Monday, April 14, 2014

The Second American Civil War

It almost happened.

We were one trigger happy finger away from a long and bloody conflict.

And for what? Tortoises? (Or solar farm depending on who you listen to) Individual Rights? States' Rights? Federal Rights?

I'm being deadly serious here, I honestly wish I could have written this as a joke but this is a very scary and sad reality that we live in today in the United States of America.

Earlier this month a long standing dispute between the United States government and one Cliven Bundy came to a head in Nevada. Bundy has refused to pay a cattle grazing fee that the federal government implemented in 1993 to protect the endangered desert tortoise. That's 21 years of fees adding up to around $1.1 million for Bundy. Bundy's refusal to pay these fees mirrors the thoughts of many longtime ranch families and thousands of other Americans; his family has been using this land for over 140 years and he believes he has an inherent right to graze this land that, he claims, is Nevada's land and therefore not an issue for the federal government.

This refusal to comply has led the Bureau of Land Management to begin conducting roundups of Bundy's cattle. As of Monday April 7, the feds' contractors had rounded up nearly 250 of the 908 heads of cattle Bundy owns. You read that right, the feds sent in contractors to do this roundup. The total cost for this roundup comes out to around three million dollars, almost three times as much as the total Bundy owes. (Who ever said the federal government doesn't know how to be fiscally responsible?)
The kicker? The feds were attempting to force this into a federal issue by driving the cattle over the stateline to Utah (thus making it an interstate affair) for auction.

In order to stop Bundy and company from retrieving the cattle, the BLM and FBI sent in agents armed with militaristic weapons and equipment. This armory included everything from automatic weapons and sniper rifles to top communication and surveillance equipment along with multiple vehicles.

And this isn't a small batch of agents sent to oversee this roundup. According to Bundy's wife, Carol Bundy, "We're surrounded. We're estimating that there are over 200 armed BLM, FBI. We've got surveillance cameras at our house, they're probably listening to me talk to you right now."

That's when shit hit the fan for the rest of the nation and lines were drawn. Over the past week and a half, protesters have gathered in many different areas of the public land in an attempt to force the feds out. This two-sided affair has sparked multiple notable events.


The most ludicrous of all of these is, sadly, something that is not new to America: a First Amendment Area.
At first, if you are like me and many Americans you scoff at the ludicrousness of such a concept. We have a "First Amendment Area" that stretches over 50 states and almost 6 million square miles of this great country. However, this is actually a quite common segment of many national parks. The idea behind them is to keep the protests and protesters out of the way of other guests/ workers.
Of course, this reasoning didn't stand long with the protesters gathered at the site and was quickly torn down by BLM.

Among the many protesters gathered, groups of armed individuals surrounded the Bundy family and threatened to respond in kind to any force used by the government on Bundy, protesters or the cattle. This quickly resulted in a standoff between independent militia members/ gun-toting ranchers and the agents of BLM/FBI.

Both sides had the means, both had their reasons.

It looked eerily similar to the Waco standoff in Texas in 1993.

But neither side fired.

The BLM withdrew and the local county sheriff negotiated the terms of the fed's surrender with Bundy. The BLM's forces, including snipers spotted throughout the area, were pulled out and, as of now, the fed's have backed off of the Bundy's ranch.

However, there are still many questions to be answered:

  • Was Bundy right? Does Nevada have claim to that land over the federal government?
  • How long until the feds come back? How will the American people respond next?
  • Is our freedom being threatened for the sake of political gain? (siting theories about Harry Reid's possible involvement)
  • Are we about to reach the edge of the cliff that will send this nation tumbling into a second civil war?
For now, we can all be comforted by the fact that neither side took to the use of firearms to prove their point and that we have not reached that precipice as of yet. It's also extremely comforting to know that the second amendment, one that has been argued for years, is alive and well and does in fact protect our other rights much better than knives, hands, or paper ever could. 

But it's not comforting knowing only days ago we were looking at a full on battle for our freedoms in Nevada.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Rape Culture or Something Else?

I want to celebrate a milestone for this blog. Something that I've honestly been looking forward to since the birth of this blog and was starting to become unsure would ever happen, but here we are. The milestone? A comment that came with some thought behind it on one of my old articles. Okay, so this isn't my first comment but it IS the first one to merit a response (in my eyes) and so I wanted to share it, and my response with my readers.

Without further ado, here is the comment that went along with this article which talked about the death of Christopher Lane and a proposed change in society:
Sex culture? Let's talk about rape culture. 
Rape Culture Is…
1. A university in Canada that allows the following student orientation chant: “Y is for your sister. O is for oh-so-tight. U is for underage. N is for no consent. G is for grab that ass.”
2. Pop music that tells women “you know you want it” because of these “blurred lines” (of consent).
3. A judge who sentenced only 30 days in jail to a 50-year-old man who raped a 14-year-old girl (who later committed suicide), and defended that the girl was “older than her chronological age.”
4. Mothers who blame girls for posting sexy selfies and leading their sons into sin, instead of talking with their sons about their responsibility for their own sexual expression.
5. Photo memes like this:
(see article link below)
6. Supporting athletes who are charged with rape and calling their victims career-destroyers.
7. Companies that create decals of a woman bound and gagged in order to “promote their business.”
8. People who believe that girls “allow themselves to be raped.”
9. Journalists who substitute the word “sex” for “rape” – as if they’re the same thing.
10. Politicians distinguishing “legitimate rape” and stating that rape is “something that God intended to happen,” among other horrendous claims.
11. Calling college students who have the courage to report their rapes liars.
12. The ubiquity of street harassment – and how victims are told that they’re “overreacting” when they call it out.
13. Victims not being taken seriously when they report rapes to their university campuses.
14. Rape jokes – and people who defend them.
15. Sexual assault prevention education programs that focus on women being told to take measures to prevent rape instead of men being told not to rape.
16. The victimization of hospital patients, especially people with mental health issues and the elderly, by the very people who are there to protect them.
17. Reddit threads with titles like “You just have to make sure she’s dead” when linking to the story of a 13-year-old girl in Pakistan being raped and buried alive.
18. Reddit threads dedicated to men causing women pain during sex (I’m not going to give the thread credence by linking to it).
19. Twitter hashtags that support accused rapists and blame victims.
20. Publicly defending celebrities accused of rape just because they’re celebrities and ignoring or denouncing what the victim has to say.
21. Assuming that false reporting for sexual assault cases are the norm, when in reality, they’re only 2-8%, which is on par with grand theft auto.
22. Only 3% of rapists ever serving a day in jail.
23. Women feeling less safe walking the streets at night than men do.
24. 1-in-5 women and 1-in-71 men having reported experiencing rape.
25. The fact that we have to condition ourselves not to use violent language in our everyday conversations.
And the list could go on.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/03/examples-of-rape-culture/
EDUCATE YOURSELF

First of all, I want to thank you, anonymous commenter, for this comment and for taking the time to find this article. However, I do want to go ahead ask that if you do want to leave a comment, could you at the very least not copy and paste from another article? My readers and I know how to click on a link and I promise if you post one I'll be more than happy to follow it, no need to copy and paste.

But, since you did, I feel compelled to go ahead and respond to your comment as your own personal ideas rather than that of an outlying website. Thus, here we are with an entire article based on this subject.

I want to make one thing abundantly clear before I go any further. I do not, under any circumstances, condone rape. It is a vile crime and an even more horrendous experience for any victim involved. No one can accurately put into words what it can feel like and how much it can hamper a person later in life. Rapists are monsters, pure and simple.


Now, I have many points that I want to talk about but, since you brought this up, I feel it is only right to focus on your points first. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to go through each and every point you brought up, but I'll do my best with a handful of them.

First; "Sex culture? Let's talk about rape culture."
We live in a world full of humans, correct? And as humans in this modern world, we have many basic morals that we live by ie: murder is wrong, stealing is wrong, help the less fortunate, we don't have to kill someone because they have smallpox etc. On top of this list is a disdain for rape. Obviously not everyone feels the exact same way about these morals, which means we have serial killers and serial rapists. However, just because rape exists does not mean we live in a culture that actively calls for or justifies rape, to say that we do is beyond ignorant.

That brings me to your list of examples of Rape Culture. 
2. Pop music that tells women “you know you want it” because of these “blurred lines” (of consent).
Ok, if you haven't heard the song, that's fine don't go rushing to YouTube to look it up. Personally, I don't find the song to be offensive at all, but I know plenty of people do, most likely due to the social media hype that was brought up last year/ the beginning of this year surrounding this song that people didn't even bother to read the actual lyrics. The comment actually infers "of consent" from the lyrics where there is actually little to no suggestion that this has anything to do with consent and more to do with the empowerment of women.
While to some the lyrics seem gross and the music video even worse, I'd just have to say that that is straight up bullshit. You want demeaning and gross? It's been happening for years across multiple genres of music (Smack That by Akon ft Eminem, Up All Night by Hinder, Something in Your Mouth by Nickelback, I Get Off by Halestorm, S&M by Rihanna, etc.). 
The song Blurred Lines has nothing to do with rape and the fact that western feminists are pushing this (so much so that Thicke has canceled concerts) only goes to show the ignorance of the group and how little attention is paid to actual problems across the world (and here at home) such as the sex trade, girls in the Middle East being shot for going to school, etc.

4. Mothers who blame girls for posting sexy selfies and leading their sons into sin, instead of talking with their sons about their responsibility for their own sexual expression.
I was okay with the first link that literally said it was an "Everyday Feminism" site. I could handle that and give them the benefit of the doubt that maybe, possibly, they did unbiased, accurate research to get more than one example for each of these 25 examples.
Then it linked me to Jezebel. And I can't even begin to describe how much I wanted to claw my eyes out as I read the post concerning one (you read that right, one) mother who posted an article about how girls should refrain from posting revealing selfies online. Jezebel, as is the custom there, decided to infer that this mother never talked to her boys about sex or responsibility with no real proof.

6. Supporting athletes who are charged with rape and calling their victims career-destroyers.
Steubenville, am I right? I was right. 
Nowhere, absolutely nowhere, in this article does anyone support what the boys did. However, if these boys were convicted of murder, theft, arson, animal cruelty or grand theft auto we would be focusing on how they are still young kids who made an absolutely horrid decision that cost them their future but because it was rape the stigma is even worse for these kids. Because of one night's decision these boys will go through early adulthood incarcerated and will come out as registered sex offenders. The crime is horrible, despicable, inhumane, and horrendous. The rapists were kids who chose to make the biggest mistake of their entire lives, committed a crime and completely ruined any shot they had at continuing a career as football players.
Once again, nowhere does anyone in the article say that the victim is a career destroyer. This is most likely taken from the Twitter uproar that surrounded this entire event that saw many people blaming many different things and people for what had happened. Many blamed the parents of each of the teenagers involved, some blamed the girl, some blamed the kid who videotaped it, some blamed the alcohol, but most blamed the boys who actively participated in this horrid atrocity.
There's a difference between feeling sorry for the kids who ruined their entire lives in one night, that's called empathy, and supporting what they actually did. I understand not everyone will ever be able to feel sorry for these boys and I'm not asking you to. All I'm asking is that you don't assume people are supporting the act when they are simply supporting two boys who ruined their own lives.

9. Journalists who substitute the word “sex” for “rape” – as if they're the same thing.
The journalist who wrote this did not substitute words. They said exactly what they were supposed to say. In the United States of America, no one is guilty of a crime until they have been proven guilty. As rape is an extremely serious allegation, journalists tend to stay away from headlines that involve "rape" unless there have been proven cases of a crime. In this case, if you didn't read the article, the word sex is used to describe intercourse that had not been determined to be consensual or not. This is the correct use of the word.

12. The ubiquity of street harassment – and how victims are told that they’re “overreacting” when they call it out.
No source is given for this information so I'll assume that this is just a general idea that you had. Now, I'm no fan of cat calling, nor do I know any decent human beings that participate in it, in fact I know no one who has ever participated in it, but, since I don't live under a rock, I know it happens. However, just as I would say to the "Ban Bossy" campaign or anyone who decides to tell people when they can and cannot say something, I'd like to direct your attention to the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment to the Constitution. This amendment protects freedom of speech with few restrictions placed upon it (you can't yell "FIRE!" in a movie theater). You may believe I am defending this act by saying people should be allowed to have their freedom of speech. However, I'm also of the belief that people have a right to common decency and that there is no actual reason for douchebags to be catcalling as they drive by. 
If you wouldn't say it face to face with her, why does your upgraded Maserati give you permission to do it? Honestly it's a cowardly thing to do.

14. Rape jokes – and people who defend them.
First off, the page links to one douchebag who takes it too far, not very convincing of an entire culture. But I do agree that this guy's "joke" is despicable. Anyway, do you understand the psychology of jokes? Obviously not. People joke about things to lighten the mood. It's how jokes work. However, when it comes to rape jokes it's sometimes even deeper than that. 
Victims of rape are expected to continue on in their life, especially if they never report it happened to them. This can create many different attitudes towards life and, much like soldiers who have seen brutal combat, sometimes their mind twists things to add a sick side of humor to their otherwise traumatic ordeal. So, don't go believing that every person out there is attempting to expand this supposed "culture" that supports rape. Some are just trying to get through their life.

15. Sexual assault prevention education programs that focus on women being told to take measures to prevent rape instead of men being told not to rape.
Do you understand how asinine of a statement this is? Sexual assault PREVENTION programs decide to teach women ways to PREVENT rape, how dare they!? It's like they are doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing. Rape is not a male v female thing. I am appalled that you would even suggest such a blatantly ignorant viewpoint. The fact that you seem to believe that rape is a singularly male-offender crime is no surprise, but is completely 100% false.
Also, how many courses do we have that teach people to not steal or to not murder or to not become some sort of criminal? Because last I checked we don't normally teach people not to do these things, it's a part of growing up in a modern-day society that people know not to do these things.
Finally, how many male focused sexual assault prevention courses are there in the States? I did some research and I can't find a single male-focused course while there are many women-only courses. In fact, when I looked at articles related to this issue, more prevalent than courses that pertain to tips to prevent rape for men, the articles discuss how men can stop themselves from raping someone or how their default setting is one of violence and therefore they need to be careful not to go off on someone else.

22. Only 3% of rapists ever serving a day in jail.
Here we might find some common ground. Now this is slightly misleading simply because it seems to say that 97% of rapists go through the justice system and walk free. This is far from the truth. If we go with the number of reported rapes (generally 46% of all rapes) the number rises to 12.5% of all reported rapists spend time in jail. If we go to the number of arrested suspects (12% of all rapes lead to an arrest), 25% of all suspected rapists spend time in jail.
Now, before I get you believing that I am trying to construe the horrible statistics here I just want to make it clear that I am simply providing my readers with more information and less misleading statistics.
Back to the common ground. I am a huge proponent of individual rights, as can be seen from many of my postings on here. However, I am also a -less vocal- advocate for a tougher stance on crime and a faster judicial process. This would raise the number of solved crimes while also raising the number of innocents facing jail time. That puts us at an impasse. Do we want to feel safer looking at the number of cases closed or do we want to feel safer knowing there is less of a chance (with the way the system is set up now) that we will be convicted of a crime we didn't commit?
I leave that to my readers and you to contemplate, just know that there is a tradeoff no matter what.

23. Women feeling less safe walking the streets at night than men do.
This phenomenon is actually completely baseless when compared to actual crime rates. I'm not a psychologist, nor do I play one on TV, so I won't try to explain why men and women feel safe when they do. 
I can, however, suggest that men feel safer simply because we have an invincibility complex about us. We believe, wrongly, that we can handle any thug that wants to rob, kidnap, rape or murder us and thus have no real problem walking around at night.

Phew, that was a lot at once, wasn't it? Enough education for a little while? 


Let's take a break.


Back already? Well then I guess it's time for me to go ahead and make my own point.

If, as you suggest, we do live in this "Rape Culture" (which was never actively explained but that's okay, I get it) then we have to ask ourselves where it comes from. What perpetuates such a desire to rob someone of their complete privacy and right to self? What causes people to go down such a heinous path as rape (arguably worse than murder)?
And here we wind up back at the original portion of the article that started this chain: sex culture. Just as I said in the first article, the sex culture that we live in, in which EVERYTHING is sexualized, is despicable. What really starts a culture of rape? The acceptance and perpetuation of sex in everything from sports to music to advertising to food to animals to each other. We live in a culture that has removed sex from the bedroom and thrown it haphazardly into every crevice of society.
Am I naive enough to believe that rape had not been around before the prevalence of this sex culture? No, nor am I of the belief that rape will suddenly disappear when this culture of sex has diminished. Rape is around because humans are around. It's a sad fact of life that we will most likely never fully eradicate. That does not mean we live in a culture that perpetuates, accepts, or agrees with rape. That's why it is a crime that many believe could be punishable by death and others believe should mean life in prison.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Hard Lessons Learned In Front Of The Computer

There's a hard lesson you have to learn as a newspaper journalist. It's one that can send you spiraling down if you let it get to you, which, in the past, I have, many times. It can push you away from wanting to write and it can completely eviscerate your already written pieces. All creativity can suddenly disappear and you are left with a set way of doing everything because of this stupid idea that clamps onto your brain: You never know how many people read or enjoy your writing.

It's heartbreaking to spend hours researching, writing, rewriting and revising pieces that then are put into a newspaper and have no idea how many people actually choose your piece to read.

However, as hard as that lesson is to digest, the harder one that I am currently battling has to do with writing for the internet.

You do know how many people read your pieces. You know how many people share them. You know if you get comments or not.

For example, I know that my last four posts, a mix of college basketball and MLB Opening Day, have received a total of 28 pageviews. Customarily, I had been seeing numbers in the 20s-30s for each post so this is a fairly significant drop. Of course, this drop could be attributed to multiple things; maybe I need to add some more variety into my writing, maybe my links aren't working, maybe people are too busy, maybe no one really likes sports, maybe I need to work on my titles, maybe maybe maybe.

I know I'm not an internet sensation of a writer at this point in my career. I know I'm not even leaning on this blog as a real source of income. I know that this writing gig is a side job to college and my "real" job. It's no surprise to me that I don't get comments on things or even all that many pageviews simply because I don't know how to market my blog to a wider audience than Facebook friends and Twitter followers. However, knowing these things and not letting them bum you out are two completely separate ideas.

Writing is simple, you pick up some paper and just write words if you want. Being successful as a writer is not an easy task that anyone can pick up and do, though. Just like painting a masterpiece, composing and singing a Billboard #1 Hit, throwing a perfect spiral or building the newest iPhone tech, writing takes practice, patience, hard work, dumb luck and talent.

I'm a good writer and always have been and I'll never shy away from that fact. (If you want to dispute this, leave a comment or email me) That's why I almost always have higher grades on papers and essay tests than I do on math homework and multiple choice tests. It's a skill that I have developed, read about, gotten frustrated with and swore I would never do again, multiple times.

Which is what has brought me here. Each post that I write is, to me, a perfect piece that can't wait any longer to be unveiled. Of course, when I go back and read it I find grammatical mistakes or think of better ways I could have written a certain phrase. Yet, no piece that I publish has ever been a rush job for me.

I'm a fast researcher which leads to a faster writing process so I know I can wait to start a paper, article or speech until the eleventh hour. Of course, I don't recommend doing that for any of my fellow college students or any high schoolers or even professionals out there that might be reading this. It can lead to a hell of a lot of stress that isn't always self-inflicted: "Why aren't you doing your homework?" "Where's the outline for that project?" "You're going to fail if you don't start this paper now." etc.

Anyway, back on point now, it is incredibly tough to stay overly confident as a writer when you know only a handful of people are reading what you write and even fewer are sharing, liking or commenting on it.

But, as a writer, it is my job to ignore that fading confidence, push onward and upward, and know that my writing is not for page clicks, it's for the information therein. As a writer, it is my personal philosophy that if I can give an insight that others have not, if I can provide you, as a reader, with a shred of information that is not otherwise within your grasp, it is my job- my duty to do so.

That's why I keep writing.

Now, this isn't meant to be a pity post to go get you to click on my other posts. I'm not the kind of person that begs for things, unless it has to do with puppies.

Then again, I'm not against reminding people to go and read my other posts, comment, share, like, hate, email me your thoughts, email me pictures of puppies, anything. I enjoy knowing what my readers want to learn about. I want to know where you stand on issues. I want your insight. You are as important in this entire operation as I am.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

There's No Such Thing as April Fools' in Baseball

After hours (okay, a few intense Google searches) of research, I come bearing a treasure known to few but to be shared with many on this glorious day. Today, we recognize some of the greatest moments in baseball. Why? Well, because we just hit the restart button on the season yesterday and this has nothing to do with it being April 1st, absolutely nothing.
Without further ado, I present to you, the greatest treasures this sport has to offer: Serious Moments of Baseball History.
And, just for good measure, to make sure you are in the right mood for this day: The Insanely Best Play of Any Sporting Event Held in October.

So who's in the mood for some baseball, now!?
We have been fortunate enough to have Opening Day for all but the Yankees and Astros. But hey, who cares about them anyway? We got to see at least one (not sure if there were more) manager's challenge. And, as is the way of the Cubs, the call was upheld and the Cubs lost their first challenge and subsequently their first game of the season.

The Rangers hosted a round of hitting practice with the Phillies that saw 10 runs scored in the second inning, 31 hits and a total of 24 runs scored. The Phillies won that one. Oh, and the Nationals and Mets can hit too. 16 hits and 16 runs in the first game of the season at Citi Field. The Nationals beat out the Mets 9-7. The Marlins and Mariners each scored 10 runs while beating the Rockies and Angels respectively. The Diamondbacks (in their third game of the season) hosted the Giants in South West's Opening Day edition of hit-fest. The D-backs fell, for the third time in as many games, 8-9 while piling on 16 hits compared to 12 hits for the Giants.

Of course, we were owed all of that offensive production after two impressive pitching duels to open up the National League Central race. The first, Cubs at Pirates, went to the home half of the 10th inning when Neil Walker lifted a walk off homer out of PNC Park. Francisco Liriano completely dominated the Cubs lineup en route to tying the Pirates' franchise record of 10 K's on Opening Day.

The second, which was blacked out on ESPN in Saint Louis for unknown reasons, featured the two teams that have been at the top of the NL Central four of the past five years. Although Cincinnati's tradition of always opening at home (thankfully Bud Selig hasn't taken that away) has led to more heartbreak than season jump starts (the Reds are 7-11-1 on Opening Day since 1995), the home crowd once again showed up in force for a "Titanic Struggle," as Marty Brennaman would say, between two aces: Johnny Cueto of the Reds and Adam Wainwright of the Cards. Poor baserunning (I'm looking at you Pena in the fifth and DatDudeBP in the eighth) and four K's by rookie-speedster Billy Hamilton spelled defeat for the Reds in a game that featured quality pitching on both sides. Yadier Molina's homer in the seventh was the only run of the day.

So, after one day (or three for the D-backs and Dodgers) it's about time to be predicting end of the season rankings, right? Plus, today is the day for complete shenanigans across the country, so what the hell? Well then, here are the Absurdly Early Picks for the 2014 MLB Playoffs:

AL East
1. Tampa Bay Rays- Winner
2. Boston Red Sox- Wildcard
3. Baltimore Orioles
4. Toronto Blue Jays
5. New York Yankees

AL Central
1. Detroit Tigers- Winner
2. Cleveland Indians- Wildcard
3. Kansas City
4. Minnesota Twins
5. Chicago White Sox

AL West
1. Seattle Mariners- Winner
2. Texas Rangers
3. Oakland A's
4. Houston Astros
5. Los Angeles Angels

NL East
1. Washington Nationals- Winner
2. Atlanta Braves- Wildcard
3. Philadelphia Phillies
4. New York Mets
5. Miami Marlins

NL Central
1. Saint Louis Cardinals- Winner (yes it did hurt to actually type that)
2. Cincinnati Reds- Wildcard
3. Pittsburgh Pirates
4. Milwaukee Brewers
5. Chicago Cubs

NL West
1. Los Angeles Dodgers- Winner
2. San Francisco Giants
3. Colorado Rockies
4. San Diego Padres
5. Arizona Diamondbacks

AL Wildcard
Cleveland at Boston

NL Wildcard
Cincinnati at Atlanta

ALDS
Boston at Detroit in 5
Seattle at Tampa Bay in 4

NLDS
Cincinnati at LA Dodgers in 5
Saint Louis at Washington in 3

ALCS
Tampa Bay at Detroit in 6

NLCS
Washington at LA Dodgers in 5

World Series
LA Dodgers at Detroit
LA Dodgers at Detroit
Detroit at LA Dodgers
Detroit at LA Dodgers
Detroit at LA Dodgers
LA Dodgers at Detroit

World Champs- Los Angeles Dodgers