News

The Atheist Identity

/ Jim / Leave a comment

It may(or may not) surprise you to discover that most atheists are men. According to Pew, about two-thirds of people that identify as atheist (I think that includes agnostic as well) are men and the other one-third consists of the other 71 genders. Okay, a poor joke. Of course, it’s women. Why is that? It’s a question that has been asked by a lot of different people over time and no actual consensus has ever been made. There are some ideas as to why this is true, but none that seems to satisfy those that believe in the strict equality of the sexes (or genders).

Continue reading →

And Now, For Your Entertainment Today…

/ Jim / Leave a comment

As much as I try to, I can’t avoid politics here as uh as I’d like to. It’s become endemic in our lives, hasn’t it? The the advent of cable news over the past 40 years or so (CNN premiered June 1, 1980), it doesn’t seem we are able to avoid what passes for news today. In fact, what we regularly receive is not news in the classical sense, but infotainment, you know, something with just enough of what might be referred to as news, wrapped up t be fun and engaging. At the end of the day, are we any better informed than we were? I don’t think so.In fact, we can look at hundreds of examples, daily, and see how those that present as news attempt to manipulate their audience into believing something that is clearly, on second (maybe third) look, is blatant propaganda, pressing forward an ideology, whether it be political or cultural, instead of just informing.

Continue reading →

When Did News Become Speculation?

/ Jim / Leave a comment

I am loathe to discuss this latest Trump “gotcha” by the GOJ, mostly because it seems it’s just another attack pn the guy because he’s considering running for president again. This story, though, highlights what I really want to focus upon and that is the reaction from the press when one of these big stories drops in their lap.

Continue reading →

Just the News, Please

/ Jim / 2 Comments

It’s becoming more difficult to read the news. Listening to it is almost impossible already simply because most of what is proffered as news, isn’t. It’s opinion. The same thing has happened to print media and therefore we have seen, more in recent times that in the past, the slow death of what used to be called newsrooms for newspapers and magazines. Of course, mosr, if not all have moved some if not all of their content online, since that’s where most people spend their time but then the products are the same as before. Changing the format to electronic hasn’t seemed to help a great deal on the bottom line and we hear often about various news organizations performing layoffs simply becuse they cannot sustain a readership.

Continue reading →

Is Big Tech Attempting to Influence This Election?

/ Jim / 2 Comments

Congress add an exemption to the Communications Decency Act of 1996 for “Big Tech” companies that as long as they acted only as a platform, and not a publisher (like a newspaper or a news network) then they would be exempt from being held responsible for anything that appeared on their platform meaning, they couldn’t be sued for something an individual posted. How times have changed. Now it seems that these platforms, including Facebook and Twitter have all but admitted they are in fact publishers because they decide what information, by a user, may or may not be dissemenated on their platforms.

Continue reading →