Does College Have a Money-Back Guarantee?

Vox

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Thursday March 26, 2009 · 8:35 PM PDT

2009/03/26 · 20:35

I have a horrible confession to make. It's been gnawing at me for years. It wakes me up at night, sweating and fearful. It's the source of my constant shame. When I tell people, the awkward silence that follows is not, I imagine, all that different from confessing some type of sexual disease.

I'm...

A journalism major.

Poll

43 votes Show Results

How Screwed Am I?

43 votes Vote Now!

How Screwed Am I?

Like a Joss Whedon show on Fox

8 votes

Like a right-winger in a bathroom stall

10 votes

Like a CNBC host on the Daily Show

4 votes

Like a journalism major in 2009

7 votes

Like the guys who play against the Harlem Globetrotters

4 votes

Like a purse-snatcher in Gotham City

1 vote

Like a Jonas Brother in prison

9 votes

10 Reasons I'm Excited for Depression 2.0

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday March 21, 2009 · 4:14 PM PDT

2009/03/21 · 16:14

I've always been sort of a "glass half-full" sort of guy, especially when it comes to failure. Girlfriend leaves me for a woman? I must've been too much man for her. Report card full of F's? Now nobody bitches when I get a C. My employer is talking about "redundancies" while staring at me like a rapist from across the bar? Well... I haven't gotten to see "Judge Judy" in ages.

Much the same, I'm looking forward to our coming econopocalypse with something approaching unmitigated glee.

Poll

144 votes Show Results

What are YOU looking forward to?

144 votes Vote Now!

What are YOU looking forward to?

Clothes

2 votes

Slimming Down

25 votes

The End of Emo

17 votes

Better Books

8 votes

Political Variety

7 votes

Art Deco Architecture

15 votes

Bitching Rights

10 votes

Excuses

4 votes

Photographs

6 votes

Gloating

10 votes

Finding you, Vox, wherever you are, and smacking your smart mouth.

40 votes

Gay Rights and Geek Rights

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday December 26, 2008 · 5:30 PM PST

2008/12/26 · 17:30

I was a twelve-year-old boy when I found myself laying on the ground outside my middle school, crying and screaming because my arm had just snapped like a twig, loudly enough that I knew it was broken by the sound before I'd even begun to feel it.

This wasn't an accident. I'd been shoved into that wall by a gang of knuckleheads just as I was stepping out of school for the day, heading towards my bike and a wonderful reprieve from the torment I suffered through every day.

And I hadn't done anything to deserve it.

Poll

45 votes Show Results

Yay?

45 votes Vote Now!

Yay?

Nay!

1 vote

Yay!

40 votes

Ay?

4 votes

About My Jealousy of Gays

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday December 21, 2008 · 7:18 PM PST

2008/12/21 · 19:18

The word rebel is one that gets thrown around a lot, by a lot of people- by hick Southerners referring to the Confederacy; by Star Wars geeks talking about Luke Skywalker and asking why TK-421 isn't at his post; by Freshman poli-sci majors in Che Guevara t-shirts that will eventually be used to polish the furniture in their utterly conventional houses.

And yet, the word rebel never really loses its luster. No matter how watered down by commercialism and overuse, rebel speaks to us in ways other words can't. It speaks of near-insurmountable odds. It speaks of fighting for a cause more important than one person, a cause that has to be fought regardless of the high unlikelihood of victory. America was born of rebels. We love rebels- James Dean, George Washington, Bugs Bunny.

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday November 11, 2008 · 8:38 PM PST

2008/11/11 · 20:38

Look at this. And then, at this, and this.

Utter. Crap.

These three websites, the lopsided triumvirate of Chicagoland news, demonstrate the absolute idiocy with which newspapers are viewing the internet. In the past month, the Tribune has been the subject of discussion for its new print design, supposedly intended to replicate the "feel" of the website.

This shows two problems: their website is shit, so their notions about a "website-inspired" Tribune are going to be, likewise, shit. And secondly, they're still viewing this website thing as a fad or flavor, as something they can copy and paste onto newsprint with a few extra colors and different, happier fonts, and all of a sudden they're going to be respected, well-read news outlets again.

Below, we'll talk about what newspapers really need to learn from websites.

Poll

10 votes Show Results

Soooo...

10 votes Vote Now!

Soooo...

Great!

4 votes

Good!

3 votes

Okay...

0 votes

...ehhhh...

0 votes

...not so great...

0 votes

...kinda crappy...

0 votes

...oooh, a funny answer! I'll click this and invalidate the poll!

3 votes

Why would you give people the option to call you crappy?

0 votes

Slaying the Dragon, pt 2: Why Newspapers Might Die

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 09, 2008 · 1:22 PM PST

2008/11/09 · 13:22

There are three main reasons that newspapers are going down, and going down hard these days, and they're not the reasons that you'd expect. Because once upon a time, they were the very same reasons that newspapers were going strong, and were the primary conduit for the social discourse for a century.

Reason 1: The Constitution.

Reason 2: William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

Reason 3: The structure of the company itself.

Poll

25 votes Show Results

How'm I doing?

25 votes Vote Now!

How'm I doing?

Very Good

10 votes

Good

7 votes

Okay

3 votes

Bad

0 votes

Very Bad

1 vote

I accept bribes.

4 votes

Slaying the Dragon: Saving Journalism, pt. 1

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday November 07, 2008 · 10:27 PM PST

2008/11/07 · 22:27

I'm currently a non-traditional student a Northern Illinois University (Kos' alma mater!), which is a nice way of saying that I'm old. Not walker-and-wheelchair old, but old enough that I won't be hitting on the honeys in the quad anytime soon. Or ever.

Outside of my scholastic life, I've worked, in a behind-the-scenes capacity, at newspapers. All told, I have something like eight years of experience in the industry, and much of my thought, moment-to-moment, is devoted to journalism. As one of my favorite fictional characters, Spider Jerusalem was fond of saying, "Journalism is like a gun. It only has one bullet, but if you aim it right, you can blow the kneecap off the world."

But I think that we all know that journalism- the medium that has, with few exceptions, remained philosophically unchanged since the days of Pulitzer and Hearst- is fucked.

And journalism, as it stands, needs to die.
But it also needs to live.

Poll

13 votes Show Results

Would you read more about this?

13 votes Vote Now!

Would you read more about this?

Yes

10 votes

1 vote

Maybe so

2 votes

Halloween: Top 10 Ways To Battle Republicans

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 31, 2008 · 7:22 PM PDT

2008/10/31 · 19:22

It could happen to anyone. You're sitting at home alone, making popcorn, waiting for trick-or-treaters, when all of a sudden, they STRIKE:

Republicans.

When they strike, they don't rest until you're bankrupt, having missionary-position heterosexual sex for procreation inside a cardboard box while a hurricane rages overhead.

How do you run? How do you hide? How do you stop...

THE REPUBLICANS?!?

Read on...

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 29, 2008 · 6:14 PM PDT

2008/10/29 · 18:14

I'm wondering if anyone else saw this, or if there's a link to it available anywhere.

Right after Obama's ad, Fox jumped straight into the ballgame. But after the first commercial break started, they ran a McCain anti-Obama ad- naturally, they couldn't allow a half an hour of airtime go completely unanswered.

It was the usual crap, "Obama will raise taxes, look at these pictures of boarded up houses, the juxtaposition of which with Obama's face will make you associate Obama with losing your house..."

But right at the end, the ad said "NOT READY... YET."

Poll

87 votes Show Results

Was my "chocolate cake" line offensive?

87 votes Vote Now!

Was my "chocolate cake" line offensive?

No, it was funny.

18 votes

It was offensive, but funny.

2 votes

Not funny, but not offensive.

21 votes

Offensive and not funny.

4 votes

I don't care, I just want cake now.

42 votes

What Conservatism Has In Common With Communism

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 24, 2008 · 5:07 PM PDT

2008/10/24 · 17:07

In the news, on TV, in our message boards, we've been throwing around isms a lot lately- Communism, Socialism, etc. If Obama called his national health care plan "socialized medicine," for example, it would immediately drop in support, except for his youngest voters, who were born AFTER "Red Dawn" was in theatres.

Those questions and comments ignore the central question: will your proposed plan @#%*&@!! work!?. Many of FDR's probably-socialst policies stabilized the economy, got people back to work, and laid a safety net for millions of Americans.

But when we're talking about financial policy, Communism and Conservatism have one glaring, gaping flaw:

They're counting on people to be good.

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday October 12, 2008 · 3:23 PM PDT

2008/10/12 · 15:23

In journalism school, they teach you how not to use "loaded" words. You never say that a murder suspect "claims" not to have done it, because people reading the story can practically see the journalist making air quotes while they read it. Certain words, even if they don't have that dictionary definition, carry emotional weight. That's why journalists try to stick to the word "said" whenever possible, because it's one of the few unemotional methods of dialogue attribution we have left.

Today, in an AP story on John McCain's flailing campaign, the reporter gave the reader a little bit of a nudge- it's not just the Democrats out there that are afraid of John McCain.

Poll

131 votes Show Results

Why should people be afraid of making McCain angry?

131 votes Vote Now!

Why should people be afraid of making McCain angry?

You wouldn't like him when he's angry.

58 votes

He might divorce his wife to marry yours- if she's hot and rich enough.

14 votes

Sarah Palin has been teaching him how to abuse authority.

14 votes

"Bomb-bomb-bomb, bomb-bomb THAT MAN!" while pointing at you.

14 votes

In the current economy, his wife can literally buy and sell your ass.

19 votes

It is established "24" canon that he knows Jack Bauer.

12 votes

What Would It Take?

Vox

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 10, 2008 · 2:22 PM PDT

2008/10/10 · 14:22

This is a rather... personal question. One which I put to you because I wonder if you've ever thought about it. It's an important question, the answer to which you should know before you move forward in this world, and your life.

Ours is a complacent life- even now, in these horrible, trying economic times, the watchwords of our age are keeping our heads down, nose to the grindstone, progressing forward with our life one scrappy day at a time. Making things a little better for ourselves. Hopefully, better for our children.

But ours is a world where the course can be changed by factors external to us. A world where all our progress, hard-earned and hard-fought, can be swept away like castles in the sand at the inkling of powerful men without morals.

So what I'm curious about... what I'm asking, is what would it take you- each of you- to do more?

Do it all?

Newer
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RSS

Does College Have a Money-Back Guarantee?

10 Reasons I'm Excited for Depression 2.0

Gay Rights and Geek Rights

About My Jealousy of Gays

Slaying the Dragon, pt. 3: Website Lessons

Slaying the Dragon, pt 2: Why Newspapers Might Die

Slaying the Dragon: Saving Journalism, pt. 1

Halloween: Top 10 Ways To Battle Republicans

"...YET"?!?!?!?! New McCain Ad Tactic

What Conservatism Has In Common With Communism

AP's Word Choices Tell The Story:

What Would It Take?