The Los Angeles DA continues not to do his job.
J.K. Rowling of Harry Potter fame gets cancelled again.
And do our kids really need to be pulled further from reality?
They Don’t Care
Remember in my podcast yesterday, I talked about how miserable Los Angeles was and how Josie was completely surprised about it? I told her it was because nothing was illegal.
Well, Los Angeles District Attorney, George Gascon, has decided to create a program for juvenile criminals so that they don’t automatically get locked up.
The program is called “Restorative Enhanced Diversion for Youth Pathway” and is meant to send the fledgling criminals to rehabilitation instead of Juvenile Hall. I actually thought that Juvenile Hall was a form of rehabilitation.
The felonies that would qualify:
- Burglary
- Assault without firearms or extensive injuries
- Vehicle theft
- Robbery
- Grand theft person
- Sexual battery
- Arson
I don’t know about you but those seem like some pretty serious felonies. Sexual battery? Arson? It sounds to me that these people may need to be punished along with being rehabilitated. In all these crimes, there are victims. What about their rights to live without having to worry about being assaulted.
Deputy DA Jonathan Hatami is not thrilled about it at all. He says that this is a slap on the wrist for some very serious felonies. He said:
“Diversion means that we’re not charging anybody, So, if we’re not charging anybody, they don’t go through the court system. So you can’t give them any sort of programs that are monitored through the court.”
This has been tried in New York and Chicago and, guess what, it doesn’t work. So, good for Los Angeles. Time to move if you can because things are just getting worse.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/los-angeles-gascon-diversion-program-youth-criminals
We Have Too Much Time on Our Hands
This is a story that really shows the state of this country and how good we actually have it here that this is a story.
According to the New York Post:
The sport inspired by “Harry Potter” is going full muggle.
US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch said in a joint news release that they will change their name, citing author J.K. Rowling’s outspoken views on transgender issues.
JK Rowlings basically said that men are men and women are women and men who say they are women should not be able to compete in sports against women. That’s transphobic, apparently.
I thought that was common sense.
The league’s statement:
US Quidditch and Major League Quidditch said in a joint news release that they will change their name, citing author J.K. Rowling’s outspoken views on transgender issues.
Our sport has developed a reputation as one of the most progressive sports in the world on gender equality and inclusivity, in part thanks to its gender maximum rule, which stipulates that a team may not have more than four players of the same gender on the field at a time,” the leagues’ statement said. “Both organizations feel it is imperative to live up to this reputation in all aspects of their operations and believe this move is a step in that direction.
If you have never seen Harry Potter and don’t know how to play Quidditch, you’re not alone. It is a fictional game where kids fly around on brooms trying to hit a ball into a goal while two others chase a thingy. If the thingy is caught, game over. If not, the team with the most goals wins.
So, I had to watch what a typical game in this league looks like. Basically, it’s water polo on grass while the players run around with a ball while holding sticks in between their legs.
This has become a story in this country. My God.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/18/quidditch-league-changing-name-over-j-k-rowlings-trans-views/
IT’S NOT REAL!
If you thought that the last story is an example of people not being in touch with reality, wait until you hear this story.
According to the New York Post:
Meta revealed the incident on Dec. 1, saying it occurred on Nov. 26. The woman had reported the assault on the Horizon Worlds beta testing Facebook group.
“Sexual harassment is no joke on the regular internet, but being in VR adds another layer that makes the event more intense,” she wrote, according to the Verge. “Not only was I groped last night, but there were other people there who supported this behavior, which made me feel isolated in the Plaza,” the virtual environment’s central gathering space.
I have an Oculus and I love it. It is great with families, playing the saber games. We cast the VR to the television and we can all watch as we play and hear what’s going on. We played some of the horror games and my house mates watched as we took turns playing. They said it was like watching a movie. It’s a lot of fun.
It also gives a lot of exercise. You’re sweating after some of these games. But I do have some issues with what Facebook is doing with this. I understand why they are doing it. It’s a great idea. I just don’t think it’s good for a society that is already disconnected from each other. We’ll get more into that in a few minutes.
Further down the article:
In its statement about the incident, Meta pointed to its “Safe Zone” feature, which allows users to place a block against interaction with other users. However, the company admitted that it needs to work on making the feature “trivially easy and findable,” said Vivek Sharma, the vice president of Horizon, in a statement to the Verge.
Meta spokesperson Kristina Milian also told MIT Technology Review that users are required to complete training that covers safeguarding tools before joining Horizon Worlds, while reminders are also prompted during users’ experiences.
We have to have safe spaces in a video game. That’s what Oculus is, it’s a video game.
Sexual harassment in virtual reality is sexual harassment in real life, full stop, experts have said.
“At the end of the day, the nature of virtual-reality spaces is such that it is designed to trick the user into thinking they are physically in a certain space, that their every bodily action is occurring in a 3-D environment,” Katherine Cross, a Ph.D. student researcher of online harassment at the University of Washington, told Technology Review.
“It’s part of the reason why emotional reactions can be stronger in that space, and why VR triggers the same internal nervous-system and psychological responses,” she added.
No, sexual harassment in VR is not the same as sexual harassment in life. This is the problem. If sexual harassment in VR is real then I am a mass murderer because of the games I’ve played Call of Duty. I am a batterer because I played Mortal Combat. I am a Jedi because I play Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes. I can promise you, I am not any of those things.
This is also a real insult to women who are actually sexually harassed. And where does it end? Will we have virtual rape? How about virtual murder? Are we going to have to create laws, now, to counter virtual crimes? Are we going to see civil lawsuits? See where I’m going with this?
We, as a society, are already having problems with reality. We think men can be women. We think the 1619 Project is real history. We have become lazy and fat. Now, with virtual reality, we don’t even need to get off the couch to meet with people, to socialize.
Finally, do our kids really need something like this? The Internet has been the greatest blessing and the worst curse. For me, it is all human knowledge at my finger tips. Whenever I have a question, I look it up. But for our kids, who have always had this technology, it has become life itself. Look at a 15 year old with a phone. He is constantly on it. Their entire lives become content on social media. They cannot actually socialize with people directly. They text.
Any you can tell it is affecting our kids. Drug addiction and overdoses is up. Depression is up. Our population is shrinking. I believe, in 10 to 20 years, one will need to be 21 to own a smart phone because we will have found the damage that they are doing to these generations.
https://nypost.com/2021/12/17/woman-claims-she-was-virtually-groped-in-meta-vr-metaverse/
https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-investigated-woman-claims-she-was-groped-in-metas-metaverse-2021-12#:~:text=Meta%20launched%20an%20investigation%20after,a%20stranger%20in%20the%20metaverse&text=A%20beta%20tester%20of%20Meta’s,hadn’t%20enabled%20safety%20features.
Opinion
This is Christmas week and, as you can imagine, the Grinch’s on the Left are going all out to convince everyone that we should be miserable during one of the best, and most revered holiday for Christians, Christmas. There is an opinion article from the Washington Post called I Hate Christmas and You Should Be OK with That by Brian Broome.
I read this thing because I pay for the service and I love to hear what these idiots have to say. This article left me with one question which I’ll get to after I read you the article.
I can feel it now the way a buzzard can smell carrion from miles away. The dreaded season is here, even if the commercials started long ago. The ads feature beautiful people wearing violently colorful sweaters and pouring fine liquor into glistening glassware. The stores where I buy my meager Hungry-Man frozen dinners now explode with silver and red in a gaudy celebration of unchecked, poinsettia-riddled capitalism.
I hate Christmas.
Right off the bat, Christmas is capitalism. Capitalism is bad so Christmas, too, is bad.
Listen, I think Christmas has become too commercial and I hate shopping too but I also know the meaning of Christmas and do not mix the two.
We don’t speak up, us holiday haters. We tend to keep our feelings to ourselves. We endure the commercial breaks that remind us that “Every kiss begins with Kay” and watch as still more beautiful people are surprised by enormous red bows on top of expensive cars. We watch the advertisements for Hallmark movies in which some successful yet unhappy woman moves to a small town and discovers the “true meaning of Christmas” by meeting some working-class dude for whom she will upend her entire life just because he gives her a snow globe.
But, this year, I’d like to be heard. Not everyone is down for all this glee.
Who the hell is this guy kidding?
We hear about how bad Christmas is every year. Television shows I used to watch are cancelled because they offend someone. Articles like this are all over the Internet. We can’t say Merry Christmas. It has to be Happy Holidays.
And it’s not just Christmas that’s attacked. President’s Day, Easter, Independence Day, Columbus Day and Thanksgiving are all being pounded on right now.
I wish these guys would stop talking about it.
I come from a Christian family, and I recognize the significance of the holiday. I know the backstory; as a child, in a church play, I turned in quite a nuanced performance as a camel. But I hated Christmas even then because my family didn’t have money. We got practical presents in the good years: A scarf, new mittens, socks and, of course, the dreaded underpants. Our holiday tree glowing bright in the middle of the living room was a beacon to disappointment.
I didn’t like Christmas in part because the steel mill where my father worked had closed. That news did nothing to stop the commercials with shiny, happy, children opening reams of colorful paper to reveal the things that they’d always wanted. The ads seemed to suggest that the more stuff you got, the better person you were. I learned through those commercials that good people got presents and that my family was trash. I took it into me every year like communion.
Sometimes, I wonder what essential part of me is missing. I know that Christmas is supposed to be about family. But as I grew to adulthood and became my own person, I found that family can be challenging when thrust upon you all at once.
The part he is missing is that he really doesn’t “recognize the significance of the holiday.” It’s not about presents.
Each year around this time, I find it more difficult to balance the awful things we see happening the rest of the year with the joy I’m supposed to drum up near the end of it. With age, it’s harder for me to reconcile the good will we’re supposed to feel toward each other at the holidays with the horrible way we treat each the rest of the year. It just feels fake.
You may have a loved one who seems out of sorts this time of year. I ask only that you try to understand that this forced cheer can exacerbate feelings of despair. For some, the sound of Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” portends a dark time where we feel the need to force something that just isn’t within us. That’s partly why, each year, I give to and support an organization that provides children from struggling families with toys. I give them as much of my money and time as I can afford. I don’t want any child to feel like I did when something shiny wasn’t beneath the tree.
Here’s the thing: We should have the joy one has during Christmas all year round. That’s what stories like A Christmas Carol are all about. This is the message we receive in church. The same feelings we have now we should have all year round.
This guy doesn’t allow himself to have those feeling in the first place because he was bitter he didn’t get all the great presents when he was a kid.
But there is a little hope for him. At least he’s charitable.
There have even been years when I have skipped Christmas completely, taken advantage of the fact that the whole country is shut down and silent, and spent the day watching horror movies alone and eating Chinese take-away. Someone you know, and love, may prefer this option.
For those who hate the holidays, I stand with you. I understand and know what you’re going through. If you are like me, you are strapping in again, steeling yourself for the onslaught the way others might for a hurricane. I just try to ride it out.
And for those of you who don’t love it but choose to participate anyway, you have my sympathies. Just put on your colorful sweater, grab some liquor in fine glassware and slap on a smile. The world will be back to normal before you know it.
What a sad, cynical, little man. Can you imagine how miserable this man is? This is not someone I would want anything to do with. I know, (well, knew) people like this. I wanted nothing to do with them. They were downers.
I told you there was a question I had after I read this article and it goes to the Washington Post: Why? What made he editor say, “This is an awesome article! Let’s run with it!”? If I listed all the reasons I liked Christmas, would they publish it?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/12/why-brian-broome-hates-christmas/