A Year in Review: Stories I've Covered in 2013

Most people know just how quickly a year can pass by. It seems that we can move from year to year and from decade to decade with just the blink of an eye. But still so many things can happen in that seemingly short amount of time. In just a short year, people are born and die, people move from place to place and occupation to occupation and, of course, big news stories and headlines lose their significance just as quickly as they were brought into the public eye.

Unfortunately, the changing seasons of life tend to make us forget some of the more significant (and perhaps not so significant) things that have happened in our lives and in the world around us. Being a writer, I have had the opportunity to write about so many interesting things in 2013 and now that the year is coming to a close I would like to share with you a few of my favorite pieces I’ve had the privilege of writing this year.

Selling Gold, Killing Biden, and Divorcing the Obamas

Anyone who follows my work knows that I have the utmost respect for author and media analyst Mark Dice. While I may not always agree with Dice in some of his analysis, the one thing I can agree with him on is the fact that there is a plague of passiveness and ignorance sweeping the nation. One way that Dice has pointed this out is by putting his “man on the street” interview videos up on YouTube. In these videos, Dice (who is often wearing a “troll” t-shirt) goes around to random people on the street, asking them ridiculous questions and getting them to go along with crazy stories and petitions. For example, I wrote an article in late March over Dice’s various adventures with his one ounce gold coin, which he tried to sell and even give to people who clearly didn’t understand the value of gold.

The fun doesn’t stop at precious metals, however. I also did a report over a video in which Dice proved that many Americans have no clue who Vice President Joe Biden is by asking them if they knew about his “death.” Some people even responded to the question by asking whether or not Biden was a sports player. Only a few people featured in the video were vaguely familiar with the fact that Joe Biden is somehow involved in politics but they still showed no signs of knowing that he was the vice president and that he was still alive.

I also covered one of Dice’s most recent videos, from early December, in which he got people to blindly believe that Michelle and Barack Obama had gotten a divorce. "She's a strong woman. She should do what she wants," one woman said after Dice asked her if she thought Michelle Obama should have waited until her husband's term was over before filing for divorce. One man suggested that “psychological problems” might have been a factor in the ‘divorce.’ Dice made quite a humorous response to this suggestion, saying that “a lot of people have those” and quickly smiling at the camera.

I chose to report on these videos this year because I believe they point out a very serious issue in a very comical way. Each time I watch one of Dice’s man on the street interview videos I find myself laughing and shaking my head in disgust at the same time. Because, while it is humorous to see just how ignorant some people are, it’s also disheartening to know that so many people these days have no concern for what’s going on around them and really don’t care about anything that doesn’t involve partying, Justin Bieber, or the latest fashion trends.

Adam Takes On “The Man”

Out of all the stories I’ve covered this year, none have caused such a stir as my coverage of Adam Kokesh and his numerous run-ins with the law. One thing is certain; you either love Adam Kokesh or you hate him. And that has definitely been made clear by the thousands of arguments and debates that I’ve seen in the comment section of my “Kokesh” related articles.

Personally, I can’t help but love Adam Kokesh. Being a Libertarian, I tend to agree with a lot of what he has to say politically and regardless of his ideology, I respect his guts. He has taken political activism and civil disobedience to a new level, showing people that true risk-takers and revolutionaries still exist in the modern age.

For most of you, I won’t have to explain what happened with Adam Kokesh this year. For anyone who isn’t familiar with Kokesh’s work, however, here’s a little timeline to help put things in perspective:

·         May 8^th, 2013 – Kokesh releases a statement on the official Facebook page for the armed march he had planned on Washington D.C. on July 4^th, stating that the new plan was for a day of widespread civil disobedience and defiance of government regulation.

·         May 18^th, 2013 – Kokesh is arrested at a rally to support legalizing marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, despite not having done anything illegal. Official charges are reported only as “resisting arrest.”

·         May 25^th, 2013 – Kokesh is released from prison and refuses to sign citations.

·         June 9^th, 2013 – Kokesh is wrongfully arrested again at another pot legalization rally in Washington, D.C. but is released later in the day.

·         July 5^th, 2013 – Police investigate Adam Kokesh after he releases a video of himself loading a shotgun in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. on Independence Day.

·         July 11^th, 2013 – Shortly after completing an interview over his bold move in D.C., Kokesh’s home is raided by a SWAT team. He and other members of his staff and household are detained for several hours and allegedly treated quite poorly by the police before Kokesh is finally arrested.

·         November 6, 2013 – Kokesh pleads guilty to the July 4^th weapons charges and a June 8^th marijuana possession charge. He is released from prison with a sentencing date of January 14, 2014.

Regardless of whether or not you agree with Adam Kokesh’s positions on the issues, you have to admit that he doesn’t back down from them. I’m anxious to see what the results of the sentencing will be in January and I hope, for Adam’s sake, that he can get minimum sentencing, allowing him to return to production of his podcast (appropriately named Adam vs. the Man) which was becoming quite popular prior to his run-ins with the law.

 ‘Adorkable’: A YouTube ‘Not-Star’

While I am very passionate about world affairs and my personal political beliefs, not everything I write about is political in nature. In fact, I try to cover positive, non-political stories quite often in order to lighten the mood of my media work. One of my favorite non-political stories from this year was an exclusive interview I did with Paige McKenzie, the star of the popular YouTube series The Haunting of Sunshine Girl. 

• BLAH! - The Story of an 'Adorkable' YouTube Star
• Op-Ed: M is for Making Movies - New Contest Displays Amazing Talent

A little while ago, I came across some YouTube videos that really stood out to me. I have always thought of YouTube as a place for people to upload copyrighted music, fart videos, and the occasional podcast. But my views on the site changed drastically when I saw what the Haunting of Sunshine Girl crew was working on.

For several years, Paige McKenzie has been working with her mother, actress Mercedes Rose, and their producer Nick Hagan to create an interesting series about a girl that is haunted by ghosts. Each episode of the series is a video uploaded to YouTube and is usually no more than ten minutes in length. They have also turned their YouTube channel, which now has nearly 80,000 subscribers, into an online network that has become the platform for several original series and short films.

While the content they produce is innovative and interesting, my respect for these people is not based solely on what they’re doing, but rather the star’s personality. The character of “Sunshine Girl” has been branded from the beginning as a positive, upbeat chick to say the least. And McKenzie seems to be no different in her personal life. Much like her character who, despite being haunted by ghosts, tends to stay positive all the time, McKenzie seems to promote positivity and being happy through the most difficult times to her fan base which is largely composed of eleven and twelve year old kids. 

To me, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl stands as a positive alternative to the crap Hollywood tends to spew out. Young kids these days are looking up to drug-addicted celebrities who promote a lifestyle of partying and getting drunk and high 24/7. Paige McKenzie, on the other hand, is an outgoing, happy-go-lucky, drug and alcohol free girl who serves as a positive role model to kids who don’t have anyone good to look up to. That’s why I respect and appreciate all the work these people are doing and can’t wait to see and report on whatever they come up with next! Because I’m sure they still have several new plans up their sleeves.

Celebs Speak Out

One thing I’ve tried to do in my media work this year is promote celebrities who are speaking out on important issues and taking a stand against the status quo. I did a story for Digital Journal in May over King of the Hill and Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge’s interview with radio host Alex Jones in which he spoke out against the two-party system, saying that he didn’t identify himself as a Democrat or Republican, and talked about the issue of gun control and the dumbing down of society, which he compared to his movie Idiocracy.

Another celebrity who made a huge impact in the political world this year was none other than British comedian Russell Brand. Brand has been all over the news for controversial statements, like calling for a revolution and suggesting that voting is pointless. He, too, did an interview with Alex Jones in which he talked about the manipulation of facts and the consciousness to promote an agenda. One of my favorite Russell Brand moments was his appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe program where he talked about the media’s superficial agenda and the exclusion of important facts from the news. I also did a piece back in September when Brand was kicked out of an awards ceremony for criticizing Hugo Boss, one of the sponsors, for making uniforms for the NAZIs. I also mentioned Brand’s response to the ordeal in an op-ed piece he wrote for the London Guardian. In the piece he compared the awards ceremony to the relationship among governments, big businesses, and media outlets. 

• Russell Brand: 'What Are the Politicians Selling?'

 "Now I'm aware that this was really no big deal," he wrote. "I'm not saying I'm an estuary Che Guevara. It was a daft joke by a daft comic at a daft event. It makes me wonder, though, how the relationships and power dynamics I witnessed on this relatively inconsequential context are replicated on a more significant scale. For example, if you can't criticize Hugo Boss at the GQ awards because they own the event, do you think it is significant that energy companies donate to the Tory party? Will that affect government policy? Will the relationships that "politician of the year" Boris Johnson has with City bankers – he took many more meetings with them than public servants in his first term as mayor – influence the way he runs our capital?"

Conclusion

I have written about several other topics throughout 2013 and I will likely write about even more in 2014. These were just a few that, for one reason or another, stood out to me when I was reviewing my work. Hopefully you found the stories as interesting as I do and weren’t completely bored by what I had to say.

In conclusion, I would like to wish everyone a happy end to 2013 and a wonderful beginning to 2014. I hope to continue expanding my work and covering more interesting stories as the days, weeks, months, and years go by.