Huh?

January 20, 2007 on 2:19 am | In Worldview/Life, News, 24 |

Every so often, certain new stories make you sit back and think “huh?” or some string of lovely expletives. These are the stories prompting that reaction from me:

• Muslims Protest 24: which makes me wonder how many of them have watched the show in its entirety. Yes, this season it seems almost every Muslim featured for more than a few minutes is evil, but look further: CTU has a Muslim working for them; a Muslim terrorist is apparently seeking redemption; and we’ve seen a Muslim falsely imprisoned. Frankly, this show usually has European villains or psycho Americans, so it’s hardly an anti-Muslim show. This part of the article surprised me:
  

  “The overwhelming impression you get is fear and hatred for Muslims,” said Rabiah Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations. She said Thursday she was distressed by this season’s premiere. “After watching that show, I was afraid to go to the grocery store because I wasn’t sure the person next to me would be able to differentiate between fiction and reality.”

  Seriously, if people are that stupid, I doubt it’ll take 24 to turn them to the dark side– they’re probably already there. Last season the President was the villain– did Americans stand up and riot? In the third season, we had a British villain– did the British protest? Muslims have been the major villain in two seasons– this season and Season 4, but in neither case have Muslims been specifically singled out by the show. The show indicts Middle Eastern extremists, who usually have American comrades-in-arms and are not discriminated against for their belief systems. They’re hunted like animals because they’re scummy terrorists, not because they’re Muslim, and it’s a distinction that any viewer with half a brain can make. I understand the initial emotional reaction that worries about racism, but in a show with two black presidents, high ranking minority officers of the law (Tony, Michelle, Curtis) and one that has gone to lengths this season to differentiate between Muslims and terrorists, it’s just not a valid concern at this point.

• ‘12-year-old’ is 29-year-old sex offender: …uh, yeah, that’s just messed up. If this freak did attend any of those schools. I’d like to know which idiots bought his story, unless he’s 5′4″ and weights 100lbs wet. It’s sick, twisted and I don’t know if I should laugh or cry and this:
  

  Stiffler and Robert James Snow, 43, “were very upset when the detectives told them they had been having a sexual relationship with a 29-year-old man and not a pre-teen boy,” Quayle said.

  It’s sick and deranged, but it’s the kind of thing that makes you laugh at the insanity of these people. I’ve had the “pleasure” of arresting people like this before and when you meet them, you just wonder what the hell got messed up inside of them. They think their obsessions are so normal and it’s scary how much they can twist reality to suit their perversions.

• Study finds simple stress relief: I know we all react to stress differently, and that I’m not perfect, but do we really need to spend an hour a day learning how to deal with stress from someone not in our work environment? I do believe there are common elements to all stressful situations, so there can be broad advice to share, but it seems silly to offer some uniform advice to everyone. I’d argue we need a widescale shift in how society views work and family in order to affect real change– if you have people working 16 hour work days, how are they supposed to sleep well? And with Blackberrys strapped to their waists 24/7, the spectre of work looms large and constant, affecting one’s life in all areas. But since we’re constantly promoting unhealthy levels of work, combined with unhealthy eating habits and unbalanced lifestyles, why should we expect one hour of stress relief a day to do much? It’s like putting band-aid on an eviscerated abdomen– it ain’t gonna do much. I’m sure this is the point where I’m supposed to have some grand solution, but I really don’t know how things can change, just that there is a need for change.