up to the millisecond<\/em> \u2014 news.<\/p>\n[There\u2019s also the ease of gossip, endless pics of naughty bits, and all that ridiculous spam in our e-mailboxes. What is a Barrister anyway? How many rich people are there in Nigeria \u2013 and why do they all want to give me their money? It can, at its worst, resemble the graffiti on a men\u2019s room wall in a run down gas station. It\u2019s only legit if the \u201cauthor\u201d was illiterate \u2013 misspelled words carry great weight on PRW (public restroom walls).]<\/p>\n
When something like the massacre at Virginia Tech occurs, the discussion around the GWC (Global Water Cooler) changes. The GWC, in many respects, is no different than the old-timey proverbial one: People chat about the news of the day; if you want to be heard, you have to stay on topic. When something extreme happens the chatter stops entirely. For a moment \u2026<\/em> Then the emotions; the analyzing, the pontificating and awfulizing. Somewhere along the way, as with all things HOP (human-outside-paradise), the topic becomes politicized. Some leave the discussion. Others become experts on the subject. Few learn anything new. But the chatter goes on. It\u2019s possible to lose all sense of \u201cotherness\u201d beyond the tragedy.<\/p>\nDuring \u201cnormal time,\u201d The Weather is always a safe bet for small talk. Now, thanks to the uncertainties of the GWD (Global Warming Debate), we can\u2019t even civilly discuss that!<\/p>\n
Back in my days in radio it was considered a bit of a stoop for a station to \u201csell the weather.\u201d That is, some stations would have the DJ to say that the forecast was coming up \u2026 brought to you by<\/em> \u2026 and the listeners would have to endure the sponsor\u2019s ad just to find out the current temp and predictions. Now that<\/em><\/strong> sounds old-timey. Not<\/em><\/strong> selling the weather? Pshaw! These days, every broadcast station does it. There\u2019s even a whole Cable Channel devoted to selling the weather.<\/p>\nBut, bear with me here: What if we could politicize the weather? What if the new TTH (threat to humankind) is none other than the constant threat of \u2026 the weather!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nWe should just shut up.<\/p>\n
Take a breath.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, now that we have entered \u201celection cycle,\u201d we can\u2019t, they won\u2019t, some body else will \u2026 it\u2019s a mess.<\/p>\n
Great. The Internet = The new Tower of Babel. Who\u2019d a thunk?<\/p>\n
Speaking of thunk? Since when did the common denominator of a mass murderer become: \u201cHe was a loner?\u201d Good heavens. Loner and crazy tend to go together. I mean, one doesn\u2019t require the other but; they\u2019re seldom without each other. The same could be said for Loner and Genius \u2014 but we just don\u2019t seem to have a lot of genius running \u2019round these days. Crazy<\/em>, however? Prevalent.<\/p>\nSpeaking of crazy \u2013 Some things don\u2019t even strike me as queer anymore. For example, while scanning the news my eyes often deceive me. A while back, this is what I read:<\/p>\n
Pat Robertson responsible for killing cats<\/strong><\/p>\nOf course, that\u2019s NOT<\/em><\/strong> what the blurb said.
I later discovered that Pat Robertson<\/em> was really Rat Poison!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWeeks later, the same eyes:<\/p>\n
Giuliani\u2019s Head Shrinks
<\/strong>
Which was, rather \u2026 Giuliani\u2019s Lead<\/em><\/strong> Shrinks<\/p>\nBut, you see, the problem is not so much my old eyes \u2013 but the fact that the world has gotten so nutty that it was only later, much later, that it registered that I\u2019d been deceived. At first glance, I paid no mind to such wild headlines!<\/p>\n
Crazy.
<\/em>
Anyway, all this is to say, I could almost swear that I\u2019ve heard voices saying the killings at Virginia Tech might be attrubitable to rich kids, firearms, loner-hood, system failure, the dean, kookiness, the police \u2014 in fact, anything<\/em><\/strong> \u2026<\/p>\nbut evil.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Internet. From seemingly out of nowhere it has swooped in to dominate \u2014 Dominate \u2014 much of our lives. Thank God for the ease of search engines like Google, and the ability (if desired) of keeping abreast of recent \u2013 up to the millisecond \u2014 news. [There\u2019s also the ease of gossip, endless pics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1691,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>T<\/span>he Internet. From seemingly out of nowhere it has swooped in to dominate \u2014 Dominate<\/em><\/strong> \u2014 much of our lives. Thank God for the ease of search engines like Google, and the ability (if desired) of keeping abreast of recent \u2013 up to the millisecond<\/em> \u2014 news.<\/p>\n