Sometimes I think that the mainstream media is actively working to establish a cult of victimhood for their readers/viewers/listeners. For example, the October 2010 issue of Popular Mechanics has a cover story about How To Avoid Being A Victim of A Natural Disasters. The article explained what Earthquakes, Floods, Tornadoes and Hurricanes can do but then provided next to no guidance as to how to start taking personal responsibility for your, and your family's immediate needs. The only item of consequence was that if you need safe water, you should strain the water and then boil it for one minute, or you could treat the water by adding one tablespoon of bleach to ten gallons of water. So, from my perspective, the article ratchets up the sense of anxiety about said natural disasters but does precious little to guide people to a path of self reliance. Mainstream media has the ability to do some real good but it chooses to do very little that is meaningful.
I have thought this for a while now. It seems that it is always someone else's "job" to "fix it". Part of ours becoming a disposable society -- in that if it breaks, toss it and buy a new one. This last winter my husband came home and told me about a 911 call they had received of a woman stranded in her car with small children (there was an ice storm the night before and roads were a mess). He got there and this woman in her 40s, with 3 teenagers in her car, was stuck at the END OF HER DRIVEWAY. She had called 911 from her cell phone. They had all sat in the car for more than 1/2 hour waiting for a police officer to come dig them out instead of getting out of the car, walking up the driveway and getting some sand. My guess is if no one had shown up to help them they would have eventually frozen to death because the car had less than a 1/4 tank of gas. Their explanation was they were just going to Starbucks for coffee ... Go figure ...
BadgeBunny, those are the exact type of people .gov needs so they can justify the explosion in growth of the bureaucracy! They grumble about calls like that but it helps to justify their existence. I can't rem who it is but somebody around here has a sig line to the effect that the most dangerous thing to .gov is a self sufficient, intelligent, thinking person. No truer words have ever been spoken. Byte
I believe she is very serious Bane. We have walking talking morons here who will call 911 (our emergency dispatch phone number) if when at the local fast food drive thru they don't get exactly what they ordered.
I wish ... I used to tease my LEO husband that all he had to do at work was drive around and flirt with the counter girls at the local 7/11. THEN I went on a ride along with him. That man and his co-workers have nothing but my utmost respect now. (And let me just say here, for the record, if I was in law enforcement, we would not have NEAR the problems we have! Of course, the population would be thinned GREATLY, but hey ... a little chlorine in the pool is a good thing, no?? )
Hey, ask anybody...I'm in love with chlor products! ...I still can't believe that car thing happened...Freud would flip out completely! Tac...If I was a cop there, I would probably be in jail as mass murderer...I mean, calling and disturbing the police for burger order, or for throwing sand under a tire?!...If someone tried a stunt like that here, he would be in wheelchair within minutes of the call...and then he would be in jail for calling the police for no reason.
