A Closer Look: Jody Paterson

FASD Jan. 28, 2006 A young woman who I’m very fond of was sentenced to four months in jail this week, and I cheered at the news. I high-fived my co-workers, who’d been hoping for jail time as well. It could have been a jubilant moment if it all wasn’t so damn sad. The young woman is 23 going on six in some of the ways she relates to the world, and jail isn’t the right place for her. What she really needs is to be taken in by a warm, motherly woman who’d keep her fed, loved and busy for as long as it takes for her to get a grip on her life, even if she never does. But there’s nothing like that in this world of ours for people like my young friend. She doesn’t quite fit in anybody’s box. And so it’s off to jail on a trafficking charge and the inevitable breaches, and me happy about it just for the chance to see her get a couple enforced months of nourishment and shelter - and hopefully, a break from cocaine. If you knew her story, you would not be surprised at how it’s come to this, as h...

Federal election Jan. 20. 2006 Utne magazine has a distinct point of view, so bashing of the mainstream media in its pages is to be expected. What magazine with a vision to “make the world kinder and greener” could resist? An article in February’s issue, “Ten Stories Ignored by the Mainstream Media,” is thus fairly predictable for Utne. Like most pieces about the media, the article hints at a media conspiracy in which the “real” news is being covered up. I’m bored by talk of conspiracy theories. But a fact box on a different aspect of the media intrigued me. The subject was global warming. In the decade leading up to 2003, the fact box noted, 928 peer-reviewed articles about global warming had run in scientific journals. None cast doubt on “human-caused global warming.” Roughly during that same period,1988 to 2002, four of the biggest papers in the U.S. - the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal - published 3,543 stories in their news pages abo...

Media Jan. 9, 2006 Utne magazine has a distinct point of view, so bashing of the mainstream media in its pages is to be expected. What magazine with a vision to “make the world kinder and greener” could resist? An article in February’s issue, “Ten Stories Ignored by the Mainstream Media,” is thus fairly predictable for Utne. Like most pieces about the media, the article hints at a media conspiracy in which the “real” news is being covered up. I’m bored by talk of conspiracy theories. But a fact box on a different aspect of the media intrigued me. The subject was global warming. In the decade leading up to 2003, the fact box noted, 928 peer-reviewed articles about global warming had run in scientific journals. None cast doubt on “human-caused global warming.” Roughly during that same period,1988 to 2002, four of the biggest papers in the U.S. - the Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal - published 3,543 stories in their news pages about global wa...