Dispatches Archives - Page 20 of 20

February 28, 2008October 7, 2019

Finding Fairness

Depending on your perspective, the “Mainstream Media” may be part of either a vast left-wing, or equally vast right-wing conspiracy. These judgments are often based on a person’s own sense of injustice to a certain cause. If a news outlet passes over, or offers inadequate coverage of a subject held dear, said outlet must be serving its own agenda.

I don’t wish to defend or explain the perceived lack of neutrality of certain outlets, but in the same breath I can talk a little to what a news story should contain.

February 3, 2008October 2, 2021

“And Jesus wept…”

Die-hard football fans already know this, I’m sure, but the New England Patriots failed to reach “Perfection,” as color commentators had labeled it, instead falling to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl tonight.

For this post, I’ll resist the temptation to focus on the use of “perfection” to describe richly/over-paid athletes. I have many problems with professional sports, notably among those problems is hero-worship, and the mind-boggling amounts of money thrown at a game in salaries, advertising, etc.

Today, however, being the biggest game of the season, takes this show of capitalistic prowess to a new level. This level happened to be above the call of God, according to one Phoenix-area church.

January 28, 2008January 20, 2017

Arizona’s Wilderness

If you take a dirt road long enough you’ll find your way home. Near Wickenburg, Arizona, that dirt road is called Constellation, and it winds you through stages of the state’s history. The road passes a stage coach stop; numerous mines; washes with names like “King Solomon”; walls built by Chinese and native workers.

After driving 8 miles on cliffs and over ridges you find yourself at a fork, and finally at the Williams Family Ranch.

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January 20, 2008January 19, 2022

Journalists interviewing journalists

Arguably one of the most important news events I’ve taken part in covering was the case of Sami Omar Al-Hussayen. Al-Hussayen was a University of Idaho graduate student, living with his wife and children in Moscow in 2003*.

In the early morning hours of a regular day, SWAT teams and federal agents “breached” Al-Hussayen’s home, and took him into custody for alleged illicit activity of supporting anti-American overseas operations.

Ultimately Al-Hussayen was acquitted, but deported, and his family voluntarily left the states before being booted themselves.

But within this fascinating post-September-eleventh dynamic, of which your humble correspondent was a part, bloomed a side of journalism I never knew existed.

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January 10, 2008February 25, 2018

Letting the Mind Roam

The last post musters remnants of my own struggles with “What ifs.” Through college and immediately beyond I was fascinated by purpose, and the reason things happened. In broader terms, I was and still am captivated by the larger picture—I seem to be able to grab context immediately.

The problem, as Joe’s anecdote explores, lies in our being imperfect creatures wanting what will come later.

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December 23, 2007January 20, 2017

In the Age of Corolla

It was inevitable. With the fall of the old, a new Age has begun, and it is the Age of Corolla. It took me a mere three hours in a dealership to secure an ’06 Toyota Corolla with the help of my trusty salesman Steve. Steve, with his suede jacket and Chicago charm, guided me through Pontiac Grand Ams, and away from VW Jettas (which I actually wanted,) ultimately resting my wife and I in the seats of the Corolla.

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