Month: March 2005

Just click here.

Take it easy, Rod.

Has the media intentionally publicized the most youthful looking picture of Jeff Weise, the gunman who opened fire and killed ten people at Red Lake High School? Does a tragedy like this impact us more if we see outdated pictures depicting the shooter as a child? I wonder. Some reports have said Weise was 15 years old, others say he was 16, and yet another has aged him at 17 years. I’ve taken a look at a wide variety of news sites and have noticed that the most common picture of Weise is this one…

Meanwhile, other sites have shown this picture.

But, from what I can tell, their are 2 pictures of Weise that seem the most accurate. This one…

And this one…

It’s hard to imagine that the boy in the first and second picture is the same boy who described himself here, or the one who posted this nonsense, or who blogged at this site.

There were varying pictures shown of the Columbine shooters, but none of them were as disparate as these. What’s the goal? Is there a goal? What does the media have to gain, if anything? Are we as a society better able to accept tragedies like Red Lake if the murderer looks like someone who could commit the crime? Does it make better news to depict the monster as a child?

I wonder.

Only $249,950!

If you live in Seattle and you’re tired of life in the apartment, stop throwing that rent money away and invest in this charmer! Comes with complimentary hazmat team!

Whoa, this kid had serious problems. This story is tragic and could have been prevented. 

More: Take a look at Jeff Weise’s Yahoo! profile page.

Lunacy

Remember this hot topic from a few weeks ago? Well, forget about it, at least for now.

Online Politicking Receives Temporary Reprieve

Political bloggers would continue to be exempt from most campaign finance laws, according to highly anticipated rules that federal regulators released Wednesday.

The Federal Election Commission also proposed that online-only news outlets and that even individual bloggers should be treated as legitimate journalists and immune from laws that could count their political endorsements as campaign contributions.

The 47-page outline of proposed rules (click here for PDF file) takes a cautious approach to the explosive question of how Web sites and e-mail should be regulated, with the FEC saying throughout that its conclusions are only tentative ones and inviting public comment. The comment process is expected to be approved by the FEC at its meeting Thursday.

I haven’t read the proposed rules yet, so I’ll hold any further comment until I do. Nonetheless, don’t let this issue fall too far off your radar. If there isn’t a “gotcha” in this new proposal, you can bet that the (bad) regulations in the original proposal will come up again, soon.

…bout a man named Brady.

What used to be complex can now be done in the privacy of your own home with under $500 worth of digital video equipment. Back in the late 60’s and early 70’s, The Brady Bunch television show opened with a tic-tac-toe board effect containing the head-shots of each member of the Brady Family. First Mike, then Carol, then the kids. One by one, they would show up, looking straight into the camera at first, but then looking up, down and at various angles as if they were looking at one another. While I can’t find any data as to what that 1 minute opener cost, I can imagine that nothing of that nature was cheap back then. In fact, I believe it was changed only 3 times over the life of the TV show.

That was then.

Take a look at what this guy has done. Yeah, it’s a little weird, but still, it’s amazing how easy it is for an individual to reproduce something that used to take a team of people, multiple camera shots, vast amounts of editing (to film no less) and at least a month of production time.

Ain’t technology grand?

(h/t Boing Boing)

The 131st Carnival of the Vanities is up over at CodeBlueBlog.

Way to go Christine.

Washington State Governor Gregoire barely gets elected, then turns around and proposes to raise taxes. She wants to collect $203 million over the next two years.

Gov. Christine Gregoire proposed raising $203 million in taxes in a two-year budget that avoids major cuts in services and spends millions on raises for state workers and teachers, reducing school-class sizes and creating two new four-year colleges

Deep cuts, widely expected a few days ago, are largely missing in her $25.8 billion general-fund budget. Gregoire would close a projected $1.6 billion shortfall, in large part, with steps that don’t cause immediate pain. For example, she would save $524 million by making changes to the state pension system and deferring payments to it. Gregoire proudly called it “a legacy budget” that moves the state forward.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Just perfect.

If you’d like a glimpse at what a Hillary presidency would look like, watch Gregoire.

Goal #1 – get into power by any means possible.
Goal #2 – govern as a raging Socialist no matter what you said to achieve Goal #1.