In The News

Sometimes I'll be reading the newspaper and I will happen upon a story so bloody ridiculous that I have to check the top of the page to make sure I'm not reading The Onion. (For those who don't know, The Onion, a.k.a. "America's Finest News Source" is, in fact, America's funniest news parody. Follow that link back there and prepare to laugh your ass off.) I don't remember just why i was even reading the Business section of The Columbus Dispatch, but I came across this--one of the silliest things I've ever read, and, yes, it seems to be true:

Meow Mix behind reality show for cats

Personally, I think forcing cats to participate in "reality" TV should be classified as cruelty to animals. Someone e-mail PETA and tell them about this. At least people have a choice when they sign on to one of those festivals of degradation.

Then there's the not one bit god-damned funny at all:
Online game reopens Columbine wounds 7 years after rampage

According to creator of this atrocity known as Super Columbine Massacre, who wishes to remain anonymous,"...he wanted to create something unique and confrontational that would 'promote a real dialogue on the subject of school shootings.'"

I'm all for dialogue, but this isn't the way to get one going. Niether, by the way, is refusing to tell people who you are. The only dialogue that's going to result from this "game" is about how the guy who created it is a jerk and a coward who exploits a small town's tragedy and hides behind a pseudonym. I don't see how reliving the Columbine shootings again and again on-line is supposed to stimulate intellectual discourse. The least damage it will do is piss a lot of people off, and there is a possibility, a slim one, I hope, that it just might inspire some brain damaged loner to stage a live re-enactment somewhere.