Worst Headline Ever?

In today's Aegis there's an article detailing the traffic congestion predicted for this Labor Day weekend. Here's the headline: Labor on 95 days?

Odds and Ends

Just got the kids' backpacks filled with their notebooks, tissues, washable markers, etc. We here at TAA are also trying to get organized, but have been unable to coordinate our thoughts in a cohesive manner. So here are some random thoughts/happening from the last week.

**Welcome to new blogger Around Harford County. Thanks also for the link to us at TAA!

**There was an armed robbery last week in the townhouses right across from the Constant Branch Pool last week. That's correct. An armed robbery which closely followed the assault on the woman who was walking her dog the previous week.

**Every time we see Mark Wolkow referred to as having children "who attended Edgewood schools" we want to scream. When did they graduate? Were they at Edgewood Middle School when the math score was a FAILING 39 last year? No. And as far as we are concerned, the Edgewood Community Alliance is part of the problem. If they would get ANGRY that these students are getting an unequal education, maybe someone would notice. Instead they keep up with the rah rah everything is fine.

**Abingdon Elementary School's open house for students is this Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. This gives the students a chance to see their new classrooms before school starts on Monday.

**Just received an e-mail from Zillow saying that home prices in Abingdon dropped 8%in the second quarter of '08 compared to '07. Nationally, home prices decreased 9.9%.

**Thanks to the unknown woman/good samaritan who saved a turtle from certain death on Tollgate Road near Crisfield Drive this a.m. Thanks!

Class Lists Posted

Abingdon Elementary School posted its class lists for 2008-09 yesterday. The bus schedules are also up. It's all on the front door.

Fair and Balanced

Recently we here at TAA were forced to suspend our daily subscription to The New York Times when the monthly expense became as much as a car payment. In its stead we began reading the free newspaper thrown on our lawn, The Examiner. It was OK. They have some good reporters -- Stephen Janis pops to mind. They've broken some good stories, such as uncovering the parking ticket scandal in Baltimore.
That's why it really dismayed us here at TAA when we looked at Thursday's edition. Readers can tell from the opinion page it's right leaning. That's fine. It's marked plainly "Opinion." The newspaper's prerogative is to take whatever editorial stance it chooses. That's why people buy newspapers (see Hearst, Scaife, Murdoch) What bothered us today was the next two pages after the opinion pages, on the next spread. These "news" articles were written by The Heritage Foundation, The Hudson Institute, The Tax Policy Center and the Progressive Policy Institute. Above the Heritage Foundation article there was a "Think tanking" headline that was so small it was unclear if it was for that specific article or for the entire page.
It was meant for the entire page, as there was no news, just opinions from these various think tanks. But these looked like articles, not opinion pieces. But the "think tanking" was too small to really get our attention at first. It definitely wasn't as large as the graphic with The Heritage Foundation piece, "Leadership for America," (which closely resembled the ad it ran on a previous page.)
Trying to camoflauge opinion as news taints everything in the newspaper in our opinion. What were they thinking?
From experience, we know that many readers think all reporters are biased and slanted. (We here at TAA were testified about in a church by an interview subject as being a good Christian while a few days later told by a priest we were "on the path to hell." True story) But really, many reporters do strive to be unbiased. Of course there are the fabulists and hacks. And for those who think newspapers are still owned by liberal cigar-chomping entrepreneurs, see Knight Ridder, Tribune Media, Gannett and aforementioned Rupert Murdoch. These very large corporations don't care about much except $$$. Certainly not anything local.

Back to School Shopping

Here at TAA we've completed our back to school shopping. Last week the Abingdon Target was devoid of any school supply lists for Abingdon Elementary. Many other schools were there, but not AES. This might have changed since then.
If you didn't get one at the end of last year, you can find it by clicking here.
Don't forget to vote in our back-to-school poll. You've got just a short time left!