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REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS
Batman Shooting
Monday, July 23, 2012 12:05 PM
PIRATENEWS
John Lee, conspiracy therapist at Hollywood award-winner History Channel-mocked SNL-spoofed PirateNew.org wooHOO!!!!!!
Quote:"I'm Barack Obama, the Marxist professor. I spent the last two years of high school in a daze. I drank beer heavily, and tried drugs enthusiastically. Look I uh, when I was a kid , I inhaled, frequently. that was uh, that was the point. Now you know that guy ain't shit. Sorry ass motherfuckers got nothin on me, nothin. Shit's gettin way too complicated for me. There are white folks, then there are ignorant motherfuckers like you. You can put lipstick on a pig. You ain't my bitch nigger, buy your own damn fries. That's just how white folks will do ya." -Barack Hussein Obama Soetoro, Dreams From My Father MP3 http://www.archive.org/details/ObamaInauguralMashup/
Monday, July 23, 2012 12:16 PM
REDREAD
The poster formerly known as yinyang.
Quote:I'd like to preface this long tweet by saying that my passion comes from my deepest sympathy and shared sorrow with [Friday's] victims and with the utmost respect for the people and the police/fire/medical/political forces of Aurora and all who seek to comfort and aid these victims. [Saturday], I made a comment about how I do not understand people who support public ownership of assault style weapons like the AR-15 used in the Colorado massacre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15 That comment, has of course, inspired a lot of feedback. There have been many tweets of agreement and sympathy but many, many more that have been challenging at the least, hostile and vitriolic at the worst. [...] Then I get messages from seemingly decent and intelligent people who offer things like: @BrooklynAvi: Guns should only be banned if violent crimes committed with tomatoes means we should ban tomatoes. OR @nysportsguys1: Drunk drivers kill, should we ban fast cars? I'm hoping that right after they hit send, they take a deep breath and realize that those arguments are completely specious. I believe tomatoes and cars have purposes other than killing. What purpose does an AR-15 serve to a sportsman that a more standard hunting rifle does not serve? Let's see - does it fire more rounds without reload? Yes. Does it fire farther and more accurately? Yes. Does it accommodate a more lethal payload? Yes. So basically, the purpose of an assault style weapon is to kill more stuff, more fully, faster and from further away. To achieve maximum lethality. Hardly the primary purpose of tomatoes and sports cars. [...] There is no excuse for the propagation of these weapons. They are not guaranteed or protected by our constitution. If they were, then we could all run out and purchase a tank, a grenade launcher, a bazooka, a SCUD missile and a nuclear warhead. We could stockpile napalm and chemical weapons and bomb-making materials in our cellars under our guise of being a militia. These weapons are military weapons. They belong in accountable hands, controlled hands and trained hands. They should not be in the hands of private citizens to be used against police, neighborhood intruders or people who don't agree with you. These are the weapons that maniacs acquire to wreak murder and mayhem on innocents. They are not the same as handguns to help homeowners protect themselves from intruders. They are not the same as hunting rifles or sporting rifles. These weapons are designed for harm and death on big scales. [...] We will not prevent every tragedy. We cannot stop every maniac. But we certainly have done ourselves no good by allowing these particular weapons to be acquired freely by just about anyone. (Bolding mine.) source: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/if2nht
Monday, July 23, 2012 1:47 PM
1KIKI
Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.
Monday, July 23, 2012 2:09 PM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Quote:Originally posted by REDREAD: I thought this "tweet" (really more of an essay or article, but it's on a Twitter service) from Jason Alexander - yes, they guy who played George on Seinfeld - was pretty good: Quote:I'd like to preface this long tweet by saying that my passion comes from my deepest sympathy and shared sorrow with [Friday's] victims and with the utmost respect for the people and the police/fire/medical/political forces of Aurora and all who seek to comfort and aid these victims. [Saturday], I made a comment about how I do not understand people who support public ownership of assault style weapons like the AR-15 used in the Colorado massacre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15 That comment, has of course, inspired a lot of feedback. There have been many tweets of agreement and sympathy but many, many more that have been challenging at the least, hostile and vitriolic at the worst. [...] Then I get messages from seemingly decent and intelligent people who offer things like: @BrooklynAvi: Guns should only be banned if violent crimes committed with tomatoes means we should ban tomatoes. OR @nysportsguys1: Drunk drivers kill, should we ban fast cars? I'm hoping that right after they hit send, they take a deep breath and realize that those arguments are completely specious. I believe tomatoes and cars have purposes other than killing. What purpose does an AR-15 serve to a sportsman that a more standard hunting rifle does not serve? Let's see - does it fire more rounds without reload? Yes. Does it fire farther and more accurately? Yes. Does it accommodate a more lethal payload? Yes. So basically, the purpose of an assault style weapon is to kill more stuff, more fully, faster and from further away. To achieve maximum lethality. Hardly the primary purpose of tomatoes and sports cars. [...] There is no excuse for the propagation of these weapons. They are not guaranteed or protected by our constitution. If they were, then we could all run out and purchase a tank, a grenade launcher, a bazooka, a SCUD missile and a nuclear warhead. We could stockpile napalm and chemical weapons and bomb-making materials in our cellars under our guise of being a militia. These weapons are military weapons. They belong in accountable hands, controlled hands and trained hands. They should not be in the hands of private citizens to be used against police, neighborhood intruders or people who don't agree with you. These are the weapons that maniacs acquire to wreak murder and mayhem on innocents. They are not the same as handguns to help homeowners protect themselves from intruders. They are not the same as hunting rifles or sporting rifles. These weapons are designed for harm and death on big scales. [...] We will not prevent every tragedy. We cannot stop every maniac. But we certainly have done ourselves no good by allowing these particular weapons to be acquired freely by just about anyone. (Bolding mine.) source: http://www.twitlonger.com/show/if2nht I know it probably won't convince anyone on FFF.NET to change sides - as many of us are already pro gun law reform and those who aren't can be hard to reason with - but I'm hoping he got through to some people. Right or wrong, people pay a lot of attention to celebrities, and I'm glad to see he's using his platform for good.
Monday, July 23, 2012 2:15 PM
PHOENIXROSE
You think you know--what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun.
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: ETA: Jaysus, can't anyone "shut" PN up? My scrolling finger is getting tired, and now I'M having trouble keeping the bile down in my throat!
Monday, July 23, 2012 2:58 PM
Quote:Originally posted by REDREAD: I thought this "tweet" (really more of an essay or article, but it's on a Twitter service) from Jason Alexander - yes, they guy who played George on Seinfeld - was pretty good: Quote:[Saturday], I made a comment about how I do not understand people who support public ownership of assault style weapons like the AR-15 used in the Colorado massacre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15
Quote:[Saturday], I made a comment about how I do not understand people who support public ownership of assault style weapons like the AR-15 used in the Colorado massacre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AR-15
Quote:"Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. Regarding the Great Depression. You’re right, we did it. We’re very sorry. But thanks to you, we won’t do it again." -Ben Bernanke, chairman of the private foreign mostly jewish "Federal" Reserve Bank that counterfeits all "US dollars" (FRN Notes) out of thin air then steals 100% of fed income tax to pay interest on that counterfeit debt, Nov. 8, 2002 http://www.wnd.com/2008/03/59405/ "The few who understand the system, will either be so interested in its profits, or so dependent on its favors that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantages...will bear its burden without complaint, and perhaps without suspecting that the system is inimical to their best interests." -Rothschild Brothers' of London communiqué to associates in New York June 25, 1863
Monday, July 23, 2012 3:16 PM
Quote:Originally posted by Kwicko: I'm a gun guy, pro 2A, gun owner, been around guns all my life... and I think there's a conversation to be had about the "well regulated" part of the Second Amendment. Hey, it has regulations mentioned right in it!
Monday, July 23, 2012 3:39 PM
CHRISISALL
Monday, July 23, 2012 3:45 PM
Quote:Originally posted by chrisisall: While I'm not a fan of censorship, I too would like to see PN muzzled for a bit here. Sorry dude, you're just not concise enough at the moment. Chrisisall, wearing a frilly Mal thing on his head, and ready to shoot unarmed, full-body armoured Operatives
Monday, July 23, 2012 3:56 PM
Quote:Originally posted by PIRATENEWS: Better than being in suicidal lala land. Amazing how the sheeple continue grazing after the wolves eat their fill!
Monday, July 23, 2012 3:57 PM
Monday, July 23, 2012 4:05 PM
RIONAEIRE
Beir bua agus beannacht
Monday, July 23, 2012 4:18 PM
Quote:"We need to brainwash people to think about guns in a vastly different way." -US attorney general Eric Holder, Massmurdering Butcher of Operation Fast and Furious and the OK City Bombing, CSPAN2, 1985
Monday, July 23, 2012 4:50 PM
Monday, July 23, 2012 5:27 PM
Quote:"We need to brainwash people to think about guns in a vastly different way." -US attorney general Eric Holder, Massmurdering Butcher of Operation Fast and Furious and the OK City Bombing, CSPAN2, 1985 "I didn't shoot nobody! No Sir! I'm just a patsy!!!" -Lee Harvey Oswald in Operation Northwoods
Monday, July 23, 2012 6:21 PM
WISHIMAY
Quote:Originally posted by REDREAD: These weapons are military weapons. They belong in accountable hands, controlled hands and trained hands.
Monday, July 23, 2012 7:30 PM
Monday, July 23, 2012 8:30 PM
PEACEKEEPER
Keeping order in every verse
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 4:51 AM
ANTHONYT
Freedom is Important because People are Important
Quote:Take a look at the School Zone Act of 1990, where it was made illegal to carry a weapon in the vicinity of a seat of junior learning. Your High Court OVERTURNED it because it was a civil infringement. HOW FUCKING MIND NUMBINGLY RIDICULOUS IS THAT!!!
Quote:It is ingrained in your culture that deeply, that you cant see common sense for the fucking ammo!!!! So long as you keep up this ludicrous charade about your civil rights being affected because you arent allowed to carry a bloody weapon, the longer your citizens will be mowed down by lunatics in cinemas.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 5:12 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:24 AM
Quote:The conceptual problem is immensely difficult, especially in a society that is already as gun-saturated as America is today. The political problem borders on the impossible. Gun policy in this country is made by the National Rifle Association, and no serious effort at gun control can currently get past its veto. Even when legislation passed during the Clinton years in the form of the Brady bill, requiring background checks at the time of gun purchases, or the assault weapons ban, the NRA succeeded in injecting gaping loopholes into the laws. Who needs to go through a background check at Walmart when you can get your gun without one at the local gun show or from some shady figure on a street corner? The assault weapon ban only prohibited the manufacture of new guns (it grandfathered in a huge cache of pre-existing weapons) and gun manufacturers easily redesigned their guns to circumvent the ban. The NRA then trumpets how "gun control" doesn't work. But it can. Consider what happened in Australia after a crazed gunman killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. The Australian federal government persuaded all states and territories to implement tough new gun control laws. Under the National Firearms Agreement (NFA), firearms legislation was tightened throughout the country. National registration of guns was imposed and it became illegal to hold certain long guns that might be used in mass shootings. The gun ban was backed up by a mandatory buy-back program that substantially reduced gun possession in Australia. The effect was that both gun suicides and homicides (as well as total suicides and homicides) fell. Importantly, while there were 13 mass shootings in Australia during the period of 1979--96, there have been none in the sixteen years since. In 1996, then-Prime Minister John Howard stated that the "whole scheme is designed to reduce the number of guns in the community and make Australia a safer place to live." The Australian attorney general praised the cooperation and responsibility of Australian firearms owners with the gun controls and buy-back, saying, "they have been paid cash for their firearms - giving our nation a welcome Christmas gift by removing unnecessary high-powered firearms from the community. It offers all of us the real chance of a safer festive season and New Year." Of course, the Australian gun control law in 1997 enjoyed an extremely high level of public support and was not hampered by any domestic gun industry (since Australia did not have any). Such would not be the case in the United States where pro-gun political views and NRA power create a very different climate. In the wake of another tragic massacre of innocent lives, we should look carefully at the Australian experience to see if the American public will ever rise up as one against gun violence.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:47 AM
Quote:The CNN story about the Aurora movie theater shooting had more than 19,000 comments as of 3:45 p.m. ET. The most "liked" comment -- and one that has inspired dozens of responses -- came from Samuel27: "If only there had been someone else with a gun there to stop him. Because nothing is safer than having multiple gunmen in a dark, crowded theater full of panicky people running around." Samuel27 apparently meant his words sarcastically, but several commenters took him seriously, observing that the surprise and panic created by a sudden shooting is not the atmosphere in which to react with more shooting. Cestlavie3 wrote an armed civilian could have lowered the number of casualties. "I'm sitting in a theater, three rows in front of me a man stands up and starts shooting. Immediately I access my pistol, stand up and then end his life. He has killed 2 people, but 12 others will go home alive. You do the math," he wrote. PCShogun wrote that taking action was important. "I'd rather die with a gun in my hand trying to defend my family and myself than see them all die in front of me knowing I did nothing to try and stop it." Perhaps the split between opinions is best captured by commenter Corey Hurd, who echoes the ideas of a much different film, Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven," in which Eastwood's character remarks, "It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Take away all he's got and all he's ever gonna have." "By the vast majority of comments on this site, everybody needs some form of counseling; this is not about black or white or red and blue states," Hurd wrote. "Human lives were taken without regard; we need serious dialogue here, but the saddest thing about it is that there aren't any politicians who want to step up to the plate. Should we arm every citizen with a Desert Eagle, am not sure that will make us all safer.
Quote:"So all you people out there commenting with your guns are all crack shots that you could take this nutjob down with one shot, without hitting anybody else, in a darkened theater, where said nutjob threw a smoke bomb and there are panicked people running around. That's impressive. Unrealistic, but impressive," wrote Laureth. "How would you people feel if instead of hitting the nutjob, you shot someone's kid by mistake?" Commenter CAFlyers -- who identified himself on a phone call as Robert Bickle of Townsend, Massachusetts -- wrote, "Based on the facts as I know them, I have to say that it is UNLIKELY that I would have been able to take the shot in this scenario effectively due to the state of mind I would have been in at the theater, the speed of the event, the smoke, the commotion, etc." In a phone interview, Bickle, a Navy veteran and former law enforcement officer whose family has deep roots in both the military and police, added that his family's safety would have been at the top of his mind in such a situation. "I would be more concerned about the person I was with, and especially if my two kids were there, I'd probably spend my time throwing them on the ground and getting on top of them and crawling our way out of there, than I would ever reaching down into my ankle holster or shoulder holster and try to pull out a weapon and return fire," he said. BryanPetty cautioned that taking such a shot carries risks. "Conceal and Carry personnel should know better than to draw down in this situation, unless they had a clear shot and could neutralize the target," though he added, "I don't think a bunch of CCW holders would be blindly shooting at each other.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:58 AM
Quote:The Gun Is All. That's what I've seen over and over here, and I think the folk here represent how a lot of pro-gun people think.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:07 AM
FREMDFIRMA
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:28 AM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:55 AM
Quote:Originally posted by ANTHONYT: Quote:Originally posted by chrisisall: Theatre-wise, ONE FUCKING USHER checking doors could have prevented/limited this. Oh, no ushers anymore. Well, the theatre corporation saved themselves a lot of money. Smaller version of 9-11 here. No or shit security for BUDGETARY reasons. Save a buck; lose some lives. Hello, I don't think more security is the answer to this question. I'm not sure I want enough security to protect me from madmen who plan killing sprees.
Quote:Originally posted by chrisisall: Theatre-wise, ONE FUCKING USHER checking doors could have prevented/limited this. Oh, no ushers anymore. Well, the theatre corporation saved themselves a lot of money. Smaller version of 9-11 here. No or shit security for BUDGETARY reasons. Save a buck; lose some lives.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 10:09 AM
HKCAVALIER
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:44 AM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 4:53 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 5:35 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 6:00 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 6:24 PM
Quote:Originally posted by HKCavalier: Until our culture stops perceiving the mentally ill as some kind of sideshow, something shameful, something to be shunned, we'll never be able to help people like James Holms (Even among us here, I'm sure there are several of you who want nothing to do with helping him). The state of the mental health system in America is apalling, not just in terms of funding and the like, but, more broadly and crucially, in terms of culture.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:41 PM
Quote:“The tragedy that played out in an Aurora movie theater Friday was ironically paralleled as a classroom learning experience in a medical school in Parker the same day. Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine is in the middle of holding specialized classes in disaster life support for 150 second-year medical students. Along with response to natural disasters like hurricanes and floods and terrorist attacks, one of the scenarios being used to train the students is how to respond if a shooter fires at people in a movie theater and also uses a bomb in the attack. 'The irony is amazing, just amazing,' said Rocky Vista Dean Dr. Bruce Dubin. The shootings in Aurora were incorporated into the teaching Friday, Dubin said." -Nancy Lofholm, Denver Post, Real life shooting imitates training exercise at Parker medical school, 07/21/2012 http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_21126462/real-life-shooting-imitates-training-exercise-at-parker "Respondent filed this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that petitioner violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause when its police officers, acting pursuant to official policy or custom, failed to respond to her repeated reports over several hours that her estranged husband had taken their three children in violation of her restraining order against him. Ultimately, the husband murdered the children. Respondent did not, for Due Process Clause purposes, have a property interest in police enforcement of the restraining order against her husband. Even if the statute could be said to make enforcement 'mandatory,' that would not necessarily mean that respondent has an entitlement to enforcement. " -United States Supreme Court, Castle Rock v. Gonzales, No. 04-278, 2005 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Rock_v._Gonzales http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/politics/28scotus.html?_r=1 http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/04-278.ZS.html "We need to brainwash people to think about guns in a different way." -US attorney general Eric Holder, CSPAN2, 1985, mastermind of Operation Fast and Furious that gave 20,000 guns to the Mexican mafia and murdered over 40,000 cops, prosecutors, judges, politcians and journalists
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 7:52 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:03 PM
MAGONSDAUGHTER
Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: And yes, it is a mental-health issue, which again, little or nothing is done about. So many slip through the cracks, or end up on the street, our mental-health system is a disaster. Unfortunately, tho', there is a down side to that, too, in that invariably people look toward easy fixes...like forced medication, of which I, of course, am terrified! There are myriad things we COULD do to solve that problem, but that's not what people look to immediately...and if Romney gets in office, guaranteed mental-health care will LESSEN, not improve. As well as whatever minor gun restrictions that might exist being lifted...
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:17 PM
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 9:21 PM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 1:58 AM
Quote:Originally posted by Magonsdaughter: Quote:Originally posted by Niki2: And yes, it is a mental-health issue, which again, little or nothing is done about. So many slip through the cracks, or end up on the street, our mental-health system is a disaster. Unfortunately, tho', there is a down side to that, too, in that invariably people look toward easy fixes...like forced medication, of which I, of course, am terrified! There are myriad things we COULD do to solve that problem, but that's not what people look to immediately...and if Romney gets in office, guaranteed mental-health care will LESSEN, not improve. As well as whatever minor gun restrictions that might exist being lifted... It's a mental health issue AND a gun issue. SOunds like this guy may have had some sort of massive breakdown, which unfortunatey played out in such a destructive way because of the availability of guns.
Quote: It's kind of nuts to me that people can't see the correlation of massive amounts of weaponry available = increased gun deaths. Weird. It's an NRA induced reality.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 2:05 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:11 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 3:49 AM
Quote:Firearms sales are surging in the wake of the Colorado movie theater massacre as buyers express fears that anti-gun politicians may use the shootings to seek new restrictions on owning weapons. In Colorado, the site of Friday's shooting that killed 12 and injured dozens of others, gun sales jumped in the three days that followed. The state approved background checks for 2,887 people who wanted to purchase a firearm — 25 percent more than the average Friday to Sunday period in 2012 and 43 percent more than the same interval the week prior. Dick Rutan, owner of Gunners Den in suburban Arvada, Colo., said requests for concealed-weapon training certification "are off the hook." His four-hour course in gun safety, required for certification for a concealed-weapons permit in Colorado, has drawn double the interest since Friday. "What they're saying is: They want to have a chance. They want to have the ability to protect themselves and their families if they are in a situation like what happened in the movie theater," Rutan said. Day-to-day gun sales frequently fluctuate, but the numbers also look strong outside of Colorado, too. Seattle's home county, King, saw nearly twice as many requests for concealed pistol licenses than the same timeframe a year ago. Florida recorded 2,386 background checks on Friday, up 14 percent from the week before. Oregon sales on Friday and Saturday were up 11 percent over the month prior. Four days of checks in California were up 10 percent month-to-month. During the past decade, June and July have consistently been the slowest months for gun sales, according to FBI data. Jay Wallace, who owns Adventure Outdoors in Smyrna, Ga., found that his sales on Saturday were up 300 percent from the same day a year ago — making it one of the best Saturdays his business has ever had. He said customers are often afraid when there's a gun-related tragedy that some lawmakers might try and push through an anti-gun agenda. "We shouldn't let one sick individual make us forget and lose sight of freedoms in this country," Wallace said.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 4:16 AM
6IXSTRINGJACK
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 4:26 AM
Quote:There’s a predictable cycle of mourning and recrimination that follows a massacre like the shootings last week in Aurora, Colo. First come the calls for unity and flags flown at half-mast. Then the national fissures appear: the gun lobby stiffens its spine as gun-control advocates make their case. Psychologists parse the shooter’s background, looking for signs of mental illness or family disarray. Politicians point fingers about “society run amok” and “cultures of despair.” We’ve been down this path so many times, yet we keep missing the elephant in the room: How many of the worst mass murderers in American history were women? None. This is not to suggest that women are never violent, and there are even the rare cases of female serial killers. But why aren’t we talking about the glaring reality that acts of mass murder (and, indeed, every single kind of violence) are overwhelmingly perpetrated by men? Pointing out that fact may seem politically incorrect or irrelevant, but our silence about the huge gender disparity of such violence may be costing lives. Imagine for a moment if a deadly disease disproportionately affected men. Not a disease like prostate cancer that can only affect men, but a condition prevalent in the general population that was vastly more likely to strike men. Violence is such a condition: men are nine to 10 times more likely to commit homicide and more likely to be its victims. The numbers are sobering when we look at young men. In the U.S., for example, young white males (between ages 14 and 24) represent only 6% of the population, yet commit almost 17% of the murders. For young black males, the numbers are even more alarming (1.2% of the population accounting for 27% of all homicides). Together, these two groups of young men make up just 7% of the population and 45% of the homicides. And, overall, 90% of all violent offenders are male, as are nearly 80% of the victims. We shouldn’t need Steven Pinker, one of the world’s leading psychologists and the author of the book, The Better Angels of Our Nature, to tell us the obvious: “Though the exact ratios vary, in every society, it is the males more than the females who play-fight, bully, fight for real, kill for real, rape, start wars and fight in wars.” The silence around the gendering of violence is as inexplicable as it is indefensible. Sex differences in other medical and social conditions — such as anorexia nervosa, lupus, migraines, depression and learning disabilities — are routinely analyzed along these lines. For millennia, human society has struggled with what to do with young men’s violent tendencies. Many cultures stage elaborate initiation ceremonies, presided over by older men, which help channel youthful aggression into productive social roles. But in contemporary society, we have trouble talking about the obvious: the transition from boy to man is a risky endeavor, and there can be a lot of collateral damage. Skeptics will claim that the perpetrators of horrific acts like the Aurora shootings are such aberrations that we can hardly build public policy around their evil behavior. But it’s a mistake to view mass murderers as incomprehensible freaks of nature. For example, we know that the young men who go on murderous rampages are not always sociopathic monsters but, rather, sometimes more or less “regular” men who suffered from crushing depression and suicidal ideation. No reasonable person can imagine how despair could possibly lead to premeditated mass homicide. However, the fact that depression is so frequently accompanied by violent rage in young men — a rage usually, but not solely, directed at themselves — is something we need to acknowledge and understand. Our refusal to talk about violence as a public-health problem with known (or knowable) risk factors keeps us from helping the young men who are at most risk and, of course, their potential victims. When we view terrible events as random, we lose the ability to identify and treat potential problems, for example by finding better ways to intervene with young men during their vulnerable years. There is so much more we need to learn about how to prevent violence, but we could start with the sex difference that is staring us in the face.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 5:57 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 6:06 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 6:38 AM
CAVETROLL
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:05 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:10 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:40 AM
Wednesday, July 25, 2012 7:43 AM
Quote: Oh, by the way, someone mentioned somewhere back a ways that some idiot had said he was linked to the Tea Party. It WAS an idiot, and he was wrong...Jon Stewart did a great bit on that, and I'm pissed off like he was about it: http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-july-23-2012/brian-ross-blows-it He does it, as usual, excellently and humorously, but point made. Yet another reason I don't watch network news.
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