The general decline in standards today

[V.C. Brunswick]

You'll never convince some parents their little angels are anything but. Even when the parents are at the local police station collecting their darlings from a holding cell.

But they were "set up."

 

[Feraud]

It is the myopict double standard that is most amazing. In LA it's way too often the mom's lil gangsta bit off more than he could chew. Recently a junoir high girl in San Berdoo or Riverside had her classmates break-in to kill her mom because the mom was telling her who she could not hang out with!

We can hope that is the exception and not typical!

 

[John in Covina]

We can hope that is the exception and not typical!

With LA and SoCal being as populated as it is maybe 8 million the tv news will have gang violence or teen / kid crazyness most days. It's a ritual - end of school and prom night car accidents. Fights at the beach. liquor store hold-ups with smash and grab robberies. Shoot outs here and there. The gang thing permiates both Urban - suburban areas while the rural areas are meth labs and drug distribution places. If you want good news don't watch tv news. BUT It is actually a lot calmer then in the 70's and 80's in LA. However there are still areas i would not drive thru day or night. Some places ok in the day but not at night. It is the Got a flat tire - ride on the rim until out of that area type places.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I'm waiting for the day we allow the machines to take over..

We're soaking in it.

 

[scottyrocks]

People want fixes but don't want what is necessary for the fixes to work.

 

[Widebrim]

But they were "set up."

"But he's a good boy!" And, "Just because he pointed a gun at the police, they had to kill him? They're a bunch of [fill in the blank with "convenient" label] pigs!"

 

[Widebrim]

BUT It is actually a lot calmer then in the 70's and 80's in LA. However there are still areas i would not drive thru day or night. Some places ok in the day but not at night. It is the Got a flat tire - ride on the rim until out of that area type places.

Watts, Boyle Heights, Compton at night...to name a few. But to tell you the truth, I even avoid Hollywood at night now...

 

[LizzieMaine]

I avoid walking thru the north end of Rockland, Maine at night -- and that's where I live. The drugs are out of control here.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I avoid walking thru the north end of Rockland, Maine at night -- and that's where I live. The drugs are out of control here.

That's too bad! Has the town tried to address it?

 

[LizzieMaine]

Well, they busted the gal who used to run the local methadone clinic for dealing cocaine out of her office, so that's a start. And they took down a meth lab two houses up the street from me, which provided an evening's worth of excitement for all the neighbors. But whenever they rack up one of these idiots, a couple more pop up to take their place -- with the lobstering business in the tank this summer, so to speak, there's a lot of broke fishermen around, and you know what they say about the Devil finding work for idle hands...

 

[John in Covina]

"But he's a good boy!" And, "Just because he pointed a gun at the police, they had to kill him? They're a bunch of [fill in the blank with "convenient" label] pigs!"

We all know from film that if they wanted to they could have shot the gun out of his hand.:eeek:

 

[sheeplady]

It is the myopict double standard that is most amazing. In LA it's way too often the mom's lil gangsta bit off more than he could chew. Recently a junoir high girl in San Berdoo or Riverside had her classmates break-in to kill her mom because the mom was telling her who she could not hang out with!

What happened in this? Was the mom ok?

It would totally serve the daughter right if Mommy opened a can of gangster on her daughter and friends. But then the mother would probably be sued by the other girls parents...

 

[John in Covina]

What happened in this? Was the mom ok?

It would totally serve the daughter right if Mommy opened a can of gangster on her daughter and friends. But then the mother would probably be sued by the other girls parents...

As I recall the mom was ok just had some minor injuries. She recognized the kids and call the cops - the cops investigated and found out who was behind the attempt. It's a criminal case now.

 

[sheeplady]

As I recall the mom was ok just had some minor injuries. She recognized the kids and call the cops - the cops investigated and found out who was behind the attempt. It's a criminal case now.

Urgh. Although I have to say that you and your friends aren't really all that effective at being gangsters (thank goodness) if you can't do more than cause minor injuries to a single person; considering that you're a group attacking one person, you have the element of surprise, and you know the person's habits intimately.

I'm seriously glad that didn't happen, of course, but I hope it makes the girls think twice about their skills in this area and choose a different route, if only because they seriously stink at being little thugs.

What a sad, sad case.

 

[jamespowers]

As I recall the mom was ok just had some minor injuries. She recognized the kids and call the cops - the cops investigated and found out who was behind the attempt. It's a criminal case now.

Clearly a case that they invented Caning for.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Urgh. Although I have to say that you and your friends aren't really all that effective at being gangsters (thank goodness) if you can't do more than cause minor injuries to a single person; considering that you're a group attacking one person, you have the element of surprise, and you know the person's habits intimately.

I'm seriously glad that didn't happen, of course, but I hope it makes the girls think twice about their skills in this area and choose a different route, if only because they seriously stink at being little thugs.

What a sad, sad case.

Erm, if they're not even very good at being gangsters then chances are they're even less equipped for anything else in life. But then again, most criminals are just barely competent in their "chosen profession."

[video=youtube;9tB_hp8WOZI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tB_hp8WOZI[/video]

 

[John in Covina]

With recent events it remains a sad commentary. The shooting at the Colorado theaters shows what happens when people abandon convention.

The other that I am pointing to but will say let's not discuss is the Walmart flash rob mob in Jacksonville Florida.

It is truly sad to see such outbreaks.

 

[Patrick Hall]

John,

I too find myself soberly considering the shooting in Colorado. Perhaps the shooting itself is a sign of the cultural decay rehashed here across 296 pages, though random violence has always been with us. Personally, I'm preparing to be more horrified by the media coverage - the exploitation of victims for sentimental punch and the relentless hunt for responsible parties. I fully expect Heath Ledger's estate to be sued, on the grounds that his arresting portrayal of the Joker inspired the gunman to initiate the tragic slaughter.

Violence is never answerable, it never makes sense, it always raises more questions than it answers. It leaves us speechless, with nothing but loose ends. Once, when many of our citizens remembered the dumb chaos of the battlefield, we were wise enough and gritty enough to deal with days like today - casting the net of culpability far enough but no farther. But now - random massacres become fodder for the televised outrage of Nancy Grace and her ilk, and some wily plaintiff's attorney will ride that outrage to a fat paycheck down the line. Hat's off to them, I guess. It's a gory carton of eggs, but at least someone will make an omelet out of them. The rest of us will just have to make do with even more anxiety and ambient paranoia than there was yesterday.

If this were twitter I'd hashtag this diatribe, "#dark"


-PMH

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's an excellent commentary in the Boston Globe this morning by their film critic, Ty Burr, pointing out how much of modern popular culture is fueled by and fixated upon adolescent revenge fantasies:

He may be just another nutcase, with no ax to grind regarding this or any movie. But I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that he was responding, in his psychosis, to the tortured fantasy of power that this movie — and so much of the popular culture aimed at young men in particular — trades in. That fantasy is now everywhere. It is possible for any of us, of any age or gender, to avoid reality all day in America by keeping our eyes fixed on our screens. They’re on our walls at home and in restaurants, in our living rooms and bedrooms, toted around in our knapsacks, fitting neatly into our hands. The screens sell us many things: video games both benign and ultra-violent, empty “news” about celebrities, Facebook posts from our most intimate 2,864 friends, trailers for the latest Hollywood blockbuster in which men fly through the air and blow up everything bad in their lives. The screens tell us that we matter, each and every one of us. To look away from the screens is to confront a world that says, in most cases, no, you really don’t.

That’s hard, especially if you’re still figuring out who you are and a beautiful, conflicted superhero (or supervillain) mirrors your self-image. Our entertainment culture’s dreams of power are a drug that keeps us rapt in a cloud of promises: that we can win and that winning is everything; that we’ll be seen and heard for who we are if we’re thin enough or strong enough or have the coolest toys or the biggest guns. The fantasies lie, because the people who make the fantasies know we’re desperate to be lied to and willing to pay for it.

I think those are points well worth thinking about right now.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

The fantasies lie, because the people who make the fantasies know we're desperate to be lied to and willing to pay for it.

Or to borrow from another famous movie quote, people can't handle the truth.