For murder and sin-ridden literature, don't forget the Bible. It's full of that kind of stuff. However, in the Bible the good triumphs over the evil in the end - just like in the Nike ad. And the most horrifying picture shown recently on TV during prime time is that footage of that terrified Palestinian kid and his dad crouching for cover in the middle of a gun battle but getting shot anyway. That was a real kid getting killed for real - I never heard Ellen DeGeneres protest about THAT image being shown. That footage kind of exposes that Nike ad as the silly bit of make-believe that actually it is. It also shows how misplaced all the indignation and outrage over the ad is when contrasted with the lack of similar outcry over the televising of a real-life horror scene. Kurt Bray >Since I started this thread, I'm going to tie it up once and for all. And, >yes, there is still some track and field in this post: > >So how should the AWLs feel about Steve Irwin's (Crocodile hunter) Federal >Express commercial which depicts a snakebite from the "most deadliest snike >in the woyld". Given that snakebites kill tens of thousands each year, >surely you must be horrified at this flippant treatment of such a serious >matter? > > >As for whether people like the Texas Chainsaw murder exist, you only need >to > >watch discovery channel (The New Detectives, Forensic Science, Mind of a > >Serial Killer, etc) to know that they do. > > > >Kathy Rounds > >I've seen all of those documentaries on serial killers and not one of them >used a chainsaw. Not Jack the Ripper, David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, Kenneth >Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Aileen Wuornos, Henry Lee Lucas, Albert DeSalvo, >John Wayne Gacy Jr., Wayne Williams, Richard Speck, Richard Ramirez, >Jeffrey >Dahmer -- not one of them! > >That's the same educational Discovery Channel where children learn about >how >brutally unfair natural selection in the animal kingdom is, isn't it? Which >image is more comforting than the Nike ad? The damn hyenas harassing the >lions until the male lion finally gets fed up and kills their leader? The >predator lioness lurking in the tall grass waiting to ambush and murder a >cute Thompsons Gazelle fawn? How about when a pride is taken over, all of >the males kill the cute, cuddly lion cubs? That's educational. What about >the mother Killer Whale teaching her young how to hunt and brutally batter >(cute) baby seals for food AND sport? Vivid reenactments of Grizzly bears >attacking unsuspecting hikers in our National Forests? Desmond Morris >documentary on human sexuality complete with a clinical "money shot"? >Cultural anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon's forays into the Amazon jungle to >study the social breakdown of the Yanomamo and REAL murder and mayhem? Sure >sheds a different light on those Nike ads, doesn't it? > >Just change channels to PBS, right? Oh no, those damn Magruder Tapes again. >The humanity of it all, that's REAL people being barbecued in the >Hindenburg >isn't it? > >Turn off the TV, that's the solution, right? Reading is much better for >them >isn't it? Nope. Lurking in the eerily quiet isles of the library are Homer, >Shakespeare, Nabokov, Hemingway and countless others with tales of rape, >murder, incest, torture, and war. Your history and sociology books aren't >much better, with the endless stories of pain and suffering. > >OK, forget the library then, your daily newspaper is safe. But, >noooooooooo! >Right there on the front page: airline, train, and auto accidents with all >the gory details on the front page to frighten them. I've never seen a Nike >ad try to parody a Mafia hit, but in Newsweek, Time and your daily >newspaper >they've publishished photos of Paul Castellano in a pool of blood in front >of Sparks Steakhouse and Carmine Galante's bullet-riddled body with a cigar >still clenched in his teeth. > >Well then, keep your kids away from the weighty periodicals -- let them >read >PEOPLE and GLAMOUR. Another bad move. Nothing but photos of JFK Jr. and >Princess Diana, both dead. Of course the women's magazines will teach your >daughter "15 Summer sex tricks to get and keep a man!" > >Don't count on the arts as being a safe harbor, either. Picasso's Guernica >is a sure cause of nightmares. Take up music lessons and they learn of the >horrors Jimmy Hendrix, Mamma Cass, Curt Cobain. Bye, Bye, Miss American >Pie. > >Sports are the answer then. Want chilling? How about the tragic death of >Austrian skier Ulrike Maier. On your television in prime time. Joe Theisman >breaks his leg again...and again...and again...and again! What could be >more >horrific than to watch Dennis Miller commit professional suicide on Monday >Night Football? Since this list is about track and field, after all, aren't >you concerned with so many REAL DEATHS caused by throwing implements that >your child could be severely affected by the sight of one of these >"weapons" >being used in the name of sport? > >Kids have it so much tougher these days, with AIDS, Epstein-Barr, Carpal >Tunnel, Attention Deficit Disorder just waiting to grab them. They need to >be protected, coddled and numbed with Prozac and other psychotropic drugs. >They can't even ride a bike without a helmet under penalty of law. Have we >forgotten that kids fall down, go boom, get up and play again? Whose idea >is >it to create a nation of sissies? > >Is the innocuous Nike ad, which is a parody of an entire movie genre, >really >as horrifying as any of the aforementioned REAL images that bombard >children >every day? > >malmo > >******************************** > > > > _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
