Wednesday, February 27, 2008
QKL - please check your email!
I sent you an email today... hope you see it soon!
Alessandra
Alessandra
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Moving!!
To WordPress, that is: http://alessandrareflections.wordpress.com/.
Most of the posts transferred correctly; I will patch up the recent posts that I had to split up here in my spare time and do other blog house cleaning.
Even for its "basic," free blogging software/site, WordPress seems excellent. In this way, how good it was that Blogger presented problems, or I'd be blogging in this Google junk forever.
Most of the posts transferred correctly; I will patch up the recent posts that I had to split up here in my spare time and do other blog house cleaning.
Even for its "basic," free blogging software/site, WordPress seems excellent. In this way, how good it was that Blogger presented problems, or I'd be blogging in this Google junk forever.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
How does a pro-homo review the movie "Zoo" about bestiality?
This article on Slate is so disgusting, that I don't really feel like expounding on the topic. Except to say that William Saletan reaches the absurd level of trying to equate bestiality to heterosexuality (which he constructs as all bad), and states that it is the opposite of homosexuality (which he constructs as all good). Yes, you read that right.
He does this by selectively picking anything in the characteristics of the bestiality people portrayed and how they related to the animals, and makes it into a resemblance of "heterosexuality," (which, as we know, is all bad and disgusting). Then he says that from a cultural and emotional perspective, bestiality must then oppose the wonderfulness of homosexuality, because the latter is all good and magnificent -- and the opposite of heterosexuality in every way!
At least, because he is equating bestiality to heterosexuality, Saletan spares us the line that the men portrayed in "Zoo" have a bestial gene and anyone who opposes bestiality is full of hate; he does describe the men as profoundly dysfunctional.
(cont. here)
He does this by selectively picking anything in the characteristics of the bestiality people portrayed and how they related to the animals, and makes it into a resemblance of "heterosexuality," (which, as we know, is all bad and disgusting). Then he says that from a cultural and emotional perspective, bestiality must then oppose the wonderfulness of homosexuality, because the latter is all good and magnificent -- and the opposite of heterosexuality in every way!
At least, because he is equating bestiality to heterosexuality, Saletan spares us the line that the men portrayed in "Zoo" have a bestial gene and anyone who opposes bestiality is full of hate; he does describe the men as profoundly dysfunctional.
(cont. here)
Labels: bestiality, homosexuality, propaganda, slate
How does a pro-homo review the movie "Zoo" about bestiality?
In what way? When critics argue that homosexuality is a dysfunction and therefore not genetic, pro-homos argue that it's not a choice and it's biologically wired, and that homosexuals are exactly the same as heterosexuals, except that they like people of the same sex. (Notice: exactly the same). At the same time, people like Saletan then say homosexuals have a completely different psychology, emotional structure, and culture, and are completely different than heterosexuals. (Notice: completely different). Saletan couldn't furnish a better example of human idiocy regarding sexuality ideas garnered for the moronic liberal masses.
But Saletan reaches the pinnacle of his twisted-around sexuality comparison with the following argument: in "Zoo," all the men who engage in sex with horses could not really be accused of abuse in the strict sense of physically hurting the animals,
because, in all cases, it is the horse that is active and the man that is bending down. This, he claims, is the utmost symbol of... heterosexuality.
(cont.here)
But Saletan reaches the pinnacle of his twisted-around sexuality comparison with the following argument: in "Zoo," all the men who engage in sex with horses could not really be accused of abuse in the strict sense of physically hurting the animals,
because, in all cases, it is the horse that is active and the man that is bending down. This, he claims, is the utmost symbol of... heterosexuality.
(cont.here)
Labels: bestiality, homosexuality, propaganda, slate
How does a pro-homo review the movie "Zoo" about bestiality?
In case you didn't immediately see the light to his argument, he "clarifies" it with a few examples to build his case.
So we are told that fetish of a thousand kinds is never a part of homosexuality, it's all hetero, all the time. And that homosexuality, because it is same-sex, is about equality! Like Foley being equal to his little pages, and John Browne equating himself to the male prostitute he exploited, and the 650,000 cases of homosexual batterers per year, they are just beating themselves into all that equality, of course.
(cont. here)
But Zoo isn't about equality. It's about inequality. It gets inside the heads of the horse fetishists, exploring their peculiar mentality. At the core of that mentality is a craving for otherness. Zoophilia isn't homo. It's hetero. Very hetero.
So we are told that fetish of a thousand kinds is never a part of homosexuality, it's all hetero, all the time. And that homosexuality, because it is same-sex, is about equality! Like Foley being equal to his little pages, and John Browne equating himself to the male prostitute he exploited, and the 650,000 cases of homosexual batterers per year, they are just beating themselves into all that equality, of course.
(cont. here)
Labels: bestiality, homosexuality, propaganda, slate
How does a pro-homo review the movie "Zoo" about bestiality?
"It's just like if you love your wife." Another, who calls himself the Happy Horseman, ventures, "You're connecting with another intelligent being." But the more the men talk, the more this pretense unravels. "I don't need a high level of emotional interaction," says a zoophile who goes by the name Coyote. The Happy Horseman agrees. A horse "has no idea what Tolstoy is, or Keats," he explains. "You can't discuss the difference between Monet and Picasso. That just doesn't exist for their world. It's a simpler, very plain world. And for those few moments, you kind of can get disconnected."
In other words, horses are bimbos.
And he has never heard of Gore Vidal who bragged about having reasonably anonymous sex with more than 1000 other homosexuals? And what happens at homo saunas? Oh, these aren't bimbos, these are faggots, is that why we can't equate it to the respective homosexuals who have a very disconnected psychology about sexual relations?
No, no - it's all heterosexual if it's bad, of course.
It's just like a gay orgy, except that it's the opposite.
Like when war is peace, or it's all equal, except it's all different. Get it?
(cont.here)
Labels: bestiality, homosexuality, propaganda, slate
How does a pro-homo review the movie "Zoo" about bestiality?
The guys aren't there to have sex with one another. They're there to have conversation with one another, followed by sex with beasts whose cousins the men regard as barbecue meat. The classlessness of the society in the house conceals its abuse of the society in the barn. Later, the men return from the barn, bonded together in silent triumph. This isn't a gay party. It's a frat party.
Because, as you know, there is no such thing as more than two homosexuals ever engaging in sex. And homosexuals and homosexual pornography never portray anyone or anything in a way or context equivalent to "meat."
But he leaves his greatest show of intellectual strength for the finale: apparently holding an acid grudge against Rush Limbaugh, he then goes to state that very little separates Limbaugh from one of these bestial men!
(cont.here)
Labels: bestiality, homosexuality, propaganda, slate
How does a pro-homo review the movie "Zoo" about bestiality?
To Limbaugh, women are just like animals. Don't take my word for it. Take his. Five months ago, he compared his cat to a girlfriend: "She gets loved. She gets adoration. She gets petted. She gets fed. And she doesn't have to do anything for it, which is why I say this cat's taught me more about women than anything my whole life."
That's the kind of frat-boy thinking that ends with a bunch of drunken idiots in a barn.
So, yes, we are surprised to hear Saletan hasn't called PETA et al to raid Limbaugh's house and rescue the poor cat from the bestial Limbaugh. I mean, talk about steeping low to vilify and mischaracterize a political opponent. And I can't wait to hear Saletan's protest on how horrible pornography is, because it does display all these attitudes he described. Maybe when hell, freezes over, that is.
If there is anything very bestial in all of this, it is surely Saletan's writing.
p.s. Captain's Quarters has a post worth reading as well.
Labels: bestiality, homosexuality, propaganda, slate
Friday, May 04, 2007
The faulty logic of "hate crimes"
inkling_revival writes: Thursday, May, 03, 2007 6:09 PM
Proponents of "hate crimes" legislation justify the special status of these crimes by saying "It affects more than just the victim of the crime; the entire class is terrorized by the crime." For this reason, they claim, it must be differentiated from the mere violent crime itself.
In saying so, they prove themselves completely ignorant of American jurisprudence.
It is the case, in American law, that EVERY crime is considered a crime SPECIFICALLY because it affects more than just the affected party. Legal actions to address damage to a specific individual are called "Torts" in American law, and are judged in civil courts. Crimes are crimes because the commission of them attacks the very fabric of society. This is why crimes are prosecuted by the state, not by the victim.
Thus, for example, auto theft is not handled by a tort action, even though it's an individual who lost the car. The act of stealing a car terrorizes all who own property of any sort; and the safety of private property is the basis of individual liberty in a free society. Therefore, auto theft is handled as a crime, not as a tort.
Thus, there is no basis in legal theory for special penalties for "hate crimes." What they claim is special about the hate crime, is actually true for the entire society; the violent act terrorizes, not just the victim or the victim's class, but the entire culture.
Proponents of "hate crimes" legislation justify the special status of these crimes by saying "It affects more than just the victim of the crime; the entire class is terrorized by the crime." For this reason, they claim, it must be differentiated from the mere violent crime itself.
In saying so, they prove themselves completely ignorant of American jurisprudence.
It is the case, in American law, that EVERY crime is considered a crime SPECIFICALLY because it affects more than just the affected party. Legal actions to address damage to a specific individual are called "Torts" in American law, and are judged in civil courts. Crimes are crimes because the commission of them attacks the very fabric of society. This is why crimes are prosecuted by the state, not by the victim.
Thus, for example, auto theft is not handled by a tort action, even though it's an individual who lost the car. The act of stealing a car terrorizes all who own property of any sort; and the safety of private property is the basis of individual liberty in a free society. Therefore, auto theft is handled as a crime, not as a tort.
Thus, there is no basis in legal theory for special penalties for "hate crimes." What they claim is special about the hate crime, is actually true for the entire society; the violent act terrorizes, not just the victim or the victim's class, but the entire culture.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
It looks like we will be moving!!! To Vox, that is!
Just did a test on Vox, and I don't get any of the terrible size limitation problems for posting that I'm having here!
And I also found this: Condemned To Google Hell - Forbes - which would also explain why a Google search never displays any of my blog pages, although, it is clear that in my case, it must be for the political content. So much for freedom of speech in the Big Google Brother Era.
One more reason to send anything related to Google to that place.
Will keep you posted (of my blogging whereabouts :-).
And I also found this: Condemned To Google Hell - Forbes - which would also explain why a Google search never displays any of my blog pages, although, it is clear that in my case, it must be for the political content. So much for freedom of speech in the Big Google Brother Era.
One more reason to send anything related to Google to that place.
Will keep you posted (of my blogging whereabouts :-).
The corrupt fox guarding the corrupt chicken house
From Huff robert-naiman:
It looks like Mr. Wolfowitz will stay at the World Bank and remain as president long after all the current staff has passed away into eternity. :-)
Hah! What interesting times these must be at the Bank right now. So many arms being twisted, so many threats, the bank dinausaurs screeching and jousting at each other with their razor-sharp claws...
In his struggle to retain his position as President of the World Bank, Wolfowitz has retained the services of Robert Bennett, "a high-powered Washington lawyer known for adept legal skirmishing and negotiation," the Times notes today.
Guess what Mr. Bennett is threatening? To disclose the salaries and perks of others at the Bank:
"[He] also indicated that he was prepared to keep the temperature raised, possibly by demanding the public release of the salaries and perquisites of others at the bank.
A full public airing of the high salaries at the bank is not something that top bank officials want, many bank officials say. They may seek to avoid a confrontation if only to avoid calling Mr. Bennett's bluff."
Well then. Why don't Bank employees call Mr. Bennett's bluff? If Wolfowitz's critics in the Bank's staff association release the salary and benefit information - to which they surely have access - then Mr. Bennett won't be able to use the disclosure of this information as a threat.
And - it could be argued - as the World Bank is a taxpayer-financed institution, this information should be a matter of public record anyway.
It looks like Mr. Wolfowitz will stay at the World Bank and remain as president long after all the current staff has passed away into eternity. :-)
Hah! What interesting times these must be at the Bank right now. So many arms being twisted, so many threats, the bank dinausaurs screeching and jousting at each other with their razor-sharp claws...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1 - addendum
Addendum to this post:
This is absolutely fascinating! It's like legislation against robberies that makes no mention of... robberies!
My not-being-a-lawyer guess is that if the legal text and rationale had been construed upon the term and concept of "hate," they would probably not be able to prove it, except in very, very rare occasions.
Thus, even in law discourses, the fake-hate-stake is burning bright.
Second point, in most cases of domestic abuse, we do find a lot of hatred from the perpetrator to the victim, such as from one spouse to other, from parent to abused child, etc. And it is interesting that regarding these types of violence dynamics, there is no one making grand speeches about "hate," "hate-based violence," etc. Have you ever heard anyone say, "hate-based domestic violence?" Never.
As Jacobs and Potter point out, the statutory definitions of "hate crime" in fact make no mention of hatred. Instead, these statutes, in effect, define "hate crime" as "criminal conduct motivated by prejudice" (p. 11).
This is absolutely fascinating! It's like legislation against robberies that makes no mention of... robberies!
My not-being-a-lawyer guess is that if the legal text and rationale had been construed upon the term and concept of "hate," they would probably not be able to prove it, except in very, very rare occasions.
Thus, even in law discourses, the fake-hate-stake is burning bright.
Second point, in most cases of domestic abuse, we do find a lot of hatred from the perpetrator to the victim, such as from one spouse to other, from parent to abused child, etc. And it is interesting that regarding these types of violence dynamics, there is no one making grand speeches about "hate," "hate-based violence," etc. Have you ever heard anyone say, "hate-based domestic violence?" Never.
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
(I am going to try to get a hold of Jacobs and Potter's book and write about it. For now, a few musings on "hate crime" ideology. Given my blogging text limits, I will post the text separated in different parts, and cut into the usual tiny posts.)
The quotes below come from a review of the book by a guy with a homosexual dysfunction. Ralph Wedgwood, formerly an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is now a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He is the author of "The Fundamental Argument for Same-Sex Marriage," Journal of Political Philosophy (1999),
The quotes below come from a review of the book by a guy with a homosexual dysfunction. Ralph Wedgwood, formerly an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is now a Lecturer in Philosophy at Oxford University and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He is the author of "The Fundamental Argument for Same-Sex Marriage," Journal of Political Philosophy (1999),
In Chapter 6, Jacobs and Potter criticize the justifications that are most frequently offered for hate crime laws. First, they consider the claim that "more severe penalties for criminals motivated by prejudice are justified because such offenders are morally worse--more culpable--than criminals who engage in the same conduct, but for reasons other than prejudice" (pp. 79-80). They dismiss this claim with the following objection (p. 80): "A con artist may defraud widows out of their life savings in order to lead a life of luxury. An ideologue may assassinate a political leader in order to dramatize his cause or to coerce decision makers into changing national policy. Are these criminals less morally reprehensible than a gay basher or a black rioter who beats an Asian storeowner? Of course not."
Labels: hate crime, homosexuality, law, liberals
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
The sheer irrelevance of this objection is staggering. Jacobs and Potter are objecting to the claim that crimes motivated by prejudice are more culpable than crimes that involve the same conduct but different motivation. However exactly the philosophically tricky notion of 'the same conduct' is to be understood, it is indisputable that defrauding widows out of their life savings is not "the same conduct" as gay bashing. The question that Jacobs and Potter should have asked is this: Suppose that a gang of young men beat someone up just because they feel bored. Is this act less morally reprehensible than if they had beaten him up just because they believed that he was gay? Both acts are seriously morally wrong, but it is far from obvious, at least to me, that the second act is not more reprehensible than the first.
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
Wedgwood argues that one must apply the notion of “the same conduct” to judge if two crimes are equal from a moral perspective. This is already a tricky assertion, because crime is not and should not be defined or evaluated on the basis of the type of the perpetrator's motive or conduct alone. But more on this later.
First of all, regarding what the proponents of hate crime categories construe, what is the problem with the example offered that beating up someone because of alleged boredom is less worse than beating up someone because of some prejudice against homosexuality? It starts with the ultra-simplification of the motive, a reductionism that only serves to muddle and completely obfuscate the real complex set of motives. Boredom does not cause assault crimes. A complex set of aggregated motives need to be present to make someone who is bored commit a crime of battery.
First of all, regarding what the proponents of hate crime categories construe, what is the problem with the example offered that beating up someone because of alleged boredom is less worse than beating up someone because of some prejudice against homosexuality? It starts with the ultra-simplification of the motive, a reductionism that only serves to muddle and completely obfuscate the real complex set of motives. Boredom does not cause assault crimes. A complex set of aggregated motives need to be present to make someone who is bored commit a crime of battery.
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
In such a situation we would find a series of other psycho-social dysfunctions that together could lead some people to commit a crime. The perpetrators could even allege that they committed a crime “because they were bored,” but this would be a reductionist, ignorant version of the facts. They necessarily must have other issues to commit a crime and allege it was solely out of boredom. So the first problem with the comparison given and its "motive" starts there.
Next, we can also raise several issues regarding the question of a gang beating someone up because they believed he was a homosexual. Firstly, the majority of people who oppose the legitimation of homosexuality do not beat up homosexuals, therefore an opposition to the normalization of homosexuality itself does not produce violent behavior towards homosexuals, nor is it correct to say this is some form of prejudice, since opposing the normalization of homosexuality requires knowledge, not prejudice. Secondly, if the gang members had a certain hostility towards homosexuals, and this could possibly be qualified as prejudice, they would need to have some other set of ideas regarding their own social behavior (i.e. believe that they had a need to beat him up to actually do it).
Next, we can also raise several issues regarding the question of a gang beating someone up because they believed he was a homosexual. Firstly, the majority of people who oppose the legitimation of homosexuality do not beat up homosexuals, therefore an opposition to the normalization of homosexuality itself does not produce violent behavior towards homosexuals, nor is it correct to say this is some form of prejudice, since opposing the normalization of homosexuality requires knowledge, not prejudice. Secondly, if the gang members had a certain hostility towards homosexuals, and this could possibly be qualified as prejudice, they would need to have some other set of ideas regarding their own social behavior (i.e. believe that they had a need to beat him up to actually do it).
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
Thirdly, and even more poignantly, the number of homosexuals who are pro-homosexuality zealots and who batter other homosexuals is thousands of times higher than the beatings from heterosexuals with problems.
Returning to the question of motive, we can conclude that simply stating that “prejudice produces a crime” is also not correct, just as saying that “boredom produces crimes” is also not correct.
But even if we consider a variety of crimes where the conduct was the same, and even if the motive in all of them included some kind of "prejudice," there are a vast number of examples that will show why "hate crime" concepts/categories are invalid. What if the gang beat up another guy because he refused to be part of a gang? Or because he voted for a politician the gang didn't like? Or because he was old and weak? Or because he was homeless? Or because he was fat? Or because he was wearing a new suit? Or because he studied hard to pass exams at school and they hated that he was a “nerd?”
Returning to the question of motive, we can conclude that simply stating that “prejudice produces a crime” is also not correct, just as saying that “boredom produces crimes” is also not correct.
But even if we consider a variety of crimes where the conduct was the same, and even if the motive in all of them included some kind of "prejudice," there are a vast number of examples that will show why "hate crime" concepts/categories are invalid. What if the gang beat up another guy because he refused to be part of a gang? Or because he voted for a politician the gang didn't like? Or because he was old and weak? Or because he was homeless? Or because he was fat? Or because he was wearing a new suit? Or because he studied hard to pass exams at school and they hated that he was a “nerd?”
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
Why is only the beating related to the homosexual victim enormously more morally wrong than every one of the above examples and so many more that we could conjure? Why does this case justify an abnormally privileged category?
The truth is that it is absurd to rob the other victims of their equiponderation of the harm of the crime they suffered or from the perspective of degree of evil of the crime that was perpetrated. All of the above examples would require a set of problematic attitudes from the part of the gang that would cause them to perpetrate the beating, and in all of the cases these sets of attitudes are equally bad. Furthermore, labeling the motive a mere “prejudice” is oversimplifying it.
But the most fundamental problem is that there is no moral ground to make the distinction that the prejudice against the homosexual is worse than any of the others, it is clearly the result of an “Animal Farm” logic, a distinction based on power privileges, discourse inequality, and profound injustice.
The truth is that it is absurd to rob the other victims of their equiponderation of the harm of the crime they suffered or from the perspective of degree of evil of the crime that was perpetrated. All of the above examples would require a set of problematic attitudes from the part of the gang that would cause them to perpetrate the beating, and in all of the cases these sets of attitudes are equally bad. Furthermore, labeling the motive a mere “prejudice” is oversimplifying it.
But the most fundamental problem is that there is no moral ground to make the distinction that the prejudice against the homosexual is worse than any of the others, it is clearly the result of an “Animal Farm” logic, a distinction based on power privileges, discourse inequality, and profound injustice.
Hate Crime Philosophy - A Praxis of Injustice and Inequality - Part 1
To note: depending on the “hate crime” legislation and what it defines as victim categories, some of the examples above could also be categorized as “hate crimes.” Wedgwood quotes an example: "Alabama law defines a hate crime as 'a Class A felony that was motivated by the victim's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability.'" Even then, if we include the beating of the homeless and the old man in hate crimes categories, why are they any worse than the beating of the guy who didn't want to join a gang? On what moral ground does one assert that half of the above examples are worse than the remaining half?
How can one assert that the guy who was beaten because he didn't want to join a gang or the other victim who been battered because he had studied hard suffered less or were assaulted less than the guy who was beaten because of his homosexual dysfunction? There is absolutely no moral grounds for the claim. This is one aspect that makes so-called “hate crime” categories highly immoral from a philosophical pespective.
How can one assert that the guy who was beaten because he didn't want to join a gang or the other victim who been battered because he had studied hard suffered less or were assaulted less than the guy who was beaten because of his homosexual dysfunction? There is absolutely no moral grounds for the claim. This is one aspect that makes so-called “hate crime” categories highly immoral from a philosophical pespective.
Where is the epidemic of hate crimes again? 2004 statistics
There were a total of 1,367,009 violent crimes against persons in 2004, of which 774 were allegedly motivated by “hate.”
The FBI reported 16,137 murders in 2004, of which 5 were allegedly “hate” crimes; it reported 94,635 forcible rapes, of which 4 were allegedly “hate” crimes; and it reported 854,911 aggravated assaults, of which 765 were allegedly “hate” crimes.
Overall, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes were motivated by the sexual orientation of the victim.
[ 16% of 765 = 122 is the total reported enormous epidemic of alleged aggravated assault "hate crimes" regarding sexual orientation. If we take into account the evidence of several faked hate crimes, we know that the figure is smaller.]
[And if you will remember another post on the subject of crimes stats, the FBI does not consider male rape, "rape," as it defines rape only if there is vaginal intercourse. Forced sodomy, therefore, does not even appear in FBI crime statistics. What does this tell us about American society and how much it wants to deal with homosexual violence? ]
650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
The disparity between 650,000 and 122 is nothing short of monumental.
The FBI reported 16,137 murders in 2004, of which 5 were allegedly “hate” crimes; it reported 94,635 forcible rapes, of which 4 were allegedly “hate” crimes; and it reported 854,911 aggravated assaults, of which 765 were allegedly “hate” crimes.
Overall, the FBI reported that 15.6% of hate crimes were motivated by the sexual orientation of the victim.
[ 16% of 765 = 122 is the total reported enormous epidemic of alleged aggravated assault "hate crimes" regarding sexual orientation. If we take into account the evidence of several faked hate crimes, we know that the figure is smaller.]
[And if you will remember another post on the subject of crimes stats, the FBI does not consider male rape, "rape," as it defines rape only if there is vaginal intercourse. Forced sodomy, therefore, does not even appear in FBI crime statistics. What does this tell us about American society and how much it wants to deal with homosexual violence? ]
650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
The disparity between 650,000 and 122 is nothing short of monumental.
Labels: hate crime, homosexuality, law, violence
Book: Hate Crimes - Criminal Law and Identity Politics - James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter
Hate Crimes -
Criminal Law and Identity Politics
by James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter
This book places in socio-legal perspective both the hate crime problem and society's response to it.
From the outset, Jacobs and Potter adopt a skeptical if not critical stance. They argue that hate crime is a hopelessly muddled concept and that legal definitions of the term are riddled with ambiguity and subjectivity. Moreover, no matter how hate crime is defined, the authors find no evidence to support the claim that the US is experiencing a hate crime epidemic--nor that the number or rate of hate crimes is at an historic zenith. Furthermore, assert the authors, the federal effort to establish a hate crime accounting system has been a failure.
The underlying conduct that hate crime law prohibits is already subject to criminal punishment. Jacobs and Potter maintain that there is no persuasive rationale for saying that hate crimes are "worse" or "more serious" than similar crimes attributable to other anti-social motivations.
Criminal Law and Identity Politics
by James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter
This book places in socio-legal perspective both the hate crime problem and society's response to it.
From the outset, Jacobs and Potter adopt a skeptical if not critical stance. They argue that hate crime is a hopelessly muddled concept and that legal definitions of the term are riddled with ambiguity and subjectivity. Moreover, no matter how hate crime is defined, the authors find no evidence to support the claim that the US is experiencing a hate crime epidemic--nor that the number or rate of hate crimes is at an historic zenith. Furthermore, assert the authors, the federal effort to establish a hate crime accounting system has been a failure.
The underlying conduct that hate crime law prohibits is already subject to criminal punishment. Jacobs and Potter maintain that there is no persuasive rationale for saying that hate crimes are "worse" or "more serious" than similar crimes attributable to other anti-social motivations.
Book: Hate Crimes - Criminal Law and Identity Politics - James B. Jacobs and Kimberly Potter
Also, they argue that the effort to single out hate crime for greater punishment, in effect, is an effort to punish some offenders more seriously because of their bad beliefs, opinions, or values, thus implicating the First Amendment.
Jabobs and Potter show that the recriminalization of hate crime has little (if any) value with respect to law enforcement or criminal justice. Indeed, enforcement of such laws may in fact exacerbate intergroup tensions rather than eradicate prejudice.
I haven't read the above book, but everything in the summary review says what I also see happening in society and encompassing the legal theoretical and political criticisms I put forth regarding hate crime legislation.
Jabobs and Potter show that the recriminalization of hate crime has little (if any) value with respect to law enforcement or criminal justice. Indeed, enforcement of such laws may in fact exacerbate intergroup tensions rather than eradicate prejudice.
I haven't read the above book, but everything in the summary review says what I also see happening in society and encompassing the legal theoretical and political criticisms I put forth regarding hate crime legislation.
Hate Crime Law - an X-Ray of Power Hierarchies
Below is a textual excerpt that delineates part of the problem that I was referring to here: (All violent crimes are not "hate crimes," because I would argue the definition of "hate crime" is selectively myopic and it enforces unequal protection and status under the law. I would even go further and argue that the concept of a hate crime is completely senseless, like saying pigs can fly, because it's flawed in its fundament. )
Engendering Hate Crime Policy: Gender, the “Dilemma of Difference,” and
the Creation of Legal Subjects - Valerie Jenness - Dr. Valerie Jenness is Chair and Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine.
http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/againsthate/Journal2/GHS101.PDF
“Who should be represented in hate crime law? Why? On what grounds?”
To emphasize the political, rather than legal nature of this question, Laurence Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University, informed lawmakers that the question of which status provisions to include in hate crime law presents no constitutional problem. As he explained in U.S.
Congressional hearings on hate crime:
If, as Tribe suggests, legislators had considerable latitude, how did they proceed to demarcate status provisions in hate crime law?
Engendering Hate Crime Policy: Gender, the “Dilemma of Difference,” and
the Creation of Legal Subjects - Valerie Jenness - Dr. Valerie Jenness is Chair and Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine.
http://guweb2.gonzaga.edu/againsthate/Journal2/GHS101.PDF
“Who should be represented in hate crime law? Why? On what grounds?”
To emphasize the political, rather than legal nature of this question, Laurence Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law at Harvard University, informed lawmakers that the question of which status provisions to include in hate crime law presents no constitutional problem. As he explained in U.S.
Congressional hearings on hate crime:
Nothing in the U.S. Constitution prevents the Government from penalizing with added severity those crimes directed against people or their property because of their race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, and nothing in the Constitution requires that this list be infinitely expanded.34
If, as Tribe suggests, legislators had considerable latitude, how did they proceed to demarcate status provisions in hate crime law?
My Days
In reading JJ's sister's blog, which has various passages just pulsating with life, I found this:
Even though the context where this phrase was found is not a poem, I found that the phrase alone is extremely poetical.
I am robbed, robbed of my days and I hate it. And every day I curse it, and pray that someday I can have a day that will be mine.
My days are mine
Even though the context where this phrase was found is not a poem, I found that the phrase alone is extremely poetical.
I am robbed, robbed of my days and I hate it. And every day I curse it, and pray that someday I can have a day that will be mine.
Friday, April 27, 2007
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
This excerpt from comments generated at a discussion of same-sex marriage at Justin Katz's. (I can't find the link to Justin's original post).
My comment (where I copied some text from my previous post on the subject of homosexual violence):
Regarding the discussion on whether to normalize first, and consequently legalize, homosexual marriage:
Estimate for homosexual male domestic violence: 650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
Is it a surprise that modern American society concentrates its energy in Pride Parades and normalizing homosexual marriage instead of looking at how enormously violent homosexuals are?
My comment (where I copied some text from my previous post on the subject of homosexual violence):
Regarding the discussion on whether to normalize first, and consequently legalize, homosexual marriage:
Estimate for homosexual male domestic violence: 650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
Is it a surprise that modern American society concentrates its energy in Pride Parades and normalizing homosexual marriage instead of looking at how enormously violent homosexuals are?
Labels: denial, homosexuality, marriage, violence
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
The day same-sex marriage activists spend even 10% of the same-sex marriage propaganda energy on disseminating info on how violent homosexuals are, they will show that even the most ignorant, dubious people can rise above the gutter.
(Domestic violence in gay male relationships is the third largest health problem for gay men in America today.)
Domestic violence is also prevalent in the gay and lesbian communities, occurring with the same or even greater frequency than in heterosexual communities (Barnes, 1998; Friess, 1997; Island, 1991; Renzetti, 1992). The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates that 25% to 33% of all same-sex relationships include domestic violence.
And if they all batter so much, it is clear that homo and bisexuals have very high rates of sexual harassment behavior, including towards heterosexuals. It's all part of the same web of sexual violence towards others.
(Domestic violence in gay male relationships is the third largest health problem for gay men in America today.)
Domestic violence is also prevalent in the gay and lesbian communities, occurring with the same or even greater frequency than in heterosexual communities (Barnes, 1998; Friess, 1997; Island, 1991; Renzetti, 1992). The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates that 25% to 33% of all same-sex relationships include domestic violence.
And if they all batter so much, it is clear that homo and bisexuals have very high rates of sexual harassment behavior, including towards heterosexuals. It's all part of the same web of sexual violence towards others.
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
p.s.: This book came out more than 15 years ago. From which we conclude: a society that is intent on homosexual propaganda has a profound closet, with an enormous quantity of statistics skeletons therein. You call young black female athletes some normalized denigrating hip-hop term and you hit the scandal circuit. You publish data about how criminal and diseased the minds of homosexuals are and the entire media becomes suddenly deaf and dumb, not for a week, but for decades.
I will clarify my point: I am not discussing in this comment why same-sex marriage is unequal to heterosexual marriage. I am pointing out that there is a concerted effort to censor and dismiss discussion about how violent homo and bisexuals are at the same time that there is enormous talk of the subject of homosexual marriage.
In other words, we see that topics about violence make people uncomfortable, since it disrupts their idealized stereotypes and simplistic accounts of social "reality," therefore a continuous dismissal and resistance is found regarding these very topics, which are nevertheless key to understanding society at a more realistic and responsible level.
I will clarify my point: I am not discussing in this comment why same-sex marriage is unequal to heterosexual marriage. I am pointing out that there is a concerted effort to censor and dismiss discussion about how violent homo and bisexuals are at the same time that there is enormous talk of the subject of homosexual marriage.
In other words, we see that topics about violence make people uncomfortable, since it disrupts their idealized stereotypes and simplistic accounts of social "reality," therefore a continuous dismissal and resistance is found regarding these very topics, which are nevertheless key to understanding society at a more realistic and responsible level.
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
alessandra:
I don't know what book you got those numbers from, if from a bigot's, or from some liberal activist who (being a liberal) exagerates problems so as to have something to fix, the kind of liberal who also finds that over half of women get "raped" in their lifetime. The truth is just the opposite of what you say. Gays are typically less violent individuals than straights. Everyone knows that. It is, actually, for their less aggressive natures that more "manly" men hold them in contempt.
Posted by arturo fernandez at April 25, 2007 12:45 AM
I don't know what book you got those numbers from, if from a bigot's, or from some liberal activist who (being a liberal) exagerates problems so as to have something to fix, the kind of liberal who also finds that over half of women get "raped" in their lifetime. The truth is just the opposite of what you say. Gays are typically less violent individuals than straights. Everyone knows that. It is, actually, for their less aggressive natures that more "manly" men hold them in contempt.
Posted by arturo fernandez at April 25, 2007 12:45 AM
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
Alessandra, domestic violence is a serious problem in both heterosexual and homosexual communities.
So?
I know straight folks who have been battering victims, and gay folks who have been.
Why should that prevent anyone who does not assault someone from marrying?
Posted by DRettmann at April 21, 2007 6:23 AM
============================
That's not the question. The question is why so many people lie about how violent homosexuals are or keep silent about it.
Is it because if you don't lie so much about how violent homosexuals are, you won't achieve your homosexual normalization quest?
(Domestic violence in gay male relationships is the third largest health problem for gay men in America today.)
Why are such a huge number of homosexuals so violent?
Why are you not debating how to make homosexuals a less brutal and violent group of people?
I think it is a higher priority for society to have less epidemic levels of violence than any same-sex marriage.
If you had two homo neighboring couples, one couldn't get a marriage license, and in the other, there were constant episodes of brutal violence - which one would you think deserved a priority of attention? Of regulation? Of media spotlight?
Anyone who turns a blind eye to the violent couple and effuses concern about the marriage issue shows how disgusting their system of values is. And voilà 95% of our society!
Posted by alessandra at April 27, 2007 2:35 PM
So?
I know straight folks who have been battering victims, and gay folks who have been.
Why should that prevent anyone who does not assault someone from marrying?
Posted by DRettmann at April 21, 2007 6:23 AM
============================
That's not the question. The question is why so many people lie about how violent homosexuals are or keep silent about it.
Is it because if you don't lie so much about how violent homosexuals are, you won't achieve your homosexual normalization quest?
(Domestic violence in gay male relationships is the third largest health problem for gay men in America today.)
Why are such a huge number of homosexuals so violent?
Why are you not debating how to make homosexuals a less brutal and violent group of people?
I think it is a higher priority for society to have less epidemic levels of violence than any same-sex marriage.
If you had two homo neighboring couples, one couldn't get a marriage license, and in the other, there were constant episodes of brutal violence - which one would you think deserved a priority of attention? Of regulation? Of media spotlight?
Anyone who turns a blind eye to the violent couple and effuses concern about the marriage issue shows how disgusting their system of values is. And voilà 95% of our society!
Posted by alessandra at April 27, 2007 2:35 PM
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
oh look, a troll!
======================
alessandra:
I don't know what book you got those numbers from,
[you can click on the link and find out]
if from a bigot's,
[what is your definition of a bigot?]
or from some liberal activist who (being a liberal) exagerates problems so as to have something to fix, the kind of liberal who also finds that over half of women get "raped" in their lifetime. The truth is just the opposite of what you say.
[Arturo on his soapbox is here to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and...]
Gays are typically less violent individuals than straights. Everyone knows that.
[Or so you like to fool yourself. ]
It is, actually, for their less aggressive natures that more "manly" men hold them in contempt.
[So you are saying that being a homosexual and perpetrating domestic violence are two things that are biologically determined? What about bank robberies? White collar crime? Are you saying heterosexual men just can't help battering women because it's in their nature? Did you know 50 years ago people denied heterosexual domestic violence just like you deny homosexual violence? Same sweeping statements as you like to use, "EVERYONE knows that domestic violence is very rare..." Isn't it interesting that people like you don't like to face how violent homosexuals are? What about bisexuals? Are they half as violent as heterosexuals or not?]
Posted by arturo fernandez at April 25, 2007 12:45 AM
What the discussion on same-sex marriage serves to cover up
=========================
The fake hate stake
This excerpt from an old drawn-out discussion. I'm posting because I gave a nice example that contradicts the claim that the only possible motive for expressing disagreement with a liberal sexual ideology is hate. "K" thinks all Christians hate homosexuals, and in looking a particular statement from a church, she offers this as proof of how much these Christians "hate!" (Read on to be shocked regarding vileness! Depravity! Brutality!)
My reply:
There is no hate above. Religion, in this case, is not a cover for anything [e.g. hate], it is already bared. It stipulates sex should be reserved for within marriage. Saying they hate homosexuals is the same falsity as saying they hate heterosexuals (unmarried ones who are sexually active, that is).
Only someone who refuses to read would say they hate.
Just a cheap distortion to defame them because they understand human behavior should be based on different values and rules. You´ve construed a fake hate stake for you to burn them at.
“We believe the Bible is clear; the intimacy of sex is reserved for a man and woman who make a life-long commitment together in the sacrament of marriage""K" then adds: "I love the part about hating gays in love (in a loving way, that is, not hating "gays in love"). It's against the will of god, and damaging, but gosh darn it, we love you! And won't you come break bagels with us?"
My reply:
There is no hate above. Religion, in this case, is not a cover for anything [e.g. hate], it is already bared. It stipulates sex should be reserved for within marriage. Saying they hate homosexuals is the same falsity as saying they hate heterosexuals (unmarried ones who are sexually active, that is).
Only someone who refuses to read would say they hate.
Just a cheap distortion to defame them because they understand human behavior should be based on different values and rules. You´ve construed a fake hate stake for you to burn them at.
Labels: hate crime, law, religion
Violent Crime in 2004 in the U.S. - hate crime issue
In context, the violent crimes against persons allegedly because of “hate” pales in comparison to the over-all figures.10 There were a total of 1,367,009 violent crimes against persons in 2004, of which 774 were allegedly motivated by “hate.”
The FBI reported 16,137 murders in 2004, of which 5 were allegedly “hate” crimes; it reported 94,635 forcible rapes, of which 4 were allegedly “hate” crimes; and it reported 854,911 aggravated assaults, of which 765 were allegedly “hate” crimes.
Overall, the FBI reported that 53.8% of “hate” crimes were motivated by the race of the victim, 16.4% were motivated by the religion of the victim, 15.6% were motivated by the sexual orientation of the victim, and 13.3% were motivated by the ethnicity of the victim.
The FBI reported 16,137 murders in 2004, of which 5 were allegedly “hate” crimes; it reported 94,635 forcible rapes, of which 4 were allegedly “hate” crimes; and it reported 854,911 aggravated assaults, of which 765 were allegedly “hate” crimes.
Overall, the FBI reported that 53.8% of “hate” crimes were motivated by the race of the victim, 16.4% were motivated by the religion of the victim, 15.6% were motivated by the sexual orientation of the victim, and 13.3% were motivated by the ethnicity of the victim.
Labels: hate crime, law
Violent Crime in 2004 in the U.S. - hate crime issue
It is noteworthy that the numbers reported 9 represent alleged hate crimes, not proven hate crimes. That means the statistics include crimes like the murder of Matthew Shepard, which according to a 2004 ABC 20/20 Report, was related not to his sexual orientation, but to the perpetrators’ interest in money and drugs. “New Details Emerge in Matthew Shepard Murder,” ABC News, November 26, 2004 (see http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=277685).
The 2007 statistics will likely include the recent natural death of Andrew Anthos, an elderly man in Michigan. Mr. Anthos’ death was initially reported to be the result of a hate crime, but was later determined by the medical examiner that conducted his autopsy to be the result of natural causes. “Medical Examiner: Spinal Disease Killed Andrew Anthos,” Detroit News, March 30, 2007 (see http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/METRO/703300308/1003). “Hate” crime advocates refuse to accept the physical evidence that there was no crime.
The 2007 statistics will likely include the recent natural death of Andrew Anthos, an elderly man in Michigan. Mr. Anthos’ death was initially reported to be the result of a hate crime, but was later determined by the medical examiner that conducted his autopsy to be the result of natural causes. “Medical Examiner: Spinal Disease Killed Andrew Anthos,” Detroit News, March 30, 2007 (see http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070330/METRO/703300308/1003). “Hate” crime advocates refuse to accept the physical evidence that there was no crime.
The very fascinating hate law criteria
by prejudice based on race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of state, local or tribal hate crime laws.
I wonder how the bright light bulbs who came up with the H.R. 1592 Bill consider a case where a black man offends a black woman (saying "ho"), than she calls him a "good-for-nothing nigger." Do we have two hate crimes here? Or do they think if some one commits a hate crime, then you can commit a hate crime back and it's OK? You noticed, in my example, she didn't simply call him "trash" (so blasé) or another non-victim-group-based insult, she went for the horrible, the denigrating and racially based term "nigger," that is, a HATE crime word.
Then you have a situation where a homo rubs against someone in a purposeful harassment action, and the victim says, "You homo shit!" The homo will sue for hate crime, evidently.
You have a heterosexual guy call a woman a "bitch," and she calls him back "a sexist pig," then we have two hate crimes ( they are both insults based on gender!)
I find the topic of "hate crimes" so amazingly fascinating, nothing, NOTHING could be more Orwellian in an Animal Farm way (and that goes for many countries, the U.S. being one of many foremost examples).
I wonder how the bright light bulbs who came up with the H.R. 1592 Bill consider a case where a black man offends a black woman (saying "ho"), than she calls him a "good-for-nothing nigger." Do we have two hate crimes here? Or do they think if some one commits a hate crime, then you can commit a hate crime back and it's OK? You noticed, in my example, she didn't simply call him "trash" (so blasé) or another non-victim-group-based insult, she went for the horrible, the denigrating and racially based term "nigger," that is, a HATE crime word.
Then you have a situation where a homo rubs against someone in a purposeful harassment action, and the victim says, "You homo shit!" The homo will sue for hate crime, evidently.
You have a heterosexual guy call a woman a "bitch," and she calls him back "a sexist pig," then we have two hate crimes ( they are both insults based on gender!)
I find the topic of "hate crimes" so amazingly fascinating, nothing, NOTHING could be more Orwellian in an Animal Farm way (and that goes for many countries, the U.S. being one of many foremost examples).
Labels: hate crime, law, liberals
The very fascinating hate law criteria
'Austria and Belgium both have laws criminalizing holocaust denial, as does France whose law extends to criminalization of the denial of crimes against humanity “as tried at Nuremberg”.'
What is interesting in our world is that it has become a crime to lie about the data regarding the violence committed in the Holocaust, but it is not a crime to lie about enormous chunks of violence that are going on currently, i.e., the epidemic levels of violence perpetrated by homosexuals, nor about many other types of violence that get consistently hidden from public view. (Usually accompanied by lack of studies, doctored up statistics and all that).
This is why so-called "hate crime" laws are fascinating, they provide us with an X-ray of who has power in society. People in power are always shaping the system to guarantee impunity for their wrong-doing and to prosecute to the full extent of all applicable laws anyone that does anything they don't like (specially if it relates to them).
What is interesting in our world is that it has become a crime to lie about the data regarding the violence committed in the Holocaust, but it is not a crime to lie about enormous chunks of violence that are going on currently, i.e., the epidemic levels of violence perpetrated by homosexuals, nor about many other types of violence that get consistently hidden from public view. (Usually accompanied by lack of studies, doctored up statistics and all that).
This is why so-called "hate crime" laws are fascinating, they provide us with an X-ray of who has power in society. People in power are always shaping the system to guarantee impunity for their wrong-doing and to prosecute to the full extent of all applicable laws anyone that does anything they don't like (specially if it relates to them).
The very fascinating hate law criteria
This clarification and example from the Alliance Defense Fund's Report on the H.R. 1592 Bill.
Despite the limitation of the new federal offenses to violent crimes against persons, H.R. 1592 could be construed not to limit federal prosecution to violent “hate” crimes. Although not the most likely construction, section 4 of the Act could arguably authorize the Attorney General to prosecute violations of non-violent state or local “hate” crime laws at the request of local officials.3
That would be extremely problematic because some existing state and local “hate” crime laws make “simple assault” or “intimidation” prosecutable offenses.
The very fascinating hate law criteria
For example, New Jersey law makes it a “hate crime” to communicate in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm. N.J.S.A. §§ 2C:16-1(a), 2C:33-4.
Washington law makes it a crime to “Threaten[] a specific person or group of persons and place[] that person . . . in reasonable fear of harm to person or property. . . . For purposes of this section, a ‘reasonable person’ is a reasonable person who is a member of the victim’s [category].”
R.C.W.A. 9A.36.080(1)(c).
One would not expect a reasonable person to feel threatened or feel fear of harm as the result of an innocuous communication. Nevertheless, the entire faculty at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus apparently agreed that university librarian Scott Savage was guilty of threatening behavior for a simple statement in 2006.
His “threat”? Recommending four books for freshman reading in his role as a member of OSU Mansfield’s First Year Reading Experience Committee. The four books were The Marketing of Evil by David Kupelian, The Professors by David Horowitz,
Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis by Bat Ye’or, and It Takes a Family by Senator Rick Santorum.
Three Mansfield professors filed complaints with OSU’s Office of Human Resources asserting that the suggested reading list made them feel “unsafe” on the campus. The Mansfield faculty voted without dissent to file charges of sex discrimination and harassment against Mr. Savage because they believed the recommendations constituted “anti-gay hate mongering.” The charges were not dismissed until the Alliance Defense Fund came to Mr. Savage’s defense.
The very fascinating hate law criteria
If the faculty at OSU Mansfield are reasonable people, Mr. Savage’s mere suggestion that freshmen read conservative books would qualify as a “hate” crime under Washington law, and perhaps under New Jersey law. And if H.R. 1592 were to be construed to permit federal prosecution of non-violent state or local “hate” crimes, he could be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General for suggesting the reading list in Washington or New Jersey.
Criminalizing thought - pure and simple.
For example, New Jersey law makes it a “hate crime” to communicate in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm.
Annoyance? In what way, exactly? I don't feel like looking up the law or existing cases, if there are any. But annoyance?
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
CWA: 'Hate Crimes' -- Unequal Protection Under the Law
WASHINGTON, April 26 /Christian Newswire/ --
WASHINGTON, April 26 /Christian Newswire/ --
"Hate crimes" bill H.R. 1592, which is on the fast track to passage in Congress, will officially give homosexuals and cross dressers special elevated status in society based upon their chosen sexual behaviors and/or wardrobe. Under H.R. 1592, the victims at Virginia Tech would officially be considered less valuable to society than homosexuals and cross dressers who are the targets of insults, intimidation, simple assault or other "violent acts."
The 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees "equal protection under the law" for all citizens -- regardless of their sexual preference. "Hate crimes" legislation flies in the face of the 14th Amendment. Such legislation would require the government to invest more resources in the investigation and prosecution of crimes against homosexuals than it would the victims at Virginia Tech. It is an irrefutable fact that H.R. 1592 would treat certain citizens unequally from others.
Labels: abuse, Cho, hate crime, homosexuality, law
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
Concerned Women for America (CWA) asks Congress to grant equal government resources, concern and respect to the victims at Virginia Tech and their families as they do to the demands of liberal homosexual activists by reaffirming the precepts of the 14th Amendment and voting NO on this dangerous and discriminatory piece of legislation.
"If Seung-Hui Cho's horrific actions were not an act of 'hate,' then what where they?" asked Matt Barber, Policy Director for Cultural Issues with CWA. "All violent crimes are 'hate crimes.' By H.R. 1592's definition, Cho's actions would have constituted a 'hate crime' except for the fact that he targeted his victims with the wrong kind of bias. In this case, Cho 'perceived' his victims to be 'rich kids.' However, under H.R. 1592, 'rich kids' are not a specially protected class like homosexuals, so Cho’s crime is second tier and would be considered less egregious.
"The FBI's latest statistics show that there were zero 'hate crimes' murders committed against homosexuals or those perceived to be homosexual in 2005; yet we already know of thirty-two so-called 'hate crimes' murders committed against perceived 'rich kids' in a single day. But under H.R. 1592, those 'rich kids' would be denied the same protections and justice as homosexuals. The whole 'hate crimes' concept really places logic and reason on its head," concluded Barber.
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
"If Seung-Hui Cho's horrific actions were not an act of 'hate,' then what where they?"
"All violent crimes are 'hate crimes.'"
First a word on mischaracterizing Cho's outburst as a hate crime: I disagree. I think Cho's mental state simply deteriorated more and more into mental illness over the years, reaching an inordinate mixture of despair, loneliness, hurt, powerlessness, and possibly incapacity in correctly deciphering various aspects of people and reality around him from a psycho-emotional perspective. He displayed severe introspection and a huge defensive by withdrawal behavior. Several of his recorded statements express enormous, profound hurt and despair, and abandonment. And then there is the gigantic anger and frustration that is the product of all this, which turns into a volcano of rage. To me, Cho's rampage was more an expression of his own desolateness, his own suffering, his own despair, his own reaching a point where he saw no light, no way out, nothing. At a point like that, he could have decided he was going to end it all, but he felt he wanted to take out part of his anger at a blind target on the way.
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
All violent crimes are not "hate crimes," because I would argue the definition of "hate crime" is selectively myopic and it enforces unequal protection and status under the law. I would even go further and argue that the concept of a hate crime is completely senseless, like saying pigs can fly, because it's flawed in its fundament. (more on this later)
“In this case, Cho 'perceived' his victims to be 'rich kids.' However, under H.R. 1592, 'rich kids' are not a specially protected class like homosexuals, so Cho’s crime is second tier and would be considered less egregious.”
This is in itself one of the horrible injustices of having a “hate crime” law, but it also points to how the idea of privileging so-called “hate victim” categories is conceptually at fault from a law philosophy and legal rights standpoint.
“In this case, Cho 'perceived' his victims to be 'rich kids.' However, under H.R. 1592, 'rich kids' are not a specially protected class like homosexuals, so Cho’s crime is second tier and would be considered less egregious.”
This is in itself one of the horrible injustices of having a “hate crime” law, but it also points to how the idea of privileging so-called “hate victim” categories is conceptually at fault from a law philosophy and legal rights standpoint.
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
But this is where the bill gets horrid:
Under the bill, the United States Attorney General could provide technical, forensic, prosecutorial, or any other form of assistance if an incident constitutes a crime of violence, constitutes a felony under state, local, or tribal laws, or is motivated by prejudice based on race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of state, local or tribal hate crime laws.
The bill provides for penalties from 10 years to life imprisonment, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, such as whether or not bodily injury or death was caused, or sexual abuse, or kidnapping occurred.
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
Remember this?
So, if this H.R. 1592 bill passes, basically what we will have is a country in which we will continue to have an epidemic of child abuse, where the majority of such victims DO NOT get any support, technical, forensic, prosecutorial or any other form of assistance, and where the overwhelming majority of criminals roam around scott-free, because they aren't even prosecuted, much less convicted. Why? Because children have no worth or voice in a society obsessed by homosexuality. A crime of torturing a child clearly merits secondary importance compared to the so-called “hate victims” groups.
The Associated Press story showing that of 1,115 people convicted of sexually abusing children in New York City between 1993 and 1995, only 44 percent went to jail. More than 30 percent received probation and 20 percent received conditional discharges.
So, if this H.R. 1592 bill passes, basically what we will have is a country in which we will continue to have an epidemic of child abuse, where the majority of such victims DO NOT get any support, technical, forensic, prosecutorial or any other form of assistance, and where the overwhelming majority of criminals roam around scott-free, because they aren't even prosecuted, much less convicted. Why? Because children have no worth or voice in a society obsessed by homosexuality. A crime of torturing a child clearly merits secondary importance compared to the so-called “hate victims” groups.
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
or is motivated by prejudice based on race, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of the victim, or is a violation of state, local or tribal hate crime laws.
So let's take the following hypothetical example:
So let's take the following hypothetical example:
A couple sexually abuses their child, the child gets little or no assistance, nothing happens. Later as an adult, wants to sue parents, gets no government support, technical, forensic, prosecutorial or any other form of assistance.
A homosexual sexually harasses and carries out predatory behavior towards male adolescents. Victims get no government help in any way. Homo predator enters luxury rehab center and nothing happens.
A lesbian professor sexually harasses a student. Student wants to sue, but gets no government support, technical, forensic, prosecutorial or any other form of assistance.
Now a law-abiding person who has never committed a crime, who disagrees with normalizing homosexuality, expresses their views against the liberal conception of equating homosexuality to heterosexuality, and public money and energy will be used up to prosecute this person.
Hate crime bill - Unequal valuation, protection, assistance, and access to justice under the law
Take this other example:
All things being equal, it means that if a 5-foot-2-inch grandmother is violently attacked on the street (such as the highly publicized incident videotaped in New York earlier this month where a 101 year old woman was brutally assaulted) she is less worthy of justice than a 6-foot-4-inch homosexual man who is attacked by the same assailant while leaving a 'gay' bar.
Unequal valuation under the law
Unequal measure of worthiness
Unequal protection
Unequal assistance
Unequal access to justice
It.Is.Barbaric.
See this ancient post for more on hate crime conceptual problems.
http://alessandrab.blogspot.com/2004/08/barbaric-societys-idea-of-hate.html
What happens to homosexual ephebophile predators in the Republican party?
They go into alcohol rehab at 5-star luxury resorts disguised as treatment facilities, they wait awhile until the media radar for scandal and sensationalism passes, then they return to their leisure life of cruising for underage male teens. In the meantime, they also sack the coffers of their leftover campaign cash to pay expensive law firms to try to avert the justice system for condemning them.
Florida authorities are considering whether to charge Mark Foley as an Internet sex predator as a result of lurid online messages he sent a male teenager from a hotel room in Pensacola, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Foley, then 52, was campaigning for a Senate seat in 2003 when he sent the high school student and former congressional page a string of online messages describing sexual acts, a clear violation of Florida's law on Internet sex predators.
"This type of activity would fall under Florida law's criminal statute," said Maureen Horkan, the director of the Child Predator Cybercrime Unit in the Florida Attorney General's office. The law states that "any person who knowingly utilizes a computer online service or Internet service to seduce, solicit, lure, entice or attempt to seduce a child" would be committing a third degree felony and could receive a jail sentence of up to five years.
Florida authorities are considering whether to charge Mark Foley as an Internet sex predator as a result of lurid online messages he sent a male teenager from a hotel room in Pensacola, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Foley, then 52, was campaigning for a Senate seat in 2003 when he sent the high school student and former congressional page a string of online messages describing sexual acts, a clear violation of Florida's law on Internet sex predators.
"This type of activity would fall under Florida law's criminal statute," said Maureen Horkan, the director of the Child Predator Cybercrime Unit in the Florida Attorney General's office. The law states that "any person who knowingly utilizes a computer online service or Internet service to seduce, solicit, lure, entice or attempt to seduce a child" would be committing a third degree felony and could receive a jail sentence of up to five years.
Labels: foley
What happens to homosexual ephebophile predators in the Republican party?
ABC's The Blotter says Foley has begun to "re-emerge publicly" in Palm Beach: "He was seen last week bicycling along South Ocean Boulevard wearing a helmet and bike racing outfit."
Some of the senior House Republicans who were witnesses during the various inquiries into former Florida representative Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with young House pages also reported hefty legal bills.
Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who still represents an Illinois district though he is no longer in leadership, reported paying his lawyers nearly $70,000, and carrying over $20,000 in unpaid bills. Foley, who resigned from Congress last year, reported more than $200,000 in legal fees.
Some of the senior House Republicans who were witnesses during the various inquiries into former Florida representative Mark Foley's inappropriate contact with young House pages also reported hefty legal bills.
Former House speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who still represents an Illinois district though he is no longer in leadership, reported paying his lawyers nearly $70,000, and carrying over $20,000 in unpaid bills. Foley, who resigned from Congress last year, reported more than $200,000 in legal fees.
Labels: foley
What happens to homosexual ephebophile predators in the Republican party?
Disgraced congressman using campaign cash to pay bills
Former congressman Mark Foley is using leftover campaign cash to pay for the huge legal bills he's racking up defending himself in the congressional page scandal that led to his resignation.
Foley spent $206,000 in campaign cash on attorneys from November to January, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. That left about $1.7 million in the Florida Republican's campaign account March 31, even after he returned more than $110,000 from donors.
Former congressman Mark Foley is using leftover campaign cash to pay for the huge legal bills he's racking up defending himself in the congressional page scandal that led to his resignation.
Foley spent $206,000 in campaign cash on attorneys from November to January, according to recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. That left about $1.7 million in the Florida Republican's campaign account March 31, even after he returned more than $110,000 from donors.
Labels: foley
Come clap at the "lesbian with a chain saw" pride parade
In South Dakota, lesbian Daphne Wright, who killed Darlene VanderGiesen and chopped up her body with a chain saw, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to Advocate.com. According to prosecuting attorneys, Wright was jealous of Darlene VanderGiesen, 42, and her friendship with Wright’s former paramour, Sallie Collins. Wright reportedly smiled after the verdict was read.
When homo activists drum up their "Gay Safe Zone in schools" circus, they nicely forget just in how many cases homos are the perpetrators of violence and harassment, not the other way around.
Bring them out in the public light, it's what I say.
Labels: homosexuality, violence
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Shell Corporation and porn: If you are guilty of wrong-doing, just give it a nice, PR label to hide the fact.
From WND:
Shell Oil Co. has determined "Playboy" and "Penthouse" no longer are pornography, but instead are "adult sophisticates," according to a company statement.
The issue arose when the Florida Family Association contacted Shell about the sale of such explicit magazines at convenience stores owned by Circle K in southeastern parts of the United States.
David Caton, executive director of the pro-family organization, said his group asked Shell to require Shell-branded Circle K Stores to stop selling the pornography, as it has done in the past with other retailers.
Shell Corporation and porn: If you are guilty of wrong-doing, just give it a nice, PR label to hide the fact.
The request, Caton told WND, has been made to more than a dozen major oil companies supplying fuel to nearly 150,000 outlets in the United States. And until now, Caton said, there has been virtually a 100 percent positive response.
"However, Shell Oil Company has decided instead to change their definition of pornography, unlike all other major oil companies, to exclude Penthouse and Playboy magazines which are sold by Circle K Stores," he said.
The confirmation came in an e-mail from Otto O. Meyers III, a Shell executive, who told the Florida Family Association those stores selling "Penthouse" are not selling pornography.
"In regard to your inquiry about specific Circle K locations, our investigation has concluded that these stores are not selling pornography as one would think the general public defines it, but rather 'adult sophisticate' magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse," Meyers wrote.
Caton said that puts Shell in a crowd of one among companies who "no longer consider the hardcore content of Penthouse and explicit nudity in Playboy to be pornographic. No other major oil company has taken this position."
Shell Corporation and porn: If you are guilty of wrong-doing, just give it a nice, PR label to hide the fact.
Following Scott Ott's style- this just released to the media :-)
Following Shell Corporation's pronouncement last week that it no longer considered the hardcore content of Penthouse and explicit nudity in Playboy to be pornographic, Shell executive Otto O. Meyers III today gave a similar rebuttal when questioned about Shell stores selling crack. "Our stores don't sell 'crack,' but 'stimulating-candy-sophisticates'. Our serious investigation in the matter has concluded these stores are not selling what the general public usually defines as a destructive, viciously addictive illegal drug."
The issue arose when police, emergency doctors, and a long line of politicians complained to Shell about the sale of the illegal, lethal drug at convenience stores owned by Circle Xtasy in southeastern parts of the United States. In just one week of its candy sophisticate sales, crime exploded in the region, when dissatisfied candy-sophisticate customers returned to Shell outlets for more and found the stores had sold out. Sgt. Boyles, of the Atlanta police department, confirmed the total of 50 armed robberies, 37 shoot-outs, and 3 arson fires that took place, leaving 84 people dead, including 5 passer-by children.
Shell Corporation and porn: If you are guilty of wrong-doing, just give it a nice, PR label to hide the fact.
"To say that crack is a destructive and vicious illegal drug is a retrograde definition of crack, largely held by the general 'uninformed and not Shell-sophisticate' public," said Mr. Meyers. He further added that the oil giant would be among companies who "no longer consider the brain-damaging power of crack and laws against its distribution as anything close to qualify it as a destructive, illegal drug."
Until the present time, no other major oil company has taken this position. When criticized for their lonely position on the matter, Mr. Meyers argued, "someone has to take the lead in championing our customer's demands. Although our competitors lag behind us, several of the world's greatest drug lords concur with our decision and have applauded our initiative."
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Sexual Harassment and Abuse on Campus and in Schools
The AAUW Educational Foundation released its research report, "Drawing the Line: Sexual Harassment on Campus," on Jan. 24, 2006. According to them, "This report presents the most comprehensive findings to date on sexual harassment on college campuses." A little over-rated in my opinion. Anyways the whole report is not available for free. Here are some interesting report findings:
There is no mention about comparing rates of harassment perpetration from non-heterosexuals to heterosexuals. Plus the fact there is also no mention of any investigation or study control measure to see how many people had perpetrated harassment and were not admitting it in the study. I wonder what the stats for that would be.
Nearly one-third of students (35 percent of female students and 29 percent of male students) say they have experienced physical harassment, such as being touched, grabbed, or pinched in a sexual way.
Most students don't report sexual harassment to a college employee, and many tell no one.
The most common rationale for harassment (59 percent) is "I thought it was funny." Less than one-fifth (17 percent) of those who admit to harassing others say they did so because they wanted a date with the person.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students are more likely than heterosexual students to be sexually harassed.
There is no mention about comparing rates of harassment perpetration from non-heterosexuals to heterosexuals. Plus the fact there is also no mention of any investigation or study control measure to see how many people had perpetrated harassment and were not admitting it in the study. I wonder what the stats for that would be.
Sexual Harassment and Abuse on Campus and in Schools
March 10, 2004 - Sexual Abuse by Educators Is Scrutinized
By Caroline Hendrie
By Caroline Hendrie
A draft report commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education concludes that far too little is known about the prevalence of sexual misconduct by teachers or other school employees, but estimates that millions of children are being affected by it during their school-age years.
Written in response to a requirement in the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the report by a university-based expert on schoolhouse sexual misconduct concludes that the issue "is woefully understudied" and that solid national data on its prevalence are sorely needed.
Yet despite the limitations of the existing research base, the scope of the problem appears to far exceed the priest abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church, said Charol Shakeshaft, the Hofstra University scholar who prepared the report.
The best data available suggest that nearly 10 percent of American students are targets of unwanted sexual attention by public school employees—ranging from sexual comments to rape—at some point during their school-age years, Ms. Shakeshaft said.
Sexual Harassment and Abuse on Campus and in Schools
Law Required Study
The Education Department contracted with Ms. Shakeshaft to examine what is known about the prevalence of sexual misconduct against students by school employees. The agency was responding to a provision in the No Child Left Behind Act.
The little-noticed provision required a "study regarding the prevalence of sexual abuse in schools, including recommendations and legislative remedies for addressing the problem of sexual abuse in schools." The provision went on to set a completion date of "not later than 18 months" after the enactment of the law, which was signed by President Bush in January 2002.
Ms. Shakeshaft said her initial understanding from the department was that she was to conduct a review of the existing research to set the stage for a broad national study. She said the department had interpreted the statute's reference to "sexual abuse in schools" as meaning misconduct by school employees against students, and not by students against their peers.
Sexual Harassment and Abuse on Campus and in Schools
She said that after she turned in a draft of the report last May, she received feedback from the department that led her to believe that the literature review was no longer intended to lay the groundwork for a future study. In a letter stating that the Education Department "has not made plans to conduct further work on a national study on sexual abuse in schools," Ms. Shakeshaft was asked to change the original subtitle of her report, which was "A Synthesis of Existing Literature in Connection With the Design of a National Analysis."
Carlin Mertz, an Education Department spokesman, indicated that the department did not intend a full-blown study of the issue at the present time.
"That's all we're going to do right now," said Mr. Mertz.
You would think that youngsters' serious safety issues would be at least in the top five highest priority problems for educators, if not the top priority. What good is a school if you are going to get raped in it?
From which we conclude: Sexual abuse of youngsters is certainly not an issue for liberals, specially if the perpetrators are largely liberal as well. Now if they are Catholic priests...
What would such a study reveal, I wonder? Just how ugly is the picture?
People don't stop killers, people with guns do. - the Instapundit (read Instaretard).
Glenn Reynolds' editorial advocating the above.
On some guy's blog:
The idea is that if one of the Virginia Tech students had had a gun with him, he could have come to the rescue like Dick Dauntless, and shot the Korean.
Well that’s true. But what if 300 students had guns, and they were all on the look-out for a student with a gun? I’m failing to see the genius of this plan, though no doubt I’ve overlooked something obvious.
comment:
On some guy's blog:
The idea is that if one of the Virginia Tech students had had a gun with him, he could have come to the rescue like Dick Dauntless, and shot the Korean.
Well that’s true. But what if 300 students had guns, and they were all on the look-out for a student with a gun? I’m failing to see the genius of this plan, though no doubt I’ve overlooked something obvious.
comment:
All college students should be equipped with live nuclear warheads armed to go off at a moment's notice. We're trying to maintain a civilization here, after all.Rusty Shackleford | 18.04.07 - 3:50 pm | #
Arm up students with guns? Have they met students? It's barely within their abilities to competently turn up to a 9am lecture, let alone strip, reassemble, load and fire a weapon effectively.Spirit of 1976 | Homepage | 18.04.07 - 5:38 pm | #
People don't stop killers, people with guns do.
Gad. In the olden days, when i was at University, the most threatening thing that happened was some prematurely balding fool yelling disjointed Marxist theory from the library steps. Why, oh why, did we not have the temerity to shoot the bastard? Those were simple times, and indeed we were simple people.blockguard | 19.04.07 - 3:02 am | #
I was at university with Gordon Brown.Dancing in the Streets | Homepage | 19.04.07 - 11:59 pm | #
I must apologies for not taking early action, but Harp lager was only 10p per pint.
However it's not too late. He purports to support Dancing in the Streets FC. If I ever see the bastard I make amends for my lack of action in the 70s.
Free, Online, Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Highbrow, Erudite Phrases in Academic Papers and Theses
The following list of phrases and their definitions will aid you in understanding the meaning of mysterious, erudite terms used in hallowed halls.
“IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN”… I didn’t look up the original reference.
“A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT”… These data are practically meaningless.
“WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS”… An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it published.
“THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY”… The other results didn’t make any sense.
“TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN”… This is the prettiest graph.
Free, Online, Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Highbrow, Erudite Phrases in Academic Papers and Theses
“IN MY EXPERIENCE”… Once
“IN CASE AFTER CASE”… Twice
“IN A SERIES OF CASES”… Thrice
“IT IS BELIEVED THAT”… I think.
“IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT”… A couple of others think so, too.
Free, Online, Comprehensive Guide for Deciphering Highbrow, Erudite Phrases in Academic Papers and Theses
“CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE”… Wrong.
“ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS”… Rumor has it.
“A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE FINDINGS”… A wild guess.
“A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA”… Three pages of notes were obliterated when I knocked over a glass of soda.
“IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS”…I don’t understand it.
“AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES”… They don’t understand it either.
“A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY”… A totally useless topic selected by my committee.
Film: The Killer Within - Parallels, parallels with Cho and so many other cases
Craig D. Lindsey, Staff Writer:
When Macky Alston screened his latest film, "The Killer Within" at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on April 14, it couldn't have gone better. Alston was not only honored to screen his film at the festival, but also ecstatic to be back in his childhood home, Durham.
But then two days later, on April 16, college student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. Then he killed himself. After that, Alston's film began to resonate more with people who saw it, mainly because the movie deals with another campus shooting.
"Within" tells the story of Bob Bechtel, a University of Arizona psychology professor who decides to come clean to his family, his friends and his students about a 50-year-old secret. Back at Swarthmore College, he murdered fellow student Francis Strozier, with a .22-caliber rifle bullet to the head.
Even more shocking was Bechtel's original plan: He was going to kill all 250 people in the dormitory. If he hadn't stopped at Strozier and immediately turned himself in, it might have become the most murderous rampage in U.S history.
When Macky Alston screened his latest film, "The Killer Within" at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on April 14, it couldn't have gone better. Alston was not only honored to screen his film at the festival, but also ecstatic to be back in his childhood home, Durham.
But then two days later, on April 16, college student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech. Then he killed himself. After that, Alston's film began to resonate more with people who saw it, mainly because the movie deals with another campus shooting.
"Within" tells the story of Bob Bechtel, a University of Arizona psychology professor who decides to come clean to his family, his friends and his students about a 50-year-old secret. Back at Swarthmore College, he murdered fellow student Francis Strozier, with a .22-caliber rifle bullet to the head.
Even more shocking was Bechtel's original plan: He was going to kill all 250 people in the dormitory. If he hadn't stopped at Strozier and immediately turned himself in, it might have become the most murderous rampage in U.S history.
Film: The Killer Within - Parallels, parallels with Cho and so many other cases
At the suggestion of Bechtel's young daughter Carrah, Alston made a movie about Bechtel's confession as well as the aftermath. In the movie, some students empathize but others call him an outright killer. While Bechtel and his family come to terms with his announcement, the movie also delves into what caused him to commit such an act. Bechtel, who says he had been bullied and abused since age 4, explains that he was bullied by Strozier and other students (an explanation Strozier's brother and other Swarthmore alumni find questionable).
The movie also points out Bechtel's history with mental illness. Before the murder, he was hospitalized for psychotic episodes. That's what led Bechtel to be found not guilty by reason of insanity of the murder, and later sent to a state hospital.
The movie also points out Bechtel's history with mental illness. Before the murder, he was hospitalized for psychotic episodes. That's what led Bechtel to be found not guilty by reason of insanity of the murder, and later sent to a state hospital.
Film: The Killer Within - Parallels, parallels with Cho and so many other cases
"I think that the school shooter is a specific category of criminal," he says. "And I think we can do a lot to reduce the number of school shootings that happen, to see it coming. And, at the same time, I think that the problem with school shootings is that they're very hard to predict."
"Within," distributed by the film division of the Discovery Channel's parent company, is being shown at film festivals in Atlanta and Boston this week. It will also have a college tour -- a decision made before the Virginia Tech murders -- in hopes that the film will make people aware of what can happen, and what can be avoided.
Unfortunately, as all the books and articles on the decrepit state of mental health in the U.S. and elsewhere attest, you can bet that 99% of the forthcoming efforts will be geared to detect who is mentally ill and a potential murderer, and to lock them up with no treatment.
"Within," distributed by the film division of the Discovery Channel's parent company, is being shown at film festivals in Atlanta and Boston this week. It will also have a college tour -- a decision made before the Virginia Tech murders -- in hopes that the film will make people aware of what can happen, and what can be avoided.
Unfortunately, as all the books and articles on the decrepit state of mental health in the U.S. and elsewhere attest, you can bet that 99% of the forthcoming efforts will be geared to detect who is mentally ill and a potential murderer, and to lock them up with no treatment.
Film: The Killer Within - Parallels, parallels with Cho and so many other cases
Dr. Steven Sharfstein, past president of the American Psychiatric Association, said the problems are both financial and legal.
"What was a red flag for me is that he was seen in a mental health facility and held for one day. That is a symptom of the dysfunction of our mental health system," said Sharfstein, who is president of Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore.
"If someone isn't readily seen as imminently dangerous, there is no time and money set aside to do a more in-depth and effective diagnosis. He may have been hiding a paranoid psychosis that with a few days of observation might have come out."
The National Alliance on Mental Illness in a 2006 report gave the U.S. mental health system the below-average grade of "D".
"Untreated mental health is the nation's No. 1 public health crisis," Michael Fitzpatrick, the group's executive director, said in a telephone interview.
"In recent years, states like the Commonwealth of Virginia have systematically reduced their funding for mental health services," he added.
"The reality is that in many communities, it is impossible to get mental health services unless you have been arrested," Fitzpatrick said.
Even if treatment is available, patients often are too sick to believe they need treatment. And unless a patient presents an imminent threat, many states prohibit involuntary treatment.
Film: The Killer Within - Parallels, parallels with Cho and so many other cases
"Unfortunately, we live in a society that says as long as you are not a danger to yourself or someone else you can be as psychotic as you want to be," Taylor said.
Exceptions include states such as New York, which allow court-ordered treatment called assisted outpatient treatment for patients who cannot recognize their own need for care.
New York's law is named in memory of Kendra Webdale, a 32-year-old Buffalo woman pushed to her death in front of a subway train in 1999 by a man with severe mental illness who had a history of avoiding treatment.
Mental health advocates fear the shooting might produce a backlash against people with mental illness.
"Studies have shown that it is incredibly rare for someone with a mental illness to commit gross acts of violence, especially on such a scale as the Virginia Tech shootings," the U.S. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association said in a statement.
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
Excerpts of some of my most important comments/replies at La Shawn Barber's Blog regarding Cho and mental illness and child abuse issues.
Alessandra wrote:
In fact, student after student said that they reached out to this guy who rebuffed every person in his path. Plenty of folks acknowledged his existence, but it appears that HE is the one who failed to acknowledge the rest of humanity.
Comment by jb — 04.18.07 @ 9:28 pm
=================================
JB - your comment shows an extreme amount of ignorance. Firstly, there is evidence that Cho was victimized in school before he got to college. There is evidence that by the time he got to college, he was mentally ill. He was so diagnosed, even if not labeled a threat. For your info, depending on the kind of disturbances in this guy’s mind, he would be partly or totally incapable of connecting or responding in the normal way an ignorant person like you expects.
Alessandra wrote:
“Until these kids pick a gun, and go on a rampage, that is, because apparently this is the only way anyone then bothers to realize they exist.”That’s a crock of unsubstantiated conjecture!
In fact, student after student said that they reached out to this guy who rebuffed every person in his path. Plenty of folks acknowledged his existence, but it appears that HE is the one who failed to acknowledge the rest of humanity.
Comment by jb — 04.18.07 @ 9:28 pm
=================================
JB - your comment shows an extreme amount of ignorance. Firstly, there is evidence that Cho was victimized in school before he got to college. There is evidence that by the time he got to college, he was mentally ill. He was so diagnosed, even if not labeled a threat. For your info, depending on the kind of disturbances in this guy’s mind, he would be partly or totally incapable of connecting or responding in the normal way an ignorant person like you expects.
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
This is what certain mental illnesses do to a person’s mind, they impair healthy functioning.
Why do you think it takes 6, 8, 10 years of professional training for a therapist or psychiatrist to begin to have the competencies required to help someone who is severely mentally ill? Because their mind is not functioning like yours. Your version of Cho as petulantly bad is ridiculous. Some mentally ill people cannot distinguish between friendly and unfriendly behavior, they may be paranoid, delusional, they may be capable of connecting and functioning in some ways, but not in others. Stupid, ignorant people like yourself cannot even begin to understand what is going on inside the mind of someone mentally ill.
Why do you think it takes 6, 8, 10 years of professional training for a therapist or psychiatrist to begin to have the competencies required to help someone who is severely mentally ill? Because their mind is not functioning like yours. Your version of Cho as petulantly bad is ridiculous. Some mentally ill people cannot distinguish between friendly and unfriendly behavior, they may be paranoid, delusional, they may be capable of connecting and functioning in some ways, but not in others. Stupid, ignorant people like yourself cannot even begin to understand what is going on inside the mind of someone mentally ill.
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
Your ignorance is evil, because you cannot understand this. You will only misunderstand disturbed people, blame them for things they cannot control (and I am talking about the illnesses in their minds, not their criminal activities). If we put you next to a mentally ill kid, you will only do harm to them, that is for sure. And shame on you. And shame on the media for not educating people like you on the subject sooner.
Comment by alessandra — 04.21.07 @ 3:50 am
Comment by alessandra — 04.21.07 @ 3:50 am
alessandra~
Why do you call the 32 victims “ultra-privileged”? Virginia Tech is not a private school. You really know NOTHING about the lives these people lived. What about Professor Librescu, who survived the Holocaust? I wouldn’t call that “ultra-privileged”? You don’t know how many of the ones he murdered in cold blood were paying their way through school? Especially the grad students. At least two of the student victims were from other countries - Indonesia and Peru, I believe. Those are poor countries. Were those students “ultra-privileged”? Cho was a psychotic murderer, and NOTHING that happened to him in his past can justify what it was that he did.
Comment by Miss Ladybug — 04.20.07 @ 5:46 pm
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
===============================
I called them ultra-privileged because, I agree with you, with the exception of the Holocaust survivor, how many were tortured out of their minds? None that we know of. Privilege comes in many shapes and forms, money is but one pedestal.
“Cho was a psychotic murderer, and NOTHING that happened to him in his past can justify what it was that he did.”
You misunderstand the point. No one is trying to justify killing innocent people. What people like you don’t like to ask yourselves, however, is the following: take a 4 year-old child and start raping and battering them. What is this going to do to this innocent child, to their entire psychological structure, to their minds? Do you know, Ms. Ladybug? Do you care?
Then you heap on a life of isolation and trauma that develops into mental illness, until one day it gets so bad that the now adolescent or adult blows up people in their way.
I called them ultra-privileged because, I agree with you, with the exception of the Holocaust survivor, how many were tortured out of their minds? None that we know of. Privilege comes in many shapes and forms, money is but one pedestal.
“Cho was a psychotic murderer, and NOTHING that happened to him in his past can justify what it was that he did.”
You misunderstand the point. No one is trying to justify killing innocent people. What people like you don’t like to ask yourselves, however, is the following: take a 4 year-old child and start raping and battering them. What is this going to do to this innocent child, to their entire psychological structure, to their minds? Do you know, Ms. Ladybug? Do you care?
Then you heap on a life of isolation and trauma that develops into mental illness, until one day it gets so bad that the now adolescent or adult blows up people in their way.
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
Then people like you come out with the psychotic killer monster framing. Are you happy, are you proud of yourself? Do you know how many cases of child abuse are never discovered? How many truths are buried out of public knowledge because people like you don’t want to know what happened? Are you an authority on Cho’s entire life? Can you affirm what he went through 24-7? Every single article on the news says there were problems from the start. Why? Were you there? Do you know how easy it is for an adult to abuse the child and conceal the fact, and blame the child? What happened to Cho?
I don’t think you want to know. I am not affirming I know anything about Cho’s entire life either. But that it does match other children that I know that were tortured, it does. And I know how vicious people like you are to abused children, specially if they become mentally ill.
Cho did commit murder, there is nothing to excuse, justify, or dismiss there. However, the point is, as long as society will not help people who are quite disturbed, society will act in neglectful, irresponsible ways. And this is what you don’t want to face. No one is trying to justify anything, the objective is education, intervention, treatment - these three things are effective in preventing tragedies. Your diatribe about what a monster Cho is will do nothing to prevent anything in the future.
Comment by alessandra — 04.21.07 @ 4:14 am
I don’t think you want to know. I am not affirming I know anything about Cho’s entire life either. But that it does match other children that I know that were tortured, it does. And I know how vicious people like you are to abused children, specially if they become mentally ill.
Cho did commit murder, there is nothing to excuse, justify, or dismiss there. However, the point is, as long as society will not help people who are quite disturbed, society will act in neglectful, irresponsible ways. And this is what you don’t want to face. No one is trying to justify anything, the objective is education, intervention, treatment - these three things are effective in preventing tragedies. Your diatribe about what a monster Cho is will do nothing to prevent anything in the future.
Comment by alessandra — 04.21.07 @ 4:14 am
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
Alessandra, re: “I know a few cases of children who were severely abused and all grew up to either be condemned to a life of mental illness (read unspeakable suffering), and or they also became drug/alcohol addicted, or they committed suicide.”========================================
Lest we forget, let us ALSO remember those abused children and rape victims who become some of the world’s best victim advocates. While we remember the few who go bad, let us not forget the millions who learn and become better people for their bad experiences, who instead of spending their lives casting blame at society in general instead choose to use their attackers as a good example of a bad example.
Do not cry for the weak, champion the winners :).
Alessandra, it is EXACTLY the kind of misplaced sympathy you’re displaying that is eroding the common sense in this country.
Comment by mamapajamas
Take my example again – how many times do you need to rape and batter a toddler before they become mentally ill? Is this your example of a child “gone bad?” A “rotten apple?” Do you think a child being tortured chooses to become mentally ill?
Show me a single case of a child that was tortured to death where society was not negligent. I bet you can’t find one.
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
In your disgustingly privileged framing, children are to be abandoned to torture because “society” has nothing to do with protecting children. And then, who cares about giving them the help they need, without which, so often, they are simply condemned. Your view is execrable.
“ let us not forget the millions who learn and become better people for their bad experiences “
Let us not forget that it is only in a highly violent, negligent, and irresponsible society that we can have a production of millions of child abuse victims in the first place. Let us not forget that without treatment, just as with so many other physical diseases, the seriously mentally ill patient is condemned.
I don’t think that having sympathy towards children who were abused is misplaced. I don’t think having knowledge about how mental illness impairs and destroys someone’s mind is ignorance. And I really don’t like the fact that you are so eager for celebrating, when the overwhelming majority of child abusers are never brought to trial, and consequently, never serve any time in prison, nor do they have to do any reparative actions. I’m sure you will find some way to blame the victims that don’t make it for that as well.
“ let us not forget the millions who learn and become better people for their bad experiences “
Let us not forget that it is only in a highly violent, negligent, and irresponsible society that we can have a production of millions of child abuse victims in the first place. Let us not forget that without treatment, just as with so many other physical diseases, the seriously mentally ill patient is condemned.
“Alessandra, it is EXACTLY the kind of misplaced sympathy you’re displaying that is eroding the common sense in this country.
Comment by mamapajamas”
I don’t think that having sympathy towards children who were abused is misplaced. I don’t think having knowledge about how mental illness impairs and destroys someone’s mind is ignorance. And I really don’t like the fact that you are so eager for celebrating, when the overwhelming majority of child abusers are never brought to trial, and consequently, never serve any time in prison, nor do they have to do any reparative actions. I’m sure you will find some way to blame the victims that don’t make it for that as well.
My Comments/Replies at La Shawn's Blog Regarding Cho - Mental Illness and Child Abuse Issues
I do agree that Cho is responsible for the murders, though, even if we take into account his mental illness. However, this means that the logic inside his mind was different than a happy, normal person going on a shooting spree because they are bored.
Lastly, I don’t agree with how you are weaving your celebration quest into the argument, but I would like to join you in celebrating all those who did overcome grotesquely brutal violence to lead constructive lives, and all the fine examples of victim advocates. They are truly beautiful.
The fact that you are framing the ones who succeed as good people and the ones who don’t as bad people is what is really ignorant and unfair.
Comment by alessandra — 04.21.07 @ 5:25 am
Lastly, I don’t agree with how you are weaving your celebration quest into the argument, but I would like to join you in celebrating all those who did overcome grotesquely brutal violence to lead constructive lives, and all the fine examples of victim advocates. They are truly beautiful.
The fact that you are framing the ones who succeed as good people and the ones who don’t as bad people is what is really ignorant and unfair.
Comment by alessandra — 04.21.07 @ 5:25 am
Monday, April 23, 2007
He couldn't resist
Amusing entry to some guy's new blog:
"Not Dr. Phil"! [I can't stop laughing]
You know what's funny (as in curious), there are so many bloggers who expressed exactly the same feeling; they didn't want to write on the Cho drama, but at some point, they just couldn't keep silent anymore. Certainly the tragedy, that intersects with so many emotionally complex issues, touched a lot of nerves and/or deep-felt emotions in many people, not only in the U.S., but across the world.
I swore I would not do this. Ok, I caved. I'm going to add my small voice to the millions who have hit the e-waves in the wake of America's latest tragedy.
We need to get past this. It's not the first, and it won't be the last. Nobody. Not Dr. Phil. NOBODY could have accurately predicted that this deranged kid would resort to this bloodshed.
"Not Dr. Phil"! [I can't stop laughing]
You know what's funny (as in curious), there are so many bloggers who expressed exactly the same feeling; they didn't want to write on the Cho drama, but at some point, they just couldn't keep silent anymore. Certainly the tragedy, that intersects with so many emotionally complex issues, touched a lot of nerves and/or deep-felt emotions in many people, not only in the U.S., but across the world.
Ah... aren't those teachers and school administrators wonderful?
Great statement/question:
Ain't it one of the best questions one can ask/critique about society following the Cho tragedy?
I would be interested to know if there is more bullying in conservative or liberal school environments, or the same? I wouldn't be surprised with any of these 3 outcomes. (I'll try to find a previous post on the hypocrisy of creating homo-"safe" zones and leaving the rest of the kids in a brutal environment - something only liberals could achieve!)
What I can't understand is why "bullying" is an accepted form of behavior.
Ain't it one of the best questions one can ask/critique about society following the Cho tragedy?
I would be interested to know if there is more bullying in conservative or liberal school environments, or the same? I wouldn't be surprised with any of these 3 outcomes. (I'll try to find a previous post on the hypocrisy of creating homo-"safe" zones and leaving the rest of the kids in a brutal environment - something only liberals could achieve!)
Horrid examples of bullying and what you can do in your little corner of the world - good article - proactive!
Margot Russell:
Bullying is an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide. Case studies of the shooting at Colombine High School and other U.S. schools have suggested that bullying was a factor in many of the incidents. Recent statistics show that 1 out of 4 kids is bullied. Some are afraid to go to school, and 8% of them stay home out of fear.
The art of bullying is older than the tin pencil boxes we used to take to school, and the dismal failure of new awareness campaigns points to its continued strong hold in our classrooms and in our rather heartless society. We've come to accept bullying as a rite of passage in childhood. When gauging how enlightened a society is, one need only look at the way it treats its members. We live in a world that refuses to respect the differences amongst its peoples, where being "different" is punishable.
Bullying is an important contributor to youth violence, including homicide and suicide. Case studies of the shooting at Colombine High School and other U.S. schools have suggested that bullying was a factor in many of the incidents. Recent statistics show that 1 out of 4 kids is bullied. Some are afraid to go to school, and 8% of them stay home out of fear.
The art of bullying is older than the tin pencil boxes we used to take to school, and the dismal failure of new awareness campaigns points to its continued strong hold in our classrooms and in our rather heartless society. We've come to accept bullying as a rite of passage in childhood. When gauging how enlightened a society is, one need only look at the way it treats its members. We live in a world that refuses to respect the differences amongst its peoples, where being "different" is punishable.
Horrid examples of bullying and what you can do in your little corner of the world - good article - proactive!
Here's one of the many ways I taught my own children to be tolerant: When they'd come home from play or school and tell me that someone was being bullied, I'd invited that child to dinner. Simple act. Huge lessons. We made cookies for a neighbor child who'd had a bad day. One time, I woke up to hear a child crying at the bus stop across the street, and I got up and drove him to school. We had a nice talk on the way there and I told him he was special before he got out of the car. Simple act. Huge consequences. Learning tolerance, developing empathy, accepting differences---these things are first studied at home.
I was bullied in fourth grade. There was a kid in my grade school who never liked me. He told me I looked like a monkey. He formed a club against me---an entire club that met in the coatroom. This kid came from an extremely successful family in terms of material comforts, but apparently empathy wasn't on the family resume. This kid actually went on to become a big wig. He went to Brown, became the right hand man for a huge media mogul and hung out with John F. Kennedy Jr. back in the day.
The bullying went on well into the 6th grade when I finally punched him in the nose and made him bleed. It had been two years of hell and I couldn't take it anymore. He went home and told on me and his mother called mine. I was punished--it was only right--but secretly I wondered if my mother felt I had been justified.
I was bullied in fourth grade. There was a kid in my grade school who never liked me. He told me I looked like a monkey. He formed a club against me---an entire club that met in the coatroom. This kid came from an extremely successful family in terms of material comforts, but apparently empathy wasn't on the family resume. This kid actually went on to become a big wig. He went to Brown, became the right hand man for a huge media mogul and hung out with John F. Kennedy Jr. back in the day.
The bullying went on well into the 6th grade when I finally punched him in the nose and made him bleed. It had been two years of hell and I couldn't take it anymore. He went home and told on me and his mother called mine. I was punished--it was only right--but secretly I wondered if my mother felt I had been justified.
Horrid examples of bullying and what you can do in your little corner of the world - good article - proactive!
The sort of bullying I endured was peanuts compared to what other kids go through. Consider this:
In April 1998, Brian Franklish died while trying to escape the children bullying him.
Twelve-year-old Debbie Shaw agrees to a challenge by other girls to end her bullying and victimization by fighting the school bully. She died of her injuries.
Thirteen-year-old Roger Hillyard found dead near his home after a lifetime of bullying.
Sisters Samantha and Michaela Kendal are so taunted and bullied about their being overweight that they went on a hunger strike ... both died.
Fifteen-year-old choirboy Darren Steele is found hanged in his bedroom after a life of bullying and victimization at school.
Twelve-year-old schoolboy Stephen Woodhall hanged himself with his brother's school tie rather than face bullying for another day. "He must have been going through hell," his father, Ken, said. Later, forty-seven-year-old Kenneth Woodhall also hanged himself. He had never got over the hanging suicide five years earlier of his son Stephen.
Really. Do an Internet search. The horrid examples go on and on.
In April 1998, Brian Franklish died while trying to escape the children bullying him.
Twelve-year-old Debbie Shaw agrees to a challenge by other girls to end her bullying and victimization by fighting the school bully. She died of her injuries.
Thirteen-year-old Roger Hillyard found dead near his home after a lifetime of bullying.
Sisters Samantha and Michaela Kendal are so taunted and bullied about their being overweight that they went on a hunger strike ... both died.
Fifteen-year-old choirboy Darren Steele is found hanged in his bedroom after a life of bullying and victimization at school.
Twelve-year-old schoolboy Stephen Woodhall hanged himself with his brother's school tie rather than face bullying for another day. "He must have been going through hell," his father, Ken, said. Later, forty-seven-year-old Kenneth Woodhall also hanged himself. He had never got over the hanging suicide five years earlier of his son Stephen.
Really. Do an Internet search. The horrid examples go on and on.
Horrid examples of bullying and what you can do in your little corner of the world - good article - proactive!
Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech shooter was picked on. He was tormented and bullied throughout his life. There's no excuse for his retribution. But if we don't learn something by his actions, then history is doomed to repeat itself.
I was always taught that change begins with me. We're not tiny people in a vast world. They way we conduct ourselves, the way we treat others, the things we teach our children can create enormous change in the world. I can't help but wonder if we are all at fault for such horrific events. We don't live in a vacuum.
We eagerly participate in the world and what we do, what we think---it matters, plain and simple.
That's fantastic advice for nice moms to put into practice to help kids in need of support. Imagine if 5 moms did that for a kid that experienced a bullying incident in a school! You could form support networks and really be kind to kids who sometimes have no one at all in the world.
Great idea. Really inspiring.
And I have to add, this idea is something we need to start a national non-profit to promote. Or channel the idea in existing organizations. It merits serious work and promotion. If school personnel are often complicit and repugnantly inactive about bullying problems, there's a lot other people can do to remedy the situation while the entire educational system doesn't change. And we know how quickly that will happen.
I was always taught that change begins with me. We're not tiny people in a vast world. They way we conduct ourselves, the way we treat others, the things we teach our children can create enormous change in the world. I can't help but wonder if we are all at fault for such horrific events. We don't live in a vacuum.
We eagerly participate in the world and what we do, what we think---it matters, plain and simple.
That's fantastic advice for nice moms to put into practice to help kids in need of support. Imagine if 5 moms did that for a kid that experienced a bullying incident in a school! You could form support networks and really be kind to kids who sometimes have no one at all in the world.
Great idea. Really inspiring.
And I have to add, this idea is something we need to start a national non-profit to promote. Or channel the idea in existing organizations. It merits serious work and promotion. If school personnel are often complicit and repugnantly inactive about bullying problems, there's a lot other people can do to remedy the situation while the entire educational system doesn't change. And we know how quickly that will happen.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
And another can of worms
In a era of information overload, it is the media's judgment of just how important an issue is that makes the critical difference to how seriously average Americans will take it and what action they will be willing to support - especially if the action involves inconvenience, discomfort, or pain in the pocketbook. - Daniel Yankelovich
Television this week has used the Virginia Tech tragedy to launch a round-the-clock drive for ratings, while unseen Americans suffer and die each day from inadequate health care.
Someone should light candles in their memory, too.
[...]
We live in the only industrialized nation in the world that allows insurance companies to treat mental health as less "real" than so-called physical disorders and therefore restrict or deny coverage for mental health treatment.
Insurers are able to take advantage of our society's Puritanical belief that mental illness is a 'failure of will,' or that it's 'all in your imagination.' That's a false duality.
Labels: Cho, mental health
VaTech tragedy: A wake up call for America’s mental health
Each year, less than half of the 26 percent of all American adults with mental health problems receive the treatment they require to live healthy, fulfilling lives.
The effects of this national failure can be felt throughout schools, the workplace, family life and the criminal justice system, said Allen. Without a comprehensive mental health system focused on mental wellness and prevention, America faces increased numbers of people with untreated mental illnesses, at an even greater cost to society as a whole, she said.
The effects of this national failure can be felt throughout schools, the workplace, family life and the criminal justice system, said Allen. Without a comprehensive mental health system focused on mental wellness and prevention, America faces increased numbers of people with untreated mental illnesses, at an even greater cost to society as a whole, she said.
Labels: Cho, mental health
VaTech tragedy: A wake up call for America’s mental health
Goshen -- The unfortunate events of the Virginia Tech tragedy, are an important reminder that our nation has a long way to go in ensuring that individuals who are mentally ill receive the mental health services they need to live productive lives at home and in their communities, according to Nadia Allen, executive director of the Mental Health Association in Orange County, Inc.
MHA urges local, state and federal decision-makers to take a leading role in rectifying this by investing in an integrated, prevention-focused mental health service system for all.
“Unfortunately, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech tragedy, is just one of millions of Americans who do not receive much-needed mental health services each year,” said Allen. “It is time that our elected officials make mental health a priority. In addition, each of us must take personal responsibility for promoting mental wellness in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods throughout our community.”
MHA urges local, state and federal decision-makers to take a leading role in rectifying this by investing in an integrated, prevention-focused mental health service system for all.
“Unfortunately, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech tragedy, is just one of millions of Americans who do not receive much-needed mental health services each year,” said Allen. “It is time that our elected officials make mental health a priority. In addition, each of us must take personal responsibility for promoting mental wellness in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods throughout our community.”
Fleetwood - Bullying
Too often, American schools foster a culture of cliques and teasing isolation that torments millions of bullied children who have no place to turn. This culture of bullying peer conformity has led to a record number of suicides, murders, and psychological scars that never heal.
Since 1960, suicides among American teenagers have more than doubled. Today, more than 2,000 teens kill themselves each year. 250,000 attempt suicide.
In a recent survey by Bolt Media of more than 4,000 teenagers, 47% answered, "Yes" to the question "Could one of your classmates be a killer?" This large number indicates that teens themselves are aware of their peers' inability to cope. But educators are not recognizing the cancer that is crippling and killing so many of our youth. The American Medical Association found that 1 in 10 boys have been kicked in the groin by age 16. Twenty-five percent of these kicks resulted in an injury and, most tellingly, a quarter of the injured boys exhibited signs of depression a year after the injury. National statistics show that 30-35% of students are either bullies or victims of a bully.
Since 1960, suicides among American teenagers have more than doubled. Today, more than 2,000 teens kill themselves each year. 250,000 attempt suicide.
In a recent survey by Bolt Media of more than 4,000 teenagers, 47% answered, "Yes" to the question "Could one of your classmates be a killer?" This large number indicates that teens themselves are aware of their peers' inability to cope. But educators are not recognizing the cancer that is crippling and killing so many of our youth. The American Medical Association found that 1 in 10 boys have been kicked in the groin by age 16. Twenty-five percent of these kicks resulted in an injury and, most tellingly, a quarter of the injured boys exhibited signs of depression a year after the injury. National statistics show that 30-35% of students are either bullies or victims of a bully.
Fleetwood - Bullying
American educators operate on the premise of "benign neglect" - that students have to work out their social problems by themselves and that teachers should not interfere with this childhood "rite of passage."
But there is another way. A growing movement from abroad in Sweden and Canada has begun to challenge these premises. A book on mobbing by Dan Olweus shows that this culture of cliques, social torture, and cruelty can be changed by concerned educators.
"Bully Beware" programs have been successful in dozens of schools around the world. Unfortunately, few of these schools are in the U.S. and these anti-bullying notions are not being accepted by traditional American educators. After the Santee, California shooting in 2001, the Washington State Senate passed legislation aimed at cracking down on bullying, but not without opposition. Some of the Republicans questioned whether a law could fix the problems of bullies.
One study of pediatric leukemia patients showed that they associated their worst pain not with chemotherapy, surgery, or spinal taps but with "going back to school and being teased."
Consider what might have happened if any of the schools had been attentive to such problems. At Columbine, students, being aware of such problems, would have told a teacher that "the trenchcoat mafia" was acting strange. The teacher would have asked what the "trenchcoat mafia" meant. They would have been told that it was a reference to a dream scene in the 1995 film -- The Basketball Diaries -- in which Leonardo DiCaprio fanaticizes about wiping out his classmates. A professional would have quickly seen that such behavior represents a potentially dangerous alienation. And the ultimate shooting of 25 might have been prevented.
But there is another way. A growing movement from abroad in Sweden and Canada has begun to challenge these premises. A book on mobbing by Dan Olweus shows that this culture of cliques, social torture, and cruelty can be changed by concerned educators.
"Bully Beware" programs have been successful in dozens of schools around the world. Unfortunately, few of these schools are in the U.S. and these anti-bullying notions are not being accepted by traditional American educators. After the Santee, California shooting in 2001, the Washington State Senate passed legislation aimed at cracking down on bullying, but not without opposition. Some of the Republicans questioned whether a law could fix the problems of bullies.
One study of pediatric leukemia patients showed that they associated their worst pain not with chemotherapy, surgery, or spinal taps but with "going back to school and being teased."
Consider what might have happened if any of the schools had been attentive to such problems. At Columbine, students, being aware of such problems, would have told a teacher that "the trenchcoat mafia" was acting strange. The teacher would have asked what the "trenchcoat mafia" meant. They would have been told that it was a reference to a dream scene in the 1995 film -- The Basketball Diaries -- in which Leonardo DiCaprio fanaticizes about wiping out his classmates. A professional would have quickly seen that such behavior represents a potentially dangerous alienation. And the ultimate shooting of 25 might have been prevented.
Fleetwood - Bullying
In Santee, Ca., when his threats were ignored, an angry 15 year old boy brought a gun to school and killed two classmates. The troubled youth gave off many signs that were clearly obvious to his schoolmates and teachers, but no one was trained to be sensitive to such problems and the possible implications of traditional teenage cruelty.
At Westfield High, there were many signs that Cho was deeply disturbed, dangerously alienated and horribly tormented. Teachers and school officials should have noticed and taken actionfor his undiagnosed autism and alienation.. A guidance counselor should have talked to Cho and his parents. Educators could/should have consulted with his teachers - who all saw the problems - and gotten help for this tormented child.
The problems of bullying are everywhere, in every school, town, and city in America. If nothing changes, the consequences and mayhem will continue to traumatize the entire nation, again and again.
Around the corner from me at an elite private school in Manhattan, a 13 year old boy has eaten lunch alone for the last three years, because it has become a game among the other students to get up and leave the table when he comes to sit. I wrote a letter to the headmaster, but never got an answer. I was told the administrators don't want to interfere, because, "It is an age-old problem."
At Westfield High, there were many signs that Cho was deeply disturbed, dangerously alienated and horribly tormented. Teachers and school officials should have noticed and taken actionfor his undiagnosed autism and alienation.. A guidance counselor should have talked to Cho and his parents. Educators could/should have consulted with his teachers - who all saw the problems - and gotten help for this tormented child.
The problems of bullying are everywhere, in every school, town, and city in America. If nothing changes, the consequences and mayhem will continue to traumatize the entire nation, again and again.
Around the corner from me at an elite private school in Manhattan, a 13 year old boy has eaten lunch alone for the last three years, because it has become a game among the other students to get up and leave the table when he comes to sit. I wrote a letter to the headmaster, but never got an answer. I was told the administrators don't want to interfere, because, "It is an age-old problem."
The can of worms is open
Comment:
School administrators are scared of parents suing them and the school. I know of an instance where a student struck a teacher and the administrator called the police. She was disciplined for allowing it get as far as a police report. She was told that such matters are settled in-house without any publicity. Her boss sent her home and found her another job where she could no longer harm the school system's reputation over a student behaving violently towards a teacher. This caused problems later when a DD student was raped and the police were not called but the video of the rape got out onto the net. I suppose a dead body might be cause to call in the police but then again, it might embarrass the system so lets just bury the matter 6 feet under.
By: nyboomer on April 21, 2007 at 04:15pm
School administrators are scared of parents suing them and the school. I know of an instance where a student struck a teacher and the administrator called the police. She was disciplined for allowing it get as far as a police report. She was told that such matters are settled in-house without any publicity. Her boss sent her home and found her another job where she could no longer harm the school system's reputation over a student behaving violently towards a teacher. This caused problems later when a DD student was raped and the police were not called but the video of the rape got out onto the net. I suppose a dead body might be cause to call in the police but then again, it might embarrass the system so lets just bury the matter 6 feet under.
By: nyboomer on April 21, 2007 at 04:15pm
What happened at Cho's high and middle school?
The Whole Class Started Laughing and Saying, "Go Back to China" - Blake Fleetwood
I am finding it so eery and suspicious that we don't have volumes of articles and information from Cho's high school and middle school experience. Why didn't anyone do anything before? How negligent were they? Because of the dearth of information so far, it just seems to me like the picture was ugly all along.
At Westfield High, there were many signs that Cho was deeply disturbed, dangerously alienated and horribly tormented. Teachers and school officials should have noticed and taken action for his undiagnosed autism and alienation. A guidance counselor should have talked to Cho and his parents. Educators could/should have consulted with his teachers - who all saw the problems - and gotten help for this tormented child.
I am finding it so eery and suspicious that we don't have volumes of articles and information from Cho's high school and middle school experience. Why didn't anyone do anything before? How negligent were they? Because of the dearth of information so far, it just seems to me like the picture was ugly all along.
Labels: Cho
Kevin Jennings - When Will We Learn? The call for anti-bullying laws and policies
A further insight into Cho's background comes from high school classmates in suburban Washington who say he was bullied and laughed at over his Korean accent and shyness. When called on in class, they say, he would hang his head in silence. -MSNBC report
Leave it to a cabbie to single out an important facet of the Virginia Tech tragedy and other school shootings that has been largely overlooked.
During my cab on the way to my partner's 46th birthday party last night, Friday, April 20th, the driver turned to me and asked, "Why do you think that boy killed all those people?"
A bit surprised to be engaged on the topic, I replied, "Well, for starters, I think the fact that he could just walk into a store in Virginia and walk out with a gun has something to do with it."
"NO!" the cabbie thundered back, making me jump a bit. "It is because of all the others. The ones filled with hate. The ones who mocked him and filled him with hate. They are the murderers."
The cabbie had zeroed in on something about the school shootings tragedy that has been rarely mentioned in the wall-to-wall coverage that has dominated the airwaves this week: the fact that nearly every one of these tragedies has been perpetrated by boys who have been bullied and harassed.
Leave it to a cabbie to single out an important facet of the Virginia Tech tragedy and other school shootings that has been largely overlooked.
During my cab on the way to my partner's 46th birthday party last night, Friday, April 20th, the driver turned to me and asked, "Why do you think that boy killed all those people?"
A bit surprised to be engaged on the topic, I replied, "Well, for starters, I think the fact that he could just walk into a store in Virginia and walk out with a gun has something to do with it."
"NO!" the cabbie thundered back, making me jump a bit. "It is because of all the others. The ones filled with hate. The ones who mocked him and filled him with hate. They are the murderers."
The cabbie had zeroed in on something about the school shootings tragedy that has been rarely mentioned in the wall-to-wall coverage that has dominated the airwaves this week: the fact that nearly every one of these tragedies has been perpetrated by boys who have been bullied and harassed.
Kevin Jennings - When Will We Learn? The call for anti-bullying laws and policies
From Columbine (which happened on April 20, 1999) until Virginia Tech (which happened almost exactly 8 years later, on April 17, 2007), virtually every school shooting has been carried out by alienated, abused boys filled with rage and anger at a world which they see as having rejected them. Yet 40 states still lack comprehensive anti-bullying laws and little has been done to address bullying, which the Harris polling organization found in the 2005 report From Teasing to Torment: School Climate in America has been experienced by 65% of all high school students. As an old coach of mine once said, "You keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting."
Obviously young men like Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Cho Seung-Hui who perpetrate tragedies like Columbine and Virginia Tech are deeply troubled individuals. Most students who get bullied don't go berserk and gun down their classmates. Usually they simply drift away from school, eventually dropping out, or turn their anger and rage inward, where it manifests as depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and suicidal behaviors. By hurting only themselves, they allow us to ignore the problem - at least until the next spasm of murderous rage like the one we saw at Virginia Tech this week.
Obviously young men like Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Cho Seung-Hui who perpetrate tragedies like Columbine and Virginia Tech are deeply troubled individuals. Most students who get bullied don't go berserk and gun down their classmates. Usually they simply drift away from school, eventually dropping out, or turn their anger and rage inward, where it manifests as depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, and suicidal behaviors. By hurting only themselves, they allow us to ignore the problem - at least until the next spasm of murderous rage like the one we saw at Virginia Tech this week.
Kevin Jennings - When Will We Learn? The call for anti-bullying laws and policies
In the wake of the so-called "No Child Left Behind" law passed in 2001, the focus in schools has shifted almost entirely to standardized test outcomes, leaving little time to address issues like bullying and harassment. We continue to ignore this crisis at our own peril. Sooner or later another alienated young boy will act out his rage and our screens will be filled once again with horrific images and the lives of countless families and loved ones will be irrevocably altered by tragedy. As Cho Seung-Hui wrote, "You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing." Sadly, the acts of the bullies who drove Cho over the edge led to the extinguishing of more than 30 lives. Yet no one in the education world has stepped forward and said it is time for meaningful national action to end bullying in our schools. When will we learn?
The clock is ticking on a time bomb of a boy who is just waiting to explode on another campus somewhere right now. If we don't do something meaningful about bullying soon, that boy is going to go off and we'll keep getting what we've been getting. Please: don't make me say "I told you so." Insist that Congress pass an anti-bullying law now.
The clock is ticking on a time bomb of a boy who is just waiting to explode on another campus somewhere right now. If we don't do something meaningful about bullying soon, that boy is going to go off and we'll keep getting what we've been getting. Please: don't make me say "I told you so." Insist that Congress pass an anti-bullying law now.
Kevin Jennings - When Will We Learn? The call for anti-bullying laws and policies
I don't know what is proposed in such laws, but anti-bullying education can ameliorate a series of problems. One thing that needs to be included in any anti-bullying law worth its salt is to hold responsible any teacher who consistently condones bullying behavior. Teachers are often in-the-know about students being bullied, even in severe cases, and like Germans in nazi Germany, they turn their heads the other way in so many cases.
The other thing I find disturbing in the media coverage is that I didn't see any interviews or investigation of Cho's teachers when he was a child or adolescent. It was some ex-classmates that volunteered the information that he was bullied. What were his previous teachers like, I wonder?
The other thing I find disturbing in the media coverage is that I didn't see any interviews or investigation of Cho's teachers when he was a child or adolescent. It was some ex-classmates that volunteered the information that he was bullied. What were his previous teachers like, I wonder?
Mental Illness Strains School Counselors
From Red Orbit
Across America, college counseling centers are strained by rising numbers of mentally ill students and surging demand for mental health services - a challenging trend as campus officials try to identify potential threats like the unstable Virginia Tech gunman.
And even when serious emotional problems are detected, university officials often feel constrained in how they respond due to an array of laws and policies protecting students' rights and privacy.
"The number of people coming to colleges who've had psychiatric treatment has increased tremendously," said Dr. Gerald Kay, a psychiatry professor at Wright State University and chair of the American Psychiatric Association committee on college mental health.
"Now they're able to come to college - that would not have been the case earlier," Kay said. "You've got a very large number of people who may have some vulnerabilities. It has stressed the availability of resources."
Reasons for the surge include the Americans with Disabilities Act, which gives mentally ill students the right to be at college, and increasingly sophisticated medications which enable them to function better than in the past.
[...]
"We have to provide services to students with mental illness - it's not grounds to exclude them from our property," Flynn said. "We cannot discriminate against the mentally ill, nor do we want to."
[...]
Across America, college counseling centers are strained by rising numbers of mentally ill students and surging demand for mental health services - a challenging trend as campus officials try to identify potential threats like the unstable Virginia Tech gunman.
And even when serious emotional problems are detected, university officials often feel constrained in how they respond due to an array of laws and policies protecting students' rights and privacy.
"The number of people coming to colleges who've had psychiatric treatment has increased tremendously," said Dr. Gerald Kay, a psychiatry professor at Wright State University and chair of the American Psychiatric Association committee on college mental health.
"Now they're able to come to college - that would not have been the case earlier," Kay said. "You've got a very large number of people who may have some vulnerabilities. It has stressed the availability of resources."
Reasons for the surge include the Americans with Disabilities Act, which gives mentally ill students the right to be at college, and increasingly sophisticated medications which enable them to function better than in the past.
[...]
"We have to provide services to students with mental illness - it's not grounds to exclude them from our property," Flynn said. "We cannot discriminate against the mentally ill, nor do we want to."
[...]
Labels: Cho, mental health
Mental Illness Strains School Counselors
Psychologist Sherry Benton, assistant director of counseling services at Kansas State University, has conducted research concluding that students' mental health problems are more complex and severe than 20 years ago.
"We're well aware that problems are getting worse, but what hasn't happened is increasing funding for mental health services," she said. "Most centers are now overwhelmed. Business has gone up and up, but budgets have remained the same or been cut, and that's a huge problem."
One factor, Benton said, is that mental health services are usually not among the categories assessed during colleges' periodic accreditation reviews. If schools needed good services to remain accredited, they might invest more, she said.
Benton views the rising demand for campus mental health services as a good news-bad news development.
"We do get a lot more students into college who have mental illness but are no problem whatsoever," she said. "They do need support and use medication; they go on to lead full, productive lives."
On the downside, she and her colleagues see stress levels among students far higher than a generation ago due to increased workloads and financial strains, often coupled with lack of healthy lifestyles.
[...]
"We're well aware that problems are getting worse, but what hasn't happened is increasing funding for mental health services," she said. "Most centers are now overwhelmed. Business has gone up and up, but budgets have remained the same or been cut, and that's a huge problem."
One factor, Benton said, is that mental health services are usually not among the categories assessed during colleges' periodic accreditation reviews. If schools needed good services to remain accredited, they might invest more, she said.
Benton views the rising demand for campus mental health services as a good news-bad news development.
"We do get a lot more students into college who have mental illness but are no problem whatsoever," she said. "They do need support and use medication; they go on to lead full, productive lives."
On the downside, she and her colleagues see stress levels among students far higher than a generation ago due to increased workloads and financial strains, often coupled with lack of healthy lifestyles.
[...]
Mental Illness Strains School Counselors
Nonetheless, officials on many campuses have set up committees to pool information about students with emotional or behavioral problems so patterns can be detected in what might otherwise be seen as isolated incidents. The trick, officials say, is to find the proper balance between respecting a student's rights and protecting the university.
"That's the tightrope administrators have to walk," said Wright State's Gerald Kay.
"The issue in most instances is how do you bring these people into some sort of treatment."
Benton said any student who issues threats should be dealt with forcefully, regardless of privacy guidelines.
"Safety trumps confidentiality every time," she said. "If someone is a danger to themselves or others, then confidentiality is out the window and you notify who you need to notify to ensure the safety of them and those around them."
Peter Lake, a law professor at Stetson University, contends that officials on many campuses have been too deferential to privacy concerns, at the risk of safety at their schools.
"There's a false consciousness of privacy in higher education - as an institution, we don't like to share information," he said.
"Now, you're going to be seeing a greater emphasis on a management team or a safety czar - someone whose job it is to look at students' overall profiles," Lake said. "It's not only a good idea - it's an idea we can't live without."
"That's the tightrope administrators have to walk," said Wright State's Gerald Kay.
"The issue in most instances is how do you bring these people into some sort of treatment."
Benton said any student who issues threats should be dealt with forcefully, regardless of privacy guidelines.
"Safety trumps confidentiality every time," she said. "If someone is a danger to themselves or others, then confidentiality is out the window and you notify who you need to notify to ensure the safety of them and those around them."
Peter Lake, a law professor at Stetson University, contends that officials on many campuses have been too deferential to privacy concerns, at the risk of safety at their schools.
"There's a false consciousness of privacy in higher education - as an institution, we don't like to share information," he said.
"Now, you're going to be seeing a greater emphasis on a management team or a safety czar - someone whose job it is to look at students' overall profiles," Lake said. "It's not only a good idea - it's an idea we can't live without."
Lowry: Stop tiptoeing around the problem of mental illness
The authorities at Virginia Tech did their own version of this urban shuffle in their handling of Cho Seung-Hui. It's obviously much easier to realize that someone is dangerously deranged after he has killed 32 people than when dealing with uncertain knowledge in an environment where any wrong (or even correct) move means a lawsuit. But Virginia Tech often tiptoed around Cho's mental disturbance.
When his ''poetry'' was read aloud in a class, it was so terrifying that at the next meeting of the class only seven of 70 students showed up. Cho was removed from that class, and another professor began to tutor him one-on-one, but only after establishing a secret code word with her assistant to signal when she should call security.
When his ''poetry'' was read aloud in a class, it was so terrifying that at the next meeting of the class only seven of 70 students showed up. Cho was removed from that class, and another professor began to tutor him one-on-one, but only after establishing a secret code word with her assistant to signal when she should call security.
Labels: Cho, mental health
Lowry: Stop tiptoeing around the problem of mental illness
Another alarmed professor went to her dean with worries about Cho. She was told that nothing could be done, so he was simply placed off to the side of the seminar, where he said nothing and his disturbing writings weren't read aloud. This is a microcosm of how we've handled many of the mentally ill during the great deinstitutionalization of the past 30 years, when they have been left to
their own devices - and often to the streets or prison - rather than treated.
There are many reasons for this - the rise of psychotropic drugs, budget cuts, expanded conceptions of civil rights - but one intellectual current behind the trend was a moral disempowerment of sanity. One of the most influential academics of the late 20th century, Michel Foucault, argued that attempts to label and treat madness were inherently arbitrary and repressive. Academia has been celebrating ''transgression'' ever since.
Any attempt to romanticize madness has an incontrovertible answer in Cho Seung-Hui. This is what madness truly is: lonely, painful, shattering and, potentially, murderous. After seeing the sick trail of misery left by such transgression, can we expend some of the same intellectual energy honoring wholesome normality?
Behind some of the plaints of Virginia Tech staff that nothing could be done about Cho, you can hear the undercurrent: Who were we to judge? Of course, if he had occasionally uttered racial slurs rather than frightening those around him with bizarre behavior, the full apparatus of administrative power at Virginia Tech would have been brought down on him.
their own devices - and often to the streets or prison - rather than treated.
There are many reasons for this - the rise of psychotropic drugs, budget cuts, expanded conceptions of civil rights - but one intellectual current behind the trend was a moral disempowerment of sanity. One of the most influential academics of the late 20th century, Michel Foucault, argued that attempts to label and treat madness were inherently arbitrary and repressive. Academia has been celebrating ''transgression'' ever since.
Any attempt to romanticize madness has an incontrovertible answer in Cho Seung-Hui. This is what madness truly is: lonely, painful, shattering and, potentially, murderous. After seeing the sick trail of misery left by such transgression, can we expend some of the same intellectual energy honoring wholesome normality?
Behind some of the plaints of Virginia Tech staff that nothing could be done about Cho, you can hear the undercurrent: Who were we to judge? Of course, if he had occasionally uttered racial slurs rather than frightening those around him with bizarre behavior, the full apparatus of administrative power at Virginia Tech would have been brought down on him.
Lowry: Stop tiptoeing around the problem of mental illness
But Virginia Tech also had to cope with an extremely strict state commitment law that requires that someone represent an ''imminent danger'' to himself or others before he can be compelled to seek treatment. A judge ruled in 2005 that Cho met this standard, but nothing much came of it (although he reportedly was on an antidepressant). Virginia hasn't caught up to other states that have begun to recover from the excesses of deinstitutionalization and have made it easier to compel treatment.
According to an extensive survey in The New York Times a few years ago, about half of rampage killings are committed by mentally ill people, a much higher percentage than the roughly 5 percent that commit all murders. Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, president of the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center, believes there has been a rise in such killings in the past 20 years, which coincides with the period when we have dumped many severely mentally ill people out into society without treating them.
There is, of course, a balance to be struck between civil liberties and treating the mentally ill. But that balance is now badly off-kilter. Cho Seung-Hui was basically abandoned to his private mental hell at Virginia Tech. While he hatched his lunatic and hateful plot, everyone tried to ignore the scary guy in class behind the sunglasses.
According to an extensive survey in The New York Times a few years ago, about half of rampage killings are committed by mentally ill people, a much higher percentage than the roughly 5 percent that commit all murders. Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, president of the Virginia-based Treatment Advocacy Center, believes there has been a rise in such killings in the past 20 years, which coincides with the period when we have dumped many severely mentally ill people out into society without treating them.
There is, of course, a balance to be struck between civil liberties and treating the mentally ill. But that balance is now badly off-kilter. Cho Seung-Hui was basically abandoned to his private mental hell at Virginia Tech. While he hatched his lunatic and hateful plot, everyone tried to ignore the scary guy in class behind the sunglasses.
Good articles on Cho - Mental Health Analysis
Mental Illness Strains School Counselors
National Coalition Of People With Psychiatric Histories Responds To Virginia Tech Tragedy
"Let's turn this crisis into an opportunity to understand more about mental health and create a more healthy and peaceful community," said Coalition member Can Truong. The Coalition endorses this approach and the importance of supporting one another, and promotes peer-run mental health education, awareness and advocacy organizations such as Active Minds on Campus (http://www.activemindsoncampus.org).
The Coalition also applauds Mental Health America for urging the public to avoid diagnosing others or engaging in "profiling" of groups such as those who appear to be foreign-born or people with psychiatric diagnoses.
"Reacting with judgment and labeling, fueled by the media, perpetuates misinformation and is a disservice to us all," said Spiro. According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in September 2002, "Violent crimes committed by psychiatric patients become big headlines and reinforce the social stigma and rejection felt by many individuals who suffer from mental illness. But our findings suggest that serious violence is the rare exception among all people with psychiatric disorders. The public perception that people who are mentally ill are typically violent is unfounded."
National Coalition Of People With Psychiatric Histories Responds To Virginia Tech Tragedy
"Let's turn this crisis into an opportunity to understand more about mental health and create a more healthy and peaceful community," said Coalition member Can Truong. The Coalition endorses this approach and the importance of supporting one another, and promotes peer-run mental health education, awareness and advocacy organizations such as Active Minds on Campus (http://www.activemindsoncampus.org).
The Coalition also applauds Mental Health America for urging the public to avoid diagnosing others or engaging in "profiling" of groups such as those who appear to be foreign-born or people with psychiatric diagnoses.
"Reacting with judgment and labeling, fueled by the media, perpetuates misinformation and is a disservice to us all," said Spiro. According to a study published in the American Journal of Public Health in September 2002, "Violent crimes committed by psychiatric patients become big headlines and reinforce the social stigma and rejection felt by many individuals who suffer from mental illness. But our findings suggest that serious violence is the rare exception among all people with psychiatric disorders. The public perception that people who are mentally ill are typically violent is unfounded."
Doomed! It's the Connection!
Or at least, that's what this article explains: Internet Connectivity Problems Caused By The MTU Setting
(see post below for what is this about)
we will try to troubleshoot... I think I will not be able to change my connection settings though, that means, doomed, doomed to 3-paragraph postings.
Oh, the humanity!
(see post below for what is this about)
we will try to troubleshoot... I think I will not be able to change my connection settings though, that means, doomed, doomed to 3-paragraph postings.
Oh, the humanity!
The Blogger Publish/Connection Error Message
"Could not connect to Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail. Test connection now."
This is the pink message that appears below my "Create (post)" text entry window as soon as the post reaches a size of roughly more than 3 paragraphs. If I click on Publish, I will get an error page display with a message saying it could not connect to blogger. Then if I come back to editing and I delete text and I limit the size of the post to a few paragraphs, I click on Publish and it gets posted.
I will try their help bulletin board. I have big expectations there. :-/
Something to do with the connection I am using? with the template settings? I have no clue.
This is the pink message that appears below my "Create (post)" text entry window as soon as the post reaches a size of roughly more than 3 paragraphs. If I click on Publish, I will get an error page display with a message saying it could not connect to blogger. Then if I come back to editing and I delete text and I limit the size of the post to a few paragraphs, I click on Publish and it gets posted.
I will try their help bulletin board. I have big expectations there. :-/
Something to do with the connection I am using? with the template settings? I have no clue.
Several Professors Had Worried About Cho - Took Action
From ABC:
Just five weeks into the fall 2005 semester, professor Nikki Giovanni asked to have Cho removed from her introductory creative writing course after female students complained that he was snapping photos of their legs under the desk with a cell phone camera. Giovanni told The Associated Press that she approached then-department head Lucinda Roy, who pulled Cho from the class.
Roy also alerted student affairs, the dean's office and Virginia Tech police — all of whom told Roy there was little that could be done unless Cho was making clear threats.
In addition to faculty members who alerted administrators about Cho's menacing behavior, Virginia Tech police notified university officials in December 2005 when a judge issued a temporary detention order that allowed them to send Cho to an off-campus mental facility — an order authorized after three run-ins between police and Cho in less than three weeks.
"We notified the university administrator on call of our actions with Mr. Cho regarding the temporary detention order," Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flimchum said yesterday. "We had taken it as far as the police department could take it. We notified the university administrator on call and after that, I don't know what happened to the case."
This was contradicted by Chris Flynn, the head of the on-campus counseling facility, who said to his knowledge, the department was never notified of the detention.
Labels: Cho
Several Professors Had Worried About Cho - Took Action
"Mistakes were made" evidently, along with appropriate action taken, by different players in the Cho tragedy. The question now is will any of the ongoing investigations reveal the real faulty lines in the sequence of events, or will the ability to withhold accusing information, blame-shifting techniques, etc. prevail?
I was glad to see several articles also pointing out that dealing with mentally ill students is a difficult call for any school, that the mental health system is highly broke, and that resources are not enough or appropriate. In at least these articles, the hate-infested-profit-greedy media stops the gory sensationalism and monster portrayal scheme, like vultures attacking a beleaguered corpse, and they start doing what they should have done all along: informing and educating the public regarding the complexities of this case.
I was glad to see several articles also pointing out that dealing with mentally ill students is a difficult call for any school, that the mental health system is highly broke, and that resources are not enough or appropriate. In at least these articles, the hate-infested-profit-greedy media stops the gory sensationalism and monster portrayal scheme, like vultures attacking a beleaguered corpse, and they start doing what they should have done all along: informing and educating the public regarding the complexities of this case.
Friday, April 20, 2007
Was Cho severely abused as a child?
From Time:
Consider only what we know so far:
Some time during the first semester of the 2005-06 academic year, English professor Lucinda Roy told campus police that she was worried about Cho's bizarre writings. We don't know exactly what Cho wrote that concerned Roy — the university is, shamefully, withholding that information [shamefully indeed - and if they are withholding it, it smells like a nice cover-up of something to me]
— but we do know, thanks to a former classmate who works at AOL, that Cho wrote two plays strongly suggesting that he might have been raped when he was a boy and that he had intense revenge fantasies. ("Must kill Dick. Must kill Dick. Dick must die," the protagonist in one play says.)
Was Cho severely abused as a child?
I am so sad with this possibility that I am having trouble blogging. Today I spent the day mourning - no, not for the ultra-privileged 32 innocent people that had their lives completely interrupted this week through the massacre. I was mourning for Cho - if this possibility holds to be true. I know a few cases of children who were severely abused and all grew up to either be condemned to a life of mental illness (read unspeakable suffering), and or they also became drug/alcohol addicted, or they committed suicide. These were victims who did not turn their rage outward to a blind target at some point. I know of another case where one abused child later became an abuser and tortured two innocent children. Plus all the cases I've read about that have one of these turnouts.
What is really troubling me right now is that I know of a boy who displayed every single symptom that has been featured in the news about Cho, with the exception that later he committed suicide instead of killing others and then committing suicide. This boy grew up in very abusive conditions, to the point that it destroyed his mental health.
What is really troubling me right now is that I know of a boy who displayed every single symptom that has been featured in the news about Cho, with the exception that later he committed suicide instead of killing others and then committing suicide. This boy grew up in very abusive conditions, to the point that it destroyed his mental health.
Was Cho severely abused as a child?
In all the cases that I personally know of, justice for the perpetrators has never been done. None. In most of the cases the abusers were one or both parents. Every single parent that tortured their child for years on end was able to systematically lie to everyone else about what was going on in an effective way.
If the abuse started at a very early age and the child started to display a troubled behavior from the start this only helped the parents to conceal what was going on by telling people their child was an enormously difficult child - out of the blue. As the child became more and more troubled, less and less capable to defend themselves, more and more cut off from sources of help, usually always victimized at school as well, with full cooperation of teachers who did nothing, the abusive parents only steeped up their blame on the child, or their profiling of the child as bad.
By the time they reached Cho's age, their lives were hanging by a string, given the profound damage they had suffered. I don't know of a single case where any of these kids got the help that they would have needed, that is, highly specialized professional help. Some got some "treatment," some got nothing in terms of mental health aid, but it was never at the level and the kind and the quantity needed.
The case of the abused child who later went to torture her two children was of a woman. Yes, she was evil, but I still hold Cho's indiscriminate stranger killing as much less evil than the decade's long torture of your own two children. And, of course, as for Cho, if there had been intervention in this monstrous woman's case, specially early on, two children could have been spared having their lives destroyed.
If the abuse started at a very early age and the child started to display a troubled behavior from the start this only helped the parents to conceal what was going on by telling people their child was an enormously difficult child - out of the blue. As the child became more and more troubled, less and less capable to defend themselves, more and more cut off from sources of help, usually always victimized at school as well, with full cooperation of teachers who did nothing, the abusive parents only steeped up their blame on the child, or their profiling of the child as bad.
By the time they reached Cho's age, their lives were hanging by a string, given the profound damage they had suffered. I don't know of a single case where any of these kids got the help that they would have needed, that is, highly specialized professional help. Some got some "treatment," some got nothing in terms of mental health aid, but it was never at the level and the kind and the quantity needed.
The case of the abused child who later went to torture her two children was of a woman. Yes, she was evil, but I still hold Cho's indiscriminate stranger killing as much less evil than the decade's long torture of your own two children. And, of course, as for Cho, if there had been intervention in this monstrous woman's case, specially early on, two children could have been spared having their lives destroyed.
The long trail of negligence and irresponsibility
From Time:
[It appears to be so. If you don't count all the myriad problematic and irresponsible decisions that were made before that, i.e., no competent professional help to this adolescent/child when he needed it anytime in his entire life history.]
The president of Virginia Tech, Charles Steger, should resign. But not because of the school's rather slow realization Monday morning that a demented murderer was on campus. Mass shootings are infinitesimally rare. As the Department of Justice points out here, in 2004 less than .1% of all homicides involved five or more victims. The rate of homicides involving more than two victims has been under 1% since at least the mid-'70s (although the rate of two-victim murders — like Cho Seung-Hui's first two killings in Ambler Johnston Hall — has increased over the years). In other words, statistically speaking, the cops who arrived at Ambler Johnston on Monday morning to find two dead bodies had every reason to believe the killer was finished. [I agree.]
But assuming that an unknown murderer won't leave the scene and keep shooting people — something almost no murderer does — is different from assuming that a person who has long been identified as a threat, as Cho had, won't hurt someone. The fateful decisions that cost the lives of 30 more people at Virginia Tech weren't made on Monday morning; they were made in the previous 18 months.
[It appears to be so. If you don't count all the myriad problematic and irresponsible decisions that were made before that, i.e., no competent professional help to this adolescent/child when he needed it anytime in his entire life history.]
Thursday, April 19, 2007
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
This Guardian article talks about how two very different women and teachers, Giovanni and Roy, behaved towards Cho, although the latter seems like much more capable in her capacity to reach out to someone mentally ill. I got the impression that Giovanni is really clueless about dealing with students with serious problems, but this is based only on the information provided in the article (plus all the observation of other faculty in other settings over the years). With each new article popping up in the news, one thing is clear though, what Cho needed was comprehensive professional help - and it was not available.
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -
In September 2005, Cho was enrolled in Giovanni's introduction to creative writing class. From the beginning, he began building a wall between himself and the rest of the class. [evidence of serious psychological problems - that need help, not negligence]
He wore sunglasses to class and pulled his maroon cap down low over his forehead. When she tried to get him to participate in class discussion, his answer was silence.
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -
In September 2005, Cho was enrolled in Giovanni's introduction to creative writing class. From the beginning, he began building a wall between himself and the rest of the class. [evidence of serious psychological problems - that need help, not negligence]
He wore sunglasses to class and pulled his maroon cap down low over his forehead. When she tried to get him to participate in class discussion, his answer was silence.
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
``Sometimes, students try to intimidate you,'' Giovanni told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday. ``And I just assumed that he was trying to assert himself.'' [which is a really stupid conclusion. This is a conclusion fitting for a young man who does not have serious mental problems and who behaves aggressively - they need to be put on the line. But with seriously disturbed people, not only do they need limits to inappropriate behavior, but they need help to begin unraveling and healing from all the trauma or degenerate processes they have inside their minds.]
But then female students began complaining about Cho.
About five weeks into the semester, students told Giovanni that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. She told him to stop, but the damage was already done.
Police asked Giovanni not to disclose the exact content or nature of Cho's poetry. But she said it was not violent like other writings that have been circulating.
It was more invasive.
``Violent is like, `I'm going to do this,''' said Giovanni, a three-time NAACP Image Award winner who is sometimes called ``the princess of black poetry.'' This was more like a personal violation, as if Cho were objectifying his subjects, ``doing thing to your body parts.''
But then female students began complaining about Cho.
About five weeks into the semester, students told Giovanni that Cho was taking photographs of their legs and knees under the desks with his cell phone. She told him to stop, but the damage was already done.
Police asked Giovanni not to disclose the exact content or nature of Cho's poetry. But she said it was not violent like other writings that have been circulating.
It was more invasive.
``Violent is like, `I'm going to do this,''' said Giovanni, a three-time NAACP Image Award winner who is sometimes called ``the princess of black poetry.'' This was more like a personal violation, as if Cho were objectifying his subjects, ``doing thing to your body parts.''
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
``It's not like, `I'll rip your heart out,''' she recalled. ``It's that, `Your bra is torn,and I'm looking at your flesh.'''
His work had no meter or structure or rhyme scheme. To Giovanni, it was simply ``a tirade.'' [eh, voilà - clue of being disturbed, having no outlet, having no competent professional help to deal with it all.]
``There was no writing. I wasn't teaching him anything, and he didn't want to learn anything,'' she said. ``And I finally realized either I was going to lose my class, or Mr. Cho had to leave.'' [And still, it seems to me that this is more evidence of what a highly stupid African-American woman this is, because after one piece of evidence after another, she simply doesn't get a clue that Mr. Cho was in serious trouble.
Isn't it very clear how she keeps interpreting Cho's behavior as if he were a "normal" kid? Like if did all these things out of some superficial petulancy, some sort of disdainfully capricious behavior, or just bad manners, or as she says, a bully? And the article just lavishes praise on her because she can write poetry. There is more to life and to being a laudable human being than writing pretty verse. The ability to diagnose serious trouble in a kid and to win over the huge bureaucratic obstacles so that responsible action can be taken is not found all that often on campus, even when it congregates all these glossy faculty members, whose life of privilege makes them so grotesquely blind in human ways.]
His work had no meter or structure or rhyme scheme. To Giovanni, it was simply ``a tirade.'' [eh, voilà - clue of being disturbed, having no outlet, having no competent professional help to deal with it all.]
``There was no writing. I wasn't teaching him anything, and he didn't want to learn anything,'' she said. ``And I finally realized either I was going to lose my class, or Mr. Cho had to leave.'' [And still, it seems to me that this is more evidence of what a highly stupid African-American woman this is, because after one piece of evidence after another, she simply doesn't get a clue that Mr. Cho was in serious trouble.
Isn't it very clear how she keeps interpreting Cho's behavior as if he were a "normal" kid? Like if did all these things out of some superficial petulancy, some sort of disdainfully capricious behavior, or just bad manners, or as she says, a bully? And the article just lavishes praise on her because she can write poetry. There is more to life and to being a laudable human being than writing pretty verse. The ability to diagnose serious trouble in a kid and to win over the huge bureaucratic obstacles so that responsible action can be taken is not found all that often on campus, even when it congregates all these glossy faculty members, whose life of privilege makes them so grotesquely blind in human ways.]
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
Giovanni wrote a letter to then-department head Lucinda Roy, who removed Cho.
[From which we conclude that faculty in general need to be receive training to detect and get help going for troubled kids.
To allow a mentally ill student who is having inappropriate behavior in a class serves no reason, if you can't help the student change. If the student doesn't get serious help, they won't change, and may go from bad to worse. Intervention of the right sort of help is key. Expelling the kid from every possible class will only further his isolation, depression, rage, emotional difficulties, etc. Lots of concerted action needs to be brought together if things are to go from negligence to constructive and effective aid.]
Roy alerted student affairs, the dean's office, even the campus police, but each said there was nothing they could do if Cho had made no overt threats against himself or others. So Roy took him on as a kind of personal tutor.
[From which we conclude that faculty in general need to be receive training to detect and get help going for troubled kids.
To allow a mentally ill student who is having inappropriate behavior in a class serves no reason, if you can't help the student change. If the student doesn't get serious help, they won't change, and may go from bad to worse. Intervention of the right sort of help is key. Expelling the kid from every possible class will only further his isolation, depression, rage, emotional difficulties, etc. Lots of concerted action needs to be brought together if things are to go from negligence to constructive and effective aid.]
Roy alerted student affairs, the dean's office, even the campus police, but each said there was nothing they could do if Cho had made no overt threats against himself or others. So Roy took him on as a kind of personal tutor.
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
[The problem with a shoddy system is also that you have a chain of shoving a case along with an absolutely futile result along every shoved step of the way. Complaints or inquiries just go from one "department" after another and nothing efficacious gets done.]
``At first he would hardly say anything, and I was lucky to get, say, in 30 minutes, four or five monosyllabic answers from him,'' she said. ``But bit by bit, he began to tell me things.''
During their hourlong sessions, Roy encouraged Cho to express himself in writing. She would compose poems with him, contributing to the works herself and taking dictation from him.
``I tried to keep him focused on things that were outside the self a little bit,'' said Roy, who has been at Virginia Tech for 22 years. ``Because he seemed to be running inside circles in a maze when he was talking about himself.''
He was ``very guarded'' when it came to his family. But she got him to open up about his feelings of isolation.
``You seem so lonely,'' she told him once. ``Do you have any friends?''
``I am lonely,'' he replied. ``I don't have any friends.''
Suitemates and others have said Cho rejected their overtures of friendship. Roy sensed that Cho's isolation might be largely self-imposed.
``At first he would hardly say anything, and I was lucky to get, say, in 30 minutes, four or five monosyllabic answers from him,'' she said. ``But bit by bit, he began to tell me things.''
During their hourlong sessions, Roy encouraged Cho to express himself in writing. She would compose poems with him, contributing to the works herself and taking dictation from him.
``I tried to keep him focused on things that were outside the self a little bit,'' said Roy, who has been at Virginia Tech for 22 years. ``Because he seemed to be running inside circles in a maze when he was talking about himself.''
He was ``very guarded'' when it came to his family. But she got him to open up about his feelings of isolation.
``You seem so lonely,'' she told him once. ``Do you have any friends?''
``I am lonely,'' he replied. ``I don't have any friends.''
Suitemates and others have said Cho rejected their overtures of friendship. Roy sensed that Cho's isolation might be largely self-imposed.
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
To her, it was as if he were two people.
``He was actually quite arrogant and could be quite obnoxious, and was also deeply, it seemed, insecure,'' she said.
But when she wrote to Cho about his behavior in Giovanni's class, Roy received what she described as ``a pretty strident response.''
``It was a vigorous defense of the self,'' she said. ``He clearly felt that he was in the right and that the professor was in the wrong. It was the kind of tone that I would never have used as an undergraduate at a faculty member.''
She felt he fancied himself a loner, but she wasn't sure what underlay that feeling.
``I mean, if you see yourself as a loner, sometimes that means you feel very isolated and insecure and inferior. Or it can mean that you feel quite superior to others, because you've distanced yourself. And I think he went from one extreme to another.''
[You know, for an amateur, in terms of psychological counseling, Roy seems great. But the problem here is that Cho needed very competent professional help. And that brings us to another issue, so often, when mentally ill people are locked up or referred to treatment, this is often thrown out as the end of the case and problem. S/he was referred, problem solved. Few people have in mind that "professional" is a label, and if "prefessional" is not accompanied by "competent," you are at square one again or minus one, if the so-called professional is detrimental to the patient's well being.]
``He was actually quite arrogant and could be quite obnoxious, and was also deeply, it seemed, insecure,'' she said.
But when she wrote to Cho about his behavior in Giovanni's class, Roy received what she described as ``a pretty strident response.''
``It was a vigorous defense of the self,'' she said. ``He clearly felt that he was in the right and that the professor was in the wrong. It was the kind of tone that I would never have used as an undergraduate at a faculty member.''
She felt he fancied himself a loner, but she wasn't sure what underlay that feeling.
``I mean, if you see yourself as a loner, sometimes that means you feel very isolated and insecure and inferior. Or it can mean that you feel quite superior to others, because you've distanced yourself. And I think he went from one extreme to another.''
[You know, for an amateur, in terms of psychological counseling, Roy seems great. But the problem here is that Cho needed very competent professional help. And that brings us to another issue, so often, when mentally ill people are locked up or referred to treatment, this is often thrown out as the end of the case and problem. S/he was referred, problem solved. Few people have in mind that "professional" is a label, and if "prefessional" is not accompanied by "competent," you are at square one again or minus one, if the so-called professional is detrimental to the patient's well being.]
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
When the semester ended, so did Roy's and Cho's collaboration. She went on leave and thought he had graduated.
When she and Giovanni learned of the shootings and heard a description of the gunman, they immediately thought of Cho.
Roy wonders now whether things would have turned out differently had she continued their sessions. But Giovanni sees no reason for people who had interactions with Cho to beat themselves up.
``I know that there's a tendency to think that everybody can get counseling or can have a bowl of tomato soup and everything is going to be all right,'' she said. ``But I think that evil exists, and I think that he was a mean person.''
[What a stupid woman. You know what she is saying, that he was genetically evil, that's what "unable to change" amounts to. Parallels to the gansta rappers come to mind, the junk of privileged young black men who are in a position to denigrate underprivileged black women, and do so without batting an eye.
There was a time not too far away in history when pundits like this Giovanni idiot claimed you could tell how evil a person was by the size and shape of their cranium, which obviously is something that cannot change.
I suppose it is easier for this woman to frame the entire Cho issue as essentialist evil, instead of looking at how ignorant she herself is about mental illness, how much the school system failed Cho, and how much society at large failed him as well.
More fundamentally, she is herself a fine example that ignorant people can do a great deal of evil themselves, while simultaneously putting themselves up on a pedestal.]
When she and Giovanni learned of the shootings and heard a description of the gunman, they immediately thought of Cho.
Roy wonders now whether things would have turned out differently had she continued their sessions. But Giovanni sees no reason for people who had interactions with Cho to beat themselves up.
``I know that there's a tendency to think that everybody can get counseling or can have a bowl of tomato soup and everything is going to be all right,'' she said. ``But I think that evil exists, and I think that he was a mean person.''
[What a stupid woman. You know what she is saying, that he was genetically evil, that's what "unable to change" amounts to. Parallels to the gansta rappers come to mind, the junk of privileged young black men who are in a position to denigrate underprivileged black women, and do so without batting an eye.
There was a time not too far away in history when pundits like this Giovanni idiot claimed you could tell how evil a person was by the size and shape of their cranium, which obviously is something that cannot change.
I suppose it is easier for this woman to frame the entire Cho issue as essentialist evil, instead of looking at how ignorant she herself is about mental illness, how much the school system failed Cho, and how much society at large failed him as well.
More fundamentally, she is herself a fine example that ignorant people can do a great deal of evil themselves, while simultaneously putting themselves up on a pedestal.]
A tale of two professors regarding Cho
Giovanni encountered Cho only once after she removed him from class. She was walking down a campus path and noticed him coming toward her. They maintained eye contact until passing each other.
Giovanni, who had survived lung cancer, was determined she would not blink first.
``I was not going to look away as if I were afraid,'' she said. ``To me he was a bully, and I had no fear of this child.''
[There it is again. Cho probably had bullying behaviors and there is nothing right about it. That she should not want to be bullied and that she stood up to any such behavior is not the problem, it is anyone's right to do so. It's how myopic and daft she is about how serious his problems were. This was not about a personal "my assertion" v. "your assertion" tug-of-war (woman v. man, professor v. student), but about detecting serious emotional and psychological problems and acting in a responsible way towards the student. ]
Giovanni, who had survived lung cancer, was determined she would not blink first.
``I was not going to look away as if I were afraid,'' she said. ``To me he was a bully, and I had no fear of this child.''
[There it is again. Cho probably had bullying behaviors and there is nothing right about it. That she should not want to be bullied and that she stood up to any such behavior is not the problem, it is anyone's right to do so. It's how myopic and daft she is about how serious his problems were. This was not about a personal "my assertion" v. "your assertion" tug-of-war (woman v. man, professor v. student), but about detecting serious emotional and psychological problems and acting in a responsible way towards the student. ]
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
A bright light stands out in the vicious mob
Excerpts of article from wcbstv.
This is one brave, insightful, admirable teenage girl. A 16-year-old high school sophomore, MacKenzie Swigart, from Kansas, who created a site at Facebook.com in memory of Cho, including understanding towards his suffering. And she stresses the fact that if he had gotten help when he most needed it, perhaps all of this would not have happened.
She said it's the hateful and vulgar criticism toward Cho written in other groups that led her to create one forgiving him.
This is one brave, insightful, admirable teenage girl. A 16-year-old high school sophomore, MacKenzie Swigart, from Kansas, who created a site at Facebook.com in memory of Cho, including understanding towards his suffering. And she stresses the fact that if he had gotten help when he most needed it, perhaps all of this would not have happened.
"He was a really twisted person. He needed help, that is what led him to commit his crime," Swigart said. "That is what makes it so sad. He could have received the help he needed and possibly went on to live a more fruitful life, the lives of the other victims could have been spared, but we won't know now."
She said it's the hateful and vulgar criticism toward Cho written in other groups that led her to create one forgiving him.
A bright light stands out in the vicious mob
"The groups expressing anger toward him are what inspired me to create the group. We have no idea what happened to this kid, or what was going through his head, but it's really clear that he had problems," Swigart told wcbstv.com. "When I saw all of those groups damning him to hell and wishing him ill, without considering that, hey, he is a person too. I thought he deserved to be respected and remembered like the other victims."
Still, Swigart does admit her feelings might be different if she were a Virginia Tech student, but she thinks the hate and vulgarity is unfair, as well as the e-mails she's received from people who don't agree with her beliefs.
"I have had to delete posts on the wall of the group where people have said anyone in the group should burn in hell, or that we must all be 'sick' to sympathize with Cho," she said. "I've gotten a lot of negative feedback. I received a silly little hate mail that said,'You're an evil girl. God will never love you.'"
Those feelings ultimately appear to represent the vast majority of students, however. One Facebook group called "Blame Cho Seung-Hui (VT Shooter)" has over 600 members and over 400 postings on its bulletin board. Most offer constructive debate on the issue, but other students do go to other extremes to express their feelings. One member's post read: "this is [expletive]. i wish this dude did not kill himself so that he could have gotten the death penalty......fire squad."
A bright light stands out in the vicious mob
another student said:
Which leads many to wonder whether the shootings could have been prevented. Cho has been said to be mostly a quiet person, one who didn't socialize much, and could have received treatment for his problems.
Since creating her group, Swigart's been forced to delete many posts ripping her group and its members from the group's bulletin board. However, no matter how much hate mail she receives, she plans to continue to stand by her position and hopes other will follow suit.
"(Cho) He's being vilified and dehumanized to help people feel more blameless, which is most definitely unfair."
Which leads many to wonder whether the shootings could have been prevented. Cho has been said to be mostly a quiet person, one who didn't socialize much, and could have received treatment for his problems.
Since creating her group, Swigart's been forced to delete many posts ripping her group and its members from the group's bulletin board. However, no matter how much hate mail she receives, she plans to continue to stand by her position and hopes other will follow suit.
"What happened was a tragedy, and a senseless act of violence, as so many others have said. There were 33 victims though. Cho was a victim of himself, and of hatred and of evil. He deserves to be respectfully and lovingly remembered, just like the rest of the victims," she said. "He has a family missing a child now, too, who deserve to be reached out to just like the rest of the families. But people are talking about the senseless violence and hatred of his actions. They are senselessly hating him in return, and that is completely unfair."
A bright light stands out in the vicious mob
I felt so nauseated at some of the verbiage and vicious sensationalist language that (ahem) "serious" major papers around the world used, that I had to stop reading.
Sex sells, and monsters sell just as well. So, if this young man happens to be a human being, just throw that fact out the window and bring in the monster language.
However, continuing on the line that this brave, intelligent, kind girl has taken, society prefers now to embark on a fireworks-exploding hate-Cho-fest, instead of looking at all the help and diagnosis failures along this young man's path.
In exactly the same way that society continues to do the same thing to millions of other troubled kids who are out there now, suffering the same indifference, cruelty, and irresponsibility that is the hallmark of any negligent, sick, violent society.
Until these kids pick a gun, and go on a rampage, that is, because apparently this is the only way anyone then bothers to realize they exist. Even if they continue to be denied their humanity thereafter.
How many massacres do we need until people realize that Cho-hate-fests and pro-active prevention/aide measures are at the opposite extremes of the spectrum?
Sex sells, and monsters sell just as well. So, if this young man happens to be a human being, just throw that fact out the window and bring in the monster language.
However, continuing on the line that this brave, intelligent, kind girl has taken, society prefers now to embark on a fireworks-exploding hate-Cho-fest, instead of looking at all the help and diagnosis failures along this young man's path.
In exactly the same way that society continues to do the same thing to millions of other troubled kids who are out there now, suffering the same indifference, cruelty, and irresponsibility that is the hallmark of any negligent, sick, violent society.
Until these kids pick a gun, and go on a rampage, that is, because apparently this is the only way anyone then bothers to realize they exist. Even if they continue to be denied their humanity thereafter.
How many massacres do we need until people realize that Cho-hate-fests and pro-active prevention/aide measures are at the opposite extremes of the spectrum?
I've been banned at Ace of Spades!
Got this message:
I won't bother contacting ACE, because, although I haven't posted there in a long while, when I did in the past, it wasn't for tea-time flatteries, but serious criticism. His thin skin probably wore away after awhile. Or he feels better with sock puppets.
LOL - the list of blogs who have banned me has just increased!
Your IP address has been banned. If you feel this is in error, please contact the blog owner by email.
I won't bother contacting ACE, because, although I haven't posted there in a long while, when I did in the past, it wasn't for tea-time flatteries, but serious criticism. His thin skin probably wore away after awhile. Or he feels better with sock puppets.
LOL - the list of blogs who have banned me has just increased!
Seung Cho's Violent Plays - What clues therein? Do they tell more about him or society?
"When I first heard about the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday, my first thought was about my friends, and my second thought was 'I bet it was Seung Cho'," wrote Ian MacFarlane [former student] in an internet posting.
He posted two plays, Richard McBeef and Mr Brownstone, which were apparently written by Cho. "When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare," Mr MacFarlane wrote on AOL News. "The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap."
Seung Cho's Violent Plays - What clues therein? Do they tell more about him or society?
In the first play, John, 13, accuses his stepfather of paedophilia and murdering his father. The teenager talks of killing the older man. The play ends with the man striking the child with "a deadly blow".
John says at one point: "I will not be molested by an ageing, balding paedophilic stepdad named Dick. You committed a conspiracy. Just like what the government has done to John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe."
In one scene, John throws darts at an image of his stepfather and says: "I hate him. Must kill Dick."
If all of this "allegedness" is true (alleged authorship, alleged macabre violence, alleged horrible weapons, etc) - could any of it be disguised autobiographical experiences?
For how long had Cho been a "loner?" Had he ever had friends? What were his parents like? Family environment? Previous school environment? Was he a child abuse/molestation victim? Battery victim? Or the opposite - previous perpetrator of some sort?
There was mention he might have been on medication? Why? Who gave it to him?
"When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare," Mr MacFarlane wrote on AOL News. "The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of.
Such as?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Seung Cho's Violent Plays - What clues therein? Do they tell more about him or society?
And, excuse me, while we are still on Imus clown-like scandal, and its multiple layered double standards, ridiculous hypocrisy, extremely myopic shock at the vulgarity of his infamous "nappy" term -- what exactly do millions of teens the world over do and watch for hours and hours on end on video games? Which movies are hitting the big blockbuster list, time after time?
Mr. Cho, an exception to having violent thoughts - in this culture?
Please.
Did anyone watch 300? Apocalypto? Not Saw 1, but 2, but 3? Couldn't meet the demand for sadistic violence, could they? They had to go and make 3 sadistic, nazi-like, grotesque limb-sawing movies, because our present mass mob inaptly called a civilized society just clamors for more and more.
I will repost my previous recent post on the subject:
O'Reilly - Is America Becoming a Sick Society?
Hats off to O'Reilly for excoriating the success of sadistic cultural products, which are all promoted and consumed under the banner of freedom.
I recommend you listen to the audio version or read the article.
Mr. Cho, an exception to having violent thoughts - in this culture?
Please.
Did anyone watch 300? Apocalypto? Not Saw 1, but 2, but 3? Couldn't meet the demand for sadistic violence, could they? They had to go and make 3 sadistic, nazi-like, grotesque limb-sawing movies, because our present mass mob inaptly called a civilized society just clamors for more and more.
I will repost my previous recent post on the subject:
O'Reilly - Is America Becoming a Sick Society?
Hats off to O'Reilly for excoriating the success of sadistic cultural products, which are all promoted and consumed under the banner of freedom.
On this Halloween, the No. 1 movie in the USA is "Saw III," a sadistic slasher flick designed solely so its audience can enjoy graphic depictions of human suffering.
[...]
There is nothing worthwhile about seeing graphic displays of unspeakable violence. And if you enjoy that, you might want to find out why to protect yourself and others.
I recommend you listen to the audio version or read the article.
Infuriated does not begin to describe how I feel.
When, oh when, oh when, when, when will I ever learn?
Goodness!!! Tell me it's not possible and it didn't happen!!
What a mad, disgusting world - thanks to whom? Who has insulted me for the thousandth of times? How could you ever guess the appropriate label that starts with the L word for this crap of a person?
So I was hired for a very important project -- and who is the director of the project? Mr. Liberal -- friendly, unaffected, mature guy in his late 40's (my guess).
Goodness!!! Tell me it's not possible and it didn't happen!!
What a mad, disgusting world - thanks to whom? Who has insulted me for the thousandth of times? How could you ever guess the appropriate label that starts with the L word for this crap of a person?
So I was hired for a very important project -- and who is the director of the project? Mr. Liberal -- friendly, unaffected, mature guy in his late 40's (my guess).
Infuriated does not begin to describe how I feel.
Mr. Liberal and I, very fortunately for yours truly, have very little contact and have had very little contact in our work for the project. However, even in this very limited amount of hours spent together in an important project meeting, Mr. Liberal, who cannot, in his wildest nightmare, imagine I would write a blog like this ;-), was just giving me one look after another, where his eyes were melting, and his admiration flickering every now and then in between the sweet looks.
At first, I just thought, there's a liberal for you, direct hierarchical relationship and what does he care? Can liberals ever act professionally? Can anyone not be game to them? He goes right for the look with so many hooks, unmistakable, not crass, but certainly not professionally ethical. I was not amused.
But then time passes, and my brain begins to fall into the trap. Maybe he is not such a "liberal" liberal. Maybe he has been really misinformed. Maybe deep down he is a good guy. Maybe... maybe... maybe...
Oh, Alessandra, you idiot! You naive, little ethical conservative! What do you think is inside the mind of a liberal? It is always crap!
At that moment in time however, with all these wishful maybe's popping in my mind, I began to think (that is, to have one of my worst recent delusions) that Mr. Liberal was actually, potentially, a decent guy.
At first, I just thought, there's a liberal for you, direct hierarchical relationship and what does he care? Can liberals ever act professionally? Can anyone not be game to them? He goes right for the look with so many hooks, unmistakable, not crass, but certainly not professionally ethical. I was not amused.
But then time passes, and my brain begins to fall into the trap. Maybe he is not such a "liberal" liberal. Maybe he has been really misinformed. Maybe deep down he is a good guy. Maybe... maybe... maybe...
Oh, Alessandra, you idiot! You naive, little ethical conservative! What do you think is inside the mind of a liberal? It is always crap!
At that moment in time however, with all these wishful maybe's popping in my mind, I began to think (that is, to have one of my worst recent delusions) that Mr. Liberal was actually, potentially, a decent guy.
Infuriated does not begin to describe how I feel.
Some months go by, next meeting comes around, and Mr. Liberal starts melting his eyes all over again. Then, I should have braced, because if I hadn't been such an idiot, and left my guard so low, so low it had sunk into the ground to reach Peking, I would have known BIG insult was heading right my away, right then.
I tell Mr.Liberal that I had met a nice woman who had given me two important contacts for the research project and what is his reaction? Mr.Liberal looks at me as if he has just had had his worst fears confirmed -- if she isn't married, and she mentioned a nice woman, she must be a lesbian! Look, she has just mentioned a female friend who gave her contacts! There it is, proof, proof, proof --if she doesn't have a husband, any woman she mentions is proof that she is a homosexual!
I, going on my awful inertia of his past couple of sweet looks, simply ignore what just happened regarding Mr.Liberal's awful my-homosexual-fears-have-been-confirmed look, and every now and then I look back at Mr.Liberal and I communicate an interest back as we continue the meeting.
Mr. Liberal was not expecting this, it seems. Apparently, he can look any personal way he wants at me, and that has no ethical problems whatsoever, but the minute I look back at him, Mr. Liberal starts hardening his look. Then his looks quickly change into an amorphous but distinct stiffness, than perversity, than reprimand.
I tell Mr.Liberal that I had met a nice woman who had given me two important contacts for the research project and what is his reaction? Mr.Liberal looks at me as if he has just had had his worst fears confirmed -- if she isn't married, and she mentioned a nice woman, she must be a lesbian! Look, she has just mentioned a female friend who gave her contacts! There it is, proof, proof, proof --if she doesn't have a husband, any woman she mentions is proof that she is a homosexual!
I, going on my awful inertia of his past couple of sweet looks, simply ignore what just happened regarding Mr.Liberal's awful my-homosexual-fears-have-been-confirmed look, and every now and then I look back at Mr.Liberal and I communicate an interest back as we continue the meeting.
Mr. Liberal was not expecting this, it seems. Apparently, he can look any personal way he wants at me, and that has no ethical problems whatsoever, but the minute I look back at him, Mr. Liberal starts hardening his look. Then his looks quickly change into an amorphous but distinct stiffness, than perversity, than reprimand.
Infuriated does not begin to describe how I feel.
It becomes clear that for Mr.Liberal, as the sequence went on, and his sophisticated liberal perverse mind got going, it must have been a difficult choice between categorizing me either as lesbian or slut-going-after-the-boss, such dandy conceptual alternatives that crowd his liberal synapses. This is not a mind with double standards, these are quadruple standards. His reasons for looking at me are all so natural and wonderful, evidently, ever so ethical, but I can only be at the opposite end of the spectrum. I am a woman, and, therefore, the deposit of all his projected obscene thoughts and desires. Clearly then, the alternatives are to classify me as ho, lesbian, or ambitious, unscrupulous professional who cannot look at a man without wanting some professional quid-pro-quo orgy as their objective. What more could he want to project? Isn't that what most liberal women amount to anyways? Where did so much nastiness come from? And they call people who criticize their demented homosexuality obsession as "full of hate."
The meeting ended, and he alternated between a certain stiffness, mixed with rehearsed informality, and a highly artificial friendliness, it all hung in the air. Perfunctory phrases of good-bye and have a good trip and I was on my way.
With this project director, I know I will only be able to expect more insults and headaches in the future regarding the disgusting, unambiguous, even if non-verbally--explicit way he demonstrated that he had brandished me, all seen through his last looks and reactions.
It's infuriating. What a vicious trap. And I fell for it. There I went thinking he was actually a decent guy, a nice guy, a guy worth looking at. What a brusque jolt that was.
The meeting ended, and he alternated between a certain stiffness, mixed with rehearsed informality, and a highly artificial friendliness, it all hung in the air. Perfunctory phrases of good-bye and have a good trip and I was on my way.
With this project director, I know I will only be able to expect more insults and headaches in the future regarding the disgusting, unambiguous, even if non-verbally--explicit way he demonstrated that he had brandished me, all seen through his last looks and reactions.
It's infuriating. What a vicious trap. And I fell for it. There I went thinking he was actually a decent guy, a nice guy, a guy worth looking at. What a brusque jolt that was.
Infuriated does not begin to describe how I feel.
Fortunately, I can stay a long time without meeting face-to-face with him again.
I also have a conference coming up, where there will 3000 liberals per square meter, and, to comfort myself from this last horrible experience, at least, I will be very much on my guard with everyone, specially with any looks that come my way from such disgusting guys.
I am sad with what happened, nevertheless.
However, the world does go around many times, as they say in a certain culture, and wouldn't it be lovely, if many years from now, when I am safe and well-positioned far away from depending on Mr.Liberal for my career, that I will send him the address to this blog? Or publish other things that he may not like!
Surprise! And you hired me! And we don't think alike at all! Ah, what a nice little revenge...
I also have a conference coming up, where there will 3000 liberals per square meter, and, to comfort myself from this last horrible experience, at least, I will be very much on my guard with everyone, specially with any looks that come my way from such disgusting guys.
I am sad with what happened, nevertheless.
However, the world does go around many times, as they say in a certain culture, and wouldn't it be lovely, if many years from now, when I am safe and well-positioned far away from depending on Mr.Liberal for my career, that I will send him the address to this blog? Or publish other things that he may not like!
Surprise! And you hired me! And we don't think alike at all! Ah, what a nice little revenge...
Virginia Tech - Planet of the "Safe Zones" (post 1 of 4)
(see post below re homo hiring practices for beginning)
In their "Information about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People" section - in other words, sexual misinformation for people who are even more clueless than the writers:
In their "Information about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People" section - in other words, sexual misinformation for people who are even more clueless than the writers:
6. Some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people know at an early age — sometimes as soon as 7 or 8 years old — that they are attracted to their own sex. Some people learn much later in life, in their 60’s and 70’s. Some research indicates that sexual orientation is determined between birth and age 3. No one knows what causes sexual orientation.
7. It is impossible to convert heterosexuals to become homosexual. Based on what is known about sexual attraction, this is simply not possible, nor is it possible to convert homosexuals to being heterosexual.
Labels: homosexuality
Virginia Tech - Planet of the "Safe Zones" (post 2 of 4)
Let's take the above propaganda statements one at a time.
Some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people know at an early age — sometimes as soon as 7 or 8 years old — that they are attracted to their own sex
Sexual attraction at 7 years old? What exactly does this tell you about the people writing this "manual?"
Seven year olds are children and whatever they feel is a child-like form of affective feeling, and whatever "sexuality" there might be could never be characterized as an adult type of sexual attraction. Furthermore, the question this absurd statement raises for me is: isn't this one more example of how homosexuality-obsessed people must "find" homosexuality everywhere, all the time? If a child was already developing all kinds of emotional and psychological problems and, at 7 years old, manifested a non-sexual obsessive desire to be close to people of their own sex, would these demented homosexual activists label this as proof of "child" homosexuality? What are these people calling sexual attraction for a seven-year old?
Some research indicates that sexual orientation is determined between birth and age 3
That's cute. I would be interested to know how these "researchers" figured out a case where homosexuality was determined in a baby at 3 months of age. This formidable "research" is, very surprisingly, not identified. Maybe the homo "researchers" held up a pink or a blue toy to a 3 month-old baby boy and if he chose the pink one, well, there you go, the unquestionable proof of homosexuality in infancy! Science by homos is so profoundly brilliant and sophisticated, we just sit here in awe of just how far it goes. (Down the drain, that is).
Some lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people know at an early age — sometimes as soon as 7 or 8 years old — that they are attracted to their own sex
Sexual attraction at 7 years old? What exactly does this tell you about the people writing this "manual?"
Seven year olds are children and whatever they feel is a child-like form of affective feeling, and whatever "sexuality" there might be could never be characterized as an adult type of sexual attraction. Furthermore, the question this absurd statement raises for me is: isn't this one more example of how homosexuality-obsessed people must "find" homosexuality everywhere, all the time? If a child was already developing all kinds of emotional and psychological problems and, at 7 years old, manifested a non-sexual obsessive desire to be close to people of their own sex, would these demented homosexual activists label this as proof of "child" homosexuality? What are these people calling sexual attraction for a seven-year old?
Some research indicates that sexual orientation is determined between birth and age 3
That's cute. I would be interested to know how these "researchers" figured out a case where homosexuality was determined in a baby at 3 months of age. This formidable "research" is, very surprisingly, not identified. Maybe the homo "researchers" held up a pink or a blue toy to a 3 month-old baby boy and if he chose the pink one, well, there you go, the unquestionable proof of homosexuality in infancy! Science by homos is so profoundly brilliant and sophisticated, we just sit here in awe of just how far it goes. (Down the drain, that is).
Virginia Tech - Planet of the "Safe Zones"
Lastly, what is really at the root of one of pro-homosexual's ideology biggest contradictions is the combined statements of #6 and #7:
No one knows what causes sexual orientation
AND
It is impossible to convert heterosexuals to become homosexual nor is it possible to convert homosexuals to being heterosexual
This is, at its root, a very simple logical contradiction. But it is also false on another level. Firstly, the contradiction: if we didn't know what caused homosexuality, we couldn't say it can't be changed. Take another example: if we don't know what causes diaper orientation (people who feel a desire regarding diaper objects), we can't say that it can't change, ever. If we don't know what causes pedophilia, we can't say it cannot be changed, we can't affirm that a pedophile cannot be "converted" to a person with an adult orientation. So, if it were true that we didn't know anything about desire and dysfunctional and functional sexualities, we could not, even then, affirm that nothing could be changed about any form of desire, including homosexual ones.
However, the problem with this contradiction in homosexual ideology is that 1) there is an extensive and profound body of knowledge concerning sexual psychology (including multiple desires, myriads of causes/causal experiences, influences, social conditioning factors, traumas, etc). Therefore, we do know a lot about sexual desire, even if there is a lot we don't know. We are not at a "know nothing" scenario. 2) Even if we didn't know anything, we couldn't affirm desire was something that relegated humans to equal reptiles, with no choice or experience influencing any form of human emotion or behavior, including the sexual arena.
No one knows what causes sexual orientation
AND
It is impossible to convert heterosexuals to become homosexual nor is it possible to convert homosexuals to being heterosexual
This is, at its root, a very simple logical contradiction. But it is also false on another level. Firstly, the contradiction: if we didn't know what caused homosexuality, we couldn't say it can't be changed. Take another example: if we don't know what causes diaper orientation (people who feel a desire regarding diaper objects), we can't say that it can't change, ever. If we don't know what causes pedophilia, we can't say it cannot be changed, we can't affirm that a pedophile cannot be "converted" to a person with an adult orientation. So, if it were true that we didn't know anything about desire and dysfunctional and functional sexualities, we could not, even then, affirm that nothing could be changed about any form of desire, including homosexual ones.
However, the problem with this contradiction in homosexual ideology is that 1) there is an extensive and profound body of knowledge concerning sexual psychology (including multiple desires, myriads of causes/causal experiences, influences, social conditioning factors, traumas, etc). Therefore, we do know a lot about sexual desire, even if there is a lot we don't know. We are not at a "know nothing" scenario. 2) Even if we didn't know anything, we couldn't affirm desire was something that relegated humans to equal reptiles, with no choice or experience influencing any form of human emotion or behavior, including the sexual arena.
Virginia Tech - Planet of the "Safe Zones"
It is also worthy to note that liberals adore using the "No one knows what causes sexual orientation" and "Based on what is known about sexual attraction" formulas, as if there were like 5 people in the world who knew what little there was to know about sexuality.
And not like thousands of researchers, writers, and individuals, all who have contributed to form an enormous body of knowledge, of documentation of experiences, and where probably one single human being could hardly be informed or read more than 1% of all there is to know about sexuality that has been compiled up to date.
So, more appropriately, the statement in the manual should read, "based on what we, ignorant, homo-obsessed liberals wish to believe, that is, our own complete ignorance on human psychology and desire, and emotional development, and social conditioning, since none of us wishes to know anything about what causes or influences homo or bisexuality or trans-gender sexuality problems, it sounds nicer and it serves our purposes if we simply say, "no one knows anything"... period." Problem solved.
And not like thousands of researchers, writers, and individuals, all who have contributed to form an enormous body of knowledge, of documentation of experiences, and where probably one single human being could hardly be informed or read more than 1% of all there is to know about sexuality that has been compiled up to date.
So, more appropriately, the statement in the manual should read, "based on what we, ignorant, homo-obsessed liberals wish to believe, that is, our own complete ignorance on human psychology and desire, and emotional development, and social conditioning, since none of us wishes to know anything about what causes or influences homo or bisexuality or trans-gender sexuality problems, it sounds nicer and it serves our purposes if we simply say, "no one knows anything"... period." Problem solved.
Virginia Tech - their diversity "Safe Zones" ressource manual
I had never seen one of these homo "Safe Zones" manuals before and there is a lot of material in it that requires criticism. (I actually came across it because I went to check out VT's web site after the sad killing events; I was curious as to what kind of a place it was as a university environment - more conservative or more liberal?)
In the VT "Safe Zones" manual, and their suggestions for creating a "Safe Zone," they write:
So, you see, according to homo activists, an applicant should not be hired based on scruples, mental health, knowledge, or competence, but if they have a declared sexual dysfunction of homosexuality.
They are also adamant about questioning job applicants if they have "an ability to work with LBGT people." One would assume that "working with LBGT people" means to further their own collective denial and ignorance about dysfunctions in sexuality and their own propagandistic ideology.
In the VT "Safe Zones" manual, and their suggestions for creating a "Safe Zone," they write:
Recruit and hire "out" LGBT staff and faculty. View sexual orientation as a positive form of diversity that is desired in a multicultural setting. Always question job applicants about their ability to work with LGBT students, staff, and faculty.
So, you see, according to homo activists, an applicant should not be hired based on scruples, mental health, knowledge, or competence, but if they have a declared sexual dysfunction of homosexuality.
They are also adamant about questioning job applicants if they have "an ability to work with LBGT people." One would assume that "working with LBGT people" means to further their own collective denial and ignorance about dysfunctions in sexuality and their own propagandistic ideology.
Labels: homosexuality
Virginia Tech - their diversity "Safe Zones" ressource manual
I suppose no questions asked if these "OUT" homo candidates sexually harass others, if they batter their own lovers, if they promote the denigration and exploitation of people through pornography and prostitution, because for people with a praxis of sexual violence and its own simultaneous denial, these are non-issues.
However, the non-asking of these and other questions demonstrate that what these people desire is the implementation of a pink mafia in university departments, that is, a creation of a "Homosexual" zone, and not a safe zone. This is a zone which is anything but safe regarding the afore-mentioned problems and so many others.
It also begs the question for legal theorists, can the push for hiring someone because of their homosexual dysfunction, which, in liberal speak, is called orientation, be qualified as an unequal hiring practice vis à vis other non-homosexually dysfunctional candidates?
However, the non-asking of these and other questions demonstrate that what these people desire is the implementation of a pink mafia in university departments, that is, a creation of a "Homosexual" zone, and not a safe zone. This is a zone which is anything but safe regarding the afore-mentioned problems and so many others.
It also begs the question for legal theorists, can the push for hiring someone because of their homosexual dysfunction, which, in liberal speak, is called orientation, be qualified as an unequal hiring practice vis à vis other non-homosexually dysfunctional candidates?
I hope I don't die tonight
My room is such a mess! I would hate if something should happen tonight and I should die and be known in my post-eternity years as the woman who lived in such a mess!
I am tired, frustrated, I need to work/study, I don't feel like cleaning anything, I wish I could just twitch my nose and it would all magically sparkle and shine, and smell utterly perfumed as when you just finish cleaning everything.
And I am not going to work right now and I'm going to continue to play on the Internet.
I am tired, frustrated, I need to work/study, I don't feel like cleaning anything, I wish I could just twitch my nose and it would all magically sparkle and shine, and smell utterly perfumed as when you just finish cleaning everything.
And I am not going to work right now and I'm going to continue to play on the Internet.
It's All Entertainment
You know, I was dying to write about the Imus circus, but I kept reading and reading a large quantity of commentary (usually disguised under the label of "news articles"), but I finally came upon one which is far better than anything I could ever write and it packs so many needed inciseful criticisms so concisely, and with such a nice bite, that I just decided to post it.
Apologizing to Al Sharpton Was Imus' True Racist Act
by Mac Johnson
Posted: 04/17/2007
Well, Don Imus is done. The geriatric shock jock that once won such praise from the media establishment for his irreverent off-the-cuff word grenades, has now been ruined by the media establishment for his irreverent off-the-cuff word grenades. What changed? Uh, let me just offer a word of advice to future I-men: keep your baseless insults directed at white folks. It’s much safer.
Like most humans, I haven’t listened to Imus in a while, so I didn’t hear the “shock heard ‘round the world,” when he somehow managed to work the phrase “nappy-headed ho’s” into a conversation about the Rutgers women’s basketball team -- innocent college kids deserving of nothing but praise for their incredible accomplishment. I last tuned in to Imus during the 2006 election, just long enough to hear him call Rick Santorum either a “weasel” or a “slime ball” -- or perhaps both. It’s so hard to remember one insult among so many.
Labels: culture
It's All Entertainment
He also wanted George Bush tried for war crimes for believing the CIA (but then that’s so mainstream now).
[...]
Imus could have called the Rutgers team a bunch of Amazonian whores and he’d still have a job at MSNBC -- a station that believes (accurately) that the most entertaining program it can create is a picture of a CBS radio broadcast.
But instead, Imus made mention of racial characteristics in an affected black colloquialism. He thus volunteered for modern America’s Grand Inquisition into unintentional racism. This is what a country is reduced to when it can’t find a lot of actual racism to justify a continuing struggle against racism. The revolution has many enemies and some are so well hidden that they themselves thought they were loyal citizens, so the purges must continue. The only other alternative would be to declare the struggle over and move on to a different problem -- one that might not bring back groovy memories of the sixties and prop up an aging establishment of professionally offended shakedown artists.
[...]
Imus could have called the Rutgers team a bunch of Amazonian whores and he’d still have a job at MSNBC -- a station that believes (accurately) that the most entertaining program it can create is a picture of a CBS radio broadcast.
But instead, Imus made mention of racial characteristics in an affected black colloquialism. He thus volunteered for modern America’s Grand Inquisition into unintentional racism. This is what a country is reduced to when it can’t find a lot of actual racism to justify a continuing struggle against racism. The revolution has many enemies and some are so well hidden that they themselves thought they were loyal citizens, so the purges must continue. The only other alternative would be to declare the struggle over and move on to a different problem -- one that might not bring back groovy memories of the sixties and prop up an aging establishment of professionally offended shakedown artists.
It's All Entertainment
Is Imus a racist? Yes, but not for what he said. His failed joke was stupid and infantile and hurtful -- pretty much par for his course. He reached for a shock and found one of the few remaining ones that our media overlords will not accept. But his real act of racism was the apology he made for the failed joke. He didn’t apologize first to the individuals he insulted, because in his mind (and the minds of most of the hounds baying for his blood) his crime was not against the individuals, it was a crime against a group identity.
Call Dick Cheney “pasty,” or call me “white bread” and you’ve insulted just one man, because white people are given a primary identity outside of being white. That’s why Neil Armstrong is not known as the “first white man on the moon.” Modern media culture treats blacks quite differently. Every black person is treated as an emissary of “black people.” Offend him (or hers) and you have offended the great unknowable mass called “Black People”, or “African Americans”, or “People of Color”, or in the case of advertisement lingo, “Our Community” -- a phrase usually delivered in Barry White style voice-over work for commercials.
Call Dick Cheney “pasty,” or call me “white bread” and you’ve insulted just one man, because white people are given a primary identity outside of being white. That’s why Neil Armstrong is not known as the “first white man on the moon.” Modern media culture treats blacks quite differently. Every black person is treated as an emissary of “black people.” Offend him (or hers) and you have offended the great unknowable mass called “Black People”, or “African Americans”, or “People of Color”, or in the case of advertisement lingo, “Our Community” -- a phrase usually delivered in Barry White style voice-over work for commercials.
It's All Entertainment
Since Black People are regarded as a unit, they must have a leader who speaks for them with a single voice, the mouthpiece of the Black Collective -- a sort of racial Pope that can accept official apologies from other ethnic denominations. Apparently, this Papal Prima Donna (complete with bouffant miter) is the Most Reverend and High Holy Al Sharpton. (If I were black, the mere presumption of this would set me off. But I am white bread, so I digress.) The Black Pope used to be the Very Quite Reverend Jesse Jackson, but his silly Suessisms and paternity settlement (Rainbow PUSH! Breath, breath, breath. PUSH!) seem to have put him into the second tier in the minds of the liberal white media, who are, after all, the self-appointed Electors of the Black Pope.
Unfortunately, there is more to the issue. Firstly, as I have remarked, the double, triple, quadruple standards with c(rap), hip-hop, etc. which is barely a thin line away from porn.
Secondly, on a larger scale, the Imus circus reaction does highlight the deranged mess that the African-American people's "movement," if it can even remain to be called that today, is in. When young black junk of men insist that a culture of "pimps and ho's" is a culture of empowerment and affirmation of a slum community, send in George Orwell. This leads to the question, what are the major ills of the black community today? Who leads, who follows? What is leading the black community? Can we speak of a black "community," and is it useful to do so, that is, to continue creating conceptual communities segregated by race?
It's All Entertainment
Just as I found this excellent commentary above, I also found this article, which interviews young people with such nauseating views that I don't feel like writing about it.
If people found radio host Don Imus' comments about the Rutger's women's basketball team offensive, why are people at South Carolina State University lining up to hear similar words from rap artists?
In one song from a performer at Friday's concert, the n-word is used more than 100 times.
It's images and sounds like those that have Reverend Deforest B. Soaries on a mission to stamp it out. "We have been aware of the recurring theme that can best be described as a double standard. We have been frustrated for years that the culture has produced language that has degraded women and there are certain segments of the culture that seem to do it more than others."
The Reverend Al Sharpton, talking about Imus and other entertainers, says it's time to show the media and the public that it is not necessary to be misogynist and racist to be creative or to be commercial in this country.
WIS asked students at on campus about the concert and the lyrics. One student, Kendra Johnson, says, "The radio host was out of line when he said it. Some rap artists may be out of line, but they don't mean no harm."
Student Justin Miller says, "There's always a time and place for everything. With hip hop music that's a certain situation where those remarks can be used, but on public radio station pointed to a particular group it's not proper."
It's All Entertainment
One of the performers at the concert was Crime Mob. Their video, "Rock Yo Hips" is set on a fictional campus, Crime Mob university. That's where they depict women as strippers saying, "After she dance on that pole, I pull my cash so quick and fast."
Students tell us, "It's just music. It's all how you take it."
Student Body President Deven Anderson says, "Being they are a performing artist group they're merely here to entertain us. That's nothing serious in content, they're here to entertain."
Anderson says, "I think it represents the culture they have here at the university. We have students that are urban and we have students that are political figures who like politics, so I think it represents our variety of students at the university."
It's All Entertainment
Student Body President Deven Anderson says, "Being they are a performing artist group they're merely here to entertain us. That's nothing serious in content, they're here to entertain."
I feel sorry for a student body that has such an asinine student president.
And isn't it adorable how liberals love to gloss over the ugliness of their entertainment, and all the harmful attitudes and values they perpetuate, when it serves their purposes?
Entertainment is just entertainment, the minds of people are exclusively shaped by the formal, academic articles they read, and nothing more. Specially, we can note, the minds of young asinine student presidents.
I don't suppose this guy realizes he has just incidentally implied that all cultural studies departments and faculty, including any at his own university, are a useless expense in academia. What is there to analyze in "entertainment" culture if it is all fluff? Surely, E!magazine can supply us with all the political and critical analysis we need about entertainment and how un-serious it is.
I feel sorry for a student body that has such an asinine student president.
And isn't it adorable how liberals love to gloss over the ugliness of their entertainment, and all the harmful attitudes and values they perpetuate, when it serves their purposes?
Entertainment is just entertainment, the minds of people are exclusively shaped by the formal, academic articles they read, and nothing more. Specially, we can note, the minds of young asinine student presidents.
I don't suppose this guy realizes he has just incidentally implied that all cultural studies departments and faculty, including any at his own university, are a useless expense in academia. What is there to analyze in "entertainment" culture if it is all fluff? Surely, E!magazine can supply us with all the political and critical analysis we need about entertainment and how un-serious it is.
Estimate for homosexual male domestic violence: 650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
From Judith A. Reisman, Author of "Kinsey, Crimes & Consequences"
When “dirty linen” is hidden, public debate is uninformed and distorted. Homosexual authors David Island and Patrick Letellier expose inter-gay violence in their book, Men Who Beat the Men Who Love Them, estimating that up to “650,000 gay men”[28] are annually battered, “a gay man is abused… every 90 seconds.” [29] How many of these battered men die at the hands of other homosexual men? Yet, even Island and Letellier find establishment media and the homosexual media will not print the truth about inter-gay violence. Why? They say:It would be just plain bad press for gays and…all bad news needs to be suppressed… [Add the authors] gay men truly…have a proportionate share of violent individuals in their midst who bash other gay men [and boys] in startlingly high numbers.[30] The gay community needs to recognize that wealthy, white educated, “politically correct” gay men batter their lovers.[31]
As Farah noted, much of the Fourth Estate currently discriminates by employing only bi/homosexuals to cover “sexual orientation” issues, further compromising the public’s ability to obtain unbiased reports. [32] In a rare “politically incorrect” media event the popular television drama “ER”[33] showcased inter-gay male battery as a not uncommon occurrence in emergency wards--and one that too often has led to domestic “homicides.”
Labels: homosexuality
Estimate for homosexual male domestic violence: 650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
Is it a surprise that modern American society concentrates its energy in Pride Parades and normalizing homosexual marriage instead of looking at how enormously violent homosexuals are? (Domestic violence in gay male relationships is the third largest health problem for gay men in America today.)
And how about bisexuals? How are we to know how much they batter?
And if they all batter so much, it is clear that homo and bisexuals have very high rates of sexual harassment behavior, including towards heterosexuals. It's all part of the same web of sexual violence towards others.
And if adult homosexual domestic violence is shoved completely in today's social closet, what does that say about the taboo of homosexuals parents abusing their own children? Maybe when hell freezes over, the liberal media and academia will want to investigate that.
p.s.: This book came out more than 15 years ago! From which we conclude: a society that is intent on homosexual propaganda has a profound closet, with an enormous quantity of statistics skeletons therein. You call young black female athletes some normalized denigrating hip-hip term and you hit the scandal circuit. You publish data about how criminal and diseased the minds of homosexuals are and the entire media becomes suddenly deaf and dumb, not for a week, but for decades.
And how about bisexuals? How are we to know how much they batter?
Domestic violence is also prevalent in the gay and lesbian communities, occurring with the same or even greater frequency than in heterosexual communities (Barnes, 1998; Friess, 1997; Island, 1991; Renzetti, 1992). The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence estimates that 25% to 33% of all same-sex relationships include domestic violence.
And if they all batter so much, it is clear that homo and bisexuals have very high rates of sexual harassment behavior, including towards heterosexuals. It's all part of the same web of sexual violence towards others.
And if adult homosexual domestic violence is shoved completely in today's social closet, what does that say about the taboo of homosexuals parents abusing their own children? Maybe when hell freezes over, the liberal media and academia will want to investigate that.
p.s.: This book came out more than 15 years ago! From which we conclude: a society that is intent on homosexual propaganda has a profound closet, with an enormous quantity of statistics skeletons therein. You call young black female athletes some normalized denigrating hip-hip term and you hit the scandal circuit. You publish data about how criminal and diseased the minds of homosexuals are and the entire media becomes suddenly deaf and dumb, not for a week, but for decades.
Estimate for homosexual male domestic violence: 650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
The gay community needs to recognize that wealthy, white educated, “politically correct” gay men batter their lovers.
The gay community? Heh. No, it's the liberal and libertarian community, the entire entertainment industry, the corporate establishment, the academic community, and every other community that only serves to promote lies about sexual violence and perpetuating its vicious praxis.
We would also like to pose the following question to liberal homosexual propagandists who label as "full of hate" people who correctly critique today's liberal dysfunctional homosexuality ideology: What is a politically correct homosexual who batters their homosexual lover full of? And what are the junk of liberals who lie about homosexual violence full of?
And isn't it adorable to call a homosexual who batters their lover to death "gay?"
p.s2. Maybe when hell freezes over for the second time, reporters and researchers will spend energy in investigating how many homos and bisexuals who go on Pride Parades batter their partners. A society that claps at Pride Parades is an enormously violent society desperate to be blind.
The gay community? Heh. No, it's the liberal and libertarian community, the entire entertainment industry, the corporate establishment, the academic community, and every other community that only serves to promote lies about sexual violence and perpetuating its vicious praxis.
Besides being ignored in the gay and lesbian communities themselves, domestic violence between same-sex partners is a subject that has been largely avoided by governments, law enforcement, and society.
We would also like to pose the following question to liberal homosexual propagandists who label as "full of hate" people who correctly critique today's liberal dysfunctional homosexuality ideology: What is a politically correct homosexual who batters their homosexual lover full of? And what are the junk of liberals who lie about homosexual violence full of?
And isn't it adorable to call a homosexual who batters their lover to death "gay?"
p.s2. Maybe when hell freezes over for the second time, reporters and researchers will spend energy in investigating how many homos and bisexuals who go on Pride Parades batter their partners. A society that claps at Pride Parades is an enormously violent society desperate to be blind.
Estimate for homosexual male domestic violence: 650,000 gay men are annually battered in the US alone
To conclude for now, can we make a hierarchy of degrees of denial regarding our violent homosexual propagandist society?
1. Homosexuals battering each other
2. Homosexuals abusing children
3. Bisexuals abusing children
4. Homosexuals/bisexuals sexually harassing each other
5. Homosexuals/bisexuals sexually harassing heterosexuals
6. How homos denigrate (homo)sexuality in porn
Of the above topics, the only ones that ever get a minor mention in the cultural sphere of society are the ones where homosexuals can appear as some kind of victims (1 and 4). Although almost completely suppressed, the topic of homosexuals battering each other may rarely appear, but the topic of homosexuals abusing their own children is totally censored.
Evidently, in a diseased liberal society, people are prohibited from using terms that denigrate homosexuals, but homosexuals can denigrate people through their diseased, dysfunctional sexuality culture in porn anytime, just as heterosexuals denigrate humans with and through porn, hip-hop, and what have you. It comes as no surprise that people who are engaged in denigrating humans through porn are among the most ardent supporters of dysfunctional sexualities, i.e., homosexuality.
Society will talk about how homosexuals are harassed (as in being called "faggot"), but it will silence all reports of how homo and bisexuals sexually harass others, including heterosexuals.
It is strikingly clear the enormous bias that exists in society and the huge concerted censorship actions that are carried out in a widespread collective web to keep the false homosexual propagandist ideology going and to keep society ignorant on sexual violence and sexual dysfunctions issues.
1. Homosexuals battering each other
2. Homosexuals abusing children
3. Bisexuals abusing children
4. Homosexuals/bisexuals sexually harassing each other
5. Homosexuals/bisexuals sexually harassing heterosexuals
6. How homos denigrate (homo)sexuality in porn
Of the above topics, the only ones that ever get a minor mention in the cultural sphere of society are the ones where homosexuals can appear as some kind of victims (1 and 4). Although almost completely suppressed, the topic of homosexuals battering each other may rarely appear, but the topic of homosexuals abusing their own children is totally censored.
Evidently, in a diseased liberal society, people are prohibited from using terms that denigrate homosexuals, but homosexuals can denigrate people through their diseased, dysfunctional sexuality culture in porn anytime, just as heterosexuals denigrate humans with and through porn, hip-hop, and what have you. It comes as no surprise that people who are engaged in denigrating humans through porn are among the most ardent supporters of dysfunctional sexualities, i.e., homosexuality.
Society will talk about how homosexuals are harassed (as in being called "faggot"), but it will silence all reports of how homo and bisexuals sexually harass others, including heterosexuals.
It is strikingly clear the enormous bias that exists in society and the huge concerted censorship actions that are carried out in a widespread collective web to keep the false homosexual propagandist ideology going and to keep society ignorant on sexual violence and sexual dysfunctions issues.
Monday, April 16, 2007
The World Bank Plot Thickens
If you have been reading the news, you know that things are a little bit more complicated than what I parodied below, but, nevertheless, it may be that my parody was too simple, and it lacked including bigger and bigger players in an ever spinning tale of corruption.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
The salaries of those self-sacrifying, dedicated professionals who give their lives to fighting poverty around the world
From Seattle PI article:
The bank's mission is to fight poverty and improve living standards for the poor.
Before her transfer to the State Department, Riza worked as a communications adviser in the bank's Middle East Department. In her memo, Riza said she did not want to be assigned to duties away from the bank and did not expect "any special considerations."
The Wolfowitz memo went on say that Riza should receive a promotion, draw a salary of $180,000 and get annual pay increases of 8 percent.
Before the job change, Riza was believed to be getting paid close to $133,000. After the transfer, she received $193,590, according to the Government Accountability Project, a watchdog group.
A communications "adviser" with no special consideration or importance at $133,000 or $193,590.
The bank's mission is to fight poverty and improve living standards for the poor.
Yes, indeed.
The woman at the heart of the controversy that has embroiled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz says she is a victim and was forced into a job transfer because of their relationship.
And, on top of it, she reports Wolfowitz increased her salary against her will.
I can see how that conversation went.
The salaries of those self-sacrifying, dedicated professionals who give their lives to fighting poverty around the world
"Paul honey, how can I buy the new Gucci collection on my meager $130 gran a year? I mean, I'm almost starving, like those poor whatever we try to save with our little cottage bank. I don't know if I will be able to make ends meet of my apartment in NY, the trip to Paris, and then there is that pretty little island off the coast of Greece I've been dreaming about, it comes with a yacht, remember?"
"Don't worry, tomorrow morning I'll send a memo to take care of this horrible salary injustice you face, you courageous, hard-working... what is it again you do at the bank?"
"Paul honey, did I understand correctly? You are going to increase my salary, just because I'm... uh... opening my legs to you? No! The horror of it! No, you can't do this to me, give me all this money for being a cheap, parasitical World Bank communications adviser! No! I want to take that money and adopt some orphans to match the color of my new purse! (Madonna is my spiritual guide, my beacon, my light! I protest! ) What!? And, on top of it, you are going to increase the salary every year? And no one at the ethics committee will ask questions?
When do I get my first upgraded check?"
"Don't worry, tomorrow morning I'll send a memo to take care of this horrible salary injustice you face, you courageous, hard-working... what is it again you do at the bank?"
"Paul honey, did I understand correctly? You are going to increase my salary, just because I'm... uh... opening my legs to you? No! The horror of it! No, you can't do this to me, give me all this money for being a cheap, parasitical World Bank communications adviser! No! I want to take that money and adopt some orphans to match the color of my new purse! (Madonna is my spiritual guide, my beacon, my light! I protest! ) What!? And, on top of it, you are going to increase the salary every year? And no one at the ethics committee will ask questions?
When do I get my first upgraded check?"
Friday, April 13, 2007
No B.... Please
Nope, it's not the "BS" word in the title. Another "B" word this time.
Sometimes I eat lunch at the student cafeteria, where there is a predefined menu, not that bad actually. The main hot dish includes some protein, some veggies, some starch, a French bread roll, and 2 options among salad, dessert, cheese, or fruit. I usually am not hungry enough to eat both the starch component (pasta, potatoes, etc) and the bread roll, and I definitely prefer the bread roll. So, whenever I get to the counter place where they are dishing out the main course, I ask to hold on the potatoes or whatever starch it is. Last time I went to lunch there, I did that, and, to my surprise, immediately, like in a knee jerk reflex, the two young guy students in line behind me said almost in unison, "And no broccoli for me, please!" I felt like turning to them and saying, "You need to eat stuff like broccoli, you know, do it for your body!" But I didn't, and that's not why I am telling you this, that was like a very minor little surprise occurrence.
It's when I had finished eating and walked over to deposit my tray on the rolling tracks that take the trays to be washed, inside the kitchen, that I noticed something dismaying. The long line of trays rolling side by side towards the kitchen all had plates where there was, if we take the aggregate total, a lot of food left over. And quite often it was the entire serving of broccoli, potatoes, or whatever. Or there was like 90% of the bread roll left on the plate.
Sometimes I eat lunch at the student cafeteria, where there is a predefined menu, not that bad actually. The main hot dish includes some protein, some veggies, some starch, a French bread roll, and 2 options among salad, dessert, cheese, or fruit. I usually am not hungry enough to eat both the starch component (pasta, potatoes, etc) and the bread roll, and I definitely prefer the bread roll. So, whenever I get to the counter place where they are dishing out the main course, I ask to hold on the potatoes or whatever starch it is. Last time I went to lunch there, I did that, and, to my surprise, immediately, like in a knee jerk reflex, the two young guy students in line behind me said almost in unison, "And no broccoli for me, please!" I felt like turning to them and saying, "You need to eat stuff like broccoli, you know, do it for your body!" But I didn't, and that's not why I am telling you this, that was like a very minor little surprise occurrence.
It's when I had finished eating and walked over to deposit my tray on the rolling tracks that take the trays to be washed, inside the kitchen, that I noticed something dismaying. The long line of trays rolling side by side towards the kitchen all had plates where there was, if we take the aggregate total, a lot of food left over. And quite often it was the entire serving of broccoli, potatoes, or whatever. Or there was like 90% of the bread roll left on the plate.
No B.... Please
I had already noticed when I am in line that it's very rare to hear a student say they don't want a particular helping of food. This time it was kind of anecdotal because the two guys rejected broccoli, no less, and it was in such a reflex manner to my asking to hold on the potatoes. Nice contrast! I ask for more broccoli, they ask for more fries! And they are a lot thinner than I am! ;-)
If we take a very conservative amount of 2 ounces of food (roughly 50 grams) per student, and multiply by 1 million students, that's 50 000 000 grams or 50 metric tons of food thrown away every day per million students. So, in a school year (for our little calculation's sake, say 180 days), that's 9000 tons of food in the gutter, completely and totally wasted. Including all that broccoli!!! ;-)
If we take a very conservative amount of 2 ounces of food (roughly 50 grams) per student, and multiply by 1 million students, that's 50 000 000 grams or 50 metric tons of food thrown away every day per million students. So, in a school year (for our little calculation's sake, say 180 days), that's 9000 tons of food in the gutter, completely and totally wasted. Including all that broccoli!!! ;-)
No B.... Please
I don't need to go into a heart-wrenching speech of all the hungry children in the world, it's just insane and repugnant to see all this food go to waste. Furthermore, year after year, think of all the money that could be saved by the government subsidies invested in paying for all this inexpensive food (for students). And lastly, and most importantly, I don't think it would be that hard to get a nice educational campaign going to change the current apathetic waste-food behavior. I think teaching students to ask for a hold on servings wouldn't be that hard. There is something quite appealing about it; I would think a good deal of students would adopt the change because they would consider it represents doing "the right thing, the responsible thing," doing "a good thing", like they might think about recycling or helping some other blind student cross the road.
So, if you are a bright student looking for a wonderful project to develop and make your contribution to the world, here's a nice idea! Go for it!
Nothing has changed in my life with hundreds of ever-present chaotic deadlines to allow me to take this on right now... but perhaps you could!
So, if you are a bright student looking for a wonderful project to develop and make your contribution to the world, here's a nice idea! Go for it!
Nothing has changed in my life with hundreds of ever-present chaotic deadlines to allow me to take this on right now... but perhaps you could!
Get a Rope for Snoop Dogg
Totally agree with the Times Galupo Imus article.
The day they hang, on a tree, literally, I mean it, hang this junk of a human being called Snoop Dogg, I'll be happy.
All the enormously brave and courageous black people who fought the horrors of the KKK so they could live freely do not deserve this absolute dung of a human being in what is now their half-deranged "community." To think so many of these folks gave their lives a few decades ago or went through severe hardship to fight white racist violence, which included, very surely, a lot of sexual and racially sexist violence, just so some little black crap comes along and does nothing but denigrate black women in the most disgusting ways with his so-called music... they don't deserve this. And neither do other women, by reflexive target, nor does society.
Isn't it always the same? So-called oppressed people acquire a little bit of power and consequently this enables them to trash others who are in a worse position, and they just go for it completely. And of course, they must embellish their excuse for it - trashing black women is now freedom of one's soul's expression - evidently.
The day they hang, on a tree, literally, I mean it, hang this junk of a human being called Snoop Dogg, I'll be happy.
All the enormously brave and courageous black people who fought the horrors of the KKK so they could live freely do not deserve this absolute dung of a human being in what is now their half-deranged "community." To think so many of these folks gave their lives a few decades ago or went through severe hardship to fight white racist violence, which included, very surely, a lot of sexual and racially sexist violence, just so some little black crap comes along and does nothing but denigrate black women in the most disgusting ways with his so-called music... they don't deserve this. And neither do other women, by reflexive target, nor does society.
[Defending the use of such language in an interview published yesterday on MTV.com, hip-hop star Snoop Dogg said, "We are rappers that have these songs coming from our minds and our souls that are relevant to what we feel."]
Isn't it always the same? So-called oppressed people acquire a little bit of power and consequently this enables them to trash others who are in a worse position, and they just go for it completely. And of course, they must embellish their excuse for it - trashing black women is now freedom of one's soul's expression - evidently.
Get a Rope for Snoop Dogg
[ Moreover, there is a difference, insisted Snoop Dogg, between "collegiate basketball girls who have made it to the next level in education and sports" and what he characterized as shiftless women who are merely "after [men's] money." ]
Yes, there is a difference. So why doesn't this stinkin' Dog present women who have made it in his videos, and honor them and praise them? And why are there very, very young women who are "shiftless?" How were they treated by Mr. Shit Dogg and others like him as they were growing up to produce this result? We know the answer to that one.
Get a rope. And all his "fans" can hang along right with him, for all I care.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Blogger Posting Word Limit
OK, so there is something going on with this new Blogger version. I had to break up my post in endless little posts... otherwise I get an error and it won't let me post. Fun!
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
As per Jack's dubious comment on Tom Jones, instead of writing another reply in comments window, I'll make another post. (Refer to this post to see where I'm coming from).
So I found Tom Jones on YouTube, and what do I see? I see him singing a few of his greatest hits, from the time that he was very young (and totally green), when he was sort of unsure of himself, that debutant, getting used to being on stage, not accustomed to having an entire audience gawking at him, singer; through his peak time, where he is at his best; and ending with recent performances, cruising on his old and worn out success, since he can't do much singing anymore, and his voice is so eroded and lackluster that it is worse than mine. (Tom green , Tom mature, Tom can't sing anymore (but we still like you)
So I found Tom Jones on YouTube, and what do I see? I see him singing a few of his greatest hits, from the time that he was very young (and totally green), when he was sort of unsure of himself, that debutant, getting used to being on stage, not accustomed to having an entire audience gawking at him, singer; through his peak time, where he is at his best; and ending with recent performances, cruising on his old and worn out success, since he can't do much singing anymore, and his voice is so eroded and lackluster that it is worse than mine. (Tom green , Tom mature, Tom can't sing anymore (but we still like you)
Labels: sexuality
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
However, what specially caught my eye when comparing Jones' performances from the 60's (?), 70's, and 80's with the junk that is on MTV today was that there was no vulgarity. Look at this performance by Tom Jones where he sways his hips. Look at how the women are dancing in the video. Compare that with what you see by Madonna, all the (c)rap junk of people, and so many of today's biggest slutty “performers.” Look at the lyrics Chris Rocks talks about in this video clip about misogynist (c)rap. Take one of these older Tom Jones videos and compare it with these so-called “hot” videos, one of them, the highest rated “hot” video in the British Sun tabloid: Alex Gaudino- Destination Calabria; or Pepe Deluxe: Pussy Cat Rock; or Sunblock Feat: Sandy - Baby Baby; or Eric Prydz - Call On Me. (I don't know how to link directly to each individual video. Here's the Sun's video page. Click on the MORE tab until you see the Jukebox tab. Click on the Jukebox tab to see a listing of music video clips. Search for the ones mentioned above.) Look at the women in the videos with Tom Jones back then and look at them now. The problem with the Tom Jones era was that women were highly demeaned by being treated like stupid little dolls, so much so that it was hard to tell some of them apart from life-size Barbie dolls. In today's severely pornographied culture, women behaving like prostitutes are not sleazy, they are “hot;” people don't have a homosexual dysfunction, they are “gay;” sexual degradation is not a collective destructive praxis, it is “liberation.”
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
Society went from this “dollyfying” process to profoundly “sleazefying” women, which is just as destructive and demeaning, but it's a whole new oppressive ball game. Many of those old music clips and “B” movies, like Elvis' and the older James Bond movies, come to mind as good examples of this “pussycat” doll-idiot, sexy but brainless, model. You know, the young women in profoundly hair-sprayed coiffed hair, all clad in 70's bikinis fawning around the big male star. That culture severely put women down, but it was not through vulgarity and a diseased sexuality. Many of the beginning Motown groups presented themselves in suits and gowns, not dressed as pimps and prostitutes. Even the Beatles often appeared in a suit and tie. It is this lady- and gentleman-like demeanor that I was referring to as “refreshing.”
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
Parenthesis: If these artists were pimps and prostitutes behind the scenes, this is not what I would qualify to as worthy or healthy, but I'm talking about when it was not a hypocritical display of modesty and respect, but when people really had those attitudes and values. They had been brought up to relate to each other through respect, including in the sexual arena. Surely there were many idealized stage performances put on by a lot of artists (Hollywood offers numerous perfect examples: people who appeared all glossy on screen, stinking trash in real life). But something profoundly important has been destroyed in our society, even if it existed in another problematic context then.
Jack, however, apparently only pays attention to any sleaze connected to Tom Jones. Firstly, by mentioning that women have thrown undies at Tom in his concerts (a practice which had nothing to do with my comment). Secondly, by mentioning a song which is a modern version of the “Carmen” opera story, that is, a legitimation of violence against women through the claim that a man is entitled to “re-establish” his honor (read ego) by murdering a woman who betrays him, that is, who escapes his control or refuses being his property. Again, the only thing Jack comments on are problematic aspects of Tom Jones' career - which I certainly wasn't referring to at all, and, even more importantly, those are things that I would never think of as “refreshing.”
Jack, however, apparently only pays attention to any sleaze connected to Tom Jones. Firstly, by mentioning that women have thrown undies at Tom in his concerts (a practice which had nothing to do with my comment). Secondly, by mentioning a song which is a modern version of the “Carmen” opera story, that is, a legitimation of violence against women through the claim that a man is entitled to “re-establish” his honor (read ego) by murdering a woman who betrays him, that is, who escapes his control or refuses being his property. Again, the only thing Jack comments on are problematic aspects of Tom Jones' career - which I certainly wasn't referring to at all, and, even more importantly, those are things that I would never think of as “refreshing.”
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
On the contrary, I was addressing some very specific cultural, attitudinal, and demeanor changes that have happened in the last 50 years which I think are profoundly important for society and which show just how much degradation exists today in our so-called “liberal” (read stinking) culture.
I recently went to check out a gym and what do I encounter? A really sleazy environment, full of homosexuals and bisexuals giving you all kinds of really perverse sexual looks (the kind that we would only see in the past in some disgusting men, you know, raw sexual aggression, emotionally very, very perverse) and nowadays, we see in women with a homosexual or bisexual problem all the time.
I was waiting for the try-out class to start, when a female instructor decidedly walks over to talk to me with this same kind of demeanor. It was clear that the slime thought that just because I stepped into the gym that I must be a piece of trash like her. A frequent problem with homo and bisexual women, by the way, as well as pedophiles and people who exploit prostitution – they are often obsessed that you must think like they do. And if you don't immediately show that you think like they do, well, it can only be because you must be closeted. And, so they think, that if they open up to you, you will react as they expect, that is, they will find another homosexual/pedophile/slime. They are profoundly eager and often obsessed at finding that other people have their same diseased mind, which in their own logic is legitimate, or, it's something they obsess about legitimizing, a legitimization process that must be gained by the approval they expect you will give, among others.
I recently went to check out a gym and what do I encounter? A really sleazy environment, full of homosexuals and bisexuals giving you all kinds of really perverse sexual looks (the kind that we would only see in the past in some disgusting men, you know, raw sexual aggression, emotionally very, very perverse) and nowadays, we see in women with a homosexual or bisexual problem all the time.
I was waiting for the try-out class to start, when a female instructor decidedly walks over to talk to me with this same kind of demeanor. It was clear that the slime thought that just because I stepped into the gym that I must be a piece of trash like her. A frequent problem with homo and bisexual women, by the way, as well as pedophiles and people who exploit prostitution – they are often obsessed that you must think like they do. And if you don't immediately show that you think like they do, well, it can only be because you must be closeted. And, so they think, that if they open up to you, you will react as they expect, that is, they will find another homosexual/pedophile/slime. They are profoundly eager and often obsessed at finding that other people have their same diseased mind, which in their own logic is legitimate, or, it's something they obsess about legitimizing, a legitimization process that must be gained by the approval they expect you will give, among others.
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
In order to check out the gym, I had asked to sign up for a dance class as a try-out. And who turns out to be the instructor for the class? The lesbian/bisexual crap that had insisted in talking to me in a charged, perverted manner. The instructor takes her place on a small stage in a large room. She is surrounded by other muscled male instructors. In the air, an enormously deafening pump-pump music starts blasting, which added a kind of cult-like collective idiocy: we don't think about anything, we just pump, pump, pump, the liberal idiots that we are. The dance class hadn't gone for more than 10 minutes when the woman instructor literally massaged her torso along with her breasts in front of the entire class audience several times as part of a very raunchy “choreography.” I mean, it was not subtle (like the Eric Prydz "Call On Me" video clip). I can't remember if she groaned, cheered the crowd, or what came out of her mouth to complement the specially slutty massage moment in the routine, but I do remember a real sleazy look in her eyes gazing into the horizon of the room. The exercise-dance class was mostly reproducing exactly the same choreographies as performed by sleazy MTV artists (and other junk tv/Internet outlets), although that's not how they described it in the pamphlet.
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
I was shocked. “What the fluck?! You come to try out a dance class and you get some porn-strip-mtv lesbian shit!” A few other dance moves go by and she does it again. “What's next?” I asked myself. Are they going to splash water on her t-shirt? Are the male bodybuilder instructors dancing next to her going to do the massaging? Or are other pigs of women going to go for it? Are lesbian shits going to grab her crotch? I just quit the class and walked out. To note, I was the only person in a very large class with varying age groups, although reasonably constituted by a younger crowd, with a majority of women, who saw a problem with any of the “performance.”
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
Yesterday I went to check out another gym and I had to go through the sales guy's routine. This was a nice, friendly, easy-going young man – your perfect salesperson. If you have ever been to a gym, you know the routine. They start asking you what you are interested in, so that they can fashion their shpiel to fire their sales torpedo on target. I told him, among other things, that I didn't like gyms where the ambiance was unpleasant. He was lost. I clarified: I don't like having a considerable number of unpleasant kinds of people who either work for or frequent the gym. He was confused. Then he thought I meant I didn't like the ultra-obsessed body building type of places. So he quickly said, reassuringly, “We have no mirrors here, it's not that body building Mr. Atlas crowd.” He smiled broadly thinking he had scored a big selling point. I gave him a perfunctory smile. Let us spell it out even more clearly now. “I mean, I don't like vulgar environments.” He was speechless. He stood there looking at me trying to make sense of what I had said, with no success. After a few seconds, he said, completely at a loss, “What do you mean, 'vulgar'?”
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
No.Clue.Whatsoever.
Society has been so pornographied and it is such a normalized praxis in today's world to exercise a degrading, diseased sexuality, that a good deal of this young generation cannot even conceive of what is vulgarity. Vulgarity is what is “good” and “normal” for them, just as being a stupid, giggling Barbie doll was an appropriate and perfectly “normal” model for young women in the 70's. I am sure I was the first ever potential client he had ever come across that said she didn't want a vulgar gym environment. I may have been the first person in his entire life who had uttered the word “vulgar.” He stood there puzzled and clueless. “What can vulgarity mean, I wonder? No match with any word I have in my mental dictionary!”
Society has been so pornographied and it is such a normalized praxis in today's world to exercise a degrading, diseased sexuality, that a good deal of this young generation cannot even conceive of what is vulgarity. Vulgarity is what is “good” and “normal” for them, just as being a stupid, giggling Barbie doll was an appropriate and perfectly “normal” model for young women in the 70's. I am sure I was the first ever potential client he had ever come across that said she didn't want a vulgar gym environment. I may have been the first person in his entire life who had uttered the word “vulgar.” He stood there puzzled and clueless. “What can vulgarity mean, I wonder? No match with any word I have in my mental dictionary!”
Tom Jones, gyms, and diseased sexualities
He then started talking about the classes they offered, and guess, according to him, what was new and “hot, hot, hot” on their list? The MTV choreography type class, evidently! Just like at the other gym. He started in this eager and excited tone telling me that they had this big novelty dance class, “...just like what you see on MTV! You know, Madonna!” and he gabbled off the names of other performers I detest and despise, that is, the ones I even recognized, given how often I watch MTV. He thought he would score big points there and that I would say, “Wow! I wasn't too interested before, but now with this dance class, I'm really interested in joining!” Instead, I said dryly that MTV was a bunch of trash. He quickly understood he was going in the wrong selling direction. As swiftly and smooth-mannered as if he were the manager at a Cartier store, he changed gears, “ I have reason to believe you will not like this dance class. Shall I tell you about our fun 'step' class then?”
Who has normalized vulgarity to the point that it is no longer part of the cultural dictionary of a considerable part of the population? That is a very interesting question. The answer to this question intersects with the answer to our previous question, “Why did anti-porn feminists profoundly lose their anti-porn battle?”
A society that has erased from its collective conscience the ability to discern what is vulgarity is an enormously violent society, in the social, the emotional, the psychological, and the sexual spheres, and all of their respective intersections.
Who has normalized vulgarity to the point that it is no longer part of the cultural dictionary of a considerable part of the population? That is a very interesting question. The answer to this question intersects with the answer to our previous question, “Why did anti-porn feminists profoundly lose their anti-porn battle?”
A society that has erased from its collective conscience the ability to discern what is vulgarity is an enormously violent society, in the social, the emotional, the psychological, and the sexual spheres, and all of their respective intersections.
As much as you hate reading books, Arturo, you would be better off reading them, instead of relying on gossip for your information on personal violence issues.
Posted by alessandra at April 27, 2007 2:59 PM==========================
Arturo our latest most precise example.
Posted by alessandra at April 27, 2007