CBS News' Lara Logan Sexually Assaulted During Egypt Protests

I appreciate the balance and sanity you folks have brought to this thread.
Critical thinking skills and perspective get tossed out when such a topic as this appears.

Thank you for your kind words. Sorry it took so long to reply (I've got the flu).

Indeed, when a horrible thing like this assault occurs, the lack of perspective is stunning and sobering. For my part I earlier admitted that I didn't feel compelled to jump immediately to Ms. Logan's defense. I even said, "And yes, I know exactly what that says about me." Even now I still stand by that comment. But what I failed to mention earlier is that I'm not all that proud about this.

Off the cuff posts can be devastatingly revealing. Perhaps a mirror placed in front of the keyboard, or maybe a picture of some loved one(s) would help to "idiot-proof" responses.

One of the attributes of the written word is that, no pun intended, it reads differently than the spoken. Whether the "a**-hats" (your term, not mine) are hard-wired, stupid, or just plain oblivious of the way written comments read--and the permanence they have--I don't know. But I do know that despite my best efforts to edit my own comments before I hit "Post" I still sometimes have regrets down the road. That's the risk we take on forums like FR.

Verbal venting is fine, I suppose, because the spoken word, if not recorded, vanishes into the ether within moments. Written venting lingers quite a bit longer.

I have commented several times on the increasing lack of civility here on FR. Many others have agreed. I have no answers on how to handle it.

I'm right there with you. No, I don't think I've commented previously about the lack of civility on FR. Shoot, on this thread I'm defending it to some degree.

I also have no definitive answers on how to best approach it. That's one of the reasons why I jumped in on this thread. To ask questions, and perhaps find some answers.

I think we can all better the environment here by simply pointing out stupid when we see it. Maybe the perpetrators will slowly come to realize what line they have stepped over - maybe they won't and will self-destruct. Either way the garbage gets taken out.

Agreed. Though I took a slightly different tack on this thread. I wanted to point out that maybe some of the more ugly comments were spoken, not by ugly people, but by people whose hearts have been hardened by the vitriol of the Left. Why did I take this tack? Good question.

Mainly because I want to say to those who, like me, seem to have checked our humanity at the door, that, "I get where you're coming from. I too, at some base level, feel that Ms. Logan got what she deserved. But feelings are one thing. Thoughts are another. Is it more beneficial to be motivated by one's feelings than ones thoughts? Wouldn't it be more beneficial to perhaps put a cork in it rather than to transcribe our verbal venting for all the world to see (and the Looney Left to exploit)?"

Ever Onward.

And Eagles Up! Time to get ready for work. Cheers.

Sure some of the vitriol has rubbed off. Schadenfreude has become the order of the day. But recall, if you will, even Jesus had to tell an Apostle to 'put up your sword'.

Yes, Jesus did. Thank you for the reminder. :-)

With that now in mind I invite you to consider: I don't have Jesus's moral authority. Not. Even. Close. If I wish to chastise you or anyone for your/their inappropriate behavior then I must first establish some credibility. Otherwise I'm just some guy on a website wagging my finger at your face. And because I genuinely believed that Ms. Logan in some measure reaped what CBS had sown--and later realized I was not proud that I had had that reaction--I thought maybe I could turn my reaction to some small measure of good. How? By identifying with both those who seemed to be saying "good riddance" as well as those who seemed to be pleading "where is your humanity?"

Maybe I was wrong to attempt to thread this needle. I don't know. But I'm glad that I have had the opportunity to interact with you and several others. I especially like your tag line, for it is one of the thoughts that often flows through my mind. More on this later.

There is a time and place where such vitriolic sentiments might well be justified for the irony of the situation, if nothing else, and almost all of us can be unsympathetically brutal in such instances (Darwin Awards, for instance).

However, there are times when even the assumption that the person was there of their own free will and knowing all of the risks does not tip the balance in favor of brutality. The events which have occurred so far outweigh any verbal trashing that to do so only makes those who do so seem cheap, as cheap as the littlest one in the gang kicking the victim the toughest have put down.

Well spoken. Thank you for saying that. I needed to hear it. Wow.

Your thoughts there bring to mind one of my favorite Thomas Jefferson quotes: "Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."

I think it's safe to say that your use of reason has better equipped me to combat my own error of opinion. For that I thank you.

The blame belongs first and foremost with the perpetrators of the crime.

Had they not acted as they did, all else would be moot.

Hear, hear. No doubt God wept--and wept bitterly--when these brutes did what they did to Ms. Logan.

As for who misinformed whom or who made bad decisions, let the lady sort that out with her employers and those who may have informed her erroneously or with disregard for her safety. That is their matter to settle.

Another well spoken point, FRiend. Again I say, wow.

I can only offer my prayers, that, despite her politics, she heal as well and as quickly as possible from what must have been a very nasty experience.

I concur.

And now to more about your tag line. Isn't it fascinating that God would love us humans so much that He gives us the freedom--that terrible freedom--to choose our own damnation if that's what we really want? I for one simply cannot wrap my feeble little mind around such a love. And oh, the weeping He must endure because of it.

Grace and Peace to you.

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