STAN'S BLOGS

While referencing The CIA World Factbook , you'll find that 90% of our fellow Americans claim to be religious (2002 est.). Then, turning the pages of the Web to NationMaster.com , you'll find that only 44% (#11 worldwide, just below #10 Italy at 45%) of adults surveyed claimed that they attend Church services one or more times per week. Curious stats for an area of our lives that's suppose to take top billing on our list of important future events—leaving this world. So what gives? Either the "practice what you preach" rule doesn't apply to today's American religious or over half of our religious citizens are "just saying" they have a religious bent in order to appease their peers, bosses or those omnipresent feelings of impending biblical doom. There could be trouble, if they don't believe. Saying that you are affiliated with a particular church or religious belief certainly has it's advantages in America. Even saying you believe in ...

I love recreational, multi-terrain bicycling and I love any effort made to preserve the great outdoors for better biking, hiking or whatever. So, while scanning the news wires this morning, it's no surprise that this headline: "Budapest Critical Mass with up to 30,000 people" caught my wild eye. You won't find this story on ABCNews.com , CNN.com , NYTimes.com or even the BBCNews site; no... for this story you'll need to go to IndyMedia.org —the news you lose, if you're only reading the snooze news. The story read out like some nationally attended Earth Day event in the U.S., but this one was happening on the other side of the world. It turns out we're not the only people to care about foundering environmental issues and, per capita—Hungary's population: 10,006,835 (July 2005 est.)—we may not even be in the top ten. IndyMedia goes on to report, "Budapest, Hungary has experienced its greatest Critical Mass bike ride ever on September 22, 2005. Es...

Hurricane Katrina disaster relief contributions from the U.S. government, the private sector and the public have reached a total of $10,787,000,000. Bigtime, commercial fund raising events and concerts are still to come, and a national, cooperative fund raiser is being scheduled for anyone wishing to participate on September 9. The American public alone, not counting the government's help, have given at least $287-million to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Volunteers are also streaming into the American Red Cross 's "Disaster Response Training" classes, ready to ship out at a moments notice after taking an intense 9 hour preparation class. The Sacramento Sierra Chapter listed all "classes full" by 1am - Friday, but future classes are opening up daily and are being posted here . "The pace of giving is unprecedented in recent American history. In the 10 days after September 11, Americans donated $239-million to charitable causes, and in the 9 days...

[I make arguments for both sides before I choose a position; and only really need to choose a firm position on election day] Most of what I hear about politics, and have heard since the late '60s, both from those on the "left" and those on the "right" is one-sided, straight-across-the-board, all-or-nothing hyperbole—" Bush is a liar," " Hillary 's an idiot," " conservative s are moral," " liberal s are smarter." On and on go the iterations of talk radio and TV pundits, newspaper and WebNews writers, college professors and activists. Then come the expected, usually unsupported, reiterations at the street level: colleagues, coworkers, friends and relatives. That's fine if your only goal is to promote your own extremism to the demise of all else, but what about the rest of us that choose the truth regardless which side it falls on. Is it really intelligent to totally approve of or dismiss absolutely everything about...

[I scan newswire of websites daily using a "back door approach" and search engine technology for a better balance of reports] I'm a journalist . A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues and people. As a journalist, I'm expected to report in the most objective and unbiased way to serve the public good. And I do my best to explore, expose, explain and present both sides of every issue to fulfill my commitment to journalism. Along with mining the Web for news and information, I sometimes go out into the field and explore issues in person to further develop my experience of a topic. My eventual goal is to do on location reporting for a well known Web site or local newspaper when I'm strategically positioned to cover a story better than the mainstream journalists. My goal is to add something, show a different slant or bring attention to a story, not to restate what's alrea...

I've been a radio talk show junky since the very early '70s when Mick Martin, Charlie Weiss (high school classmate) and Travus T. Hipp (Sunday night talk host, most of the '70s) hosted the first, Sacramento area, freeform station KZAP FM . I listened intently when local, nutrition guru Cary Nosler (Captain Carrot) popped up on KCRA AM and couldn't wait for the late night discussions of Art Bell and his phalanx of scientists on KSTE AM . I was there for the KFBK-AM debuts of Christine Craft and Morton Downey Jr., and then Rush Limbaugh in 1984 when he returned to radio as a talk show host here in Sacramento, CA. These days I work my way around the AM dial daily to the likes of "Armstrong and Getty," "Al Franken and Laura Flanders," "Randi Rhodes," "Sean Hannity," "Michael Savage." I like radio and I like politics, and it doesn't get any better for talk radio junkies than today's superstar line-up! But I'm ha...

I began my fascination with urban hiking in the mid '80s after moving in with a room mate whose middle-class neighborhood home was located near a recreation, wilderness greenbelt in Roseville, CA. I was starting an overall health improvement kick, which then included a few miles of alternate running and power walking. Looking for a route to execute my every other day session of the "then" unnamed exercise I found a trail leading into the adjacent greenbelt that meandered for a mile and a half through an isolated wooded area and along shallow Linda Creek. The RPW exercise, soon to be coined "urban hiking," was transformed from a grueling routine into a looking forward to, peaceful and mind-expanding activity over the next few weeks. I was steadily increasing my physical endurance, lowering my heart rate and finding the quiet solitude a positive break from my hectic, inner city business day. Wild life and interesting insects flitted in and out from between the Val...

[My response to the PBS WideAngle program "Future of Lebanon"] This is an amazing, politically and culturally charged story about democracy's reemergence in pre-April 2005 Syrian dominated Lebanon. Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon's best-known politician, was murdered February 2005, on Valentine's Day, in a massive car bombing. The Cedar Revolution was born! The "Cedar revolution" (in reference to the tree that is Lebanon's national emblem), "people power" or "mini Ukraine": The popular protests that brought down Lebanon's cabinet on Monday have been described with grand words, around the world as well as in Lebanon. It has also been referred to as "the Gucci revolution, not because anyone was dismissive of the demonstrations, but because so many of those waving the Lebanese flag on the streets were very unlikely protestors. There were girls in tight skirts and high heels, carrying expensive leather bags...

Distilling the "bigger picture" from the mish-mash of todays news is an increasingly difficult task for the average news junkie. Newspapers, TV, radio and now the World Wide Web fervently blast out headlines and monologue 24/7 as fast as they can, attempting to incite controversy that sells more advertising than the next guy. How much of what we hear and read that is truly from the heart of the speaker or author we'll probably never knows. One thing for sure, it sells advertising nicely. Standing back a moment and trying to making sense of the big picture (our world) I find a few interesting points that I can pretty well bank on: 1. Man can not stay still and has always been on the move, migrating to the next nearest valley, country or continent and... 2. The further man migrated, the better things got (in general: South America has its problems). One of the first four civilizations began around the area of we today call Ethiopia; Ethiopia today is one of the poorest coun...

I thought at the very least we should be made aware of this crisis... This morning I checked FOXNews.com, the DRUDGE Report, Google News and Aljazeera's English Web site and not even a mention of the "Children starving to death in Niger." Finally on the BBC News' Web site, at the very bottom of the stories, there was a link to a series of reports . The only way I got tipped off to the story was that BBS News, much to their credit, featured it on their BBC World News program last night. Shouldn't this crisis be on the front pages? Sky News reports, "More than three million people, including almost a million children, face starvation if the world continues to ignore the worsening food crisis in Niger. A UN emergency flash appeal for the West African country was launched in May. It followed a locust invasion last year and lack of rain during the agricultural season that plunged nomadic herder and farming families into crisis." The 2004 Tsunami Disaster, an...

[I'm tired of hearing "there's more crime than ever," "look at all the crime in our streets" and "crime is totally out of control"] These are usually lazy-thinking responses to our society's other pressing problems, like over population, a desperate attempt to make sense of a troubled world and/or an easy way to blame everything we don't understand on something else. Now, it would be great if we could blame "everything" that's wrong with America on the criminal—just lock them all up and everything would be "rosy" again. We could quit brainstorming why things are so bad and get back to our TV, movies and sports. But that type of thinking just won't fly. If you do a little research, you'll find that not only is the crime rate NOT causing our news-headlined woos, but that the U.S. violent crime rate has been declining for the last 14 years. "Statistics of the past decade show that crime rates in Germany, th...

[My response to this years news coverage of the G8 Conference] Tony Blair at the 2005 G8 Conference in Gleneagles, Scotland failed to get all the G8 summit countries to commit to boosting foreign aid to an amount equal of 0.7 percent of national income by 2015. The United States did not make any additional pledges. There's no doubt that the United States of America is the largest contributor of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to some of the worlds poorest, underdeveloped countries. But before you start patting yourself on the back for a job well done, consider this: The U.S. giving is currently at .16% of gross national income, the SMALLEST percentage of any G-8 country. The U.S. is "2nd to last" out of 22 countries in giving as a percent of GNI. The U.S. only beats out Italy by .01% of GNI for last place among the 22 countries. Norway (.87%), Luxembourg (.85%), Denmark (.84%), Sweden (.77%) and the Netherlands (.74%) are the TOP 5 contributors as a percentage of GD...

[I want to protect your right to protest&#151I may need it someday] When it comes time for you, or maybe your children's' children, to protest a government that's "gone bad," and they all do eventually, will you have the right! Or will your right be muted by local police and/or national guard, being so powerful by then as to stifle the smallest resistance, snuff out the tiniest candle light of dissent. The U.S. Declaration of Independence states, "...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness..." I decided to check this "right to protest" out first hand during the WTO's Ministerial Conference on Food and Agriculture in Sacramento, California June 23rd to 25th, 2003*. Delegat...

[My response to street talk that illegal Mexican immigrants are a big drain on our generousity] Mexican immigrant households (legal and illegal) actually make-up a smaller portion of the total welfare hand-outs but have recently been receiving a larger portion of "bad press." Ask the average U.S. citizen what one of the biggest problems being faced today concerning illegal Mexican immigration and you will find "the impact on social welfare programs" near the top of the list, right up there with "terrorist border crossings" and "jobs losses to illegals." Total Number of U.S. households (2004 Census): 111,000,000 U.S. Census Bureau (PDF) : In 2003, the number of households in the United States reached 111 million. Mexican immigrant households (legal and illegal): 5,061,600 Center for Immigration Studies : 15 percent of U.S. native households on a welfare program vs. 25 percent headed by illegal Mexican immigrants. U.S. native households on a welfar...

This CNN headline I found today, House passes embryonic stem cell bill , raises an interesting "hold-on-a-minute!" moment for me. Beyond the arguments regarding "the sanctity of life" and "what we can do for our loved ones afflicted with crippling diseases," we might consider the ramifications of this research, if it is successful and then implemented, in changing the course of the law of natural selection in human development. Consider this: Changing the course of or entirely correcting a hereditary disease, e.g. Alzheimer's or Parkinson, in a given individual would still leave the genetic deposition for transferring that disease intact. Thus, allowing the physical or mental defect to reappear in future generations of the affected family line. Natural selection attempts to weed-out these genetic defects, in order to build a stronger and healthier strain of human, a stronger and healthier society. Messing with Mother Nature is risky business. We have a...

[I did this bit on location as an exercise in the art of news reporting] How do you avoid a riot? Hire "Huey Lewis & The News" as your entertainment headliner! Now, I know that might sound odd, maybe a little funny, but I think that was one of the strategies use in the California State Fair's "Cool It Down" campaign this year. Let me explain... I had been hearing for weeks, over and over again, on local TV and radio about potential for trouble at the California State Fair this year on "the last Saturday." The warning stems from previous year's troubles on those last Saturdays. The Sacramento Bee reported, "Four years ago a near-riot broke out on the last Saturday of the fair. Last year, fights broke out on that last Saturday again. One person was stabbed, cars and homes in the Cal-Expo area were vandalized and police made numerous arrests." The "Cool It Down" campaign was born, albeit in sympathetic desperation. Traditionall...