Police statements about a letter left by the man seem to point to a man bitter towards women for rejecting him (one assumes romantically, and not for jobs or something odd).  He took out this aggression by walking into an aerobics class and opening fire on a room full of women.  In other words, he probably was not the type to deal with rejection well.

But no one deals with rejection well.  In fact, if the least you do is lock yourself inside a closet for a week while easting Hostess Cupcakes that’s a pretty good reaction.  But hating those that reject you?

In my life I have been rejected for jobs, dates, and probably some other random category that I can’t currently think of.  I would say credit card, but that would be a lie (though I know plenty of people with good credit who have been for whatever reason).  Okay, so I am familiar with rejection.  Again, short of being Gene Simmons everyone is.  But it has never led to hatred from me.  Sure, I had feelings of disappointment and regret, perhaps even of envy, but hatred?

When I didn’t make the middle school basketball team I didn’t hate the students who did.  Envy them?  Perhaps, but not hate.  All too often, however, I see rejection lead to hatred, and not just among disturbed individuals such as this man in Pittsburgh.  I’ve seen it in everything from loss of dinky jobs nobody should care about, to people bitter about not being the right one for an attractive match.  As a man, I am perhaps most often disturbed when I see it in other men towards women.  Not because women deserve some special protection, but because it’s such a frivolous waste of energy.

Hate all women because one rejects you?  Allow yourself to devolve into a ranting string of gender slurs because of one woman’s negative reaction to your advances?  Breed genuine contempt towards half the population because you didn’t get exactly what you wanted?  Get over yourself.  Women can be mean, cruel creatures at times.  They can be petty, childish, and spiteful.  They can be all sorts of fun synonyms to string together, but at the end of the day they are as human as men, and therefore as graceful and flawed.  Expecting anything more or less is simply, well, idiotic.

The man who did this is a monster.  But too many men allow themselves to be monsters in training–spouting rhetoric that is highly disturbing and just a little bit frightening in the face of such an incident.  Your penis may have been emasculated by the cute girl who rejected you, but a gun is not just a bigger penis that will impress her.  Please retake freshman biology.

No related posts.

Before we get into this, first some full-disclosure .  I am a Christian and have been my entire life.  Abortion is something I personally find wrong, but I am conflicted over the legal issues surrounding it.  What do we do in cases of rape and incest?  Do we really want back-alley abortions to become the norm again?  So, while I personally do not like the act, I generally keep my mouth shut about it.  I simply don’t have a good enough answer to speak too much on it.

However, there is something I can talk about and, unfortunately, I have been given reason to.  On Sunday a man walked into a Wichita, Kansa church and gunned down George Tiller.  This is a horrendous act.  If anywhere, most feel they’re safest in a church or school, and this is yet another case shattering that illusion.  And while a man being killed is equally bad no matter the reason, the reasoning here should bother every Christian.  George Tiller was, in fact, Dr. Tiller.  He also happened to work at an abortion clinic.

The abortion debate in this country has gotten out of hand.  Not in a baby kitten squirming around and out of your hand sort of way, but in an adult panther ripping your arm off and coming back for the rest later sort of way.  Unfortunately, fellow Christians, many of us are to blame.  The rhetoric among many has gotten completely out of hand.  It is no longer simple condemnation of an act you disagree with, but a full on assault.  And yes, those of you escalating the war of words have blood on your hands this day.

Like with any controversial issue, the man reported to have killed Dr. Tiller was likely not one of its leaders.  He was unlikely to be the head organizer of pro-life rallies.  No, those people are usually the last to act.  Instead, they are inciters—sometimes unknowingly.  But they don’t incite the normal followers of theirs.  No, these are the same folks who will argue that no outside force ever has an impact on their behavior—be it film, music, video game, or preacher from a pulpit.  They decry those who warn that the escalation of violent rhetoric has a long term effect on some.  They are wrong.

You see, it generally isn’t the average person on the street who picks up a gun to shoot an abortion doctor.  It’s the mentally disturbed person.  It’s the person who thinks they truly are in a war on God’s side battling the forces of darkness in a physical manner.  And the people feeding them these ideas had better wake up and realize they’re partly to blame for their actions.

Of course, thoughts such as mine are what lead to hate crime legislation, and laws in parts of Europe that outlaw criticizing different religions.  Personally, I find such laws just as wrong in the opposite direction.  Legislating words simply drive words underground.  You tell someone they can’t call an abortion doctor a murderer publicly and they will continue to do so in private—just with added resentment directed towards that person.  Instead, what is needed is a cry from within the community pushing such rhetoric.  In this case, that would be the church community at times.

In fairness, I have never attended a church where such things were said from the pulpit, but then I generally attend more liberally minded churches.  But even within those I am sure there have been some who believed such things.  That is why the outcry now needs to come from the head of the church—the preachers, reverends, priests, etc.  They need to be the ones saying we can no longer stand for such hypocrisy, and we can no longer be part of the problem.

This, of course, doesn’t mean churches have to embrace abortion.  It means they have to chose their words more carefully and be more accepting that not everything will fit their world view or be subjected to jihad, or risk looking just as dangerous as the Muslim extremists in Afghanistan promoting attacking schools that dare to educate girls.  Actor Steve Buscemi delivers the line “Define irony,” in the film Con Air.  When a group of people subscribe to the gospel of Jesus Christ, but encourage the work of someone quite different.

No related posts.

Okay, so there are probably lots of films that aren’t okay for elementary school show and tell.  Kids probably shouldn’t be describing scenes from Saw, Silence of the Lambs, or True Romance.  But what other content might be unacceptable?  How about a film about a gay rights activist?

One San Diego school finds itself in the crosshairs of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after the way it reacted to one little girl’s show and tell project.  A sixth grader, Natalie Jones, apparently wanted to talk about the film Milk as her show and tell project.  Milk tells the story of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay politicians in the US.

So, what exactly did the school do?  They did not allow the girl to present in class, and they required students to get a signed permission slip to attend her presentation during a lunch period.  Again, this is the girl’s presentation and not an actual screening of the film.  Most people could understand not showing sixth graders an R-rated film.

The question then becomes did they ban the presentation simply because it was about a gay man?  Was her presentation going to go into explicit detail of his sexual history?  Otherwise, wouldn’t recounting his political history and death be similar to recounting that of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Abraham Lincoln?  Whether you’re a supporter of gay rights or not, Harvey Milk is a historical figure.  Your personal belief in his significance may vary, but a simple report seems of little harm.

Of course, what we don’t know is the exact content of her report.  Assuming this was created by a sixth grader and not by her parents, one assumes it was fairly innocuous.  The ACLU might at times overstep itself, but in this case it seems on the right side.

No related posts.

No, that title is not overly dramatic.  it is simply accurate.  The city of Spokane, Washington is planning to use a device known as the Redenator Pro to detonate squirrels that are tearing up the city’s parks.  PETA, this is one of those times we don’t mind you getting all crazy.

The Spokane Parks and Recreation department is furious about squirrels tearing up the park, so they plan to use the Rodenator Pro to set their underground tunnels ablaze, and the squirrels as well one assumes.  What does it do exactly?  it pumps oxygen and propane into the tunnels and then uses an electrical spark to ignite the gas.  The idea is to essentially vaporize anything in the tunnel.

Yes, such a tool does cry out for a Caddyshack 3.  Beyond that, however, what sick mind thought this up?  Seriously, doesn’t this seem like something thought up by a couple of 15-year-olds smoking pot?  “You know what would be awesome, dude?  If we could just vaporize everything under us right now!”  The good thing about pot is the kids would be too lazy to ever follow through on the idea.

There really is something very, very wrong about this.  Watch the video below for evidence.

No related posts.

If stealing is wrong, then stealing $12,000 from your “brothers” to buy video games is just kind of sad.  That’s exactly what one University of Wisconsin-Madison student did.  Best of all?  He was the Treasurer of the fraternity.

The brothers of Delta Theta Sigma apparently noticed something was amiss when treasurer Jose R. Tavarez started showing up with thousands of dollars worth of games.  They checked the credit card bills and, wouldn’t you know it, good old Jose had been running up debts at gaming retailers online and off.  One assumes the offline retailers were likely GameStop stores since the brothers seem so certain where the money was spent.

Wasn’t anyone suspicious when Jose not only out spent all the other brothers individually, but combined?  As in, combined on all their purchases, but he just spent it towards video games?  Also, is this perhaps kind of the boring frat on campus?  Someone is amassing $12,000 in video games in their room and this doesn’t strike anyone too out of the ordinary?  I’m guessing their nights are free for nights of Halo instead of socials with the sororities.

In all seriousness, this is a tough but good lesson for these young men.  Such embezzling issues crop up in all walks of life–from major corporations to small churches.  Perhaps they’ll be more astute observers about money matters in the future.  As for Jose?  Get a life.

No related posts.