I was watching the news last night, and one segement called "News in Black & White" came on. In this segment, news stories were shown separately to a group of white people and a group of black people. The two groups were asked about their feelings after watching each story. Not surprisingly, the white and black groups had different feelings, and the black group had feelings related to race whereas the white group did not. I felt that I needed to comment on this.

First off, as a group of people, whites are trained now from an early age not to try to draw any racial inferences from situations. Even if they do, they should not at any cost talk about it. So they wouldn't say anything about race even if they thought about it. Pretty much, we suppress those feelings and don't talk about them often.

I remember seeing one of the news stories they showed to the groups, and I remember what I was thinking. It was about a kid who claims he was harrassed by the cops when they questioned him about a nearby robbery. I agree with the black group... it shouldn't have been news. My reasoning was that the kid (by his own admission) did not respond to the cops when they first asked him over to their car. The dumbass should learn not to ignore a cop. The black group's reasoning, however, stemmed from racial issues. They reasoned it happens every day to black people and you don't hear about it, but since this was a white kid it made the news.

My real point here is that if you dwell on a topic enough, and keep it in your mind enough, eventually everything seems to relate. A devout Jew who is constantly studying Jewish/Christian relations might always see things that seem to point to bad feelings toward Judaism. A devout Christian who is constantly studying sex in the media might always see things that really aren't sexual in nature as bad. A person who is always studying racial tension might see something racial in an innocuous media item. My point is, if you're always looking for conspiracies, conspiracies are all you'll see.

Oh, and this article is what got me to thinking of this... if Japanese people can play a game where they "fight" against their forefathers, why does America have a hang up with racism? The difference is that Japan has left the past where it should be, in the past.

Good illustration of the way politics work. Say you want to cut taxes and get backed by everyone, say you want to up benefits, and get backed by everyone. But point out that doing both of those is impossible, and everyone distances themselves from you.

I agree with Bush, that a marriage should be between a man and woman, but really... is this a matter that needs a Constitutional Amendment?

Damn right this woman should be fired!

One of these days, people will learn that our law enforcement agencies are not infallible.

Science Fiction becoming reality... BBC NEWS | Technology | US military creates second Earth

A group of scientists, including 12 Nobel Prize winners, charged President Bush's administration with "suppressing and distorting scientific findings that run counter to its own political beliefs." US scientists tax Bush on climate. According to one report, cataclysmic global change could push us all into chaos within 20 years. Did this report come from some left-wing liberal tree-hugging group? No, this report was commissioned by the Pentagon. Will Bush listen to it and make his administration take steps to ensure our future? Or will he ignore it like the Kyoto Protocol?

I think this is a cool idea. I would love to do something like this, just to improve my photography skills.