Is it just me or has the world gone a little cookoo? The House has been taken over by people who are trying so hard to take away civil rights that they once championed. AG Loretta Lynch swears that she cannot possibly be sure exactly why our latest terrorist attack killing 49 people in Orlando actually happened even though the guy called 911 and stated pretty emphatically WHY he was doing it. This is after many people imcluding a guy at his Mosque reported him and the FBI interview him over and over and over! And the UK may or may not leave the EU and who knows where that might lead.And we have the most cookoo presidential candidates ever. All they do is insult each other with not one salient policy discussion at all. Oh, well there is that platform debate amongst the Democrats to demonize Israel, but...well, demonizeing Jews is always on the table. Btw, in a recent study, Jews still top the hate-crime victim list in the US and the world at large, even though Muslims want to claim the top spot.
I wish I could come up with a salient perspective to make sense of it all, but I just can't. I feel like a deer caught in headlights and I don't know which way to run. Actually it is more like I have been dropped into an absurdist play by Jean-Paul Sartre and can't find the exit. Or more like "Steambath", a play from 1973 written by Bruce Freidman where all of the characters wake up in a steambath and can't find a way out until God in the guise of a Puerto Rican attendant casts them into Hell.
While we wait for the world to end with the Brexit vote today, please help me make sense of it all. (I am banking on "Stay" just because if Scotland can't pass a vote to leave the UK, why should the UK pass a vote to leave the EU...it's only fair, right?). Here is a really great article by Jonah Goldberg of National Review that explains whole Brexit issue - LINK
I can't figure any of this out.
Oh, but on a positive note, I got my first "Block" on Twitter today. I feel so proud!
25 comments:
Congrats on your "Block," Bev! Was this ISIS or the United Way?
In terms of the world going crazy, as the kids say... meh. This is kind of par for the course for human history. The points where humanity has been smart and rational are the rare exceptions.
In sporting news...
It's official. The NHL is expanding to Las Vegas for the 2017- 18 season. (Thanks, Quebec City, but no thanks.)
But,instead of talking about how crazy commissioner Gary Bettman might be, let's throw out potential names for hockey's 31st franchise.
I'll get us started. Uh...
Gamblers, Dealers, Shadymen, Str- (no, that's too easy), Unholy Thieves, Crooners, Bugseys, Flamingos, Made Men, Skimmers, Stardusters...
Las Vegas Closers. No, Stoppers.
The Sin City Puckers
Another depraved heart murder case based on a suicide. Such cases are fine by me. The people charged always seem to be garbage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jessica-haban-domestic-violence-suicide_us_576ab898e4b09926ce5d4a53
For approximately 10 years, Minnesota authorities say, Jessica Haban was physically and emotionally abused by her partner. Long Vang, 34, allegedly smashed her head into a washing machine, tossed her into the wall by her hair, held a knife to her throat, and in May 2015, punched her in the head with a closed fist, causing a traumatic brain injury.
The head trauma left Haban struggling with dizziness, confusion and nausea. She fell into a depression, and told a social worker that she felt as though Vang had already killed her. While Vang was under court order to stay away from her, she told police, he was continuing to call and text. The abuse, she said, was starting to take a severe toll on her mental health.
Haban was hospitalized on three occasions, but never stayed long. She was afraid of losing custody of her kids — which, according to a social worker, is what Vang told her would happen if she continued receiving care.
On December 16, 2015, three days after being discharged from the hospital, Haban committed suicide at age 28. Earlier this month, in a surprising move, authorities arrested Vang and charged him with murder for allegedly driving his partner to take her own life.
I used to wear jeans, cowboy hats, and boots; drink beer, chase women and dance to country music..the world seemed normal back then...maybe I need to go back to my redneck ways and put things straight.
BTW, as whacky as our elections get sometimes, and this one is a doozy...have you been watching Brit TV and the demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in that country over BREXT? They get as weird as us Yanks.
UPDATE: All cases so far stem from cases relating to Texas in some way -
1. The SC tied on their decision on Obama's Immigration fiat to allow illegal parents & relatives to stay b/c of anchor babies known as "Dreamers". The lower court order to stay the order to not deport remains in place
2. SC decision to allow descrimination based on whiteness is upheld with the UT affirmative action preference rules to remain in place.
3. Still waiting for decision on TX's abortion law requiring "any doctor providing abortion services must have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where he or she practices...[and] any clinic that offers abortion services must meet the same building standards as an ambulatory surgical center, such as having hallways and elevators wide enough to accommodate a full-size gurney." Oh, they left out that they must have frequent inspections by health department exactly like that required of other free-standing surgical clinics for plastic surgeons and the like.
OTHER NEWS: Black Live Matter movement was dealt another blow today in the Baltimore/Freddie Gray death - One of the police officers was acquitted on all charges by a jury yesterday. He is the only one who was charged with murder for having direct in contact with Gray. LINK
I know Andrew's probably right about the general state of things but it sure as Hell feels like things have gotten crazier. It seems like I can't go five stories on Facebook without running into some kind of crazy (and, as Andrew and I have discussed plenty of times, it's especially exasperating when coming from otherwise rational people) or look up something nice and fun like a game without people pissing all over it. No wonder my cats, especially my tortoiseshell, have been so quick to offer fur therapy lately...
- Daniel
Daniel - I really do think that we have access to so much information every second of every day, that it just seems like it is cookoo out there. (Of course, the whole sit-in WAS cookoo, but I digress) With everyone have the capability to respond to every possible issue at any given moment, we find that we are becoming addicted to "responses" to our comments. And the speed with which misinformation can be diseminated is breath-taking. Example: Shooting in a theatre in Germany had dozens dead and wounded. By the time the truth came out about an hour later, no one injured at all and the "shooter" shot dead by cops had a fake gun.
Our media including Facebook, Twitter, etc. are addicted to scoops - truth and accuracy be damned. We gotta get the clicks first!!!
Dont' get me started on viral videos where people do stupid things to become "famous"...except the Chubaca lady...that was funny.
By "we" I do not mean CommentaraPoliticians. I mean, human beings at large who have access to the internet or electricity or both.
Bev,
The Freddie Gray verdict isn't a surprise, but cops skating when the spines of people in their custody spontaneously snap probably helps BLM.
The Brexit vote is actually very exciting. It is so close it is hard to call...markets are going crazy apparently.
Brest vote...10% reporting - 52 leave to 47 stay.
CrisD!!!!! We've missed you! Yes, Brexit vote is fascinating...shade of November.
17% reporting...49% Leave, 51% Stay. The worm turns...
per, BBC World News:
109/382 declared
Leave: 3,902,244
Remain: 3,884,225
Margin: 18,019
142/382 Declared
Leave: 5,370,010
Remain: 5,223,096
Margin: Leave leads by 146,914
160/382 declared
Leave: 6,076,476 (51.1%)
Remain: 5,819,095 (48.9%)
Margin: 157,381
I'll report again when we hit 191.
Or when Cardiff or Birmingham report in.
200/382 declared
Leave: 8,141,211
Remain: 7,626,096
Margin 515,115
Las Vegas had a minor hockey team called The Thunder. The introduced the team to AC/DC's. "Thunderstruck", which was awesome. Used to go to games when living there.
Britain leaving. That is impossible because president doofus told them not to and he is the most incredible and respected president in the world, ever!
Kit - Thaks for picking up my slack! WOW! BREXIT!
Bev, re: abortion clinics. Ironic that the same people who used back alley horror stories to legalize the procedure now oppose safe facilities.
Well said, Bev, and the fact that the community here resists that garbage is why I happily consider it one of my islands of sanity!
- Daniel
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