http://cbs3.com/local/Camden.Sacramento.Online.2.926261.html

Just saw this story on Drudge.

"During an online conversation Monday night, 22-year-old Jesse Coltrane realized his friend was distraught and even suicidal.

"At one moment he was cutting his arms," Coltrane explained.

Jesse said he only knew the 18-year-old's first name and phone number and tried to convince his friend not to kill himself. The conversation lasted well into the evening while his friend continued cutting his forearm with a razor.

Jesse decided to call a police department in Sacramento and officers were able to track down where his friend lived in California.

"Certainly suicide is not new, certainly doing it in front of people that you know is not new unfortunately, but seeing it on a web cam while you're chatting on the internet is new and we're seeing that these are possibilities, before you only saw it in Hollywood," Sgt. Norm Leong of the Sacramento Police Department said."

Ok...so here's my thing. First off, props to the guy who saved the 18 year old. Good for him.

Secondly...is it just me, or has the internet magnified the problem of attention whores? Now, I don't know the suicidal kid in question, but, I do know a few people who have done the cutting thing/threatened to commit suicide. I know one person who has kids who was on IM with me late one night threatening to commit suicide. I thought of the incident later, and while at the time all I felt was worry and concern, as I thought more and more about it, it pissed me off.  The woman has kids and is threatening to commit suicide? What a cold-hearted selfish bitch. You do NOT commit suicide and leave your kids behind to pick up the pieces. I don't care how shitty your life is (the woman was upset because of her divorce).

Anyway, back to the point at hand. Right. This kid. My theory is this, and I very well could be wrong, but hear me out. I believe that if you truly want to commit suicide, you will. Right then and there. The people who go to the Brooklyn Bride and threaten to jump - they're not really going to jump. They just want the attention that comes with threatening to jump. If they really wanted to jump, they would have already.

I think in many ways, the internet has magnified this problem. Attention-seekers now have a whole new medium in which they can manipulate nice, unsuspecting people. My theory is that this suicidal kid in the story just wanted attention...and he got it alright.

I know I sound kinda heartless here, but it's not from lack of experience. Like I said, I know a few people who have thrown out the suicide card. Most of them, besides the woman I spoke of earlier, have told me that yea, it was the dumbest thing they could possibly have done and that all they wanted was attention. But like I said, I don't know this kid and it could be something completely different. It just creeps me out when I see a story like this come out...I think the internet, while wonderful, has enhanced the problem is attention-whores...stories like this make me think that much worse things are still to come.

Anywho, it's late (or early?) and I'm being inarticulate. G'night.

So, TrunthePaige wrote a post last night about the Duggar family. http://www.xanga.com/trunthepaige/690709100/i-want-to-know-about-tolerance/ I am guessing that what happened was that she heard major criticisms from anti-homeschooling/religion people, who claim to be tolerant of everyone. This post is not attacking Paige's post - I understand the point she was making and it was a good one. Basically, if you're going to claim to be tolerant, then don't just be tolerant of the things you approve of.

However, the post got me thinking about tolerance in general. As I wrote on her post, I am not a fan of tolerance. The meaning of tolerance, at least with the people I know who claim to be tolerant, has been twisted into a concept of 'you have to accept everything and everyone, you have to like everything and everyone, you can't judge or criticize anything or anyone.' Which is absolute bullshit. I am allowed to have my opinions and express them. And that's what gets me about the tolerance movement is the hypocrisy...what I've found is that if people were to hear their own words, they'd find themselves basically saying 'we'll be tolerant of the tolerant, but not tolerant of the intolerant.' Well, if you're truly tolerant, then wouldn't it make sense to be tolerant of those who are intolerant as well? Or should their  voices be shut up?

I am not progressive. I am not tolerant. I am NONE of the nice convenient labels which are so easily tossed around in todays culture. I am me. If people have a problem with that, screw them. If I have an opinion about an issue or a person, I have no problem talking about it, or judging them, or criticizing them. That is the beauty of America - I have a right to criticize whoever I like for whatever reason I like, and they have the right to do it right back to me. As long as freedom of speech is still allowed (well, Freedom of Speech has taken several hits in the past 20 years), there is no need for blind acceptance and tolerance. Because through the expression of ideas, misconceptions and misjudgements are easily solved.

I am just tired of people saying 'But...they're different! We need to accept them because they're different!' But what if I don't want to? Why should I blindly accept someone? MLK never spoke of blind tolerance. Jesus never spoke of blind tolerance. I think what MLK said was that we should accept people based upon the content of their character, not simply because they're black or white, but because of who they are on the inside.

I think I have kind of gone on a tangent here. But anyway. The main point is this - tolerance is bullshit. I can allow something to happen, but that doesn't mean I have to like it, or accept it. I can allow it to happen, in a live and let live kind of way. But I do NOT have to like it.

So, world, let's make a deal - you do what you want, and as long as it's not harming anyone, I won't stop you. But, I reserve the right to criticize or judge you if I have a problem with you...and you have the right to criticize and judge me as much as you like. I'm ok with it. If you think I'm wrong in my criticism or judgement, I'm perfectly willing to discuss it with you, because the free and open exchange of ideas is the only way for different people to understand one another. If I, as a rational person, find reason to accept you, then I will. But I will never blindly accept anyone or anything under the guise of tolerance.

If you think about it, Obama and McCain really weren't that different, except symbolically. The reason that Obama won and McCain is not because of the Issues, it is because McCain represented the failed Bush policies of the last 8 years. The big surprise for Democrats though, is that Obama will continue the majority of those same failed policies. Wiretapping is suddenly Ok again, the Patriot Act is suddenly ok again, Gitmo 'might' be closed down, or at least, the executive order might be given but it will remain open for a long time. Bush, Obama, and McCain had pretty much the EXACT same solutions to this economic crisis - Obama and McCain both voted for that disastrous bill, and Bush signed it. They have more in common than most would think.

Do not be fooled, people. The men and women running our Government are, for the most part, the exact same people - corrupt, power hungry, and money-grabbing. Look. We're giving away billions of OUR tax dollars to companies that take that money and spend it on trips to the fucking SPA! How did we allow this to happen? And now there is an 850 billion dollar bailout that's in the words. More of our money tossed down the drain.

Unfortunately, for Obama voters and supporters, if you were looking for change, Obama was the wrong guy to vote in. McCain, Palin, Obama, Biden, Bush, Cheney, Clinton, Gore...they're all the same. We won't be getting change today - we WILL be getting more of the same. The only way for Change to occur is to get someone who knows the value of the Constitution, knows how to live by it, knows how to run this country by it. But instead, we've played into the two party system which endlessly gives us politicians with the exact same motives and agenda.

Big Government, ignoring the Constitution, taking away your civil liberties and Constitutional rights...this is what the Republicans and Democrats stand for. Have fun in the next 4 years, folks!

Maybe next time I can
try a little better to
see your side before we break
Next time, we'll fall in love the right way
and you can tell
your friends that it was fate...

Was fooling around on my guitar and then sat down at my computer and typed that out. I should develop it some more...not sure where I want to go with it.

Obviously hate exists...people hate others for the mere fact that they are white or black or Asian or what have you.. But I always want to ask the question - WHY is that hate there? In reality, we're all not that different. Race objectively doesn't matter. If one were to think about it for a single minute, they would realize that it's incredibly stupid. So why does it matter?

I am always reminded of the Dr. Seuss story about the Sneetches, who discriminate against the other Sneetches who don't have stars on their bellies. Then the man comes around and gives those who had stars originally the opportunity to take their stars off, providing another channel for discrimination. And it continues on and on, as the Sneetches keep needing another way to discriminate. Of course, being a Dr. Seuss story, eventually they all learn that it's meaningless and live happily ever after. However, I would like you to consider how it would have gone down had they not been Sneetches, but instead humans.

I believe that if ALL humans were the same color, discrimination would still exist because some human beings just want to be evil. When white cops shoot down an innocent black man, my first thought is not that it was a racist act - my first thought is that it was an evil act done by evil men. And I submit to you all that if everyone in the world was the same color, those same cops would have killed that same man because those particular human beings are evil. And evil people do evil things.

So in reality, racism does not exist. Yes, we call it racism, anti-semetism, bigotry, xenophobia, etc., but in reality it all boils down to one principle - some people just want to hate other people, for no other reason than that they want to hate. I think focusing on 'racism' or 'anti-semetism' or any of the other words we use for discrimination is silly, because it's all the same thing - hate. Focusing on calling it racism just divides us even further. If we would all just recognize that it's just that some people want to hate others, no matter the reason, I think a lot of our racial problems would cease to exist.

I was about 8 years old. I had just finished playing a video game which involved shooting rattlesnakes(it was some cowboy game). I was also coming down with a fever. I fell asleep, and dreamed this:

I was in Costco, and we were in line to buy our stuff, and there was this lady in the line behind us, and she had a snake that was crawling around her neck, much like a snake charmer. She had a weird necklace and spoke with an echo. Anyway, she sent the snake after me to kidnap me, and then the building was set on fire...I ran and pulled the alarm, and everyone started to run outside, and I was almost the last one out, but the woman and the snake were still running after me, chanting some weird crap. And I kept running towards the door, but suddenly the floor opened up and I fell into a tank of water, and there were a bunch of snakes in there, and the woman climbed down the ladder and then the dream ended.

I just blogged about my scariest nightmare to enter The Uninvited Scariest Nightmare Contest for 1,000 credits. You can earn free credits too! Brought to you by The Uninvited - In Theaters January 30th.

Hello!

My name is Rob, and I am interested in practically everything there is. And so I intend to write as much as I can about as many things as I can, in the hopes that my friends and family will not discover this blog.

My blog name is just something I came up with on the fly. I love oxymorons and this one seemed to ring true for me in particular. A Joyful Cynic is certainly something one doesn't find often...typically, one is either joyful, or one is a cynic, because to be one would normally offset the other. I like to think of myself as a little bit of both, however.

And now a short post.

Aristotle begins book 2 of Metaphysics by saying this:

"The investigation of the truth is in one way hard, in another easy. An indication of this is found in the fact that no one is able to attain the truth adequately, while, on the other hand, we do not collectively fail, but every one says something true about the nature of things, and while individually we contribute little or nothing to the truth, by the union of all a considerable amount is amassed. Therefore, since the truth seems to be like the proverbial door, which no one can fail to hit, in this respect it must be easy, but the fact that we can have a whole truth and not the particular part we aim at shows the difficulty of it. "

Howdy! Welcome to the site

I used to blog here quite a bit under a different name...decided to scrap that and start all over again with a different name and different style. Hope you enjoy.