inkbluesky

According to The Children’s Defense Fund Each Day in America

* 1 mother dies in childbirth.
* 4 children are killed by abuse or neglect.
* 5 children or teens commit suicide.
* 8 children or teens are killed by firearms.
* 33 children or teens die from accidents.
* 77 babies die before their first birthdays.

Gordon Lee: The Road To Trial 

   During Halloween week 2004, Gordon Lee’s comic shop, Legends, of Rome, GA, participated in a trick-or-treat event in downtown Rome by distributing free comics. “Alternative Comics #2,” the Free Comic Book Day edition from publisher Alternative Comics for 2004, was inadvertently included in the mix of books being given away. The comic was a single copy among thousands of comics being given away that day, and was accidentally handed to a minor, whose parent filed a complaint with the police.

The comic book features a variety of stories from the company’s line, including an excerpt from Nick Bertozzi’s now published graphic novel The Salon, depicting the first meeting between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. On three pages of the eight page section, Picasso is depicted in the nude, a factually accurate detail for the period during which the story is set. There is no sexual content in the story.
Upon learning of the error in distributing the comic, Lee admitted that a mistake was made and offered to make a public apology for the first of many times. That apology was rejected, however, so days later, Lee was arrested.

Let’s be honest a cartoon rendering of a nude Picasso is pretty devastating. I vaguely remember seeing one when I was a child and haven’t been the same since. Still it would seem that the children of our ever so advanced western civilization face some other challenges deserving of more attention that might be less wasteful of tax dollars and the crowded dockets of our court system.

This guy is a journalist, a pro, an expert if you will and he isn’t fond of bloggers. M’s Jill, a rather good blogger replys, Dear Michael Skube,

You seem to be under the impression that bloggers want to do away with the journalistic establishment, and that we want to replace it with an internet free-for-all. That may be what the right-wing, Fox-worshipping dingbats over at Instapundit or TownHall are fighting for, but for the most part, progressive bloggers don’t want to see the end of CNN or the New York Times or Newsweek. We just want you to do your job. Bloggers are a lot of things, but for the most part, we aren’t reporters. We don’t have the resources that you have, or the institutional support. We’re critics, commentators, vultures who pick apart and criticize and sometimes build on the work that you do. We occasionally break stories, and sometimes we cover events, but many of us are decidedly partisan and don’t bother to feign neutrality. Some of us do report, and do try to adhere to traditional journalistic ethics. Most of us don’t. That’s ok. And, God help me for quoting Markos, but he’s right when he says that “We need to keep the media honest, but as an institution, it’s important that they exist and do their job well.”

There’s more at the link and well worth the time to read. Kind of says it for me. I don’t mind the coverage of the new shoes for fall, or how to cook a better pot roast, but I would like a little more bull dog and less sniveling to the powers that be in my ideal journalism . We live in a pretty complex society we can’t all get up and start playing political, cultural and economic detective we need an honest hard working press to be our proxy, our guardians. The only thing that most of the activists bloggers do is try and keep people like Mike honest. He among others might not like it, but he’s delusional to think that the net roots will just give up this valuable tool and just go back to throwing old slippers at the TV.

lime vertigo