May 30, 2008

• Remember when?

  Have you been on Xanga long enough to remember when our comment boxes carried the advice to, “be nice?”  It said something about not wanting to “start a flame war on your own site.”  I always thought it would be more considerate to start one on my own site than on someone else’s.  The farthest I’ve ever gone with it, however, was just a brief flame skirmish or two.  [WARNING:  Don't click that link if you don't like strong language, lousy spelling,  bad grammar and general stupidity.]  I tend sometimes to lob a round or two back at the flaming assholes before I block them.

  Recently, Xanga John identified himself as a “recovering nice guy.”  I can appreciate that, both from the perspective of  someone who doesn’t like to be nice, and as a woman who would rather converse with an honest guy than with a nice one.  I have several less complimentary alternate terms for “nice,” such as mealy-mouthed, weaseling… you get the picture, don’t you?  Don’t make me use the nasty words here, or I’d have to rate this post a C for caution.

  Some people have accused me of going out of my way to be cruel.  Anyone who believes that is deluded.  The only facets of communication for which I will “go out of my way,” are matters concerning accuracy, honesty, integrity, and such.  I go out of my way to avoid being influenced by thoughts of how others might react to my writing.  Even if I cared, it’s too hard to predict.  You can’t please everyone. 

  If someone reacts angrily to what I say, I might remind him that anger is a manifestation of fear.  If someone gets her feelings hurt by my words, I might try to counsel her about taking control of and responsibility for her own emotions.  Those who accuse me of being mean or evil might or might not receive some semantic or philosophical largess from my generosity of spirit, out of the goodness of my heart.  It all depends on the mood I’m in and on whether I have anything better to blog about at the time.  If I ignore bullshit, it is never because I want to shy away from a confrontation.

  In my random wanderings on Xanga recently, I have encountered a couple of flame wars.  I came in on each of them well after the beginning and don’t know how either one started, nor do I care.  They mean nothing to me beyond their entertainment value, and that statement alone, I know, could be enough to stimulate one party or another who is involved in one fracas or another, to flame me.  I suppose that the current astrological confustion, dysfuction, mistaction… whatever– has had something to do with those emotional storms and verbal battles.  If Mercury retrograde didn’t start it all, it surely has contributed to the rebounding and ricocheting misunderstandings that have ensued.  Bravo everybody!  Keep the invective flying.

  ---

  In local news:
  

  Woman pleads guilty to robbing trick-or-treaters.

  You could have been following the saga of the Halloween Bandits with me from the start last fall, if I hadn’t been under the weather at the time.  Greyfox shared stories with me that he read in the papers and saw on TV news.

  On Halloween night, in Talkeetna, a group of seven children, all ten and eleven years old, was walking on Main Street, trick-or-treating.  According to the Anchorage Daily News:

  The children told troopers a pickup stopped and two women in ski masks got out, threatened them with a handgun, fired a round in the air and demanded their bags of candy. The bandits took off with six bags of treats and a $500 iPhone, troopers said.

  Later that evening, troopers apprehended two men, [Kendra] Butts’ and [Amber] Martin’s boyfriends [Michael Scott Wilson and Aaron Tolen, both age 24], at a diner in town after some of the same children spotted the pickup parked outside.

  In the days and weeks following the arrest of the two men, the story developed in local media.  Amber Martin, 20, wasn’t much of a challenge to apprehend, but troopers had to squeeze into the crawl space under a house to nab 18 year old Kendra Butts. 

  Troopers’ investigation turned up about $70,000 worth of stolen property, and the two men, who were originally held on outstanding warrants and charges of hindering prosecution and providing false information, eventually were charged with burglary for a series of thefts that had occurred in recent months.

  At their arraignment in November, 2007, the two young women went to great efforts to hide their faces from cameras.  Ms. Butts, behind the papers at right, was evidently not happy with the media coverage of her daring exploit.

  As she waited for the judge, she directed a string of invectives at the media, at one point holding up her middle finger and saying, “Trick-or-treat this.”  (source:  adn.com.  All photos credit Evan Steinhauser)

  The Halloween Bandits have been back in the news this month as the two young women plead guilty to armed robbery, a charge that can bring a sentence of up to 11 years.  Their attorneys have agreed as part of the plea bargain not to ask for sentences of less than seven years.  They are due to be sentenced in August.  The two men go on trial in July.

  And that’s life on the last frontier, where men are men and women hold up little kids at gunpoint for their Halloween candy.
   

  • 7:12 pm
  • 17 Comments