FAIR explains how our government has been stepping up its efforts against actual journalism. No, not the kind of "journalism" CNN did all day Monday about whoever-that-was doing whatever-she-was-doing -- I mean the kind where actual journalists reveal actual secrets people deserve to know. People, it's bad.
Alternet lists five corporations making boatloads of money keeping us terrified of terrorists. Some of their officials pop up on TV, and naturally the "liberal" media hasn't been telling its viewers they make money off the "war on terror," because why would that be relevant? Note well, also, the revolving door between government and private security firms as described therein.
Another day, another dumbass Republican Congressman justifying doing nothing about pollution because the earth has warmed in the past. Once again: the fact that global warming happened in the past does not automatically mean "there's a cycle to all this," or that we can go on polluting as much as we feel like. Consider Mr. Rokita part of the Pro-Pollution Caucus.
Psychologists find that exposure to media violence does generally predispose its consumers toward physical aggression. For too long (and I've been just as guilty of this as anyone else), we've dismissed the relationship between media violence and real violence by pointing only to things like school shootings, when there are many kinds of violence.
Get your surprised face ready -- fracking can drive property values down. Evidence is anecdotal so far, but if banks don't want to lend to folks buying near fracking sites, that's going to affect the industry. I won't go so far as to say it'll affect the industry more than pressuring your legislators does, but it's nice to get some help from the "free market" for once.
Finally, Raleigh, NC police threatens a local ministry with arrest if they continue to give out food to the homeless. Police spokeshack says police were merely enforcing an ordinance prohibiting folks from handing out food at a park without a permit, though the police haven't enforced said ordinance in years. Well, they said helping the poor wasn't the government's job, and now, apparently, it's not the church's job, either -- nor yours, if you can't afford the permit (and at $1,600 per weekend, you can't).