Buzz Community Standards: No Shame,For the love of money
I read the Dallas Absurder all the time. Mainly because it is free, but it is entertaining too. I like this one:So, The Dallas Morning News is going to publish announcements of same-sex unions alongside traditional marriage and engagement announcements. Buzz, being liberal and all, can get behind that. The daily, it announced this week, also is going to be more restrictive on advertisements for firearms, only taking ads from federally licensed dealers and accepting none for "assault" weapons. Buzz owns a gun, so we're ambivalent on that one. (We're only soft on crime until someone breaks into our house.)Finally, the News will accept no ads for "gentlemen's clubs." Being a greedy liberal, we really support that one. Woo-hoo, more money for the Dallas Observer! (We protest the use of the word "gentlemen," however. While we're in favor of nakidity among women, we don't consider stuffing bills in someone's G-string a gentlemanly act.)
But you probably already knew this, since the News announced it in print. So what's our point? This: In a memo to his staff, Publisher Jim Moroney wrote that "these new policies have been put in place in an effort to best reflect the fabric of our community and reader base. "
Oka-a-a-a-y. Work with the ol' Buzzer here. No titty bars. Fewer guns. Yes to gay unions. The fabric of our community. Hate to break it to you, Jim, but your community is Dallas. That's in Texas, in the "let's get all torqued up at the titty bar, grab our guns and go a-homo huntin' South."
Somebody buy that man a map.
U.N.: Nearly 1 Gun for Every American
Via USS Clueless"By any measure the United States is the most armed country in the world," it said. "With roughly 83 to 96 guns per 100 people, the United States is approaching a statistical level of one gun per person."The UN -- and Euro-weenies -- think this is a bad thing. I say, "nay nay" (to borrow a phrase from John Pinnette.)
This is a basic cultural gap, and I am seeing it more and more. Euro-weenies call Bush a "cowboy". We say, "Hell yeah!" Euro-weenies lament that we have nearly a gun for everyone in America. We say, "Fucking-A!" Euro-weenies try to find new ways to lock down the internet. We look for new ways to open it up. Europe abolishes the death penalty, and my state puts in an stacks them up so we can rapid fire them.
Like Ron White says, "If you kill someone in my state... we kill you back."
Suzanne Fields: Dishonor on the campus
Just when you think the politically correct clowns on the campus can't get any more ridiculous, they shoot another live white man out of a canon.Heh. RTWT.
I just got back from the funeral of a firefighter who took his own life. He was buried with all the honors and ceremony due a warrior, and rightly so. The only sound more sorrowful than piping a pall out of the church is the deafening silence when the pipes stop.
Chris White, Husband, Father and Firefighter of Gunbarrell, Texas. May God have mercy on his soul.
Referendum in Iran!
That was the chant at the Free Iran demonstration I stumbled upon in Dallas today at about 6 o'clock this evening. I didn't see any media, but they may have been there earlier and done thier stand-ups. I also didn't see any police. It was a peaceful protest -- I didn't see any organized traffic blockage, and what did happen was incidental. I see more jaywalking at lunch time than at this demonstration.I also had my (cheap) digital camera. Dig on the freedom:
That last one is the Kennedy Memorial in Dallas. I'm terrible at estimating crowds, but there were an easy 100 people here, and probably closer to 200. Some of the chants I heard (and were able to understand because they were in American):
Referendum in Iran!Damn skippy.
Free Iraq now free Iran!
End the violence in Iran!
Free the prisoners in Iran!
New Scientist: Counselling can add to post-disaster trauma
The counselling routinely offered to people in the immediate aftermath of a disaster seldom protects them from developing post-traumatic stress - and it could even delay their recovery.You know the routine. Something blows up, someone gets shot up, or someone gets mashed by something. All of the sudden, there are "grief counsellors" running all over the town, helping people get through something they were perfectly able to get through 50 years ago, but apparently aren't able to handle today.This is the conclusion of a comprehensive review of the "single-session debriefings" offered to victims straight after an incident. In single-session debriefings, a counsellor talks to a victim to help them learn about and prepare for any psychological problems they might encounter later.
Such briefings are still used by mental health professionals, although less so in Europe. But the review by a British team suggests it can exacerbate stress in some individuals who might otherwise have recovered normally, either by talking with friends and family or by blocking out any recall of the incident until they felt ready.
One-to-one debriefings might not always be appropriate, particularly for individuals who have undergone medical or surgical trauma, agrees George Everly, emeritus chairman of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation based in Ellicott City, Maryland.I happen to agree here. I think that part of the reason you do see more shellshock today than 50 years ago is because the personal support network is weakening. I come from a big extended family. Grief has never been a major issue for me. When someone dies, fifty or more people converge on the survivors. There isn't a bunch of psychobabble about "the grieving process". You have a bunch of people who take care of the everyday things -- cooking, cleaning, washing -- while the survivors do what they have to do for the funeral arrangements. Everyone sits around and talks about the dead, and you say what you need to say to put it behind you.But he points out that group counselling, where a number of individuals who have been through a major trauma are counselled together in a structured environment, remains vitally important. The authors of the latest study accept that they have not yet been able to evaluate the validity of this alternative technique.
What I see as the problem with these one-on-one debriefings is that you segregate someone out, tell them, "Here is what is going to happen" and then you toss them right back into the everyday routine, and they don't just do this for the immediate family -- they do it for the entire support network. Where in my family someone would be preoccupied with keeping up the house for the survivors, they become one of the immediate survivors. When an uncle dies, I spend most of my time comforting the aunt, and then a little time on myself. Given the grief counseling approach, I would be spending most of my time on myself. Why should I worry about my aunt? I'm grieving too!
