Blame the victim

Maybe respect for the dead is out of fashion these days, but it'd be nice if they'd waited until Christopher Reeve was in his grave before they started pissing on his memory.

And if you think that's bad... (warning: contents likely to offend... and as Digby notes, this is one of the ones that remained *after* the most toxic stuff was removed.)

I can understand people who consider abortion to be murder. I can understand those who, from that, believe embryonic stem cell research should be prohibited; while I don't share either of those viewpoints, I can see how someone might quite rationally come to hold those positions. A couple of them are LJ friends of mine.

But to claim that Reeve knew the end was near, and conspired with Kerry to take advantage of it... now, THAT'S loathsome.

AFAICT, it works something like this: if you can whip yourself into hating Reeve, if you can persuade yourself that he got what was coming to him because he was a rich actor who had the temerity to go a-jumping, then you don't have to stomach the unpleasant truth that opposing this research has a cost.

*Every* major decision, good or bad, has a cost. If we ban personal gun ownership, some people will be murdered as a result, because they don't have the wherewithal to defend themselves. If we allow personal gun ownership, other people - who would otherwise have lived - will be murdered, or accidentally shot, or commit suicide, because of that availability. If you want to have political opinions, you need to get used to the idea that your opinions require death and hurt to innocent people.

Or convince yourself that every last one of those people deserved it... and when their deaths make you uncomfortable, twist that around and take it as evidence that there's a *conspiracy* to make you uncomfortable. And then you can hate them all the more for dying to spite you.

Bleah.

Meme: I've got something you haven't.

Name a CD you own that no-one else on your friends list does

First three or four I thought of, I then realised waitingman also has them.

H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, "A Very Scary Solstice".

(I used to have "The Spaghetti Incident", but I think that was on tape.)

Name a book you own that no-one else on your friends list does

The Thousand Nights And One Night, Mardrus/Mathers translation... can I count different translations as different books? No?

Adele Olivia Gladwell, "Blood and Roses".

Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that no-one else on your friends list does

Curse you, waitingman and malloc1024, you make this very difficult... I'm going to have to resort to special editions of Memento and The Lost Boys, but somebody else probably has 'em.

Name a place that you have visited that no-one else on your friends list has

Taylor's Swamp (I think it was called). My first/second grade teacher used to take us out there every week or two; we'd study wildlife and watch a dead cow decomposing. It was great.