the rich are more human.
A cartel refers to a small group of producers of a good or service who agree to regulate supply in an effort to control or manipulate prices. Larry MacDonald writes that according to Ned Goodman of Dundee Corp. the real estate industry is a
“monopoly, it’s a cartel, it’s an oligopoly,”
that derives its power by controlling access to the Multiple Listing Service.
A study by Stephen Brobeck and Patrick Woodall of Consumer Federation of America titled How The Rel Estate Cartel Harms Consumers and How Consumers Can Protect Themselves states the following about the real estate industry,
Begin Copy and Paste
Can across-the-board 6% or 7% commissions be justified? We respond with a series of questions that suggest there is not one shred of a justification for this fixed price. → continue reading The Real Estate Cartel
I am not a fan of Bill O’Reilly of the O’Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel. Bill O’Reilly’s opinion talk show is uninteresting but not as much as ABC’s talk show The View. So Bill O’Reilly appeared as a guest on an episode of ABC’s show, The View in which he blamed Muslims for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. That’s right, he did not blame the Christians, the Jews, the Buddhists, the Hindus. Co-hosts of the show, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg were outraged enough to walk off the set during Bill O’Reilly’s appearance. How cool is that; invite someone to appear on your show and then walk off because the guest says something that you disagree with. The co-hosts’s contention was that Bill O’Reilly should have used the term Muslim extremists instead of Muslims. Bill O’Reilly said,
No one I know wants to insult Muslims, but almost everybody I know is tired of the political correctness surrounding the 9/11 attack. The truth is that if moderate Muslims all over the world would stand with America against radical Islam, the terrorists could not exist. But obviously that isn’t happening. I am not in the business of sugarcoating harsh reality.
It was reported that NPR News terminated the contract of news analyst → continue reading NPR terminates Juan Williams’ Contract After He Speaks The Truth
A few weeks back, United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated that the economy is “unusually uncertain”. This unusually explicit statement from the Chairman is alarming. And reminiscent of the fascinating Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s statement:
There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.
A few days ago, John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, a bellwether for technology companies, echoed Bernanke and stated → continue reading The double dip recession is certainly here
 Credit: Sue Reid, The Solon Times Ohio State Auditor, Mary Taylor, conducted a special audit of the City of Solon to determine if City of Solon received the quantity and quality of material billed by the contractor for the contracts entered into with Midwest Paving, Chaney Cement Contractors, Inc. (for the extended period of January 1, 2001 through December 31, 2007), and MGL Enterprises, Inc. This engagement was conducted in accordance with the Quality Standards for Inspections established by the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency (January 2005). The results of the special (cost to the Solon taxpayer $ 165,000) audit were provided to City of Solon Mayor, Susan Drucker. An extract from Ohio State Auditor’s special audit report follows: → continue reading 11 engineering recommendations for City of Solon, Ohio
Here are some headlines from the local electronic media websites regarding Lebron James’s decision to move to play for Miami Heat.
- Plain Dealer/cleveland.com- Heartbreak: Lebron leaving Cleveland for Miami
- Akron Beacon Journal/ohio.com -James burns Cavs in favor of Heat
 Witnesses to foreclosures, crime, sprawl, pollution, hype..
It was reported that people were tearing up Lebron James’s jersey in Cleveland. People were driving by his 35,000 square feet home in Bath Township and yelling profanities at the 25 year old and his family. He was being called a traitor and sell out. → continue reading Lebron James rightly picks Miami Heat
Recently, Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that a suspect in police questioning must vocalize the right to remain silent. The case is Berghuis vs Thompkins No. 08–1470, argued on March 1, 2010 and decided on June 1, 2010. This has to be cheerful news for police officers and proponents of victim’s rights. Logically, this is counter intuitive but it is consistent with our desire for dharma.
The Court’s opinion is,
In sum, a suspect who has received and understood the Miranda warnings, and has not invoked his Miranda rights, waives the right to remain silent by making an uncoerced statement to the police. Thompkins did not invoke his right to remain silent and stop the questioning. Understanding his rights in full, he waived his right to remain silent by making a voluntary statement to the police. The police, moreover, were not required to obtain a waiver of Thompkins’s right to remain silent before interrogating him.
→ continue reading Right to remain silent and cut off police questioning
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About  I am a Civil Engineer from Louisiana State University. The compound word, Americaneer, is a combination of the words, American and Engineer. |
