Wil, I understand completely. I've been bummed about the state of the world at the moment as well.

I am going through personal changes, too (some of you know that I'm moving), and that doesn't help my stress level as well.

But we must remember that amongst the chaos is beauty. There are still seven things to be happy about every week, every DAY, for that matter. Why don't you take a moment to list your seven for today?

We should feel fortunate for what we have, cherish the moments we share with our loved ones, and live for the moment.

Because we never know when it will all change.

Chin up, Wil, we're all in this with ya.

/cp

www.timesofindia.com
there's more :-/

i think everything is cyclic, and the key is to be at peace with oneself, because that's the only way one can deal with the events on the outside. Recognizing that one is only responsible for one's own actions is a valuable thing - sorta reinforces the courage of one's own conviction to face whatever dastardly bullcrap that goes on in the world.

peace!

~A

No, you are not alone. I am very frightened about the state of the world and feeling helpless in trying to stop it. I do what I can, but I retreat more and more because I just can't handle the way it is. And people outside of California are hearing about the little girl. I am trying to hang on, waiting for the pendulum to start swinging back the other way. I just hope it's not too late.

what is it that they say, if the though passes through your head, that's ok, but if you hold on to it for 2 days and then put it on your website for people to read, seek help...

No Wil, your not alone, it is a dark dark world out there right now. I hear somthing on the news that horrifys me almost every night, and well that is just not a good thing.

I don't know what has happend to the world, and to be honest, it scares me to think where its gonna be in 10 - 20 years.

My fience and I talk about plans to have kids some day, but what kind of world are they going to have.

Whats our legasy?

I wish I knew what to do.

I will just have to do my best to try and make the world a better place, one day at a time. I hope and prey thats enough.

If we all just take a moment or two out of our day to try and do the same thing, maybe things can change...

Maybe...

I know how you feel Wil...

I wish I Dident

:-(

Yours,

Cindy Andrie

I can't believe that, in the midst of all the seriousness, you made that remark about Battlefield Earth. Why would you do that? It wasn't funny.

I just reread your entry and just saw this quote:
"Am I the only one who reads the paper, listens to NPR, and thinks that something is terribly, terribly wrong?"

I think it's ironic that the media brings us this information/news, yet it can also bring us completely asinine crap.

The problem is that people are not paying enough attention to the important issues and are so much more attentive to the crap. I try to talk about these issues with my co-workers and the give me blank stares. Mention that so-and-so is dating whatsisface, and they can go on for eons about it. I read the newspaper in the lunchroom while everyone else seems to be watching soap operas and reading People Magazine. What gives?

/cp

It is okay. I have been feeling down about the world and my life lately. It is sad and depressing true but I know that there is still a lot in the world that is good. Wil think of your wife and children. If you are having a hard time thinking about some thing good about the world look to them. I hope you will feel good soon. As for me I will be taking a trip to my hometown of Reno Nevada. I think seeing some old friends will make me feel better. Later. Hope things get better for you.

Wil I completely understand what you're saying. Whenever I actually get the chance to listen to the news I wonder why exactly people hurt other people. There's a quote that I use to help me understand things and comfort me when I get upset about the state of the world. "Tex" Evans, the founder of a great organization called the Appalachian Service Project once said "Accept people just as they are, right where they are." I know it doesn't excuse anything, or make anything right, but it helps me to step back and look at things. It also makes me wish that more people could think like this, and that if we could all use this and take it to heart, everybody might be a lot happier. I think it's time for another seven things I'm thankful for.

1. Friends who will sit in a smoky cafe at 1 in the morning an listen to you.

2. Being in college and getting a great education in theater.

3. ASP (the Appalachain Service Project I mentioned) for teaching me so much about tolerance and how to live my life.

4. My parents. For everything.

5. WWDN for making me think about things and giving me a forum to voice my thoughts on.

6. My roommate for being awesome.

7. Shiny things for amusing me so much so easily.

Maybe things will change, maybe they won't. You never know.

You're not the only one, not by a long shot.

I have long since ceased to be surprised by the depth of man's inhumanity toward other men. But there's something that happens every so often that keeps me from being a total cynic.

Every so often, someone's randomly nice. Every once in a while, the lady with the cart full of groceries and a folder full of coupons will let me and my carton of milk and bag of kitty litter go ahead of her in the checkout line.
Nothing can ease the pain and fear and anguish of those people losing their daughter. They may never be all right again, and understandably so. Our children are supposed to be immortal to us. We die before them, so that they're immortal in our eyes. And when that gets reversed... it's hard. Their friends aren't going to know what to do for them. They may not know what to do for themselves. But what WE can do is start a change. In small ways, it matters a lot. Be nice to someone tomorrow. Instead of screaming at the guy who cut you off, let it slide. Open a door for someone. Hold the elevator for that person who's truckin' across the lobby, instead of letting the door slide shut. Buy your S. O. a present, something goofy. Daisies are always good, or maybe some silly putty or a kid's toy of some sort.
Just... do a kindness, even if it doesn't seem like a big deal at the time you do it, you'll feel better. Adding to the universal balance of good karma or whatever you want to call it is always better than adding to the negativity.

OK... I've blathered enough. Thanks in advance for not making too much fun of me.

Eri

I've been feeling the same way recently -- with the added joy that no one else seems to care very much. That's part of why I enjoy coming to your site, Wil. You notice that the world is pretty screwed up and you care enough to do something about it. You give me faith that humanity does still have some redeeming value.

How's that for a cheery thought? ;)

I totally agree. These days, I don't even want to read the newspaper. With all these things you've just said, as well as the post 9-11 "war" being used as excuse to hammer all sorts of nasty things through congress (or just decree them, a la John Ashcroft), we're definitely in tough times.

I think we need to take solace in the goodness of people that we do see around us, and in each doing our part to be a positive influence. If everyone does a little bit of good, hopefully that adds up to something.

Remember your advice from a few days ago to think about those 7 things you're thankful for every day. Now more than ever.

Best regards,
Tony

You are definitely not alone. We are quite aware of the little girl over here in Minnesota and our thoughts are with her family. The state of the world is quite depressing, but as a college student getting ready to graduate, I find it best to think about what good is going on and what could be going on to fix things. Without thinking positively, it is quite easy to shrivel up inside and shut everything out, thinking things won't get better. What personally keeps me going is the experience I had in South Africa in January of 2001. I met so many people there who went through so much, still have so little, and are still so warm, friendly and giving. Their love gives me faith in the human race that nothing else right now can give me.

Keep Smiling,
Stef

No dude...I hear ya...think most people are prolly hearin ya too...

hell...I'm reenlisting...have lots of prospects out here in Misery (read Missouri)...but ya feel kind of helpless and want to do something about it...all the flag waving and words and patriotism is great, but there's a time for action...whether its these f'ed up crimes, murders and kidnappings goin on...or someones twisted ambitions overseas...well...ya gotta do what have to to get by...

anyways...try to relax a bit and enjoy the wife and kids ;)

Joshua

Let's all go here, breath deeply, & relax for a bit...

http://dailymotivator.com/memberflash/rightnow.html

It gets worse, Wil. Our lack of respect for other living beings is destroying us and our planet. If we don't wake up soon, global warming will be the least of our problems. Our children are dying of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other diseases of affluence. We slaughter 9 billion animals a year for food. Americans are fatter than they have ever been. Parents are dying from heart attacks. Sisters are dying from cancer. Innocent children are being starved to death in Third World countries because Americans insist of feeding our grain to animals instead of people. We're losing topsoil faster than ever before in history. Our forests are disappearing. Hell is a world where 40,000 children starve to death every damn day.

I don't want to sound cold, but the one little girl in LA is really not going to tip the scale of injustice one way or the other.

Please read the information below, and consider making the right choice for everyone: go vegan. For yourself, the planet, and the animals that share it with us.

U.S. cancer deaths attributable to diet: One-third (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Jan 95. "Position of the American Dietetic Association: Cost-Effectiveness of Medical Nutrition Therapy", Volume 95, Number 1, p. 88-91.)
Groups recommending generous amounts of fruits & vegetables to reduce cancer risk: National Research Council, National Cancer Institute, & the American Cancer Society (Wattenberg, Lee W. Cancer Research, April 1, 1995, "Inhibition of Carcinogenesis by Minor Dietary Constituents", Volume 52, Number 7 (Supplement), p. 2090S.)
Leading cause of death in US: Heart Disease (Williams, Roger R. 1994. "Diet, Genes, Early Heart Attacks, and High Blood Pressure," Nutrition in the '90s: Current Controversies and Analysis, Edited by Frank N. Kotsonis and maureen A. Mackey; Marcel Dekker, Inc.New York, p. 25-44.)
U.S. residents who will die from heart disease: Nearly 50% (Hans Diehl, 1994. "Reversing Coronary Heart Disease," Western Diseases: Their Dietary Prevention and Reversibility, N.J. Temple and D.P. Burkitt, Humana Press, Totowa, NJ, p. 237-316.)
Experience of most heart disease patients following Dr. Dean Ornish's program (which is based on a very low-fat vegetarian diet): Coronary Blockages Reverse (Gould, K. Lance; Ornish, Dean, et. al., Sept. 20, 1995. JAMA, "Changes in Myocardial Perfusion Abnormalities by Positron Emission Tomography After Long-term, Intense Risk Factor Modification", Volume 274, Number 11, p. 894-901.)
Veterinarian's assessment of raising parasite-free livestock: "...Virtually Impossible..." (Haynes, N. Bruce, DVM. 1994. Keeping Livestock Healthy: A Veterinary Guide to Horses, Cattle, Goats & Sheep, Storey Communications, Pownal, VT. p. 258.)
Leading source of kidney failure among North American children: E. coli Infection (July 23, 94, "To Zap or Not to Zap," The Economist, p. 27-28.)
U.S. supermarket ground beef infected with E. coli: 4% (Herbert, Bob. July 7, 1995, "Bad Meat and Politics," New York Times, p. A25.)
Time needed for campylobacter to infect every chicken in a 20,000 bird house: A Few Days (Madden, Robert H. July, 1994. "Microbial Hazards in Animal Products," Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, Volume 53, Number 2, p. 313.)
Number of antibiotics allowed in U.S. milk: 80 ( Begley, Sharon. March 28, 1994 , "The End of Antibiotics," Newsweek, p. 47-51)
Number of antibiotics for which U.S. milk is tested: 4 ( Ibid.)
Human infections resistant to all antibiotics: "...Rapidly Increasing..." (September, 1995. U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Impacts of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, Washington, DC, p. 1.)
Leading source of human exposure to dioxin: Meat, Dairy, Eggs & Fish (Fries, George F. June 1995, "A Review of the Significance of Animal Products as Potential Pathways of Human Exposures to Dioxins," Journal of Animal Science, Volume 73, Number 6, p. 1639-1650.)
Ranchers' reaction to proposed reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park area: Filed Lawsuit (Egan, Timothy Dec 11, 1994. "Ranchers Balk at U.S. Plans to Return Wolf to the West," New York Times, Section A, p. 1, 44.)
Chicken manure generated each day in U.S.: 120 million kilograms (Mountney, George J.; Parkhurst, Carmen R., 1995, Poultry Products Technology, Third Edition, Food Products Press, Binghamton, NY, p. 335.)
U.S. corn eaten by people: 2% (1994. 1993/94 World Maize Facts and Trends, CIMMYT, Mexico City, p. 50, 52.)
U.S. corn eaten by livestock: 77% (Ibid.)
Percentage of world grain supply eaten by livestock: 38% (Durning, A.T.; Brough, H.B. "Reforming the Livestock Economy," Brown, L.R., editor, State of the World, 1992, W.W. Norton and Company, New York, p. 66-82.)
U.S. land producing vegetables: 4 million acres (January, 1993.1992 Census of Agriculture, Table 0A, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C.)
U.S. fruit and nut orchards: 5 million acres (Ibid)
U.S. land producing hay for livestock: 56 million acres (Ibid)
Anesthetic typically used during pig castration: None (White, R.G., et al. February, 1995, "Vocalization and Physiological Response of Pigs During Castation With or Without a Local Anesthetic," Journal of Animal Science, Volume 73, Number 2, p. 381-386.)
Solution to the unhealthy air quality in commercial hog farms: "...wear a suitable mask at all times in hog facilities." (Morrison, W.D., Hacker, R.R.; Smith, J.H.; Morrison, W.D. June 1991, "Dust in Hog Growing Facilities: A Research Update," Highlights of Agricultural and Food Research in Ontario, Volume 14, Number 2, p. 6-10.)
Total human attention given over four months to a factory-farmed pig: 12 minutes (Kilman, Scott. May 4, 1995, "Iowans Can Handle Pig Smells, but This is Something Else,"Wall Street Journal, p. A1, A6.)
Of 1,324 chickens dying in transport to slaughterhouse, the ratio dying of heart failure: Half (Gregory, N.G. Mar-94, "Pathology and Handling of Poultry at the Slaughterhouse, " World's Poultry Science Journal, Volume 50, Number 1, p. 66-67.)
Age of these chickens (that died of heart failure): Eight Weeks (Ibid.)
Most profitable number of laying hens to keep in one commercial 30.5 by 50.8 cm cage: Five (Fraser, David. 1993. "Assessing Animal Well Being: Common Sense, Uncommon Science," Food Animal Well Being 1993 Conference Proceedings and Deliberations, USDA and Perdue University Office of Agricultural Research Papers, West Lafayette, IN, p. 41.)
Time a chicken spends under these conditions to lay a single egg: Over 24 hours (Gay, Carol V. 18-Jul-92, "Penn State Poultry Pointers: Building Better Bones," Lancaster Farming, p. C5)
Number of meat, milk, and egg producing animals slaughtered each year in US: Over Six Billion (January, 1993. 1992 Census of Agriculture, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C. Tables 20-25.)
December 1995 government conclusion on typical health of vegetarians: "...Excellent Health." (1995. Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Fourth Edition, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.)
Some recent additions:

In Finland, a study of 21,930 men showed that a high-fiber diet protected against heart attack. The men's risk of dying from a heart attack dropped 17 percent for each additional 10 grams of fiber eaten daily.
A recent study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute showed a low-fat diet rich in fruits and vegetables proved to be the best treatment for high blood pressure.
Early results of a long-term study of healthy women showed eating a diet rich in vitamin B6 and folic acid -- contained in such foods as dark green leafy vegetables, peas and dried beans -- may cut a woman's chances of getting heart disease by 50%. The findings were from the Nurse's Health Study, an ongoing research project.
A new study of 88 elderly people aged 65 or older who took 200 milligrams of vitamin E each day for about four months showed they significantly boosted their immune system's ability to ward off disease. The results appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found a link between prostate cancer and the consumption of saturated fat.
The Journal of the American College of Nutrition recently reported that adding fruits, vegetables and complex carbohydrates to a sensible diet reduces a person's risk of a second heart attack, which shows that it is never too late to adopt healthy lifestyles. In a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, coronary lesions shrank in 28 percent of heart patients who followed an intensive exercise program, versus 6 percent who received standard care.
In clinical studies at Harvard University's Mind/Body Institue, a number of interesting effects were seen resulting from the practice of a 20 minute daily meditation period: chronic pain patients reduced their physican visits by 36 percent; 80 percent of hypertensive patients lowered their blood pressure and decreased medications; open heart surgery patients suffered fewer post-operative complications; and 75 percent of insomnia patients became normal sleepers, with 90 percent able to reduce their use of sleeping medications. High school students, meanwhile, significantly increased their self-esteem.
Says Leslie Teets, M.D., director of the Center for Behavioral Medicine at Columbia Hospital in Richmond, Virginia: "The research shows that we are captains of our own destiny. Even if we are genetically pre-disposed to certain diseases, we don't have to accept that as fate. Changes in lifestyle can change the course of our health history. The choices we make and the way we live push us in different directions."

"Studies indicate that vegetarians often have lower morbidity and mortality rates… Not only is mortality from coronary artery disease lower in vegetarians than in nonvegetarians, but vegetarian diets have also been successful in arresting coronary artery disease. Scientific data suggest positive relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for…obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and some types of cancer."
- American Dietetic Association Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets

Water Required to produce one pound of U.S.beef:
(per Dr. Georg Borgstrom, Chairman of Food Science and Human Nutrition Dept of College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University) 2,500 gallons
Water required to produce 1 pound of California beef:
per the Water Education Foundation 2,464 gallons

Water Required to produce one pound of California foods
(according to Soil and Water Specialists, University of California Agricultural Extension, working with livestock farm advisors)
1 pound of lettuce
1 pound of tomatoes
1 pound of potatoes
1 pound of wheat
1 pound of carrots
1 pound of apples
1 pound of chicken
1 pound of pork
1 pound of beef 23 gallons
23 gallons
24 gallons
25 gallons
33 gallons
49 gallons
815 gallons
1,630 gallons
5,214 gallons

Water required to produce 1 pound of beef:
per David Pimentel, Ph.D., Professor of Ecology and Agricultural Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 12,009 gallons

Putting water use info into perspective
If you shower each day for 7 minutes, using a shower with a flow rate of 2 gallons per minute, you are using 14 gallons of water per day (7 minutes x 2 gallons), or 98 gallons per week. Rounding that up to 100 gallons per week, in 52 weeks you would be using 5,200 gallons of water per year to take a daily shower.

Comparing 5,200 gallons of water used by taking a 7 minute shower every day for a year, to the 5,214 gallons of water it takes to produce a pound of beef (using the estimate noted by water specialists at the University of California, noted above), you realize that in California today, you can save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you will save by not showering for a year.

Take your choice -- 4 hamburgers or a year's worth of showers?

According to the calculations of the celebrated Dr. Pimentel of Cornell, you could go two years without a shower and still not save as much water as you would by not eating one pound of beef.

Number of people whose food energy needs can be met by the food produced on 2.5 acres of land:
If the land is producing cabbage
If the land is producing potatoes
If the land is producing rice
If the land is producing corn
If the land is producing wheat
If the land is producing chicken
If the land is producing milk
If the land is producing eggs
If the land is producing beef 23 people
22 people
19 people
17 people
15 people
2 people
2 people
1 person
1 person

"In a world where an estimated one in every six people goes hungry every day, the politics of meat consumption are increasingly heated, since meat production is an inefficient use of grain -- the grain is used more efficiently when consumed directly by humans. Continued growth in meat output is dependent on feeding grains to animals, creating competition for grain between affluent meat eaters and the world's poor." -Worldwatch Institute

Where most Americans get their information about foods: Advertising
Amount spent annually by Kelloggs to promote Frosted Flakes:
Amount spent annually by dairy industry on "milk mustache" ads:
Amount spent annually by McDonald's advertising its products:
Amount spent annually by the National Cancer Institute promoting fruits and vegetables: $40 million
$190 million
$800 million
Just $1 million

"What humans do over the next 50 years will determine the fate of all life on the planet."
- David Attenborough

www.whyvegan.org
www.vegan.com
www.vegsource.com
www.foodrevolution.com

Peace and love,

John

I'm not sure I'd agree that it's "falling apart". It's always been like that, but there have been significant improvements in the last century. Things are very far from perfect, but on the whole getting better. Compare 60-100 years ago to now:

-Civil Rights
-Human Rights
-Better social support for the disabled and elderly.
-Agencies like UNICEF that make a significant impact in the eradication of disease and the rights of children.
-The rights of women (to vote, etc.)
-The end of fascism in Europe
-The end of totalitarism in the Soviet Union (yes, there's still more to be done, though ...)
-and so on: make your own list.

Plus, let's not forget that we simply KNOW MORE about the plight of our fellow human beings because of radio, tv, the Web, and so on, and while reality smacks us hard in the face a lot of the time, action can arise out of that. It's what you do with those feelings that count - if you're overwhelmed and turn away, nothing changes.

More information for your consumption.

Although cattle grazing in the West has polluted more water, eroded more topsoil, killed more fish, displaced more wildlife, and destroyed more vegetation than any other land use, the American public pays ranchers to do it!"
-Ted Williams, environmental author

"Genetically engineered crops were created not because they're productive but because they're patentable. Their economic value is oriented not toward helping subsistence farmers to feed themselves but toward feeding more livestock for the already overfed rich." -Amory and Hunter Loving, Founders of Rocky Mountain Institute

DIET AND CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Drop in heart disease risk for every 1 percent decrease in blood cholesterol: 3-4 percent
Blood cholesterol levels of vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians: 14 percent lower
Risk of death from heart disease for vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians: Half

Blood cholesterol levels of vegans ( no meat, eggs, or dairy products) compared to non-vegetarians: 35 percent lower
Intake of cholesterol for non-vegetarians: 300-500 milligrams/day
Intake of cholesterol for lacto-ovo vegetarians: 150-300 milligrams/day
Intake of cholesterol for vegans: Zero

Average cholesterol level in the United States: 210
Average cholesterol level of U.S. vegetarians: 161
Average cholesterol level of U.S. vegans: 133

Percentage of adult daily value for saturated fat in one Double Whopper with cheese: 130%
Percentage of eight-year-old child's daily value for saturated fat in one Double Whopper with cheese: More than 200%

"A large and convincing body of evidence from studies in humans . . . shows that diets low in saturated fatty acids and cholesterol are associated with low risks and rates of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease."
-U.S. National Research Council, in "Diet and Health, Implications for Reducing Chronic Disease Risk"

"In regions where meat is scarce, cardiovascular disease is unknown."
- Time Magazine

Risk of dying during bypass surgery: 4.6%-11.9%
Risk of permanent brain damage from bypass surgery: 15%-44%
Recipients of bypass surgery for whom it prolongs life: 2%
Risk of death during angioplasty: 0.4%-2.8%
Risk of major complication developing during angioplasty: 10%
Studies that have found that angioplasty prolongs life or prevents heart attacks: Zero

Number of patients on Dr. Dean Ornish's vegan diet program that achieve reversal of atherosclerosis: Three out of every four
Average reduction in arterial blockage after five years on the Ornish program: 8%

Most common problem for which people go to doctors in the U.S.: High blood pressure
Ideal blood pressure (without medication): 110/70 or less
Average blood pressure of vegetarians: 112/69
Average blood pressure of non-vegetarians: 121/77
Incidence of high blood pressure in meat eaters compared to vegetarians: Nearly triple

Patients with high blood pressure who achieve substantial improvement after switching to a vegetarian diet: 30%-70%
Incidence of high blood pressure among senior citizens in the U.S.: More than 50%
Incidence of high blood pressure among senior citizens in countries eating traditional, low-fat plant-based diets: Virtually none

DIET AND CANCER

Death rate from breast cancer in the United States:
Death rate from breast cancer in Japan:
Death rate from breast cancer in China: 22.4 (per 100,000)
6.3 (per 100,000)
4.6 (per 100,000)
Primary reasons for difference:
People in China and Japan eat more fruits and vegetables and fewer animal products, weigh less, drink less alcohol, and get more exercise than people in the United States.

Number of lives lost to colon cancer each year in the United States: 55,000

Risk of colon cancer for women who eat red meat daily compared to those who eat it less than once a month: 250 percent greater
Risk of colon cancer for people who eat red meat once a week compared to those who abstain: 38 percent greater

Risk of colon cancer for people who eat poultry once a week compared to those who abstain: 55 percent greater
Risk of colon cancer for people who eat poultry four times a week compared to those who abstain: 200-300 percent greater
Risk of colon cancer for people who eat beans, peas, or lentils at least twice a week compared to people who avoid these foods: 50 percent lower

Impact on risk for colon cancer when diets are rich in the B-vitamin folic acid: 75 percent lower
Primary food sources of folic acid: Dark green leafy vegetables, beans, and peas

Most common cause of cancer mortality worldwide: lung cancer
Number of lives lost in the U.S. to lung cancer annually: 150,000
Impact on risk of lung cancer for people who frequently eat green, orange and yellow vegetables: 20%-60% reduction
Impact on risk of lung cancer among people who consume a lot of apples, bananas and grapes: 40% reduction

Diet Costs Economy More than Smoking:
Annual medical costs in the United States directly attributable to smoking:
Annual medical costs in the United States directly attributable to meat consumption:
$65 billion
$60-120 billion

Most common cancer among American men: prostate cancer
Risk of prostate cancer for men who consume high amounts of dairy products: 70% increase
Risk of prostate cancer for men who consume soy milk daily: 70% reduction
Risk of prostate cancer for men whose intake of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnips) is high: 41% reduction

"Five to ten percent of all cancers are caused by inherited genetic mutations. By contrast, 70 to 80 percent have been linked to [diet and other] behavioral factors."
-Karen Emmons, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston

"Now some people scoff at vegetarians, but they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate. They outlive us. On average they outlive other men by about six years now."
-William Castelli, M.D., Director, Framingham Heart Study; National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute

"If you step back and look at the data [on beef and cancer], the optimum amount of red meat you eat should be zero."
-Walter Willett, M.D., Chairman of the Nutrition Department, Harvard School of Public Health, and director of a study of 88,000 American nurses that analyzed the link between diet and colon cancer

DIET AND OSTEOPOROSIS

Countries with the highest consumption of dairy products: Finland, Sweden, United States, England
Countries with the highest rates of osteoporosis: Finland, Sweden, United States, England

Daily calcium intake for African Americans: More than 1,000 mg
Daily calcium intake for black South Africans: 196 mg
Hip fracture rate for African Americans compared to black South Africans: 9 times greater

Calcium intake in rural China: One-half that of people in the United States
Bone fracture rate in rural China: One-fifth that of people in the United States

"Beyond weaning age, children and adults of various countries and food cultures subsist on diets differing markedly in their calcium content. These differences in calcium intake . . . have not been demonstrated to have any consequences for nutritional health."
-Health Canada's Nutrition Recommendations

Foods that when eaten produce the most calcium loss through urinary excretion: Animal protein and coffee
Amount of calcium lost in the urine of a woman after eating a hamburger: 28 milligrams
Amount of calcium lost in the urine of a woman after drinking a cup of coffee: 2 milligrams
Average daily calcium intake of vegans: 437mg-1,100 mg

Calcium absorption rates
(according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition):
Brussels sprouts
Mustard greens
Broccoli
Turnip greens
Kale
Cow's milk 63.8 percent
57.8 percent
52.6 percent
51.6 percent
32 percent

Other milk facts:

Children with chronic constipation so intractable that it can't be treated with laxatives who are cured by switching from cow's milk to soy milk: 44%

Lactose intolerance among people of Asian descent: 90%-100%
Lactose intolerance among Native Americans: 95%
Lactose intolerance among people of African descent: 65%-75%
Lactose intolerance among people of Italian descent: 65%-70%
Lactose intolerance among people of Hispanic descent: 50%-60%
Lactose intolerance among people of Caucasian descent: 10%

Average American's estimate when asked what percentage of adults worldwide do not drink milk: 1%
Actual number of adults worldwide who do not drink milk: 65%

DIET AND PROTEIN NEEDS

Protein in human mother's breast milk (as percentage of total calories): 5%
Human protein requirement (according to World Health Organization) 5% of total calories
Recommended protein requirement (according to Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of Sciences: 6% of total calories
Recommended protein requirement, including substantial added safety margin (according to National Research Council): 8% of total calories

Primary disease linked to inadequate protein consumption: kwashiorkor
Number of cases of kwashiorkor in the U.S.: virtually none

Primary diseases linked to EXCESS protein consumption: Osteoporosis and kidney disease
Number of cases of osteoporosis and kidney disease in the U.S.: tens of millions

DIET AND FOOD-BORNE ILLNESS

"A report by the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 89 percent of U.S. beef ground into patties contains traces of the deadly E. coli strain."
- Reuters News Service

"Year after year the egg industry goes to [Congress] to try to turn back public health improvements. Eggs remain at the top of the list of foods that are causing food-borne outbreaks."
- Center for Science in the Public Interest

"Five to ten percent of all cancers are caused by inherited genetic mutations. By contrast, 70 to 80 percent have been linked to [diet and other] behavioral factors."
-Karen Emmons, M.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston

"First it was E. coli and Salmonella poisoning, then the Mad Cow disease, and now the Hong Kong flu…what do these growing epidemics have in common? They are all transmitted to human consumers through chickens and other animals raised in factory farms. And little wonder. In the filthy, crowded pens, harmless microorganisms mutate into virulent pathogens. Routine use of antibiotics ensures their resistance to life-saving drugs. It makes one wax nostalgic for the good old days when meat eating was associated only with heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and atherosclerosis"
- WorldWatch journal.

"Public health is united in the conclusion. There is no controversy about where the antibiotic resistance in food-borne pathogens comes from…(It) is due to the heavy use of antibiotics in livestock."
- Dr. Frederick J. Angulo, epidemiologst in the food-borne and diarrheal disease branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999.

Primary source of E. coli 0157:H7 infections: Hamburgers and other forms of ground beef
Potential consequence of ingestion of deadly E. coli 0157:H7 bacteria in humans: Devastating illness with multiple organ failure and high death rate
Long-term afflictions suffered by many survivors of E. coli 0157:H7 poisoning: Epilepsy, blindness, lung damage, kidney failure

Leading cause of kidney failure in U.S. and Canadian children: Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome
Cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome that are caused by E. coli 0127:H7: 85%

Americans sickened from eating Salmonella-tainted eggs every year: More than 650,000
Americans killed from eating Salmonella-tainted eggs every year: 600
Increase in Salmonella poisoning from raw or undercooked eggs between 1976 and 1986: 600 percent

Annual Salmonella cases in Sweden: 800
Annual Salmonella cases in the United States: More than 1 million

Leading cause of food-borne illness in the United States: Campylobacter
People in the United States who become ill with Campylobacter poisoning every day: More than 5,000
Annual Campylobacter-related fatalities in the United States: More than 750
Primary source of Campylobacter bacteria: Contaminated chicken flesh
American chickens sufficiently contaminated with Campylobacter to cause illness: 70 percent
American turkeys sufficiently contaminated with Campylobacter to cause illness: 90 percent
Number of hens in three flocks screened for Campylobacter by University of Wisconsin researchers: 2,300
Number of hens that were NOT infected with Campylobacter: 8

Antibiotics produced in the U.S. annually: 25,000 tons
Antibiotics administered to livestock in the U.S. annually: 10,000 tons

Antibiotics allowed in U.S. milk: 80
Antibiotics found in soy milk: 0

FOOD CHOICES AND THE ENVIRONMENT

"The contamination of the nations' waterways from [pork] manure run-off is extremely serious. Twenty tons of [pork and other] livestock manure are produced for every household in the country. We have strict laws governing the disposal of human waste, but the regulations are lax, or often nonexistent, for animal waste."
- Union of Concerned Scientists

"A report by the United States Department of Agriculture estimates that 89 percent of U.S. beef ground into patties contains traces of the deadly E. coli strain."
- Reuters News Service

The impact of countless hooves and mouths over the years has done more to alter the type of vegetation and land forms of the West than all the water projects, strip mines, power plants, freeways, and subdivision development combined."
- Philip Fradkin, in Audubon

Gallons of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez: 12 million
Gallons of animal waste spilled into the Neuse River in North Carolina on June 21, 1995, when a "lagoon" holding 8 acres of hog excrement burst: 25 million
Fish killed as an immediate result: 10-14 million
Fish whose breeding area was decimated by this disaster: Half of all mid-east coast fish species
Acres of coastal wetlands closed to shell fishing as a result: 364,000

Amount of waste produced by North Carolina's 7 million factory-raised hogs (stored in reeking, open cesspools) compared to the amount produced by the state's 6.5 million people: 4 to 1
Relative concentration of pathogens in hog waste compared to human sewage: 10 to 100 times greater

Number of poultry operations (according to the General Accounting Office) that are of sufficient size to be required to obtain a discharge permit under the Clean Water Act: About 2,000
Number (according to the General Accounting Office) that have actually done so: 39

Number of the 22 largest animal factories in Missouri that are required to have valid operating discharge permits, that actually have them: 2

Number one milk producing are in the U.S.: California's Central Valley
Amount of waste produced by the 1,600 dairies in California's Central Valley: More than the entire human population of Texas

Total number of water quality inspectors in California's Central Valley: 4
Cities that rely on California's Central Valley as a source of drinking water: Los Angeles, San Diego, and most cities in between.
Number of Californians whose drinking water is threatened by contamination from dairy manure: 20 million (65% of the state's population).

Pathogen, stemming from dairy manure, that sickened 400,000 people and killed more than 100 people in Milwaukee in 1993: Cryptosporidium
Pathogen that Los Angeles metropolitan water district officials say is a constant threat to L.A. drinking water from Central Valley dairy waste: Cryptosporidium
Number of California beach closings due to water pollution in 1998: 5,285

"American feed (for livestock) takes so much energy to grow that it might as well be a petroleum byproduct"
- WorldWatch Institute

Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from soybeans: 2
Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from corn or wheat: 3
Calories of fossil fuel expended to produce 1 calorie of protein from beef: 78
Amount of greenhouse-warming carbon gas released by driving a typical American car, in one day: 3 kilograms
Amount released by clearing and burning enough Costa Rican rainforest to produce beef for one hamburger: 75 kilograms

Number of species of birds in one square mile of Amazon rainforest: More than exist in all of North America
Life forms destroyed in the production of each fast-food hamburger made from rainforest beef: Members of 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird, mammal, and reptile species

Length of time before the Indonesian forests, all 280 million acres of them, would be completely gone if they were cleared to produce enough beef for Indonesians to eat as much beef, per person, as the people of the United States do: 3.5 years

Length of time before the Costa Rican rainforest would be completely gone if it were cleared to produce enough beef for the people of Costa Rica to eat as much beef, per person, as the people of the United States eat: 1 year

What a hamburger produced by clearing forest in India would cost if the real costs were included in the price rather than subsidized: $200

Most of the public lands in the West, and especially the Southwest, are what you might call 'cow burnt.' Almost anywhere and everywhere you go in the American West you find hordes of cows. . . They are a pest and a plague. They pollute our springs and streams and rivers. They infest our canyons, valleys, meadows and forests. They graze off the native bluestems and grama and bunch grasses, leaving behind jungles of prickly pear. They trample down the native forbs and shrubs and cacti. They spread the exotic cheatgrass, the Russian thistle, and the crested wheat grass. Even when the cattle are not physically present, you see the dung and the flies and the mud and the dust and the general destruction. If you don't see it, you'll smell it. The whole American West stinks of cattle."
- Edward Abbey, conservationist and author, in a speech before cattlemen at the University of Montana in 1985

World's mammalian species currently threatened with extinction: 25%
Leading cause of species in the tropical rainforests being threatened or eliminated: Livestock grazing
Leading cause of species in the United States being threatened or eliminated (according to the U.S. Congress General Accounting Office): Livestock grazing

FOOD CHOICES AND GENETIC ENGINEERING

"I have a feeling that science has transgressed a barrier that should have remained inviolate. . . . You cannot recall a new form of life. . .It will survive you and your children and your children's children. An irreversible attack on the biosphere is something so unheard of, so unthinkable in previous generations, that I only wish that mine had not been guilty of it."
- Erwin Chargaff, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, Columbia University, and discoverer of "Chargaff's Rules," the scientific foundation for the discovery of the DNA double helix

"Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job."
- Phil Angell, Monsanto's Director of Corporate Communications, New York Times, 1999

"Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety."
- FDA Federal Register, Statement of Policy: Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties

"This technology is being promoted, in the face of concerns by respectable scientists and in the face of data to the contrary, by the very agencies which are supposed to be protecting human health and the environment. The bottom line, in my view, is that we are confronted with the most powerful technology the world has ever known, and it is rapidly being deployed with almost no thought whatsoever to its consequences"
- Suzanne Wuerthele, toxicologist, U.S. EPA

"(Genetic engineering) faces our society with problems unprecedented, not only in the history of science, but of life on the Earth. It places in human hands the capacity to redesign living organisms, the products of some three billion years of evolution…up to now, living organisms have evolved very slowly, and new forms have had plenty of time to settle in. Now whole proteins will be transposed overnight into wholly new associations, with consequences no one can foretell…Going ahead in this direction may be not only unwise, but dangerous. Potentially, it could breed new animal and plant diseases, new sources of cancer and new epidemics"
- George Wald, M.D., Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Professor of Biology, Harvard University

Total global area planted in genetically engineered crops, 1995: Negligible
Total global area planted in genetically engineered crops, 1996: 4 million acres
Total global area planted in genetically engineered crops, 1997: 27 million acres
Total global area planted in genetically engineered crops, 1998: 69 million acres
Total global area planted in genetically engineered crops, 1999: 99 million acres

Global transgenic acreage accounted for, in 2000, by soybeans: 54%
Global transgenic acreage accounted for, in 2000, by corn: 28%
Global transgenic acreage accounted for, in 2000, by cotton: 9%
Global transgenic acreage accounted for, in 2000, by canola: 9%

Fraction of American cows injected with genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH): About ¼
Reason for injecting cows with rBGH: To increase milk production
Amount of milk produced by American dairy farmers annually since 1950: Vastly more than Americans can consume.
Number of cows slaughtered as part of a U.S. federal government program to halt milk overproduction in 1986-87: 1.5 million

Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) in rBGH milk vs. normal milk: 2-10 times as much
Risk of prostate cancer in men over 60 years of age with high levels of IGF-1 compared to men with low levels: 8 times greater
Risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women with even small increases in blood levels of IGF-1 compared to women with low levels: up to 7 times greater

According to FDA researchers, IGF-1 is not destroyed by pasteurization

Increase in mastitis in rBGH-treated cows: 25%
Increase in lameness in rBGH-treated cows: 50%
Monsanto's suggestion to counter the bovine health problems related to rBGH use: Greater use of antibiotics.

Peace and love,

John

Just a request: If you want to post a REALLY long list of various stuff like that, please either put it on your own site or in the soapbox, and just post a link to it. It'll make everyone's life less spammy!

JSc

Wil,

You MUST look at the brighter side of life. Examining the dark of the world will lead, quite literally, to insanity. Eventually, anyways. That is what happens to cops. They see nothing but the worst of society, all day every day, and they become quickly jaded. They start to assume, subconsciously, that the bad that they see is all that there is. Somewhat like the old saying that, to a person who only has a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.

The person or people who did this to that 7 year old girl should die (gonna tie two of your points together here). I believe in the death penalty, under certain VERY strict conditions: 1) I want DNA evidence proof beyond the shadow of a doubt, 2) eyewitness accounts are to be view skeptically, 3) people who would tamper evidence (or knowingly falsely accuse) in court (IF it can be proven, VERY IMPORTANT POINT HERE) should face the same punishment that would have befell their intended, innocent victim.

It's not about vengence. It is about justice. Why should a person who would kill a 7 year old girl after snatching her from her bed be allowed to live? Barring insanity, of course, which is the ability to discern right from wrong.

In the case of that guy in Missouri, that is a stupid law, and the Governor should issue a complete pardon NOW, and then they should revise the stupid laws and rules that prevent a provably innocent man from escaping execution (or even further incarceration). That is what Governor and Presidential pardons are for: for when the rules have been followed and the laws have been applied as written, but justice is NOT being done. It is a necessary power, so that an innocent person doesn't have to suffer for a shortsighted law before the law can be changed.

Now, about the Battlefield Earth II...

Now, I am in a blue funk myself. My God, do they not realize what they are doing? Battlefield Earth is the worst movie released to theaters in the last 10 years! And they want to make another one???

Will someone please, PLEASE smack John Travolta until he starts to see reason? I think his head is a little *too* Clear, if you catch my drift.

But seriously, don't dwell on the negative. Or rather, don't dwell on the negative *exclusively*. There have been thousands of wonderful new babies born into the world to wonderful parents in the last month as well. If you have to see the negative (and yes, you have to be aware of these things, especially when it involves the murders of innocent little children), be sure to balance it with the positive in this world as well.

The old saying "You are what you eat" is right in principle, but it doesn't go far enough. "You are what you think" is closer to the truth.

- Bob Roth, broth@scratchingtheitch.com

Yes you are right the world does seem to be going to hell, especially lately but this is the time when you concentrate on the good things in life. You have a "wonderful wife" who loves you for the person your are and two step-children who adore you. You have a job that you do not dread to go to and this is very rare. Lastly, you have all of us who can with all of our "geek power" hehe pull you out of the doldrums. Now I'm babbling well what do you expect from a mother of 3 aged 7, 5, and 3. Now go to bed Wil and get some sleep things have a way of correcting themselves, that is if you can find the proverbial switch to turn off your brain. I now I hate it when I can't sleep because I'm worrying about something. Wow almost midnight got to sleep or kids might miss school tomorrow.Har Har not a good excuse anyway

TTFN

Wil, I have a feeling that part of the reason that that the story of the 7-year-old girl has hit you particularly hard is that now you have a family of your own- children who look up to you. I'm not a parent, so I can't imagine what that kind of bond must feel like, but I'm guessing that stories like Danielle's make all parents hold their children a bit more than usual. I do hope that things will brighten up for you soon. The fact that you were affected by that story just shows that you're a caring dad.

And I like that idea of the list of 7 things to be thankful for, so here's my list.

1)My husband, who loves me unconditionally and always laughs with me when I'm happy and looks after me when I'm down.

2)My parents, for raising me right and loving me even when I was a pain in the ass.

3)My friends, for making me laugh every day.

4)My health- even though it's not perfect, I am much better off than I was a year ago, and I feel like a whole new person because of it.

5)My teachers, who have made going back to school a joy, even when I'm freaking out about homework, homework, homework.

6)God- I won't get religious in here, but knowing that we're all part of something bigger than us makes me feel good.

7)The kindness of others... I know this post was originally about all the crap that is going on in the world, but to be honest, the same crap has been happening since the beginning of history. We just hear about it more nowadays.... But it's the everyday kindness that I'm talking about- like someone mentioned before about being in line at the checkout and someone letting them in first... or holding a door open for someone... being smiled at when greeted, and when asked "How do you do?" they actually WANT to know.

Anyway, I'm rambling now.... I hope some of this has helped you, even if in a small way. Go and give your wife and kids big hugs and smooches and tell them how much you love them, Wil. That ought to make you feel better real fast. :)

Sorry for the long post, but I felt it was necessary to convey the point properly.

Here's some book recommendations:

Beyond Beef by Jeremy Rifkin
The Food Revolution by John Robbins
Vegan by Eric Marcus (available at www.vegan.com for free)
Becoming Vegan
Fast Food Nation
Slaughterhouse
An Unnatural Order
The Sexual Politics of Meat
Compassionate Living by Joanne Stepaniak
The Vegan Sourcebook
The Case for Animal Rights

Peace and love,

John

If the story seems to be nearing an end, it probably is.

Evil, it seems, is not moved by shock, unphased by one becoming emotionally dismembered by its presence or the workings thereof;

Evil is only shaken by the presence and the workings of good, something we have seen diminish at an exponential rate in recent decades. Truthfully, we really should not look forward to its return to a society now so full of hate, greed and lust, for they are the very negative aspects of the human nature which drove the goodness out in the first place. May God's healing presence be with the family and loved ones of that beautiful child. She will hurt no more.

Try to remain focused on the things you can affect positively. You can't do what you can't do, but you can do what you can do. Your family (particularly your kids) needs to experience your strength in moments like this. And you are clearly a man of emotional strength.

Mr. Wheaton (SIR!), Mrs. Wheaton (SIR!), everyone,

I've felt much the same lately, though I haven't been keeping up with the world at large (very busy last several weeks in the lab). I don't know that it's something as simple as a little girl getting kidnapped, or someone in GA stacking dead bodies like cordwood instead of cremating them, or the ongoing "war against terrorism," or even global warming.

The Battlefield Earth sequel might have something to do with it, though I'm not really sure....

It's as if there's something far more fundamental that's gone wrong, something that we can't see because it's just too goddamn big or small to comprehend--like a stone hitting a pond, (to abuse an overused analogy) it's as if we're only seeing the surface ripples. We can't tell if the stone was a pebble, a boulder, or an asteroid.

Then again, maybe everything is just fine. Maybe I've just lost my last bit of sanity, and the rest of the world is perfectly normal. Wouldn't that be better?

JSc

"It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine..." REM

We heard about her in PA, too. Thank God she was found, so, that, at least, her parents have some type of closure. So many are not found. Our world is a frightening and dangerous place, as it was 50, 100, 1000 years ago. The dangers are a bit different, but the way we parents face them, is really not. By actually "daring" to have children, and trying to raise them, the best way we can, with all the help we can get, is the show of defiance to that world. We are making the future. I've said before, Nolan and Ryan have a great stepdad. By continuing to be that great stepdad, you're making a difference in two small lives. And, they'll make a difference in more lives, as they grow. The ripple effect is our only "weapon", but it is a powerful one. So, don't give up. Just go on. It's all we can do, and the best we can do. Sorry to be so long-winded. I'll go back to my corner now.

Geez, and I thought *I* was long-winded...

Vegan guy, this ain't my site and it's nothing but a suggestion, but you might consider paring down what you post to things that are relevant to the topic, *and* sized for the medium and target audience.

That's all I'm sayin'...

- Bob Roth, broth@scratchingtheitch.com

"Everybody wants a happy life" but there are only a dammed few that actually want to work for it.

Change is hard, which is why no one wants it...but when it does come, or the person who can do it does come, it often gets destoryed before it gets better.

Which brings us to the joyous apocolyptic thoughts that always live in this world.

Honestly, there are very few people who want to think outside of the 'Cave' (read: Plato's cave theory) and those that do are told that they're stupid, they;'re just imagining what's wrong...eventually it will change, and we have to find the poeple to change it.

But the question is how the change will happen? The pen is mightier then the sword, but only in the long run, and the way we're going right now we might end up dead before the pen begins to take effect.

*shakes head*
I don't know... I really don't know. But I can just hope that these kids will be safe again, that pointless murders and political manuverings STOP covering ALL we have to care about..
maybe someday?

All is understood, Wil. I'm 16 now, and I think about what everything will be like when I'm 30: We'll have cars that fly and nowhere to fly them.

But that's why we have to fight for change. And between rallies and voting, we must realize that the utopia is within the individual.

Don't let the damned Republicans get you down.

"The pen is mightier than the sword" if and only if people are willing and able to read, write, and think.

Beware cliches like the plague.

After reading your entry, Wil, and all of these comments, I have discovered the greatest possible truth about the universe and its untimely demise:

It's all because of the vegans.

If they didn't spend so much time writing 5,000 word propaganda posts here and instead devoted more of their time to eating animals, they might have more time to help negotiate the Gaza Strip issues, resolving the pressing issue of where Mike Tyson can get a license to fight, and the ultimate task of getting Al Gore back into public office. Too much naturally occurring vegetable protien is bad for your mind.

Peace, love, and food with faces,
Bobby

My sentiments exactly, Bob Roth. Yikes, as if I'm actually going to read all of that here. No disrespect intended but you could have just provided a link to your site of choice saved us all the wear and tear on our mice(?) hehe now I'm really going to leave Good Night everyone

TTFN

Hey..
there is a point to cliches, and sometimes they work. An added bonus is the fact that my classes all rotate around Lit right now..thus those loverally cliches are running through my head like mad
*begs forgiveness*

I checked this out
http://dailymotivator.com/memberflash/rightnow.html
And I honestly wanted to thank the person that put it up, it's a bit idealistic yes..but the world needs some idealism for that change we (I) keep speaking of...idealism that isn't stamped out by cynicism

Need to add one more downer.

Daniel Pearl.

The optimist in me was sure that he will be released....

First, I will continue to eat red meat and it won't kill me. (And if any reader here choses not to, thats fine with me as well.) But then this is Wil's soap box, not mine.

There are many things wrong with the world. But there are also many things that are right with it as well. I find comfort in my Christain beliefs.

We are given free choice on this planet and our actions do affect others. I always try to keep that in mind when living day to day.

Agree or disagree, it is nice to see what Wil has to say and what kind of response he gets!

Now about Battle Field Earth...

Wil, you sure are a dork. Did you read recently that portions of the artic ice are actually getting thicker? scientists are baffled, that doesnt go along with their theory of global warming. its not SUPPOSED to do that. Also, even if global warming exists, and im not saying it doesn't- it will alter the average climate of the earth about....oh, 1 or 2 degress. That's a lot, but I don't think it has anything to do with your 90 degree day in L.A. We just had an arctic cold front come through Texas and Houston is supposedly the smoggiest place in America! I would have liked to have seen your reaction during el nino a few years ago, you must have thought the sky was falling.

Woah. Hold on thar!

The world has pretty much sucked for millenia. There is always alot that is "wrong" with the world. It hasnt gotten any worse or any better, it's just gotten DIFFERENT. The biggest change between "then" and now is that through the nearly instant availability of information, we are all TOO aware of what's going on.

In centuries past we've had epidemics and pandemics and little illnesses that seem pretty insignificant today were pretty deadly back then. Wars have always happened, ESPECIALLY in the middle east. Death was something that was a matter of course, it was something that people experienced far more often than today.

I will agree that pollution sucks and global warming seems a to be creeping up on our collective ass because of it, but we are doing better than we have in the past. Change of the scale that is necessary to reverse the apparant trend in global warming may come too little too late, but the earth has shown one thing: mother nature is in charge, eventually, it will right itself. All we can do is try to help "her" along.

As for the murder thing, it's been a sad fact forever. People sometimes kill people, this is nothing new, we just are far more aware of it happening.

I skipped over alot of the nasty little facts that one or more people posted, because I know shit happens. I know there is alot of stuff in this world that can make us sick and kill us. It's always been true, but to let it get us down, to really worry about it to the point of depression or phobia, is not doing anyone a damned bit of good.

Instead of getting overwhelmed by the knowledge of what's wrong with the world, do a little something to help make it better. Don't try to do it all, no one can. Just do what is within your means to help make the world a little better place. Recycle, do beach clean-ups, work with charities, whatever you can do without making a serious disruption in your life will go along way, along with the contributions of others. "Every drop counts"

As you're doing your part, think about all that is right with the world, and you will see it aint so damned bad afterall.

About an hour ago, I was skimming though an old 'People' magazine...the one right after Sept. 11th. After reading it I didn't get angry or upset, I felt....overwhelmed, scared, and vulnerable. (That same feeling I had on Sept. 11th. I'll never forget that feeling. I was stopped at a red-light on my way to college, when I turned on the radio and heard Howard Stern say, "It's hard to believe the World Trade Center doesn't exist anymore.") I thought to myself as I was reading before..."Wow. This planet fucking sucks." In the past month, I had TWO dreams about my town getting attacked from the air, and one dream where I was in an airport, with an unbelievable feeling of panic. It verified to me that the terrorists are accomplishing their goal..to spread terror. I mean, I try NOT to get angry, but what scares me the most is....there were some times I got pissed and thought, "We should just nuke the hell out of these people." I try my dammed hardest not to think like that.
For me, sometimes it helps to look at this planet, like your looking from the outside. Someone once said, "The human race is a comedy for the intellectual." I'm glad we don't know any other species, because I, for one, would be embarrassed to be part of the human race.

Lenny

would a cyber*hug* help?

watching the news has always ended up making me cry, or pissing me off, or some combination of the 2 in varying degrees. i don't know if it will help you, but what helps me is knowing that everyone in the world is not evil. those of us who don't want death and destruction of our fellow inhabitants of this little planet will, hopefully, keep trying to do something about those who would kill and/or destroy. or at the very least, good people will look out for the people they love, and we all love somebody. the world is falling apart, but that doesn't mean you have to. i hope you cheer up. the weight of the world is not yours to bear.

courtney there has a good idea. time for a 'seven things to be happy about' list, maybe?

p.s. "if the world didn't suck, we'd all fall off." (;

I know, I also feel like a party pooper when I occasionally point out that life on this planet sucks royally if you look at everything that is going on.
If that ain't dark ages, then I dunno.
It's time to count blessings.
Maybe, to help balance out the shit, one oughta do something nice for everything bad that happens. Not that it makes stuff disappear. BUt to set something good against it.
Jesus said: "Don't answer evil with evil, but overcome evil with good."

Here in Germany recently a little girl was stabbed to death in her bedroom by a guy who came into her room dressed up as Death. (It was Carnival here). It is awful enough that he killed her, but that all of her nightmares must have come true, with him annulling everything her mommy comforted her with when she woke up from a bad dream, like "Honey, don't be afraid, there is no monsters."
She not only died a horrible death, she also died in horror.
Some people are so fuckin sick out there.

But just like Keith I find comfort in my faith, too.

Go hug your fam, Wil.

Now.

Howdy Wil,

It has a lot to do with having children...the worry, fear, and all those negative thoughts....

Its hard not to let a kidnapping affect you so strongly when you have children of your own.

Its easy to see all the crap in the world...on the news, in the paper... it sells.

I try not to get to bogged down in it.

Okay Peace out home fry,
toni

John- I don't want to start a flame war, especially not after this particular post of Wil's, but that was uncalled for. Please keep your propaghanda elsewhere. There are certainly enough good websites around on the subject that if somebody wants the information they can easily find it. That was definitely not a post to make anybody feel better except yourself. This is not me saying that your argument is invalid, but your placement and attitude was rude and, personally, quite offensive. Please let people make up their own minds.

On topic: I know it's a small, bittersweet point, but if there world were perfect there would be nothing left to do. But Wil, there are good people. I volunteered at a blood drive today, and there were people there who were terrified of donating for whatever reason, but were up on that table anyway. It doesn't bring that little girl back, it doesn't feed famine victims, it doesn't fix society, but it does save someone else's little girl. Maybe that makes it even more difficult, because stuff like that makes it impossible to completely give up on humanity, but it is important, and it does salvage something in our future.

Keith: This is not Mr. Wheaton (SIR!)'s soapbox.

That's down the hall, second door on your left.

Re: Vegans, etc.: I actually read through the entire post, out of bored curiosity. Sadly, I saw most of the same manipulation of statistics and half-truths that you'll see in a lot of other places. As an example, WorldWatch goes on about how African Americans have far higher rates of bone fracture than South Africans, despite higher levels of calcium intake.

That ignores several important points--first and foremost, African Americans live significantly longer than the average South African, resulting in age-related injuries that are simply not an issue in a society that doesn't live as long. (If you doubt this, start looking at cancer rates in various parts of the world relative to lifespan. With very few exceptions, the older a group of people tend to live, the more likely they are to contract some form of cancer over the course of their life.)

Additionally, there's no comparison of standard of living between African Americans and South Africans--the average African American makes far more money than the average South African, meaning that he/she is more likely to have a car, for example. How many of those bone fractures for African Americans are the result of vehicular collisions? What about sports, which are another pasttime of the relatively wealthy (NOTE THE WORD RELATIVELY)?

Etc.

When the news of the world no longer gives me pause, then I'll worry.
But when they decide to remake "Bullitt" as a vehicle for Freddie Prinze Jr. ....... I'll be the first in line to buy a ticket.

You know, the world is pretty much the same as it was 20 years ago. 30 years ago. 40 years ago. There were rotten, evil people then and there are rotten evil people now -- but there are far more good people than bad. One big difference? The media. They report more, they don't try to protect us from reality (and in truth, when I was majoring in Communications, the bent was to soften the blow, don't give the gory details... today they go for shock and give the worst of the news in the name of the public's right to know. Might be legitimate, but it sure makes people look bad).

The murder of Danielle Van Dam was sad, but not unique to the world we live in now. When I was a kid, had the same thing happened, we would have heard about it after the fact, when there was no chance of rounding up search volunteers; the cops wouldn't have even taken a serious report right off the bat (as we discovered when my then 6 year old nephew disappeared for a few hours... he was hiding, but that's actually beside the point). In yesterday's world there would have been a dead little girl, the parents grieving just as hard, but in today's world the community searched with them, the nation agonized with them, and the world grieves with them.

There truly are far more good people in existence than evil. You just have to look past those few, very loud, very despicable ones to see them in mass, living quiet, worthy lives... they're harder to spot because they're not making a nuisance of themselves, not trying to tear the fabric of society by their deeds and thoughtless actions.

Just look... You probably live with three of them.

Agreed, 100%, JSc. lets not also forget that a lot of animal rights groups, have been known to pay off doctors to give bogus facts that eating meat/drinking milk kills.

Will -

You share my sentiments exactly. The world is becoming the bad cliche we've always laughed about. That "drive through the perpetually overcrowded streets past the burning buildings and don't forget to duck cuz you might get shot" future that we've only seen in Blade Runner and Judge Dred seems to be coming to pass. I'm sure I'm not the first to say that it really scares me too.

I live in a state where the bi-partisan battle in the legislature is against an overhyped former professional wrestler who stumbled into the right place for that brief moment that Hell DID freeze over only to become the Governor. My daily news consists of grown men in true Pee-Wee Herman style "I know you are..." arguements over the most innane things. The news is dark and forboding - never good, and always representing the lowest common denominator.

I think we've reached that age where we're starting to remember "the good old days" when murder and violence were isolated to washed up football players and speed freaks with video tape fetishes. You realize our parents were probably feeling the same funk in the 70s and 80s when they were our age watching the end of Vietnam, Charlie Manson and his band of merry men, and the American Government selling arms for hostages and lying about it on daytime television. At least I hope they were. Otherwise, we're just fucked.

wil,

I have trouble letting go of things of an awful nature as well. I have a two year old little girl whom I adore. I can not even fathom the greif that must be making it's way through that little girl's family, and I hate that I can't even remember her name. But I do remember 6mnth old Mary who was killed by her mother along with all of her siblings. That little face haunted me for a bit...and I think I'm relatively stable. There was a comment made by an anonymous soul towards thetop of this mammoth response list about 'seeking help' for holding on to something and then posting it onto your site. My opinion...if it doesn't haunt you for the sheer horror of it all then you may need to seek help in the form of getting a soul.

Smiling days to you Wil and enjoy your step sons.
Best,
Lee

We used to sing a song when I was a kid. The first verse went like this:

When upon life's billows you are tempest tossed. When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost.
Count your many blessings, name them one by one.
And it will suprise you what the Lord has done.

I'm not throwing religion into the equation here. It just seemed to shed a little light on the dark side of things. So, in keeping with Wil's method of seven things to be faithful for, here are mine.

1. Faith that sustains me in troubled times
2. Family that loves you in spite of your faults
3. Friends that do the same
4. A job I love
5. Long walks in the woods on a cool spring day.
6. Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice
cream.
7. WWDN

Peace in the Middle East

I said nothing about payoffs or falsified data. I only pointed out that there is a lot that isn't being included in the statements from WorldWatch, for example.

Attempting to read what you might like to hear into what I am saying is no different than publicizing faulty or incomplete data.

Hey Wil,

Yours is a common perception these days. With everything going wrong in this world, how can anything seem right?

Recently, my brother was working on a play and he had asked me to find pictures of people doing bad things to each other and people that have done good things for a couple of video montages. Unfortunately, it was very easy to find pictures of the bad stuff. Serial killers, concentration camps, that poor Lion in the Kabul zoo, a 10 year old child holding a gun somewhere in the middle east, Fred Phelps and his followers with picket signs at Matthew Shepard's funeral, and of course, 9/11.

I had to think really hard for images for the "good stuff" portion. But then I found a picture of a dancer in China honoring the 9/11 victims. And a picture of Jim Henson and Kermit. A picture of rescue workers at Ground Zero around what seemed like a giant iron cross. But it was much harder to find images of the good stuff, because it's stuff we take for granted everyday.

It's really easy to get caught up in all the bad stuff. I'm currently reading "Stupid White Men" so I know why you're feeling a bit hopeless and cynical. Though I admire Michael Moore for his amazing ways of discovering new perspectives and putting a new spin on things, if I start too think too much about what he's saying, I get depressed and feel guilty for laughing about it when I first read it.

Remember those lists of things you're thankful for? Those are what is really important. In addition to the 7 things you're thankful for, someone once suggested to me that every night before I go to bed I should make a list of ten good things that happened that day. I'm gonna cheat and make it over the past couple of days since I didn't do much today.

1. I got a call yesterday that the school I want to take classes from is accepting me and classes start in April.
2. My cat has been incredibly cuddly.
3. My husband is almost ready to send his latest comedy music CD to the printers. Just a few final touches on the liner notes.
4. A friend of mine bought a Saturn. (Which is important not in the materialistic sense, but in the sense that someone I know has been smart enough to get rid of their Neon!)
5. I've been kicking butt on Grand Theft Auto 3.
6. I made meatloaf for dinner and it actually tasted alright.
7. Survivor 4 started tonight. (Guilty pleasure)
8. I'm one day closer to my January 2003 trip to Disney World.
9. As far as I know, everyone I know and love is alive and well, including a friend of mine that had a brain tumor removed on Tuesday.
10. I'm finished with this list. :-)

Anyway, I'm off to curl up with my wonderful husband who went to sleep while I was trying to kill 25 Triads with a flame thrower in GTA3. (hmm...there goes the positivity!)

Steph W

This entry spoke to me particularly today. I spent most of the day in a depressed fog, for various reasons. I wish I could stop following the news ... my major, however, is journalism. Not following is detrimental to my grade. Heh.

JSc, I never said you were talking about payoffs. I agreed with what you said, and offered another reason why you can't trust stats from animal rights groups. Perhaps I worded my post in a bad way.

Hi, I read this forum from time to time, Wil. I worked at NewTek with you. I was touched as well by this story and wrote this letter to the family via their website at www.daniellemissing.com. I'm just at a state in my life where if I think something about an incident, I say it outloud instead of just shaking my head and saying, "how terrible."
Here is my letter to them:

>>
Dear van Dam family,

I was so sorry to learn today of what could be the discovery of the "worst possible nightmare" parents across the world fear for their children, and the likelihood that has become a reality for you.

As were a lot of people, I was hopeful for Danielle's safe return.

You may be asking yourself right now, why us? How did the normalcy of our lives all of a sudden turn into this, this nightmare that we didn't ask for?

You may try to find the answer by questioning everything you did or said, retracing your moments from that evening and whether any one of those small things may have stopped this from happening. The answer is no. Predators are
just that. Predators. They sieze opportunity by preying on our sense of safety and trust, and attack in the blink of an eye. The predator is
responsible for what happened to Danielle, not anything you as parents overlooked that evening. Danielle, under your care went to bed safely for
seven years. Please remember that in those dark moments of doubt.

You may even ask yourselves if she knew that you loved her so much. The answer is yes. Look at the person she was and that is your answer. Children
who are loved and know they are loved smile and are happy like Danielle was.

God bless you in your time of need and sorrow and you are in my prayers. There is no sense that can be made of this horrible act, no words that can
describle the depths of sadness you must feel. Just remember that as you walk with a hole in your hearts, that you are not alone. The nation prays for you and cries for your loss.

And again, remember these words, if anything.

It is not your fault.
It is not your fault.
It is not your fault.

God bless,
Anne
>>

No sweat. Just wanted to make sure that my opinions were absolutely clear, and that I wasn't about to make or support any claims I couldn't substantiate (5-cent word for the day).

Whenever life gets you down, Mr. Wheaton,
And things seem hard or tough,
And people are stupid, obnoxious or daft,
And you feel that you've had quite enough,

Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving - And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour.

It's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, 'Round the sun that is the source of all our power.

Now the sun, and you and me, and all the stars that we can see, Are moving at a million miles a day,

In the outer spiral arm, at fourteen thousand miles an hour, Of a galaxy we call the Milky Way.

Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars; It's a hundred thousand light-years side to side;

It bulges in the middle sixteen thousand light-years thick, But out by us it's just three thousand light-years wide.

We're thirty thousand light-years from Galactic Central Point, We go 'round every two hundred million years;

And our galaxy itself is one of millions of billions - In this amazing and expanding universe.

Our universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding, In all of the directions it can whiz;

As fast as it can go, that's the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute and that's the fastest speed there is.

So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth;

And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth!

( =D hooray for eric idle!)

Regenerate. Gain +20/+20.

If you are still reading these, you know what I am talking about.

Ok, being a negative person, I really wasn't gunna do this, but I like lists! :)
Here's what makes me happy.....

1. I'm alive
2. Big house-party tomorrow!
3. I quit the job I hated
4. I'm quit some...bad habits that I had in the past. I'm a much happier person, now.
5. My friends. Goddamn...they're fucking awesome people!
6. That light-headed feeling you get, after smoking that first cigarette in the morning.
7. Alcohol.
8. Working everyday towards my Ph.D in Biochemistry . Only thing that gives my life a true meaning. Everything else is superficial in comparison. I WILL NOT QUIT!

I would agree with AMStrange. Me personally, I know I can't change the world, but the few hours a week I spend helping folks makes my small nook at least a little better.

My life isn't happy per se...but it is satisfying. Bad stuff happens, but the good things outweigh the bad.

I would argue that there is nothing new with the state of the world. It hasn't gotten worse, it's always been pretty crappy. In the time it takes me to type this sentence I'm quite sure at least a dozen 7 year olds on various continents saw the end of their lives through various evil means.

Communication across the globe is pretty much instantaneous. That little girl in SD is simply the one you heard about. In the New York Times there's an article on all these relief workers who've been sexually abusing children in refugee camps from Africa to Croatia for the basic necessities they're sworn to provide as relief.

The one sure thing you can do is perpetuate your own random acts of kindness and not fall into the madness. Just my two cents.

K

Here in London it's 7:30 in the morning and amazingly enough we have blue skies and only a light frost, today could possibly be the perfect february day. And so I begin it with some optimism... I'm not sure if I have any words of comfort for you Wil, but know this - random (and not so random) acts of violence have always been with us, greed has always been with us and what we can do about it you are already doing. Act in conscience, help to change what you can, raise your children to play fair and care about what is going on around them and spread a little love and laughter out along the way. This is how social change happens - it just takes time.....

Wil,

Don't try to understand it. It's incomprehensible. I used to be able to not let this stuff get to me, but since I have children myself I don't seem to be able to do that anymore.
Seven things to be thankful for is nice, but when it all gets too much, ask yourself this: do you have your family's love and respect? Your health?

Pathetic attempt to lift spirits:
A few months ago, a 4-year old got lost on a hike in the area where I live (Seattle). He turned a corner and just disappeared. The longer he was missing, the more pessimistic people got. After 2 or 3 days, a search party found him. Cold, hungry, but unharmed. This doesn't help Danielle van Dam or her parents a bit, but sometimes these things have a happy ending.

Oh, and don't apologize for the Battlefield Earth joke. Sometimes humor is necessary to balance things out, even if it is black humor.

I think I have to go along with Thumper on this one. Due to near-instantaneous communication, the world is indeed a much smaller place now, and events that once would have been strictly localized are now quite widely disseminated. A byproduct is that we are bombarded by much more information generally, and the inherent sensationalism of an entertainment-driven media ensures that the information we are spoon-fed is frequently horrific. Our population is larger, so of course there are more crazies than perhaps there once were, but this may be simply of function of overall numbers and not a shift in the per capita percentages. The world has ever been a very dangerous, scary, tragic place; we are now simply made more aware of our fragility—relentlessly made so aware.

Go hug your wife and kids, Pal. And carry on being concerned and active, but not overwhelmed. Maintain your perspective. Someone surely pulled the chain long ago; but we’re still swirling around the bowl, and we will be tomorrow.

Rem wrote "It's the end of the world as we know it.." Truer words were never spoken. Sorry to add to the doom and gloom aspect, but look at all the TV shows about demons, withcraft, and alike, how jaded we have become towards violence and such. And we're fighting a holy war.. Yes kiddies it is a Holy war..

*sigh* Mr Scot, one to beam up..

On the brighter side, more and more people are uniting via this mass of wores and cpu's. And hearts and minds are speaking as one. This indeed means the human spirit is far from gone or defeated. Consider all the above and alike as a wake up call, and start paying attention..

Geez I sound like an evangilist.. NOT, in Bruce Derns movie middle aged crazy he said "..give em back their funny hats and stay 18 forever!"

Good advice..

Hi Wil.

I haven't read any of the other posts, so if I repeat anything that anyone else has said, I'm sorry.

Bad things happen. Dark, terrible things that we don't understand. And we think that there is nothing we can do against such things. Perserverence of personal morality is important, because even if it's just in your little part of the world, in your sphere of influence (which we all have), you can make a change. You can influence somebody and inspire them to do something truly good, just by being a good person yourself. Hell, I know you've inspired me to be selfless a few times now, and that's no little thing. That's precious. It works like a wave, and it keeps going.

Of course, how does that sort of wave help little girls that get abducted and killed? It doesn't. No one on this earth knows why people do things like that. No one knows why the peoples in the Middle East war with each other (I don't even think they know anymore), and well - you mentioned other things I have no idea on, they're american issues. I do understand the Battlefield Earth thing though. As Tom Servo once said, that's a ripe slice of hell.

Things *are* slowly improving, Wil. They really really are. I remember my mother celebrating the day the Berlin Wall fell. She never thought she'd see the day that would happen. My father is from Germany, and she's visited the country many times. The fall of the wall touched our family very deeply, and it was a step forward for humanity. The Apartheit (I can never spell it), that fell, and even though there is still voilence and problems in Africa, that's gone. My mother never thought she'd see the end of that either. Bad things happen, but good things happen too.

Five years ago, there was no recycling in our neighbourhood. Now, the recycling bins we are given are bigger than our regular trash bins, and we're encouraged to compost and use all we can of our waste. That might seem quite piffling compared to the attrocities you've mentioned, but think about it... that's a little less oil needed to create plastics. That's a little less of pristine Australian Rainforest being ripped up for mining of alumuminium ore (bauxite. I'm a total geek that I know that), a little less trees being used to make paper pulp. People want to make changes for the better, and in that alone humanity has much hope.

I have a deep belief that all in life works best with balance. At the moment, it seems you're seeing the dark things that are happening. At the same time, look for the good things. I know, it's hard searching, sometimes, but good things do happen. And like someone said, you have seven things today to be thankful for.

When I feel down about the world, I always feel better by trying to do something to improve it somehow. Even if it's something small, like helping someone or being nice to my sister for a change (that's a joke).

Good luck with the new season of Keith's show, and despite what the scary old man says at the end of the album, there is a light side of the moon too.

The hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live.

I have seven things to be thankful for today
1. that i woke up and it wasn't raining
2. that i can count my parents as friends and value their influence on my life
3. that the band i went to see last night were fantastic
4. that any day now i am going to become an aunt
5. that i have the capability to help my friends without them asking for it
6. that i made a new friend this week
7. that i can find like-minded people out there, even though they are on the other side of the world.

wil, thanks for the time you spend making this space for us to share

This is probably going to sound cheesy, but the idea behind it is sound, I promise...

You'll never be able to understand why the monster that hurt that little girl did what he did. For your sake I hope you never do. But you can send her mother a letter and tell her you wish you could take away even a little of her pain.

You can't make the world care about global warming but you can recycle.

You can't change the world, but you can fill your little part of it with all the good stuff that makes your family happy, secure and loving. Then hopefully others will learn from you by your example.

It also seems that for something to be news it must be negative (Israel-Palestine, rape, murder,etc.). Most people don't hear much about the good that is happening. For example in Sri Lanka the civil war seems to be peacefully ending. (The government is giving back the Tamils their rights to vote etc.) Unfortunately since this was not a blood filled coup we don't hear much about this. I work with two guys from Sri Lanka and they keep me somewhat up to date on what's happening.
About global warming (I really hate that term), the term is wrong. It's not global warming it's an increase in odd weather (a storm of the century happening every decade). Weather patterns getting really screwed up. Having an arctic cold front going through Texas should not happen normally should it.
Life only sucks if you only get to see the negative. Look for the positives (somedays easier to do than others)

Sad thing is that it's going to take something Big to wake up the world. Something that's going to make 9/11 pale in comparison. A war, a huge natural disaster, an asteroid. Only then, when hundreds of thousands of people are dead and life as we know it changes and people worldwide suddenly realize that we are just tenants of this big blue marble, will we really change.

Very pesamistic of me I know but man has travelled the wrong path for too long to change by ourselves.

Until the big event, the only thing that has a chance of making things better is the time you spend with your children and the children of you friends, relatives and neighbors. Tell them the truth, for Gods sake, don't feel like your protecting them if your not preparing them to face the future. Their future and not yours. Make them read daily, hell read with them. Make sure they don't watch too much mindless crap on TV. Make them laugh, teach them to cook and tell them they're loved and set an example. All of which is much harder than it sounds what with working 60 hours a week and that golf game on the weekend. Changing the world starts with changing one childs mind from "let's watch the South Park marathon" to "let's go get some more books at the library."

We're coming up rapidly on a time where we'll finally realise we're not free, but paying slaves of an elite ruling class. These are the birthing pains of the New World Order.

Our free-range days are over. Indentured servitude and slavery, here we come.

I don't know. I agree with you, or empathize with you, about it all. I feel pretty lost myself right now. One thing that's true is that there are probably as many amazing and inspiring events happening at any given moment as there are horrible and terrifying events. It's just that we're culturally habituated in the practice of focusing on the darkness - it's not that these stories don't need to be covered (and alot of them that should be covered are not), but that anyone who watches or reads mainstream news media generally ends up with a pretty hopeless picture of the state of our world. But I've been sick with the flu and watching lots of tv lately, so i might not be the most neutral observer on this point right now. I guess what I'm trying to say is...I don't ever want to be in denial of the darkness, but I don't ever want to shut out what light is there, either. God, I sound maudlin.. oh well.
But thank you for bringing this up, because I've had these feelings lately and I suspect that many others have as well.

Wil,

You're certainly not the only one feeling this way :-\ You know, it astonishes me how few people even care though, that's what bothers me the most. The fact that we have all these problems is far less disturbing, relatively speaking of course. Earler, Cindy posted about wanting to have children. I feel much the same way: while I and my girlfriend look forward to having children in the future, I wonder what kind of world we'd be bringing them into. I'm pro-life (let's not go there please), yet I sometimes find myself asking if it's truly the right thing to do to bring a child into this world in its current state. It's time for us all to take a stand and educate the ignorant about these issues! Expose our society's flaws!

Wil Wheaton for president! :-D

Seriously though, Wil, you're just the kind of guy we need more of and I think that you being involved in hollywood is all the better!

"...And if all that isn't enough, I hear that there's a sequel to Battlefield Earth in the works."

NOOOO! Please, say that isn't true! *dies*

Hey, Wil, I'm actually a little bit surprised that you mentioned the murder of the little girl as something that seemed to be a complete "surprise" to you. I don't know how it is over there in the States, but in Germany we have these things in the news basically every single week...
Just recently a little 12 year old girl got stabbed to death in her bedroom, while the parents were gone to some party and her little brother was sleeping in the other room. THey still have not the slightest clue who did it.
Every week you hear stories of children who just disappear somewhere in bright daylight, and usually a couple of weeks later they find the dead body somewhere, in most cases sexually abused.
Well, compared to the U.S.A., Germany is a pretty small country, so I would expect these things to happen even more often in the States; but maybe I'm wrong, it seems to me sometimes that Germany is just full of perverted freaks.
As for politics, I guess it will never end until we finally manage to blow our good old planet into oblivion...
As an artist I find it very hard to just keep on living pretending there's nothing wrong, since it really hits me hard to see all these things happen around me; it does inspire me for some songs, at least, and maybe, if people hear them, it will at least get them thinking about the situation; that's not much, but at least it's something.
So don't worry about being a "downer"; you are far from that ! ! ! It is very important that people like you, who have the chance to address a lot of people at a time (and who will be listened to, since they are nice guys and well known to the general public) talk about these things. I personally have made the experience, that after my concerts a lot of people, especially young ones, tell me how right I am with what I'm saying in my songs and that they never thought about certain aspects I mention in the songs before.
Well, that's not much, and it sure won't end no wars, but it sure is a beginning and it definitely is a step in the right direction. So, please keep on talking about these "Dark sides of the moon" from time to time, whenever you feel like that, and be assured, you're not alone ! ! !

Hi Wil, people,

the world is indeed in a sorry state. Over here in Germany we haven't heard the sad story about the little girl in California, but we had a similar case here last week where a little girl was killed in her bedroom. Fortunately they managed to catch the guy.

Crimes seem to get more violent, people seem to get more aggressive, just take your car on the road and drive for a while, you'll notice. But there seems to be a vicious circle: if someone does a bad thing to you, you have a more negative attitude and are much more likely to be mean to someone else. But the contrary is also true: do something good, and not only will it make you feel better, the other person will feel better too.

The solution to the world's problems might have been as easy as everybody starting to be nice to everybody else, if you didn't have those 10% of the population that loves to take advantage of the other 90%. It's all a big pyramid scam: we're living off of the cheap labor of third world countries, wear designer jeans manufactured by child laborers, the big corporations are living off of us, and the CEO's are on top of the food chain. Everybody is only seeking their own benefit, and if it hurts someone else? Their attitude: Their problem, if I don't do it somebody else does.

But what can everybody do about it? Well, just start in your own microcosmos and be nice to your fellow people. If a colleague comes up to you and asks you something, be nice and keep a positive attitude, even if stress is getting to you. The next killings by frustrated ex-employees could be you.

Oh, and go vote when an election is up, and make an informed decision. Don't let anybody else tell you who to vote for, only when you vote for who you think can do the job best, then you have a right to complain about anything.

That's my $0.02 for today, take care!

-Oliver

I totally agree with you Wil, i mean coming from the UK we have alot of Afgans,Pakistani's etc. all they want to do is fight. The other day near my town, a church was burnt down because it was Christian, which happens to be my religion. Don't get me wrong I'm no racist, but you've gotta think what's been happening in the world recently:- Sept 11, War against Terrorism, Afgan people fighting against Afgan, a white 16yr boy jumped and beaten to death by 6 Asians!!!

I totally agree, the world is farked up.

Wil & Everyone Else:

Boy, this was certainly an interesting read for first thing this morning. I don't know how Wil feels about all of the posts here, but I know that I feel BETTER having read what all of you said. (Yes, even the education on vegan philosophy taught me something....maybe more than I needed to know, but hey, thought-provoking regardless).

It gives me an incredible amount of hope for our world when I see such a wide range of people post words of optimism. When individuals lose hope, we're really in trouble. But, in spite of all the really bad, terrible, wrong, disgusting, horrible crap out there in the big world, our LITTLE worlds are under the influence of our ATTITUDES. Attitude is everything. If we focus on the good to the exclusion of the bad (Pollyanna-ism) we might miss an opportunity to right a wrong, help someone in need, or stand up for injustice. But, when the pendulum swings the other way, and the dark side takes over, we become mired in depression and become PART OF THE PROBLEM.

So, Wil, like many other posters have said better than me:
Hug those kids - they are our future.
Encourage them to reach out to other children in the bigger world.
Cherish your wife - if you've chosen well, (and, it sounds like you have) she is your comfort and support. Don't lose sight of that.
Do something (anything) kind today for someone you don't know.
Do something tomorrow.
And the next day......
QUIETLY, LET YOUR CHILDREN SEE YOU DO THIS.
Set a good example for your children and your community.
Find balance in your life.

A close friend died of testicular cancer a few years ago. Before he died, he had several bone marrow transplants, which kept him alive for a few years longer than he would have had otherwise. My husband, who didn't know this guy very well at all, was moved to register for the bone marrow transplant donor registry. His motivation? It is something he can do that might give someone else a chance at life. Even a few more years to spend with their family is something.

In your own way, you are making the world a little nicer for a bunch of disconnected folk that wouldn't have had this unique opportunity to connect if it hadn't been for this site. Thank you for that. I'm going to go do something nice for someone else today. Oh, it's my birthday! I think I'll give someone else a present....

Happy Birthday to me.

Corky

Dang. I've been feeling that way for months now, since before the WTC attacks.

Normally I'm fairly sane and un-paranoid, but I spend almost the whole of August of 2001 convinced that some horrible cataclysmic thing would soon happen and the world as I knew it would be completely irrevocably changed.

Hasn't exactly happened that way, in the wake of 9/11 at least, and the feeling (to some extent) has gone away...but setting that paranoid bit aside for a while, many a pre-and-post September quiet moment finds me wondering what the hell the world's come to. You're not alone, and I'm glad I'm not, either.

I feel the same Wil. Its been nagging at me as well. Most things seem to be spiraling downward at an incredable rate.
Over here in Australia we didnt hear about the little girl, but agian we have similar sad things happening.
Every day I try and be nice to people i come into contact with. Yet it seems to have no effect.
As the days roll by I consider becoming a politican so that perhaps i can introduce some change for good. Then i think more about it and relise i could sell my soul on ebay and probably have a greater effect.
Safe travels Wil and I look forward to seeing you in the next Star Trek movie.

Wil, the story about Danielle scares the hell out of me. The first night I heard about it I went upstairs and made sure every window in my daughter's bedroom was locked. I'd always figured she was pretty safe, upstairs in a 2.5 story house (my basement is half above ground, so my house is really tall) but hell, I don't feel so safe anymore.

I've gottent to the point now that i just skim news articles. Everything is so scary and horrible that if I read them all, and worry about it, it'll tear me up.

Which of course, isn't good, to stick my head in the sand and pretend that everything's okay, but sometimes...

It's a Bad Time right now. Hopefully things will get better before they get much worse.

Hey Wil,

For you it's the little girl (horrifying, my god), for me it seems to be the murder of Danny Pearl. I almost began to cry on my way home from work yesterday as they read readers letters on NPR and a listener complained that it had been unecessary for NPR to go into grusesome detail about the manner of his death. I recalled that the reporter said he had been speaking as they cut his throat and I could picture it in my mind. I was feeling pretty good until I heard that story, but I don't wish that I had not heard. These acts are horrifying, but if we don't know about them we can't act against them. I'll have to write more later.

Wil,
It depresses me to see or hear about horriable things happening in the world...especially because it is almost glorified and worshiped by the news media. There was a time when media people had an honor code....a balance to the way they give news. example: Franklin D. Roosevelt
There was an understanding about not showing that he was in a wheelchair because they wanted to keep and preserve the honor of Roosevelt. The media fishes to tear down things. Not that I wish for them to hide truths from the world anymore but just have a balance. Where is the Objectivity? What really gets me depressed is watching CNN. They are so discusting the way they deliver things. One example that really pissed me off was when the lady anchor delivered a news story about a guy who ...on sept. 11th bought a ton of postcards with the WTC on them and went and had them stamped at the post office on sept. 11th. And all the while the anchor woman was delivering this discusting and Useless bit of info she was gleeful sounding. CNN is really bad for not showing proper decorim. What happened to the news people like Walter Cronkite? Anyways, before coming online to read this post I had been sleeping and had a freaky nightmare about the world being nearly wiped out by a spreading wall of fire. I dreamt that it distroyed everyone I loved and stopped when it got near me. And that the army wanted to take over my house for its headquarters. I won't describe anymore of the dream it was quite upsetting...but thankfully only a dream. Here's a suggestion which I hope can help anyone who is in a funk about the world. Listen to music. I listen to some sad or reflective music and it seems to cheer me up a little. Right now I am listening to Carol King: "You've Got a Friend". I will prolly follow it up with Paul McCartney's "Live and Let Die", "OFF the Ground", and "Looking for Changes". Though I might listen to Bauchman Turner Overdrive.
What songs cheer you up, Wil and everybody out there?

The world is, never has, and never will be a perfect place, Wil. The death of the girl was a tragedy, but it's nothing compared to some of the other things that have happened in Earths history. Holocosts, The two nuclear bombs, Volcanos, Earth Quakes, Ireland, The Crusades, The Plague, Tribal wars, WW1, WW2, Viet Nam, Revolutionary war, (possibility of a comet wiping out a massive portion of Earth's life), famine, AIDS, Ebola... Earth is full of atrocities. They happen everyday. Most people would like to blame humanity as the sole evil on Earth, but there is no evil. In the end, it is not man who will destroy earth, it is nature.

It is because of these horrible things that we see and sometimes experience in our lives, that we are able to understand their opposites, the truly beautiful and glorious.

I don't know... I think the world can't be TOO bad when Wil Wheaton's claiming "My POOP tastes like CANDY!" in an ad for an online comic.

Check out the URL to see what I mean -- and no, I didn't create this, I just ran across it.

I have to agree with Eri, the only thing we can do to change the planet for the better is to change our every day life. We can only get discouraged looking at the big picture, but if everyone one of us make a real effort to make people around us a bit more happy (family, friends and strangers alike), things will HAVE to change. We can also do our small part for the planet: I took out 2 full bags of recycling this morning, and I can't believe I used to just send the stuff to the landfill...

About Battlefield Earth... I dunno, I didn't think it was THAT bad... I mean, my husband had me sit through Planet of the Apes last week, and I didn't see much difference, except for the fancy FX... At least Battlefield Earth made me laugh!

There's not much else to add. Yes... I do feel pain for all those lost and, in my own way, I try to make this world a little bit better. The best you can do is take care of your own and remind them that most of the human race is not evil. The evil is just more vocal. Thanks to the great media. Otherwise things would be so much worse. Agree?

I know exactly what you are talking about, except I hadn't read the paper or heard the news since Monday. The whole of human kind is hurting, Muslims say that the killing of one innocent is like the killing of all mankind. Some say we all come from Adam and Eve, wouldn't you hurt if your brother or sister was hurting too?

I hate feeling this way and not being able to do do a damn thing about it.

-nicole in freakishly warm Toronto

As long as there are barbaric humans roaming around destroying everything with our ignorance, there will be pain and suffering abound.
The world has always been like this, but now we have 24 hour coverage of it on TV. Too bad they didn't have the TV during Alexander the Great's romp through Persia (like when he bound a city population of 40,000 and threw them into the sea), or make a game show out of the inquisition. I'm sure Fox would pick it up.

The world sucks, so knock back a beer and play some GTA3, because we can't do shat about it.

There's a lot of posts here, a lot of good ones (as is always the case here) that I haven't had the time to shoot through, so I apologize if I'm repeating anything (which I know I am).

The reality is that the world has always been this way. Somewhere, people are suffering right now and there's just not a damn thing you, me or anyone else can do to stop that. We can try to do as much as we can, but we'll never get it all.

That's not to say we shouldn't try, but you have to realize that it's more work than any one person or one group of people can do.

When we were children, and I've seen lots of reminisces of this in the 80's forum, we didn't know everything that was out there. We were innocent and somewhat carefree and look upon those days as fun and enjoyable. But if you take a historical eye to things, you'd see that the evils of the world were just as present, whether it was while you were playing video games, or during disco, or while someone was walking on the moon, or even while "Leave it To Beaver" was in first run. As children, we're blissfully ignorant. That's why nostalgia, for any decade, is such a great feeling.

I wish I had better news about all this, but all I can suggest is to try to take some time to forget about it and hug the ones you love the most.

And by the way-here in Michigan, it's 20 some degrees. No global warming here!

I agree, it does seem as if the world is going down the toilet. It makes one wonder if the apocolypse is near. As a young person (16) I feel very afraid of the world now. I know this feeling is normal, but i get so depressed when i think of what type of world I am going to enter into when i finally leave the comfort of my parents home. Kinda makes you wonder why teen suicide is at such a high rate these days, doesn't it? The only thing that keeps me going is the hope that it all will eventualy get better, some way, some how.

Nah, yer not alone, Wil. I saw that girl's flyer on the local Target here a day or two after she had gone missing (I live in San Diego). Sadly, my first thought was, "They won't find her alive, but I really really hope they do."

Ever since 9/11, I've had this persistant thought that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Well, I take that back. Ever since Dubya was elected, I've been feeling that way. No, wait, maybe it was back when Desert Storm was going on... (you get the idea).

Am I afraid because the world is so screwed up? A bit. I am still unemployed, I have no retirement fund, and I'm thirty-one farking years old. My future is uncertain to say the least. Hell, I don't know if I even need to worry about my future. Maybe the world as we know it won't exist in five years. *shrug*

So, I've been trying to learn to live in the moment. Kind of like.. worry about the here and now. If there's something out of your control, don't fret over it. Worrying will only make you miserable and it won't change anything. I keep hoping some of this crazy shit I read in the news is that which is coming to be and passing away, not that which abides.

Luckily, my roommate earns enough to be able to keep paying the rent, the two bills we have, and buy groceries while I job search. It gives me the luxury of having time to do a lot of soul searching in between. I've resolved to try and be a better person. It's the only thing I have control over. I can't keep the Palestinians and the Isrealis from blowing the shit out of each other. I can't keep nutcases from crashing planes into buildings. What I CAN do is eat healthier and become more active. I can walk that short way to the market instead of taking the car and adding to the pollution. I can try to put a smile on someone's face by doing something simple, like holding a door open for them, or letting them have that parking space without a fight.

I can work at strengthening my personal faith and sense of spirituality which, in turn, helps me deal with all this crap I can't control.

Just think. If just half of everyone in the world tried to be a better person and thought of someone else before themselves once in a while, do you think things would be any different?

There has been and will always be problems in the world. All that changes is one's own awareness of them. I mean no offense to anyone, but these things are nothing new. If anything has changed lately, it is just the media's coverage. The really bad stuff is "in" in our culture right now; perhaps because people are generally glum since September, so they feel they should be getting bad news upon bad news. I'm no psychologist though, so I won't dwell on that.

In any event, being negative about the state of the world is counterproductive. Sure there are bad things going on, but there are good things going on as well. Enjoy life, and try to make the world a better place... but don't just say "there's something wrong" as if it's a new thing.

Calm down, Wil. 'Twas alot worse in '73.

The Israeli's were surrounded by enemies they soon handily defeated, Nixon was embroiled in Watergate, we were losing Vietnam but couldn't believe it, and... and...

Today? http://www.fatchucks.com/corruptcds/index.html provides a list of the music labels that won't work in your computer's CD- or DVD-player (or, in many cases, my dad's stereo CD system).

The world is always almost coming to an end.

Sadly Wil, Everyone does NOT want a Happy life.
Some people want to make sure NO ONE else does either. There's a thought for ya.

I hear you...every day it's something else. Yesterday on NPR I heard that the US is paying and training these Afghans to track down Al Qaeda stragglers lurking around in the mountains; Russia is getting spooked at all the US activity in their neck of the woods; the Israelis and Palestinians are still bombing the shit out of each other; and Daniel Pearl's religion evidently was a contributing factor in his death.

It just all seems like it's snowballing. How are we going to be able to re-ravel all this craziness? Half the time, I'm withdrawing into old books and music with absolutely NO political overtones and comfortingly vapid messages; the rest of the time, I read Robert Jensen speeches, send money to the Arab Anti-Defamation league, and rant passionately to like-minded people in the hopes we can get SOMETHING positive accomplished.

The SCALE of it all just seems so daunting, you know?

think trying to read all this junk would make you more depressed. go watch cartoons and turn off the fricken news.

Totally understand what you're feeling, Wil. I'm feeling it too. I'm so sad about the little girl. Finding her body will hopefully help convict the ahole who killed her and give her parents a little peace being able to say goodbye.

There is a lot of crappy things that are happening in this world but I just have to look at my sweet 8 month old son Ben to see that there is a balance of good too.

Wil,

I understand your frustrations completely. Today I picked up the paper to read that Israeli troops have entered Palestinian refugee camps. And yesterday, I was channel surfing until I came upon "Delta Force." Funny, I'd seen that movie some months before, but surprise, surprise, it was harder to watch it now, in a different light. It made me think about how there are actually people in the world who do that, and what I would do if I were in a situation like that. And then, on about page 20 of the paper, a little blurb about Danielle Van Dam. Kidnapped and killed why? Because her mother wouldn't dance with her neighbor at a bar?

However, I do have faith and peace, and I feel comfortable knowing that as the world weeps, God is weeping with us.

Oh, and on a side note, thanks for not blaming us Republicans and our Lucifer-like policies for all this death and destruction in the world. I appreciate that. :-)

One has to wonder if the world is really falling apart more than ever, or if our perception of it doing so is heightened because of the mass-exposure to news we have these days.

I remember reading a recent article (during the Clinton presidency) about people's perceptions of crime being on the rise and neighborhoods being overrun by gangs was attributed to the amounts of information that are available today. The truth is that crime (at the time; I don't know about now) was at a 25 year low.

With the news channels, the internet, newspapers, magazines, and radio all hyping up catastrophes around the world, I know I sometimes feel like things are coming to an end.

Still, the Earth is resilient, and it will survive. It may be without humans, but it will survive.

I totally understand where you are coming from. The other day.. I think it was Monday I was watching the regional news and they said that a mother was stabbed to death (allegedly by her bf) while her two kids watched. I've been thinking about that all week. It's really farked up...
Then in the paper there was this little kid from Israel holding an Ak-47. Cripes..
Then there's that serial killer out west who runs a pig farm or something. It's scary stuff..
Whenever I get tugged down by the weight of whats happening elsewhere, I pack up a little backpack and trek back into the woods. After awhile you get so far in that you can no longer hear the cars or the wars or the screams. The trees are your sanctuary and their branches stretch to you in comfort. Lay against a comfortable rock and let the wind heal you...

Nature does work wonders..

Wil,

One thing to keep in mind when letting the current events get to you. When was the last time that major news outlets went out of their way to really spotlight (more than a onesy-twosy bit of time filler) when something good happened? Yes, the news is filled with horrific images and stories everyday, but thats what we ask for over and over from our news.

If the news reported all the good things, the traffic accidents that were avoided due to quick thinking, the neighbor who called the cops when someone suspicious was lurking in the bushes, even the cats rescued from the tree branches, and left the bad things to filler pieces....would we be any better? We are fascinated by the horror around us, but if its not put in our face, we very rarely do anything about it. (and usually don't even when faced with it)

Not the brightest and cheeriest attitude to pep you up, but it keeps me from slipping into the state of the world funk too often.

-Jase

The comment about "Battlefield Earth" I think is right on for the following reasons:

Our (American's in particluar) situation is that we spend a lot of our time and energy on things that we don't need. We spend out time thinking about what our career is going to be, or where we're going to live when our job re-locates us next. Very few of us have to worry about whether we're going to have anything to eat today.

Out of that luxurious position, we have an industry (Hollywood) to feed our apetites for "what's new". This capability isn't used for curing cancer, or making life better, it's used for lowest common denominator crap so that the studio can make some more money with no cultural benefit whatsoever. It's no wonder that my mother thinks that science fiction is totally antithetical to anything useful or valuable.

Instead of film-maker's wonderful talents in communications being used to inspire and enlighten, they're putting together celluloid with John Travolta so to increase their profit margin. (I can't honestly speak to _BattleField Earth, since I never saw it, but the word on the grapevine is that it sucked to Biblical proportions.)

I've been in a funk as well. I'm going through some changes and somehow it's more difficult going through these changes then any changes I have experienced before. I haven't looked very closely at why, but I find myself a little less patient as well as easily frustrated with how things are going on in my life.
I typically believe that getting discouraged is not an option in so far as this is what life is all about. Maybe I have been paying too MUCH attention to the news and such. IS it possible to go through life and not here about the atrocities of others? I mean would I be a bad person if I choose not to care about the ugly part of life? Would I then be living in a fantasy world, not living an informed life or choosing to live life on my terms?

Wil,
Three times I have lost the connection typing this post so lets try again.
This is and will always be evil. How else can the cosmic opposite of good exsist? THis is just
a fact. There are many many millions of people
like myself who were molested and abused as
children. You cannot focus on the evil and still
function in this world. Yes it is a horrible
horrible place at times. But it is still all so
wonderous. The thing that makes the survivors like
me go on is faith..No not the "Sunday go to meet-
ing" thing..FAITH. You HAVE to beleive it WILL
get better..It will..wil.
Please go kiss Anne and hug the boys. The world
IS a better place cause of you and this site.
Please don't give up..Where would I and Spuddy
and Roughy and Rob and Misskittyfantastico go
to play without WWDN..WE LOVE YOU WIL. Hang in
there...(soapy music fades out)

Ok, I just read all of the posts...even the vegan one.(I'm a vegan, and the only thing I can say is we don't all preach, but there are many vaild points made.) There are so many roads to take, and so many things that could be said...I think I'll just go with one path though...

For Wil and everyone with children,

If you want to change the world it starts in your own home. The way you communicate with your children, the values you teach them, the love you give them, the humor you infect them with. Take an interest, make them more important than all of the so-called "important" things in life.

What scares me the most is that so many people don't even know what's happening in their own homes, and then ask "Why? How could this happen?"

I was lucky, my parents where a part of everything in my life. I was encouraged to share anything and everything with them, and I did.

Anyway, I digress....

Wil, from what I've read you shouldn't worry so. You have some great kids in your life, nuture them and life will be better.

No Wil.. I think you are absolutely right. I agree that there is somthing seriously wrong at the minute, and stuff needs sorting.

A good example at the minute is the Damiliola Taylor trial.. I dont know if any of you folks heard about it, but a young boy walking home one day after spending the evening at a computer club, was set upon by about 4 youths.. he was severely stabbed and left for dead - people found him, tried to phone for help, but it was too late.

This happened a good 6 months/year ago, and has recently come to trial. Can you believe that a young girl who was one of the key witnesses has had all of her evidence rejected, and been removed from court because she was so inconsistent with her evidence - the court now believe she was only there because of 'rewards' that many of our national newspapers were offering should any vital information come to light.

I know I couldnt stand there and lie, simply for the money.

Crazy.

(Sorry in advance for the rambling)

A lot of people have been feeling like that lately and yes I feel it sometimes too, but the one thing that can always bring me back from that brink is my godson who will turn 2 in April.

For example yesterday we took him to our local museum and when we were wandering around we came across an exhibit with voyageur (historic fur traders) songs. We sat on a bench and listened and I started to tap my hand on my thigh to the music and soon enough he started in, except he was doing it with both hands and a big grin.

The really amazing part here is that this is a kid who has not even been alive for two years and who was
1. Born 6 weeks pre-mature and only 4 pounds
2. Just after his first birthday was discovered to have liver cancer which grew to be 11 by 10 centimeters (this on someone who was only 20 pounds total) before chemo and an operation removed it.

I figure if he can go through all that and still have a grin that takes over his whole face, then I can deal with crap the world throws my way.

Wil, this probably won't make you feel much better... but it's fifty-freakin-degrees here in Atlanta ("Hotlanta") and in the teens overnight. "Watch for frozen pipes" warnings. Snow - Snow in Atlanta! No global warming here.

No damn wonder John was posting such meat propaganda, his site is: http://www.whyvegan.org/ - if theres nothing I hate more tha Christians dirting my doorstep is tech geek vegans.

Omnivore equal time: Animals are tasty, MMM good! Plate up that cow and bring it over here! Really rare please! And through on some baby version of whatever that is on the side.

Why is it Vegans say we don't NEED meat but keep making TVP/soy crap to "TASTE" like meat? Tofurkey? Soysage links? Hello? Hrmmm? Why does it have to taste like meat if we're not supposed to NEED it? Like it? Jus t to trick people? Trick yourselves?

Jeesh - I wasn't going to eat a humburger today, now I am, I'm hungry!

It's already been said, but I just now got to read this, so I feel the need...

John, you're entitled to your opinions, but if you really want to influence people, you need to find a more tactful way to do it. Posting that much in a comment board is annoying and, if most are like me, immediately causes people to tune you out, even if you had a valid point.

Going to the extreme is always bad. A wise man once told me, "Moderation. It's all about moderation." Yes, you should eat your vegetables. Yes, you should eat meat. I just got done reading Fast Food Nation, so I wasn't entirely unsympathetic to your views, but jeez.

Back to the original topic (something John lost sight of):

Wil,
Buck up little camper. There's always good and bad. Yes, sometimes it seems like there's more bad, but what're ya gonna do? Get out there, do the best you can and ram a red hot poker up the a** of anyone who takes kids from their beds at night.

I agree that it's all fucked up, but there doesn't seem to be much we can do about it. The idea of America as the land of the free and all that crap prevents us from trying to over- secure everything in our daily lives. If that particular family had a several thousand dollar security system installed, this wouldn't have happened, but like most americans, myself included, we choose to live in a vacuum where "none of this will ever happen to me." Why? Because we enjoy our illusion of safety and freedom.

Until our daughter is kidnapped and killed. This makes it less enjoyable.

Wil,
I read your wifes' thing for the first time yesterday and one of the things she says is that you are a "make the world a better place" kinda guy and a lot of stuff you've written or said in interviews reflects this viewpoint. Now we've never met and its most likely we won't, but I'd guess that its because of this side of your nature that these things piss you off. They do me, and they do others. The fact that you are able to write about this stuff helps others think about stuff and starts conversations, which is always a good thing.
I can't say anything that will make these things better but I'm glad that you hate the crap in the world and you do the best you can. You don't ever seem to think, "well it's not happening to me" so theres nothing I can do.
You're prepared to be counted and thats worth a lot in this springer-world of ours. People like you DO change the world, even if its a little bit at a time.
Keep making us think, keep making us laugh.
I hope that the family is well.
Thanks
Shaun

My worlds been in a funk too. I suffered long ago from an eating disorder. I am 5'8 and at the time I was at my sickest, I was 95 pounds. I weigh 195 today, and feel incredibly fat, and unhappy alot of the times, but honestly, I am in pretty good shape health wise. I fight every day so my girls feel good about themselves. And I cry every night to let out how frustrated I feel. I talk to my boyfriend every day, but miss him immensly. And at times, feel very alone here. Butt hen I look at the good points. My girls, despite having an over worked single mother as a parent, seem to be happy. I am back on my diet, so that 195 will drop soon hopefully. The man I love, loves me regardless ! He thinks Im beautiful ( thank you for that baby ) And my first novel is due out this year when we get editing and re writing done. The world is a scary place for my children, I am there only shelter at the moment. And I honestly wouldnt have it any other way. BTW... it was 70s here last week, tomorrows low 45, the high 46... think maybe winter ran late !

Think of the words to a Better Than Ezra song:

First thing I remember was lying in the sand
When a plague of seven horsemen
Came across the desert land
They had one good eye between them
They were burning up the sky
When I asked why they had come for me
The ugly one replied
He told me

Ah, you better recognize
Aw, you better recognize, son

Sometimes the world just sucks, and we can't figure out why and that makes it suck even more. So you gotta have faith. Believe in whatever it is you believe in--God, science, the basic goodness of most people, whatever gets you through. Remember the things in life that make you happy, the things that make you think that people aren't all bad, and do what you can to fix the rest. Be strong, Wil. We're all here with you.

Oh, and if theres anything I can do to halt production of Battlefield Earth II, let me know. We can't have terror like this unleashed upon unsuspecting moviegoers ever again.

I get what you say wil... The world is a sad, depressing place. People being killed for no reason, everyone wants their way. It's a shame that society today is so shallow. So many great people who are fat or not physically appealing(like me) who will wind up alone and lonely since no one finds them attractive...

You know, i haven't been able to find a single reason i keep trodding along, you know? is this all worth it? i dunno, daily misery is not something to be cherished

oh well. At least it doesn't last forever. This is CheatMan signing off.

Don't know if anyone's still reading this far down, but I felt I had to make a few comments.
Lorna: Thanks for the Eric Idle song! I was actually trying to remember the words to it while reading this post. The other appropriate music is Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire", from a few years back.

The Artist and Kazfeist: You both have the right take on this. Evil people and evil acts have always been around. The only answer is to cherish your family and teach your children to spread good, not evil.

So Wil & all others, cheer up with a big cheeseburger (or veggie burger with soy cheese for the vegan-ites) and love your family!

Although it may not feel like it right now, the world isn't really any worse than it was decades, or even centuries ago. That doesn't really help us cope with current disasters. Remebering the Lindburgh kidnapping doesn't ease the pain of the Van Dam kidnapping. But it may keep us from dispairing that the world is coming to an end. Quoting one of my favorite movies: "People were always rotten."

There are some things that are actually better. In the United States, we've made some great strides in civil rights. Things are far from perfect of course, but you'd have to be blindly cynical to think that things are as bad now as they were in 1959. At the rist of sounding overly sanguine, i think we're moving in the right direction, but, as always, we're moving very slowly.

As a species, we've survived worse times. As long as they don't start shooting off nukes, we'll survive our current crises, too.

Wil-

Like any other good, rational, intelligent human you mind is having difficulty processing this information. It happens to all of us from time to time, and merely indicates that you are still alive- and that progress is continuing. It smarts at time- but it continues.

I completely agree with almost everythig you said. The only discrepancy i see is that the overwhelming majority of scientists agree that global warming is not a problem and there is almost nothing we can do to make it a problem. The temperature of the earth has fluctuatd drastically during the existance of the earth. Right now w are actually in a very stable period. I agree with what you have to say, this is just something that most people in the United states are completely misinformed about and I wanted to let you know.

See, Eri, no one laughed at you (because what you wrote wasn't laughable). At wwdn, even people like John, who co-opt a website to share information they think is important, only get a mild rebuke.

Which is why I feel confident I can disagree with what some people have written without being flamed.

Thumper, Kman, and Frolixo (among others) stated that the world is not getting worse. I disagree. I don't think anyone can argue that the media _doesn't_ relish serving the masses sensational stories of savagery, tragedy, and terror. But just because we are more aware of the horror, just because the globe is connected by almost instantaneous communication, doesn't mean the world we inhabit is the same as the world of our ancestors. It is exponentially worse. Granted, there have always been murderers, mass murderers, rapists, terrorists, abusers, molestors and depraved humans who prey on their fellow beings, but there are more now.

How many people's deaths, in total, can be attributed to Alexander the Great? Tens of millions? No, those numbers would come later, when we developed scientific methods to practice genocide. Thumper, while there are more good people in the world than evil (for lack of a better term) people, there are more _people_ on the Earth now. So the number of evil people is higher, too.

Beyond mere numbers, we have developed societies where monsters are grown. Individual beings are molded by the increased violence and apathy into which they are born and to which they are subjected. Some people are able to rise above their environment, but we accept that abuse is cyclic. Violence begets violence at an individual and a societal level. Profit from carnage is as old as the first war in which humans ever fought. Now, though, such profiteering is lauded, even taught.

Justin wrote that the evils we are exposed to daily, world-wide, are nothing new. Respectfully choose to disagree, because a lot of the atrocities are new. Sure, “death” of a child 40, 600, or 3,000 years ago was still “death.” Parents throughout time have mourned for children lost to violence, sure. Just as certainly, though, some of the ways in which children (and adults) die today are new, different, and more horrible than anything those ancient parents could have envisioned. The human species is capable of learning and improving, even as that extends to inflicting pain or, ultimately, death.

I believe the world is now worse than it's ever been. The erosion of compassion, courtesy, and human interaction is evident in what we call entertainment, what we accept as customer service, and what we avoid seeing, acting on, or believing—every day.

But (insightful Stipe notwithstanding) it’s not the End of the World, yet. I would add to Bob Roth’s comments: “You are what you do.” Or, as AMStrange wrote "Instead of getting overwhelmed by the knowledge of what's wrong with the world, do a little something to help make it better."

Every person here who posted a suggestion about how to better the world (even the world of a single individual) is right. A sole individual probably cannot change the world, but as _many_ people ACT to do what is good, or moral, or correct, or right (choose your own word), the world could change. Maybe it won’t get noticeably better, but it won’t continue its current decline.

Further, as ably pointed out by Sarah, Corky and Randyg (among others), if we set examples for those around us (children and adults), others may choose action over apathy, and sympathy over indifference. In time, the world might be better.

I believe the human spirit is indomitable. (Which is all, really, Battlefield Earth is about. Glammed up in the pulp fiction of its day, the story was about the triumph of good, exemplified by the human spirit, over the evils of the universe. But they don’t need a movie sequel to tell the rest of the story. Please. No!)

Oh, and Fred Fowler? Freddie's not a Steve.

When I was in primary school (in the early 60s) we were taught how to hide under our desks in case of nuclear war. I remember standing there looking out the windows of my classroom, trying to imagine the unimaginable.

In the late 60s we had the Vietnam War to sear our national soul, and I remember wondering what the future would be like. In the 70s we had a corrupt republican government seeking domination over everyone. In the 80s we had a corrupt republican government seeking domination over everyone AND the rest of the world. In the early 90s we were at war again and we had a home-grown bomber killing innocent people in Oklahoma City. In the late 90s we had warring politicians with nothing better to do than waste tax money on endless government investigations.

Now in the first years of the twenty-first century, we still haven't shaken off the type of people who want to tell us how to pray, how to be patriotic, post endless diatribes on how and what to eat, how to conduct our married lives, how to spend our money, etc. etc. ... of ALL political stripes.

The only difference between those times and now is that we DO have information at our fingertips -- and not simply one media source. We have many media sources from which to learn.

The result of all this knowledge is uncertainty -- that has always been true. I'd far rather have access to information than be spoonfed my news by people with vested interests -- like my government, or any one of a hundred churches who are more interested in power than whatever deity they're shilling for at the moment.

The downside of our cycles of history and our increasing knowledge base is that it affects with a sort of "post-traumatic stress syndrome" that we have to deal with.

I know how Wil feels because I occasionally feel it myself -- and have at epicycles throughout my life. But, I guess with all this advanced age (I'm only 48 for Christ's sake -- and still feel like I'm 18 sometimes) comes the wisdom to know that there are good things out there if we know where to look for them.

The media who people are trashing for bringing only the bad news do serve what people want. But you know what -- people often cynically reject what they term "happy news" in favor of stuff that's more ... colorful. What attracts your attention most -- the lurid sex crime against a little girl or the opening of a new herbarium in the city park? It's all there folks -- it gets printed and put on web pages and newspapers, etc... but you gotta look for it as diligently as you allow your attention to be grabbed by the lurid stuff.

Wil, not to sound like a tough love advocate, but here's what I tell myself when I get too down:

Hey, *****! Pull your head out and look around! The sky's blue, the cat loves you, breakfast tasted great, you're lookin' good today, you got paid for your work, your spouse is a hunk, and tomorrow's Saturday!

vegan spam like that makes me want to race right out and eat a hamburger

with cheese

and I don't even eat red meat

ARGH ARGH ARGH AAARGGGHH!!!

>

I'm sorry Wil, you rock, but I'm calling bull on this one. Here in Atlanta, we had a negative wind chill last night. Does that mean there's global cooling? Anecdotal evidence, no matter how strong, does not make for climatic trends.

You know what, Wil? You're right! We're going to Hell in a Handbasket. I seriously feel a bit like Slim Pickens - riding the bomb all the way down whoopin' and hollerin' like there's no tomorry (there wudn't).

I used to wring my hands and seriously worry about the Israelis and the Palestinians, and how peace could ever be achieved in that area. I came to the conclusion that there can be no peace as long as those two groups exist. I've thrown up my hands and decided "You know what? You wanna fight? Fine. I'm done with the both of ye. Let me know when one (or preferrably both) are wiped out so we can JUST MOVE ON." I'm tired of caring who started what, I'm tired of hearing about assassinations and children in the crossfire, or people forcibly removed from their homes. I'm tired of hearing about perceived slights when a government official dares step foot in a "holy place." I give not a shit anymore.

Here's your first class ticket to Hell, say hi to Dahmer for me.

You know what? I live in California (San Francisco)and didn't hear about the little girl. I'm from LA, so I generally get big news stories from my friends and grandparents. Also in the Bay Area, we never heard about that guy jumping off the freeway (I think he'd shot the rest of his family)and killing that woman in her car. Man, if we can't get news from our own STATE, how can I trust if I'm getting important news from the rest of the country, or world?

Hi Wil and everyone:

No Wil, as you can see, you're not alone. You also have good company in reading and listening to the news from around the world. And there are some really fantastic posts here above this one!

A few days ago I was in the same funk you are in, for many of the the same reasons. What sent me sprialing into the funk was the murder of Daniel Pearl. On February 22 I had been writing about the events in Columbia and Pearl's murder. I found myself feeling more and more depressed at the state of the world and finished the piece with:

------------

Days like this

I wonder at the vileness of humanity. I cannot understand how the human mind can conceive of such horrible acts as driving airplanes into buildings or slitting the throat of another human being. I know that such barbarisms have been committed time out of mind. They will continue long after I'm dead and dust. But I will never understand. The hate, the fear, that must exist in one person to kill another is beyond my comprehension. But that mindset, knowing how and why people can commit such horrible acts against others, would be important to understand so that it might be stopped. The hatred, the fears, need to be conquered before the killing ends. How to do that, I don't know. Obviously, no one does.

Days like this make my favorite word, esperanza, seem pointless, useless. I know that countless millions, perhaps billions, before me have despaired of the human race. What is so sad is not that I am not the first, but that I won't be the last.

------------

I then went for a walk in the cool February sunshine, at a local beach. It helped. I still feel like we (human beings) are sometimes a lost cause, but I still have hope. Esperanza. It's a powerful word.

By encouraging people to think about the issues you mentioned, by encouraging them to talk about them, you make a difference. You change a small part of the evil into good. It might not solve any problems but you, and the rest of us, find out we are not alone. And that helps.

Esperanza!

The whole world needs to call and schedule an appointment with Dr. Phil, after everyone has 5 hours with Dr. Phil the world will be a better place. You better buckle your seatbelt, the ride to Texas goes through Oklahoma.

I didn't know they found the girl. Sometimes I wonder why people do what they do. It seems so sick. People are odd.

Sorry about my lengthy ramblings up there.

You know, this will sound awfully Geeky of me, but right now I'm hooked up to NASA tv on my computer (yeah,I have cable modem access) and watching the Earth rotating under the space shuttle (which launched successfully this morning). A friend of mine is on that shuttle, getting ready to do another servicing of Hubble Space Telescope. But, what lifted my spirits was seeing Earth there through the shuttle's cameras.

Whew.

yeah, I'm a space cadet... but hey.

And, as Capt. Picard used to say to Q (and other aliens) on a regular basis: we're humans. We can adapt. And learn.

It may just take us a little longer than Picard was raised to believe.

Well, it's nice to know I'm not the only one in a funk these days. I haven't been able to put my finger on why, but I think you helped clear up a few of the reasons.

It was heart-wrenching for me, driving home from work on Wednesday, listening to Magic 92.5s traffic report and hearing that they had discovered a body in East San Diego county. I had a feeling that they wouldn't find her alive, but when it becomes reality, it's just awful.

But, it's the world we live in and it's something we have to deal with. Do we have to like it? No. Can we try and do something about it? Sure. It may not really make a huge dent, but it may make us feel better for trying.

So, let's all join hands and sing a rousing rendition of "Kumbayah."

Vickie

"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."

-Network 1976.

YOu think this is Bad? What about the great depression. Both World wars. I'm 24, I only heard ot the stuff that went on. I feel like that sometimes too, Wil, take it with a grain of salt. Some people feel like that all their lives. Don't feel too bad too long, it'll eat you up inside.

I hope you reald all the comments!

The problem is that we don't put enough protection for families in the law. The penalties need to be surpremely harsh. If you molest or attempt to murder a child, you need to be in prison for life without parole. If you murder a child, you need to be killed, it's that simple. Why we try to protect sickos like that is beyond me. Why does anyone think that jail time cures a child molestor? I think once we get serious about protecting our children, this sort of stuff will fade away.

March 5th, election day and today is Ron Howard's birthday. Its a cold day in Southern California and I still cannot believe the "O brother" soundtrack won for album of the year, and yet I still blame the (murder?) of that girl on the parents; mother was out dancing, father left child alone, and apparently they had a relationship (friends) with the sex offender (neighbor).

It seems to me that the world is getting worse all the time. Just when you think that nothing
good will ever happen again something good does happen. Children are found, people who were thought guilty are found innocent, and so on. I'm not saying that it happens all the time, but it does happen. Why is it the bad things always stick with us? Never the good, it's always the bad.

Vegan Guy: Mmmm... meat.

I would like to point out that in spite of what the newspapers report, violent crime has been in the decline for decades in the United States. Surprisingly, this goes for violent crimes in schools. We are all safer than we were twenty years ago. Even New York City is seeing a decline. I recently read an article written by a British newspaper comparing London and NYC. London is becoming more dangerous and has, IIRC, passed New York City in violent crime rate.

The newspapers will pulicize dramatic and horrifying stories to get our attention and sell papers. Yes, it is still horrifying what happened to the little girl. But that event is an anomaly. Things like that just don't happen very often.

The problems in the Middle East are bad. However, the situation in Afghanistain is much better. Women are free to go out alone and little girls can go back to school. Men can shave if they want and everyone can watch movies or do many other things they weren't allowed to do.

The Middle East and Islam are reaching a crisis point that Christianity passed several hundred years ago. I expect that things may get worse before they get better, but I also expect things will ultimately get better. A bunch of dictators and religious fanatics are becoming more and more extreme. At some point, they'll go too far and people will start to wake up.

Even the Enron scandal has a bright side. People are being more cautious about investing and hopefully the government will revise some of the reporting rules. A lot of dishonest and fraudulent practices have been brouht out into the light. Sure, business will still cheat where they can and people will still get taken by con-men, but that's been happening in some form or another ever since there were people.

BTW, Wil, this is my first time to post but I've been reading your blog for a while now and, while I disagree with you on a number of issues, I enjoy reading your views.

Bolie IV

Well Wil, I know where you are. Times have always been bad:
20 years ago the doomsday clock was at 2 minutes to midnite. Thousands of troops faced each other in Germany. Ted Bundy was running around being the perfect stranger
40 years ago missles in Cuba and Turkey almost started a nuclear war. Richard Speck visited nurses.
60 years ago Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo were doing their best to control the world and almost doing it. 6 million Jews, unknown millions of Romani and millions of Russians were dying. An entire Polish cadet corp was murdered by the Russian. I don't have a name for the killer that era.
80 years ago One war had just ended, a war that caused men to rush out to face machine gun fire and poison gas. Homes were bombarded by ships and from the air.
100 years ago the Spanish American war had just ended, Cuba was liberated from Spain, but was now under our yoke and would be until 1959. It existed as a haven for drugs, alcohol and prostitution.

I could go on. The important thing, there are always decent people around to be upset at these things. Humankind will always survive though the individual cells may die in the most horrible way. As always, love those close to you and try to do right by those around you.

I often wonder if the news business (which I plan on eventually majoring in mass comm so I might be a part of that world in ump years) is in the business of informing or the business of ratings.

Think about it.

BREAKING NEWS

A woman helped a small child, age 4, get out of harms way before a car slammed into him.

or

BREAKING NEWS

A woman was just too late when her rescue attempt failed allowing a truck driven by Wild Bad Breath McTicTac. He is now said to have been heavily intoxicated.

The young girl was dead on impact.

###
News is in the business of ratings really, not news.

I do see your point however. The world is more different now than I can remember.

Its the end of the world as we know it.

Somebody(s) made this point earlier, and I thought it worth repeating.

There really is good out there in the world. It's just not as fun for the media to report it.

Wil, I want to read to you what Nicole deBoer once said...and well I love her advice and I understand what you said as well...
**************************************************
(Her fans asked this and she replied)

Q:Is there any advice you'd like to give us?

Nicole:Advice? Hmmnnn. I don't know. The only thing I can really think of is something that I've been noticing. It seems to me that the times of jaded, generation blah blah blah our future sucks stuff may actually being drawing to a close. It's a whole new millenium, and I can feel a more positive attitude in the coming generation. I think it's very refreshing and very important. There is a lot of exciting stuff going on and a new era dawning of information, communtiy responsibility and spirituality. There will always be craziness in the world but you and I don't have to add to it. Stay positive and just make sure to keep a healthy balance in your life. The computer is a wonderful tool, but we shouldn't forget to get outside in nature and we shouldn't forget to take care of her either. And take care of each other. -Nicole deBoer Official Fan Club Site *Currently Closed*
**************************************************

Since I work for a telemarketing company, I noticed people sound SO sweet over the phone and then you try and sell them something, instead of saying "please, or thank you" these people don't think we have any feelings and curse us out, threaten us, or its all negative. They don't think they verbally abuse us over the phone. What gets me is these parents have their KIDS lie on the phone! TO LIE!! How HORRIBLE!!
If they don't have their kids lying on the phone its telling them to PLAY on it. Such morals people have nowadays is beyond me.
Well I went to work and I told the people there, to please calm down, that we over here at our business are only doing our jobs and not to please raise their voice. There's already alot of hostilaity (sp??) and people seem to have learned nothing from 9/11
That we need to get along together to be a better society! By all this anger, and frustration we push each other away.
I feel bad for this b/c together as a people we are stronger then when we are alone.

For example not just the hostility in the news...but take a look at SLANTED FEDORA and CREATION...they are competeing over 2 pieces of land (Philly and Las Vegas) and completeing forgetting about the rest of the country who doesn't get that option to SEE Star Trek Stars such as (we down here in Houston)...

http://pub19.ezboard.com/fnicolesnichefrm7

I had a guy on my board wonder when Nikki will be in his area and he's from Isreal. How often do they get conventions?

But aside from that, After 9/11 and people talked to each other and comforted each other, that was a time of global unity, and now...look.. things have gone back to the same ole' ways.
For that moment...ONE Moment, we weren't 45 million people living on this globe, we were ONE...We were united.
That's the way things should be. or I wish they would be.
However, it won't be.
If I may ask of a song to listen to ..."Alan Jackson" -When the World Stopped Turning-
It sings about 9/11

Here is the LYRICS:
Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)
By Alan Jackson

Verse:
Where were you when the world stop turning on that September day
Were you in the yard with your wife and children
Or working on some stage in L.A.
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke
Rising against that blue sky
Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor
Or did you just sit down and cry

Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don't know
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below
Did you burst out in pride for the red, white and blue
And the heroes who died just doin' what they do
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself and what really matters

Chorus:
I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I could
Tell you the difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love

Verse:
Where were you when the world stop turning on that September day
Teaching a class full of innocent children
Or driving down some cold interstate
Did you feel guilty 'cause you're a survivor
In a crowded room did you feel alone
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her
Did you dust off that Bible at home

Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened
And you close your eyes and not go to sleep
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Or speak to some stranger on the street
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Go out and buy you a gun
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watchin'
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns

Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers
Stand in line and give your own blood
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love

Repeat Chorus

http://www.alanjackson.com/cma2001.html

Peace, Love and light all!!
I hope you take care!

Wow-talk about timing! Jason's post wasn't there when I put mine on.

Hi there, I have read your pain. Yes pain, it's a pain even if you don't realize it, becouse if you are a parent yourself you indeed feel the feer for your own children. I am from the Netherlands and I also have the responsebillity for 6 children. Not all my own but I think this problem is worldwide and there is only one thing you can do and this is go on with your life and do not let those sick people win it in your own mind!! This is why people do these kind of things, so they can feel good from your missery. This means if you give them all these atention they will feel even better. I think people have to be carefull about the things they write. You can give those people a push in the wrong direction if you know what I mean!!!
Martin

Interesting Info regarding Vegan, but seriously, I didn't crawl to the top of the food chain to eat no rabbit food!

Hey Wil (and everyone),

I almost never watch the news before work in the morning, but I had "Good Morning America" on this morning ... and I know whereof you speak.

The opening story was about the "shadow government" living in bunkers on the East Coast because Dubya (and his posse) believe we're in at least credible danger of being nuked by the fanatics. The next story confirmed that the little girl's body was Danielle's. The next one was the Andrea Yates trial - with her bonehead of a husband saying "We wanted more children..." (Is that the editorial "we," Rusty? Did anyone ask Andrea how many kids she wanted, and then listen to the answer? She home schooled 4 kids and lived with them 24/7 in a converted school bus??)

Anyway, I left the house pretty depressed. Glad I don't have kids. I don't know how I would explain the world to them, or how I would protect them from it. But I do find a little bit of cheer every day from visiting WWDN - it's like hanging out at Starbucks with a bunch of funny, intelligent, expressive, *positive* people. You're helping the world a little bit, Wil - hope that will lift your spirits in some small way.

But I'm gonna go on grieving every day for Danielle, who (as you said) wasn't even safe in her own bed, with her dad nearby. That sucks in so many different ways. We love you, Danielle, rest in peace, sweetie.

I've been feeling that way since I heard they'd killed Daniel Pearl, slit his throat on video. All I could think of was his poor wife and yet another baby who will never know their father.

When is it all going to stop?

Guess what? Terrible stuff like that has been going on since the beginning of the human race. Guess what? Wonderful stuff has been going on since the beginning of the human race also. While the terrible stuff draws a lot of attention, it draws attention away from the wonderful stuff that is going on daily, if you are spending time mulling over terrible stuff, that's time you are not spending advancing the causes that are wonderful and worthy of your attention. The only way to have a peace filled world is for each person taking responsibility for his/her own actions and being motivated by common unity with the purpose of Peace at the core of all actions.

We manifest those things we most put our attention upon. To manifest a Wonderful world, put your attention on that.

The Joy of Life is to be found in EACH MOMENT lived.. NOW is the Moment!

Wil, dude you have every right to be bummed out. I have been the same way. Nowadays its normal. I mean how can the world not effect your everyday life these days. The protective bubble is deflating right now. I mean you would have to be a heartless cold person to not let stuff like that effect you.
Yes, my mom and I have been really into the whole kidnapping and murder of that poor little girl we just feel so bad for those parents. I mean everytime we talk about the news thats the only thing we talk about lately. I mean I too am freaked out by the fact that girl was not safe in her own bed.
I'm also really pissed off at the media about it too. "The Next Jon Benet" they were saying. They automatically went to the parents lifestyle and started saying shit about it. That really pissed me off!!! Look, I dont get that whole wife swapping deal but its none of my or anyone elses freaggin business! Their daughter was missing and is now dead no one should care about that stuff. I mean why go there? Like the fact their daughter is missing isnt news enough that they gotta "spice" it up cuz its not sensational enough ugh!! That always gets me so mad.
Anyways I too have been in the dumps for a while. I mean You live here in NY in Queens like 20 minutes away from manhattan its hard. I mean I'm still jobless. It really sucks. Yes I get very depressed about it but you know, I just really cant be like that 24/7. How can anyone live that way? I know a lot of people do and thats scary.
I look at it this way, yes the world is really messed up. Yes it seems that we have no control over it. We DO have control over our lives. We have the power to make ourselves to be happy no matter what anyone says or does about it. I may be bummed out but I still try to look at it in a good perspective. Look at your kids. I dont have any but I see the joy that they give their parents. Its a blessing. I know that they are not your biological kids but so what. They are the ones that can give you hapiness just by knowing that they care about you and respect you. You have a wonderful family, cherish it. I am sure that can get you through anything.

Shayne said:"Since I work for a telemarketing company, I noticed people sound SO sweet over the phone and then you try and sell them something, instead of saying "please, or thank you" these people don't think we have any feelings and curse us out, threaten us, or its all negative. They don't think they verbally abuse us over the phone. What gets me is these parents have their KIDS lie on the phone! TO LIE!! How HORRIBLE!!
If they don't have their kids lying on the phone its telling them to PLAY on it. Such morals people have nowadays is beyond me.
Well I went to work and I told the people there, to please calm down, that we over here at our business are only doing our jobs and not to please raise their voice. There's already alot of hostilaity (sp??) and people seem to have learned nothing from 9/11"

Telemarketers are evil people. I know you have to earn a living, but to come into my home, uninvited, albeit by telephone, trying to sell me something I don't need IS WRONG! If I wanted it, I'd know it and go to Target or Walmart or some other store and buy it.

My phone rang at 6:07 this morning - with the all familiar beeping of a computer dialed call - checking to see if it was a live number. 6:0fucking7 in the morning.

I am not nice when telemarketers call. I don't abuse you, but you're calling me, at the most inopportune times, is abuse or harrassment in my eyes. You (well, the company you work for)are abusing the privilege of calling me. So, I let you know where you can take your product. And when I tell you NO, I mean NO. I've had to tell telemarketers 2 and 3 times that I'm not interested and finally hang up on them.

As for telling their children to lie. Ya know what, yes, it's wrong. But sometimes telemarketers WON'T SHUT UP. So, what lies are they telling? That the parents aren't home? That they can't come to the phone? Big deal. What would you prefer? That parents teach their children to be just as rude as you are? I don't think so.

Sorry for ranting, but I'm really pissed my phone rang as early as it did this morning.

I think the problem is a failure to understand the law of eristic escalation. Any imposition of order ultimatly leads to an escalation of chaos. We are so afraid of crime that we implement unreasonable laws and unethical procedures to stamp out crime. In doing so, we have constructed a world where we operate on the assumption that nearly everyone is a criminal. If you treat people like criminals, many eventually become criminal, and I can't really say I blame them.

Take the SCCCA. The entertainment industry wants to mandate technical measures to prevent me from using music/movies that I buy as I see fit, even within the bounds of what is legal and what is right, on the grounds that I probably would break the law if possible. If passed, this will generate a criminal underground for bootleg electronics so people can still use their portable MP3 players. Also, many people like myself who aren't criminals will have one lest reason to respect the rights of artists and their representatives.

However, my faith in humanity is strong. We are going through a period of chaos, but I believe we will come out the other side stronger and better for it. I know it is small consolation to parents whose kids are abducted, or people killed in the middle east, but as long as I am alive there will be at least one person who believes that people are more good than evil, prefer beauty to destruction, and justice to tyranny.

Hey, Wil.

I've obviously gotten to this post late, must be something to do with being in Australia!

But despite the fact you've read them all, I still was moved to comment.

The only comment I have though is essentially unremarkable and without comfort.

We've been going to hell in a hand basket for a long time. It's critical mass moment. September 11 woke a lot of people up, but sadly not enough. These senseless little wars in the name of God have been polluting the last century and sadly this new century with a consistency that is frightening. All of it, the wars, the senseless murders, the sexual assaults, the diminishing wealth being coveted by a few, it's all systematic of a desperate need for change. And it seems the time for that change is now.

Rather than let this get you down, move around that old cycle of grief to using all this insanity to further empower you to continue making the little changes that can lead to big changes in your life and those whose lives you touch. Like us via your site.

Maybe unhelpful, but it works for me.

Five years ago I was a youth counsellor working with the poorest end of society in our capital of Canberra. Every day I was counselling young people who were sexually assaulted, victims of incest, suffering family breakdown, addicted to a frightening selection of narcotics... a series of horrible shit. It got to me, I burned out, and then I went and set up my own business to teach people self empowerment from a spiritual perspective. It might not be much, but I know I've done something to touch other people's lives in a good way, and none of that could have ever happened if I didn't first decend into a darkness that served for me as a revelation. We're all taught to be despairing, to feel helpless, and place power in the government or whoever. But ultimately the power lies in us. All it takes is one person, then like that stone dropped in a river, the effects ripple out. Ever seen a movie called 'Pay It Forward'?

Critical Mass. Something has to give, and if we're active for change, what gives might finally be the worst parts of humanity.

Faith Manages.

When I first heard about that little girl, I had this sinking feeling that they'd never find her alive... There are few times when I wish I was wrong... I wish that could have been one of them.

I know what you mean about the state of the world. lately it's all about humanity at its worst. you'd be amazed at how much good there is in the world too. but every now and then it's good to vent...I did the other night after watching reports about Israel, and then China. both governments piss me off more than words can say. I don't have any answers right now as to how we make things better, but maybe if we all work to better our own corners of the world, the goodness will spread....

Umm, Natalia makes this point:

"I'm also really pissed off at the media about it too. "The Next Jon Benet" they were saying. They automatically went to the parents lifestyle and started saying shit about it. That really pissed me off!!! Look, I dont get that whole wife swapping deal but its none of my or anyone elses freaggin business! Their daughter was missing and is now dead no one should care about that stuff. I mean why go there? Like the fact their daughter is missing isnt news enough that they gotta "spice" it up cuz its not sensational enough ugh!! That always gets me so mad."

And several others have commented on the news stories they've seen in the media that seem to focus on the sexy and scandalous. You have to ask yourself if it's true that they do that, or are there other things in the media that don't catch your attention right away?

Here on the east coast, very little of the supposed salaciousness (wife swapping allegations, etc.) have been reported about Danielle's death. It's not really showing up on CNN.com, other than the ongoing reporting on finding the child's body.

Let me point out respectfully however that some folks who state they are sick of the media reporting on those salacious aspects area also appear to buying the truth of those allegations, as reported by the media. I've seen comments that seem to blame the parents for her death because the mother was out with some friends and the father was not home. Some have said here that the parents knew the man, while every report I've seen (CNN, NPR, newspapers) keep pointing out that the people hardly had any contact with each other.

If what the media reports is untrue -- and there was no connection with the family by the alleged murderer, and there was no wifeswapping, etc., then why this blame? Do any of us know what really happened that night? Nope -- and even if the papers faithfully reported without bias, we still wouldn't know. It was probably like any other night -- Dad was home with the kids while Mom took a break with some friends. He puts the kids to bed, she comes home, and everybody gets a good night's sleep. Next morning they wake up and the girl is gone.

My point is that there are about a hundred sides to this story, and the only one we will never know is Danielle's. What her parents did or did not do is swallowed up in the fact that she is dead, and that apparently a neighbor did the deed.

We (as a species) are often quick to point out blame, to find interest in the salacious and lurid -- and when we don't like the way it goes, we blame the messenger rather notice the three fingers that point back to ourselves every time we point one finger of blame somewhere else.

We're all in this together folks, and to paraphrase an idea from something I read somewhere, we get the hell we deserve. On the othr side of the coin, we get the heaven we deserve, too.

So, as so many others have said here, it's up to us -- each and every one of us -- to make things good in our own little corner of the cosmic sandbox. If you sit in your corner and piss and moan, it will be obvious. If you acknowledge that shit happens and try to move on and make life better for yourself and your loved ones, then so much the better.

Augh. I gotta get off this soapbox. :)

"Jerry" is right. The "NOW" is all there is.
BE HERE NOW. Its all ANY of us really have.
Enjoy the now..while you're here..cause sooner
or later it and you and us will be gone.

Telemarketers are evil people. I know you have to earn a living, but to come into my home, uninvited, albeit by telephone, trying to sell me something I don't need IS WRONG! If I wanted it, I'd know it and go to Target or Walmart or some other store and buy it.
My phone rang at 6:07 this morning - with the all familiar beeping of a computer dialed call - checking to see if it was a live number. 6:0fucking7 in the morning.

**Oh thank GOD I don't work the morning shift!!! I understand that too!

I am not nice when telemarketers call. I don't abuse you, but you're calling me, at the most inopportune times, is abuse or harrassment in my eyes. You (well, the company you work for)are abusing the privilege of calling me.

*I totally agree there! I can't control when the computer dials. My company opens at 9 AM and doesn't stop until 11 PM CST.

So, I let you know where you can take your product. And when I tell you NO, I mean NO. I've had to tell telemarketers 2 and 3 times that I'm not interested and finally hang up on them.

**Here is what I do...They tell me to be pushy at work, and I can't. I'm a HORRIBLE Salesman and if I could find a job EASIER then this one I would!!

I say hi I am calling on behalf of... and (promote the product) and then they say "I am not interested" and then I ask, "Why aren't you interested?" and I am usually nice about it. I don't push people to no end, y'know? Because that infuriates em' more.

I don't wish to do that. If they say, "The reason I am not interested is because..." and I'll say "oh okay I understand, thank you for your time..." and thats it. I'm a nice telemarketer! LOL!

Man what I find rude is my company has us working on Sunday and NO ONE wants to be bothered on a Sunday!

What pissed me off is I really WANTED TO SEE THE HOCKEY GAME!! U.S. vs. Canada and I missed it due to work!

But I need to make a living somehow and I hate bugging people at their worst, I just wish sometimes they would be a bit more kinder, b/c we are only doing our job as well an dI'm sure at your work, you wouldn't like verbal slander over the phone correct?

I am more of a ..laidback telemarketer. I like to kick back and talk with the customers...make em' feel at ease. Not pressure em' until they give in and get more frustrated.

What I hate is the REPEAT Callers WE Get! I mean we get people who say "you just called our house!!" and I had NO idea because I work the other shift.

I REALLY hate bothering people at their worst!! Y'know? and then to PRESSURE em' into buying something?! UGH! I mean there are times I cried b/c I felt... I wish I could make a sale and be well at this job.

As for telling their children to lie. Ya know what, yes, it's wrong. But sometimes telemarketers WON'T SHUT UP. So, what lies are they telling? That the parents aren't home? That they can't come to the phone? Big deal. What would you prefer? That parents teach their children to be just as rude as you are? I don't think so.

**I'm not one of the rude ones. I usually say "oh okay i understand, thank you for your time**

Sorry for ranting, but I'm really pissed my phone rang as early as it did this morning.

*That I appologize for. Really. Just be reassured it wasn't me :)

That would have been cool if it was! But then again I Am sure you would have been infuraited either way.

Not all of us are alike in telemarketing. Because some of em' are REALLY laid back and others take their work WAY too seriously!

Love and light :)

Wil,
I totally agree. I recently retired from 20 years in the Navy. I've not always seen the nicest places in the world or the nicest people. I've seen the worst that people can do to each other and the best. I majority of my adult life I lived overseas or on board ships, I was somewhat sheltered of news from the states. I've been absolutely appalled since I've relocated back to the Maryland area. The insane violence that occurs daily. I feel that funk...I agree with a previous poster (Lauren), humanity is at its worst.
Barry "Dawg"

The world hasn't suddenly become crappy, it's just that most of us go through a point in our lives, maybe even several times in a lifetime, where we realize that there are a lot of really low down crappy things going on. That's why so many cultures cling to religion.... the need to believe that there is a reason for all the crap. Personally, I do believe in God, and I think there is a plan, but I very much doubt that most religions have it figured out exactly right.

The pendulum is swinging.... I don't think humans are ever going to find the answer to war and crime. It seems that when we live in peace for many years... we start forgetting the horrors of war..or the new generation doesn't get it... and then people start grumbling arguing, and then there is another war and *gasp* Suddenly we realize how horrible it is, and we MUST find a way for our children to live in peace! Well, maybe we find a way for our children to live in peace... and maybe their children are taught to live in peace too... and then they try to teach their children... but now they don't know how horrible mass death is... and so they go to war over an ideal and... *gasp*...ect.

Oi! I could write a whole paper now. I'll step down off my soap box, give you a virtual hug, and leave one parting comment: Somebody once said that God's message could really be boiled down to this: 'Don't do anything (intentional) to harm yourself or others.' Bad things are not going to stop happening... so just spread the love, pass the good around to help balance it out.

Wil,
if it make you feel any better i don't think Battlefield Earth 2 will go anywhere. If it did, it would go straight to video.

Battlefield Earth 2
Genre: Science Fiction.
Studio: Warner Brothers.
Production Company: Franchise Films.

Project Phase: Movies Rumored.

July 25, 2001... " It was always planned that this thing would occur. However, though the film was widely considered to be a blight on cinematic history, both Roger Christian and John Travolta were still saying that this project would come off...months after the bomb dropped. Christian has stated that everyone involved would come back. With a Saturday morning animated show in the works, it just goes to show there's always something. "

What did you hear Wil???

Yes, it is dark out there. Yes, there is evil out there. Yes, there is brutality out there.

The good news is that more people find the behaviors that the news media chooses to show us abhorrent than not. More people are scared and disgusted about the state of our so-called society than not. What we need to do now is to have more people than not do something about it.

That's what I'm about. I live my life in a way that I hope causes no other person harm. I live my life in a way that exemplifies what I hope is a civilized way. I am raising my kids (my son, 7, and my daughters 4 and 2) in a way that will elevate society, not drag it further into the cesspool.

Others who have posted here are, in my opinion, correct. Society is cyclical. I firmly believe that the pendulum is already swinging back. Hang in there! You live in a state where all aspects of life are magnified, both the good and the abhorrent. Then again, I live in the state that gave the country Jeffery Dahmer. *shudder*

Kahuna

I know. It feels like the whole world is falling apart at times. I wrote a poem about that, and if I had it with me, I'd post it, but I don't. Sorry.
On the other hand, the Saudi's have made a sensible peace proposal: Total recognition of Israel by the Arab world in exchange for a return to pre-1967 borders. In other words, the Palestinians get the state they wanted (including East Jerusalem), and Israel gets peace. Everybody wins. Maybe they'll take it.

Re: Battlefield Earth II. Hell, that can't frighten me in a year that will have Episode II: Attack of the Clones, SPIDERMAN, LOTR II: The Two Towers, Minority Report, The Scorpion King, We Were Soldiers (Once, And Young... sorry, I like the full book title better), John Q, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Time Machine, AND STAR TREK X: NEMESIS, plus more that I probably can't remember...

"Je bande donc je suis."

I do believe that what goes around comes around... and that everything happens for a reason. There are so many things happening right now that makes me wonder who did what to deserve all of this...

I probably will never know, nor will most of us in our lifetimes. But we CAN, at least, take a look at our own actions, and see how they fit into the big picture.

I look at it like this... all these things are happening around us, and we're feeling kind of lost and tossed-about. It's as though we were lost in the woods somewhere. It's cold, it's wet, it's dark, and we have no idea where we are, or how we're going to get out. We could just sit there and give up all hope of ever being rescued, or we could try to find a way out. Climb a tree or a big hill - gain a new perspective. Suddenly, it's not just You vs. The World... you can see where you might be able to fit in... seek shelter, find comfort, run into other people in the same situation as you.

The earlier post about the pebble in the water is right on. One pebble will make ripples that spread out... eventually, they'll run into the ripples made by another pebble. Some of those waves will intersect and continue through, some will merge together and make bigger waves, and some will interact and bounce off each other, creating new waves.

It's all about how you look at the grand scheme of things... I know that it won't solve most of our problems, but it can offer at least a little bit of comfort and perspective.

-Unfortunatly the swinging of a pendulem, having it cut both ways or is that suposed to be a sword either way the world will go through great pain an sorrow and in the effort to make things right and better.We have to unfortunatly go along with the baffelngs of Karmic Law.
-How do we make it better?
WE work together to be nicer to someone, Vote so our rights can be heard, Stop being selfish and try and be better to others and in turn ours selves.
The three srikes law is great and Dandybut when a child has died at the hands of Sick creep be cause he slipped through the system -Then theSystem sucks,it needs to be re-tweeked.
Yesterday I saw on Opera which I rarely watch but it struck a chord with me- Teen violence in Realtionships, I was a victim of that went all the way to me marrying that basterd-People this is your wake up call for some people it's inhareted and for some is learned- violence- Either way we can not just sit back and say not my problem, we need to get out there and get involved( boys and girls clubs youth counsling)

-Wil we are here for you man-
Love-Peace-Happiness

The sin and depravity that surrounds all of us is nothing new it has been with us since the beginning of time. Looking back at history we all hope that behavior and reasoning would evolve along with our technology and life span. Unfortunately we have the same capacity as our ancestors who sneered as an innocent man hung on a cross. We can't do anything about the hatred in Israel, Palestine, Ireland, the list is too long, only the coming of Christ will put an end to that. We can follow what Jesus stated were the two greatest commandments: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and Love thy neighbor as thyself. Focusing your life outward instead of inward may not change the world but it can change what is around you. The Bible says that like gold we are refined by fire. No matter how high the flame, joy doesn't come from the world around you but from what is within. "Grow where you are planted".

This sounds lame, but it's true: when you have a child of your own, biological or otherwise, all this terrible stuff is magnified. You transfer your feelings about your own child(ren), onto a child you never knew, and really - I mean REALLY understand the pain that the parents are feeling. Tragic.

It appears I've been in the same funk as a lot of people... though I've been calling it crankiness and grouchiness. I'm like, "what is this world coming to?" Am I the only one out there that's normal and SANE? I guess I'm not the only one out there who's normal... and that's comforting to know.

It's all about distractions. If we lived in an utopian world, life would cease to be. There would be nothing left for us to learn. Unfortunately, we have to take the bad with the good. Right now, there is an unbalanced amount of bad in the world. But we each do what we can to make the world a better place. Whether it's not driving like a maniac on the freeway or maintaining a wonderful, thoughful, insightful, and fun website like this. If it wasn't said before, (cuz I couldn't make the time to read all of the posts), THANK YOU WIL WHEATON.

"rather than think about the fact that maybe it's like this from global warming and pollution"

When you think downer thoughts, the world seems really bad. Self fufilling prophecy.

To add to the fun, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has just announced that they've moved the doomsday clock (http://www.bullatomsci.org/clock.html) two minutes closer to midnight. That's right kiddies, we're now the closest we've been to midnight since 1988. Interestingly enough, it was only 10 years ago that it was at it's furthest point away from midnight (seventeen minutes to).

Here's a thought (to lighten the mood):

Psychologists have stated that 1 out of every four people is clinically insane. Check three of your friends. If they seem normal, it's you! :-/

I almost wonder if it isn't so much that humanity has become more cruel and thoughtless as that in the instant information age that we live in, we are informed of more of these cruelities than in the past. If you think back over history, humanity has always been a brutal selfish race.

But in the end, in my own little corner of the universe, I have much to be thankful for.

Many Things Suck, much of the time. Some Things Suck some of the time. Some Things even Suck all of the time.

But all Things do not Suck all of the time.

Here in the 21st century of the Suck, we are keenly aware, more than our foreparents, of exactly the level of Suckage in the world.

To wit:

We have global media, which both Sucketh, and gives us the Suck.
We have the 'net, which also both Sucketh and gives us the Suck.
We have FedEx and UPS, which deliver the Suck to us worldwide every day. Sometimes even on time.
We have reams of Friends, which Do Not Suck. We have reams of non-friends, many of whom also Do Not Suck. We have reams of non-friends who Do Suck. But not all People Suck all of the time, either.

Without this vast knowledge of Suckage, our foreparents therefore could only be aware of that which Sucketh in their own back yards. The Ward and June of the Cleaver knew not the Suck which perpetuated in the world beyond their Own Suck.

Then the knowledge came. And lo, we realized that Many Things Suck. Many Things which we otherwise thought Did Not Suck actually turned out to Suck instead.

And the People were sore afraid.

The People held sit-ins and dance-ins and love-ins and drive-ins.

The People held each other and their children and cried out:

Why must Things Suck?

And no answer came.

And then the People created some of their own Suck in retaliation for the Suck that they thought was new, which was in truth, not new.

And lo, it came to pass that it then seemed like there was even more Suck.

So the people despaired. Some People became overwhelmed with the Suck and tried to avoid it by going to the AfterSuck. Only to find that it, too, Sucked.

There is Suck. There has always been Suck. There will always be Suck.

But there will always be Things Which Do Not Suck. And many Things which Suck, but Do Not Suck all the time.

And in that oasis of Non-Suck we shall find some peace, on occasion, from the general Suckage of Things.

And those who are aware of the Suck have some power to make their own personal Suckage less Sucky. They also have the power to band with others who are Anti-Suck and endeavor to lessen the amount of Suck in the world.

This is a Good Thing.

So be well, children. Do not fear the Suck, for it is always with us, and may not always be as Sucky as it could be.

Blessings on you, and may your Personal Things Not Suck.

I forgot to comment on the global warming concerns last night. I'm not sure what I think about it all, but living in Minnesota since 1988, I have seen drastic changes in the weather, especially in the last 5 years or so. Now, tell me this isn't strange...There is hardly any snow on the ground at all, spring birds are everywhere, geese are returning and plants are starting to grow. Usually we should have a wind chill, or at least the temp below zero for many days of the winter. This year, I think we've had maybe two days below zero, but I could be wrong. People here are excited by the lack of the "Minnesota Winter" but I look at it's abnormality. 50 degrees ABOVE zero in the middle of January? That's not normal. Anyway, happy posting.

Stef

no Wil, you aren't the only one with a half-empty glass. I've been watching the world fall apart since '96 when my 34 year old sister died of bone marrow cancer. Multiple Myeloma, to be exact - it only existed for 6 months before she got it. She never smoked, never drank, and I'd never even heard her swear. Two kids, huge house, loving husband with a multi-million dollar business, and *poof* she's gone. Since then, I've slowly watched as the whole damn world fell apart - and not just mine. The only positive thing that's happened to me since is I got back with my high school sweetheart, we got engaged, and we have a beautiful baby girl (9 months old now) named Giovanna Nicole. (www.m0p.d2g.com if you wanna see her/us) Hearing about the kidnapping in Cali scares the begeezuz outta me man... Thinking about it almost made me go back and remove that link. This is where the change has to be made. We can't let it change our way of life, although it seems we "have to" to survive. If we give up living the way we were, and live in fear and in defense, we are helping to finish off the rest of what's left that is good. (That line almost confused me - I hope it makes sense to you.. *laf*)
I look at it this way. Take care of your own. Live for your kids. Do our best to give them the live they deserve, because they gotta fix what we (and our parents, and so on and so on) have fucked up, and they're not gonna do too well if we don't give 'em the right ammo. I really gotta stop now, because I may say something I'll regret in my anger - but I must at least say this: (and I quote from a famous radio personality) "Sick out there, and getting sicker."
laterz Wil...
good luck on the top 100 sexiest women of 2002
*woot*

m0ppy from fark.com

I am late commenting on this one, because my computer was having issues. Even though probably no one will read this (especially when everyone else was so long winded), I still have to throw in my two cents. I live in Georgia, south of Atlanta. About a week BEFORE we started hearing about this crematory business, there was an eight-year-old girl attacked. A "29-year-old white male" walked into an elementary school somewhere north of Atlanta just as classes were letting out and smashed her head in with a hammer. He then walked back out. Long story short, the girl was Life-Flighted to the nearest children's emergency room, with the hammer still in her head. Part of her brain was removed (no word on exactly how that will affect her life) and her doctors describe her condition as "satisfactory." The guy was caught. He'll probably be "treated" for a few years and then released.
So, yeah Wil, I know just how you feel. My God, she was just going to school! The rest of her life may very well be hell, and what about her friends who were standing beside her? My daughter will be starting school next year.
So what can you do about it? I'm not a big Michael Jackson fan, but he had it right when he told us to "start with the man in the mirror." Now, I AM a big Garth Brooks fan! "Everyone's saying you'll never change things. It's not the world that I am changing. What I do is so this world will know that it will not change me."
For a long time I have wanted to get an Irish Wolfhound and a Newfoundland, and I am looking into acquiring them now. I have decided to train them as therapy dogs to help children who have been traumatized. Look around you. What have you got, and what can you do with it?

Wil,

You have to become neutral to some media sources. Keep informed, just be aware of who's controlling the information you are recieving. Many media outlets are looking for ratings, and they will play up a story that will get people to watch. The little girl? That sucks. Glad to know about it (I guess) but what can you do? Go out and find the killer yourself? Go get a degree in farkin criminal justice and find that bastard?

Um...No. All you can do is (what everyone else here has said already) be good to yourself and others. Rally the troops on things you might be able to change. Join the local "fark you dubya" protest group and think of clever ways to "enlighten" the rest of the sheep-like Americans (with non-violence, use your head).

Just my two cents...

Have a nice day...

DEE

"it is a dark dark world out there right now." Always has been, always will be.

"I don't know what has happend to the world, and to be honest, it scares me to think where its gonna be in 10 - 20 years."
It has always been a dark world, it's just more pronounced these days because of the advent of the internet and 24 hour news channels.
I personally have no fear of what's to come,because we will all be together again sometime somewhere Beyond........

There's really only one solution from my perspective (in Boston, MA): start changing the world every damn day. Don't settle for being pissed off or upset just because other people are. That doesn't give you the *right* to forget what life should be about.

Ok, for all you short attention spanners, here is the technique:
1. Go into the supermarket you shop at.
2. Talk to the people who work there, calling them by name, and introduce yourself.
3. Ask them how their day was, if they are happy, if you can do anything to help (and YES, a smile and a few kind words help).
4. Leave feeling elated and ready to meet the next human being.

You see, it's very SIMPLE. We're all human beings. We all need love. If you can give it, then give it, dammit, give it!

Peace,
JR

"I can't believe that, in the midst of all the seriousness, you made that remark about Battlefield Earth. Why would you do that? It wasn't funny"

What a spineless meatbag pussy remark.

People keep talking about how things are bad, but there are still good people in the world.
I have lonce since ceased to believe that ANYONE does ANYTHING for ANYONE ELSE without a completely selfish motive.
Breeding and bringing more humans into this world is a perfect example.

"I've been watching the world fall apart since '96 when my 34 year old sister died of bone marrow cancer"

So THAT's why the world turned to shit. Now I know who is to blame.
Two words: Drama Queen.

Ok, Alamsti.. don't hold anything back. :)

George Carlin:
"The planet is fine. The people are fucked."

I'm not going to pretend that I even have an inkling as to what life is all about. There are so many different answers, so many different points of view... I wouldn't know where to begin.

I can tell you what makes me happy, albeit for a short period of time; this stuff takes my mind off of crap like (holy bejeebus) people's throats getting slit on camera and small children getting kidnapped from their own room and murdered.

-My dogs, when they've just gotten dinner, and they're eating like there's no tomorrow.
-My niece, when she's just done something really sweet.
-Being taken into someone's confidence, thus having someone trust me so much that they'd tell me secret stuff.

Right then.

Of course, my usual approach to bad shiznat is to ignore it, but have it in the back of my head, torturing me and giving me stomachaches.

I have to go to my professor's house now for the archaeology potluck.

Peace out, peeps.

Ayo, Wil. We get what we pay for man. People want th world to be like this. I wouldn't say I do, but it is clear, that in general, people want this. Blame it on whatever you want, it won't change until people look inside themselves, at the rot, at the stink, and decide to change.

Until they decide, that it ain't money, and it ain't power, butsomething else, something they lack.

Last thing. The end of that quote is "Me too.". Personally I think that the calender is shiat, and that the Dali Lamma knows a lot less than we think. This guy doesn't even advocate living in the now, he advocates living in the future. Lots of unhappiness in living in the future, reality is the now, live it.

Global Warming. The famous one.

There is a counter to that. There are equal numbers of things that lead to global cooling. This however, isn't as easily explainable as global warming, and as such, gets much more press. If any of you would like, I could send you the mathematical problem that shows how much human pollution and the like contributes to the heat of the earth. But I will tell you, it is negligible when compared to the natural radiation we get from the sun.

Hence, global warming is, well... nothing.

the glass is not half empty. there is no glass. the universe is a pathologically complicated place wracked by pain and fear, ruled by jealous gods of darkness and treachery. the end is not nigh, it came and went, and none noticed its passing nor their judgement. yet prepare, for the prophecy of cagliostro shall soon come to pass, and the daughter of darkness shall throw down our lady of pain, and the shinma lords shall smite the city of doors, and the universe shall be rebuilt. and this time, no battlefield earth movies, we promise.

Hi Wil & everyone!

I read through everything said so far...and I can really think of nothing new to add, except for perhaps this quote to go along with your thought...But what do I know? I'm just a college kid. :O\

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."

Goodnight...with hopes for a good today tomorrow.

-james-

The earth does have a natural cycle of warming and cooling. I'm not saying that carbon dioxide emissions don't have any effect, but just be sure to investigate a problem fully before you take a stance. How many people that protest global warming do you think have actuall read academic papers on the subject.

Every single person who posts and reads here....Please hug someone you love right now!
You never know what will happen....Until............

wil,your problem is your listening to NPR,amongst other things.I mean quit whining your sounding like bill maher for christ sake!! and global warming isn't a fact, like you would like to believe.There are many scientitsts who disagree with your bunk. later jeff

wil
if so many people here in little old WWDN agree on this, maybe enough people in the world do care. if each one of those tries to make a difference in their own small(or big)way, maybe there is still hope......

Alamasti. One word. Troll.

I thought I was the only one thinking of this.My mom's bestfriend's son, who I've known for like ever is being shipped out to Iraq tomorrow night. He is like a big brother to me and the more I think about it I just want to cry. This world sucks. There is so much hatred in this world, you start to wonder is it worth having kids. My friend was talking to me at work yesterday. She had to explain to her mom that the reason she never wants kids is because of the world. I don't know if I ever want kids when I get married all I know is I never want them to go through this much pain. If I could heal the world I would. It's times like these I wish I could. I hope you read this. Is there away you could let me know if you read this? All I am gonna do is pray for Travis(he's the one leaving) and hope. I am going to pray for everything including that little girls family. I am not much religious but I do believe in GOD and praying. The truth is I pray about everything even when nothing happens pretty odd ain't I. I just believe that iot has to get better.

Just wanted to make a quick post.

Just read through the comments finally, and was completely inspired by most people who use this board.

If this lot is but a small percentage of the intelligent, compassionate souls out there in the world, we're no where near as far up shit creek as we thought we were!

Hope lies in our hearts! You all, personally, give me a lot to hope for.

Though it's not my board, and I've only been lurking and posting for the tiniest while, thanks everyone.

Wil, the 90 degree weather is NOT because of global warming. GW gets way too much credit for things it doesn't do, and besides, the "GW experts" that talk about the doom and gloom of GW say that the effects are 1 or 2 degrees per year, maximum. So Global Warming couldn't have cancelled winter.

So cheer up! One less thing for you to be worried about!! :-)

"Peace starts within each one of us. When we have inner peace, we can be at peace with those around us."

So I'm obviously responding to this post late, but WOW. Your day seemed to be a lot similiar to my own. In fact the last few days have been really stressful for me. I always thought that I handled stress well, but I think I need some new techniques. I've started the whole "list 7 things you're greatful for", and it seems to work. I just say them to myself as I'm driving to work. Today I was thankful for:
1. My Grandma because she made me a chicken sandwich to take for my first day at a new job.
2. God, for upgrading me from unemployed to underemployed :)
3. My health, and the health of my loved ones.
4. Trains that move across the track in 5 minutes or less. (Remember I was driving).
5. And get this...I did not steal this from you...The redbirds outside my window that always gather in the morning. It's like they're eating breakfast with me.
6. The jokes my mom tell me. She always has a new one, and I can never tell them the way she does.
7. Everyone. --It makes sense to me.
So, just thought you should know that you've started a healthy little trend here.
GB

Realise the pain of the world, and those monsters who inhabit it along with the rest of us good people, but don't shut yourself off from the sheer beauty of it. So much to be thankful for, praise for the fact we are even here at all, to experience the everyday miracles that life shows us. Yes, these evil creatures exist, unfortunately in every country. Everywhere has had terrible tales of monsters (they cannot be called *people*) ruining lives, killing children and doing other obscene things. In our acts of kindness and courage, we can *almost* cancel out these crimes. Don't give up on the human race just yet - some of us are worth the effort.

Tiana B

I liked battlefield earth.

However, I do not like the senseless violence that has been going on in the world, and even though I am not a parent, I still feel deeply for their loss. I too fear that happening to me and hope it never does, but the worst has happened to them. That's really a shame.

Well, I was gonna just tell ya to not watch the TV for a while. Then I read that a possible sequel to "Battlefield Earth" may be in the works!!!!!!

Yes, Will. We are all doomed!!!! :/

Brent

I've just read this article. (I've been offline for a few days) and I'm listening to a certain song from my album of choice at the moment, whilst reading.

The song is "Fragile" by Sting.

Has anybody actually listened to the words to this song?? I mean, like.........OMG!! I realise I'm going off on a tangent but Christ, what IS happening to the world?

Wouldnt it be great, if, once, just once, we could all have a day where the news was all good, bombs and bullets have never been invented, and peace reigned supreme. The Star Trek idyll (that I believe in) is of a world where all disease is treatable, poverty, homelessness and famine are non-existant and people work for self worth and not monetary gain.

My wish for just one day would be can we live the Star Trek idyll please? (and can Sting be world leader, cos the dood just rox!!!)

What is your wish??

You scared me and I mean really scared me. Please don't let travolta come back in that horrible makeup. Good God, I mean hubbard wrote 10 of those novels -- a few of them from The Other Side, I think -- and we may have to see 10 movies. MST3000 will have fodder for years to come.

Hi Wil and readers:

I read this post a few moments ago! I heard about the kidnapping of Danielle. Its a very sad, a sick world we live in. Whats even sickening to hear about is that some of these murders are even going to try to plee insanity. Also about the "Gates" story how she killed her children by drowning them in the bathtub. and then layed them on the bed. If you knew your wife was that crazy. you shouldnt of let her have anymore children. From her husband knowing that she had a mental problem he should have done something about. so he is also to blame! No matter what they plee. you murder your own children and plee insanity you should be sentenced to death. and of story! Some of us read the paper and knows exactly what kind of world we live in! I am scared to go out of my front door sometimes but I have to realize and admit to my self that things happen. and that we cant stop! Wil...just protect your loved ones and your wife! Its good to be sad for other people who have lost theirs. Just goes to show you that you are kind hearted person

Sincerely
Rachael

I hear ya, for sure. I'm trying to pull myself out of a "how can the world be so horrible?" slump, myself.

I can't get what happened to little Danielle out of my mind. No matter how hard I try, I can't stop thinking about her family and the whole situation. How terrified she would have been and how she probably would have wanted her mother so badly.

I have a little girl about that age...she hasn't wanted to sleep in her own room since we moved last June. She loves to sleep in a papasan chair in the corner of our master bedroom. I'd been scheming and concocting a plan to get her to sleep in her own room for months...but after hearing of the kidnapping in San Diego, I am not sure I ever want my children to sleep in their own rooms. At least not anytime soon. I keep wondering what we were *thinking* when we bought a house with the children's rooms on a separate floor! It seemed appealing at the time, back when I thought that my children would be safe IN THEIR OWN BEDROOMS! The privacy of having the kids' rooms so far away is completely undesirable to me now.

Don't even get me started about everything else that I think is wrong with the world. I couldn't even touch on it if I wrote for the next 24 hours.

It's so difficult to think of this while I look at my beautiful, innocent children. I can't help but wonder what their world will be like when they are adults. And what's it like now, growing up in a time like this. When I was a young child, the worst thing going seemed to be disco! ;)

Sorry to rant, but an open invitation to comment on the state of the completely and utterly messed up world we live in was just *tooooo* tempting. I'm off to check all the doors and windows, and to make sure the alarm is *completely* set.

WWDN...Miss a day and you miss alot...

Okay, I missed the last couple of days and I'm sorry that I have. I find I need to comment on this before I leave for the office.

The Palestinians and Israelis blowing each other up is not news. It's been happening for our entire lifetimes, in most cases, if not all. My grandmother was always pushing me to at least visit Israel. I told her I wouldn't go until there was peace over there. Even in my mid teens, I knew peace in Israel would never happen in my lifetime.

I'll tell you what I've done over the last few years to get over the "news funk". I quit watching it. (I probably haven't watched a newscast since 9/12.) I get my daily news in the car twice a day. The newscasts aren't usually more than 5 minutes long. They don't drone on and on about the same sad story, and I'm informed on major local happenings. Some would say that I'm not keeping up on things but I say, "Ignorance is bliss, and my bliss is very important to me."

Yikes! Look at the time...gotta feed the dog and head out for an early start at the office.

Lenna

The world is falling apart because too many people simply dont care! If they did they would fight back!!!!!!!!!! By that I mean they would simply refuse to let the evil preveil by being at peace with them self and there neighibors once that happends then the evil people in this world (and there are evil people here I.E. pedophiles, murders and rapist's)Will lose the power they hold because our soul's will be united. In other words the Light wins out over the Dark. It is up to all of us not just the police or the military to fight this. We can win not for just us but our children and there children and soforth.
Peace to you ALL.
Lost Soul

There has never been peace in the world, so why should we expect it now.

Sara Groves perhaps expresses it best in her song "Generations":

I can taste the fruit of Eve. I'm aware of sickness death and disease. The results of her choices were vast. Eve was the first but she wasn't the last. If I were honest with myself, had I been standing at that tree, my mouth and my hands would be covered with fruit. Things I shouldn't know and things I shouldn't see

Remind me of this with every decision. Generations will reap what I sow. I can pass on a curse or a blessing to those I will never know.

She taught us to fear the serpent. I'm learning to fear myself and all of the things I am capable of in my search for acceptance, wisdom and wealth. To say the devil made me do it is a cop-out and a lie. The devil can't make me do anything when I'm calling on Jesus Christ

Remind me of this with every decision. Generations will reap what I sow. I can pass on a curse or a blessing to those I will never know.

To my great-great-great-granddaughter, live in peace. To my great-great-great-grandson, live in peace. To my great-great-great granddaughter, live in peace. To my great-great-great-grandson, live in peace, live in peace.

Remind me of this with every decision. Generations will reap what I sow. I can pass on a curse or a blessing to those I will never know.

Eve was the first but she wasn't the last.

(This is haunting with the music, which can be heard at http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product/55558431?item_no=CD61212&event=CF#track_listings)

to tell the truth i dont read the newspaper anymore coz i dont wanna here about all the horrible things that are happening. i want to live a happy life. but i suppose not wanting to know about the awful things isnt going to make them go away, or stop them from happening is it?

Wil, everyone wants a happy life, but where is its source? "Don't be afraid of those who want to kill you. They can only kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Not even a sparrow, worth only half a penny, can fall to the ground without your Father knowing it. And the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to Him than a whole flock of sparrows." (Jesus, book of Matthew 10: 28-31).

I read the first 8 or 10 comments here and found only ONE person, Cindy Andrie, had the right idea. Ignoring the world as it is and pretending everything is alright or somebody elses concern only drags it deeper into the pit. If we want a better world WE have to do it.
We can each do one thing that will make a difference every day. eg: 1)when you are about to swear for nothing, stop and think who is going to hear it and what will it say to them? 2)When you're in traffic, let the poor sap into the lane. It doesn't cost a cent and it may make HIS day and that of those he meets too. 3)put a quarter in somebody's parking meter. It will suprise them and when you think about it later it will give YOU a good feeling.
Just do something FOR somebody. Don't make a show of it and don't even let anyone know it was you. You want to change the world? It's simple.

I don't live in Cali and I haven't heard about that poor girl but I've heard about the rest of the bull crap going on in this world and I agree with you and whoever else said we are going to Hell in a Handbasket. What kind of sick twisted person would kidnap a SEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL from her own home and kill her? I hope they catch the bastard that did it and cut his nuts off while he's awake...and they should put a mirror down there so he can see it while they do it. Tape his eyes open and make him watch. And if it's a girl then they should cut her all up and tape her eyes open and make her watch. This stuff is what really pisses me off. I wish I could deal with all the sick sonofabitches in this world. For sure, anyone else would be scared to do anything wrong for fear of dealing with ME!

Hi Wil...

Could you tell me how you came upon www.threebrain.com and the WEEEEEEEEE!! phemomenon?? One other thing...are you a Farscape fan?

thanks,
Leo

Sometimes it is merely the randomn moments of beauty and joy that keep me going.

What also helps, though, is avoiding drugs and alchohol (I don't mean to sound preachy because I love drugs and alchohol, and it is difficult as hell to give up some of those things) especially the the apparent little ones like coffee.
The last narcotic / alchohol I did was coffee and that was about a month ago (coffee is my favorite), since then I have not been really really happy but I have been very level and stable at a time when I could / should be an emotional wreck. My point is that it is absolutely incredible how abstaining from stimulants can positively affect your outlook and emotional stability.

Of course this changes nothing of the worlds problems which can only be resolved once we remember at leas two things: 01] if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem 02] we must begin to join together in our similarities rather than distance ourselves because of our differences.

Sorry this is so long winded but it is a serious concern of mine.

Is it true that you are going to be in the new Star trek film? Do you look back at Star Trek TNG with admiration, afterall it propelled you into the movie business.

from a true Star Trek fan,
Paul Sharp

Jesus Wil, mankind has always been sharply plummeting into a downward spiral of death and suffering, with little hope of survival. I mean, where've ya been? LoL
I understand how you feel though. Things get worse, then they get better. Though sometimes I think we might not see better for a while. I think many have lost respect for life, their's and other's. I wake up everyday trying to have tolerance and hope.

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