So Many links, So little time
The ground rules for writing about your kids. - By Emily Bazelon - Slate Magazine
Interesting article with some implications for me. Since of course I have an average readership of 3-4 per day and 2 of those are my parents I don't worry about it too much. For a while a few months back when I was trying to increase readership I had taken to shortening names or using pseudonyms, in the hope that this somehow protected people's privacy.
I have since decided this wasn't that necessary, due to my limited scope of readers. Realistically I write more for the fun of it at this point than because I am trying to make a going concern of it. And therefore I figure I can include as much or as little as I feel the subject requires. Basically my rule of thumb is not to get too personal about people outside of the immediate family. So far none of my small readership has complained. I will trust that if anyone reads anything that reveals too much they will tell me.
Interesting article with some implications for me. Since of course I have an average readership of 3-4 per day and 2 of those are my parents I don't worry about it too much. For a while a few months back when I was trying to increase readership I had taken to shortening names or using pseudonyms, in the hope that this somehow protected people's privacy.
I have since decided this wasn't that necessary, due to my limited scope of readers. Realistically I write more for the fun of it at this point than because I am trying to make a going concern of it. And therefore I figure I can include as much or as little as I feel the subject requires. Basically my rule of thumb is not to get too personal about people outside of the immediate family. So far none of my small readership has complained. I will trust that if anyone reads anything that reveals too much they will tell me.
Karl Rove, Hurricane Katrina, George W. Bush Salon Books
This is really a pretty brutal story of how the Bush administration pretty much completely dropped the ball during the first week of Katrina. It's almost like the stories from the USSR where the first action was not to fix the problem, but how to hide the disaster and then shift blame. How typical of this administration to play politics while people died.
This is really a pretty brutal story of how the Bush administration pretty much completely dropped the ball during the first week of Katrina. It's almost like the stories from the USSR where the first action was not to fix the problem, but how to hide the disaster and then shift blame. How typical of this administration to play politics while people died.
Fear on TV, and in the voting booth
This doesn't tell me much I didn't already know or feel. But it does help to understand how and why politicians will continue to run these ads. For example, if I was even close to undecided or undecided on an issue or candidate, and I didn't study it and make my mind up before going to the polls (which is true of many Americans unfortunately), and my subconscious registered the stronger of 2 ads on the issue or candidate, guess which way I will probably go?
So while these attack ads may not work as well on voters who take the time to study the issues and then vote beforehand, they will work on the voter who hasn't made up their mind and just walks into the voting booth and starts pulling levers. The really unfortunate thing is this means we are stuck with the attack ads. The only response we can make is to educate ourselves as voters and know what and who we are voting for when we go to vote, so we don't fall back on that subliminal subconscious feeling.
This doesn't tell me much I didn't already know or feel. But it does help to understand how and why politicians will continue to run these ads. For example, if I was even close to undecided or undecided on an issue or candidate, and I didn't study it and make my mind up before going to the polls (which is true of many Americans unfortunately), and my subconscious registered the stronger of 2 ads on the issue or candidate, guess which way I will probably go?
So while these attack ads may not work as well on voters who take the time to study the issues and then vote beforehand, they will work on the voter who hasn't made up their mind and just walks into the voting booth and starts pulling levers. The really unfortunate thing is this means we are stuck with the attack ads. The only response we can make is to educate ourselves as voters and know what and who we are voting for when we go to vote, so we don't fall back on that subliminal subconscious feeling.
Quit Coddling Your Kids
Preaching to the choir as far as I am concerned. But an excellent article nonetheless.
Preaching to the choir as far as I am concerned. But an excellent article nonetheless.
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