I'm Still Here

I like the new templates Blogger has but I'm not sure what to write here right now. Also my time Is taken up with grad school.

Open Letter to Jim Caple

I tried to "email" Jim Caple at ESPN.com but the submit "link" isn't a link at all but simply an image file. The letter below is the email I tried to send. It is in response to an asinine article Jim wrote on how Michael Vick should be allowed to play in the NFL because he "works" in the NFL and work can feel like, well, work. Obviously Jim is high as a kite and here is why:

Dear Jim Caple,
It is a privilege to work in the NFL. I am sorry Mr. Caple but you are wrong in your article about Vick being a working stiff. It is true that even if you do something that you love work still feels like work. You still feel stress from it and can affect your physically, emotionally and permanently in negative ways. But working for the NFL is a privilege and here is why.

First off Vick knew what he was getting himself into when he signed with the Falcons or whatever team drafted him. He knew that being a quarterback shoves the lime light into his face. He also knew the health risks NFL players face. At the same time he knew he would be compensated for that handsomely. The contract he signed was record breaking. Beyond that he got endorsement deals purely because he was a good player who worked in the NFL. I do not know about yourself but I have never received an endorsement deal purely because of where I work.

There are plenty of people in the world who work in much dangerous jobs for a lot less money. The first one that come to mind are fire fighters.

I severely doubt they get the seven figure income that Vick got to throw and ball and get hit. No they get paid a five figure income to put their life on the line and to save us, our stuff or our pets from a deadly situation. Football is not life or death.

The next people who I thought of off the top of my head and risk a lot more then Vick ever did are the coal miners in West Virginia. Do they want to travel two hours into the earth to dig out dirty rock that will eventually kill them? No. They do it because the money is good for them. But it is no where near the salary Vick got before he ruined himself and will get if he signs with an NFL team.

There are many more groups of people but I'll spare you the details. Lets just say Vick has it easy. Especially when he gets paid millions in the same amount of time people, risking a lot more, get paid thousands. That is why it is a privilege to work in the NFL and why Vick does not deserve to be brought back. I'm not saying he deserves to go to jail for longer he just doesn't deserve to practice his trade as you put it. He had his chance and blew it. Big time.

What do you think? Should Vick play again or should he waste away in the European equivalent to the NFL? Or should he be locked away and the key thrown away?

News Papers in the 21st Century

Eric Schmidt of Google had this to say about news papers at a recent NAA conference:

These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you piss off enough of them, you will not have any more, right? Or, if you make them happy, you will grow them quickly. And so we try really hard to think that way.

Newspapers are trying so very hard to equate themselves with journalism. IE if the newspaper goes under we will not have a place to get our news from. That is simply a slight of hand trick that only fools the most gullible of people. In his day and age journalism has been a growing field since the blog was popularized. The newspapers died a long time ago. They are now asking for a hand out when the rest of the country has moved on.

I read the New York Times almost everyday but I have never touched a print edition of their work and wouldn't have if they didn't move online. People now a days get so much of their news from the online editions and beyond that they won't buy a physical paper anymore and combine that with the economic hard times and we get what many papers are calling the apocalypse. Their solution is to shut off access if they don't get paid for content. Nothing will quicken their irrelevance in the mind of americans. What they do not get is that many online only newspapers are filling the void faster the traditional media.

they say their online counterparts cannot produce investigative journalism at the same quality as print newspapers however they online only papers have already surpassed the quality long ago. People do not have to look far to find good online only journalism The Voice of San Diego broke a major news story all on their own that brought down a major person nit eh city government. It's only a matter of time before a online only breaks news about corruption in the Senate or Congress. The papers long ago gave up their investigative journalism for access and they are finally seeing the consequences. The people giving them access only gave them one sided stories and the traditional papers never questioned it. Now they are being trumped by online media and having to catch up.

What should the newspapers do in response? Is to get back their muckrakers and embrace the online digital medium. Their circulations would increase beyond their wildest dreams and lower the cost to publish all of their content. Here;s hoping some of the better ones like the WaPo, NYT and others pick up on it before its too late.

The Baaa-Studs

In Time of War, Laws Fall Silent

Today the Justice Department declassified some the legal opinions and theories penned by Bush's Justice Department specifically John Yoo. Now if you followed the FISA debate or any of the hearings in 2006 his name came up fairly often. He basically tried to justify the incredible expansion of power that occurred in executive branch under Bush.

Here are some highlights First it started with an argument that the FISA court could be a little more lax then what is required in a regular court of law and eventually devolved into an argument that the 4th amendment doesn't apply at all for our country in a time of heightened alertness (hence the terror code) and then lays the ground work that allows the army to shot first and ask questions later if at all. It's down right orwellian! I find it terrifying to see the things that ere in the back of my mind during the last eight years actually come to light and have been thought of/justified in the highest echelons of our government. I guess it's time to join up SOS because 2009 is 25 years is too late!

Thankfully by the time 2008-2009 rolled around the Justice Department woke up and flatly denied that these are even remotely usable opinions. According to Ars Technica the words"unconvincing," "not satisfactory," and "erroneous" were used quite frequently in the reports accompanying these documents. But it still is scary that from September 11th till the election. This is what the justice department used to justify its actions and would've used if it came down to it.

Don't Stop Mii Now

This is in a word...awesome!

Happy Valentine's Day!

From: xkcd