To Be Shot

Suicide is something seldom ever covered in the press. It's a foul aspect of society, and most papers don't cover it for fear of inciting copy-cat incidents. Youth, and as a former member of Canada's youthful population myself, gets some funny ideas. Some seek suicide as a claim to fame. It's silly, really. As the dead have no need for fame. The dead aren't missed. The living just go on doing just that.

However, I stumbled across this article while cruising the lanes in Google News. It's one of the rare instances where suicide will hit the papers, as it's a case that defies typical logic. It breaks the pattern.
Quoting from the article:

"Everyone wished that the outcome had been better. No one wanted this outcome. Not us, not the police, not anyone wanted this outcome," said Shirley Klim, his grandmother.

The lad was shot by police when he brandished a knife. He was suicidal. In the end, he got his wish. Of all the people touched by this tragedy, perhaps he was the only one who got what he wanted in the end. It's such an awful waste of a life, and one has to wonder if the police did the right thing. A tazer was used, but it wasn't enough, I suppose.

It's easy to be wise about this kind of thing, but in the end, we really have to ask if the best means of meeting the absolute end is to just throw ourselves on the barrels of our enforcement agencies? Officers have the authority to protect themselves, but at the same time, it's their job to protect us as well - even when we're not in our right mind and brandishing a knife.

Unless I've missed something, and everyone who isn't in their right mind is somehow less than every other miserable individual on this planet.

The Genocide continues

Well, after a whole lot of procrastinating, sitting on my ass, and doing a whole lot of nothing, I figure it's time to get this bird rolling again. Or stone flying. Or however these things are supposed to work.

Anyway, so things to note that will now differ from my tone on prior entries. I'm no longer going to try and be "unbiased." While it's true that I'm what most would call "painfully moderate," I will admit I do have some left-leaning ideologies. Now, if for a minute you think I'm hateful, you're probably right. I'm a misanthrope produced in the furnaces of all the worst society has to offer, so don't be surprised if I not only don't take sides, but slag both sides for being what they are.

Also, you needn't bring up my past in the press as an argument point. Also, anyone who equates journalism with unbiased reporting will be pummeled to death with sharp and very deadly carrots. Such a beast never existed as long as mankind has wrote its own history, and to imply that a person (man or woman, left or right) can write any kind of news without some hint of bias is a fairytale in the first right. Believe me, I've tried. Every article has to begin with a sentence, preferably short. And it's impossible to present both sides of every issue in their entire depth in just a single sentence.

Lest you end up with a long, seemingly never ending ramble that places both sides at perfect equilibrium with each other which I guess isn't a bad thing considering that everyone wants "unbiased" news, but isn't willing to take a stand and be unbiased in their own right.

Why? Because it's impossible. It's also impossible to have a conversation with somebody who hates you on principle. Not that you needed me to tell you that. So anyway, if you're coming here looking for some meat to poach, kindly take your Gulo gulo's elsewhere. This place is only for semi-serious discussion and only slightly unnecessary alarmist ramblings.