The Good, The Bad, and The Righteous

You know, life is confusing.

So much good, so much bad, and it seems lately to swing between these extremes with amplitude growing in geometric progression. Are people getting more bizarre? Cruel? Angelically wise? Mind-bogglingly kind?

Or is this the case of media becoming increasingly frustrated with its revenues and seeking out more and more extremes, in everything, from CNN Heroes to neo-Nazi father wanting a cake for his 3-year old Adolph Hitler to near-daily updates on little Caylee Anthony thrown out like so much refuse by her own mother, one no less, who has stuck a smiley-face on a fragment of duct tape covering her daughter's mouth? Are we, as a nation, subjected to such extremes -- with, undoubtedly, profound cumulative effect on our collective psyche -- just to feed the industry-wide obsession with ratings, and ultimately, material that, yes, makes us think, but, also, shatters, at least, my belief in a universe running along some sort of rails?

As for example - this.

Yes, it's awful. Yes, the man ought to be eviscerated and thrown out to the carrion birds along with his wife, but did we really need to know just how he begot those unfortunate babies/grandbabies? Did we need anyone else getting ideas ala the Columbine shooting copycats? Would they? Is the artificially heightened interest in certain stories creates the fertile soil for yet more -- or are these ideas floating in the air, osmoting into our subconscious?

Because in Russia, say, both the random acts of kindness and a lot more prominent atrocities continue unabated, while there, all media is mandated to allocate, at least, fifty percent of its output to stories with a positive connotation or the outfits are shut down. And do I want that? God, no! To me, press is sacrosanct. It would have to be, I'm blogging. If that is not the triumph of the spirit of the First Amendment, I don't know what is.

And besides, if we are made to ingest so much horror willy-nilly, at least, sometimes, we are given a glance at (or rather, have it shoved in our face) something unique, uplifting. A dog risking its life to pull its wounded fellow off a busy highway. Two strangers carrying a woman in a wheelchair down 40 stories of steep stairs during a 9/11 evacuation. A country that 100 years ago had to have its new president Taft remind it in his inaugurational speech that "Negroes are our citizens, too", overwhelmingly relying on it first black president to save it from its biggest national crisis since the Great Depression.

Well, like I said, life's confusing...

In the spirit of which, can anyone tell me why killing an infant amounts to a second degree murder rather than first? And not just in the article above. I have seen it happen time and again, especially with those young college girls choosing a VERY late term abortion (i.e. post-birth!)