OT: What's up with Austrians lately?

[PvK]

Two cases of someone keeping a female (one stranger, on daughter) captive and having children with them? How many people live in Austria? Over eight million. Has anyone here ever visited their closest urban Superior Court and looked at the current cases being tried there, and noticed how many rape and child abuse cases there are at all times? Plenty of stomach-turning cases happen in every city all the time, even if you only look at the ones currently on trial. We had a program at our high school where some of us went and spent a week watching local court cases. The judge who hosted us was a nice guy... though a few years later it turned out that HE had been having relations with some young boys. Did anyone go "OMG this city is perv central; we need to do something about our judges and install cameras in all judges' robes!" Not that I remember, though probably some people did.

This seems to me like a great example of how the media can take a few exceptional cases and warp everyone's perception of reality. Or look at some place that actually has an clear cultural issue with detaining women for sexual purposes, like oh, Utah... maybe.

[GuyOfDoom]

I'm going to have to agree with PvK on the media distortion issue. One story makes the news and people ignore the actual numbers.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Wow, PvK. Your last post is a total broken aesop.

[Randallw]

The head of F1 racing recently got caught on video having an orgy with prostitutes. The theme of the party, "The Holocaust". Germans from what I've seen are stereotypically portrayed as rather kinky, with stories of German businessmen who have prostitutes wear leather and whip them, not that I make a habit of looking up such stories, it might not be limited to any one nationallity, and for all I know they are just writen to show the dichotomy with humourless German businessmen. That great social satire "European Road Trip" showed the difference between staid American and adventurous European morals. Of course that can hardly be considered a serious documentary on differing sensibilities. Europeans do have a rather wide spread reputation for loose inhibitions, not that I mean to be controversial but perhaps things are just too loose in Europe. As PvK said though you don't generally hear about the thousands of slightly less serious atrocities, the press preferring to concentrate on the peak. It is not correct to be stereotypical. I'm Catholic and all these abuse cases I hear about don't make me suspect every Priest I attend mass with. Also I was an altar server and nothing ever happened. Tasmania is only a sleepy little state though, no we just had the greatest shooting spree ever . The place in Austria is only a little province as well I guess.

[PvK]

What's a "broken aesop"?

[narf poit chez BOOM]

...And the moral of the story is...

Contrast your first paragraph with your second.

[Randallw]

The story of the Ant and the Grasshopper is a broken Aesop.

There were an Ant and a Grasshopper. The Ant spent every day gathering fuel and food to store for winter, while the Grasshopper did nothing but carouse, drink and party. As winter approached the Ant went out to make sure he had enough food and fuel to survive the winter, while the Grasshopper slept in to get over his hangover. As said, winter was approaching and the days were getting colder. The Ant spent too long outside and caught pneumonia from which he died, so the Grasshopper broke into the Ant's house and survived the winter using his fire and eating his food.

...or alternatively, the Grasshopper moved to Acapulco.

[PvK]

Oh, I get it, thanks. Ya, I know, it's extremely ironic... just like reality often is... oh wait, that was reality. Quick, where's the meaning? Humans invent meanings to try to understand things, but they also get stuck in their own meanings, particularly by jumping to conclusions and reacting and drawing meanings way out of proportion to reality, so to speak.

Now, to figure out how to create a few sensational news stories with predictable overreactions to actually get people to do something worthwhile...

[Atrocities]

Over this last weekend at the beach the police did their jobs. It was aggravating yet refreshing at the same time. Some idiot camper brought beer out onto the area where we were all camped and then left an empty there for the police to find. This prompted a series of events that may have saved many lives. It is illegal to take alcohol out onto the sand, even if you are camped there. The police repeatedly came back to the camp site and as a result caught at lest two dozen teenagers and other hell raisers in the act of breaking the law. From fighting, DUI, stealing, to just acting dumb, arrests were made and tickets were issued. I have no doubts that these fine officers who managed to anger many of us with their unconstitutional searches of private property, did save lives. Do the means justify the out come, certainly not, but who can argue with the results. Lives saved, property protected, the laws enforced, our rights trampled upon. A good trade off in any book. (Yes I was being ironic in that last part. )

[dmm]

For the record, the head of F1 racing is British, of Nazi descent. He claimed the prostitutes were imitating generic prisoners, not concentration camp prisoners, and he was imitating a generic bad prison guard, not a Nazi. Uh, yeah. Tell us another one. So you're a law breaker, an adulterer, and a chauvinistic pig, but you're not a fascist? Well, OK then!!