In the news

I shed a little tear today after hearing the final of three stories over the past two days that proved something to me. The first was an interview with a person who was on the Human Caused Global Warming Committee, the people who just came out with the big report: The Earth is Screwed Because of Humans. He started the interview by saying the there is no way to reverse the trend, which is what the headlines have been saying since the story broke. He then proceeded to talk about the changes we should make to reverse the global warming trend. He said we get most of our power from coal and it is very polluting, both of which are true. The interviewer then asked about nuclear power, to which he said there was no reason to switch because nuclear generates waste. Interesting. How much waste compared to the waste that coal dumps directly into the air? The host didn't ask, but he should have. I was almost convinced of his claims until he said that about nuclear, so I revisited what else he had said and realized his bias and the bias of the latest report on global warming. Sometimes, I wonder why I listen to the news...

The second story was about the porn teacher. Well, she was a substitute teacher and happened to be in the room when one of the computers started popping up porn images in a 7th grade class. She was found guilty in court of corrupting minors and the news was reporting that the jurors said things like "She should have done more to protect the children from the porn. Maybe throw a coat over the screen." Because of this, she faces up to 50 years in prison. Luckily for her, she will only spend 18 months in jail, according to the story. Luckily for her...

The third story was about the mall shooting in Utah. There happened to be an off duty officer at the mall, and being one of those, he had right to carry a concealed weapon, which he had been doing. The news stated how lucky those people were that there was an officer in the crowd. Nothing about how lucky those people were that someone was there with a concealed weapon, or how if everyone in the mall would have been allowed that same right, there would have only been one death. Luckily there was an officer there...

All three stories saddened me. Made me not to want to go on with this charade. Here were people reporting stories and missing the point of what was really going on, or how these stories combined with other stories, or how there was much contradiction in all of the news. I realized that they didn't think, not about this, nor any of the implications, they just are.

We probably are not destroying the Earth, it is kind of large, almost as large as our egos. And if we were, cutting back on coal would be the best thing we could do in the near term, even though the interviewee claimed it would take thousands of nuclear power plants to meet our needs (he suggest switching to fluorescence lights instead). Quite oblivious to the howling errors he was making.

I was considered a late bloomer and yet by 7th grade, I had seen many pictures of naked people. HBO existed back then as did magazines. 50 years in jail for this, and she didn't do anything wrong. If she should be locked away for this... wow, the human race is screwed.

And that whole gun thing... I'd rather be safe than lucky that someone happened to have the means of stopping a psycho from capping me.

All of this, and people not merging on highways correctly. (I was driving, listning to the radio when all of this happened.) It takes a second to think "Hey, those other cars are probably going 65, maybe 45 isn't the best speed for me to be going when I try to merge unto the highway. Maybe I will push a little on the petal on my right." and yet this simple thought seems to be beyond the average driver. Too many things like this over the past few weeks and I have been too stressed to deal with them, so I needed to blow off some steam.

Is everyone on this planet a frickin idiot?! There, steam blown off. I feel much better now. I'm sure the people I know are not idiots, and I am sure the people that they know are not, etc. Therefore, there are no idiots, we are all just people trying to get along on this crazy world. Expect for those morons who don't know how to accelerate. And those people in the news. And...

The Edward