Friday, July 29, 2016

Oops, your bias is showing

CNN photo
Was Trump threatening a bitch slap or a punch or just 
a bunch of unsubstantiated insults?
Having worked as a journalist in various forms for a good portion of my life I have often found
myself defending the media against all kinds of criticism. It's been an almost automatic reaction to point out the attempted objectivity knowing full well how easily it is to let our opinions sneak into what we publish for the readers.

Here's an example of how that opinion lurks in the backs of your minds. Many years ago as a news editor on a small paper I had quite a heated discussion with a rising reporter about the use of adjectives, my point being that each adjective colors a noun somehow and often that use can expose our biases just as quickly as a straight-out declarative sentence. His argument was that adjectives add detail and credibility to a story among other things.

 A couple of years later that reporter led a team that wrote a Pulitzer-Prize-winning series on the influence of the Teamsters Union in Alaska. After one particular story about the extravagances of union leaders, he told me he had written about a "sleek corporate jet" the union owned. Then he admitted he saw what I meant about adjectives, admitted that the use of "sleek" colored the statement with a kind of negative judgment.

Fast forward to this year. Early on at least one media outlet allowed candidate Donald Trump to attend interviews by telephone rather than in person. To be sure there was a lot of criticism, but the practice continued for several months. Why the objections? I mean you are going to get answers to your questions so what's the harm? Well, here is one type of harm, giving him unfair advantage over his opponents. You see, if an interview is conducted via telephone, the candidate can be sitting there with any number of experts and advisors helping him form answers to questions. In a face-to-face interview a candidate cannot hide his ignorance and just as well, can't hide his knowledge. This seemed to be the press giving Trump a pass on personal accountability, something no other candidate was afforded.

Journalists can go overboard with the fairness doctrine. Sometimes, and I am guilty of this as well, we go to such great extents to give all sides of a story we spend more time on the opposition view than we do on the main point of the story. That seemed to be the way with Trump.

Still, the soft handling of the candidate was very obvious in an article CNN published on its web site July 28, giving Trump's reaction to the opposition's convention.

The lead paragraph included this quote from Trump saying he wanted to: "hit a number of those speakers so hard, their heads would spin. They'd never recover."

The very next paragraph read: "Trump often uses the term "hit" to mean verbally attack, rather than physical contact."

Keep in mind CNN employs Trump's former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Whether Lewandowski had anything to do with the paragraph is unknown, but you just have to wonder why CNN felt it needed to virtually apologize for the candidate's threats to punch a bunch of Democrats. He has certainly made or encouraged physical threats against opponents in the past.
In truth, it is the candidate's responsibility to watch what he says, not journalism's.  There are times when an explanation paragraph is necessary. But this isn't one of them.

Trump said he wanted to "hit a number of people." It was up to him to choose the words that best expressed what he thought. He said "hit." There are plenty of other words and phrases he could have used if he meant something else.

Picture this personality in delicate negotiations with foreign leaders, or with opposing members of Congress. Is he going to have aides sitting next to him saying "what the president meant to say was …?" Or worse, would he have CNN reporters there to explain his meaning for him? When the president says "bomb" he just means heavily criticize.

Here's the video of him saying he will hit people. You can make your own decision about what he means.


It becomes more and more difficult to explain and defend the media these days.

The original story

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Noah's Ark, White House construction, Lady Gaga and everything in between

Sunflowers do grow in Alaska. Those stakes are six feet tall.
Curiouser and curiouser. It's been a while since the last post and readership has fallen off considerably, not that it was ever very large. But something happened this week and I am not sure what. I have been getting almost 200 page hits a day from Russia. They occur overnight here, daytime across most of that country. No clue what triggered it and they seem to be hitting a variety of posts, not just one or two. My thought is they are so bad at hacking they are trying to get Hillary's emails and end up with the ravings of an Alaska maniac. Just doing my part. lol. So here are a bunch of discoveries over the past month. I have tried to stay away from  politics as much as I can. It's just too easy. So, try these:

Noah's Ark crashed into a Coast Guard vessel while docking in Oslo, Norway. Of course it was a replica but someone had already called animal control in case of an abandon-ship before that was determined.

Petsmart is using the Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" in TV commercials. Whu-u-u-ut?

Basketball's greatest, Michael Jordan, contributed a million dollars to a police chiefs' organization called Institute for Community-Police Relations and another million to the NAACP Legal defense Fund.

There's a young teen-looking boy who walks his sheep on a leash over the bike trails around here.

A friend who is close to my age and suffers some age-related infirmities raced in a hill climb with
Kitty Delorey Fleischman takes a corner in a hill climb flashing
her "handicapped" placard.
her vintage Porsche recently. This is what she had to say about it: "I was the only person up on the hill with both racing numbers and a handicapped placard."

A gun shop in Illinois raffled off an AR-15 rifle to benefit victims of the Orlando night club massacre.

Facebook thinks I would like being friends with someone named Chi Chi Ajuga. Hmm I think maybe so.

The NFL suspended Johnny Manziel four games for substance abuse. Johnny Manziel doesn't play in the NFL any more.

Lead was found in the drinking water at a building holding congressional offices. Sixty Reps petitioned the EPA for stronger lead and copper standards for water. Meanwhile 5,000 city water systems across the country have higher concentrations of the lead and copper.

Lady Gaga kisses the ground after
passing her test.
Lady Gaga finally passed a test and received her first driver's license. A week later pulled over by the police. No plates on her new pickup truck. Wait, Lady Gaga drives a pickup truck?

Yup, she's driving a pickup.
There's this ad Montel Williams does on TV for a quick-loan operation. At the end where medicine products' side effects would be listed, he has to say the loan offer is not available in New York state because of laws against high interest rates. Shouldn't that tell potential borrowers something?

There is a city named White in Georgia. (Actually named for a postmaster, but, still …)

In reading a headline recently, I realized I am still not sure where Darfur is.  (Thanks to Google I found it.)

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, a military adviser to Donald Trump's campaign called on Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini to denounce the terrorist attack in Nice, France. Khomeini died in 1989.

Today, July 27, it has been 133 days since Merrick Garland was nominated to be a Supreme Court justice.

Basketball player Lebron James who went to the NBA right out of high school has donated more than $41 million to send 1,100 students to college.

Donald Trump, who flew from New York to Scotland for a weekend of golf, said Sarah Palin lived too far away to be invited to speak at the Republican convention. Don't know whether to criticize or thank him.

There's such a thing as a bass flute. Who knew?
Featuring a bass flute.


Fist bump – two First Ladies: Fox flabbermouth Bill O’Reilly criticized  Michelle Obama's comment she wakes up every morning in a house built by slaves by claiming those slaves who built the White House “were well-fed and had decent lodgings.” Another first lady, the second one to be exact, Abigail Adams, who moved into the White House while it was still under construction, wrote about 200 years ago that the slave labor was ill-fed and treated poorly. Trolled. As if being a slave wasn't enough for O'Reilly.

Deadhorse, Alaska, on the coast of the Arctic Ocean hit a record temperature of 85 degrees F in mid July.

And, as a postscript, here is a link to a playlist of all the songs the Republicans have used without permission.



Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Busted



I have been taking a break from this while other things took on some priority during the summer, but it's time to pick it up again, so reading through what is done, trying to get a handle on what has happened and what is going to happen. I thought this particular chapter was very telling and so I am posting it here with links to others on the blog. The basic story is this, an internet relationship between a lonely old man and an 18-year-old, meth-addicted runaway, sometimes prostitute.

bet C bball: omg i got handcuffed las night
bet C bball: an the guy wanted to take me to jaol,  firs time that efver hppned
whaleman: whatr happened????
bet C bball: just needed some cash for some crack
bet C bball: didnt realy know the area i was in
bet C bball: got caught talking to a guy at like 2am
bet C bball: cop was kinda mean
bet C bball: oh well...
bet C bball: i think i was pretty high
whaleman: talking about hookingup?
bet C bball: ya
whaleman: and what did the cop do?
bet C bball: told the guy to get out...
bet C bball: which is usually a sign that theyd let me off oto...
whaleman: yeah they always protect the guy
bet C bball: wtf is up with that?
whaleman: well until recently the guy wasn't doing a crime
whaleman: or at least that wasn't enforced
whaleman: more so now
bet C bball: oh i didnt know that!
whaleman: they even have stings
whaleman: cops wil put an ad on something like craigslist
whaleman: and when the guy shows up at their hotel room they bust him
whaleman: they had one in this little twon about a year or so ago
bet C bball: wow interesting...
whaleman: yeah and words gets out and that scares others away from the trade
bet C bball: hmm...
bet C bball: anyway
bet C bball: thast the only time ive ever been cuffed
whaleman: oh he did put the cuffs on you.  did he take you anywhere? or just the lecture?
bet C bball: just a lecture
bet C bball: a really really really really long wait
bet C bball: and a lecture
whaleman: make you think about things they hope/  but they also know it doesn't work with most people
bet C bball: ohh
bet C bball: and he went through my shit
bet C bball: most of them do that anyway though..
bet C bball: stupid
whaleman: well good thing he did BEFORE you scored
bet C bball: ya..no kidding
bet C bball: thatd been a big deal
bet C bball: i think i spent the whole car wait cursing him
whaleman: out loud?
bet C bball: no...
whaleman: how did yhou react to being picked up
bet C bball: you be polite apologetic and confused
bet C bball: totally niave :)
whaleman: good plan i think
bet C bball: oh thats easy
whaleman: less likely on a Buffalo street corner at 2 a.m. I bet
bet C bball: ya
bet C bball: not nasty dont argu and not fight back
bet C bball: you react like you asked the cop for help..
bet C bball: like  you know he's coming over to give you a hand...
bet C bball: like 'oh gosh thank goodness you stopped im scared!'
whaleman: did that work           
bet C bball: ya
bet C bball: sort of
bet C bball: he let me go,  but he sadi if he sw me there again he'd run me in
bet C bball: told em to get out of the ngbrohood
whaleman: whew, huh?
bet C bball: ya but
bet C bball: never did score so kinda bad night all ruond
whaleman: at least you'r not in jail
bet C bball: yay not. this is not awesome
bet C bball: i gtg  bye

Friday, July 1, 2016

New tale of the haphazard garden

This year's experiment, sunflowers almost 4 feet high July 1. For perspective the posts in the middle are 2 feet tall.
Over the past few years by this time there have been several posts about the haphazard garden around here. Not so this year for a couple of reasons. First, garden time approach generated very little enthusiasm and I even considered not doing one at all. As time passed I did a little digging and cleaning and tilling and built up some faint interest. I couldn't have picked a worse year to procrastinate given the early, warm spring that should have produced bumper crops.

Winter-tough pansies.
I have to admit the hardy pansy that lasted through the winter proved inspiring and as more time passed I could not resist, which is the second reason; I started late. Got a few plants growing indoors and tilled and prepared the rest of the garden spots. That included building a new raised garden 8 feet by 3 1/2 feet out by the road where the sun hits for most of the day. That was to be the experiment for this year.

Potatoes from Susitna Valley seed spuds.
Then for a third reason, in the last minute rush I bought seeds at a discount store and many starter plants from those seeds failed to grow properly. As a result one of my favorites, zucchini started even later finally germinated from quality seeds, so those plants are way behind. But they are hardy and looking good for the first of  July now. But, I won't be getting any tomatoes this year.

I have realized that over the years the garden situation has changed. In earlier years, at least parts of the
Zucchini. The only one left from cheap seeds is rear right. Some is also planted
elsewhere in the gardens
area by the house received enough sunlight to produce pea plants taller than me. Now, about 10 years later trees have grown taller and sprouted new branches and thus leaves and have left that part of the garden in shade for large parts of the day, so no giant peas at least there.

But the new box out by the road has performed handsomely. Those tall  plants in the picture at the top are sunflowers, now almost four feet tall. Lower to the ground, those bushy plants are pansies, just starting to bud. The box itself gets sunlight from a little after 8 in the morning until well past 9 at night. I guess
Peas July 24, 2011.
that's why they call them sunflowers. Thinking of experimenting with corn out there next year.
Lettuce at the doorstep.
Yesterday we harvested a little and took some lettuce and a few immature potatoes. The pot of lettuce at left was something I learned from a friend. She plants some close to the door so if the salad urge hits all you have to do is step out onto the porch, cut a few leaves and voila!

Anyway that covers the first garden update of the year, late like the garden itself. How it all comes out remains to be seen.

Best headlines ever

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel

Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

“You’re either into the wall or into the show”—Marco Andretti on giving it all to qualify last at the 2011 Indy 500

Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

Commenting on an athlete with hearing impairment he said the player didn’t show any “uncomfortability.” “He's not doing things he can't do."

"… there's a fearlessment about him …"

"He's got to have the lead if he's going to win this race." "

"Kansas has always had the ability to score with the basketball."

"NFL to put computer chips in balls." Oh, that's gotta hurt.

"Now that you're in the finals you have to run the race that's going to get you on the podium."

"It's very important for both sides that they stay on their feet."

This is why you get to hate sportscasters. Kansas beats Texas for the first time since 1938. So the pundits open their segment with the question "let's talk about what went wrong." Wrong? Kansas WON a football game! That's what went RIGHT!

"I brought out the thermostat to show you how cold it is here." Points to a thermometer reading zero in Minneapolis.

"It's tough to win on the road when you turn the ball over." Oh, really? Like you can do all right if you turn the ball over playing at home?

Cliches so embedded in sportscasters' minds they can't help themselves: "Minnesota fell from the ranks of the undefeated today." What ranks? They were the only undefeated team left.

A good one: A 5'10" player went up and caught a pass off a defensive back over six feet tall. The quote? "He's got some hops."

Best homonym of the day so far: "It's all tied. Alabama 34, Kentucky 3." Oh, Tide.

"Steve Hooker commentates on his Olympic pole vault gold medal." When "comments" just won't do.

"He's certainly capable of the top ten, maybe even higher than that."

"Atlanta is capable of doing what they're doing."

"Biyombo, one of seven kids from the Republic of Congo." In the NBA? In America? In his whole country?

"You can't come out and be aggressive but you can't come out and be unaggressive."

"They're gonna be in every game they play!"

"First you have to get two strikes on the hitter before you get the strikeout."

"The game ended in the final seconds." You have to wonder when the others ended or are they still going on?

How is a team down by one touchdown before the half "totally demoralized?"

"If they score runs they will win."

"I think the matchup is what it is"

After a play a Houston defender was on his knees, his head on the ground and his hand underneath him appeared to clutch a very sensitive part of the male anatomy. He rolled onto his back and quickly removed his hand. (Remember the old Cosby routine "you cannot touch certain parts of your body?") Finally they helped the guy to the sideline and then the replay was shown. In it the guy clearly took a hard knee between his thighs. As this was being shown, one of the announcers says, "It looks like he hurt his shoulder." The other agrees and then they both talk about how serious a shoulder injury can be. Were we watching the same game?

"Somebody is going to be the quarterback or we're going to see a new quarterback."

"That was a playmaker making a play.”