Keanon Lowe Can we have a reasonable conversation about the problem of mass murder in our society? If we're going to try, input from the mainstream media must be excluded from the discussion. The media solution is always "more gun control!" However, only a fool would believe that more laws would prevent future violence. Private gun ownership is basically illegal in Chicago, and yet an astonishing number of people are nevertheless murdered by criminals and gang members using illegal firearms. According to gun control advocates, the problem is that criminals still have access to illegal weapons because gun ownership remains legal in other areas nearby. Like Pavlov's dogs, the media's conditioned response to such tragedy is the inevitable call for more legislation to regulate the sale and ownership of guns. People don't kill people, only guns kill people. However, simple logic and raw statistics argue otherwise. The problem wasn't that these mass shooters had access to weapons, because everybody has access to something that can be used as a weapon. The problem was that his twenty victims were defenseless. If only one of the good guys had been carrying a gun as well, lives could have been saved. Frankly, if you don't understand what the Founding Fathers were thinking about when they wrote the 2nd Amendment, all you have to do is read current headlines about the growing crisis in Hong Kong. But what do these recent mass murderers who used guns and the Tsarnaev brothers (Boston Marathon terrorists) have in common? Not much, really-- except the desire to kill. Yet … [Read more...]
The Good Shepherd
Grant Brown Whenever I encounter anyone in a uniform--paramedic, police officer, fireman, military, etc. I will take the opportunity to thank them for their service. I'm the guy who prefers to run away from gunfire or a burning building, but those brave men and women run straight toward danger. John 15:13 reads, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." In my opinion, anyone willing to put his or her life at risk in order to provide a service to our community deserves to be treated with the utmost respect. I don't care how much they are paid--when asked to confront a homicidal maniac or go out into horrible weather conditions to assist an accident victim, they go to work and do the job most of us don't have the courage or stomach to perform. All too often these people are vilified and targeted by the very people they serve for doing what the community has asked them to do, and yet they continue to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. On the other hand, service professionals do at least receive a paycheck. The Bible talks about laying down your life for your friends, but what about putting yourself at risk for a total stranger? What if the person you're trying to save has a different skin color, one you've been taught not to trust and maybe even to hate? Only one word can describe a person who would run full speed at a vicious dog mauling a neighbor without hesitation, not even long enough to pick up something to use as a weapon in self defense, and the word is "hero." But even then, that word seems sort of … [Read more...]
Internet censorship
I just finished conducting a simple experiment that produced some pretty interesting results, in my opinion. I typed the name of my website (southern prose) into the Google search engine and checked the results. As expected, three of the first four search results were "me" -- either a link to an article, the website homepage, or the author bio page. Enclosing the search criteria in quotation marks didn't appear to have any impact on the results. No smile for the mug shot, Jussie? Then I began repeating the experiment, while doing my best to apply the scientific method. I added the name of my friend and guest contributor Frank Boccia to the search criteria, noting that the results only changed slightly when quotation marks were used around "southern prose". Instead of the top three results matching my website, Google now found four unique articles. A slight improvement. Over a number of iterations, the search results were fairly consistent...as I'd think of another subject or guest contributor at www.southernprose.com and modify the search criteria, at least one article from my website matching the criteria would inevitably show in the search results, as my queries correctly matched and located articles about Rose Kopp, P. Z. Myers and Hector Avalos and consistently listed them in the top two matches. When I substituted the name of the world's most hysterical climate alarmist, Google even found an old article about hate crimes that wasn't even about Al Gore, but merely made a brief reference to him. And when I added famed atheist Richard Dawkins to the search … [Read more...]
Why CNN is fake news
CNN had a brazen headline on an article written by Chris Cillizza recently that declared, "Donald Trump warns people to beware of non-existent voter fraud", leaving little or no doubt about the position the alleged news network would be taking on the subject of voter fraud in the coming election. And what might be the problem with this headline, you ask? Well, claiming that voter fraud doesn't exist ought to mean that no matter how hard I try, I shouldn't be able to search the internet and find an article listing ten examples of voter fraud, should I? Perhaps the question I should be asking is this: why doesn't Chris Cillizza appear to know how to use a search engine? Why can a woefully underpaid professional writer like me find pertinent information that completely escaped the attention of an overpaid media personality like Cillizza so easily? photo by CNN When I read the news from legitimate news sources not named CNN, I can find articles claiming that Habersham County here in Georgia had a whopping 243 percent voter turnout. In Detroit, 37 percent of the reporting precincts had more votes than registered voters in a recent election, so the problem isn't isolated. I shouldn't be able to type "voter fraud convictions" and find stories about a voter fraud scandal for profit orchestrated by Democrats in Texas, should I? Yet I can find numerous examples of voter fraud by searching online rather easily. Maybe Chris Cillizza only uses Google, which appears to censor content by manipulating search results. For example, when I typed "voter fraud" in Google's search … [Read more...]
The lame stream media
Unless you've been stranded on a desert island like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway, you've heard of Christine Blasey Ford, by far the most credible (and incredible) witness to swear under oath about extremely serious sexual allegations against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, dating back from when he was in high school more than thirty-five years ago. I deliberately chose the adverb "extremely" to modify the phrase "serious sexual allegations" because I honestly believe that anyone guilty of rape or attempted rape should be locked in jail and the key thrown away. Castration isn't off the table, either. Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind, right? The only problem with my draconian approach to solving rape is that false accusations must risk equal consequences. In other words, Brett Kavanaugh has been publicly and salaciously accused of attempted rape and gang rape. There is no way to sugarcoat the accusations to make them more palatable. Indeed, Judge Kavanaugh has had his name slandered and he has been metaphorically lynched by the lame stream media for the vilest of reasons, the assumption that he will become the pivotal vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the infamous Supreme Court decision to legalize abortion. Furthermore, if you spend most of your time with your head buried in sand or live under a rock, you may not have heard of Deborah Ramirez or Julie Swetnick, either. You should know their names. It's actually very important that we never forget these women, but not for reasons or in the way they would prefer to be remembered. They need to be ashamed of what they've done, … [Read more...]
