After reading some of the comments on the Associated Press' article about the marathon bombing, I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Ah, the Internet, bringing as much derp as possible to shove in your face. Comments on pretty much any newspage are fucking retarded. I've never seen a decent "news" community.
Anonymity brings out the worst in people. An unrestricted platform with zero consequences or accountability. Fuck them.
THIS one. TiB. This is the only place I get news where people don't post grossly ignorant speculation or intolerant horseshit. It is an absolute deluge of morons out there. They should all be shot and pissed on. Because they post stuff like this: I rest my case.
I just heard about the bombings over the radio, sad state of affairs to say the least. Doesn't really help that I just came back from visiting my brothers grave either. One year ago today he was killed by a drunk driver while walking across the street in Jacksonville, FL. I've been a wreck all day and the cemetery didn't exactly help matters, but I had to go. He was my best friend and only brother and I feel like half of me is gone now. He's also buried right next to the best man I've ever known, my grandfather. Yeah, today has been just fucking peachy.
Went and watched 42 today. It was utterly fantastic. I'm a baseball fanatic, not a stat-head, but I love the game and everything about it. The movie was pretty emotional, from the standpoint of watching America work on figuring out integration and desegregation and the world changing around and inside of it. The abuse Robinson took as a black player is sanitized, but even then, as I was sitting beside one of my best friends, we were both squirming. It was uncomfortable to see and hear the language being thrown out and see people being dehumanized in that way. As we were leaving she kinda shook her head and said "Y'know, it just really reinforces that if it weren't for him, my brother couldn't do what he does today, and my family would be pretty dramatically changed..." I hadn't thought of it from her perspective, honestly, not like that.
My girlfriend's brother was standing between the two explosions. His friend was filming the finish line and caught both explosions - the video made me feel sick to my stomach. So glad he's okay.
How many people are generally in that area? I'm not familiar with the particulars of the Boston Marathon and none of the news stories I've seen have mentioned the overall scene as it would be normally.
Can we spin this into another thread, so those of us who don't want to be depressed by the developments can avoid it? It seems a little weird to have tit pics and tragedy talks right next to one another. Also, I want to say "Fuck Reddit" for posting photos of the gore and bloodshed. This isn't a Mexican newspaper, show some Goddamned respect and put your camera down. Do something to help, or fuck off but don't use their suffering for attention, you insufferable cunt.
I swear there needs to be a premade essay I could copy and paste to explain why photojournalism is important every time your argument comes up.
Words that will go completely unheard and always will. You don't expect Reddit-- or anybody for that matter-- to stoop to "good taste" do you? The first thing every reporter in the country did after the Sandy Hook tragedy was shove a microphone into the face of every single person involved in that horror show (including little kids and victims' parents) and goad a crushing emotional reaction out of them without even breaking stride. These people don't give a shit about anybody. If they did, why the hell would they work in the news business nowadays? And of course, all of this is no doubt eventually going to attract the unwanted attention of these backwater attention whoring dipshits: Spoiler Photojournalism is important, of that I have no doubt. Some things don't NEED to be forcefully pressed into a person's face. Some magazines that specialize in it like National Geo. can have some graphic stuff in it, but I'm prepared for that because I subscribe to it. Throwing ACTUAL violence photos up on heavy-trafficked public places with no disclaimer is just plain ignorant and tasteless.
I'm pretty sure if that kid had gone on a rampage at the Westboro compound instead of an elementary school, nobody would really be too upset.
This country is in decay. There is no way that we can legislate our way out of it. Will we ever again return to quality core values and teaching them to our children? Watching the news and the FB news feed reminded me of this essay. <a class="postlink" href="http://jamesallen.wwwhubs.com/think.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://jamesallen.wwwhubs.com/think.htm</a> Is this good? Why isn't this taught in schools? Would it even help? New mandatory recess music for deviant grade school kids....
So...last night I was staying in a motel room, and sometime during the night I woke up to take a piss. I wasn't really awake as I stumbled blindly in the dark trying to feel my way to the toilet and suddenly...BAM! My forehead met the wall. Not a nice flat wall, but a fucking 90 degree corner that was jutting out and apparently I was moving at a high rate of speed. I now look like someone punched me in the forehead with a framing square. Less then 48 hours in Mississippi and I've injured myself and look dangerous and sketchy. Yep. Welcome home toytoy.
The importance of photojournalism? Or the importance of not being the one to drop your camera while the others snap money-making shots? A couple of nights ago I learned the importance of the "resistant" part of slip-resistant shoes. Pushed off with my right foot, left foot found nothing tractable, and I landed four feet away on my back. Felt fucking wonderful. Then I pulled my back Sunday night. Nice hot pain combined with that feeling you get when you have the wind knocked out of you. Not the "oh fuck oh shit I can't breathe" but that full-torso tensions. So pleasant.
"I told you so" incoming! ...I told you the New York Post was full of shit. I know we should expect nothing more than sensationalist, unsubstantiated drivel from a newspaper which specialises in headlines such as "Headless Body Found in Topless Bar", but I hoped that in the face of such tragedy they'd show a modicum of common decency. 12 dead? No, 3. (Possibly more to come if the critical people in hospital don't make it, but for now, that's the figure. Remarkably low, thank God). A Saudi National held in custody? Nope. Zero. Nobody held in custody. I wonder if claiming quadruple the number of victims and lying about a man who happens to be from the same country as the 9/11 bombers being arrested will get your puke-filled urinal of a website more hits? Hmmm. Fuck sensationalist media and the soulless cunts who inhabit it.