Many Things

This is the ladybug that rode in on my hat last night.

So there's another mass shooting in the news now. I wonder how long before the same people who blamed the Dark Knight Rises shooter's actions on the content of the movies start insisting that no-one lay blame on a culture of racism against people of the Middle East promoted by the right wing. I think it's more useful to think about the fact that people are able to take these larger abstract messages as motivations for violence. I guess I wouldn't be making a particularly radical statement by saying at this point we clearly need a better system for diagnosing and treating the mentally ill, but movement on the issue seems pretty grossly overdue.

I do feel like there's a problematical emphasis on violence for solving problems and self expression in the culture and media, but I don't see it as direct cause of violent crimes so much as a reflection of the popular perspective on responding to violent crime. I mean, the "stand your ground" law in Florida used to justify George Zimmerman's crime is a particularly harsh example of this, but I'm thinking more of the people arguing the response to gun violence is for more private citizens to carry guns.

Anyway, things seem to be getting pretty horrific.

When I was making dinner last night, I found the television still wasn't picking up channels for some reason so, since I like to have something on while I'm making dinner, I put in a DVD of David Bowie music videos I got a long time ago. I wonder if anyone still buys DVD music video compilations when you can just pull these videos up on YouTube whenever. But I kept getting distracted from making dinner by just the pure, wonderful greatness that is Bowie.