New Stuff on OFP, Genealogy and the Media

I've put a few more pages on OFP. I:

• Added a couple of NRPI Responses
• Added Summary to Shams Home Page
• Added Correspondence - Real Estate auction sham w/IRS/Government
• Added NRPI Responses (2) - Correspondence from a former NRPI Employee(?)
• Added Commercials and Links to Commercial Music page
• Added Article - Cemeteries and Headstones Being Lost and Images

The last one ties in with my "Losing History" blog posts here.

Otherwise, I've been looking for a job - had a couple of "phone-screen" interviews, and haven't heard anything back, yet.

I've also been researching and entering more and more people into my Genealogy Database. I now have 11,372 Individuals, 3855 Families, and 405 Sources. Every time I think I was wrong about my extended family (those in my DB) having come to Central Indiana and making it pretty much what you see today from heavy woods and forests, I find even more who came at around the same time. And whenever I drive through some of the "woods" we have left, and think about it, it absolutely amazes me that most of Central Indiana was completely covered like this, and people in MY family came here with their families, and cleared a lot of it to make the farmland we drive through the majority of the time, with just axes, hoes, saws, horse-drawn plows, blood, sweat, and tears.

If that can't stir your interest in genealogy (where and when were YOUR family here, and who were they?) then I don't know what will.

Oh, yeah... We went to see the travelling Vietnam Memorial Wall in Colfax last weekend. After going the length of the wall, we stopped and talked to a couple of soldiers who were on one of the armed transport vehicles there - One had been to Iraq and the other wanted to go, but they don't need the job he does.

More people should talk to more of the soldiers who have been there and WANT to go or go back. My wife is adamantly anti-war, but seemed to soften her tone once she talked to these guys. The guy who had gone said he had six kids, and not only is willing to go back, but WANTS to, because he thought of HIS kids when he saw all of the kids there. Under Saddam, the kids all ate what was thrown out in the garbage. And the insurgents don't give a shit (he didn't say that, I did) about who gets injured and killed, including women, children, old people, and other non-combatants, as long as they get a bunch. He talked about the media and how they do interviews for hours with these guys, and only show the few parts where they may say they wished they were home. The media also doesn't show the kids coming up and hugging the soldiers, the people who are so happy we're there and don't want us to leave... they show the killings and blood and guts, because that's what sells! I said something about the protests about us being there reported, and he said something like "You get 50-100,000 people protesting in a city the size of Indianapolis with a population of Indy, New York and Chicago combined; point the cameras at them, and they will yell." It happens here, too. Even my wife said that everyone should talk to those who were there... And don't get one view, but get many. (Talk to the guys who tell you about the good we've been doing there... The media will show you the problems... )

Holy Shit! Doesn't EVERYONE understand that? We go to NASCAR and other races to see the stars and the CRASHES, of course hoping nobody gets hurt... (I hope!) We wanna see THE BIG ONE! Why are the "X" games so big? Because while they have great stunts, they also have spectacular crashes! No matter WHAT anyone says about Sex and Violence on TV, that's what sells the most! Well, in Iraq, it's what sells, too. Hasn't anyone else noticed that the media only report on the controversies? They don't report on the good things that happen, only the bad.

I've noticed that the Mississippi Coast has been advertising recently. Have we heard anything about New Orleans or the other Gulf cities and towns so devastated by Katrina? What about the rebuilding in the Tsunami zone, where so much media was reporting about so much death and destruction? No one is there talking about how things are going now. If they do, they send a 2nd-tier reporter, and MIGHT give them 2-3 minutes. Then its back to scandal, conflict, death and destruction.

Come on America. They do the same thing with Politics (report only on the controversies, the "flip-flops" and the gaffes (mistakes)), and if they can, they MAKE it happen. Very few people watched the Democratic You-Tube debate, if Jay Leno's audience is any indication (I didn't). Well, apparently, Barrack said something about the war and meeting with all the states (foreign) involved. Hillary said she wouldn't do that, and called Barrack "naive". Of course, no one heard anything about it because Brittany Spears had a melt-down at a paparazzi, and Lindsay Lohen got arrested for drunk-driving again. (What can be done to save these poor girls!?) Well, Barrack and Hillary, now, are "fighting", and the media are pushing that - between keeping us informed about Brittany and Lindsay.

It's almost as bad as the reporters driving up and down the bunch of people outside the New Orleans dome after Katrina asking what they thought about the government not being there. Does anyone remember there were floods, fallen trees, and other debris that the ground crews had to get through? ... And if they had done the "food and water drops" there would have been rioting (remember... people were shooting others, and even at those who went to save people) and a drop or two would probably have killed someone by landing on them. Of course, the media would have reported THAT situation as "Why did they drop it HERE!?... or at all?" (Duh! Could it be because THAT'S where they people were?)

Remember that most media is biased. They are not supposed to be, but they are. They have their favorite people, and know who and what will get viewers to watch, and that's what they put on. They will NOT report on the good things and rebuilding going on in Iraq. They will report on the killings, the "behind schedule" and "missing the deadline" things.

Read between the lines.

-wds