We all should consider ourselves lucky. Look around the world.

[wilheim]

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - A severed head was found on a park bench in northern Honduras on Thursday, the 10th such incident since the government began cracking down on youth gangs last year, police said.

The man's head was in a black plastic bag and, as in previous cases, was accompanied by a note to Honduran President Ricardo Maduro, who ordered the crackdown.
The message read, "Maduro old man, we are so hungry we are eating people," police spokesman Edgardo Zeron said.
The head was found in a busy park in El Progreso, 94 miles north of the capital Tegucigalpa.
"Nobody has claimed responsibility for this episode of terror," Zeron told Reuters, adding that a special police unit was investigating the decapitations.
Some 1,000 suspects have been rounded up in the sweep on gangs that started in August. Police now have the power to arrest people simply on suspicion of being associated with a gang.
Some 33,000 youths are believed to be members of street gangs in Honduras, where 80 percent of the population lives in poverty. Aid groups say more than 2,200 youths have died in Honduras since 1998 in gang wars or illegal executions of gang members by rogue policemen.
The gangs are active in other Central American countries and recently moved into Mexico.

Reuters.

 

[blueedwards]

wil, i agree. its a very depraved world we live in.

 

[barman]

I can't agree. I'd say it's a very wonderful world we live in.

But I will acknowledge that if you look hard enough, depravity is not hard to find.

 

[Brazil4Worldcup2002]

Things are much better now than 100 years ago (people are generally living longer, making more and learning more), although progress has been slow as we, as humans, tend to repeat the same mistake over and over again.

Its really childish actually!

 

[DarrylParsons]

I am in love with this thing called the internet. It will help humans evolve forwards again, not backwards as has been the case in the past few decades IMO. I see a bright future for the world thanks to the internet.

 

[PatPatriot]

The cheapening of life is incredible...its all due from the liberals and anarchist.

 

[Journeyman]

I am very thankful...Thankful to be born in this country and at this point in world history...

 

[blueedwards]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by barman:
I can't agree. I'd say it's a very wonderful world we live in.

But I will acknowledge that if you look hard enough, depravity is not hard to find.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

all you have to do is watch cnn for 15 minutes.

 

[barman]

BLUE: All you have to do is watch CNN for 15 minutes.

BAR: Yep. Which is why I don't.

I haven't watched any of the news channels in several years unless I was seeking out a specific story or topic/interview/show. In that sense, I can remain informed, but I don't have to take the steady grind of items selected by most such outlets to fill their 24 hours, or more accurately, their 1440 minutes each day.

I believe that if more people turned away from that daily grind and focused instead on more productive and unifying thinking, we'd all evolve a bit better. Each of us in our own personal preferences has literally unlimited ways we can focus our thinking hours. Though we see many things differently, I think if we reduce the exposure to the TV-saturated violence and dysfunction (peaceful and functional settings are most often not attention getting...a TV must) we all profit.

 

[blueedwards]

i think i understand what you are saying and i agree, if someone never watched the news they probably would lead a happier life (in this country anyway). but, isn't that kinda like burying your head in the sand and trying to find your happy-place?

also i don't think watching less tv, or anything else for that matter, would help us "evolve" better.

i don't think we are evolving at all. in fact, i'd say in many ways, we are decaying.

 

[Caesar]

the reason i stopped watching the news a long time ago wasnt because i wanted to bury my head in the sand it was the exact opposite.

watch a news program that is talking about something you are expert in. it really could be anything. do you notice that they arent even close to being correct.

now if they dont have a clue about something im expert in, how can i rely on them to feed me reliable information in regards to things i know very little about

if i need to know something i will find my own sources and get a balanced opinion and make up my own mind

and in regards to the post, im glad i dont know about all the brutality that is going on in the world right now because i wouldnt be able to sleep.

ive been to honduras before hurricane mitch hit and it is one of my favorite countries. i dont think they ever recovered from that disaster of epic proportions in 1998

i live near hartford ct and i wouldnt be caught dead walking in some parts of that city after dark, but i didnt think anything of walking thru havanna, panama city, santa domingo, or many other central american cities.

even visiting nicaragua after the us failed to overthrow the governement didnt bother me at all.

i havent been to those places in almost 10 years and i imagine things have gotten worse not better but the two most violent nations in this hemishpere are the united states and mexico in my opinion.

 

[DarrylParsons]

I think in today's world, thinking for oneself is starting to become rewarded (with the internet playing a huge role in this) while in recent decades simply succumbing to authority and allowing oneself to get brainwashed by the media seemed to offer the best path to prosperity. To those who find themselves in the second camp and wondering why things are looking bleak I recommend switching off the TV, travelling to distant places occasionally and practicing meditation. It will be painful at first but after a couple of years things will start to look bright again.

I think there is a huge correlation between how optimistic one is and how much one watches TV, with less TV being more optimistic of course.

 

[blueedwards]

i agree that the news gets stuff wrong all the time. you can't trust the discovery channel or the history channel either...bias always creeps in, along with blantant lies sometimes.

as far as the united states and mexico being the two most violent nations...i don't know. this kinda makes me think about something a college professor once said in class, "all the violence you see from nations on tv, its twice as bad in the nations that don't allow free press...and you'll never know about it because its not on tv".