Norway's Pain

What was he thinking when he went on a hunt for a notorious place in history? Why did he do it?

I know that people care why a lot. I don't think that caring why someone did something changes anything. It also doesn't bring any sense of comfort to the victims. Why did they fly planes into two buildings? Why did they kill their fellow classmates? Why did they snipe people off the highway? Why did they blow up a train? Why did they...do anything?

Why gives us a reason so that next time we're ready for it.

Sure that's good for the authorities to figure out, but that's not something people who are part of the circumference of pain from the event care to know about day of or days later. Shreds of their life lay sprawled out on the ground. They're thinking how to pick them up, put them back together and be whole again. They don't care for the why as much as the what now and how do you I continue living?

Lives were lost. Why someone did it doesn't bring them back. It also doesn't bring much comfort, it just raises more questions. What could I have done to prevent it? What could I have done to protect my love ones? Why didn't I just let them stay home? Why not someone else? Why didn't I say this before I said goodbye? Those are the whys, those are the questions. It sucks, because preventing him from doing what he had done is easier to notice with hindsight. It's going to be easy to blame, as well. Blaming is a fun game among siblings and friends when it comes to who left the spoil milk in the fridge or who farted, but not who to pin a freak's decision to spread pain in the heart of Norway.

It's his fault. His reasons are not reasons anyone needs to worry about right now. Healing is the option that best fits. Anger is broiling. Bad decisions are birthed in anger.

I wish that news outlets would choose this moment to find out anything they can about the victims and speak about the victims' lives that were cut short and how great they were. What they wanted to be. What they consisted of, not what this inane human was made up of. Human is stretching it.

I believe that healing is the best course of action for a nation or community dealing with this sort of devastation. In healing together, they do fortify themselves for the next wave of pain. Having a great source of comfort in people who uplift those around them allows a situation like this to heal instead of scab, but never forget.

The victims of this Norway event are important. Their stories are important. Their lives, no matter how short they might have been, are important to many people. Sharing those stories on the news instead of worrying about what sparked this onslaught will show that if you kill, you do not get to bask in the glory of the media's love-fest from jail or postmortem.

It is not going to happen, but I can hope.

Norway has a fairy tale-esque feel to it. Bad things like this don't just NOT happen there, they're most likely NOT supposed to happen there. It's hard to hear the death toll rise. It's hard to think that it really happened.

I don't have much to offer Norway. I do hope that stories flood the news of the victims and their lives more so than news about the destructive evil that brought about pain and suffering. I want to know about the victims. They're special because someone thought they were and are and everyone should know of them. It is the least the world could do.

Picture.

Who's the Bully?

Everyone has encountered a bully in their life. They range from the ones that just call you senseless names to those that use brute force to get your lunch money. Sometimes you meet them in school or the workplace. Other times you might be related to them. There are the few that use humor and play off what they said as a “joke”.

The “it’s a joke” statement is weaker than the American Dollar. If it’s so obviously a joke, there’s no need to say it’s a joke. It’s like when an older brother hit’s the younger brother too hard and the younger brother starts to cry. The older brother, to avoid the tattling that is about to happen, tries to sooth the pain with, “I was just playing…” It doesn’t make the punch hurt any less because the idea was to play. It still stings. I don’t get why people have a hard time seeing that words can sting just as much, no matter if the idea is to make people laugh at someone or together.

A bully tries to get into your head. They want to implant their vision of you inside your mind. They’ll do it by manipulation of you and your friends. If your friends fall for this manipulation, then they lack the social strength to withstand a bully’s barrages. They’ll turn on you to avoid being attacked. Creating a terrible situation that makes you think you’re wrong because “everyone” is against you. If you ever find yourself in that situation, remember that it’s easier for people to complain than complement. Ask businesses. Think about it, when was the last time you told a company they were doing an awesome job? When was the last time you told a company they were doing a terrible job?

It is easy to detect a bully by the way they speak. They use many areas to display their power. They’ll comment on how smarter they are than you based on where they went to school. How rich they are based on how much money they get. The idea that they’re better off than you based on degree and wealth is a pathetic marker of excellence and a great gauge of a bully. They may also use their position (work, school or if online popular status) to engage others to pour their dislike all over your every sentence or comment. A form of harassment that is ignored by anyone who is higher than said person. Why? Because if someone’s not punching you in the nuts, it’s not abuse.

When someone discusses a person they do not like, listen. You can tell a lot about a person based on how respectful they are to someone else, especially if that person is someone they don’t like. It’s not necessary to fawn over those you dislike, but it is equally unnecessary to refrain from hatred that suggests they’re the reason humanity sucks (even if it is true). Disliking someone because they spit in your cereal is one thing, but to dislike someone just because you don’t like their viewpoints is another. When discussing viewpoints it’s the viewpoints that are being discussed. If you go into the person’s looks, family or anything that’s personal and has nothing to do with what their viewpoints are, you’re a bully.

If the person’s intent is to harm someone with their words like a weapon, that is fine, because that’s what words tend to do. They also tend to be a double edge sword, at times. However, if the intent of the person using words is to murder someone’s reputation, that is not okay and that’s when they morph from a word fighter into a bully. Yes, it’s a fine line, but anyone welding words knows where that line is and if they lie and say they don’t, well then, they’re the epitome of a BSer.

When someone gets in front of an audience and seeks gratuitous applause for their lackluster thoughts and they bow to the will of the mob by feeding them bloody morsels of public figure’s reputation, that’s a bully. Mobs are only as smart as the emotional stability of the host.

Or in this case the feeder.

Bill Maher is the epitome of a bully.


Image

Got PMS?

Got Milk’s new ad campaign is geared toward men about women. It’s on the no-no topic, PMS. Women tend to get all up in arms about how men don’t appreciate PMS. You don’t get how it feels. You don’t get this, that, and whatever…What’s the male equivalent? What do males go through that females wouldn’t “get” and can’t talk about? I can’t think of anything. Getting kicked in the balls is the only thing I can think of, but that’s not the same as PMS. They don’t get the feeling it is to DEAL WITH THEM on it.

That, in my mind, links directly to comedy. Men are mocked in comedy more than women. Go to YouTube and put in “Punched in the” or “Kicked in the” and the first few choices will deal solely with males. Put in “Punched in the boob” and there’s not much there. Similar to PMS? No. Women laugh at men and have the inability to laugh at themselves. That’s why there’s all this hoopla that Got Milk’s campaign is sexist.

The entire ad campaign is hilarious. From the Current Global PMS Level (mocking Homeland Security Terrorist Levels) to Puppy Dog Eyezer to the Sorry Ticker to Map of Where’s the Milk At is just pure genius. The pre-approved apologizes are fantastic. I picked a few to showcase.



With all joking aside, the Got Milk people provide information on how to help women deal with PMS issues via calcium. They figured they could get through to women by their men. It hooks men’s humor, wheels them in and then instructs them on PMS more so than griping and whining ever could.
----

Half the population of menstruating women admit to suffering from moderate to severe PMS each month. Fortunately research has shown that a diet rich in high calcium foods, like milk, may cut the physical and emotional symptoms of PMS in half. A majority of women who consumed 1200 mg of calcium a day for three months reported being less irritable, weepy and depressed, and suffering from fewer backaches, and less camping and bloating (read Study from the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology or from the Archives of Internal Medicine). With 300 MGS of calcium per glass, milk is the perfect PMS comfort food.

Link to Quote

Help Mother Hen Relax is part of a game that they have on the Got Milk website. It’s fun times. Go and try it out.

In conclusion, this ad campaign is hilarious and Got Milk deserves an award for fantasticness. The world is offended every second. Being offended over Got Milk trying to get information out with a comedic flare, is dumber than a heifer.

Liberal's Road to Hell

It is a really great article as a whole and it'll inform you on the economy.

Small Business and the Jobless Recovery

The policies pursued by Washington policymakers are causing a disequilibrium in the market. This disequilibrium is clouding the business community with uncertainty, which is the greatest detriment to small-business growth and expansion.

Most small-business owners and venture capitalists are uncertain as to where the economy is heading. Spending is out of control, budget deficits are in the trillions of dollars, and the result of an inflationary Federal Reserve policy is starting to show up in commodity prices. All of this recklessness does not induce the small-business owner to open up the purse strings and invest in economic activities that will result in job creation.

There is also uncertainty concerning the regulatory environment. People do not invest to "spread the wealth" around; they invest to make a profit. Investors don't react well to talk of "fundamentally transforming the United States of America."

Indeed, there has been more government intrusion into the market during the last few years than since the Great Society programs. We have economic tsars, national health insurance, and de facto government ownership of industry.

The following statement made by Raymond J. Keating, chief economist for the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, sums it all up nicely:

For the most part, entrepreneurs want federal policymakers to impose a light tax and regulatory touch, keep spending under control, maintain low inflation, and otherwise get out of the way so entrepreneurship and investment can thrive. … Until federal policymaking moves in a clear pro-entrepreneur, pro-growth direction, most small-business owners face great uncertainty.

"Entrepreneurs are the real heroes of the American story."

William Dunkelberg, an economist at the National Federation of Independent Business, puts it more succinctly: "There's just a huge amount of uncertainty. And when you're uncertain, you don't make bets."

And with this uncertainty, there is no expansion of production — a requirement for creating employment opportunities. Why take the risk?

I don't understand how people who support Obama cannot see how he's destroying small business. Banks are not lending and small business are not hiring and this is really hurting America and all he can do is golf and scoff.

Government cannot create jobs, but they can make it easier for small business to take bets on teenagers or those who are fresh in the field. Government is like a parent. Parents are there to guide children, not control them. Parents who pigeonhold their children end up getting children that are unruly and cannot do things on their own. These children call on their parents to do things from tying their shoes to paying for their rent. Unlike children who are guided who learn to tie their shoes and get a job to pay their own rent.

The idea that government is smart enough or strong enough to determine the market and force things to work is as likely as winning chess with one pawn and a lot of heart.

The road to hell is paved with liberal good intentions.

Mysterious Rook Bids You Hello

That is how discussions on topics go with friends or well-known acquaintances. You want to seem as if what you’re offering isn’t at all devious, but in fact is damn devious and detrimental to the other person’s argument. Not all Mysterious Rooks are very deep or well-concealed awesomeness. Nevertheless, who are we to judge? All one can hope for is to move their rook in mysteriously ways and avoid being put into a conversation camp.

A conversation camp is a well thought out term for forums where mods and the owner strangle the originality out of any discussion to please the PC crowd. Make no mistake; this is not a place for ignorance to breed. I’m not asking people to come and give their opinions if they’re going to go out of their way to insult people. It is about sharing one’s opinion without feeling they have to censor it because a mod will come along and correct them due to the lowest common denominator on the forum.