Debate vs Flames

It's come to my attention lately that those who disagree with and comment on a blogs post are subjected to rather nasty comments by other fans of whatever blog this is.

This phenomenon is particularly bad on blog such as Unclutterer, TheSimpleDollar, and GetRichSlowly, which have very loyal fans. There are others, but I can't think of more examples right now. I don't mean to single these sites out in any way, they happen to be three sites I used to read, that I have had to stop reading due to the prevalent ugliness in the comments.

What's happened to our society, when you can't idly speculate about something, or just plain disagree, without having everybody jump down your throat?

When I was a child, my parents had debates every night at dinner. Frequently, one of us would take a side we didn't agree with, just for fun. Everyone, no matter how little, was expected to contribute to the conversation. No opinion or position was ever ridiculed. I thought this was normal until one of my friends just recently mentioned this. She said she was raising her children using my parents as an example.

I'm not sure what I am saying here. I do think that young adults in particular have a problem with dissent. I know I did! The good news is, you will grow out of it. In the meantime, enjoy the difference in opinion, lifestyle, and looks. It is what makes the world magical.

Messages of hate and violence

This past Sunday, at church, a man was gunned down. The messages of Fox News anchors and the extreme Christian right finally bore fruit. A young man who was a little more unbalanced than the rest took those messages to heart. He brought a gun to a church, a sanctuary, and killed a man.

As someone else pointed out, the only difference between those in my country using hate speech and advocating violence, and the Taliban, is eight thousand miles.

Last week, in my city, the city that gave you Rush Limbough, a local rock station's morning DJs advocated violence against anyone who is "trans gender". One of the DJs stated that if his son wore high heels, he would beat the child with the shoe. You can read more on the Huffington Post if you like.

I realize they are just trying to build ratings among the "dumb young white male" segment, and that I'm not exactly in that group. I am, however, in the more lucrative "have a good paying job with money to burn" segment that their advertisers presumably would be more interested in.

So, I am boycotting this station for all time. I wrote an email to the station saying that. Here is what it said:

Rob, Arnie, and Dawn just lost you a listener

Need I say more? Not only are they boring, talk too much, and say generally ignorant things, but as of last week, they are promoting messages of hate and violence. I realize it was intended to be shock/funny, but it just ended up being sickening.

I will be sure to tell stores I frequent that I do not listen to your station. If I find you will be attending a charity event to provide music, I will be sure to make my views known to the organizers. I may be only one listener, but I am a determined one.

Sincerely,

A newly loyal Eagle 96 listener

Class notes for Wednesday May 13

Notes from Ki's beginning puppy class with Kathie Leggett:

1. Continue to work on folding down, signal only.


2. Continue to work on fast sit, signal only.


3. Continue to work on position while walking, increasing distance and distraction level.


4. Start hand touch training. Be sure to keep hand flat with fingers closed (or open just be consistent). No word association yet. This will also provide practice with clicker accuracy. (and I need that, Ki's timing is so different from the retrievers. He is slower to act but faster to finish.) Ki is trying to paw the hand so be sure not to reward that.


5. Kathie passed out a grid with Susan Garrett's crate games progression, so work on that.

Notes to self:

• My sole pen didn't work so be sure to get a box of pens for the bag


• Put a bunch of clickers in the bag too, it's ridiculous to have so many clickers but have to search the car to find ONE


• Get that training book into the bag too next time


• I think one thing was covered that I don't have here but since my freakin pen didn't work I didn't take notes, my bad

If you have pets, don't die.

Wow, the comments on this article are pretty cold. It seems an elderly woman who had 15 cats died and left the cats and some cash to a local rescue organization. Commenters seem to believe that (1) elderly people, or anyone who has the gall to die, should not have pets, (2) that $7500, which is probably all this woman had, isn't nearly enough money, even though this rescue organization takes in cats for no money all the time, and (3) you shouldn't have more than, say, 1 or 2 cats.

I want all the commenters who are griping about this to disclose the number of pets they have, along with the details of the trust they surely have set up for their animals' care.

Okay enough from me! Two grouchy blog posts in ONE DAY. Glad it is Friday!

Sofa >>> Dog.

Check out this LAME Craigslist ad. The sofa and the mirror both seem to be of greater value than their ten-year old dog. Oh, but she's a great dog. Want her?

http://sacramento.craigslist.org/fuo/1160756323.html

Grrrrrrr.