News Junkie?

If you're one of the few to have read my blog from it's begining, you may have asked yourself, "what exactly is a News Junkie?". We all know that a junkie is someone that is addicted to something that is harmful or destructive to that person. When we think of a junkie, we first think of someone who is addicted to heroin or some other illegal drug. We also know that the definition of a Junkie can be streched to include alcohol and gambling addictions.

When we think of the news though, we don't usually associate the news with any addictions. In the middle of the current school quarter, I have found myself reaching for a newspaper or magazine, when I suddenly realise that I have a paper or a blog to write, or a computer project to work on. I feel like an addict as I slowly, with much resistence, replace the newspaper or magazine on the table. My wife had unwittingly become a "News Dealer" when she, very conveniently, placed the newspaper on the table, making it all too easy for me to get my regular morning "fix".

As you can see, breaking this addiction hasn't been easy for me. Old habits are hard to break. Day by day I feel myself getting stronger. I feel more focused on what I need to be focused on. Now, only occasionally, do I let myself indulge in the news. I find myself doing things I didn't know I was capable of doing. I think they call it personal growth. I think I like it. I think...

The United States Supreme Court

Image provided by NCinDC on flickr

The United States Constitution established the three branches of our federal government. If you follow the news at all, you can't help reading or watching stories about the two most visible branches, the executive branch, and the legislative branch. The front pages are filled with articles on what the president did or said. The mass media have made superstars of so many congressmen that you need only refer to them by their last names. Names such as Pelosi, Kennedy, Specter, Reid, and McConnell are heard so often that even a news addict gets tired of reading about them.

As a senior in high school my U. S. Government teacher introduced us to that third unknown branch of our government called the Judiciary branch. Of course we had all heard of this branch, but like the rest of the country none of us knew much about the United States Supreme Court. The media didn’t give it much coverage, so the Judiciary branch somehow lost it’s power in the public eye. The Founding Fathers of the United States, however, never lost sight of the fact that too much power in too few hands tends to lead to an abuse of that power. They created the three branches of our government, with enough checks and balances built into the constitution, that no one branch could do much without the backing of at least one of the other two.

So it was then, in my senior year in high school, that my secret fascination with the Supreme Court began. I started looking deeper into the newspaper than the front pages, for rulings the Supreme Court had made. I began to notice that you could always count on certain Justices to vote a certain way on any given issue. I began to play a game where I would predict how each member of the Supreme Court would vote on such issues as abortion, affirmative action, pro business issues, and pro union issues. I soon realized that I could name all nine Supreme Court Justices just by breaking down the way the Court rules on the major issues. The Court has it’s left wing, right wing, and swing voters. The current Justices of the Court can be broken down in the following way:

Left Wing	Swing Vote	Right Wing
John Paul Stevens	Anthony M. Kennedy	Chief Justice John Roberts
David H. Souter		Antonin Scalia
Ruth Bader Ginsburg		Clarence Thomas
Stephen Breyer		Samuel Alito

Kennedy, Breyer, Stevens, Thomas, Roberts, Ginsburg, Scalia, Alito, and Souter

As you can see, the Supreme Court is, at the moment, balanced with four consistent votes on the left and four consistent votes on the right. Justice Kennedy has been the deciding vote on so many issues that one might say that Justice Kennedy is the Court's most important member. Every now and then one of the Justices will vote in an unexpected way. When this happens, I like to read that Justice's opinion on the issue to find out why he or she voted that way. It's a way of getting to know the Justice a little better and it's a reassuring comfort to know the Justices do give much thought to each vote.

One last ironic fact, that I find most interesting, is that 7 of the 9 Justices were appointed by Republican presidents. (Ginsburg and Breyer were both Clinton appointees) Justices Souter, Stevens, and Kennedy all drifted to the left, philosophically speaking, after they had been seated. Interesting indeed.

PIRATES! Arrgh!

When we think of pirates we usually think of swashbuckling pirates like Captain Jack Sparrow, the pirate that Johnny Depp played in the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. Legendary names like Blackbeard, Barbarossa, and Captain Kidd inspire thoughts of glamour, fun and adventure. In the centuries since they sailed the high seas, pirates have been transformed from the murderers, rapists, bullies and thieves they were, into the heroes we admire in movies today. Pirates, we assumed, had disappeared in the centuries since those legendary pirates last sailed.

In the 21^st century, what chance does a news addict have at resisting stories about modern day pirates off the coast of Somalia? I have been utterly unable to resist any story about these pirates, in any form, whether on television, in newspapers, magazines and on the Internet.

The conditions that exist in the east African country of Somalia are perfect for producing modern day pirates. Since the early 1990’s the country of Somalia has had a government that is so weak that it is really more accurate to say the country has no government. It is truly a lawless country. It has no army, no police, and no legal justice system. With no government, and very little natural resources, Somalia’s jobless and poverty rates are very high. Such conditions have produced desperation in the population. Somalia has over 3,000 kilometers of unregulated coastline. The northern coastline of Somalia borders the Gulf of Aden, through which cruise ships, oil tankers and ships carrying valuable cargo must pass.

Pirates on the lookout for passing ships

These modern day pirates ride in small speed boats, armed with only assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs), then try to take over any ship that happens to pass by. When they are successful at taking over a ship, they then demand cash ransoms from the ship owners and insurers. This tactic has paid off several times, making the pirates popular with the ordinary citizens of Somalia that benefit from the pirates spending their ill-gotten cash at their shops and businesses.

Modern day pirates boarding a ship

The modern navies of the world are teaming up, and patrolling the shores off Somalia’s coast, trying their best to protect the ships that pass by, and they’re beginning to make progress. I just can’t wait to see what happens next.

Temporarily giving into my addiction

I was taking the day off today, relaxing at home, reading Newsweek Magazine, when I came across an article by Daniel Lyons called "Time to Hang Up the Pajamas". (OK, yes I know, I gave into my addiction once again) Apparently, Mr. Lyons has been writing a blog called "The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs". He writes about how it was possible to make money writing a blog and selling ad space on your blog. The more readers you have the more money you make. I'm undecided on this issue, but it just doesn't feel right to me. The world of blogging is new to me and I'm learning new things about it everyday, even when I'm at home taking the day off. I point you to this article, not to get you to try to make money writing a blog, but help bring awareness of blogging's many potential uses.

OK - I Admit It

OK, I admit it. I am a News Junkie. They say admitting you have a problem is the first step down the road to recovery. For most of my life, I've tried to hide my addiction. Expressing my views on current events, national news, international news, politics, macro economics, Wall Street, local news and history is something I've always tried to avoid. I shared my views only to my closest friends, and family. I've always had a deep respect for people that believe differently than I do. Maybe I've been a bit too deferential. The deferential attitude that I've had, has usually kept me deep in the closet. Please bare with me as I take my first few steps out.

I feel I must be honest and say how my addiction started. When I was very young, my family had only one television. Can you believe that? How's a family suppose to survive with just one TV? As it turns out, most families in the seventies had only one TV. Those families lucky enough to have a color TV were the envy of the block. What does having only one TV have to do with my early addiction? Well, let me tell you. When my brothers and I came home from school, my mother would be busy in the kitchen. We had the TV all to ourselves. We watched cartoons or went out to play with the other kids on the block from the time we got home until my mom said it was time to eat. We were in kid heaven. Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, maybe the Three Stooges, what more could a kid ask for. After we ate though... that was another story. My parents wanted to watch what they wanted. And what did my parents want to watch? Jerry Dunphy and the Big News on channel 2. Oh the boredom. Oh the shear torture of having to watch the news. My brother and I would sit quietly for a couple of seconds before we'd start to fidget, poke, prod, and joke at each other until my dad would give us a harsh scolding. So we'd sit there, and every now and then a word or two, through multiple repetition, would sink into my mind. Vietnam, Watergate. Vietnam, Watergate.

Each time a story or video on Vietnam would come on, I would sit there and listen to the body counts and casualty figures and hope it meant that we were winning. I really didn't connect these cold numbers to human lives when I was a kid. I know I shouldn't, but I still feel a touch of guilt about that today.

Watergate is where my addiction really began though. I kept hearing about it over and over again. Finally one day I passed by the newspaper that was on the dining room table and caught yet another headline about Watergate. OK, OK, I finally gave in, what's a Watergate? I picked up the paper and started reading. I was really too young to be reading a newspaper written for adults, so I had to ask my mom about the meaning of many words, but with her help I was able to understand what Watergate was (a hotel in Washington D.C., see photo) and President Nixon's role in the burglaries that took place at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Office complex, in 1972. Reading a headline or two from the newspaper became a regular morning ritual that I continue to this day. You can see that it was not my fault. My parents are to blame for this addiction I have.

I shouldn't blame them though. It would be so easy to blame my parents for my current addiction, but if I am to recover from it, I must take responsibility...