On television, from our sofas, predators can seem fascinating, and in reality, predators such as great white sharks, cougars, and bears are intriguing creatures. However, fear ensues when these animals are reported injuring or killing people. Consequently, retribution or retaliation may occur, but these large predators are often unfairly targeted and misunderstood.
Many conflicts with large predatory animals can be avoided by keeping alert and making your presence known when visiting their environment, or by traveling in groups, or visiting certain areas (or swimming in certain waters) during particular times of the day when these animals are less active. Some hikers use bear bells[1] or pepper spray to deter aggressive animals. Also, not feeding wild animals or properly storing food will prevent food conditioning—another problem that results in human-wildlife conflicts.
Thousands of protestors gathered over the weekend in Washington, D.C., to protest the Obama Administration’s policies. However, controversy over the number of protestors attending the rally ensued after several exaggerated estimates were perpetuated either negligently or purposefully by Michelle Malkin, Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks, and careless Twitters. From David Weigel at The Washington Independent (emphasis added):
So, how many people showed up at the 9/12 taxpayer march on Washington? One signal of the confusion over crowd counts came from the stage. Speakers alternately thanked a crowd that numbered in the “tens of thousands” and the “hundreds of thousands.” The source of that confusion, however, seemed to come from Twitter. The plugged-in Tea Party protesters who watched their progress on the insta-blogging service found anonymous and semi-anonymous people claiming that their numbers were nearing 2 million. At one point, Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks got on stage and told the crowds that ABC News was reporting those high numbers.
Kibbe has walked that number back, crediting the mistake to misinformation on Twitter, and that leaves ABC’s estimate of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters as the one that most media are using. Some conservatives are arguing for a bigger number; Robert Stacy McCain, in a post linked by Michelle Malkin, argues that “a people-meter at the intersection of Constitution Avenue and 11th Street” counted 450,000 people, and that some people made it late to the event due to traffic problems, so the media is undercounting it.
This dispute won’t end soon, as any veterans of anti-war protests could tell conservatives; it’s tough to get accurate crowd counts and tough to believe that something that felt massive was not, in fact, historically large. This was the largest march on Washington by conservatives in anyone’s memory. But Washington was home to one of the largest public gatherings of the decade just nine months ago, when 1.8 million people filled the mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial for President Obama’s inauguration, and that has given future protesters a barometer for their success. The reports of “2 million people” on the mall this weekend were always ludicrous.
Most arguments against the public option are based either on deliberate misrepresentation of what that option would mean, or on remarkably thorough misunderstanding of the concept, which persists to a frustrating degree: I was really surprised to see Joe Klein worrying about the creation of a system in which doctors work directly for the government, British-style, when that has nothing whatsoever to do with the public option as proposed. (Forty years of Medicare haven’t turned the US into that kind of system — why would having a public plan change that?)
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Let me add a sort of larger point: aside from the essentially circular political arguments — centrist Democrats insisting that the public option must be dropped to get the votes of centrist Democrats — the argument against the public option boils down to the fact that it’s bad because it is, horrors, a government program. And sooner or later Democrats have to take a stand against Reaganism — against the presumption that if the government does it, it’s bad.
In arguing against healthcare reform or government spending, the taxpayer and big government memes are frequently parroted and not thoroughly challenged by the media.
I’m a liberal, because I want to know the truth. To do this, I’m open-minded, and I do my best to consider issues objectively and from all viewpoints. However, the views of these 9/12 Project attendees clearly ignores reality, and it turns a blind eye to facts, so it ignores the truth. For example, the irony in the image below is so blatant that I wonder if these people suffer from a radical loss of touch with reality. Undoubtedly, special interests are counting on the gullibility of these people in order to keep the broken status quo in place.
Furthermore, these folks fail to understand that the federal government’s role is to keep its citizens happy and set prudent policy to solve some of our country’s biggest problems. A small or insignificant federal government will fail miserably, because the states failed miserably under the Articles of Confederation. The states could never replicate the consistency or cohesion that the federal government provides.
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Photo source for attribution here, here, and here. The authors or licensors of these images do not endorse my work or me and their images are protected under an attribution license.
“I’d always heard the stories of the traditions of cows grazing in the Yard and really couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see one,” said Radcliffe alumna Naomi Shore. “I think it’s great fun.”
The response was just what Cox was hoping for. While the ceremony provided a lighthearted break from the pressures and pace of the early back-to-school frenzy, it also offered something a little more concrete, remarked the professor.
The cow’s presence, Cox told the crowd, represents “how much closer we need to be to the animals that sustain us, to the Earth, the grass, the vegetables. … Perhaps it shouldn’t be such an oddity to see a cow grazing in Harvard Yard. If it happened once, perhaps it could happen again. And if not a cow, [or] a pasture, perhaps then at least a garden,” he said, adding that if the White House lawn could have a garden Harvard Yard surely could.
Of course, Representative Joe Wilson gave a non-apology apology. From TPMDC (emphasis added):
Wilson has in fact just apologized: “This evening I let my emotions get the best of me when listening to the President’s remarks regarding the coverage of illegal immigrants in the health care bill. While I disagree with the President’s statement, my comments were inappropriate and regrettable. I extend sincere apologies to the President for this lack of civility.”
It’s an understatement to say that Wilson is a big-time conservative activist — he’s actually opening his office this Saturday, to host people marching in the Glenn Beck-organized “9/12 March on Washington.” And nothing says the spirit of national unity — the original premise of Beck’s 9/12 movement — like yelling “You lie!” at the President in the middle of a speech to Congress.
The reaction:
Joe Wilson, you lie (or you don’t pay attention and don’t care about due diligence, thus prefer to ignore reality and live in ignorance). More from Media Matters for America:
Of course, the rude heckling by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) is being reported everywhere. And yes, his apology for the extraordinary outburst has been noted. But have you noticed what’s been mostly left out from the dispatches? It’s the fact that when Wilson called Obama a liar for claiming illegal immigrants would not be covered by proposed health care reforms, Wilson himself was lying.
What’s been completely glossed over by the press is the fact that the “You Lie!” was itself built upon a lie. That the rude outburst was yet more GOP misinformation. Instead, too many in the press treat the exchange as a he said/he said. i.e. Obama claimed illegal immigrants won’t be covered, and Wilson called him a liar. What are the facts? Which man was telling the truth? The press won’t say.
A Republican member of Congress interrupted President Obama’s speech tonight on the floor of the House of Representatives to yell “You lie!” at the president, in reference to the president’s assertion that his proposals wouldn’t provide health insurance to illegal immigrants.
That’s it. ABC never even tries to inform online readers which side was telling the truth.
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, since the press has spent the whole summer timidly looking away from the orchestrated, right-wing misinformation. What does a Republican have to do these days to get fact-checked by the press?
However, for weeks, independent fact-checkers like PolitiFact and Factcheck.org have maintained that the House bill does NOT give illegal immigrants benefits like tax subsidies.
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