Where do laid-off journalists go?

Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) links to Knoxville blogger Katie Allison Granju who notes that

“It’s estimated that the American newspaper workforce shrunk by a whopping 15% last year.”

and asks,

“So what happens to a reporter or editor after she loses her job in an industry that isn’t creating any new jobs?”

So — where do laid-off journalists go?  Ms Granju gives a few examples, and links to a piece in the American Journalism Review titled “Is There Life After Newspapers?” which gives plenty more details and anecdotes, but the money-quote out of all this discussion comes from a comment at the knoxnews blog, pointed out by Carolina blogger par excellence Jon Ham:

If journalists know half of what they pretend to know when they’re working as journalists, they should have no problem getting jobs as climatologists, engineers, lawyers, and military consultants, to name a few professions.

Heh.

Matchsticking, your word for the day

Another little reminice about the “good old days” at the Port Hedland detention centre.

 

JK’s 10 Commandments of Blogging (via Scooter)

Following is one of Ash’s favourite pieces  by reader JK at Andrew Bolt’s blog, helpfully unearthed from the archives for us by fellow Bolt-blogger Scooter.  Ash referred to it often, and I thought it was definitely worth a reprint:

In the pathetic attempt to pay off my brownie point debt to my wife, I spent some time in the garden yesterday. While digging up some weeds I uncovered a rather worn, heavy stone tablet, with what looked like Aramaic engravings on it. After consulting my friend Gel Mibson I have managed to decipher it as follows:

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF BOLT BLOGGING

1. Thou shalt not needlessly quibble about spelling and grammar. It is inevitable that your next post will contain an error and be pounced upon by a pack of hungry pedants.
2. Thou shalt avoid the endless Hatfield-McCoy feud with other bloggers. If you haven’t changed their mind or sufficiently belittled them in 3-4 posts, you’re not going to manage it in 34 posts either.
3. Thou shalt not mercilessly hammer those who don’t use their real names. Get over it, they must have their reasons. Mind you, changing names endlessly is also not on.
4. Thou shalt not over generalise the Left V Right thing.We know they’re mortal enemies but be specific.
5. Thou shalt not cut and paste swathes. It provides good finger exercise scrolling but little else.
6. Thou shalt occasionally forgive others so that you too may be forgiven. We all have lousy days and sometimes post something we regret afterwards.
7. Thou shalt not constantly try to censor others. Leave it to higher powers. Remember universal agreement equals universal boredom.
8. Thou shalt encourage the odd bit of humour.Let the lead balloons sink naturally without giving them an extra push.
9. Thou shalt be careful not to put the wrong words in the wrong mouth. An occasional sorry never killed anyone either.
10. Thou shalt not bite the hand that feeds you. Nibbling Andrew’s hand is OK just don’t maul it. Yes he does stir some of us up at times but if it’s any consolation my guess is his wife and kids get stuck into him about the blog.

So there you are then. Obviously most of us have sinned against the commandments at times, but that’s what confession is for.
Those apostates who wish to modify the commandments are obviously free to do so without the risk of divine retribution.  I’m pretty sure.

J.Kondoulis of dr j’s house
Sun 29 Oct 06 (01:45pm)

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UPDATE:  If you have any reminiscences or memories of Ash you would like to share, or would like to leave a message of condolence to her family, you may do so here.

How to Place the Case of Baby Grace? UPDATED

UPDATE: Kimberly Dawn Trenor has been found guilty of capital murder in this case, and her sentence is life in prison without possibility of parole. Since she’s only twenty years old, that could amount to sixty to seventy years.

“GALVESTON, Texas — A mother was convicted Monday of capital murder in the beating death of her 2-year-old daughter during a daylong discipline session in which the toddler was whipped with belts and flung across a room like a rag doll.

A jury deliberated less than two hours before convicting 20-year-old Kimberly Dawn Trenor in the death of Riley Ann Sawyers. Trenor did not seem to show any emotion after the verdict was read. The conviction brought an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. Jurors could have also convicted her of two lesser charges.”

Let her rot.

For those of you late to this party…

“Trenor and her husband, Royce Clyde Zeigler II, were accused of killing the toddler during the July 2007 discipline session designed to teach her proper manners. Prosecutors said Trenor and Zeigler beat Riley with belts, dunked her head in cold bath water and threw her onto a tile floor, fracturing her skull and causing her death. Zeigler, also charged with capital murder, is being tried later and remains jailed.”

No news on whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Zeigler, but there couldn’t be a better case for it, IMO, and I’m generally against capital punishment.

ORIGINAL POST:

I agonized over whether or not to even post about Baby Grace because I find this case to be so deeply, deeply disturbing.

It’s not a complicated case. In a nutshell, this man…

Royce Clyde Zeigler II

… is accused of beating this little two-year-old girl…

Riley Ann Sawyers, aka Baby Grace

… to death, while her mother…

Kimberly Dawn Trenor

… watched.

Here’s the part that totally and completely eviscerated me:

“… Trenor did nothing to save her daughter, not even when Riley told her mother “I love you” as she was being beaten.”

Got that? As this little girl was being beaten to death she was telling her mother that she loved her, and her mother did nothing to save her.

I’m not at all ashamed to admit that I lost it at this point in the article, and I’m not talking about a few easily wiped away tears here, I’m talking about a raging, screaming, face-in-hands, anguished and protracted cry. In fact, I need to take a break from this post to re-compose myself right now.

*****

The more I thought about this abjectly pathetic case, the more troubled I became over the questions it raised in my mind. Sure, all civilized men and women of good will would be aghast and horrified by this outrageous insult to one so innocent, and so those first unanswerable whys and hows came obviously.

Here’s the thing: I read about horrors in the news all the time, as I’m sure any reader of this blog does, because we’re hyper-informed by a relentlessly sensationalist 24/7/365 news cycle these days, so the question that I wanted answered was why did this particular story reduce me to a shuddering fetal ball?

In the Muslim world, I read with boring regularity, “honor” killings of young women are numbingly routine, girls who simply want go to school are disfigured by having acid thrown in their faces, and rape victims are condemned to death and publicly executed. Equally grotesque types of stories emerge from sub-Saharan Africa and Asia with grim routine as well. Though disgusted and even enraged by such reports, they don’t drive me to tears. Why not?

Do you see why I’m becoming disturbed by the questions I’m asking myself? Will you understand if I’m reluctant to share my answers, and would rather that you simply ask yourself the same?

Another problem I have is this: Philosophically, I simply don’t think a person is a fully mature political entity until they’ve evolved into some form of libertarian. Like most, I reckon, I started out life as a liberal, evolved into a conservative, and then morphed into a libertarian. My views on the death penalty have followed suit: I was against it before I was for it, but now I’m against it again. Ultimately, I just don’t think a nation state should be in the business of executing its citizens, regardless of their crimes, because there is an absolute zero chance that capital punishment will be applied fairly, because human beings are involved.

So, you can understand my disappointment in myself when I tell you that I would honestly and sincerely like to execute these two monsters myself, personally.

How can our culture produce these utterly abominable kinds people? People devoid of all decency and conscience, seemingly oblivious to the rights of the most vulnerable in their midst?

“Trenor told police she and Riley moved from Mentor, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, to Spring, a suburb north of Houston, in June 2007 to be with Zeigler after she met him playing the online video game World of Warcraft.”

Far be it from me to issue a blanket condemnation of WoW – I haven’t played any kind of video game since I made it a mission in life to defeat Battle Chess on every skill level (Which I did, thank you very much) – because the world isn’t exactly rife with WoW players beating babies to death, and so there must be much more to it…

… and so the disturbing questions continue.

I don’t expect to have all, or even many, of these questions answered satisfactorily – such a thing seems far beyond the realm of possibility – so I’ll just have to take it as a plus to my overall humanity that I’m bothering to ask them of myself.

Just sayin’, is all…

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On the Internet,

Nobody Knows You’re a Dog

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*The above cartoon by Peter Steiner has been reproduced from page 61 of July 5, 1993 issue of The New Yorker, (Vol.69 (LXIX) no. 20)only for academic discussion, evaluation, research and complies with the copyright law of the United States as defined and stipulated under Title 17 U. S. Code.

Funeral Service for Ashleah Emery (update)

From the Melbourne Herald Sun:

Ashleah EMERY — Funeral Service

Herald Sun|27 January 2009

A Funeral Service to
celebrate the life of Ashleah
Emery will be held at 12 Lyons
Drive, Selby on SATURDAY
(Jan. 31, 2009) at 3.00 p.m.

A Private Cremantion

For recent posts on this blog on the sudden and tragic loss of Ashleah Emery, administrator of this blog and popular participant on Tim Blair’s and Andrew Bolt’s blogs, see here (details) and here (memorial page).

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UPDATE: For some reason (maybe being an old Carolinian myself), the following song by James Taylor keeps popping into my head these last couple of weeks.  It’s that last verse that does it for me.  Video & lyrics below the fold.

Why I Gave Up on Dating

NSFW

Australian of the Year 2009

The unequivocal winner of the 2009 Australian of the Year award will come as no surprise to anyone.

Refreshingly, this year’s choice is a completely apolitical and post-racial one, as our winner has chosen to spend his life in service to all Australians regardless of race, colour, creed or political leanings.  Our 2009 Australian of the Year is a brave yet modest  hero whose his skill and courage typify all that is great about our armed forces.

Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of millions of proud and grateful Australians, I present the 2009 Australian of the Year award to Trooper Mark Donaldson , true Australian hero and the first Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross since 1969.

Trooper Mark Donaldson VC, Australia salutes you.

~~~

* Okay, in reality Kevin Rudd went for symbolism over substance, once again.  Quel surpris. Colour me distinctly unimpressed.  As is Andrew Bolt.  And Kae.  And Margo’s Maid’s Shadowlands, where they not only saw this coming but have a must-read post on he-who-doesn’t-deserve-to-be-named-in-this-post.  [Update:  via Kae, “Janet Albrechtsen at the Australian speaks about the ungracious winner“]

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UPDATE: Speaking of must-read posts, if you click no other link here DO CLICK this one:  Australia Day 2009.   Private Greg Sher, deployed to Afghanistan with 1st Commando Regiment, served with the Special Operations Task Group. He was killed in a Taliban rocket attack on 4th January, 2009. Greg’s brother Steven wrote this piece.

My most sincere thanks  on this day and every day to all those who so selflessly defend our safety and freedom.  “Lest we forget.”

Treacher is a Racist Rethuglican Sheepletard. [Updated]

And those are his good qualities.

Apparently.

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UPDATE: Did you know that if you do a google search for “racist rethuglican sheepletard,” Treacher features in every one of the top ten twenty forty fifty one hundred hits?  It must be true!!!111!1!!!  (Oops.)

UPDATE 2: thefrollickingmole in comments offers a relevant (if disturbing) video from the Australian music programme Rage.   Oh, and yes.  We really are going to launch a write-in campaign for next year’s Webbies:  Best Racist Rethuglican Sheepletard Blog.

Adrian Munsey confused the world in 1979 when he released his composition ‘The Lost Sheep’ on Virgin records.

Adrian Munsey is a classical composer; working mostly in the field of film and video.

It’s not certain whether Adrian would like to forget this piece or not.

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Follow-up to previous post about Ash [UPDATED – details of funeral service]

Just as a follow-up to Angus Dei’s recent post about the sudden loss of our administrator Ash,  following is the Death Notice published in yesterday’s Melbourne Herald Sun, and some items from the early [UPDATE: and follow-up]  news reports of the single-car accident in Ferny Creek.

Published in the Herald Sun on 22/1/2009

Ashleah Emery

EMERY. – Ashleah.  The family of Ashleah Emery are saddened to announce the death of their beloved daughter on Jan. 15, 2009.   Sadly missed by Alan and Bev, Nik and Andrew, Sarah and Bronwyn and families.   Anyone wishing to contact the family can do so on (03) 9754-7463.

~ ~ ~

The Age, January 15 2009:

The badly burnt body of a motorist was found in a car after it veered off a tourist road in the Yarra Valley and landed ablaze in a driveway this morning.

Shocked neighbours called 000 when they saw the car in flames in the driveway of a Ferny Creek home in the Dandenongs.

The driver of the car was killed after the vehicle ran off the windy Mount Dandenong Tourist Road about 10.45am, hit a tree, dropped down an embankment and began burning in the driveway.

A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the property’s owners weren’t at home at the time and neighbours called emergency services to the scene.
The body has not yet been able to be identified.

~ ~ ~

Herald Sun, January 15 2009:

One person, believed to be a woman, was killed after her car apparently left the Mount Dandenong Tourist Road at Ferny Creek, in the Dandenong Ranges, south east of Melbourne, and hit a tree shortly before 10.45am.

Emergency services said the car then went down an embankment, ending up in a residential driveway before bursting into flames.

Victoria Police spokeswoman Leeanne Clinton said the motorist was the only person in the car but it was not yet known whether they died as a result of the crash or the car fire.

~ ~ ~

Springvale Dandenong Leader, January 15 2009:

[A] 22-year-old woman died in a single-vehicle accident on the Mt Dandenong Rd, Ferny Creek […]

[T]he 22-year-old Selby woman was driving west along the Mt Dandenong Tourist Rd at 10.40am when her car swerved off the road about 300m west of Churchill Drive.

The white Mitsubishi Lancer landed on a nearby driveway after careering down an embankment.

A neighbour heard the accident and alerted 000.

Monbulk Sgt Alan Fincher said when the neighbour got to the car it was engulfed in flames and they couldn’t go near it.

Sgt Fincher said investigators were yet to determine what caused the car to veer off the road.

UPDATE:  From the Maroondah Journal, via Kae.

THE death of a 21-year-old woman in Ferny Creek last week has sparked renewed calls for a guard rail along a “dangerous bend”.

Ashleigh Emery, of Selby, died when the car she was driving crashed into a tree on Mt Dandenong Tourist Road, rolled down an embankment onto a driveway and caught fire about 10.45am last Thursday.

Resident Ed Bright, who lives next door to where the car crashed, has been trying to get guard rails installed for years.

Mr Bright’s wife Lynette and daughter Courtney were home at the time of the crash.

“We just heard this massive explosion and noise, unlike anything we’ve heard.

“I went running out and Courtney went straight for the phone. I was screaming, ‘Is there anybody there?’ because I was thinking the driver must have been somewhere.”

Sergeant Alan Fincher of Monbulk police, who attended the scene, said: “The car had caught fire and there was just nothing anyone could do.”

Tragic scene: Ashleigh Emery died when her car crashed into a tree, rolled down an embankment and caught fire. Picture: Wayne Hawkins

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Our editors will try to keep this post updated as further information comes to hand.

[Update:  In answer to some readers’ concerns, please note that Ash’s father Alan confirms that she was childless]

UPDATE 4: Funeral service details (also, see bottom of page here):

Ashleah EMERY — Funeral Service

Herald Sun|27 January 2009

A Funeral Service to
celebrate the life of Ashleah
Emery will be held at 12 Lyons
Drive, Selby on SATURDAY
(Jan. 31, 2009) at 3.00 p.m.

A Private Cremation

Comments are closed on this post, as we have set aside this page for people to pay their respects or post remembrances of Ash.  Thank you.

Click here for comments.

Ashleah Emery / Ashleah Emery — The family of Ashleah Emery are saddened to announce the death of their beloved daughter on Jan. 15, 2009.   (03) 9754-7463.Ashleah Emery / Ashleah Emery — The family of Ashleah Emery are saddened to announce the death of their beloved daughter on Jan. 15, 2009.   (03) 9754-7463.

The Tizona Group has Lost a Precious Member

We of the administrative and editorial group at Tizona have suffered a tragic and devastating loss, as our administrator, Ash, was killed in a single vehicle accident. However, our loss pales next to that of her family, and our thoughts and prayers are with them all.

Ashleah was only twenty-two years old.

Ash was invited into The Tizona Group by the founder of our blog, and she was always a bit of a mystery to me, as she was to the rest of the administrative group. I don’t believe any of us ever actually met her personally, though some did speak to her by telephone, and we all had email exchanges with her from time to time.

As for myself, since I live in the US and Ash was Australian, these email conversations were often at very strange hours, which was a treat for me as I keep a bizarre musician’s schedule. Ash always struck me as very intelligent and well informed – quite remarkably so given her tender years – and it was always a distinct pleasure to correspond with her.

Though she leaves several unsolvable mysteries in her wake, one thing that was no mystery was the invaluable nature of her contribution to our weblog. I called Ash, “the enforcer” because she was such a dogged and tireless patroller of our reader comment sections, and she also brought a valued woman’s perspective to questions regarding the direction of our efforts. Plus, if any of us knot-headed editors forgot things like tagging posts, she always caught and fixed the errors and oversights… followed by an email admonishment, of course.

To say that Ash will be missed around here is an unfathomable understatement, but there are no words to adequately express how much of a void she and her work will leave at The Tizona Group. Nor are there any words that could properly express the profound sadness of we of the administrative group over this incomprehensible tragedy.

If you would like to pay your respects or post remembrances of Ash in the comments section, please do, but keep in mind that we will be sending this thread to her parents, so any and all offensive posts will be deleted.

In lieu of words, I simply offer a recording I made of Tears in the Rain by Joe Satriani.

Rest in Peace and Godspeed, Ashleah.

“Bush didn’t even say goodbye” – Rudd

All together now:   Awwwwwwwww…

Diddums.

Outgoing US President George W Bush did not include Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on his list of final calls to world leaders before handing over to president-elect Barack Obama.

Mr Rudd said in Adelaide on Tuesday that he did not take a call from Mr Bush.

Poor Kevni.  All that weird saluting (cringeworthy video here) came to naught after all.

"Mr Rudd was briefly standing alone at the gathering of leaders from 26 countries when he saw Mr Bush, saluted, and strode over, smiling widely, to talk to the US President."

Kevni bucks up again, though, thinking of how he will help America’s new President, Barack H. “Hopenchange” Obama, to Save The World®:

“I look forward very much to working with President Obama, the next president of the United States,” Mr Rudd said.

“Because we have a huge challenge ahead and it begins by working together on the global financial crisis.”

Should we start a pool on how soon Kevin747 jets off to suck up to offer his assistance to The Big O in person?

Texas welcomes home Dubya

Well, there’s dignity and then there’s dignity.

A case in point.

H/T The Best Oz/NZ Blogger (apart from Bolt who probably didn’t even nominate).

Obama Countdown Clock – “Are We There Yet?”

If it was good enough for Lefties for the past 8 years…

UPDATE:  The Obama Countdown Clock is now available on this site

under the post

Obama Countdown Clock: “Are we there yet?”

and on the upper-right header of every page as

Obama Countdown Clock

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President Obama: “Oaf” of Office – UPDATED

Chief Justice Roberts and President Obama had a little trouble with the Oath of Office. I was watching live and cracked up: Obama was cool as a cucumber, but Chief Justice Roberts almost came unglued.

Best wishes and God’s blessings to our new President. With the state of the world and the world economy, he’s going to need all the blessings he can get.

I wouldn’t want the job, frankly.

UPDATE: LOL! Obama and Roberts had a do-over… and got it right the second time.

De-development Advisor

President Obama’s pick for scientific advisor is a certain John Holdren, and apparently he’s well known for his Paul Erlich-like doom and gloom predictions, going back 40 years, including calls for the ‘de-development’ of “overdeveloped” countries. I’m sure you know the type. Hit that link for a great list of questions the Senate should ask him before approving his new job.

Holdren, however, might have to tone it down if only 41% of the population believe in Anthropogenic Global Warming.

All via Junkscience, naturally.

Want to let Hamas know what you think of them?

…But you’re way over here in Oz, the USA, Canada or the UK?

While you’re sitting safe and comfortable at your computer, click here and shout the IDF a pizza or some burgers and let the IDF show Hamas what you think of them.

During the last seven years we have delivered many thousands of pizza pies and other gifts to thousands of soldiers. It is hard for us to describe how happy they are to receive your “special treats” — it goes well beyond getting a hot pizza late at night at a lonely post. It is as tremendous an experience for us to give them out as it is for the soldiers to receive them. They love to know that people everywhere support and care for them.

Our deliveries right to the soldiers out in the field are coordinated with the security forces and pose no security risk.

http://pizzaidf.org/

http://burgeridf.org/

Afterthought:   You know what’s NOT HOT? Declaring war on the Jews, saying you won’t rest until Israel is driven into the sea.  It’s also NOT HOT to use innocent civilians as human shields.   This too — SO NOT HOT.

Hamas, Hezbollah: NOT HOT.

You know what IS HOT?  Selflessly defending a free democratic country against seventh-century madmen and their followers who would see her destroyed.  Also HOT – Israeli soldiers.  You know what else IS HOT?  Sending HOT pizza and burgers (and don’t forget the soda) to active duty IDF soldiers.

-Link to PizzaIDF courtesy of Nilk in comments at Tim Blair’s

A message to my special friend

Dear Richard Ryan;

And the moonbats keep turning

Try Lord Xenu instead, dickhead.

US actor Tom Cruise says he had always dreamt of killing Adolf Hitler, revealing one of his motives for starring in his latest film featuring a plot to murder the Nazi leader.

But to be fair, he’s a brilliant actor and his performance in Tropic Thunder was superlative.

But did he just pull a Godwin’s?

Best blog post title of the year, so far

Best blog post title of the year, so far:

“The men who fell to Perth”

(on one of the best-named blogs of the century, so far:  Matt “not the cricketer” Hayden’s  “Die, Fluffy Wuffy, Die!” )

UPDATE: Die, Fluffy Wuffy, Die! quokka shenanigans from last year recounted on Andrew Bolt’s blog.

Heh.

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Precious little buggers

Believe me, this article is spot on…

AUSTRALIANS doing business abroad better watch what they say [piss off – ed.], after a survey found Americans and British colleagues think we’re rude.

Australians working overseas are most likely to offend in the US and the UK, according to an international workplace survey which found Britain and America have the strictest office etiquette.

Ha! They’re even more precious when they’re out drinking and they get pwnd on say, a discussion about global warming… not to mention the maple leaves when they’re off their tree.

Congratulations!

To Mr Tim Blair.

Good onya.

For the second year running, best Australia/NZ blog.

And well done Zoe Brain on 3rd place!

As should be noted… and what better than in her own words?

Or as I like to think of it, the best blog in Australia not owned and financed by Rupert Murdoch. First place (and rightly so) went to Tim Blair of the Daily Telegraph. Second went to Gizmodo, published by Alure Corp, owned by a holding company of NewsCorp.

Only one quibble. Bolt? A million hits per month? Still, it’s on record he doesn’t go after Walkleys so it’s no surprise the Grand Master worried not about this – especially whilst on his bi-annual extended vacation.