"And me without my camera" written by James on estrip.org

05/07/07 03:05 - 65ºF - ID#39191

And me without my camera

Riding up Delaware Ave to drop (e:Jim) off at work the car in front of us had a rainbow flag sticker with a bear paw on it. I made some joke about a bear sighting then notice his license plate. A Virginia plate reading XXXPUP.

How fucking awesome is that?

typing his licence plate number into google yeilded this first hit

mystery solved.

fellyconnelly writes at 01:46:46 05/11/07 - Comment #18360: homosinuality is an awesome word... i'm going to have to remember that!

james writes at 11:24:36 05/10/07 - Comment #18350: And I was going to blaim a catholic bishop for your soul's fall into homosinuality.

paul writes at 10:36:13 05/10/07 - Comment #18345: I took this communciations class in college where we had to pick a fringe group and do a report. I ended up writing mine on bears. This was sometime in 1996 and it was way radical for the class I was in. I had a fun chatting with them on online. In fact I think it was my first experience chatting with a gay person online. Oh where that has lead.

fellyconnelly writes at 09:44:57 05/10/07 - Comment #18344: big hairy xxxpup man!

i agree... awesome thread..

and i definetly think that more people die in that manner than we think - i think it is more often classified as suicide for the sanity of the family/friends...

james writes at 07:14:35 05/10/07 - Comment #18338: Felly:

Ya, big hairy men works just fine as a definition. Smelly is just for zest.

Ya, the INXS fella did die from strangling himself while pounding one out. That doesn't really fall under the BDSM category, though strangling and breath-play definitely does. It is tough to say what he got off on, the enhanced orgasm from strangling, or the being strangled part. I can't say what got him off so I don't know how to categorize it.

This comment thread has been awesome by the way. Thank you everyone for participating.

fellyconnelly writes at 06:55:09 05/10/07 - Comment #18335: I always just saw bears as big hairy men. thats all.

also - didn't the guy from INXS die from auto erotic asphyxiation?
if so i don't think that would be BDSM but just Bondage. BDSM involves two persons in a submission/domination type of setting.

and james - i love your explanation of tops/bottoms.. very blunt and to the point! also your description of a bar full of hairy bears!

james writes at 09:33:28 05/10/07 - Comment #18304: Jenks: I could make a joke about profetional experience with XXX, but I won't. ^_~

Joshua: Well, we can extrapolate from below mentioned study that hets don't. Which isn't so bad in a heteronormative world for the straight individual I guess. But whether someone likes to be spanked, peed on, or just plain vanilla fun, it is just sex and what an anxious age we live in if we have academic studies on what gets us off.

The people who like to be smelly/hairy and be treated like dogs, that is swell and I tip my hat to you. To everyone who enjoys good ol' fasioned crotch slamin' sex, mazeltov. It is just sex, enjoy it.

joshua writes at 10:43:33 05/09/07 - Comment #18298: I'm happy with my sexual identity but I don't really think about it too much... it makes me wonder if heteros such as myself just don't consider it as much as the gay fellas do.

To hell with that BDSM stuff - that got that guy from INXS killed! Call me crazy, but I like the original, old school, sweaty, all-out bonin'. Having a little kink is cool, but I'm not about to drink piss out of a bowl. That ain't sex, man!

jenks writes at 09:43:17 05/08/07 - Comment #18271: Cool. Thanks. I had an idea about the other terms, but pup is a new one to me. (I DID manage to figure out the XXX part all by myself, though. ;) )

james writes at 08:31:43 05/08/07 - Comment #18268: well, we already covered tops/bottoms, doms/subs, and shiney primped gay boys/bears.

Another subculture in the sexual pantheon of homos are the pups. It is a dom/sub play thing where you treat the sub like a dog, or pup. You know, give them a leash, make them drink from a bowl on the floor (I wont go into what they might be drinking, but for pleasnatries sake let's just say it is a single malt scotch) make them sleep in a cage, all that good stuff.

Interestingly enough, a study was conducted in Australia recently that said that gay men and lesbians are more likely to engage in BDSM than their hetero counterparts and that they were more happy with their sexual identity as well. They also there was no difference between either group (BDSM and vanilla) in terms of experiencing abuse.

jenks writes at 08:20:05 05/08/07 - Comment #18267: ok, I have a different question. What does XXXPUP mean? Am I missing a joke there? Or is it just random?

james writes at 05:13:44 05/08/07 - Comment #18266: Jason: You know those queer eye for the straight guy folks? Bears are the opposite. They are manly gay men. They are hairy, smelly, and don't give a damn about pomade or wainscotting. However, the number of bears I have known have some secret overtly homosexual asthetic, like owning a cher CD or really liking Bett Midler in Yenta. People are individuals ultimatly but they love their labels.

Joshua: that is a damn awesome idea.

Peter: Basicly Tops like to stick their dicks in butts. Bottoms like to have dicks and other assorted things stuck in their butt. Power, domination, and all that other good stuff is optional. So you could be a dominate bottom and shove your butt on some guys shlong. A hetero version would be a woman who spanks her male friend and calls him a baby for not fucking her hard enough.

Sex is a many faced and confusing subject. I mean, what sort of catagory does the guy who gets off from smelling fresh q-tips fit into? I don't know, but a sexual world full of variety is a wonderous one we should all romp through now and again.

metalpeter writes at 04:23:29 05/08/07 - Comment #18262: Not being gay by self I'm not sure if I can explain it right. My understanding is the top is the aggresser or the one who starts things going sexualy. They are the ones in control and who like to control things. Supposidly two tops won't get along because they will both try to control the sexaul situation. Bottoms like to be controlled. I Have no idea if tops and bottoms have anything to do with what sexual position is used or not. Even though you can have gay S&M if guess it would be like if the top where was the dom and bottom was the submissive. When I have heard the term "bear" I all ways thought of someone who was furry like a bear, but also is kinda built like one also in terms of being wide and maybe short and heavy. Lumbjacks are tall and have a completely different build. Again I'm not gay so I could be completely wrong about this.

joshua writes at 04:18:04 05/08/07 - Comment #18261: Forget top/bottom - I think sports euphemisms are far better!

jason writes at 04:09:38 05/08/07 - Comment #18260: I'm serious man, what is a "Bear" compared to a normal gay guy? The lumberjack types? I didn't peruse too much but most of the guys looked big framed, lots of hair (face and body).

james writes at 04:00:10 05/08/07 - Comment #18259: Joshua:
That famous sexual cosmonaut and social critique Gore Vidal rejects the idea of gender roles but totally believes in Tops and Bottoms. I don't get it. People should spend more time doing what they like rather than penning themselves in a neat little roll. What confusing people.

Felly: I worked in a middle of no where gay bar that was somewhat notorious for running a New York beat weekend. Where all the NYC bears would come up to conneticut, drink and do drugs in this bar and then go camping and have lots of sex.

The ammount of fur in that bar would clog an armada of vacuums. *shiver*

joshua writes at 03:14:15 05/08/07 - Comment #18257: The gay lingo I really, really don't get. I understand why this guy might be referred to as a "bear" but the top/bottom thing is something different.

I think somebody a while back made a post about this lingo that would probably shed some light on this.

fellyconnelly writes at 10:22:29 05/08/07 - Comment #18253: wow... that is one hairy bear!

james writes at 05:18:15 05/07/07 - Comment #18228: You know, I think there is something to your terminology. Never again will I think of the lumberjack as exclusie terain of Lesbians.

jason writes at 05:00:34 05/07/07 - Comment #18227: Is Bear411 strictly for lumberjack gays?

Permalink: And_me_without_my_camera.html
Words: 64
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/05/07 09:08 - 57ºF - ID#39169

Choke this down with your mint julip

giggle snort*

a horse in the Kentucky Derby is named Scat Daddy

that is all

snort giggle*

Permalink: Choke_this_down_with_your_mint_julip.html
Words: 17
Location: Buffalo, NY

05/04/07 09:05 - 61ºF - ID#39156

Bubble Mother Fucking Tea, mother fucker

I am pleased as punch

The sort of punch distilled from a child's smile ground of their face and mixed with scotch. Oh yes, it was indeed a happy moment.

I had heard of bubble tea a few years ago, and it sounded bizarrely exotic. Buffalo seems to culinary be insular. We have great food here. But I the thai places are blah, I have yet to have good Chinese food, and most good restaurants seem to work on that American/French fusion formula "Large piece of meat and braised veggies". That is great and all but not the best place to expand your palate.

But while waiting for photos to be developed at Color tech Jim and I had a snack/dinner at Bao Bakery and Teahouse. Holy crap it was wonderful. It is a little Chinese bakery and offers a huge list of bubble teas and other drinks. I have been looking for a chinese bakery since I moved here. Even in tiny little Albany there was one filled with amazing baked goods.

If you don't know what is up with Chinese baking, it works like this. You take this croissant like crumbly pastry and fill it with anything, teriyaki chicken, BBQ pork, tofu and veggies. And oh man, these were do good and only 85 cents a bun. Two buns will satisfy anyone when hungry.

The bubble tea was so much better/weirder than I thought it would be. I had lychee flavor. 12 oz of lychee tea was so much more than I could drink. Gnawing on black pearls of tapioca is magically weird. It is, like Guinness, a meal in a can/cup.

So, if you are ever near Thunderdome/The Boulevard Mall please stop by and drink/eat until you are giddy from all the super tasty treats.

love

Permalink: Bubble_Mother_Fucking_Tea_mother_fucker.html
Words: 303
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/30/07 09:05 - 61ºF - ID#39109

For U Buffalo H8tahs

I found this article while looking for a picture of the Hutchinson house which is now the leveled parking lot of the Saturn club.

Here is an excerpt:

There is a fine line between something and nothing and Buffalo manages to walk it straight despite the large quantities of alcohol it consumed in hopes of blurring that line just a little wider. Unlike other cities, where it's easy to sink into the flow of everything's fine, in Buffalo, you must be a prophet or drown in utter mediocrity. Buffalo demands existential authenticity, and the rock we push up the hill (only to have it roll back down over us time and time again) is our only salvation. Like Rimbaud in the gutters and back-alleys of Paris, in Buffalo, you have no choice but to remake life; there's no bullshit left to buy, no palace gates to hide behind (I endure Siddhartha Gautama's 4 passing sights whenever I walk out my front door). Buffalo is the most advanced city in America; we progressed beyond progress.

And the full deal is here

enjoy kittens

Permalink: For_U_Buffalo_H8tahs.html
Words: 181
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/29/07 08:11 - 49ºF - ID#39088

Saving a dead whale for supper.

Damn, I am good.

I don't say this to pat myself on the back. For I am pliable enough to do that myself and I am sitting down now anyway and the patting would be uncomfortable for the both of us.

But we are moving in a month, and over the two years we have lived here I have become my mother. This is not to say I have at any point lactated or made someone believe baby Jesus cries when you touch yourself; rather I have collected enough food to stock a bomb shelter for however long the half-life of Plutonium is.

I have no intention of moving several thousand pounds of adzuki beans, a metric ton of brown rice, an drum of olive oil, and enough canned tomatoes to bomb Drezden to the ground. So, it is up to me to use this cyclopian collection of foods up.

It was easy enough at first, there were palatable connections to make among the items. But over the last few weeks the options have become less enjoyable. Tonight I had a 28oz can of crushed tomatoes, some half and half about to expire, stale abarito rice, and various fresh foods. I should mention that out of concern for using all these staples, I have been ignoring all the veggies which are in various stages of rotting.

Well, creamy tomato risotto with chicken sausage and crimany mushrooms actually came out well. But I am affraid i am running out of possibilities. What do you do with a pound of freeze dried shitaki mushrooms, cannelloni beans and lasagna noodles? And if you say shitaki bean lasagna I wont hear of it. I wont make another culinary abortion like that.

But, just three more weeks until the moving van is here and life can resume to normal. And I can begin creating another future crisis of too much food that doesn't go together.

Permalink: Saving_a_dead_whale_for_supper_.html
Words: 320
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/26/07 02:56 - 58ºF - ID#39056

My Silly Phobia

Hi folks,

If anyone is planning on using this information to torture/murder me I must warn you, it wont be easy.

I have a phobia, and it is really weird. Do you know anyone else that has this, because it is starting to make me think I am too weird for my own good; moving from charmingly eccentric to fucking psychotic.

I get really freaked out by gas giant planets. Jupiter is alright, but Neptune and Uranus boarder on bowel loosening terror. Recently, the discovery of this earth like planet were cause of panic. The planet itself is sufficiently earth like to be fine, but it's sun is much smaller and cooler than ours and looms 5x larger in the sky than our sun does. That was close enough to a gas giant to really let me get nervous. Imagine, the very life giving sun above your head is the source of your terror? What a hellish planet. I nearly spent the remander of the day under the bed sheets, shivering.

So, does anyone else suffer from this malady? Know anyone? Or am I stranded in this neurosis alone?

help.

james writes at 11:29:35 04/28/07 - Comment #17926: Josh: It is experienced in weird ways in the imagination. Like reading about the below mentioned planet. But, you are right, it is pretty easy to handle.

THe gasbag planets might have a solid of liquid core, but none that you would want trapse around on. Well, I wouldn't at least. The wikipedia article on Jupiter has some interesting stuff about its core as well as it being too small to be a star. An interesting if not horrifying Lovecraftian read.

joshua writes at 10:58:23 04/28/07 - Comment #17922: Well, one thing about this particular phobia is nice - you'll never actually experience it for real.

I do find it weird to think of a planet that has no land mass to speak of. They say Jupiter was a star that never got big or hot enough to ignite.

james writes at 03:03:59 04/27/07 - Comment #17899: Nice try Jason. I am cool with noxious gasses. Just not so much noxious gas that you get a whole huge ass planet.

jason writes at 02:48:49 04/27/07 - Comment #17895: Mmmm! Ammonia and Hydrogen Sulfide! Get two lungs full!

james writes at 02:17:05 04/27/07 - Comment #17893: theecarey: red suns are fine by me. Some of the other colored ones sound awesome. Like Blue! Or those half-dead brown ones. I mean, a brown star? That joke practicaly writes itself!

Josh: Dude you are seriously freaking me out. Thankfully I find this whole phobia really funny. So my cold sweat and terror are making me giggle.

Jenks: right on!

jenks writes at 01:17:11 04/27/07 - Comment #17892: heh, low blow joshy!!

joshua writes at 11:26:43 04/27/07 - Comment #17891: Can you imagine travelling through Jupiter if you could? You'd basically fall straight through layers of gas that eventually turn into liquefied metallic hydrogen and your body would get crushed far before you'd ever arrive.

theecarey writes at 10:37:24 04/26/07 - Comment #17878: Ah see, thats why your post made me think of Goldilocks then ;)

imagine staring up at a red sun?!

james writes at 10:28:52 04/26/07 - Comment #17877: oh ya, I mentioned that planet above. It the hell out of me. And for the record only the hell was scared out of me.

theecarey writes at 10:22:25 04/26/07 - Comment #17876: No bowel loosening intentions here, but I can appreciate a good fear inducing borderline neurosis (babies, spider monkeys and clowns for me). I'm not sure how gaseous she is, but I think 'Goldilocks' may send you crying. Similar to Earth, the planet has just one sun, but its a big ole bright red one. Also possibly inhabited :) read on..

:::link:::

Permalink: My_Silly_Phobia.html
Words: 193
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/25/07 03:52 - 45ºF - ID#39039

What happened?

Dear me,

What ever happened to the hardened alcoholic I fell in love with all those years ago? I used to watch you, in an existential sort of way, do a shot of grain alcohol and chase it with plastic jug popov vodka and smile. Oh, you would smile. For you were getting drunk, way too drunk to tell the difference between alcohol and laundry soap. But he's dead now. The self I fell in love with is dead to us all now.

So,

I thought I would take a nostalgic drink down memory lane and picked up a bottle of Seagrams lime infused gin. Last time I had a bottle of this particular gin I was atop a mountain in Pennsylvania along the Appalachian trail, tripping my face off with about eight other people. It was crisp and delicious, the way anything can be while on drugs if you convince yourself enough of it.

Man, while cultivating a certain refinement I didn't think my appreciation for the shittier things in life would wane. But wane they have. I have become spoiled by good wine and beer, leaving my love for cheap but plentiful hard liquor behind. And sad to say my first alcohol soaked love, gin, went first. But I thought I would be safe. I could still drink my cheap brand x whiskey. But that sweet, sweet taste of Jamison makes me wonder why I don't shack up with him.

For the first time in my life I can't help but to think that life would have been better had I been born in a prison. That way I could have raised my palate on toilet hooch. And now, among men of the free world, I would be wide eyed in wonderment that a drink doesn't cause throat scaring. That people have liquor cabinets and bars, not storing them in plastic bags in a toilet tank.

Truly, it would be a wonderful world.

Permalink: What_happened_.html
Words: 325
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/20/07 12:07 - 46ºF - ID#38975

Makes you want to throw up dosn't it?

So, how about fighting religious extremists at home?

james writes at 06:58:40 04/20/07 - Comment #17718: MC: WWJD? I would hope he would strike Phelps as god did Saul.

Peter: I imagine Jesus as a hip and groovy guy. One who's first miracle was to turn water into wine so that we could all party and get our freak on. The words of Jesus himself make no condemnation against much of anything. He would be as aghast with Phelps as any sensible person or demi-human would be.

Carolinian: Phelps and his bunch are so fucked up they can't even get a moderately large following in a place like Topeka. Or do I think of it that way because Phelps has tainted Topeka? We must all go to a fetish bar in Topeka to feel out what the natives are like.

carolinian writes at 06:51:10 04/20/07 - Comment #17717: Only a small church? I would have imagined such passion and zeal to be at least worthy of a moderately-sized ATF-resistant compound.

metalpeter writes at 06:17:00 04/20/07 - Comment #17716: (e:musemchick) you bring up a good point about what would Jesus do. One of the problems with organised realigon is that you get people who read the Bible and base what they do on a book that was writen 400 years after his death. That would be like if after we got our indepence from England now one wrote a history book until today. Not to mention the fact that there where other scripts that could be in the bible but "The Church" not jesus had a say in what stories where put into the bible. People should do what they belive is right based on what they believe Jesus would do not the church. Most people don't understand that those two are different and think that the church and Jesus are the same. But that being said There are multiple branches of Christianty and some of them hate other branches of the same basic beleif system.

museumchick writes at 04:14:39 04/20/07 - Comment #17703: What would Jesus do?

Would he tell people to picket someone's funeral?

Arrgh.

jason writes at 02:08:17 04/20/07 - Comment #17698: Since his following consists of mainly his personal set of friends and his family, they would be fairly easy to round up. Hell, stage a fake "fag-in" and wait for them to walk right into the trap.

Well, since we can't do that, we'll just have to do what we do with all radicals - shout them down ourselves.

zobar writes at 01:50:37 04/20/07 - Comment #17697: The Rev Phelps has been around this block more than once :::link:::

- Z

jim writes at 01:38:52 04/20/07 - Comment #17696: I'd say, ignore the trolls. Protesting these people just escalates the coverage they receive.

james writes at 01:10:38 04/20/07 - Comment #17694: oh, I am all for absolute free speach. Yell fire in a crowded theater. I am cool with it, espetialy if there is a fire.

These people are ignorant fucks, however. They picket the funerals of US soldiers because they are in an institution that is friendly towards gays. And I guess unless the military isn't stringing up homosexuals they are freindly to them.

Or picketing the funerals of people who have died of AIDS. After all, AIDS is a fag disease, and all those place in Africa where the infection rate is over 30% of the total population ,well, must be dem fags.

I am glad we live in a country where people can say whatever they want. But I am sad we live in a country where more people don't protest the protesters, though there are certainly several examples of people doing so.

joshua writes at 12:59:30 04/20/07 - Comment #17693: Welcome to the dark side of the 1st Amendment. =/

Permalink: Makes_you_want_to_throw_up_dosn_t_it_.html
Words: 10
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/19/07 10:55 - 45ºF - ID#38955

My Favorite Republican

Right now I am listening to Alberto Gonzalez testify before the senate judiciary committee. Al's voice sounds so soft. I imagine him wide eyed, doe like. Naughty boy is going to be spanked. And he is.

So far, I want to make dirty sweet love to Arlen Specter in thanks. That man knows how to rake someone over the coals while sounding paternal.

Al's strategy so far is
1) "I can't recall"
2) "Kyle Sampson has that information"

But Arlen, how you cut through that. Asking Al "Do you prepare for all of your hearings? Do you prepare for all your press conferences?" Oh yes, YES YES! You just hit my g-spot Mr. Gentleman from Pennsylvania. Hit that! YA!

I really don't know much about Specter on many of the issues. But during the confirmation hearings for Harriet Myers, Sammy Alito DAMN! Specter fucked their shit up! I don't care if he wants to burn all the gays, deport the Jews, and enslave the blacks. He knows how to toss daggers with kisses from his jowly mouth.

You are my favorite Republican Mr. Specter.

You hear that John McCain? Ya, you knew you were on my shit list from your shift from Maverick Republican with principle to Straight Talk Crap Express far right wing blow job giving dog. But you a buried beneith the specter of your former self... that and Arlen Specter. It is over between us. Mail back the ring, no, pawn it. I don't want it anyway.

love,

-James

Permalink: My_Favorite_Republican.html
Words: 250
Location: Buffalo, NY

04/18/07 02:33 - 42ºF - ID#38941

Just so you know

In Virginia 33 people were killed.

Between this weekend and today about 500 people were killed in several separate bomb attacks including 178 today alone.

So, what exactly makes a tragedy? Proximity? Perceived kinship?

james writes at 10:33:44 04/19/07 - Comment #17654: Jason:

I don't know anyone involved in Virginia. I don't think most Americans do, or involved in 9/11, Waco, Oklahoma City Bombing, or any of those events. I find it interesting that we have an emotional reaction, a violent one often, based on national lines. That nationhood can define our sense of tragedy is really odd, really disheartening even.

And things like this did happen in the 40's. Things like this have happened throughout our American history without pause. More guns, less guns. City or rural. Surly, our capacity to take out dozens more people than we could with a poswer musket becomes more and more real, but one or more nutjobs deciding to just obliterate as many people as they can happens.

jason writes at 08:27:09 04/19/07 - Comment #17650: James, you make a fantastic point - it's about more than just guns! Shit like this didn't happen in the '40s. Our country is fucking diseased.

jason writes at 08:25:43 04/19/07 - Comment #17649: 61.36% of all statistics are made up.

They both are tragedies, but if we want to parse it into how severe a tragedy can be, then I think without a doubt proximity is one of the most important factors.

Consider the fatalities in Iraq for a moment - heck, let's parse it further and only consider American deaths. They are our families and friends, yet I'd bet most people aren't as outraged by their deaths as they are by the VT killing spree. Why is this? Well, the situations have their glaring, obvious differences, but really it is because we don't "feel" the Iraq deaths like we do the VT deaths. No matter how much the media shovels it down our throats we will not feel it as deeply unless someone dies that we know. Would we feel so aggrieved over a massacre at the American University in Beirut? I doubt it.

james writes at 09:27:59 04/18/07 - Comment #17646: Peter: Nah, we didn't care too much in Bosnia either.

Zobar: That is why we should either stockpile lots of guns or start sleeping with a Marine. =

zobar writes at 09:24:30 04/18/07 - Comment #17645

By the numbers: The events of September 11, 2001 killed 2,973 people; the war in Iraq has killed 3,312 US servicemen and 769 contractors*. Therefore, as an American, you are 37% more likely to be killed by George Bush than Osama Bin Laden.

- Z

_______________

It has also killed 266 non-US coalition servicemembers, 201 non-Iraqi civilians, and anywhere between 50,000 and a half million Iraqis. Considering that I just paid the IRS $2,000 in support of this operation, this is not math I'm willing to consider right now.

metalpeter writes at 07:06:23 04/18/07 - Comment #17642: I will agree that when a Bomb goes off in a market it is a tragedy. That being said there is a perception in this country that they are Muslum, and Iraqi and that it is no big deal. I think if this same thing was going on in a European courntry the perception would be a lot different. But the truth is that we know that some people there don't want us there so we don't care that they die. Some people also think that these 3 tribes of people don't like each other and have been fighting for so long and allways will so if they all hate each other than it isn't tragic. There is also the view that some people hold that everyone in the middle east is barbaric. But I still stick to any people who are freedom fighters, insurgents, terrorist or in an army or fighting force who die isn't tragic. Yes it is to bad for their family but they chose to do something that they knew might kill them. The exception to that is friendly fire. What happend to Pat Tillman and others should never happen.

You make a great point about the fact that he was mentally ill will get lost. I think that the issue of how do we treat or deal with the mentally ill will get lost also. There are a lot of issues there. Did he not get help cause no one wanted to help him. Or was the way he was brought up he didn't belive he should be helped. This is a large and not talked about issue in our country. Yes a lot of people do get help with issues or problems they may have. But often people fall through the cracks. A good example of this is when you see someone walking down the street and they aren't talking to them selves they are having a real conversation with someone who isn't there and there body movements even fit that conversation. The question is how to you make sure everyone gets help. Then what do you do for those that don't want the help. But also how do you test for it. Does each person come forward on there own or do people have to see a sign.

james writes at 06:36:58 04/18/07 - Comment #17641: Chick: I agree, there is tragedy in everything and we have to be careful to not let numbers dictate the magnitude of tragedy.

Jenks: Oh, how the media can portray a tragedy is a whole other issue. Fucking Wolf Blitzer sitting at his CNN desk infront of a green screan made to look like a campus. It is fake. It is a pony show. And the media shouldn't tell us how we feel about a tragedy otherwise 200 deaths in Iraq is a snooze fest.

Peter: When someone sets off a bomb in a crowded market 200 military personel don't die. Children, mothers, brothers, etc die. You go for some bread and end up smeared over a wall. It makes no difference if you are aware of the possibility of death when we all die. In Iraq one bomber may die but scores of innocent people follow. We are randomly thrown into this world, perhaps in the bloated wealth of the west or into more humble origins in Baghdad. Either way a human life is a human life. Even still, the man who decided to take 32 other people with him into death is tragic. Mentally ill and not receiving treatment, the conditions of his birth and upbringing almost seem that he would inevitably take this path.

There is debate about the second amendment and gun control. I think this is silly. Any arms in the hands of anyone can be miss used. The real issue should be how we treat and care for the mentally ill. I expect this will be lost in the clutter of our self absorbed tragedy.

metalpeter writes at 06:20:14 04/18/07 - Comment #17639: What makes it a tragedy is innocance!!!!!!!

The deaths in Iraq arn't innocant at all. The deaths are soilders who decided on there own to join the military. On the Iraq side the same can be said of the insurgents or other Iraq Military. Then you have waring factions who chose to attack each other. Yes there are some civilians who die and that is sad. But the general view is that they live there my choice and like living there and take the risk instead of leaving. The other view is that they are civilians who support one waring faction or another. So simply it is a war that everyone signed up for and they are all willing to die if it means freedom for there cause.

When you go to school it isn't supposed to be a war zone. You go there for multiple reasons to fight isn't one of them. If there where gangs at the college you attended then you would leave. If you thought that Hey never ben in a gang before this is kinda cool. Or I love that there is a race war on campus this will be fun to watch. Then when you blow up your dorm making a Molitov cocktail then it isn't sad, cause you decided you wanted to be violent. It would still be sad for the innocent people who get hurt.

It is allways tragic when the innocent are hurt.

jenks writes at 05:02:02 04/18/07 - Comment #17632: I think some of it is that deaths in Iraq are getting (sadly) to be 'old news'. "Oh, 200 people died? yawn." It's also not on home turf, and I think there's a bit of 'out of sight out of mind'. But I think the biggest thing is that there's a war going on over there. Death is part of war. Death should not be a part of going to school.

But I'm not saying I disagree with you. It is a little upsetting that we're super-freaking out over what's essentially a drop in the bucket compared to what happens all over the world every day.

Or, maybe it's just that the media needs something to fixate on now that Anna Nicole's baby has a daddy. ;)

museumchick writes at 04:48:07 04/18/07 - Comment #17630: I think any loss of human life, irregardles of the number is a great tragedy. It's all senseless.

It's strange with the idea of media attention to something like this compared to Iraq- because if you look at it, violence in Iraq gets much more attention than some of the other violence in the world.It seems like there is never anything on tv about the Sudan or the Congo and the genocide taking place.

james writes at 03:22:54 04/18/07 - Comment #17627: Absolutely both are tragic. Only I mass murdering fuck head like Uncle Joe Stalin could come up with the tragedy/statistic differentiation.

The thing I find interesting is that on average 100 people in Iraq are killed. But we generally don't care. But now we have prayer services, schools are closing, the media is camping out in front of their green screens that look like a campus. We are mobalizing because of a perceived connection to these people, where we feel a very faint one with the people in Iraq.

I find that both interesting and deeply troubling.