November, 2013 archive
Flaming the Fans 0
At Psychology Today Blogs, Matt Beardmore tries to understand why sports fans get violent. A nugget:
“Fan violence is really an adult form of bullying,” said Kathy Samoun, who was so moved by the Stow incident – and many others involving fan violence – that she founded the Bay Area-based Fans Against Violence non-profit organization, which “encourages fan safety at professional sporting events through education, discussion and partnerships with like-minded organizations.”
“Uncontroversial Facts” 0
Noam Chomsky takes down 9/11 Truthers.
Even if you don’t like Noam Chomsky because you think he’s much too radical (he’s not, by the way, as history has proved), watch this. It’s a master wielding a scalpel in public discourse.
Via TPM.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness continues to abound.
Sheriff Brian Hieatt said Jackson got out of his vehicle and confronted Sharp, punching him, and Sharp responded by severely cutting Jackson on the arm with a knife and pulling out a rifle. The rifle was not loaded.
Have you noticed that this stuff almost never happens at a Target store?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The holidays promulgate a plethora of politeness.
Police say the shooting occurred after the homeowner, a 48-year-old Washington Township man, retrieved the loaded Glock 21 handgun from a nightstand to show to his guests.
One more person who is just too damned stupid to own a firearm . . . .
Thinking Black Thoughts 2
Bruce Maiman tries to understand why persons subject themselves to shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving and finds, as Ecclesiastes teaches us, that it’s all illusion.
A nugget:
There ya go: The orgy of greed vs. the serenity of family*!
It probably doesn’t pay to tell these people that the best deals don’t even happen on Black Friday. The Wall Street Journal found that nearly one-third of last year’s Black Friday bargains being advertised had been available previously at lower prices.
But as one analyst explained, “People associate Black Friday with good prices, and that eliminates the need to check price.”
________________
*Methinks that dependeth on the family.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your elders.
(I trust that the gun nut is happy that he’s fulfilled his Wyatt Earp fantasy and demonstrated his capacity for courtesy.)
Afterthought:
The more stories of this sort that I see, the more I am convinced that many gun nuts have one trait in common.
They are frightened little men.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Bring up children politely.
He’s accused of pointing the gun at the children and firing off a shot inside the home. There were no injuries.
After all, children learn best by example.
Facebook Frolics 0
The internet is a public pool, and the FBI wants to go fishing in it:
Details at the link. Here’s the thumbnail:
The Feds raided a wrong house, looking for someone who had moved out two years before, frightening and humiliating the current residents. (The FBI, it would seem, is incapable of determining who lives where when. Maybe they need to talk with the NSA. Or possibly public records.)
The residents have now sued.
Now the FBI, as might any bureaucracy, is looking for some way out from under, natch, by smearing the victims.
One Shop Stop 0
Strange.
