NY Times Logs for Tuesday the 20th and Wednesday the 21st

Tuesday, Sept 20:

I really liked the mix of headlines on the Times today.  Oil reserves in South American paired with gossip websites infecting small town America.

Apparently social networking has found a niche in small-town gossip.  The article seemed to point out that with Topix, older residents are engaging this type of extremely nasty gossiping about everyone in their town, which is very interesting given that bullying over the Internet has typically been monopolized by a much younger crowd.  I really appreciate that a paper like the times would publish a story like this on the front page.

Lots of profiles in this issue…or at least, I’m noticing more profiles in this issue.  I particularly like the one about Mitt Romney’s campaign strategist.  I really appreciated the Times putting in something about his political background in the South.

Fantastic article about the Pirate Party in Germany.  Social networking now taking politics by storm in Europe.  Translatable to the United States?  Doubtful.  Pretty amazing that conventional political parties are taking such a backseat to new and unconventional political parties in such a huge way.  Makes me wonder if the swing to the ultra-right in the U.S. is the same response, just in a vastly different way.

NY Times Log: Wednesday, Sept 21.

Today’s article on America’s legislature and some presidential candidate’s close relationship with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, and by extension, Israel’s interests is very good.  Relations with Israel will definitely set the tone for U.S. presence in the Middle East, and it seems like the current legislature is heavily favoring Israel. 

Featuring a ‘Marines Hit the Ground Running in Seeking Recruits at Gay Center’ on the same front page as ‘Amorous Squid Seeks Partner: Any Sex Will Do’ is funny.  Very interesting that the Marines were the most opposed to repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and are now the branch of the military doing the most recruiting.  Article was able to convey really well the struggle the military now has in recruiting members of the gay and lesbian community to commit to service.

The article on the Chinese train crash was fascinating.  Amazing the extent of corruption and complete disregard for human life surround the train system…the agency that runs the train sound more like a mob.  Very well written article.  I can’t imagine the difficulty for reporters trying to find this information in China, it must be an incredible struggle to get people (or at least, government agencies) to give information on an event that is decidedly not a glorious triumph of the republic.