[Pukin Dog]

My post was designed to cause FReepers to watch their rhetoric. Sometimes, I am saddened by how often people who KNOW ABSOLUTLY NOTHING about others are ready to judge them, call them names, question their character and more, on the basis of a news story.

I keep trying to find differences between us and the wacko left, but threads like this one keep knocking them down, one by one. I chose to respond to you, because of your screen name. Ironic.....

[bannie]

OK, you're better than I am.

:-)

I don't know the whole story; yet I think the brother's a jerk.

[pollyannaish]

A good point. BUT I think that sometimes threads like this are a process. It's easy to emotionally say "What?" at first. I certainly did, even though I knew there must be more to the story, even in my initial reaction.

For me, stories like this are an opportunity to really examine my own behavior. You know...look for the log in my own eye before I pick at the splinter in someone else's.

That said, the bottom line is to be wary of people trading on "victimhood." And the press is a master at presenting the perfectly contrived "bad guy/victim" storyline. And in a way, that makes every story, a story about the writer of the story.

As far as Freepers go—it will be interesting to see if the general consensus...after hashing it about for a bit...is the same one that built initially. Sometimes the conclusions at the end of a thread are shockingly different from those at the beginning.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

I must admit, it would be nice if the article pointed to a reason or reason(s) behind the sister's refusal to save her brother's life. Could be something reasonable that I just haven't thought of. As it stands, the article doesn't give a reason, so people will assume she is evil.