Annoy-O-Index!

More of 10-10-CRAP:  They haven't gone away, they've gotten worse.  Now two of my favorite things have been combined:  10-10 commercials and Paul Riser.  Yes, Paul Riser: the horrid amalgam of Jerry Sinfield and Richard Lewis.  And while I'm worked up in a nice lather, let me compliment those advertising geniuses who work for AT&T for their 1-800-CALL-ATT commercials.  Boy, that annoying Arquette makes me want to run out and make a whole bunch of collect calls.  Not that the 1-800-COLLECT commercials with Ed O'Neil and Damon Wayans are any more intelligent and witty.  The comic genius of Sergeant Savings is unparalleled.  Could someone please get this crap off the air?  Please.

Church of the Destroyer:  One member of the Church of the Creator goes on a shooting spree in Chicago, killing and wounding minorities.  Two other members in California kill a gay couple and are suspected in several synagogue arsons.  Could there be a theme?  Could there be a connection?  Could there be a problem?  Could be.
 

    You may or may not have heard Pat Buchanan a few months ago foaming at the mouth that there were too many Jews in Harvard as opposed to "european Christians".  Since he seemed to have forgotten what it says on the doors to the country, I figured maybe Pat Buchanan needs to be reminded what's on the Statue of Liberty.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land:
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost, to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

SoftBall NBC, Where more Americans who can't read get their news:

    DateLine NBC, preferred news source of people who think that People magazine is hard hitting investigative journalism, recently went to Colimbine high school to investigate charges of bias.  And just as everyone suspected, the jocks weren't picking on anyone!  Why all of those other kids were lying on the jocks, and in fact, the jocks were the victims of ridicule and tormented by those mean geeks.  Yes, anti-jock propaganda was scrawled in the all of the restrooms, but let's ignore those swastikas, they're unpleasant.  Not once during the fluff interview did the Dateline reporter once challenge the party line spewed forth by the principle.  Was there a counter opinion?  Not at all.  That would be dangerously close to real journalism.

    Two kids whip out guns and go on a shooting rampage in a school.  The reason they did it was because they were tormented.  Who was tormenting them?  Why, I guess it's our good friends from the Family Circus, the little ghosts Not Me and Ida Know!  "Were you jocks picking on these kids?"  "Not Me!"  "Who sprayed that racial slur on the bathroom wall?"  "Ida Know!"  The haze of white, middle class (or upper class in this case) denial strikes again.

    I'm sorry that the shooing happened, it was a tragedy.  But shootings have occurred in other schools, but people didn't seem to care as much.  How many senators and politicians visited any other neighborhood after a shooting?  How much news coverage did the other schools get?  What is so special about Colimbine?  They are a "quiet", "nice", white, upper middle class neighborhood.  "This sort of thing never happens here."  That is exactly the place where "this sort of thing" happens.  Read this line twice, and take it to heart, the pure arrogance that it shouldn't happen here will not insulate you from tragedy.  There is no place on earth where someone can't snap.  Just because the right families live there, just because you have wealth, just because you can keep "those people" out, none of that matters.  After the shootings at other schools, the students were told "so sorry, move on."  Not at Colimbine, we had to see the funerals, the endless weeping.  Students at any other school were back at the same schools in less than a week.  Not at Colimbine, they couldn't go back to there because of the tragedy, so the school will be remodeled before they can return.

    So who's to blame.  It must be the video games, they're so violent.  It's Doom's fault!  And television!  All of that violent content and the sex.  And the guns, it's the guns' fault.  All of the blame is moved away from where it should be placed, the shooters.  I've been playing Legend of Zelda for months now, and I haven't gotten the urge to take up sword and shield to hack people to pieces; and although I love Final Fantasy VII, I still haven't mastered that Fire spell.  (Although some people make me try.)  If television causes violence, then why isn't Japan a smoldering crater by now?  Japanese television is much more violent than American television could ever hope to be.  No, the reason that television, video games, guns, or any other reason, no matter how stupid, is uttered is because people don't want to admit that a human being is capable of such barbarity, especially children.  So oppose to trying to figure out who is in danger of becoming violent when they are young, society simply turn a blind eye to potential "problem children", and when they explode it can't be our culture's fault.  The stupidity went as far as local malls banning black trench coats on the premisis.  So I guess that it is actually the fault of the black trench coats, so let's ban all overcoats.

    The human need to blame is one that has baffled me for years.  Instead of taking responsibility to fix something before it's a problem, people feel the need to try to push the responsibility elsewhere when it is too late.  We keep using the same old worthless fixes that haven't, don't, and will never work.  I could go on and say that this is society's fault, but wouldn't that be just as counter productive.