Bad Ideas
Why is it always the Dogs fault?
Not too long ago, I read an article about a dog who had somehow managed to set a house on fire. I don’t remember the details, but apparently the cat saved everyone by waking the owners up. This week, I ran into a similar article:
Firefighters said a grease fire that left $50,000 in damage to a Topeka home erupted after a dog shut a woman out of the house while fish was frying on the stove. – [Yahoo/AP]
Now something fishy is going on here. Why is the dog always to blame? How come the lady didn’t just break a window, then reach in and unlock the door when she realized her pan was aflame? Seriously, a broken window or door is way, way cheaper than letting the whole house burn down right?
But nooooo, they let it burn and blame the dog. Yeah. Right. I’m not buying it either…
Dog blamed in fish frying grease blaze – [Yahoo/AP]
You’d think God would have a better sense of humor…
Christian groups are up in arms here over a new children’s film starring Nicole Kidman and based on an award-winning novel by British author Philip Pullman, accusing it of being anti-religious.
Evil in Pullman’s books is represented by the church, called the Magisterium, whose acolytes kidnap orphans across England to subject them to horrible experiments in the frozen northern wastelands. – [Yahoo/AFP]
Seriously, why would anyone who believes in an all-powerful, almighty God, even trouble themselves with things like this? It’s not as if anyone is going to take the movie literally, and decide that the church is evil. Not to mention that there are a lot of other worse things to be complaining about besides a freakin’ movie.
I could point out that, historically, much treachery, killing and death has occurred in the name of Christianity, and religion in general. Numerous crusaders, jihadi, conquerers, terrorists, etc. and wars have often been perpetuated in “Gods” name, or with “Gods” support. But this shouldn’t worry any honest Christians because we are different, and people don’t do that anymore… Right? Oh… Wait… Nevermind.
But as I was saying, does anyone really think God honestly, really cares about this movie? How could it possibly offend Him? It’s a fairy tale for crying out loud! A work of fiction. Why, in the name of all that is holy, would the Almighty be offended by this? Seriously, given how the world works, you’d think God would have, at the very least, an epic sense of humor…
Christian groups slam new Kidman children’s movie – [Yahoo/AFP]
Personal Responsibility: an archaic ideal?
What happened to the days when people took responsibility for not only thier own actions but the results if accidents that happen to them?
An injured woman who slipped in an Alaskan parking lot can sue the federal government for failing to remove snow and ice, a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Monday. – [Yahoo/Reuters]
When did it become par for the course for people to sue for slipping and falling on ice? More importantly, why does that make sense to anyone? People don’t intentionally put ice out to make people fall. It’s not a malicious act. It’s an act of nature. Why should anybody be forced to expend the time, energy and/or cash clearing out their own sidewalk? Because it’s on their property? Hogwash!
So what happens if nobody owns the land that you happen to slip and fall on? Who do you sue? God? Mother Nature? How dumb is that? How can it be the rule of the land that if you have an accident on someones property, they are automatically at fault for it, even of they have successfully avoided any similar accident for years?
How about people stop blaming everyone else for accidents that are often just the fault of their own carelessness? How about being more responsible, like walking more carefully when they see ice? Or waiting for hot coffee to cool down before drinking it? These laws shield those who lack common sense, are allowing people to become dumber and dumber every day. Before you know it, we will all be stupid Eloi, hunted and consumed by legal Morlocks…
In icy Alaska, Army can be sued over fall – [Yahoo/Reuters]
The Security Chug…
Some people have a seriously overinflated sense of rebellion. Or value thier vodka very highly:
A man nearly died from alcohol poisoning after quaffing a liter (two pints) of vodka at an airport security check instead of handing it over to comply with new carry-on rules, police said Wednesday.
Bwaa ha ha ha haaa. He showed them!!
New airport rules prohibit passengers from carrying larger quantities of liquid onto planes, and he was told at a security check he would have to either throw out the bottle of vodka or pay a fee to have his carry-on bag checked as cargo.
Instead, he chugged the bottle down — and was quickly unable to stand or otherwise function, police said. – [Yahoo/Reuters]
D’oh! Ok, so I can see why the guy did it. It was either pay to take the vodka in his luggage, or have it confiscated. He did the one thing any rebellious, poor, vodka afficionado would do. CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! CHUG! …
One problem though. He severely overestimated his manliness. (Or felt that missing the flight was no big deal)…
Man drinks liter of vodka at airport line – [Yahoo/Reuters]
A thieving iron worker with no shame…
Today we see an odd story about an unusual theft during an Iron Workers funeral:
A brazen thief who offered condolences at a memorial service made off with $10,000 collected for the family of an ironworker killed in a Las Vegas Strip construction site mishap, friends and family members said. – [Yahoo/AP]
Now what kind of guy steals from a funeral? Seriously.
“I hope the ironworkers don’t find him first,” Ruth Brown, Rabun’s grandmother, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She traveled to Las Vegas from New Orleans to attend the service. – [Yahoo/AP]
Which echoes my sentiments exactly. What kind of person steals from iron workers? And what kind of genious does it take to be an iron worker stealing from your fellow iron workers? You have to know that your chances of getting caught rise exponentially right?
If, as an iron worker, your gonna steal, why not steal from auto workers. Or dock workers. Or construction workers. Stealing from your own profession is just dumb. And bad form. People today…
He hopes ironworkers don’t find him – [Yahoo/AP]
Teen MySpace Suicide. Preventable, but not the way you think…
An article today talked about a teen who committed suicide after a rather cruel Myspace prank:
The parents of Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, who hanged herself last year, said her suicide came minutes after she received mean messages through the social networking site MySpace. – [Yahoo/AP]
Now that is very tragic. Teen suicides are probably the saddest thing that can happen, and probably the most devastating thing that can occur to a parent.
A police report said that a mother from the neighborhood and her 18-year-old employee fabricated a profile for a teenage boy online who pretended to be interested in Megan before he began bullying her. – [Yahoo/AP]
OK now this is just plain mean and senseless. Some people really need to get a life. That 18 year old seriously needs a date or something…
After the case became public, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt asked lawmakers to review state law to see if changes were necessary to better deal with cases that involve Internet bullying. Some municipalities have also considered or passed statutes to strengthen laws that deal with Internet harassement. – [Yahoo/AP]
Ah, of course. The obligatory knee-jerk, parent activist motivated legislative law passing that is bound to bite us in the rear at some point in the future…
What is truly sad about this incident, isn’t that internet laws aren’t tough enough, bullying laws aren’t tough enough or even, as an extreme example of the futility of this kind of lawmaking, that suicide laws aren’t tough enough. The truly sad thing was that the teen wasn’t tough enough.
Here is the thing. I have known kids who were beaten down and abused daily by their parents, who did not kill themselves. I’ve seen kids grow up in environments that would mentally cripple an adult. But they actually became tougher, stronger and more resilient.
When I was growing up, many of my friends and I were subjected to actual physical bullying. Not stupid disparaging emails. Actually, we didn’t have email. I would have preferred to be bullied by email. But the thing is, none of us contemplated suicide, only survival. None of them have committed suicide. Not one.
My point is this. The internet bullying isn’t the big problem. It’s the way kids today are raised. The ones that commit suicide tend to have considered it long before they ever do, and need special treatment. Or even better yet, to have been raised differently.
If it isn’t internet bullying, it will be failing a test, buckling under peer pressure, failing to achieve a goal later in life, who knows. No law will prevent that mindset. But good parenting, and where necessary, the right treatments, can. So let’s quit making stupid knee-jerk laws, and focus on how to treat suicide prone teens, indeed how to properly raise our kids so they don’t become suicide prone teens.
Seriously, if all it takes for your teen to kill themselves are mean emails from someone they really don’t even know, don’t you think there must be something else terribly wrong?
No charges in MySpace suicide case – [Yahoo/AP]
Journalistic Ambiguity…
I have commented in the past on how modern journalism seems to be riddled with poor journalists, from articles filled with false assumptions to improperly interpreted surveys and misleading statistics. But there is yet another form of poor journalism, that I like to call “Ambiguous Sensationalism”:
A woman showering after using the swimming pool at Best Western Soldiers Field Tower and Suites told police she heard a door open and saw a naked man at about 3:10 p.m. Sunday.
The man ran out of the room, pulled on swim trunks, hopped on a bike and road [sic] through the hallways, police said. – [Yahoo/AP]
Ok, now who wrote this? Notwithstanding the incorrect use of the word “road” where clearly “rode” was intended, the article itself is a study in journalistic ambiguity. It just doesn’t give you enough of the smaller details to get a good feel for the scenario. Certainly there is a story here, that a man rode a bike through hotel hallways, knocking two men down in the process. But beyond that, it’s all a big questions mark. Seriously.
This article begs more questions than it answers. Like, where exactly was the woman showering? In her room? Or at one of those poolside showers? And which door did she hear open? Her room door? Her bathroom door? Or an external building door by the pool shower? Likewise, where was the naked man? Inside or outside? Can you tell us anything!?.
It’s hard to even get a bead on what really happened unless you make a few unsubstantiated assumptions. And that, my friends, is not the stuff of good journalism. It’s certainly good for a laugh though…
Cyclist nabbed for motel hallway ride – [Yahoo/AP]
Be careful what you say in kindergarten. It might come back to haunt you…
Well I thought I’d seen it all, but in the realm of political dirt slinging, this is the most hilarious thing I’ve ever read:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has used words attributed to Sen. Barack Obama from when he was a kindergartner — and from when he was in third grade — to accuse him of “rewriting history” when he says he hasn’t been planning for a long time to run for president. -[USA Today Political Blog]
So apparently Hilary Clinton’s latest round of mud slinging is citing an essay Barack Obama wrote while in an Indonesian kindergarten. In kindergarten folks. Kindergarten. Apparently this is proof of his disingenuity, since he claimed to have started his political drive for the presidency much, much later in life. She might as well have said “My dad can beat up your dad”, given the juvenile quality of that argument.
Seriously, how many of you wanted to be president when you were in kindergarten? Please by show of hands. Put your hand up dagnabbit. Yes, you, in the tee shirt, I’m talking to you. We all know you wanted the presidency when you were in kindergarten. And you are clearly not raising your hand. Yes, I can see you ya little dweeb. Raise that grubby little paw or I’ll come over there and do it for you. And I can guarantee you don’t want that. And you, yes you in the dress shirt, you too… Thank you. You can all put your hands down.
OK now by show of hands, (don’t make me call you out again. You know who you are…) how many of you ran for the presidency after when you became a legal adult? After you bought your first car? First house? Got married? Had kids? After the kids left for college? Uh huh. That’s what I thought…
You bunch of low down, dirty, conniving, lying, scum bags…
Clinton digs into Obama’s kindergarten musings – [USA Today Political Blog]
Mugging is a cakewalk…
Apparently, in Moscow, once you’ve been in prison, you’ll never want to leave:
A Russian mugger stole a woman’s cake as she walked by, then asked the victim to call police so he could go back to prison, Russian media reported Tuesday. – [Yahoo/Reuters]
OOOOK then… Very interesting. Who knows. Maybe he made some “friends” on the inside, and couldn’t be without them. All I know is that stealing a ladies cake and giving it back to her isn’t actually theft. It’s called borrowing. And he ought not to go back to jail for it.
See, this is a typical example of the shoddy work I have been talking about in prior posts. If he really wanted to guarantee he would get thrown back in the slammer, he needed to do something really, really serious. Like, let say, steal a lady’s hand bag. And her finger. Or her arm. In fact, definitely her arm. That would get him big house time for sure…
Mugger takes the cake – [AP/Reuters]
Log In
My Thoughts…
Blogroll
General Info
Phyreblades Blogs
Famous Last Words
The Time Machine
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Feb | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Issues
Pick your Poison:
Easy Eavesdropping.
- Phyreblade on Objective vs Subjective Reporting
- dreadrocksean on Objective vs Subjective Reporting
- phyreblade on Giving relevance to the irrelevant…
- phyreblade on Giving relevance to the irrelevant…
- shamelesslyatheist on Giving relevance to the irrelevant…