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Can You Live on Food Stamp Assistance?

Newark, New Jersey mayor Cory Booker is drawing attention to the difficulties faced by families who rely on food stamps (the SNAP program) for their nutritional needs, spending only $33.00 for a week of food: Cory Booker has been known to run into burning buildings to save his constituents. But last Thursday, the Newark, N.J., […]

December 17, 2012/by dpogreba

Media Spectacle in Connecticut

Daily Wisdom

In light of our discussion about Neil Postman’s model of propaganda and the tragic events in Connecticut, this commentary from Roger Ebert seems appropriate: Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites […]

December 16, 2012/by dpogreba

Can You Live on Food Stamp Assistance?

Daily Wisdom

December 17, 2012/by dpogreba

Media Spectacle in Connecticut

Daily Wisdom

December 16, 2012/by dpogreba

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Can You Live on Food Stamp Assistance?

Daily Wisdom

Cory Booker has been known to run into burning buildings to save his constituents. But last Thursday, the Newark, N.J., mayor’s biggest challenge was whether or not he could get through a single meeting without taking a nibble of one Christmas cookie.
Booker, 43, and a rising star Democrat, has been living on just $33 of food over the last week as part of an effort to understand the plight of Americans who struggle to live on food stamps. The experiment ends Tuesday.
Booker has said he’s trying to raise public awareness about the struggles of average Americans amid threats of federal funding cuts to food stamp programs around the nation. But the mayor’s very public campaign comes as Booker mulls a challenge to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in next year’s gubernatorial race.

Here in Montana, according to the Montana Partnership to End Child Hunger:

14.5% of all people live with Low Food Security.
20.9% all children live with Low or Very Low Food Security.
125,226 people receive SNAP assistance.

December 17, 2012/by dpogreba

Media Spectacle in Connecticut

Daily Wisdom

In light of our discussion about Neil Postman’s model of propaganda and the tragic events in Connecticut, this commentary from Roger Ebert seems appropriate:

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, “that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?” The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.

The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”

In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

December 16, 2012/by dpogreba