Why I don't watch football, part 4: Another dead kid

With each passing day and each new story, I regret ever having been a fan of the game.  Football should be banned, along with boxing, "ultimate fighting", "mixed martial arts" and other potentially lethal activities.

http://www.azcentral.com/12news/free/20131111northern-arizona-high-school-football-player-critical.html

A high school football player died Monday night at a Phoenix hospital, days after he suffered a blow to the head during a game.

Never "thank" an ex-soldier for his military service

"Thanking" ex-soldiers is not about showing gratitiude, it's about smug self-satisfaction and flag waving by those "thanking" them. If people really cared about them, they would be offering condolences for their lost innocence and their dead friends.

In May 2013, a series of pictures hit the news showing the faces of British soldiers - before they ever seeing combat, during, and after. You can see the lost hope, joy and innocence in their faces and especially their eyes.

http://12160.info/forum/topics/mesmerizing-photographs-of-soldiers-faces-before-and-after-a-war

Sacrifice to the fallacy that war can end

The enscription on the gravestone of 2nd Lieutenant Arthur Conway Young, who died on August 16, 1917, reads thus:

"Sacrifice to the fallacy that war can end."


The corpse worship that goes on every November 11th is not a call to end war, it is a call for blind support of war. And those who call for it the most are often the profiteers of war. In England, BAE (the biggest supplier of military equipment in the country) is the principal "sponsor" of the British Legion.

Good riddance to bad rubbish...I mean, bad business practices

Blockbuster Video, the lackluster rental company, is finally and permanently closing its doors.  It won't be missed.

http://business.time.com/2013/11/09/the-end-of-an-era-blockbuster-ceases-rentals-in-advance-of-closing/

The company may have been a giant, but became one at the expense of other companies and of consumers.  Its poorly written and inconsistent policies, its excessive late fees and its sheer arrogance made it easy for a competing business like Netflix to arise.  On top of that lackluster...I mean, Blockbuster failed to see the writing on the wall of their brick-and-mortar business.  Digital distribution was the future, and they failed to see it until five years too late.  I certainly won't miss them.  If I rented their movies more than five times during their existence, I would be surprised.

I preferred the mom-and-pop rental shops, and not just because they were locally owned.  They tended to be reasonable and responsive to problems, and not treat human beings as an inconvenient part of doing business.

A wrinkle in time: smooth skin as a sign of longevity

Like it or not, your skin may be an indicator of how long you live.

http://healthland.time.com/2013/11/07/what-your-skin-says-about-how-long-youll-live/

A study in the Journal of Gerontology (*), a study of both women and men showed a relationship between blood pressure and how wrinkled a person's skin is.  The more wrinkles there are, the higher the blood pressure.

(* published by Unilever, so there may be corporate for-profit pseudo-science)

A slap on the wrist is not "punishment"

Former  Williamson County (Texas) district attorney Ken Anderson has been disbarred, serve 500 hours of community service and do ten days in jail.  For what crime did he get such a punishment?

He knowingly railroaded an innocent man, Michael Morton, to a conviction for the murder of his wife.

BMW says, "Pedestrians cause car accidents"

BMW has created a "pedestrian safety" website, "instructing" children (read: blaming children who are hit) to wear fluorescent vests or armbands when walking on the sidewalks and when crossing streets.

http://www.bmweducation.co.uk/sots06/default.asp

On the face of it, this sounds like something responsible.  In reality, this is victim blaming.  The goal of the website is to say, "They should have been more visible," to children who are injured or killed by speeding drivers.

Hallowe'en isn't supposed to be cute

But this costume definitely is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkBDRUO8hAo

Why I don't watch football, part 3: "FrontLine: League Of Denial"

Frontline has produced a brilliant documentary on the effects and prevalence of concussions amongst football players.  It's not limited to professionals as many belief.  It happens to college players, and to teenagers.

Players of all ages have died from CTE, or Chronic traumatic encephalopathy.  More than fifty brains of deceased NFL players have been examined, and well over forty were proven to have had CTE.  Many living former players are suffering from its effects: memory loss, mood swings, the inability to concentrate.  Many have turned to drug use, violence or suicide (e.g. Junior Seau).

The NFL owners knew about it all along.  And they chose to pretend it didn't exist.

Hey, Japan: There's a reason that Germany has gotten past Nazism.

There's a reason that Germany has gotten past its dark era of Nazism.  The country came clean and purged itself, prosecuting criminals and making reparations.  It's easier to be forgiven when you're willing to admit fault and mistakes.

That's why Japan has never been truly forgiven for its past, the history of Japan's imperialism in the first half of the 20th century.  Japan has refused to come clean, refused to admit its mistakes.  Since World War II, Japan has had repeated incidents of historical revisionism in school textbooks, denials of atrocities (re: the Rape of Nanking), and worst of all, the organized and planned mass rape of women from across Asia, the misnomer of "comfort women".