Various: It is quite striking how every few days you read a story about one or two casualties in the war in Iraq, but rarely hear about the wounded soldiers and medical evacuations. As discussed in a story here, the numbers have broken the ten thousand mark. This is remarkable, and way too underreported. [All the same, my local paper had a good article on the wounded, set by them at 2,500, the day after I first wrote this.] Justice Scalia recently went duck hunting with Vice President Cheney (long time friend and subject of a pending case) ... cynical jokes/comments aside, just how important is this? Perhaps, more than my first "oh well, there he goes again" reaction. And, to expand upon the suggestion that the President misleads and twists the information he gives regarding the "state of the union" I offer this.

Media Bias: C-SPAN just aired (to be repeated 1PM later today, EST) a panel discussion on media bias that basically broke down into a debate over the Iraq War. This was somewhat unfortunate and suggests the need for good moderators. Actually, it touches upon a broader problem that I see in part in my time on message boards and the like -- people talking past each other. This is complicated by people coming from things from very different mindsets. It pleases me when such people can find some common ground, and it actually does at time occur. [more]

Talking about Media Bias ... Though I first learnt of it from BTC News, Columbia Journalist Review's new blog of sorts on Campaign 2004 is getting a lot of mention in the blogsphere (if my small sample is representative), and it does seem worth checking out periodically. The recent entry praises the NYT for supplying helpful background to the recess appointment of Judge Pickering. I discussed the LAT article here, suggesting how the importance of such background and how sometimes it might be somewhat misleading. For instance, the NYT article doesn't mention Judge Pickering was defeated by a committee vote and then re-submitted. Just tossing in the he and "several others" (under ten, 168 confirmed last time I checked) were "blocked" is misleading. It was a good, but somewhat flawed piece ... IMHO.

One More Thing ... Read an article in my local paper about people buying fresh (and I mean fresh) food, partly out of fear of mad cow. I often pass a fresh animal market on my way to the subway, and (even if I ate the stuff) I personally would find it a bit hard to consume animals I saw up close. This might be a urban, non-farm (overly emotional) mentality, but "out of sight, out of mind" seems to be the general philosophy in this day and age when it comes to animals ("poultry," etc.) raised for food. On the other hand, animal husbandry is not the only profession in which this disconnect helps further problems currently inherent in the industry.