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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
dmmacfarlane
Published Letters: 14 Editor's Choice: 1
The theater-going experience you describe exists, and in Hollywood of all places. The ArcLight Theatre features stadium seating, full blackout of lights during the show, locked theatre doors after the coming attractions start to roll, a brief introduction and welcome from a theatre representative, a terrific sound system, and adult screenings where grown-up beverages can be had. The cost? About $14 a ticket, and worth every penny, given the horrid alternatives.
I could pry myself into a leather mini-skirt and don a tube top made from an ace bandage (I'm male, so it won't be pretty), then walk seedy sections of a large urban area, and I still won't be arrested for breaking a law until I mention exchanging a sexual act for money to an undercover police officer.
Yet young Eliot Ness (sp?) can sit around in stalls, waiting for and arresting men who display a series of physical behaviors he is sure constitute a solicitation of consensual sex without so much as a word exchanged or an article of clothing removed. No, we shouldn't defend the rights of people who want to randomly have sex in public places. But shouldn't they actually commit a crime instead of intimating one before they are subject to the justice system?
That Larry Craig is a senator and should be held to a higher ethical and moral standard is a separate issue. What law did he actually break to get into the news in the first place?
"When you physically resist an officer after repeated demands, you're asking to be tased."
Please, think about that statement. If the Florida student's greatest offense was to ask a rambling, incoherent question, animated by conspiracy theories, then he most certainly was not "asking to be tased." The responsibility of the officers was to show restraint and only use force when it became clearly a necessity. Based on the video evidence, the student did not demonstrate a clear physical threat to either Senator Kerry or other students in the auditorium ... or himself. Yet officers felt it warranted to 'tase' this guy because he shouted as he was being dragged from the building.
Go ahead and make the argument that given Virginia Tech and the general mood that pervades the country (War on Terror, blah, blah), police are prone to overreaction. They probably are. But if the university does anything other than issue a public apology here, they are in the wrong.
Seems like the student's greatest challenge at this point is to choose from the herd of lawyers assembling at this door.
I understand that what the student will be charged with is resisting arrest, but the original arrest must also be questioned. Was it somehow justified, based on the student's behavior? If the initial arrest is not justifiable, how is the charge of resisting arrest when the police (arguably) overreacted to the situation? That's what I was speaking of in terms of the student's behavior. At what point did his animated questions and annoying behavior become something that required the police to grab him?
I'll admit to thinking this post is a bad idea, given that it makes broad generalizations about nations and cultures, violates every tenet of sound research I learned in grad school, and opens me up to perhaps strident criticism.
But ...
I'll argue that the frequency of diving in football games increases the further south one ventures in Europe. The Germans, Dutch, Swedes just don't seem to make taking a plunge such a part of their offensive strategy. And the Brits don't seem to much care for it either. In contrast, the Greeks, Italians, and Portuguese fall like they're running around on a hockey rink. It's one of the the things that makes watching Serie A games so frustrating.
I'm making no broader statements here about the character of a culture, willingness to test the rules, etc. It just seems like the dive is more acceptable as a tactic in some countries and leagues than others. Decide for yourself if it's true and what it means.
I do so love the nihilist who quotes literary luminaries in support of his (I think) assertion that life is inherently meaningless. Do go on. Please tell us how you reached your exalted state of consciousness. But in the meantime, there was, somewhere back there, a LW with a concern you chose to ignore in lieu of climbing on the absolute relativist box.
The defenses of pornography as a stimulant have some merit, but apparently not in the personal value system of the LW, who feels guilty and really can't stomach what he is doing. Strangely, ironically, perhaps inadvertently, nieciedo is correct in applying the relativist brush. But the interesting thing (unmentioned) to the LW is that his value system can't fly with his behavior, be it relative or not. You have to ride your bike, man, and if you can't feel good about your life based on what you're doing, then stop doing those things. It's not trigonometry, after all.
Maybe you married too young, which many do. And maybe you missed the opportunity to find yourself through a period of expression, experimentation and freedom. Maybe that was a significant blow to your identity. But the fact you wrote this letter suggests that you're already halfway gone, so go already.
I'm not sure he'll care about your freedom while his marriage shrivels up and blows away. So do him a favor, because he may have actually loved you--maybe he still does. Don't part in a way that could make him still long for you four years hence. Don't agree to disagree and amicably divide up the furniture on a Thursday evening. Kick the crap out of him. Make him loathe you. Fuck somebody else. Demonstrate no concern for his well being. Condescend. Criticize. Carp. Make sure that when you leave, he's glad you're gone. You probably owe him that much.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
