Peace Protesters: wasters of money and time

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Every time US goes to war, such as against Iraq, Afghanistan, and so on, some "peace protesters" dominate the news by staging huge rallies, disrupt people's lives in general, raise a lot of ruckus all over the place. In the nutty place known as Berkeley California, there's even a protest right in front of an Armed Forces recruiting station. What exactly do they hope to accomplish with such actions?

It sounds like the protesters themselves don't even really know. If you ask them "how will your actions today stop the war and achieve peace?" Their answer is pretty much, "we need to show the government that fighting is not the answer!"

Cynic, vs. skeptic

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

First, here is a poll:

Cynic: (n) A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness.

Skeptic: (n) One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.

Given the two definitions here (which are both from answers.com, you can check yourself), which would you prefer a news reporter to be? A cynic? or a skeptic?

I am sure most of you would prefer skeptic, as a news reporter is supposed to be neutral, and should have no "beliefs" when it comes to reporting the news.

However, both of the following quotes are attributed to the Ted Koppel, formerly of ABC News, now working for NPR:

My function is, as objectively and accurately as I can, to present reality to people out there, and doing that as quickly as we do is quite difficult enough, thank you. -- Ted Koppel

My level of cynicism about the reasons that took us to war against Iraq remain just as well-developed as they were before I went. -- Ted Koppel

(both from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/t/ted_koppel.html)

If the quotes are accurate, and not taken out of context (and it's pretty hard to imagine how these complete quotes CAN be taken out of context), it means that he had always reported about the Iraq war with preconceptions, even when he promised to report objectively.

And it is interesting to note that both ABC and NPR are often accused of being too liberal. However, it is quite rare for a news reporter and news anchor to admit his own bias, isn't it?

Pre-Thanksgiving rant

This is a rant since nobody is cooking turkey this Thanksgiving, and looks like I'm not invited anywhere for their dinner. Not that I really like Turkey any way.

So what's about Turkey and Ham over Thanksgiving any way? Thought you all want people back home about Christmas?

Think about the troops who's still spending time in Iraq or Afghanistan! While the US military will ship them turkey and such, they need your help for stuff they can use! Simple wet wipes, daily sundries, home-made cookies, and more are great morale boosters.

I don't have much thanks to give this year. I guess I've managed to live through another year without getting much done. If you asked me what did I do this year, I really would have told you "I don't know", but at least I did think about it a bit.