From information I have been provided by animal rights groups over the last few weeks (and gruesome video I watched that literally made me sick to my stomach) I saw the hunters chasing after baby seals and beating them to death with clubs essentially.  I saw footage of protestors standing by and videotaping the hunters as they threatened to do harm to the protestor's equipment.  The 20-minute video was shut off after I saw one hunter chasing after a seal and taking repeated swipes at it with a club.  I became physically ill and was disturbed for many hours after.  I was shown pictures of dead and bloody seals laying on the snow and right beside was a hunter holding a club.  I guess if you look at it, no matter what the form of hunting, the animal is still going to be killed.  I think what is concerning protestors is the fact that these seals are beaten to death and not exactly shot and killed immediately like with other game.  Either way, I'm not a meat fan but I do feel that if an animal is going to be killed for food it should be done in a humane way.  I don't condone violence on anyone or anything no matter what the situation.

There aren't any topics that come to mind right away.  But having said that I think anything in the news or other world events can be commented on through writing, however, you have to keep in mind sensitivity issues.  Sometimes you have to give a bit of a cooling off period if there is a hot story in the news.  Stories about terrorist attacks or hurricanes can be a touchy issue.  I would personally write about those topics if my opinion was in favour of the people it affected.  For instance, with my hurricane Katrina columns last fall they were published very quickly because I was supporting the people whose homes or lives had been dramatically changed.  As for the personal aspect of writing, I don't really write about my personal life.  I write about my personal thoughts, but I don't often bring in specific examples from my life.  That's not to say that my personal life doesn't influence my writing, but I like to write from a point of view that many people can relate to.  If I start giving names of people or my own story it's personalizing it so the reader is then looking in on my life.  If I leave it as being a generic person, it's easier for the reader to step into those shoes and follow the role of the story teller (me, in this case).

So there are no misunderstandings, I have never been a military member and I had a civilian position at a newspaper.  Secondly, I don't consider that I am bashing the military in any way.  The government is what controls the military and many people have objections to decisions the government is making.  People are entitled to their opinions and are allowed to freely express them.  That was one of the problems I ran into while working at the newspaper.  The irony is that a newspaper should have the freedom to express opinions and beliefs but that's not how a military works.  Essentially what it should have is a newsletter if the information is considered internal and private.  Yes, there was lots of head-butting and creativity was discouraged.  For me, it didn't work and I wasn't there that long.  But if we take out the military aspect of it, many people don't agree with company policies or what a company stands for even when currently employed but they still go into work every day.  It almost seems hypocritical for a person to be ragging on their company but continue to take its money in the form of a paycheuqe.

Interesting question.  I must say I usually tackle current events queries here but this is fine too.  I do have my hair highlighed every once in a while.  When I was much younger my hair was white blond.  As I got older it's turned darker and darker.  So instead of hearing from people who "knew me when I was this big" that I had gorgeous hair before, I resorted to having it coloured.  Yes, this is coming from the same person who was totally against doing anything unnatural to his hair just a few years ago, but I have crossed over to the dark side (or lightened side!)