My view on why “GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE” is flawed:
The reason why “Guns don’t kill people, People kill people” doesn’t work is because ‘People’ get drunk, ‘People’ get high, ‘People’ get emotional, ‘People’ get scared or ‘People’ get insane. (Or all of the above simultaneously) This leads to slaughter, carnage and pain (as well as many many many accidents). From my perspective, it seems that those standing on the right, or standing on a God Book, seem to be in denial of the above fact, and presume everyone to be somehow completely functional, all of the time, and somehow completely perfectional, all of the time. A society based on this flawed logic is distrustful and frightening. (and tragic from a Humanist perspective)
-rudhro
The beating of women is due to mental illness–wanting to be the woman being beaten is the same–the other side of the coin
Irritated today by a radio interview I heard about the stupid Rihanna/Brown thing.
I can’t stand them, and am disappointed by how so many people are talking about them as though they matter…
But what really got my goat was the discussion NOT mentioning that Chris Brown is mentally ill.
The ‘expert’ went on about his “unfortunate lack of contrition”…
It sounded inane…like observing the lack of contrition of a schizophrenic.
And in the same vein…battered women are ILL TOO!
Why is this not more commonly observed?
Sane women, when punched in the face the first time…LEAVE.
CALL THE COPS.
SHOOT A GUN.
Do something, and seek recourse…take umbrage.
Insane women, seek that masochistic thrill over and over and over.
It’s been studied and reported on so many times in my life.
I am surprised that this whole episode is being discussed as though it were the 1950s or 1550s and not 2012, when we KNOW that..both parties to (chronic) Domestic Abuse are basically insane.
[And here, of course I am not looking to 'blame the victim', by any means...but observe a scientific reality]
I am not surprised, and am saddened that I am even babbling over this in this post.
I do not expect them, these “stars” to behave normally, nor do I expect people we may know, who are not celebrities, to behave normally .
Women who find themselves in a series of abusive relationships NEED HELP.
It is not easy, actually, to find the men who WILL actually punch you in the face, kick you when you’re down, and bruise you so it isn’t publicly visible…jesus.
You have to hunt for them.
This is the same reason I get infuriated when Honour Killing is quickly labelled, without thought, ‘Domestic Abuse’.
Honour Killing is Socially Sanctioned. It is a COMMUNITY CONSPIRACY.
Domestic Abuse, on the other hand involves the insanity of one, and more than usually, two.
INSANITY.
We can not analyze behaviours to seek normal reactions of (victim) escape, (perpetrator) contrition, etc.
The expert on the radio actually compared Brown with Michael Virk–the dude who abused DOGS (and is now apparently very contrite and making public service appearances).
Hurting a DOG is obviously different from hurting a human life partner. (and I never like placing animals as lesser than humans, but in domestic abuse situations, I must–you don’t have sex with your dog, you don’t have children with your dog, you don’t have the complexities of an adult human relationship with a dog)
C’mon people.
I hate when the media fails to spread knowledge, but merely perpetuates further ignorance.
I don’t have high expectations of the likes of Oprah, but this was CBC Radio.
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I think in almost all circumstances both partners ought to be held on mental health legislation, for professional intervention and addressing underlying causal conditions.
-rudhro
[FILM] “”True sexuality demands the destruction of the ego,” she says, …a kind of self-annihilation…, which is “the opposite to what Freud proposes.”—’A DANGEROUS METHOD’ –brings to mind the novel “The Interpretation of Murder”
I really enjoyed this film. Having been recently ruminating once more on the sociological pathology of Honour Killings and the necessity to control the chastity of young females in most patriarchical societies, this film made me wonder whether it was indeed the birth of the Austrian-’Jewish’ school of psychoanalysis which led to the advent of the liberation of female sexuality in Western society. This may be obvious to some, but I find the potential of this quite intriguing. Especially in light of my introduction to Otto Gross from this movie. He actually deserves a separate post on his own (soon). I think psychoanalysis may be owed a great debt by the Western Society generally, a society which today is quite distinct from its Victorian Era incarnation, having had so many taboos and inter-related psychic truths brought out of closets into the public to be acknowledged and dealt with. The writing in this film is quite erudite, making one almost want to take notes at times. Such as the questioning of WHY humans, while such sexual animals, have this overwhelming need to repress this sexuality at the same time. This of course, is what the foundation of psychoanalysis was all about–the search for an understanding of this unfortunate duality…which inevitably leads to emotional baggage in a great number of humanoids. This film is recommended for neurotic uber-ruminators. Perhaps as a elementary introduction to the history of psychoanalysis. Also do read The Interpretation of Murder.
-rudhro
Keira Knightley in ‘A Dangerous Method’ — Oscar-Worthy or Laughable?
Daughter of ‘Dirty War,’ Raised by Man Who Killed Her Parents
Victoria Montenegro was abducted as a newborn by a military colonel. She testified last spring in the trial over baby thefts.
By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
October 8, 2011
BUENOS AIRES — Victoria Montenegro recalls a childhood filled with chilling dinnertime discussions. Lt. Col. Hernán Tetzlaff, the head of the family, would recount military operations he had taken part in where “subversives” had been tortured or killed. The discussions often ended with his “slamming his gun on the table,” she said.
It took an incessant search by a human rights group, a DNA match and almost a decade of overcoming denial for Ms. Montenegro, 35, to realize that Colonel Tetzlaff was, in fact, not her father — nor the hero he portrayed himself to be.
Instead, he was the man responsible for murdering her real parents and illegally taking her as his own child, she said. (more…)
[VIDEO] CBC’s Kevin O’Leary to NYT’s Chris Hedges: “You sound like a left wing nutbar”
Kevin O’Leary of CBC’s Dragons’ Den and Shark Tank cultivates the persona of a ruthless truth-teller.
But he came across as a shallow blowhard during an interview on his Lange & O’Leary Exchange show with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges in New York about the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Hedges, a former New York Times foreign correspondent and prolific author on social issues, sympathizes with the protesters camped on Wall Street. But he might have been forgiven for thinking an interview on Canada’s public TV network would be a little more high-toned.
Instead, O’Leary tore into Hedges, whom he misidentified as a protest organizer, and denigrated the protesters with oft-repeated criticism that they’re unfocused and leaderless.
“They want to reverse the corporate coup that’s taken place in the United States, that’s rendered the citizenry impotent,” Hedges replied.
“You sound like a left-wing nutbar,” O’Leary said.
“I don’t usually appear on shows who descend to character assassination,” said Hedges, clearly surprised by the personal attack but refusing to be baited. “You sound like Fox News.”
He went on to praise the ideas of Canadian thinkers such as John Ralston Saul, and the prudent banking system that helped Canada avoid the 2008 financial crisis that’s one of the motivating forces behind the Wall Street protest.
The “interview” ended civilly and O’Leary’s co-host thanked Hedges “for joining us.”
“It’ll be the last last time,” the former war correspondent replied.
–Yahoo News
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After Religion Fizzles, We’re Stuck With Nietzsche — By Chris Hedges
CHRIS HEDGES: This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us
"nothing-burger...very weak, low-budget"
O’Leary’s ‘nutbar’ remark breach of policy, CBC ombudsman says
[AUDIO] “OBAMA WAS NOTHING BUT A BRAND”: CHRIS HEDGES IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL ENRIGHT ON CBC RADIO’S SUNDAY EDITION: A COHERENT EXPLANATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE ‘OCCUPY WALL STREET’ MOVEMENT
HEDGES @ 8:30
CHRIS HEDGES
“It was the night that hope was re-born, Nov. 4th, 2008, Grant Park, Chicago.
That night the young President-elect told his country that everything was possible.
But one year from the next election, the fate of Barack Obama and his country is in serious doubt.
The U.S. teeters on the cusp of another recession; unemployment is up; home foreclosure rates are up; political dialogue is as divisive and diabolical as ever; the war on terror and resultant infringement of civil rights continue unabated.
For the writer and journalist Chris Hedges it is a time when hope turns to ashes in the mouth.
His all-consuming fear is that it is fast becoming too late to turn things around.”
–Michael Enright
_____________
After Religion Fizzles, We’re Stuck With Nietzsche — By Chris Hedges
CHRIS HEDGES: This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us
[VIDEO] CBC’s Kevin O’Leary to NYT’s Chris Hedges: “You sound like a left wing nutbar”
[AUDIO] MICHAEL LEWIS’ “BOOMERANG: TRAVELS IN THE NEW THIRD WORLD – GREECE, IRELAND, FRANCE, CALIFORNIA…” THE FUTURE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO CLIP OF MICHAEL LEWIS INTERVIWED BY JON STEWART ON THE DAILY SHOW
October 4, 2011
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass had made a fortune betting against the subprime mortgage market when it collapsed in 2008. And now Bass is set to make lots more — from a Greek default.
Bass’ story is chronicled in Michael Lewis’ latest book, Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour, which tells the stories of the fiscal recklessness in both Europe and the U.S. that led to the current debt crisis.
Lewis tells Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross that Bass realized that governments around the world weren’t ending the 2008 financial crisis — they were just delaying it. So Bass decided that they would also likely fail.
“What he saw was that the debts that had been accumulating in the banking system were too large for governments to handle in some countries,” Lewis says. “In Ireland, the debts in the banking system were eight times the size of government tax revenues. In Iceland, it was even worse. It was bad throughout Europe. So he basically said, ‘What happens the next time there’s doubt in the system?’ People are going to ask the question, ‘Can governments afford to bail out these banks?’ And the answer the next time is going to be no … and then it’s really ugly because there isn’t a backstop.”
Bass bought credit default swaps, which are essentially insurance policies on government bonds. What that means is that if a government like Greece becomes unable to pay its own debt, Bass gets paid.
“[When he bought them] it was pretty implausible that the governments would not repay their debts,” Lewis says. “[But] we’re in a situation now where Greece will not repay its debt. He’s been proven right. So when he made these bets, he was alone in the marketplace doing this. … His vision was apocalyptic. … He would tell you that it starts with Greece, then with Spain and Italy, and he thinks France has unsustainable levels of debt and the markets will turn on the French government. But exactly how it [will] unfold isn’t clear.”
On Tuesday’s Fresh Air, Lewis looks at some of the institutions and individuals involved in the financial crisis in places like Greece, Ireland and Iceland — to determine what went wrong and who was involved in the current debt crisis.
In Greece, he says, the government initially disguised the true state of its finances with the help of U.S. bankers. Goldman Sachs, for example, did off-market currency trades with the government of Greece.
“[Those trades] enabled the Greek government to book upfront a big profit, but down the road [the Greek government] would have to repay Goldman Sachs quite a bit,” Lewis says. “So [Goldman Sachs] lent the government money without saying that’s what they were doing. If you did this in the corporate world, a bunch of people would be put in jail. They helped the Greek government rig its books so that they looked acceptable to the European Union so they’d be admitted to the euro[zone].”
After adopting the euro, Lewis says, Greece borrowed huge sums of money to do things like run the world’s most unprofitable railroad and pay people not to show up to their jobs.
“It’s a corrupt enterprise,” he says. “When a party came to power, they’d give away lots of goodies. You talk to, for example, Greek tax collectors and they say, ‘Our job is to be bad at our jobs. If you’re too good at trying to collect taxes from Greeks, you get fired.’ You talk to people who work for the government, and people are pretty clear that they regard these jobs as basically sinecures. It’s a horribly inefficient society, and the inefficiency has been encouraged by the financial markets.”
And Greece wasn’t the only country that hid its true financial state, Lewis says.
“This was not a one-off situation,” he says. “You look at the financial crisis in Europe, and the fingerprints of American investment bankers are everywhere. The financial collapse encouraged the worst sort of behavior. At the same time they were making bad loans in the United States, they were encouraging the same sort of behavior at the government level in Europe. The basic problem was, historically the role of the financier was to vet risk and make sure risk was evaluated. That got perverted in recent times, and instead the financier helped disguise risk.”
Michael Lewis is also the author of Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, The Big Short and The Blind Side. He is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. (more…)
[VIDEO] I LOVE THIS SONG – “Syrian protest song that killed its writer: When Syrian musician Ibrahim Qashoush began singing his protest song calling on Bashar al-Assad to leave the country he could not have realised it would cost him his life.”
Alastair Good
10 Jul 2011
The lyrics to the song are simple, the meaning clear “It’s time to leave, Bashar,” its lyrics go. “Freedom is near.”
But according to a video circulating widely online, Mr Qashoush was found with his throat slit floating in the River Orontes in his home-town, Hama.
Hama has been the scene of large protests against the regime of President Assad and the Syrian leader has sent tanks and troops to quell the dissent.
In singing his song to crowds that gathered there, Qashoush made himself a target for the Syrian security forces who, local dissidents have confirmed, silenced him forever.
Maȟpíya Lúta
“Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta), (1822 – December 10, 1909) was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). His reign was from 1868 to 1909. One of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army faced, he led a successful conflict in 1866–1868 known as Red Cloud’s War over control of the Powder River Country in northwestern Wyoming and southern Montana. After the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), he led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of his US opponents thought of him as overall leader of the Sioux, but this was mistaken. The large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, even though some individual leaders such as Red Cloud were renowned as warriors.” –wikipedia
“While set firmly in St. John’s, it’s set in a Canada of the mind. The violence is very limited, more shenanigans than murderous mayhem. The humour is low-key but sharp, the people are essentially decent and most of the criminals are closer to being rogues than they are the violent serial killers who populate U.S. network crime shows. Instead of the grim forensics scenes of those shows, we get the sunlight of St. John’s and sudden leaps into absurdist humour.”
JOHN DOYLE: TELEVISION
It’s our Republic – and we like it
The other day I was interviewed for BBC Radio. (more…)
HOMICIDE RATES IN CANADA AND THE USA
for the ten‐year period from 1998 to 2007 inclusive
[DISCUSSION] IS ‘REASON’ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE OF ‘EMOTION’?
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But are reason and emotion mutually exclusive? Or do they constitute two extremes of one common continuum of our experience? That is, do they form a dichotomy, or a continuum?
dichotomy
G. dicha, in two parts, temnein, to cut: to cut in two A dichotomy is very simply a division. In logic it is a division of a class into two opposed or mutually exclusive subclasses. For example the real as opposed to unreal. Significantly, each of the subclasses can exist in their own right, independent of their opposite.
continuum
L. com, together, -tenere, to hold: to hold together A continuum is a continuous series that stretches from one extreme to an opposing extreme, yet whose parts cannot be separated or separately discerned. An example of this would be the light spectrum, in which none of the frequencies of light — even pure white and pure black — can be totally separated from the whole.
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The way I am looking at it though, is the judicial concept of REASONABLE DOUBT, we don’t seek out EMOTIONAL DOUBT.
Say you come upon a pedophile raping your toddler daughter. You can react in one of two ways:
1) Vigilante Justice: Beat him to death, or injure him sufficiently to necessitate hospitalization.
2) Normative Justice: Restrain him and call authorities so he may be sent to a mental institution.
In my mind, reaction 1) is a display of emotion, reaction 2) a display of reason.
Emotion is a manifestation of feelings, while Reason is a manifestation of intellectual elaboration.
If they are NOT mutually exclusive, how are they related?
Why do we not allow doctors related to patients to treat them? Why are criminal trials at times moved from the jurisdiction in which the crime occurred?
Is it sensical to poll the mothers of soldiers to reflect views on the justness of a campaign of war?
Are the victims of crime the best people to offer opinions on whether Justice has truly been served or not?
Please vote above, and comment below the video.
Recently another metaphor has occurred to me, that of the end of a romantic relationship.
There are two ‘endings’ if you will–the door slamming, the ring being flung in your face, the viewing of a corpse..these may be described as a a REASONABLE end–the end in documents, the end told to society. The EMOTIONAL end though never really coincides but is when one can say they are ‘over the pain’, or ‘over the feeling of being within the embrace of a relationship’; when sufficient time has passed that one may refer to themselves as single once more–when perhaps one can start dating again or contemplating a different journey of a future.
Actually this does not have to be related to romance necessarily but a loss. There is a date of death, but one’s emotional contemplation is a different journey that simple reality.
rudhro
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An earlier posting of mine:
This is so wrong: “One relative of a murder victim recently told the group: “If people could feel the way we feel for just one moment, the whole justice system would be changed.””*–if one thinks this way, they lack the comprehension of the POINT of a ‘justice’ system.
A justice system is not there to serve the victims of crime, but pass commentary regarding the philosophy of societal justice. They are so very different.
It is silly to even ask victims if “justice has been served” as they do in the media, after a case. Victims aren’t in the position to ‘judge’ that.
It is similar to asking a mother who’s child is serving in the army in Afghanistan whether she supports the troops or is ‘behind the mission’–what kinda answer do you expect her to have? “Ehh screw my child’s life–the whole thing is hogwash. . .”?
THIS is why they say “justice is blind”–because there ought not be any bias, nor any emotion.
It should be a sterile study of philosophical thought, not vengence.
I hope I can realize this, if I were to become a victim of crime one day.
It obviously isn’t easy. * http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/729391–devastated-by-killing-family-helps-others-with-that-unique-pain
Murder vs Manslaughter: Why the charge was manslaughter in scalding death of baby Miguel
CHRISTIE BLATCHFORD
Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011
How did the scalding of little Miguel Fernandes end up in Ontario Superior Court as a charge of manslaughter and not second-degree murder?
The differences in the two offences are significant, as Melissa Alexander, Miguel’s mother, may appreciate more than most on April 19 when she is sentenced for the lesser crime.
Murder is where the person who causes a death meant to do it or meant to cause bodily harm she knew was likely to cause death and was reckless about whether it happened or not; this is mens rea, Latin for the requisite guilty mind.
Manslaughter is simply culpable homicide that isn’t murder. (more…)
The not so great Islamist menace
BY DAN GARDNER, OTTAWA CITIZENJANUARY 5, 2011
If someone mentioned terrorism in Europe, you would probably have an idea about the size of the threat and who’s responsible.
It’s big, you would think. And growing. As for who’s responsible, that’s obvious. It’s Muslims. Or, if you’re a little more careful with your language, it’s radical Muslims, or “Islamists.”
After all, they were at it again just last month. On Dec. 11, a naturalized Swede — originally from Iraq — injured two people when he blew himself up on the way to a shopping district. On Dec. 29, police in Denmark said they thwarted a plan by five Muslims to storm the office of a newspaper and kill as many people as possible.
So the danger is big and growing and Islamists are the source. Right?
Wrong, actually.
The European Union’s Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2010 says that in 2009 there were “294 failed, foiled, or successfully executed attacks” in six European countries. This was down almost a third from 2008 and down by almost half from 2007.
So in most of Europe, there was no terrorism. And where there was terrorism, the trend line pointed down.
As for who’s responsible, forget Islamists. The overwhelming majority of the attacks– 237 of 294 — were carried out by separatist groups, such as the Basque ETA. A further 40 terrorist schemes were pinned on leftist and/ or anarchist terrorists. Rightists were responsible for four attacks. Single-issue groups were behind two attacks, while responsibility for a further 10 was not clear. (more…)
[VIDEO] CANADA versus AMERICA
AMERICA:
CANADA:
Drive-through naturist challenges nudity laws (more…)
