The Unmistakable Cone of Ignorance

<Nearly two years ago>

When did Americans become such mewling children?

Oh no… there’s a terrorist behind those bushes! That light up sign is a bomb!!! Won’t someone please think of the children?!?! etc.

I was just going to rant about the terrorism panic Americans suffer from but then I just saw this little gem…

http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=477125

Personally, if Fox and NBC want to show hardcore porn at 3 in the afternoon they should be able to. TV’s have V-chips and cable boxes have parental control units. Clearly parents have the tools to enforce what they want their kids to watch… why the hell is the government involved at all? Because most Americans are mewling babies who can’t take responsibility for anything, apparently. Besides if no one is watching the hardcore porn hour then no advertising will be on board so then no money will be made so the porn will be canceled. Somehow I don’t think ratings would be the issue though….

Anyways, on to the rest of this scree.

<about 2 years later>

God I started this nearly two years ago…  I’m pretty sure everything I said there still stands.  Mewling and whiney.  The latest and greatest in the great American pussifications… what to do with the Gitmo  Detainees… As Jon Stewart has said.. If we can keep the brain eating guy under lock and key, I’m sure we can handle these guys in our good ol supermaxes.  Hell maybe if we ended the war on drugs we could make room for the war on terror.  Always heard you shouldn’t fight a war on two fronts.  Not sure what that says about the war on cancer… I think we could probably keep that one and the war on terror.  Might be safer just to keep the cancer one though.  I know.. lets start with legalizing most vices. Prostitution… Legalize… Weed… Legalize…  Most other drugs… legalize.  We should probably keep the out and out poisons and potential neuro toxins illegal.  I’m looking at you heroin, pcp, crack and meth.  Coke.. you’re on the border.  Wide scale prohibition doesn’t work.  Hell even small scale targeted genies are hard to get back into the bottle.

To cut off stupidity at the knees… legalization doesn’t mean rampant distribution.  Cigarettes are legal but regulated.. Alcohol is legal but regulated.  I would envision all the other vices would fall under that category.  To the ‘but prostitution will encourage sex slavery!!!!’ people…. I’m pretty sure any type of slavery is still going to remain illegal, but now the girls and guys in the sex trade can get health care and regular check ups. (Thus reducing STD’s over all)  They can go to the police without fear when a john attacks them… cause assault is assault and you shouldn’t have to be scared of going to jail cause you got beat up doing something that should be legal.  Oooo and look at that.. we can save a shit ton of money on vice enforcement and really focus on tageting the real predatory types.

This rambling rant gets published now cause I’m tired of it being in my drafts.  I no longer care about how well written or persuasive it really is.  Citations are for suckers but multiple studies have shown that legalization of vice is probably the way to go and legalized prostitution has decreased STD rates in Nevada.

Blasted by your booby trap

I felt the blow in both kneecaps

Your eyes did shine

Your lips were fine!

And the device in your pants was out of sight…

Congress is insane, we’re all law breakers, video games cost too much, news at 11!  Apocalypse at 12!  I’ll bring the popcorn, you bring the beer.

Well fuck me…

I just found out that Robert Jordan died…. before finishing the WoT series though it sounds like the last book was mostly written/noted. So maybe it’ll come out someday and I’ll finally get around to reading the last 3 books sometime.   But seriously… the man was only 59.   I also just found out that David Gemmel died last year at 58.    This is actually upsetting me. I grew up on both of these authors’ books.   In spite of the WoT sucking it up the last 2 books I read, they were really good books at first.  Hell I lugged and reread the first 4 or 5 books of the serious around Britain when I was like 12.   It’s like watching my childhood die.    Makes me feel old at 25.     Next thing I know I’ll be reading that George RR Martin had a heart attack….   *grumble*

Jerry Falwell is dead.  Woooo!  One asshole down, way way too many to go.

Part of my reason for starting this blog was to have a place to get the rattling thoughts out of my head. I spend many a sleepless night rehashing the same rants and diatribes in my head and though I have been mostly writing random stories and reviews I feel it’s time this thing started living up to its purpose so here is the first of what is sure to be many many more rants.

Rant the first: Down’s Syndrome Parents

So Amanda pointed out an article on the New York Times website today. Here’s the link:Prenatal Testing Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus.

Soooo…. where do I begin? Where do I begin? I mean who can be against having children who are fundamentally screwed from the outset? I mean statistically we’re talking death at 49, common heart defects… oh yah, anything from moderate to severe mental retardation. Or is it mental handicapped these days? Hell, I’m sorry that wasn’t very kind of me. Well you know what? No matter how sweet, kind and successful a person with Down’s Syndrome may be they’re not a blessing. They’re a damn tragedy. They are people who suffer from a terrible genetic defect that prevents them from living to the full potential of life. Many require constant care and thus are active burdens on their parents until the day they or their parents die. So now we come to the article.

Parents of Down’s Syndrome children are pissed that doctors can now diagnose this condition sooner with two blood tests and a sonagram. They’re pissed that the doctors are telling the mothers and 90% of the mothers so informed are choosing to get abortions. They’re pissed that these mothers are choosing not to have a child which rather than being a joy will be, in all likelihood, a lifelong burden. Wait what? They’re upset that people don’t want to have children which can’t be successful members of society if they don’t have to? Howzat…?

You’d think that people would be happy that doctors have found a way to detect such a defect(and that’s what it is, a defect. It’s not a blessing, not in any way no matter how sweet these kids may be) and to give people the choice on whether they wish to accept this massive economic and emotional burden. Would the parents of children with something like cystic fibrosis be up in arms if there was a way to detect that disease early and help prevent the sure suffering and early death those children will experience? I somehow find it difficult to believe that’d be the case. If my mate were pregnant and it was determined that the child had Down’s I’m certain I wouldn’t want to have the pregnancy come to term. And until we have a way of correcting genetic screw ups combined with early detection , early detection plus termination is probably the most humane and rational choice.

So why are these parents complaining? What drives them? As far as I can determine from the article we have two main motivations at work here.

1. People are concerned that this is somehow eugenics
2. The parents are concerned that if there are no more Down’s babies their Down’s babies will be marginalized and not receive funding and attention

Well option 1 can almost give you the high ground… except we’re not talking eugenics. We’re talking about preventing major genetic defect… not controlling the genes of the child. Option 2 is flat out manipulative, abusive and just about the worse thing I’ve ever heard. These people are pissed cause their Down’s children might not get acceptance in society. A valid concern but certainly not something that’s worth wishing the condition on other children and parents. So these parents want doctors to stop saying ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘ I have bad news’ when they tell mothers. They want the doctors to give out their numbers to the mothers so the mothers can come and see what joys the Down’s Syndrome kids are. That’s right they want to parade their kids in front of people to convince them that they should get one too…. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE???? These are not puppies or something, these are human beings whose lives are stunted by a terrible genetic defect and while the fact that they are managing to get by is great that is no reason to try and convince others to have one.

Now I’m in no way advocating we kill people with problems who are alive today or that we abort all who suffer from some genetic defect but being able to detect and respond to these problems is a GOOD THING(TM), it means we are one step closer to understanding and hopefully fixing/curing these problems. Especially when the problem is guaranteed to happen. We’re not talking you’re child has a genetic chance of X% to get problem Y. We’re talking 100% chance of not being able to live to the full human potential. I wouldn’t wish that on any parent just so my child could get acceptance. There is a point where you’re just being greedy and should rejoice in human advancement. So in the wise words of Steve… “I hope they fall in a ditch”

alright it’s official. I’m sick of seeing coverage about the V.Tech shootings. Nutter butter went off and killed people cause they dropped the ball on the whole mental case factor on the background check and no one did enough to get him help. He released a manifesto to the media.. woohoo. just print the manifesto don’t show the videos and call it a night. fucking media circus.  Imma gonna go read the Atheist Manifesto till it’s time for Richard Stallman’s talk.

So as a follow up to that previous rant of mine… The shooter at V.Tech was an insane maladjusted loner type who had been to a psych ward and who scared the professors and students around him.  Gee who’d a thought….

The caught the kids who dowsed the slide in bleach and acid too.  Turns out they just wanted to see if the slide would melt.  Fucking genius.  Alright I’m ending this post here and I’ll write up some book reviews for some books I’ve read recently and my Philly trip in a bit.  Need to do some work though or at least stare at code for a few hours.

So I’ve been watching the news today and the big story is the Virginia Tech shootings.

So far all the talking heads have had to say is

1) 33 dead counting the gunman. Over 15 wounded.

2) The shootings took place at two different places 2 hours apart.

3) The shooter was armed with 2 hand guns, 9mm and .22 and had a Bullet Proof Vest.

Those have been the only solid facts released that I have seen. There has been some conjecture and of course the expectant media circus revolving around the usual

“How could this happen?” “Why didn’t the authorities stop this?” “Oh, god how could anyone do this?” “Our prayers are with the victims.” etc. Followed by the usual… “Guns are bad, they should be banned!!!” “If only the students were allowed to be armed he could’ve been stopped!!!!” “Video games caused this to happen!!!” … wait what? video games? seriously? you want to harp about video games being the cause when no one even knows who the shooter is or if he played them? Alright I suppose….
Now that I’ve briefly synopsisified the story, I’m gonna voice my own opinions. These shootings don’t even phase me anymore. To be honest I’m surprised we haven’t had a set of shootings more recently than this one. Our society creates these events through a combination of pack mentality, shunning outsiders and a poor attitude towards mental health issues. Judging from the media reports on the victims it would appear to be conjectured that victims 1 and 2 were an ex girlfriend and the RA(who is an authority figure) . The next victim was a professor and then the students. It sounds like someone who was under a ton of pressure, who didn’t have any real social outlets or a good social support base of friends and who was probably already showing cracks. The shooter probably showed signs of the end well before this but our society seems focused on not noticing and/or not caring till it’s too late. I mean hell I’ve personally had it in my head that I’d like to maim/kill/destroy several people in life. I never have through a combination of me valuing my own life and freedom over the satisfaction harming the object of my irritation would bring and a good group of people I call friends I can bitch to. I’ve always been a social outsider and I’ve never felt particularly comfortable with the banality of most social interaction. I just think differently than most of the people I meet in life and I don’t often share the same interests as others. I’m social enough but now I’m veering from the point. I understand where most of these shooters are coming from. They’re not evil, they’re desperate, they’re pissed, they’re sick of it all and they’re done being pushed. Then they lash out like an injured animal. If my life were slightly less charmed I could see how I might have turned out that way so I get it.

All that being said…

GROW A FUCKING PAIR OF BALLS AND DON’T KILL THE FUCKING BYSTANDERS, YOU TWATS! BETTER YET DON’T KILL ANYONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF.

I suppose if there is a specific MALICIOUS being who torments you then he’s made himself a target, but even if people were thoughtless and ignored you it wasn’t malicious so leave them the hell alone.

Video games didn’t cause this, gun control laws didn’t prevent this(as it seems he had guns without serial numbers) so all of the talking heads can just shut the hell up. The media never just shuts up… they keep talking over and over the same shit over and over again. The media also only cares about magnitude. If this guy had only killed the first two people this would never had made the national news. I mean hell I’ve got a far sicker and far more gutwrenching crime for the media. A 3 year old has been badly burned by acid and will require multiple surgeries over the next several months. How did it happen? Someone broke into a schools maintenance shed and splashed bleach and chemicas all over the schools playground. These people are far more disturbed than the man who shot 33 people ever could be. But this is just local news. Fuck… that’s just cruel.

So I’ll finish this ranting up by saying a few last things. I don’t feel any emotional response to these shootings though I can imagine several people are suffering great emotional pain right now. I just don’t seem to respond to these things. Maybe I’m a sociopath but I also don’t believe the shows of sympathy the media display about these events. Every time I hear the phrase ” Our/My prayers are with you” I want to punch the people saying it in the face cause it’s the most useless thing in the world(this could be the fact that I consider praying to be begging but meh…) though I do understand the sentiment is a good one at heart. I do think gun control laws are wrong in their approach and that rather than banning guns we should be training people in their use and care and should be requiring training for them just as we do with cars. That said I don’t think there should be any restrictions on what you can own as long as you are properly trained to use the item and get the right licenses. If you do commit a violent crime with a weapon then obviously you’ve forfeited your right to have one but that goes without saying. And that’s all I have to say at the moment on the subject. Course I’m writing this stream of consciousness so I may have to do some editing when I reread the post but this is it for now.

I’ll put up a post about my weekend Phily trip tomorrow but this was just on my mind tonight.

edit: Ok I just got a campus wide email talking about how the President of Hopkins is horrified just like the rest of us and how we will never forget our own local losses.  This shit is obnoxious.   In 3 or 4 years no one who was connected to these people  will be at VTech or in the local sense at Hopkins.  Most of us didn’t know these people and our horror is academic at best.  Unless you are currently sobbing in empathy for these people(unlikely since with all the various horrors in the world you’d never stop crying) you’re probably not going to care about this beyond the history of the event much past next month.  Well that presumes not being directly connected to the people involved or being involved then you’ll certainly have a higher level of caring… but this sappy dishonesty gets to me.  It really really bugs me cause it makes others pain less.  We don’t share it and to claim we do lessens it for those who are feeling it.  It’s especially pathetic to try and liken one groups losses to your own.  Just   aoeuaoaetnhtntnaueonssssssssshteauns …. fucking words fail me.