Monthly Archives: December 2009

Media Matters: A Watch Group For Conservatives

Posted by Jacob Santos on December 21, 2009 Comments Off

If you read Media Matters, then the only conclusion one can come to is that Conservatives and Republicans are evil to the heart and soul. Whom are bent on world destruction, travesties, and generally would kick kittens because their so damn cute (albeit not always good, but I guess cute is good in a way). As a disclaimer, I haven’t really read that much on the web site, but it appears that they don’t often talk about liberals or democrats all that often, if at all.

To be fair, it isn’t as if Conservatives are any more “righteous” in their descriptions of the so called evil Left. It seems that to the Right, the Left is evil and wants to ruin the country and the Left likewise thinks the same of the Right. I will just say that they can’t both be right, but at least the bickering is entertaining. Quite frankly, I think both sides are doing a disservice to their side by polarizing each issue. Any layman should be cautious to take any side lest be associated with that side evermore.

I haven’t actually read any conservative blog, but I would assume the same tactics used on Media Matters applies as well. The tactics and proofs are far too effective at shutting down any opposing side to not be used. Using logic, reason, facts, and proof in a unbiased fashion isn’t as sexy as ad hominem attacks and using sources that are also biased towards the same opinion.

You see, attacking someone’s character is effective, because it puts the burden of proof, in most peoples’ eyes, on the character being attacked. In this the straw man side steps the issue by forcing the character being attacked to disprove the accusation and then try to disprove the other points made in the articles. The best claim is to say that since someone or some group took money from the oil companies, then they can’t make any argument against climate change or global warming.

While it may or may not be true that receiving money from a particular group that may lean a certain way in the research findings, it true of any group that receives money. If the pretense is that a group that receives money from a group believing a certain way is corrupted in their findings, then many of the research groups that receive any funding from outside sources are contentious. There was a very well written study about this very topic on Watts Up With That website, but I don’t believe Media Matters would ever consider that site as a valid source, given that they actually use facts, statistics, unbiased reporting (for the most part and I would say far more than whats on Media Matters), studies, evidence, and research to further their claim. Alas Watts Up With That website’s lack of frequently attacking someone’s character because they don’t hold the same belief wouldn’t make them a news source that Media Matters could use.

My perspective of the site, is that it wants to either preach to the choir or get the Independents who haven’t fully researched both sides of the issue or who are leading towards the mindset of Media Matters anyway to follow Media Matters. Researching both sides of the issue is slightly difficult and I do respect that Media Matters at least gives you the reference material to decide after reading the opinion piece. Often when they do give the full transcription or article they are referencing, the question is often, “Why is this a big deal again?” and sometimes they take jokes, sarcasm, and tongue-in-cheek out of context to further their claim.

Holy shit would they have a field day with me if I ever got into political writing. Of course, I don’t believe they would bother, because they go after the big names who people actually might listen to and read. Furthermore, I don’t really care about politics to write about it often. I just think that when you read something from Media Matters and its sources, you should be wary and do more research to get the full story.

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Paying Off Debt Revisited

Posted by Jacob Santos on December 6, 2009 Comments Off

I don’t think I posted the other detailing my plans because it is largely personal and many people shouldn’t know. I post some things for my benefit to see how well my planning went.

Paying Bills

I’m paying most of my bills using my bank’s bill pay. Now I don’t have everything on this. My insurance, cell phone, mortgage, and utilities are not using it yet. I think I can move my insurance to the bill pay, but I’m not going to worry about it. Most of the bills were paid by bank to bank and it causes problems when you forget that it is coming. With the bill pay, I can see exactly how much money is going to whom and when. Also, my bank will hold that amount so I won’t be able to accidentally spend it.

Automatic Savings

I’ve been saving for the past 4 weeks and while the amount is still fairly small, it is a decent start. I no longer consider that amount part of what I have, so I don’t feel like spending it. I’m going to be using it a lot more in the future, both to pay off my current outstanding debt and to make purchases in the future. I’m going to take the approach of saving up the money before I buy something, so that I am very rarely buying something with a credit card.

The reason I’m saving cash instead of paying off more cards is so that I’ll have that money in case I need it to pay other bills. If I use it to pay credit cards and then have to use that same credit card to pay other expenses, then I’m not getting ahead. At least it provides a cushion to prevent me from having to use credit. At some point I hope to save $200 to $300 and I should be able to after I pay off all of my credit cards. My goal is to eventually have about 6 to 8 months of salary in the bank in the case of emergencies. In this way, if something bad happens with me, my house, my job, etc that I won’t be in a position where I have to sell body parts to pay the mortgage.

Paying Credit Cards

With the amount of savings I have, I should be able to pay off one credit card with a small balance in about 3 weeks. I am going to wait another 4 or 5 weeks, so that I can still have enough savings to start on other projects. With the one credit card paid off, I’ll only have to worry about 3 more. The only problem as I see it is that paying this card off will only give me an extra $50 to $75 a month. However, I suppose it will lighten my mood having one less card to worry about.

The credit card with the highest balance will be paid off in 36 to 38 weeks or 8 to 9 months. I may get this card down to a thousand and focus on other cards. The two other cards, one is the second highest, but is a store card, so I’m more concern with keeping it in good standing and then waiting until the other cards are paid off before focusing on it. I made the mistake of paying too much on that card to only have no cash left over and had to resort to using my other credit cards. I’m a little bit wary of repeating that same mistake.

The good news is that one company has dropped me, so after I pay off two cards, I’ll no longer have that company. I’ll be dropping two more credit cards. This will affect my credit score a great deal, however, I feel that with the house, the one credit card, zero balance on all of my accounts, and good credit history that I will be able to get new cards of moderate balances and with APRs and terms that will be far better than what I’d ever get with the ones I have now.

Extra Money

I’m going to work on several projects that I’ve been putting off for a number of years now. I believe that when these projects are completed that I’ll be able to pull in some money. Albeit, it most likely will be zero to extremely small amount a month. However, it is far better than what it is pulling in now and anything is better than nothing. I have the motivation to work on these projects and I think that when a few of the cards are paid off that a few of the projects will also be completed.

Well, I plan on taking shortcuts to allow for the projects to be completed sooner. They might not be done in exactly the fashion I would have hoped, but at least they will be done. I plan on revisiting certain elements once they are complete, so that they can be optimized and perhaps sold for money.

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