Tag Archives: violence

Kenneth Darlington, Race Riots, and the Justification for Violence

Darlington

Kenneth Darlington . PHOTO: BIENVENIDO VELASCO/EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

By now, you’ve probably heard the news from Panama of the 77-year-old man who shot and killed two environmental activists apparently in cold blood. For perspective, I’m providing two other news sources, The Independent and People Magazine. I’m sure you can “Google” more.

The short synopsis from People says:

Kenneth Darlington, 77, is accused of approaching the group, who were blocking a highway in Chame, a district west of Panama City, before firing his gun on Tuesday afternoon, according to a report from Newsroom Panama. One protestor died at the scene, while the other died in the hospital, the outlet reported.

The question of whether or not Mr. Darlington’s actions were justified would seem fairly obvious, but it’s complicated.

Continue reading →

Review of “John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum” (2019)

jw

Poster for the 2019 film “John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum”

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s review of John Wick: Chapter 2, today I’m reviewing John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019).

It picks right up where Chapter 2 left off with John and his no name dog on the run. At first, as the one hour grace period granted him by Winston (Ian McShane) is being counted down by the announcer at “the office,” John seems to be running aimlessly. Of course it’s raining again, because rain makes everything seem more tragic and desperate.

All of the assassins in New York (I swear, half the city is made up of assassins) are eyeing him, waiting for the hour to expire. He finally gets an idea and hops into a cab, telling the driver to go to the New York Public Library (I’m assuming the main branch based on the interiors). However traffic is a nightmare (it is Manhattan). He gives the driver his last special gold coin (so the driver is part of the criminal underworld, too?) and tells him to take the dog to the Continental, making sure the dog gets to Charon personally (he does this, so “dog” is handled).

Next, John runs into the library and requests a specific book on Russian fairy tales. Finding it, he unseals a hollowed out opening to find an ornate rosary, several more coins, a marker, and a photo of him and his wife (Bridget Moynahan). There, even though his time isn’t up, he’s attacked by a very large man named Ernest (Boban Marjanovic) who says no one will know he was early.

Continue reading →

The “End of Men” Challenge

suz

© James Pyles

If you like my work, buy me a virtual cup of coffee at Ko-Fi

I get an email from Bookbub every morning. I initially signed up and indicated my book preferences to see if I could get a line on reading material I otherwise wouldn’t know about. I’ve even considered promoting some of my works on Bookbub, but according to Jericho Writers, it’s astonishingly expensive.

After a while, I stopped opening the emails. Most of the books looked really boring, and the few I did buy because of seeing them on the app weren’t particularly worth it.

Today, on impulse, I clicked the link and found End of Men by Suzanne Strobel (that’s her Amazon Author’s page).

The Bookbub blurb says:

Continue reading →

Kavanaugh Protests Right Here In River City

boise protest

Screenshot from my Facebook page – Kavanaugh protests in Boise, Idaho

Since my grandchildren are coming over soon, and since the vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh won’t be held until between four and five this evening Eastern Time (two to three my time), I was going to give this a rest, but a friend of mine on Facebook (and in real life) posted the question above.

Here’s the link to the full news video courtesy of the Idaho Republican Party’s Facebook page. It’s not very long and I encourage you to view it before continuing.

Continue reading →

Seeking Kindness in the Aftermath of Kavanaugh – It’s Not Easy

violence

Screenshot of a video on twitter showing a young woman grabbing and destroying signs made by a conservative students group.

It occurs to me that there is a certain inconsistency in promoting kindness and then, at least to some, coming off as politically snarky. Okay, it wasn’t my intent, but I can see how some folks might take it that way.

Today’s the day when the full Senate votes on whether or not to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. Frankly, I don’t think either the Republicans or Democrats come away from this clean, and the result, as I said yesterday, is that American politics has officially become a denizen of the foulest sewer, like a mythical alligator.

As I also previously stated, no matter which way the vote goes, we all lose. Oh sure, some people will feel like they’ve won, but look what had to happen to achieve “victory.” Each side accused the other of some pretty vile political tricks, not to mention what ordinary people said and did. Both sides tried to destroy a human being. Both Kavanaugh’s and Ford’s reputations were dragged through the fecal matter, along with their families and anyone who might corroborate their stories, and even children were plagued with death threats.

Anyone who has ever been sexually assaulted or had a family member assaulted in such a manner absolutely projects all of their emotions onto Kavanaugh, as if confirming him to SCOTUS is tacit approval of all sexual crimes, and a total discounting of all victims everywhere.

Continue reading →

Has a New Civil War Been Declared?

trump

The man everyone loves to hate.

Warning: This essay discusses issues of Donald Trump, racism, physical assault, and other forms of violence, hate crimes, and whether or not people are ultimately responsible for their own actions. If you think reading about all that might be upsetting to you, please find something else with which to occupy your time. By the way, I’m sure I’m not going to win any friends by writing and publishing this essay. Thanks.

A few days ago, I wrote a fictionalized version of an incident where 25-year-old Chloe Wright allegedly used her car to deliberately attack a man, nearly hitting him and significantly damaging his car, all because he had a “Trump” bumper sticker on his vehicle and, in a verbal altercation, admitted to voting for Donald Trump.

I fact checked the heck out of the story, and that was the only motivation I could discover as to why she would risk seriously injuring or even killing another human being. He didn’t threaten her, he didn’t cuss at her, call her names, or do anything to her other than having a bumper sticker on his car and telling the woman who he voted for.

He’s fine, and I’m sure his insurance will cover the damages to his vehicle, but Ms. Wright, if convicted of all the felony charges against her, is facing several years in prison, and even once paroled, will forever have a criminal record as a convicted felon.

I wonder if she thinks it was worth it?

This isn’t an isolated case, but I could spend days and days chronicling similar incidents, although (hopefully) none of them were equally as potentially lethal.

Continue reading →

Injured and Dangerous

Alek Minassian

Alek Minassian, the man accused of killing ten people with a van in Toronto April 2018.

I must be living in a cave because I’ve never heard of Incels before.

According to Wikipedia:

Incels (a portmanteau of “involuntary celibates”) are self-identifying members of an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one, a state they describe as inceldom. Self-identified incels are mostly white, male and heterosexual,.Discussions in incel forums are often characterized by resentment, misanthropy, self-pity, self-loathing, misogyny, racism, a sense of entitlement to sex, and the endorsement of violence against sexually active people. The Southern Poverty Law Center described the subculture as “part of the online male supremacist ecosystem” that is a member of their list of hate groups,and self-described incels have committed at least four mass murders in North America.

Holy crap. That’s terrifying.

I follow the blog of author Steven Barnes which is how I came to read his article #NOTALLHUMANS (No, I’m not shouting, he has the title in all caps). I think I’ve heard the term “incels” before, but this was the first time I found out what it meant.

So naturally I went to his source material at We Hunted the Mammoth, which describes itself as:

Specifically, this blog focuses on what I call the “New Misogyny,” an angry antifeminist backlash that has emerged like a boil on the ass of the internet over the last decade or so. These aren’t your traditional misogynists – the social conservatives and religious fundamentalists who make up much of the far right.

These are guys, mostly, who range in age from their teens to their fifties, who have embraced misogyny as an ideology, as a sort of symbolic solution to the frustrations in their lives – whether financial, social, or sexual.

Okey dokey.

Continue reading →