I'm recalling a saying that "whatever get's your attention gets you" and seeing so much evidence for it's truth in the media. We get a constant barrage of shocking, crazy, inane, bizarre, disgusting, provocative happenings which are motivated by the desire to be noticed. Whether blame or shame seems to make no difference anymore. Just getting in the news makes it worthwhile i.e. the fifteen minutes of fame syndrome. Thus we've learned to be skeptical of any significance in such antics. Those who do them are exploiting the appetite of newspapers and TV stations for audience ratings. From the 4th of July shooting at El-Al in LA to that shot taken during the parade on Bastille Day by a French neo-Nazi at their prime minister riding in an open top car, they are called "isolated instances" of destructive behavior; which means they are not actually a part of the global terrorism campaign associated with Al-Qaeda. Still they illustrate this post-modern era in which all the screws are coming loose and just about anything can happen, As Murphy's Law put it for space launches, so now for the public agenda: "If anything can go wrong, it will." Yet one thing seems to be going right in our nation's Congress. For the first time in 140 years they are evicting a member who has been such a shame and disgrace, James Traficant. The guy sounds so arrogant that he's obnoxious, just like that Knoller woman who owned the attack dogs in CA and got a four year prison sentence for allowing it to kill a neighbor. Her husband had already received the same and neither showed any remorse. Looked to me as though they had hatred for the lesbian couple next door, which caused the mauling to be allowed to happen. But one crime against nature sure doesn't justify another. It was even rumored that they had sex with their dogs which became so dangerous to others. Both owners were lawyers, yet committed purgery in their testimony. I once complained to an attorney about how devious they could act in trials and was told "well we're not under oath." I guess the Knollers felt that way even before a grand jury. Resembles that Sunday headline of this paper, "GOING TO THE DOGS?" The giant letters said more than the story just beneath, because "flyball," which sounds like a wholesome game, wasn't the real issue. It was the report down under that one, which recalled Eph.5:12 (describing bestiality in Garvin county) that shows how ungodly this world can be:"For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them (carnal people) in secret." Far worse yet, to involve a child!
OKC's "video vigilante" Bates sure gave our capitol and state some ugly TV publicity last week with his camera. The Daily Oklahoman's Wednesday report seemed a little more sympathetic to police, but what we saw on all the TV networks certainly looked bad. Whatever that big black guy (Pete ?) had done, it didn't look good the way he was treated, even though the cops avoided hitting him on the head or face. He may have been trying to impress the woman that was with him by refusing when ordered (asked ?) to get down on the ground by an officer half his size. A guy can make such a fool of himself trying to impress his female, even if she's a prostitute. GOD help our police who have these problems. If only some black cops had been there, too. America needs more responsible black civil servants. I hope that J.C. Watts finds a place back here in Oklahoma. He will encourage our black citizens. I've never thought we were a racist state, but that video has shaken (maybe to awaken) me. Even a dog shouldn't get the beating that Pete guy was given. And I won't dare to mention the kid out in CA, just sixteen years old. Come Lord Jesus!!
Even in Pakistan there are some brave courts. In Karachi the four who killed Danny Pearl were convicted, one to be hung for it. But their defense attorney said "I doubt that the judge who sentenced my clients will live as long as they all do." Likewise, the government is facing an uprising over his verdict and sentence on the four. Just hope it can withstand and hold steady, the same as we wish for Afghanistan's shaky new democracy. Though I doubt the latter.
Our word from testimony or testament come for testes. In Genesis it tells how Abraham's servant put his hand under his master's thigh (held testicles) to take an oath when going to seek a wife for Isaac. So that's the origin of lifting the right hand court before offering testimony. Let's guess where the left should be. Now we know that testosterone is basic to manhood and telling the truth can be a "test" of a male's validity. So grabbing testicles is an assault on more than physiology. It insults a man's self esteem or dignity. If that proves the case in CA, then I say the kid had it coming and the cop should be completely cleared. One of the words for getting a little belligerent is "testy." Even the Old and New Testaments derive their names from "testicle," which is the Latin term for gonad. Without them everything becomes neuter, the way feminist theology has treated Scripture in recent decades. But there was no neuter in Hebrew, where everything is male of female.