shiny @ MindSay

"Lock the doors and close the blinds -- we're going for a ride..."

No One Is To Blame...

Wow. Some people will blame anyone and anything for the misdeeds of others.

Take this story about four youths arrested for setting church fires in Kentucky. I'm happy the kids were caught and will be prosecuted. These incidents are being investigated as potential hate crimes by the FBI, as there was some provocative graffiti on one of the churches.

But take a look at this excerpt from the middle of the article:

Also on Feb. 28, satanic symbols were spray-painted on the floor of the Ramey Branch Church on Ky. 172. Witten said the FBI "is looking at it from the angle of 'hate crimes' to see if there's charges they can pursue."

But Michael D. Osborne, a Paintsville attorney who represents one of the juveniles, blamed the episode on unregulated Internet access, not hate or Satan.

"They're not devil worshipers or bad kids," Osborne said. "None of these children had been in any trouble."

All of the defendants are good students from good families, he said.

"There was no reason for this," he said. "One or both parents of each child is a Christian. The only common threat between them is that they spent lots of time on the Internet and had computer linkups between their computers."

What happened, Osborne said, is that "these juveniles will get on the Internet and it's almost like brainwashing them."

Osborne would not discuss what Internet content the four teens were reading. But he said of the dangers parents face in watching out for their children, unregulated access to the Internet is the most dangerous.

"They have to do something with the Internet. I mean, how can you take a kid and give him access to every evil in the world without any regulation," he said. "It's where they can go to learn how to make crystal meth, make pipe bombs -- they get into these chat rooms with God knows who ... and when you spend most of your free time exploring the taboo, things don't seem as bad."

Yeah.

I better go. Wouldn't want to corrupt myself any further...

8 witticisms - What now?

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