April Reign

Speak your mind even if your voice shakes

violence

The game blame

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Very sad story about serious neglect and abuse of two children, a 22 month old boy and an 11 month old girl.

Police said hospital staff had to shave the head of the girl because her hair was matted with cat urine. The 10-pound girl also had a mouth infection, dry skin and severe dehydration.

Her brother had to be treated for starvation and a genital infection. His lack of muscle development caused him difficulty in walking, investigators said.

Not content to let the story stand on it’s own as an example of the horrors humans commit on one another and that not everyone is equipped to be a parent, both the media and the authorities are spinning this as a “game addiction”.

Viloria said the Reno couple were too distracted by online video games, mainly the fantasy role-playing “Dungeons & Dragons” series, to give their children proper care.

“They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games,” Viloria told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Gaming is the excuse, not the cause. Video games are blamed from everything from obesity to murder. It is as if none of these things ever existed before.

It would be much more helpful for us a society to focus on what drives people to obsess, what drives people to neglect their children, what signs of trouble are being missed.

Domestic abuse, road rage, gaming addiction, these are all silly labels put on big problems that allow media and authorities to easily file cases rather than have anyone actually find out the underlying causes of the initial behaviors.

“Working Girls” and the Media

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One might have hoped that after the Ipswich murders the media would have learned a thing or two about treating sex workers as different, disposable, and authors of their own misfortune.

Sadly reading the CTV report on the death of an Edmonton sex worker it would seem no lesson has been learned at all.

We begin by reading;

Police have identified a missing woman as a dead Edmonton sex trade worker and have launched a homicide investigation.

Really?! So if we were all to get together and purchase a head stone it should say dead Edmonton sex trade worker?

At least in the next paragraph they deign to identify Leanne Lori Benwell, by name. [Read more…] about “Working Girls” and the Media

Get violence off the streets and back in children’s organizations

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james cartmanDon’t let your kid learn about guns from just any gang, have them learn from one which is well established and has lots of street cred.

From The Star;

Cale Northey went to a Scouts Canada camp to learn about gun safety. He came back with a “licence to kill.”

That’s how his parents view the badge the 11-year-old brought home from a target shooting event in Oshawa last weekend.

The badge features an Agent 007-type figure pointing a gun with a red target over his heart.

“I think it’s terrible,” said Cale’s mother, Jane Northey. “We’ve got kids shooting up everyone these days. What kind of message are we sending them? This badge is a licence to kill sponsored by Scouts Canada.”

The event for Whitby Scouts involved a target-shooting competition using pellet guns and included instruction on safety.

“It was exciting because my mom never lets me use guns,” said Cale, who’s been a Cub for three years. “We learned you have to be really safe with them and not point them anywhere else besides the target, and that they’re very dangerous.”

Northey, a teacher, said she wrestled with the decision to let Cale attend but relented so he could learn “just how dangerous these weapons really are.” She was shocked when she saw the badge.

When she complained to Debra Yeomans, Whitby-area commissioner for Scouts Canada’s White Pine Council, she was told the badge was voted on by leaders who perceived it as something “cool” the youngsters would love.

The national office has asked for the badges to be returned, however, the gun training is still part of the program. The good news is they will have already received some training to go fight America’s wars!

Mr Layton have you stopped beating your wife?

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In an interview with AR media when Mr. Layton was asked if he had stopped beating his wife he replied no.

Full Transcript follows;

AR Media: Mr. Layton, have you stopped beating your wife?

Mr. Layton: Well since I never started beating my wife and in fact believe strongly in ending domestic abuse, I would have to say no.

AR Media: Mr Layton some might opine that by saying no you are in fact aligning yourself with those who see nothing wrong with such activity. How would you answer those people?

Jack Layton: Well to repeat I am against domestic violence and this question is one which has no winning answer to say yes I have implies support for an activity I condemn, to say no implies that I am going to continue on with an activity which in reality I have never been a part of.

AR Media: Can you explain further?

Mr. Layton: Look it’s much this vote on Afghanistan. If we vote to support a partial pull out in 2009 we are seen as saying we support our troops being there until that time, if we vote against it we are seen as saying that we support a war effort completely and without timetable.

It is much like your first question, one in which there is no way not to come out smeared by an accusation of an activity I was never involved with in the first place.

AR Media: Thank you Mr. Layton

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Edited to add there was an NDP ammendment proposed

In an effort to try to find common ground, let me propose the following amendment to determine whether or not the House would be willing to take the appropriate actions. The amendment would read as follows: “That the motion be amended by deleting the words after ‘operations in southern Afghanistan’ in the preamble and replacing them with the following: ‘This House call on the government to begin now to withdraw Canadian Forces in a safe and secure manner from the counter-insurgency mission in Afghanistan and call upon the government to notify NATO of this decision immediately’”.

Have a good day a school, don’t die.

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These stories are hard to take as a parent. You worry about a lot of things when you send your kids to school. Will they have friends, get good grades, have a good teacher. One thing you don’t generally think about is will they die.

All levels of school have been targeted, and the “reasons” have varied.

Some are blaming video games, but then before video games were so popular they blamed D&D, or bad parenting or………

Some have rushed in to protect the guns as if they were an endangered species, even going so far as to recommend that all students be armed.

How can you watch the trauma on these young peoples’ faces and in their voices, think of the parents and friends and families of the students and professors killed and rush in to champion more death? What kind of mindset is that?

What a lovely picture your local school also now the setting for the showdown at the ok corral.

Another aspect of this that has me wondering is the constant reference to we thought it was “just a domestic incident”. Just???? Just two people dead, nothing to see here folks.

If “domestic violence” were taken more seriously perhaps a greater effort may have been put into dealing with the situation and other lives may have been spared.

My thoughts go out to those who have lost someone, and those who went through the ordeal.

May we all find the ability to rise above the petty and mundane and treasure each other.

Third Planet Review

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the audio is off a bit but still well worth watching. You may laugh at the Macleans’ reference.

Third Planet Review hosted by hippielawyer Alan Graf, features a panel of activists from The Farm in Summertown, TN commenting on and analyzing the news giving you a completely different take than the corporate pundits. Panelists are Ina May Gaskin, midwife and author, Albert Bates, founder of the Eco-Village Training Center and author of a new book on surviving peak oil and Peter Schweitzer, executive director of Plenty International, otherwise known as the hippy peace corps