The Philosopher's Corner

[J. T./Jessica]

...Daniel, read Stupid News...

[Enigma!]

Fairy tales are very dark and creepy. But Disney kiddified most of them so much that we forget these things.

For example: in Little Red Riding Hood, after the wolf eats Grandma and dresses as her, he invites Red to lay in bed with him and drink wine, that was really Grandma's blood poured into a wine bottle. The story was originally a metaphor for how the British treated the French. But that scene is all but forgotten.

Is this for the better?

[J. T./Jessica]

No, because it causes kids to grow up thinking everything is nice and rosy and everything will always turn out good in the end...

And so they're REALLY not prepared when Real Life hits them in the face like a brick.

[J. T./Jessica]

POLICE HARASSMENT

Maybe this should be made into a pamphlet to hand out....

This was taken from a "Community Policing" question and answer via an e-mail forum in California.

The question was:

"I would like to know how it is possible for police officer to harass people and get away with it? And where can you go for help, other than a civil attorney?"

And the answer was:

"It is not easy. In California we average one cop for every 2000 people. About 60% of those cops are on patrol, where we do most of the harassing. One-fifth of that 60% are on duty at any moment and available for harassing people. So, one on duty cop is responsible to harass about 10,000 residents. When you toss in the commercial, business, and tourist locations that attract people from other areas, sometimes you have a situation where a single cop is responsible to try to harass 20,000+ people a day.

A ten hour shift runs 36,000 seconds. This gives a cop only one second to harass a person, and three-fourths of a second to eat a donut AND find a new person to harass. This is not an easy task. Most cops are not up to it day in and day out. It is just too tiring.

Since you now understand why we cannot harass everyone let me explain briefly what we do to utilize some special "tools" to help us narrow down who we harass, so we can focus our limited "harassing resources" to those most worthy individuals. They are as follows:

The Phone:
People will call us up and point out things that cause us to focus
on another person for special (concentrated) harassment. "My ex-husband just beat me and my boyfriend up and he is barricaded in the bedroom with our baby and a gun, or "My neighbor is beating up his wife and she is screaming for help" are a couple code phrases that are frequently employed. Then we come out and give special harassment to the wife beater. Another popular one on weekends is "My neighbors are out of town and their kids are having a loud party."

Cars:
We have special cops assigned to harass people who drive; They usually ride motorcycles so they can get around fast or cut through traffic to harass as many people as possible in their given shift. They like to harass the drivers of fast cars, cars blasting music, cars with expired registration tabs, and the like. It is lots of fun when we pick them out of traffic for nothing more obvious then running a red light, going around railroad crossing arms, or driving 20+ MPH over the posted limit in a school zone. Sometimes we get to really heap the harassment on when we find they have drugs in their car, are driving drunk, are unlicensed or have an arrest warrant!

Runners:
Some people take off running at the mere sight of a uniformed police officer. Nothing is quite as satisfying as running after them like a trained
beagle on the scent of a bunny. When we catch them, gosh darn it if there isn't always some good reason to harass them for hours!

Codes:
When we can think of nothing else to do, there are books that give us
ideas for reasons to harass folks. They are called Codes, Penal, Vehicle, Health and Safety, Business and Professions... They each spell out all sorts of silly things for which we can really mess with people. After we study these code books, we can just drive around for a while until we find someone violating one of the listed offenses and heap on the harassment! Just last week I saw a guy smash several car windows right in front of me. Well, believe it or not, one of the code books says that is not allowed. That meant I automatically got to harass this guy...of course he didn't like it, because just when I got done harassing him, the jail deputies harassed him and that will likely continue until the judge harasses him, then he will probably be harassed by a probation officer for the next couple of years. It is a pretty cool system that we have set up, and it works very well most of the time. We seem to have a never ending supply of folks to harass, and we "get away with it" because the good citizens pay the tab for us to keep the streets safe for them...and your civil attorney.

Next time you are in my town, give me a "single finger wave". That is a secret signal that you wish for me to take a closer look at you, and maybe find a reason to harass you.

I agree wholeheartedly.

[J. T./Jessica]

Huh...

We're at my mother's at the moment. She happens to be watching Yet Another Christmas Carol Remake. (Earlier, when it talks about the three spirits, I joked about requesting Jack Daniels, Foster's and Heinekin, but that's beside the point...)

The point is thus; At the end of The Christmas Carol, Scrooge (in whatever form the character takes in the version being read or viewed) changes his (or her) ways... not out of a heartfelt desire to be a good person, but rather out of a fear of the consequences of what might happen if they don't. Basically saying that it's better to do good out of fear than to do good for good's sake. For all that Scrooge is shown throughout the night, he remains the same - self-serving and self-focused. The only difference is that the focus is no longer on gathering wealth to him, but rather on saving his own skin.

[J. T./Jessica]

Another thing - this cruel, heartless person is suddenly acting like everyone's best friend and NO ONE is suspious about it?

[BloodAngel]

I think it's more it's just better to be or do good, regarless of the reason why.

[J. T./Jessica]

Which leads to a question of "Calvin and Hobbes" proportions...

[BloodAngel]

turbomagnus said:

The point is thus; At the end of The Christmas Carol, Scrooge (in whatever form the character takes in the version being read or viewed) changes his (or her) ways... not out of a heartfelt desire to be a good person, but rather out of a fear of the consequences of what might happen if they don't. Basically saying that it's better to do good out of fear than to do good for good's sake. For all that Scrooge is shown throughout the night, he remains the same - self-serving and self-focused. The only difference is that the focus is no longer on gathering wealth to him, but rather on saving his own skin.

In watching Muppet Christmas Carol (One of the most faithful adaptations), I had a thought.

Scrooge seems like he's willing to change about halfway through Ghost of Christmas Present, which was non-threatening and happy. Especially after seeing Tiny Tim.

Maybe the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come only cemented his decision?

And as for the second point you brought up... would you, if you were someone working for a charitable orginization and you recived money from that guy ask why? It's likely a case of "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth".

[BloodAngel]

Because I have way the hell too much time on my hands...

starsandauras.livejournal.com/33866.html

[J. T./Jessica]

Makes sense to me.

Were you doing only guys, because there is always Kodachi "The Black Rose" Kuno...

But it could be worse - I got bored the other night and came up with a theory as to why Gulliman and the 'Chapterist' Primarchs were traitors and Rogel Dorn and the 'Legionnaire' Primarchs were more loyal to the Emperor's idea of the Space Marines after his death and the Horus Heresy...

[BloodAngel]

I knew I'd forgotten someone else.

[J. T./Jessica]

Thinking about it, only the cherry blossom gets used more as symbolism in anime...

[J. T./Jessica]

Interesting thought...

As we all know, Jay and Silent Bob deal drugs - right?

How honest do you think they are/were/whatever as dealers? I mean, do they sell the good stuff, high quality dope - or do they cut coke with baking soda, mix oregano with grass, etc. to cut corners and increase profits?

[J. T./Jessica]

Hm...

Something I realized today going through my old VHS tapes and packing them away -
Half of the Disney movies seem to involve a carefree character (usually male) getting 'domesticated' by a well-bred character (usually female)

Think about it;
Lady and the Tramp - female pet ends up with a male stray who is, in the end, taken in by her humans and becomes a pet himself.

Aristocats - O'Malley ends up becoming a housecat when Duchess' owner decides to turn her house into a home for all the alley cats of Paris, starting with O'Malley, Hepcat and his band.

Robin Hood - we all know this one.

The Jungle Book - in the end, jungle-raised Mowgli joins a human village... why? because he was following a girl.

The Little Mermaid (not sure if it completely counts since Eric didn't seem to act proper all the time) - Ariel is anything but proper, but marries the Prince.

Beauty and the Beast (Again, not sure if it counts completely since the Beast was anything BUT proper, but he was a nobleman...) - Belle isn't a 'proper' young lady, but ends up marrying a lord.

Aladdin (and sequels) - Street Rat straightens up because of a Princess.

Mulan (again, questionably because of Shang's attitude) - Disobedient daughter saves China and marries her commanding officer (with the Emperor's blessing...)

Tarzan - like "Jungle Book", Tarzan is raised in the jungle and changes because of a 'proper' British lady.


And that's not counting Cars, which is a Disney-Pixar film.

It's more or less traditional for children to watch Disney movies growing up, right? Counting sequels, that's almost twenty different movies with the same base concept - "Conformity bring Happiness" - is it just me, or does that thought creep anyone else here out?