Category: Weighty Matters

Sandy Hook & Other Stories: Reaping What We Sow

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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Image via news.yahoo.com.

I’m not talking politically, I’m not talking about the result of the November sixth election;  I am saying that something has gone wrong in America and that we have turned our back on God.

I mean, millions of people have decided that God doesn’t exist, or he’s irrelevant to me and we have killed fifty-four million babies and the institution of marriage is right on the verge of a complete redefinition.  Believe me, that is going to have consequences too.

Family Research Council founder James Dobson.

It’s human nature to try and seek explanation for events we cannot possibly understand. From the moment the news vans pulled up outside Sandy Hook Elementary school on Friday morning, desperation driven in part by horror, in part by the news networks desire to be the first to the details, prompted all manner of misinformation to be broadcast.

The Daily Mail reported there were two killers on the loose in the school. CNN claimed the killer was Ryan Lanza. Or Ryan Lanza was dead.

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Buzzfeed: Near Fatal Fact Check Fail

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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…and now, so does Jack Stuef. Image via contentconverts.

If you’re going to post a harsh critique of an individual with a significant web presence and following, you better make damn sure you get your facts straight.  If you don’t, and the target of your ire is sufficiently pissed off, you might find yourself on the receiving end of a public flaming that will leave your reputation (and your clothing) carrying the sharp smell of smoke for the duration of your career.

Even more so, it seems, when you’re calling out a guy who made a rape joke.

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Victoria Derbyshire: There. So You Don’t Have To Be

Posted on by Kelly Welles

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Image via flickr.

The friendly face of animal testing put in an appearance on Victoria Derbyshire’s Radio 5 show this morning.

Derbyshire, whose abilities as a journalist are frequently wasted on the human interest stories that have become the staples of mid-morning radio, was stripped, disinfected and encased in some sort of hazmat suit before being plonked into the lab, where staff strained to demonstrate how humane and necessary their experiments on mice are to our future survival.

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FEMEN: What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Image via facebook.

Holding a woman by the throat is a perfectly acceptable means of restraint in Brazil. Just be really, really careful to cover her body with a towel first.

We wouldn’t want to offend anyone, would we?

Maria Santos Gorrostieta: Short Term Memory

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Maria Santos Gorrostieta. Image via golpepolitico.com.

At another stage in my life, perhaps I would have resigned from what I have, my position, my responsibilities as the leader of my Tiquicheo.

But today, no. It is not possible for me to surrender when I have three children, whom I have to educate by setting an example, and also because of the memory of the man of my life, the father of my three little ones, the one who was able to teach me the value of things and to fight for them.

Maria Santos Gorrostieta made this statement in 2010, days after she was wounded when a vehicle she was travelling in was attacked by a gang of men armed with machine guns. It was the second attempt on her life in just over three months. During the first, her husband was killed.

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FEMEN: Exposing The ‘Sanctity’ Of Marriage

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Image via facebook.

An anti-gay marriage march in Paris on Sunday was disrupted by topless FEMEN protesters who let off smoke bombs and chanted ‘In Gay We Trust’. So incensed by the intrusion into what they obviously considered to be their territory, some marchers, including an otherwise respectable looking ‘gentleman’ in glasses and a red anorak (0:30), responded by chasing, kicking and punching the protesters.

No wonder they’re so desperate to keep marriage between one man and one woman.  I’m pretty sure these guys wouldn’t be anywhere near as handy with their fists if they were married to a bloke.

Feminist Critiques Or Bound By Our Own Conceits?

Posted on by Kelly Welles

There are few news outlets at the moment who aren’t filling countless column inches with opinions, reviews and essays on the cinematic and literary phenomenons that are Twilight & 50 Shades Of Grey. Hell, it’s hard not to.

Interestingly though, alongside claims that female stars front and centre equal a positive shift towards a more gender balanced entertainment industry, one or two voices have cited these role models as reductive, in part due to their stringent adherence to gender stereotypes.

This may or may not be valid, but if fictional storylines of women being elevated, protected and cherished are so broadly embraced by the audience, is it more useful to criticise the messenger or examine why they might be so appealing in the first place? I’m going to have a crack at the latter.

I’m feeling a bit awkward this morning.

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PETA: It’s OK, The Turkeys Are Willingly Voting For Christmas

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Image: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Europe.

The idea of “Rudolph” being slaughtered and cut up for dinner makes a mockery of the Christmas spirit of peace and good will to all.

A PETA representative on the news that parents are angry about supermarket Lidl selling reindeer steaks in the run up to Christmas.

Are we then to deduce that letting kids think that turkeys enjoy an intensive protein based diet while living in crammed conditions that cause chronic pain for up to a third of their lives before they’re killed so we can eat them does not make a mockery of said Christmas spirit and goodwill?

I just want to be clear.

Operation Mindcrime: My Mary Whitehouse Experience

Posted on by Kelly Welles

Safe if written down? The Leveson Inquiry might beg to differ these days. Image via photobucket.

I grew up slap bang in the middle of the video nasty era, when clever authority types were beginning to suspect that exposing impressionable young minds to lusty scenes of gore and blood spatter might not necessarily be the best way to develop mentally balanced and healthy future generations.

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World Press Photo 2012: Best Of Times, Worst Of Times

Posted on by Kelly Welles

An anti-poaching team guards one of four remaining white rhino at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Image via worldpressphoto.org.

Once upon a time, we humans used abstract concepts like good and evil to evaluate and understand ambiguities in our behaviour. These days, availability of information and opportunity for people to put forth their side of the story has given us a glimpse of the vast spectrum of motivations and reasoning that lie between good and evil and yet many of us still default to those comfortable, familiar terms when confronted with something we don’t understand.

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