Category Archives: violence

9.11.01

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I think this is one of those moments like “where were you when Kennedy was shot?”

I can see clearly in my mind where I was when I first learned that the towers were falling–

My youngest was home sick that day and I was playing on the internet while she watched TV (same room). (I still had a house -what a concept.)  I actually found out what was happening by the posts of a blog I was on–some of the members were in New York City, and they posted heart-wrenching posts.

I told my daughter to turn it to the news station, and watched in disbelief as the second tower was hit.  I’m still unclear on whether I was actually watching it being hit or whether I was a few minutes late–the time was about the same as the tower was hit.

I’ll never forget the utter terror of people running away from the mayhem.  Or seeing people jumping from the buildings.  Or the stories of those who saved others at their own peril.

God Bless us everyone.

(I’ll save the political commentary for another time.)

Entertainment?

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You know, sometimes it ain’t so bad being without cable…

I had no idea this kind of garbage was on NBC.  And look at the cast–Todd Palin…why does that not surprise me?

…um, do people know that GE, a defense contractor, owns NBC?  Do they think that just maybe this is a way to *glam up* war so more folks will blindly go into combat not knowing how horrific and soul-destroying it is…?  Or how the viewers watching it will become more numb to human suffering?

What about Mark Burnett, the producer of “Survivor”…which I always detested for its pitting people against one another, and encouraging a “weakest link” mentality…I often said that I grew up on “Gilligan’s Island”, where everyone worked together– while my kids were exposed to crap like “Survivor”, where people worked against one another for their own selfish reasons.  This encourages that  mentality of fear and violence and discourages cooperation and charity.

Good God.

Definition of rape

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Well, I’m glad Senate hopeful Todd Akin has cleared up the definition of rape. /snark

See, it’s not *really* rape if she gets pregnant…

Sadly, there are too many of the R’s that believe this garbage.  Truly appalling that they don’t see women as human beings.  I’m left to wonder what category they place us in?  As a wise woman once said, rape is the only crime where the victim has to prove they didn’t want the crime to happen.

 

Owner abandoned dog while others rescued it

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Link here.  The first question I have:  Why in the hell would you take a dog up on that kind of terrain?  Second question is why didn’t you mount the same efforts to save her as the complete strangers did?

Of course, I’m for the people who saved her to get to keep her.  The original owner lost is claim on her when he abandoned her.  You’re done.

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The local case here of the soulless creep who allegedly threw a kitten in a fire was back in the news–he is claiming that he *might have bumped* the kitten into the fire while he burned pictures of his now ex-girlfriend….um-hmmm.

And when the reporters told the story, it led one to believe that the kitten perished.  It’s still alive and people have called in wanting to adopt it.  If they don’t get this particular kitten, they should get their butts over to the humane society shelter and adopt a pet from there.  Two of the best pets I’ve ever had came from animal shelters.

…and if one goes to a shelter (or anywhere to get a pet)  let the animal *choose* you…you’ll know what I mean with their body language–they’ll move in towards you, their eyes will brighten up, their tails will be wagging (dogs), or if it’s a cat, it will make its feelings known like my kitty Sammy did–she rubbed up against the cage as if she were rubbing against my leg….these two were the best pets because they chose.  I didn’t know what it meant at the time, as I wasn’t where I’m at now in understanding, but now I get it.

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More animal stuff–

Remember that cool picture I linked to recently with the lion and porcupine? I thought that the porcupines were holding their ground….

…yeah, well, things weren’t quite as they appeared.

My kids used to have a subscription to National Geographic for Kids.  I saved a few issues and found this same picture in it.  The caption had three questions of what was happening.  One of them asked if the lion flipped the porcupine over and pounced.  With a feeling of dread, I looked at the answer…yep…the lion flipped the porcupine over….<sigh>

 

 

 

 

Greenwald on Extremism Normalized

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…continuing to boil the frog…

From the comments section, a few posters are arguing about the uninformed public making poor choices because…they’re uninformed.  SiouxRose makes the point that a single mother with 2 kids doesn’t have the time to do what we do–looking for the news on the internet…because she sure the hell isn’t getting the information she needs to make an informed decision on the network news.

Then another poster comments that people need to take responsibility.

The problem with that is  with media consolidation into the rightwing mania, the information access is extremely limited.  It’s difficult to get accurate, mostly unbiased (there’s no such thing as un-biased) news reported by intelligent individuals with a grasp of the subject at hand.  Like I reported earlier, the only station that reports news like it used to be reported, prior to Reagan’s assault on the Press and Marketplace of Ideas, is a rightwing station.  They report every half hour.  The other stations?  You’re lucky if you get the news in the morning, and then you’re SOL for the rest of the day.  Nothing. Nada.  And when the storm hit my area, there was nothing the next day–Saturday–to tell folks what was happening and where they could go for a cooling center.  But you can be sure that there will be half-hour segments when/if a ter__ist event is happening.

So…to blame the public for not getting access to information is blaming the wrong folks–they already have very little power.    And if you’re like me, you only get access to news through the internet.  As has been said before–you control information, you control people.

I just wish there were as much outrage over the consolidation of media and the end of the Fairness Doctrine as there is against war.