...that this can be abused. None whatsoever, from any part of the political spectrum.
How could a bill which says "you can't make threatening statements about congress creatures" later be misused? Because every politician, congressman, and senator has the morals of a newborn child, without malice, greed, or powermongering tendencies.
*gag* I think I just threw up a little...in the back of my throat...from the irony.
Now all that a politician from any segment has to do is look around, point to a statement/image that they find threatening, and it can be construed as so. The examples provided were clearly defined as being for political purposes. They were not hit lists. They were not burnt effigies. They were not manifestos telling how to bring about the death or injury to politicians. These were methods to explain the focus of an agenda.
What do you get when you look down a scope with crosshairs? You get a reduced field of view. All your attention is focused on what is within the reticle, all other information at that time is extraneous. The same goes for the target analogy. You focus totally upon that target and what it is attached to. What next? If the same maps shown in this clip had red dots instead of crosshairs/targets?
-Oh, red dots show violent intent. They could have used blue, green, or yellow. Happy colors!
-Oh, red dots like lasers. Like laser sights on guns! Don't guns have 'red dot' sights? Oh, the humanity!
Nope, nothing to see here folks. No infringements or shady motives to observe. Move along.
-Guy
BTW, did you notice the little side-step on the freedom of speech issue? I would like a full, detailed answer to that question...
Showing posts with label wrrr?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wrrr?. Show all posts
January 10, 2011
January 9, 2011
Psychology Is Not Politically-based
The most recent hubbub this weekend revolves around the mass shooting in Arizona: 3 dead, 14 wounded, and a psychologically disturbed individual was taken into custody. The victims of this tragedy, their families, and the family of the shooter are in our prayers. I've been in a self-induced media/internet seclusion for the past 48 hours, so the extent of my information until today came from 3rd-hand news from Gal via a phone conversation with her mother. All I knew was that somebody with a gun went postal and shot a congress woman. Boy, I should have stayed in seclusion for the well-being of my blood pressure.
Every article I have read (I won't link to them, all it takes is a quick Google search) had comment sections in which people were extolling the political leanings of the sick individual and "How _insert political pundit/talkinghead/media outlet here_ caused him to go batsh!t crazy and fulfill his blood lust on helpless victims". There was even some wrinkled rag of a newspaper out of Britain that had a whole piece about the subject.
I'm going to take a moment to selectively alter a Morbo quote: Psychosis does not work that way!
If someone becomes mentally ill, their thought patterns cease to work properly. In their mind, cause and effect are no longer on speaking terms, rationality has been diluted with paranoia, and they have become a lonely stranger within their own skin. Media has the same amount of influence on them that a cloud of mayflies has on an Abrams main battle tank running at full throttle. They are not trying to find truth in what reality is presented to them, they are set on finding some way for reality to conform to what they want to believe. It's like trying to determine what a person looks like based on a reflection in a house of mirrors. The more you try to move around and make the image coalesce, the worse your perception gets.
Case in point: One night I was working at our local hospital and got called to the ER to draw on a patient who was suffering a psychological break. Phlebotomists draw blood. Most people consider us a necessary nuisance who comes along, pricks them, leaves, and is soon forgotten; like a mosquito you don't slap (usually). This patient was totally different. He was convinced that They were after him, the music from his heavy metal band was filled with evil messages, and that everyone was bent on causing him harm*. First and foremost of all of this was his belief that his faith (Jehovah's Witness) precluded him from having his blood drawn. He was convinced that his ability to spend eternity in paradise was on the line if his blood was removed from his body for testing. Long story short, he eventually agreed to one tube being drawn (a syringe is a tube, right?) which allowed me to get enough blood to not have to bother with him again while he was at the hospital. (For the record, J's Witnesses have issues with blood transfussion, not blood draws).
The point is, this patient was having major psychological issues. Judging from what commenters' posted (and some media outlets espoused), the blame for this guy's issues lay in his religion. The religion told him to do _____, so he takes it to the extreme and ends up as a threat to himself and the public at large. In reality, this guy would have latched on to whatever helped make sense of his addled brain. It could have been political, religious, social, philosophical, or something entirely made up by the individual. The end result would have been the same: both the patient and the individual in the recent shooting had a break with reality. No single choice on their part made the event more or less likely to occur. It would make as much sense to blame their actions on the clothes they were wearing when the event occurred.
-Guy
* ie, Buffalo Springfield: Paranoia strikes deep/into your life it will creep/it starts when you're always afraid/step out of line, the men come and take you away.
Every article I have read (I won't link to them, all it takes is a quick Google search) had comment sections in which people were extolling the political leanings of the sick individual and "How _insert political pundit/talkinghead/media outlet here_ caused him to go batsh!t crazy and fulfill his blood lust on helpless victims". There was even some wrinkled rag of a newspaper out of Britain that had a whole piece about the subject.
I'm going to take a moment to selectively alter a Morbo quote: Psychosis does not work that way!
If someone becomes mentally ill, their thought patterns cease to work properly. In their mind, cause and effect are no longer on speaking terms, rationality has been diluted with paranoia, and they have become a lonely stranger within their own skin. Media has the same amount of influence on them that a cloud of mayflies has on an Abrams main battle tank running at full throttle. They are not trying to find truth in what reality is presented to them, they are set on finding some way for reality to conform to what they want to believe. It's like trying to determine what a person looks like based on a reflection in a house of mirrors. The more you try to move around and make the image coalesce, the worse your perception gets.
Case in point: One night I was working at our local hospital and got called to the ER to draw on a patient who was suffering a psychological break. Phlebotomists draw blood. Most people consider us a necessary nuisance who comes along, pricks them, leaves, and is soon forgotten; like a mosquito you don't slap (usually). This patient was totally different. He was convinced that They were after him, the music from his heavy metal band was filled with evil messages, and that everyone was bent on causing him harm*. First and foremost of all of this was his belief that his faith (Jehovah's Witness) precluded him from having his blood drawn. He was convinced that his ability to spend eternity in paradise was on the line if his blood was removed from his body for testing. Long story short, he eventually agreed to one tube being drawn (a syringe is a tube, right?) which allowed me to get enough blood to not have to bother with him again while he was at the hospital. (For the record, J's Witnesses have issues with blood transfussion, not blood draws).
The point is, this patient was having major psychological issues. Judging from what commenters' posted (and some media outlets espoused), the blame for this guy's issues lay in his religion. The religion told him to do _____, so he takes it to the extreme and ends up as a threat to himself and the public at large. In reality, this guy would have latched on to whatever helped make sense of his addled brain. It could have been political, religious, social, philosophical, or something entirely made up by the individual. The end result would have been the same: both the patient and the individual in the recent shooting had a break with reality. No single choice on their part made the event more or less likely to occur. It would make as much sense to blame their actions on the clothes they were wearing when the event occurred.
-Guy
* ie, Buffalo Springfield: Paranoia strikes deep/into your life it will creep/it starts when you're always afraid/step out of line, the men come and take you away.
September 10, 2010
Don't judge us by our village idiot and we won't judge you by yours
Try as I might, I just can't seem to get away from Rev. Jones. It's obvious this man is thoroughly enjoying his newfound media status, even if he claims his actions are in the name of a higher power. He has resorted to blackmail, changed his mind a few times, and has hidden behind the 1st Amendment to cover his zenophobic/hate-filled plans for a Quran BBQ. While this has got me somewhat riled, I just can't bring myself to get outright angry at the man. I seem to feel more of the emotional equivalent of heartburn towards him, and this feeling is further extended towards the copycat preachers in my home state (~1 hour drive from us) and Kansas.
But what really astounds me is the way the Muslim world has reacted to all of this. Word of a number of protests documented by Reuters and other sources has been coming in for a few days now.* These people are up in arms about the way one zealot/fool/camera-chaser in America has acted. My first thought was: I don't pretend to fully understand the social ramifications that faith in Islam brings to a culture, but surely rational people can see that this is the work of one deranged American man and not some act condoned by an entire nation. Then I stopped to think: all that the talking-heads have dribbled on about for the past week has been this man. His plans, his negotiations, the people he has appeased/pissed off, his beliefs, etc. He has gotten world-wide attention from heads of state and military generals, all the way down to imams in backwoods villages in 3rd world countries. From that point of view, America seems to be supporting him (!), courtesy of the mainstream media.
If this narcisistic, hate-fueld fool does his deed come Saturday, I can't help but think that some other hate-fueled fool(s) from the Muslim faith will do something on an equal (or far worse) scale. Maybe we should just cut out the middle man: drug the good Rev., ship him over to Backwoodsistan, and let him continue his little spectacle however he chooses. He gets lots of attention (maybe not the kind he originally sought, but you know what they say about choosy beggars), they get to do some bodily harm to an American infidel (they're probably going to try later anyways), and the rest of the semi-normal inhabitants of Earth can continue on until the next Big Comupance crosses the newswires.
*Sidenote: Really, Reuters, when was the last time black smoke in the background indicated 'no signs of disturbance'?
But what really astounds me is the way the Muslim world has reacted to all of this. Word of a number of protests documented by Reuters and other sources has been coming in for a few days now.* These people are up in arms about the way one zealot/fool/camera-chaser in America has acted. My first thought was: I don't pretend to fully understand the social ramifications that faith in Islam brings to a culture, but surely rational people can see that this is the work of one deranged American man and not some act condoned by an entire nation. Then I stopped to think: all that the talking-heads have dribbled on about for the past week has been this man. His plans, his negotiations, the people he has appeased/pissed off, his beliefs, etc. He has gotten world-wide attention from heads of state and military generals, all the way down to imams in backwoods villages in 3rd world countries. From that point of view, America seems to be supporting him (!), courtesy of the mainstream media.
If this narcisistic, hate-fueld fool does his deed come Saturday, I can't help but think that some other hate-fueled fool(s) from the Muslim faith will do something on an equal (or far worse) scale. Maybe we should just cut out the middle man: drug the good Rev., ship him over to Backwoodsistan, and let him continue his little spectacle however he chooses. He gets lots of attention (maybe not the kind he originally sought, but you know what they say about choosy beggars), they get to do some bodily harm to an American infidel (they're probably going to try later anyways), and the rest of the semi-normal inhabitants of Earth can continue on until the next Big Comupance crosses the newswires.
*Sidenote: Really, Reuters, when was the last time black smoke in the background indicated 'no signs of disturbance'?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)