The Weather

Okay, so I just happened to look out of one of those windows in the New York City area and the scene of the weather outside looks like something out of a science fiction movie as in that Day After Tomorrow movie that makes me want to Twitter the hash tags #snowpocalypse and #snowmageddon2014. And that #polar vortex hashtag seems to be trending also, as in dang, how long I been gone to where it is now snowing for what seems like the 100th time this week to where there are mounds of snow the sizes of cars and cars are buried in snow as far as the eye can see. And I know I don't really have anything else to blah blog about on this blaghing day today to where I find myself literally blaghing about the weather just for the sake of attempting to maintain content for this blog and my other blog whenever bloggers block possible. And it has snowed so much this season in that coast or the Northeast and even in the South in that country of North America, that cities and counties have run out of road salt and there isn't a shovel to be found in the stores for miles and miles. And one can say it's just winter, and the weather report says that spring is on the way. And then there's David the snow sculpture artist for winter weary New Yorkers. And then there also that Climate Change Is Affecting The Weather Patterns Article with a paragraph that reads:

Governors have declared states of emergencies from Louisiana to New Jersey due to a massive snow and ice storm. A National Weather Service memo calls the storm "an event of historical proportions," identifying it as "catastrophic ... crippling ... paralyzing ... choose your adjective." The storm has already caused at least 13 deaths and left 550,000 without power. We speak to Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground.

And gee what a headline and photo in this London and New York storms are holding hands over Atlantic and are now combing article. Is there climate change? And the wind is howling. Have a great weather day and more.

The Worst Part Of Censorship Is

And on this day finds itself another one of those Sundays that has rolled around, the Sabbath, the day of rest, the day of God, or is that Saturday.  And yet I find myself blaghing away for some reason. And I am not sure if I have blaghed about the topic of censorship or even discrimination, on this blog before, as I would have to search this blog to see, and that's if it would even appear and has not been censored. And with a website name called "No Police State" versus "Pro Police State", that name of a website surely finds itself entertaining the subject of censorship every so often in a conservative, patriotic or traditional world, or whatever you may want to call it, even in the age of digital and social media where transparency and alternative voices have a better chance of reaching the light. And so I decided to post some of those images in internetland of those "The Worst Part of Censorship Is XXXXXX XXXXX" images. And an interesting article that I came across in internetland regarding that topic of censorship, The Worst Part of Censorship...., reads as follows. And what, if anything, does this have to do with a No Police State. Have a great day of the sun and more.

Censorship is such an ugly word. In the context that it’s often used (internet piracy, journalism, and media) it sounds like it’s either the best or worst thing to ever happen to information flow. The definition of censor is “an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.” (via dictionary.com)
Most recently, after the killing of Osama Bin Laden, the government made the choice to not allow the photos to be released or made public in any fashion. In some regards, this is censorship. In a journalistic sense, censorship largely is not an issue in the United States. It is most prevalent in other countries such as China, North Korea, etc. Freedom of speech, however it is exercised is something that we take for granted here in America. It’s not something that we have to march for or fight over. It’s already clearly granted in our constitution.
However, do we truly have free speech? Are our words and actions in the truest sense of the word; free? Is there a system of government, or a collection of special interest groups and corporations that make up a large part of the information that we see on a daily basis? Does the information stream have it’s bottlenecks, wherein words are lost not truly free to move about as dictated entirely by the consumer?

WikiLeaks

 

Take WikiLeaks, for example. The self claimed goal of WikiLeaks (according to their site) is as follows; “WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation. Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic drop box).” Generally speaking, what’s wrong with that? Journalistically, the concept behind WikiLeaks is nothing more than an aggressive means in which to release information (which we claim is free in the United States) to the public, in this case, online. Any true journalist should be more concerned with the relevance and impact of their story (information) than where the chips might fall should the story be published. WikiLeaks has faded from the public eye in some ways, but they’re continuing to do what they’ve always done.

Information

 

The point of information is to be shared, and in the high tech world we live in where terabytes of documents can be blasted around the world in matters of moments, it’s a journalists dream. If information is truly free as we claim it is, sites like WikiLeaks, and the free flow of information should be as open as possible. If there’s a problem with the government, or key insight into how and where taxpayer dollars are spent, for example, this information should be made available to the public, regardless of the consequences. Journalists have to be free to publish their information; and in the even that they’re not, there is always the internet.