Monday Miscellany

Bulimia, Non-Purging Type? Should that continue to be a diagnosis? Tetyana works through it. (For a crash course on bulimia, I strongly suggest her guest post for this site.)

Chana looks at glorifying political incorrectness.

This social disapproval is what people are referring to when they talk about political correctness and the lack of free speech. What they mean is that they can’t express morally bereft opinions without someone pointing out how morally bereft it is. That, I’m afraid, is what it is to live in a social community with moral standards.

Dear News, Stop Trying To Entertain Me:

No, really. Stop it.

I don’t need flashy graphics, scary music and breathless reporters. I don’t need to “Find out after the commercial break!!”

I don’t want you to be the first with your breaking news and speculations.

I *really* don’t want you to interview heartbroken relatives, shell-shocked neighbors and terrified kids.

Ever.

The Bill of Rights was written for Dzhokar Tsarnaev.

It wasn’t written for those suspected of minor violations.

The Boston Marathon bombing was a particularly heinous crime. No one with a pulse could help but feel deeply for the parents of an eight-year-old boy killed by this senseless act or the others killed or permanently maimed. Most red-blooded men would have liked nothing better than to have been the one who found Dzhokar Tsarnaev, praying he’d resist arrest.

Those are perfectly healthy feelings, but the awful power of the state is not supposed to be set loose based upon feelings. It is supposed to be restrained by reason. God help us if we forget.

Body Integrity Identity Disorder–when it feels like part of your body doesn’t belong to you.

It’s okay to look away–it’s been a long hard week, but this applies at any time.

It’s okay to look away. It’s okay not to see all the pictures and all the reactions. It’s okay not to hear or read every new thing that all the reporters and friends of the affected and bystanders hear or think. It’s okay to put your head down and walk away. It’s okay to go do something that makes you feel good even when this many people feel bad.

I, for one, can’t take it all. The stress of hours spent on this is bad for me. I’m hardly alone. Whether the tragedy is due to unpredictable occurences, negligence, or malice, spending too much time dwelling on the fact that the world contains all these things just isn’t good for many of us.

Happy Monday, y’all!

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Monday Miscellany
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One thought on “Monday Miscellany

  1. 1

    Ahh the newstainment problem… So desperately needy of numerical validation they inflate every minor issue until its the worst thing in the history of the universe; like 500 hitlers sewn together with thread made from the skin of baby seals.

    You might be interested in watching some of Charlie Brooker’s shows (http://www.youtube.com/user/zthemusic/videos?sort=dd&view=1&flow=grid), his style is bleak and brutally sarcastic at times but is generally rather funny and genuinely scary seeing some of the crap that’s been on TV. Its actually quite fascinating to watch his shows in chronological order, Screenwipe started in 2006 and the stuff Charlie was ranting about back then seem positively mundane these days. Viewed as a whole, his shows are quite a good timeline of the contemporary decline of culture

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