I Haz Photos! 0

Finally. The moment you’ve all been waiting for. Well, some of you, maybe.

I took some time this afternoon to upload a bunch of photos from the past few months that I had put on the backburner. My favorite is below (WALLY!), but check below the cut for full slideshows of the others, or view them on Flickr:

  • 2010 Yale Graduation — Photos from my brother-in-laws graduation at Yale back in May.
  • Virginia Summer 2010 — Photos from my trip to Virginia last week over the 4th of July holiday.
  • Chispa DC July — Photos from Thursday nights Chispa event. Not as many fun photos as last time, but still lots-o-fun.
  • Walter Cronkat — Photos of everyone’s favorite kitty (WALLY!). Keep your eyes on this set, I’ll continue to update it as I accumulate more and more kitty photos.

Speaking of kitty photos…

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Check below the cut for more fun slideshows:

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Is This What the Stimulus Should Have Been? 1

Maybe this is what the stimulus should have been:

Call me a crazy liberal, but I find it difficult to argue with the success and the good things that came out of the WPA. This article on Brainpicker got me thinking–while I agree with the idea of the stimulus, maybe we should’ve structured it a little more like we did way back when. Problem is, something like that would never happen today. It’s too much government power, it’s taking power away from the private sector. I can see conservatives now–they call Obama socialist already! What if he passed a package like this?

And of course that’s regardless of the results. There’s no doubt in my mind that a renaissance of the WPA to help us tackle the current crisis would’ve helped us recover more quickly than almost any other solution. But conservatives will be conservatives, and they would never in a million years even dream of support such a “radical” solution.

That’s not even to mention the cultural and artistic brilliance that came out of the era. Brainpicker said it best:

We just wish the political powers of the day would consider investing in such art-driven efforts the way the WPA did. What would $7 billion be, adjusted for inflation? Roughly $160 billion. And how does that compare to what today’s government is investing in war? As the kids say, just sayin’.

I couldn’t agree more. Check out some of the amazing posters on this Flickr set.

What do you think? Would you like to see this? Is it too “socialist” for you? I’m curious.

The Ever-Elusive “Reading Time” 0

I’m on vacation here at my Uncle’s bed and breakfast, the Iris Inn, and all week I’d been thinking about the books I would bring and the reading I would do as I relax here among the Blue Ridge Mountains.

I forgot them. All of them.

I literally left my apartment with my suitcase, my Chrome bag, laptop, DSLR, clothes, and everything I would need… except my books.

Why is that I can’t make the time in my life to sit down and enjoy some of the literally hundreds of books on my reading list? There’s so much knowledge there, and so much to learn, yet I constantly find myself consumed with something else. By the time the thought of reading a book enters my mind it’s often one or two A.M. and I’ll read about half a page before I fall asleep with the book on my lap.

Am I the only one with this problem? Here’s hoping I can start making more time for books in my life when I get back to D.C.

A Tour of #86 2

So this afternoon I got home early and realized that *gasp* our apartment is almost perfectly clean and we are DONE painting the living room, entryway, etc. Anyway, just a quick little video tour (complete with a kitty cameo at the end).

Enjoy!

The Myth of Objective Journalism 4

Yea, you read that right. The myth.

For those of you who haven’t heard, Dave Weigel is human, with thoughts, emotions, and feelings, like most of the rest of us.

Let me explain. Until yesterday, Dave Weigel was the Washington Post blogger covering the conservative movement. One caveat: he’s not all that conservative. Does that make him a bad blogger? A poor journalist? No. Does it mean he might not have been the best person for the job? Maybe. But that’s missing the larger point here.

The point is that our media is fundamentally flawed. Journalism in the 21st century is facing overwhelming forces, and yesterday’s fiasco at the Washington Post only underscores the futility of trying to fight them. The idea of objective journalism is a myth, for three reasons:

  1. News moves faster than people.
  2. “Unbiased journalism” is no longer a unique selling point, nor one that consumers are willing to pay for.
  3. Journalists have opinions, and hiding them only misleads the public, preventing them from properly interpreting the news they read, hear, and watch.

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