Man oh man! Where’s the news?
What made me shake my head this morning? Well, yesterday I said a second polar bear found its way to Iceland. I advised the bear, to which I really don’t believe she took or even heard my advice, to duck and cover. This morning I find out the ole girl followed the same path as the bear last week – KIA!
So where’s the outrage? Where are the environmentalists who say global warming is killing our polar bears? Two bears have been killed in two weeks. That’s two more than have been killed or injured in nearly 15 years of oil drilling and exploration in the Arctic.
And, if the ice is melting, why are bears making their way to Iceland. Wouldn’t it make sense that with shrinking ice, it would be more difficult for a bear to make the swim to Iceland? Yet, bears haven’t been there in over 20 years.
I’m sure there’s a global warming explanation out there somewhere.
The Associated Press has to be the most ignorant media business in existence today. The AP it appears, wants anyone, namely us bloggers, to pay for the privilege of using a limited number of their words in order to reference an AP article. That’s right! Normally, a responsible and respectful writer in referencing an Associate Press article, would copy a short paragraph, etc. and link to the site giving proper attribution.
I guess this isn’t good enough for the AP. They want us to pay them for that. But it gets worse. They also will retain the right to revoke your paid-for license if they don’t like what you do with the reference you made to their story.
As an example, I called them the most ignorant media business. Had I been paying them for the right to link to their website, they could very well revoke my license because I called them ignorant.
Think about it a second. Bloggers by the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, link to their stories everyday. This drives traffic to their sites providing the AP more business and demand more for advertising, etc.
I sure hope the Associated Press never refers to any other source of information without first paying them for that. I would suppose that if the AP contacted me about a news story, I should tell them they could buy my information and if I didn’t like what they did with it, I could demand they take it down.
I guess it’s time to tell the Associated Press to take a hike. I don’t need their biased propaganda to keep my website going. Will other media sources follow their lead?
That would be interesting if it happened. I have had Reuters take my articles and post them on their website without asking me or paying me for that privilege. Other news agencies have done the same thing.
Naw! I think it’s a problem with the Associated Press. Maybe they are feeling the effects of the “new media” and they don’t like. Whatever the reasons, I will no longer reference or link to any of their stories.
“I just don’t know what we are going to do!” I have heard that more than once this spring, referencing mostly the rapidly rising cost of gasoline. As most of you know, I am at my camp in Maine. Maine is a depressed state. Has been for decades now with no end in site. The people are taxed nearly out of existence and the only answer the democratically controlled government can come up with is more taxes. Maine is one of those states that pays more for government social programs than is generated through private enterprise.
So much for picking on the government. Ignorance also abounds in the business sector. Without naming names and creating a conflict, I have visited several businesses while I have been here. It is amazing what I hear when I go in these places.
I recently stood in line waiting to pay for an item and listened as the cashier spoke very badly of the product the customer was buying. From there they commenced to beat up on the manager and finally gave all they had to rake the owners over the coal.
I’ve also watched as the owners of a business yelled at an employee in front of all the customers.
Forget the price of gas. If anyone could afford to drive there, I doubt they would stay.
The sun is out again for a few minutes. I haven’t really seen much of it since I landed here but that is to be expected in Maine. One of the reasons I moved out of this state was because of the lack of sunshine.
My wife tells me I must suffer from light deprivation disorder or whatever the heck you call it, as I get ugly and nasty if I don’t see the sun in awhile. I tend to agree.
I discovered that in Maine the sun shines something like 18% of the time. In Florida, known as the Sunshine State, the sun shines around 60% of the time. I’m a much happier camper now.
I’ve seen a lot of deer since being here, which tells me the 230 plus inches of snow didn’t kill them all. I haven’t spotted a moose yet though.
I was traveling last week when the “Outreach Program” of Sen. John McCain’s came ringing asking for me to participate in another conference call. So far this week, things have been quiet and no invitation.
Did you know that my comment section under the story about Listerine being used for an insect repellent is still busy as ever? When I posted the story, it was more on a whim than anything but it is my busiest page for Google searches for Listerine. Nuts!
I’m heading for the airport this morning to pick up my granddaughter who will be with us at camp for a bit more than a week. One of the drawbacks of being in the country is the 3-hour drive to the airport.
Gotta go!
Tom Remington
