Madness With A Side Of Insanity.

Ok, so I've been looking through all the top news stories going on right now decided what exactly I should write on. I will be honest it has been tricky because I like to write on things I tend to get a little worked up about, it somehow just makes my writing sound better. So, I guess it's time for me to speak up about that gem over on the other side of the world,Muammar Gaddafi . I truly don't know if that is the correct spelling of his name, but as I was reserching him I found probably 4 different ways of spelling his name, so if it is actually incorrect I'm sorry.



First of all, I just have to say Muammar Gaddafi - seriously?  I'm going to just to be the blunt one who says why on earth are you in charge? You may possible be one of the worst leaders ever. I may not be very interested in or very informed  about politics, or in world leaders and how they chose to run their country, but I do know that when your killing your own people that's not really cool. I watched a short skit on  Saturday Night Live where they did a little spoof with Muammar Gaddafi in it that I thought was quite funny and added a humurous spin on how Gaddafi was acting lately.


I was speaking with someone a few weeks ago about this issue and the individual I was speaking too got so worked up this entire issue and even referred to Gaddafi as the "current Hiltler". Now when people have some to the conclusion that all of Gaddafi's actions are similar to what Hiltler was doing, well you know that this leader can not in any way be a good person.

Thousands of residence in Libya have rioted again Gaddafi and are now know as the "rebels" of Libya, fighting for democracy and  for their homeland to be safe for it's people and not fear that it's own leader will send his military to kill it's own people. I know I am not  the only one who see's the problem with this but when citizens are forced to riot against their own government you know there is something seriously wrong. Change is clearly needed!

Hero or Traitor?

To open your mouth or not to, that is the ultimate question. When you know something that would influence millions of people do you say something to the public? Just keep it to yourself? Who knows what is the "right" answer to that question. I keep thinking if I were in the same situation as Daniel Ellsberg or Bradley Manning would I speak up like they did, or remain quiet?

When i really think about it I think I personally would want to know the deep dark secret's the government is hiding just so the truth is finally out, and I could know all the information and make a decision on what I am for and what I'm against. These kind of documents also are good to be released to the public because some of the articles in the document are almost disturbing and something needs to be done, and change needs to happen. Now while it is all fine and dandy for the public to know the truth about these documents what about the ethics the whistleblower is committing by stealing the documents from the government. Is it ethical? Was it ultimately a good decision to release the documents? Did it do more good than bad? 

Many people are aware of the WikiLeaks story and have been following the story for months, but not many people know of the similar case with Daniel Ellsberg who committed a very similar contraversy in 1971 with  Pentagon documents involving the Vietnam War.

Bradley Manning just like Daniel Ellberg is on one hand be called a hero, but on the other hand called a traitor and a villain. Bradley Manning was a 22 year old working for the army in Iraq and leaked thousands upon thousands of documents, and video's to WikiLeaks to inform the public of what was actually happening in the war, and just how different the stories were that the public were being told compared the actual truth of what was happening. Bradley Manning's first video he sent to WikiLeaks " Collateral Murder" caused a huge uproar in the media and has been viewed by millions of people on the internet. Daniel Ellsberg also worked for the government and leaked approximately 7,000 pages of documents about the Vietnam War. The Pentagon documents clearly stated how wrong the information the public was being fed from what actually what was happening. Ellsberg was also called a hero from many people, and like Bradley Manning was called a traitor as well.

Right now Bradly Manning is currenly in a military prison. Thousands of anti-war protestors are campaigning for Bradley to be released. Supporters of Manning have even created a website in support of freeing Manning http://www.bradleymanning.org/ . In a recent protest to free Bradley Manning, which Daniel Ellsberg attended, another pretty hot issue right now of police brutality also occured where Daniel Ellsburg was arrested.

I may have a pretty biased opinion on this matter being an anti-war supporter myself, but doesn't it seem wrong to lock up Bradley Manning when he is NOT convicted of any crimes and treated as harshly as the most dangerous criminals would be? He is locked in isolation for 23 hours a day and being denied books, personal items, and to be able to excersize. For what!? Telling people the truth, letting the public know what is really happening in Iraq instead being apart of the lies the government has been feeding to the public. To me, that is cruel.

"Fox: Fair and Balanced".O' Really Now?

Are you a republican? Do you like when news networks have biased anchors who tells their guest to "shut up" ? Do you like not getting the truth in today's news? If you answered yes to all of these questions, Fox is the news station for you. Who sits down in the evening to catch the evening news and actually wants to get the real story these days? A conservative who thinks Bill O'Reilly is a man of much wisdom is who.

Fox likes to claim that they are a fair and balanced news station that wants to report the" truth ". I put quotations on truth because, well how can you say your telling the truth when you purposely alter the facts you get and come up with a kind of truth. It's one of those instances when you don't fully tell a lie, but you are just moving the truth around to avoid having to say straight up what the real truth is. Along with not exactly reporting actual true facts, they like to make viewers believe that they are a fair network where one wing doesn't bias against the other wing. When a discussion goes down there is 2 conservatives to 1 liberal, or 2 pro war against 1 anti-war, ok I think i must have missed how that is a fair and balanced argument? Sure sounds like fox is trying to push their audience to see that they are in fact the right ones, that everyone should believe their side of the argument. I'm no mathmatician but I'm pretty sure a fair argument would consist of 2 conservatives against 2 liberals. Maybe that idea should go in the next staff meeting's memo, just to clear up any confusion that may be arising.

          
In Rupert Murdoch's documentary he tributes a large portion of his documentary on speaking of Bill O'Reilly's O'Reilly Factor and how he not only talks to his guests and how he is probably ( in my opinion) the most opinionated  commintator in televison. I can understand having a really heated arugment where you find yourself getting really worked up about the topic, but this is with so many interviews with O'Reilly. This man really needs to get it together, and keep his cool. He get's all sorts of guests on his show, then as soon as they start saying something he does not entirely agree with he continuously cuts them off, and on very many occaisons has told his guest to "shut up". Why even have them on your show if you are just going to tell them to shut up when they're trying to tell the truth? Isn't that the point of being a journalist? To find out the truth!? There are many people who think O'Reilly is a little bit of an O'Tool when it comes to journalism, and the way he runs his program. This blogger makes it pretty clear how he feels about O'Reilly, and his blog points out some pretty good information on the guests who feature in his show, 70 Republicans vs 10 Democrats.This how the show portrays a fair and balanced network? Coincidence that 60 times more guests are republicans, just like O'Reilly is,I think not.  In another much more blunt blog i stumbled upon ( which i almost laughed through the entire thing)  people are showing their true colors about how they really feel about O'Reilly. I will admit I think he needs to maybe have a more open mind when it comes to, well everything, and if he didn't send out a " i'm right, your wrong. no matter what" kind of attitude and actually had a valid discussion about a variety of topics he wouldn't seem like such a biased commentator.

                                  

Fox's very biased republican attitude takes over all the news stories that have been written up in the news station, where they are giving news to replublicans who want to hear what they think is important but rather than real actual news. For instance during the Bush vs Kerry election and even after Bush had won, were there any stories going against Bush? No, Bush was seen as a heroic public figure who was always doing something interesting, even if he was in reality just walking down a path  probably humming the lyrics to "pop goes the weasel" in his head thinking about how pro war he was, and that a real patriot was a pro war citizen. Whereas Kerry was bombed with story after story about how he was an anti- war believer, and was not a republican, but a democrat. So, I'm pretty inclined to say fox is anything but fair and balanced but rather biased and ridiculous.

"All you need is love - Love is all you need"

A small religious extremist congregation In Kansa has managed to alienate a nation and attack the basis of the first amendment, the right of freedom of speech.  This issue has snow balled in to a Supreme Court action that has gained huge media coverage and pitted religion extremists against the basic right of freedom of speech, and the issues created by this congregation have reflected in the view points of the popular culture and media.

The Westboro Baptist Church members have been traveling all over United States to protest at a number of soldier’s funerals in their “God Hates Fags” campaign.  This group of extremists has upset thousands upon thousands of people by their disturbing picket signs and cruel words yelled towards the members attending the soldier’s funerals.  In Benjamin Cohen’s article “‘God Hates Fags’ church continues to make homophobic protests at military funerals” Benjamin Cohen interviews the leader of this church, Rev. Fred Phelps about these protests that have caused much distress to any family or friend attending the boycotted funeral’s and continues to say that soldiers killed in Iraq “died in shame, not honour – for a fag nation cursed by God”. Fred Phelps tries to explain that he is not protesting against the war but the fact that the military has allowed gay’s to join and fight for their country even though it is a sin to be a homosexual.  Some of the downright harsh signs read “God Hates You” “Thank God for dead soldiers”    “Thank God for 9/11” and “You’re going to Hell”. These protestors are claiming that the soldier’s deaths are God’s punishment for being homosexuals even though the percentage of homosexuals in the military is very small.  Westboro Church spokeswomen Phelps Roper comments in the Chicago Tribune and says “This nation has angered the Lord their God and the wrath of god is pouring out on them. God is dealing with this nation, and you can’t do one thing to stop it or stop him from blowing those young people to pieces”

             The Westboro Church congregation protestors

In Mark Sherman’s article “1st Amendment protects military funeral protestors” the Chief Justice John Roberts says “Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, - and it did here- inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speakers,” and “as a nation we have chosen a different course – to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”  While Justice Alito strongly disagreed “ our profound national commitment to free and open debate is not a license for the vicious verbal assault that occurred in this case”, the Supreme Court made the decision 8- 1 favoring the Baptist Church’s right to free of speech.  While distancing themselves from the church’s message, media organizations, including The associated press, urged the court to side with the Phelps family because of concerns for a victory for the opposing could erode speech rights.

Many people have been affected by the outrageous acts of the Phelps congregation including many celebrities and pop icons.  Ozzy Osbourne’s famous song “Crazy Train” lyrics has been a part of these church members boycott methods, they stand on the steps of the church of the soldier who’s service is taking place and sing “ you’re going straight to hell on your crazy train” very loudly and obnoxiously, trying to disturb the guests attending the funerals.  Osbourne is very upset upon learning that this congregation is using his lyrics to broadcast such hateful messages. In a interview Osbourne says “I am sickened and disgusted by the use of ‘Crazy Train’ to promote messages of hate and evil by a ‘church’, “.  Ozzy Osbourne was not the only celebrity to have a personal encounter with this group; Lady Gaga is another major event that this congregation protests towards. These protesters have picketed many of Lady Gaga’s concerts with signs that say “ God Hates Lady Gaga “, while she was aware of this she expressed to her fans not to get involved with the protesters and to just ignore their messages of hatred.  At a St. Louis concert Gaga’s fans had a surprisingly creative way of protesting back against these congregation members.  Many of the fans had come up with signs of their own , one that read “ God Hates Figs”. Rainbow flags and humorous T-shirts were dispersed all throughout the crowd supporting Lady Gaga. After Gaga’s show she applauded her fans and later tweeted “Tonight love and hate met in St. Louis.” And “Love outnumbered the hate, in poetic thousands. Hate left. But love stayed, and together, we sang”.  The story of the disturbing acts this congregation were displacing had made its way to the studio for Saturday Night Live, which they then made a joke on the weekend update segment with Jason Sudeikis dressed in a devil costume poking fun at the religious group thinking that they were in fact going to go to heaven because of these anti-gay acts that had been doing when in fact they were really going to go to hell. 

A lot of the controversy going on about this particular issue is why would a congregation boycott soldier’s funerals; the men and woman who stand up for their country to fight to keep citizens safe.  More people than not believe that soldiers going off to fight in the war is considered brave, and courageous and look up to these people willing to sacrifice their lives to keep everyone else safe.  When you see a soldier walking down the street you can’t help but feel respect towards them, and in some cases idolize those people willing to do an act of such bravery.  Then there is a group of 75 protesters saying crude and disrespectful things about these soldiers, praising that these soldiers have died. It really makes you wonder how can there be such evil and hatred in this world, especially people who claim to be God loving Christians. In my own personal opinion I always thought Christians were suppose to be kind hearted, caring people who love everything that is put on this earth. Not people who praise terrorism and thank god for killing thousands of people just because the world has accepted the gay community. Nothing about that seems very Christian to me. In attempts to try and prevent further distress to the families that have to go through these protests against their loved ones a group of bikers have formed a group “The Patriot Guard Riders” to prevent any problems that may arise and to allow mourners to pay their respects without being disturbed.  In the six months that this group has been created they have gained over 28,000 members rather than the 75 that the congregation has gotten together.  The spokesman for the Patriot Guard Riders group told the National Post in a interview “We have people who will get on a motorcycle in the dead of winter and ride 350 miles to go to a funeral of a complete stranger and stand there for an hour, at attention, give a salute and go home” rather than to have this group of protestors harass the mourners and continue to be disrespectful.  

In situations like these you really see everyone banding together to try and prevent such negativity that is occurring in our world. The feedbacks of the articles that wrote of this were almost overwhelming to read. So many readers were disgusted by what they had read and felt so offended by what this group had been doing to the innocent families who did not deserve to be tormented like they did and for no reasonable explanation.

   Protestors against the Westboro Church congregation
References

Cohen, Benjamin. (April 2006) “‘God Hates Fags’ church continues to make homophobic protests at military funerals” Pink News Online. Retrieved March 8 2011

Mears, Bill. (March 2010) “Justices to hear case over protestors at military funeral” CNN Politics Online. Retrieved March 8 2011

The Associated Press (August 2005) “Anti-gay church protests at soldiers’ funerals” MSNBC Online. Retrieved March 8 2011

Wilson, Greg. (October 2010) “Ozzy Osbourne to Hateful Church: Stop Singing My Song” NBC Chicago Online. Retrieved March 8, 2011

Macht, Daniel. (July 2010) “Lady Gaga fans confront Anti-gay protestors in St. Louis” NBC Chicago Online. Retrieved March 8 2011

Wikinews (August 2005) “Anti-gay church protests U.S at military funerals” Wikinews Online. Retrieved March 8 2011