Whoa, hang on
All this talk about re-examining our mental health policy in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting is making me real uneasy. Sure, there’s lots wrong with our current mental health policy and we can talk about that sometime, if you like, but it doesn’t look like Adam Lanza even had a firm, official diagnosis or much of a psychiatric history at all. Only his mother could suspect what was going on in his head, and even she probably had no idea how fast he was sliding away until he emptied a clip in her face.
Without even thinking hard, I can come up with six people in my circle of acquaintance who show at least as much mental disorder as it appears Lanza did before he came unstrung.
Some have a psychiatric history, some don’t. I don’t think any of them have a police history. They all did well in school. They all have held jobs (if not for long, sometimes). Same for personal relationships. They can all drive a car, shop for groceries, pay a light bill. Some still live with their families, some are entirely independent. Several have easy access to guns.
They’re also, clearly, barking. They make my spidey sense jingle-jangle-jingle. I wouldn’t be surprised if they all lived out their lives — if not entirely smoothly, at least without dramatic incident. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see any of them on the news some day for a very bad reason.
But what do you do? They’re (mostly) functional adults. “He gives everybody the jim-jams” is not a diagnosis. There is no medication for “something ain’t right with that boy, but I can’t put my finger on it.” You can’t lock somebody up or take away her civil rights because she gives you the creeps.
By far the best take on the whole thing so far was in, believe it or not, the Daily Beast.
Feh. I hope we can get around to being all Christmassy some time this week.
December 17, 2012 — 11:33 pm
Comments: 31
Bleak
I was going to soldier on and post something in my usual vein, but that felt all kinds of wrong.
So. Shut up it is, then.
One thought. Ace is on about something that I’ve been saying for years: if you want less of this kind of thing, watch your language (I’m looking at you, media). Stop describing these shooters as evil and monsters. They love that shit. This is exactly what the mass-murderer wanted, and what his imitators want. To be a huge scary monster. To be a horrible, shocking beast.
Not a loser. Not somebody who couldn’t make friends or get a good job or keep a girl. Honest to god, these guys think what they do makes them rockstars. The dead kids are just props on his stage.
I guarantee you, there are people sitting home tonight watching the news and thinking, “yes. I want some of that. That’s just how I want to go out.”
December 14, 2012 — 10:30 pm
Comments: 63
Pucker up, Vicar
So we got a notice in our box to come help decorate the church for Christmas. It asked us to bring, “holly, ivy and evergreen fronds.”
Uncle B says, “did you notice what’s missing?”
And I’m, like, “no.”
And he says, “mistletoe.”
Mistletoe: not welcome in the Church of England. It was a big Druid thing, so the church is not cool with it.
Except York Minster, where the Dean hangs a sprig of mistletoe above the altar on noon, Christmas Eve.
Because, England.
December 13, 2012 — 11:59 pm
Comments: 27
Yeah. This chick.
Remember this chick? Lena Dunham, creator of the HBO thing Girls (which I’ve never seen) and that unbearably cute ad equating voting for the first time to sex. Oh, here’s a passage from her Wikipedia entry, in case she doesn’t make your teeth hurt yet:
Dunham was born in New York City. Her father, Carroll Dunham, is a painter of “overtly sexualised pop art”, and her mother, Laurie Simmons, is a photographer and designer who creates “disquieting domestic tableaux” with dolls. Dunham’s father is Protestant, and according to Dunham, a Mayflower descendant; Dunham’s mother is Jewish. She has a younger sister, Grace, who is a model and student at Brown University and who starred in Dunham’s first film Tiny Furniture. As children, both Lena and Grace were babysat by photographers Sherri Zuckerman and Catherine McGann. Dunham attended Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, New York, where she met Tiny Furniture actress and Girls co-star Jemima Kirke. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2008, where she studied creative writing.
What’s that? Not irritated enough yet? She just sold a book idea to Random House for $3.7 million on the strength of a 66 page outline illustrated with Instagram pictures.
Stick with me. It’ll get funny in a mo.
The whole 66 page proposal somehow got leaked to Gawker, and they ran with it in its entirety. Which caused Mzzz Dunham’s lawyer to get all up in they face.
Ordinarily, I wouldn’t link to Gawker, but their sanitized-for-the-lawyer version is a thing of beauty.
Streisand Effect — learn it, live it, don’t stick your finger in that thing.
December 12, 2012 — 11:30 pm
Comments: 22
Five years ago today…
…I posted this nude pic of my mother.
No, I look like my dad. Why do people always ask me that?
December 11, 2012 — 11:24 pm
Comments: 34
I miss him already
Oh, now this one I’ll miss. Patrick Moore died yesterday. We weren’t regular watchers of The Sky at Night. It was the sort of thing we’d hit by accident, channel flipping, and then have to watch to the end. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.
He is believed to be the only man to have met Orville Wright (the first man to fly) and Yuri Gagarin (first man in space) and Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon).
Also, he loved cats, played the xylophone and always wore a monocle. What’s not to love?
December 10, 2012 — 11:14 pm
Comments: 12
Round 43: somebunny’s getting dick for Christmas!
Shit! Sorry I’m late — I thought I hit post!
AltBBrown takes Round 42 and the dick with Oscar Niemeyer. Designed the UN Building in New York, Niemeyer did. Which is like a public housing project next to a slightly curved thing. So now you know why he was famous.
Deep breath. Here we go!
0. Rule Zero (AKA Steve’s Rule): your pick has to be living when picked. Also, nobody whose execution date is circled on the calendar. Also, please don’t kill anybody.
1. Pick a celebrity. Any celebrity — though I reserve the right to nix picks I never heard of (I don’t generally follow the Dead Pool threads carefully, so if you’re unsure of your pick, call it to my attention).
2. We start from scratch every time. No matter who you had last time, or who you may have called between rounds, you have to turn up on this very thread and stake your claim.
3. Poaching and other dirty tricks positively encouraged.
4. Your first choice sticks. Don’t just blurt something out, m’kay?
5. It’s up to you to search the thread and make sure your choice is unique. I’m waayyyy too lazy to catch the dupes. Popular picks go fast.
6. The pool stays open until somebody on the list dies. Feel free to jump in any time. Noobs, strangers, drive-bys and one-comment-wonders — all are welcome.
7. If you want your fabulous prize, you have to entrust me with a mailing address. If you don’t want the fabulous prize, you’re too smart to be a regular. It takes me forever to put them in the mail, packages go by slow boat, typically take minimum eight to ten weeks and lose the will to live along the way.
8. The new DeadPool will begin 6pm WBT (Weasel’s Blog Time) the Friday after the last round is concluded.
The prize? Still a fabulous two-pack of Aunty’s Spotted Dick…!
December 7, 2012 — 7:09 pm
Comments: 171
Dead Pool, Comin’ Atcha
You didn’t conk that nice old man off, didja now, AltB? <squints menacingly>
Well. Fine. Back here then. Tomorrow, Friday, 6pm WBT.
Dead Pool Round 43!
— 12:30 am
Comments: 37
Rainy tonight, with a chance of gray balls
Well, that’s a new one. I’m not sure what gray balls in our weather forecast stand for. It’s cold tonight, so I’m guessing sleet or hail. Dirty sleet or hail.
Snow is a little white snowflake, rain is a little blue raindrop. We had a forecast the other day that had an icon for cloudy-sunny-rainy-snow, which is about as much weather as one icon can hold.
December 6, 2012 — 8:24 pm
Comments: 21
Ho Ho Ho
I’m still doing my best to ignore the news completely, and now with the holidays coming at us like an onrushing sleigh ride of terror, I’m finding it harder than usual to pull posts out of my ass. You probably noticed. So I’m hanging out the light blogging flag until the New Year.
Oh, I’ll still squeeze something out five days a week. I’ll probably do a little post recycling. I’m green like that.
Do please drop by and chat anyway. I worry when I short the blog too much. Neglected blogs bleed readers.
December 5, 2012 — 11:19 pm
Comments: 24