Where would you rather be? Palestinian edition

Brasil receberá refugiados palestinos fugindo da violência

What the hell is this?

You’d think they wouldn’t laugh about these things. But then again, that is Brazil.

Top three problems

This tragedy at Virginia Tech (where I got my masters by the way) is a classical example of what I consider the three biggest problems in the U.S. nowadays. These are:

- Moral relativism and social determinism
- Big Government impulse
- The media circus

Moral relativism and social determinism

Have you noticed how the media keeps trying to find something special about this guy? First, he must have been crazy. He was writing violent poetry. He even used to have lunch by himself at the cafeteria! I bet he was depressed. Probably played violent videogames too…

I am not saying that it's not possible that he had some mental disturbance. But the thing is that people never even consider the option that this guy had total control over his actions and still decided to do this evil, coward thing he did.

By trying to fit him in some kind of group or condition, people are basically saying that there is no choice between good and evil. For the moral relativists, Evil doers are insane so it’s not really their fault. There is no other option.

Most amazingly, this kind of lunacy is not restricted to the lefties. The cuckoo right wingers keep trying to find some crazy connection with the fact that the guy was an immigrant.

Now that we can (unfortunately) see these idiotic videos that this loser taped, it is obvious that he was completely in control of his actions. He planned the killing; he even tried to push the guilt of this thing away from him by saying that he was “pushed into a corner” and that “he wasn’t going to run anymore”. A typical coward. And yet, I feel that there is this unconscious effort to create some type of rationalization of why this guy did all of this. Nobody openly calls this guy names or say he was a disgrace to his family. They don't even talk about his family! What if people actually knew that their parents would be openly disgraced if they did something like that? Wouldn't that be a deterrent?

In my opinion, this attempt to transform this scumbag into a victim is not only unfair to the real victims but it is also an open invitation to copycats.

Big Government impulse

Immediately after the shooting you could see headlines that linked the murders with gun ownership. I heard people on the radio actually saying that this was again Bush’s fault because he was in favor of selling guns to anyone.

Now, maybe you all haven’t heard about it but Virginia Tech is actually a “gun free” zone. That is, even if you have a license to carry a gun in Virginia you can’t bring it into Virginia Tech.

That might explain why thousands of students and hundreds of professors in that one building heard dozens of gun shots and did not react at all.

In any case, this idea that whenever a tragedy occur it is the government’s fault is a big cultural vice in America nowadays. It happened during Katrina, and it happens daily for a variety of problems. People blame the real state downturn on the government. They blame the fact that kids are fat on the government!

This not only means more and more money being spent in stupid programs but it also means people getting less prepared to deal with the very situations they should be ready to.

It’s a dangerous vicious circle.

The media circus

Watching the VT president’s press conference on the day of the murders was one of the most irritating experiences of my life. Here is a guy trying to explain the unexplainable, doing his best to list the details of what is probably the worst day of his life and what did the reporters do? They were asking the most stupid, inconsequential and populist questions you could ever imagine.

Something very wrong has happened to the American media. Maybe it is just plain ideology that moves these people into transforming every single issue into some sort of crusade that helps their cause. Maybe it is just pure incompetence. Maybe it is just the reflection of a large part of the population that has this “can’t look away” instinct that makes these things profitable.

In any case, I believe the fact that the American media makes this circus around every single bad thing that happens here brings more and more negative results to the country. It happens in Iraq, and it happens locally. I have no doubt that showing all these movies and pictures of this dirty bastard will at some level motivate others to do similar hideous things.

How is it even legal to show this material? Isn’t it obvious that this is a reward for the murders? Why not say that they received letters and videos and that they will not show it on the air because this loser doesn’t deserve it?

It really seems to me that the press is always on the wrong side of things. They don’t want to inform, they want to shock. No matter what the cost is.

Keeping things in perspective

US bodies recovered from N Korea.

"More than 33,000 US troops died in the Korean War, which started in June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea. Some 8,100 US servicemen are still listed as missing."

Where would you rather be? Afghan version

Just to please the ones who didn't like the Iraq comparison:

Fatalities of civilians and police in Rio between Feb.1st and Apr.1st:
560

Fatalities of coalition troops in Afghanistan between Oct. 2001 and Apr.1st 2007:
546

And that's no April fools' joke.

Where would you rather be?

Desde 1º de Fevereiro de 2007:

Rio Body Count
Mortos: 323
Feridos: 194

Iraq Coalition Casualties
Mortos: 111
Feridos: 285

The solution to brazilian crime - Da série "Template thoughts"

Servir a Polícia deveria ser obrigatório no Brasil. Assim, todos esses blogueiros brasileiros que escrevem posts revoltados sentados em seus escritórios confortáveis teriam a oportunidade de pôr em prática suas idéias a respeito da segurança brasileira ao invés de delegar o trabalho duro aos oprimidos policias (afinal só pobres ignorantes aceitam ser parte da policia no Brasil).

Não seria ótimo??

Malucos e terroristas

O covarde de Seattle foi indiciado ontem. Além de ter matado uma mulher de 58 anos e atirado em outras 6 (incluindo uma grávida), ele foi acusado de sequestro e recebeu o agravante de "hate crime".

De acordo com os documentos oficiais, Naveed Afzal Haq invadiu o Centro Judeu de Seattle falando "This is a hostage situation, and I want these Jews to get out."

He later added: “These are Jews, and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”

Mas obviamente isso não foi ataque terrorista. Foi só um pobre maluco tendo uma crise.

Será que existe alguma dúvida que todo terrorista é maluco no fim das contas?