Chicken Soup with All Good Things...

All good things come to an end.

This weblog has been something of an education for me.  It's given me a forum where I could systematize concepts and observations of human behavior that are normally ill defined.  I'll be taking what I've learned and moving on to other projects.

I'll respond to comments from time to time but this is definitely going to be my final post and if there's any one idea I'd like my readers to hold onto it's this:

If you're going to reward violent sociopaths  with sexual favors and athletic scholarships, don't compound your stupidity by feigning bewilderment and bitterly complaining when their victims show up somewhere with a gun or a bomb.  Reward the behavior you want, not the behavior you find most instinctively appealing.

A message for those who visit repeatedly:

The problem of bullying will not be addressed by people quietly visiting a weblog.  If you agree with what you read here, print a hard copy of your favorite post and snail mail it to your favorite journalist, school administrator (I'm sure you can think of one who should catch up on his or her reading.) , or member of the legislature.  You could email the title of this weblog to whoever comes to mind.  Send a copy to every business that annoys you with a dinner hour sales call.  Bulletin boards, bumpers, and post-it notes are also good.  Make some noise.  Remember...failing to do this is like failing to vote.  You simply don't matter.  Bullies and their enablers inspire mass murderers.  Interfering with that process might save the life of someone you care about.  Assuming you have any concern for anyone.

So long folks.

Chicken Soup with the sudden interest in Jason the Columbine Jock...

What did Jason do to precipitate such interest?

I watched the Intervention video and came to the following conclusions:

Jason's father was a never satisfied jerk right out of Hollywood central casting.  He was "devastated" when Jason did not make the freshman high school baseball team and several times throughout the video Jason stated that he never measured up to his father's expectations.

Devastated is when your family is horribly maimed by a drunk driver who subsequently crashes into your home and burns it to the ground.  Failing to make the freshman high school baseball team is best described by mentally stable parents as mildly disappointing.

Jason's mother is also a drug addict.  She likes prescription drugs and a "box of wine."  Nothing but the finest vintage no doubt.

Jason's sister is a classic enabler who buys cigarettes, food, drinks, etc. and gives him money to buy drugs.

I laughed my way through the entire episode.

If only all the Columbine bullies could end up this way...

Chicken Soup with Jerry and Phoebe Remy...

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/phoebe-and-jerry-remy-left-cambridge-probate-court-after-a-news-photo/480683913

I assume the picture is copyright protected because it disappeared after a few days.  If you want to see the happy couple emerging from court just click on the link above.

RemDawg and Phoebe Fuck 'n Suck are no doubt proud of their baby roid monkey.

In the eyes of American sports fans (innocent victims of terrorism), as long as someone else's son or daughter is being brutalized, terrorized, and murdered, it's perfectly ok to raise one of these things and do everything in your power to prevent the law enforcement community from protecting Baby Roid Monkey's victims.

And that's why terrorists can sleep at night.

Good job Rem Daawg!!

Chicken Soup with the Civilizing Process...

In my ISIS and Ebola post one of my readers expressed confusion about my simultaneous claims that people are just animals with a thin veneer of civility, and that environment was responsible for producing criminal behavior, including bullying.  The following is my attempt to explain my position:

Humans are just animals, but they have two behavioral characteristics that make them relatively easy to civilize.  Humans are very imitative, particularly when they're young and they are also creatures of habit.

A human animal that spends its adolescence in a civilized environment will tend to imitate the behavior of those around it.  Over time, the civilized behavior consistently role modeled and enforced by the adults in its life will become a life long habit.

Family and school, the two social institutions that are supposed to maintain this civilized environment are failing to do their job.  This is especially true for the American Family, but don't expect anyone in authority to be brave enough to admit it.  In the case of bullies, parents knowingly and intentionally fail to civilize their offspring.  They consider civilized behavior to be a sign of weakness.

Your children behave themselves because you raised them to be spineless pussies.  Your children are weak and unworthy.  My children get respect because I raised them to be strong, aggressive, and manly.

This criminal behavior on the part of the bully's parents is supported and reinforced by a culture that rewards violence and cruelty while punishing and shaming those who are not violent.  The "Karate Kid" series of movies sent a clear message to adolescents that adults either cannot or will not expend any effort to maintain a civilized environment.  Victims of violence can either put up with it or they can find someone to train them to be even more violent than the bully.  A more psychotic version of this scenario can be found in the movie "Never Back Down."  Outside of movie theatres we have the NFL, MMA, and the WWE, all aggressively promoting the idea that anyone who isn't violent simply isn't worthy.

America is a culture that makes it easy for terrorists to sleep at night by loudly and repeatedly broadcasting the message that victims of violence simply do not matter.

In America, in just about any venue you can observe, the least violent or otherwise least powerful male, the one that no one fears, is almost always the one with the lowest degree of social status.  These individuals are described as "scapegoats" in my Bully Enablers post.

People behave like animals unless purposely conditioned to do otherwise.  That's what I meant by my claim that environment was responsible for producing bullies and just about all other criminals.  The environments of family and school are failing to civilize adolescents and the results of their criminal incompetence can be observed every night at 6:00 and 11:00.

As always...no one who is civilized enough to have earned the right to complain about terrorism would be caught dead enabling a bully.

Chicken Soup with a stunning Republican victory...

Keep a sharp eye out for that traditional Republican indifference to human suffering.

Chicken Soup with Ebola and ISIS...

Hey sports fans...

How long before one of those suicide bombers travels to Liberia, intentionally infects himself with Ebola, and then travels to a crowded venue full of western Europeans and Americans after becoming symptomatic and blows himself into a large cloud of highly infectious mist?

Place your bets.

Chicken Soup with crazy Canadians...

My apologies to the people of Canada for the suggestive title.

The United States has approximately ten times the population of Canada and by my estimate (possibly biased by my living here) produces a much higher per capita number of morons, psychopaths, and criminals than our neighbor to the north.  This is likely due to the fact that most Americans cannot tell the difference between competition and sabotage.  In my opinion Canada is far more mentally stable than the United States.

In my ongoing effort to reduce human behavior to the interaction of a few basic forces, I present the following argument:

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the man who attacked the Canadian Parliament with a shotgun had something in common with Martin Rouleau-Couture, the man who killed a Canadian soldier with his car.  Both men lacked a sense of belonging and the subsequent sense of purpose one acquires from feeling as though you belong.  And since nature abhors a vacuum, they satisfied their need to belong by converting to Islam and answering the dubious call to kill Americans and their allies by whatever means available.

I consider this a waste of time for obvious reasons.

Terry Malloy, played by Marlin Brando in the 1954 movie, "On The Waterfront" expressed the human need for a sense of belonging with the famous line, "I coulda' been a contender.  I coulda' been somebody."  The two Canadians mentioned above are now "somebody."

The need for a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose is as fundamental a force in human behavior as gravity is in physics.

Feel free to differ.  I love to argue with critics.

Chicken Soup revisits bully enabler extraordinaire Kim Lockwood...

There's been an increase in the number of visits to my post about Kim Lockwood, the criminally incompetent middle school assistant principal featured in the documentary "Bully."  I wasn't sure why until I was channel surfing the other night and came across...the documentary "Bully."

Since 4/20/2013 when I originally posted about Kim Lockwood a.k.a. the bully enabler there have been a total of 4069 viewers to her post.  I know...that's not a lot, but considering the fact that this is not a heavily visited weblog it's pretty good.  And it's far more than most of my other posts.

As always...

No one who is civilized enough to have earned the right to complain about terrorism would be caught dead enabling a bully or blaming its victim.

Chicken Soup detects a slight glimmer of hope for American society...

I attack bullies here but what this weblog is really about is bully enablers and the sense of legitimacy they provide for domestic terrorists, serial killers, mass murderers, and other similar characters.  Nothing helps the next Timothy McVeigh sleep at night more than beautiful women who whore themselves to the most violent asshole in the room and individuals who blame His Majesty's cruelty and violence on the victim.

But...

There may be a slight...ever so slight glimmer of hope for the American public.

You all remember how Richie Incognito the 320 pound sociopath treated his teammate Jonathan Martin?  The usual result is for the bully to be deified as the ultimate example of the American male while the victim is scorned and ostracized.

It didn't turn out that way on this one occasion.

Jonathan Martin is an offensive lineman for the San Francisco 49ers (look for the big 71 on his jersey) and presumably being paid an awful lot more than most of us.

Richie Incognito is...well...where did he end up?

It appears that General Managers are avoiding him, hopefully because they feel that the fans are starting to get the message that asshole is neither an achievement nor a mental illness.

One can hope...

Chicken Soup with the Ferguson Kool-Aid drinkers...

This post isn't my usual bashing of sociopath enablers, but it's close...

I held off writing about Ferguson until everyone had the opportunity to swill their fill of Al Sharpton's and MLK III's favorite beverage.

Let's begin with the general situation:

Our two term President of the United States is a black man.
George W. Bush's secretary of state was a black woman.
His chairman of the joint chiefs was a black man.
My primary care physician is a black man.
Black men and women are mayors, senators, and congressmen.
America has black astronauts, scientists, engineers, attorneys, lobbyists, corporate executives, fighter pilots, and admirals.

None of these people are paper thin minority hires.  They all sought higher education and earned what they now have.

When I watch movies and television shows I see black characters in positions of authority performing complex tasks competently.  Anyone born after 1980 has been saturated with positive images of black characters.  Unlike when I was a child, it is now normal for the public to think of black people as equals.

The claim that you are poor because you're black isn't just unrealistic...it's absolutely ludicrous.

Now let's move on to Ferguson:

A large, physically powerful young man named Michael Brown (not a baby, not a boy, a man) was videotaped robbing a store and using his physical size to threaten and intimidate a scrawny looking store clerk.  Be aware of what Mr. Brown was really doing.  He wasn't just stealing some cheap cigars.  He was sending a clear message to the victim that he can walk in and take anything he wants whenever he wants.  Establishing the right to take from others was his real crime.  And the fact that he committed this crime in front of a video camera indicates that he was sending another message to all past and future victims.

Go ahead and call the cops bitch.  I'll make an example of you when I come back.

A few minutes after demonstrating his character in front of the whole world he attacked a police officer and attempted to take his weapon.  Fortunately for all of his past and future victims his attempt failed spectacularly.

Shortly after that the Al Sharpton/MLK III Traveling Circus rolled into town and began handing out tall, cool glasses of Kool-Aid to anyone dumb enough to accept a drink.  The rabble rousing began in earnest.  Blacks were reminded again and again that their lack of success in life, indeed every ache and pain, every case of the sniffles, every broken shoelace they've ever experienced was the result of white people conspiring to make their lives difficult.  One news broadcast included a clip of MLK III thinly calling for the murder of a police officer by saying that he did not believe in the death penalty, but if he did he would certainly apply it to the officer who murdered Michael Brown.  Martin Luther King Jr. must be rolling over in his grave as his son so blithely demonstrated that the content of a man's character is anything but genetic.  Black criminals poured in from surrounding communities and even from out of state to partake in the looting and burning thinly encouraged by these two racist knuckleheads.  And when all of the smoke and dust clears and no one wants to invest money or write insurance in Ferguson, they'll probably blame that on white racism as well.  The circus rolls on...

Here's the situation as I see it:

If you go into a poor white neighborhood and ask each resident individually why they are poor you'll probably hear a variety of answers.  If you perform the same survey in a poor black neighborhood you'll overwhelmingly be told that they are poor solely due to white racism.  There still exists a universally agreed upon scapegoat long after traditional white on black racism has diminished to the point where the Al Sharpton/MLK III Traveling Circus has to crisscross the country in search of opportunities to manufacture it.  This is called cultural inertia, the tendency to cling to outdated beliefs and ideas long after they no longer serve a purpose.

As I explained in the first section of this post, America has changed enormously in the past half century in terms of the average black man or woman's ability to achieve success.  But that's only a statistical average.  There are large numbers of people who remain poor, don't have any idea how to improve their life, and harbor an enormous amount of resentment.  Poor white people don't have annoying rabble rousers to direct their hatred in a politically desired direction.  Poor black people have the Al Sharpton/MLK III Traveling Circus telling them exactly who to blame.

And they're following that circus and eagerly swilling the Kool-Aid in vast numbers.

Let's be realistic here.  If you are born into poverty regardless of race or color, you're very likely to stay poor.  It isn't racism.  It's just a crippling reality that poor children spend their formative years in the company of adult relatives who are poor and angry about it, neighbors who are poor and angry about it, and classmates who are poor and angry about it.  Rarely is a poor child surrounded by people who consistently demonstrate a healthy respect for learning, education, and self improvement.

Michael Brown died because he was raised in an environment where violence and intimidation are equated with status and success.  He did not die because he was black.  Stop drinking the Kool-Aid.

Chicken Soup with Adrian Peterson and one...sick...bitch...

The world's terrorists can sleep a little more soundly and enjoy a guilt free conscience after learning that millions of American football fans are perfectly fine with a 220 pound sociopath brutalizing a four year old with a stick.  In fact some Americans are such sick fucks they think the idea of a large, powerful man torturing a small child is amusing and a cause for celebration.

One...sick...bitch. 

Just imagine the thrill of power Adrian Peterson must have felt administering blow after blow.  Nothing says manliness like torturing a smaller, weaker victim.  Hey Adrian...did you get your secret hard-on while listening to a helpless child screaming in pain?  I'm sure you did.  What a rush it must have been.  After all, that's what your parents did to you and look how wonderful you turned out.

Adrian Peterson offers a relatively standard textbook excuse for child abuse.  His was tortured by his parents, so he's going to torture his children.

Brilliant defense Adrian.

A parent's job description can be stated in one simple sentence.  Your job is to transform an infant member of a violent, predatory species into a civilized young adult, preferably by consistent role modeling.

Fail in your job and you may produce a Ray Rice, Ryan Tucker, or Adrian Peterson.  Or you may produce a sadistic fuck who instills a homicidal rage in other people's children.

Columbine jock anyone?

Fear not sports fans.  Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson will miss a few games and lose a little money, but they'll both be thrilling audiences with orchestrated violence once again.  Roger Goodell and all those filthy rich team owners know that the ticket buying public doesn't give a rat's ass about the safety of violent crime victims.  The American public speaks with their wallets.  And their wallets say that victims...don't...matter.

And that's Chicken Soup for the Terrorist Soul.

Chicken Soup with Fifty Shades of Ray...Rice

The world of football just keeps churning them out.

When Janay Palmer married her batterer Ray Rice I immediately assumed it was a financial decision.  People put up with all kinds of abuse in order to keep their jobs and her job is to be the wife of a professional athlete.  Losing that job would probably mean she'd have to get a normal job, a job that offers an anemic hourly wage, long hours, and a complete absence of opportunity for advancement.  So...like so many victims of abuse who came before her she decided to keep her glamorous high paying job as a professional athlete's wife, even if it kills her.

Then I ran across this article.

I bet you enjoyed reading that.

LaTonya Jones is described as a survivor of violent abuse yet she still proudly supports Ray Rice, a man who in my opinion belongs in prison.

So what's the deal with women who idolize violent sociopaths?

Are they jealous of Janay Palmer?  Do they harbor a secret desire to be Fifty Shades of Ray's submissive love slave?

Or is it simpler than that?  Is it what I've been writing about for years?

Football fans are sociopaths who blithely leave no doubt in the minds of terrorists, serial killers, and mass murderers that victims of violent crime...simply...do...not...matter.

Keep it up sports fans.  The world's blood thirsty killers hunger for more of that hot, steaming Chicken Soup for the Terrorist Soul.

Chicken Soup with The Terminator...

After the Jared Remy case hit the news I found a comment in a newspaper article, a comment I've heard or read many times before expressing the frustration that law enforcement personnel feel when they attempt to prosecute violent abusers.  They work their tails off to build a case that will put King Roid Monkey in prison for many years, only to have the victim show up, drop the charges with some variation of the excuse that he's really not that bad, and then wind up either being killed or having to call the police again.

Consider the following quote from the movie, "The Terminator."  Soldier from the future Kyle Reese is being interviewed at the police station:

"You still don't get it, do you?  He'll find her.  That's what he does! That's all he does!  You can't stop him!"

Earlier in the movie Kyle Reese explains to Sarah Connor what she's up against:

"Listen and understand.  That terminator is out there.  It can't be bargained with.  It can't be reasoned with.  It doesn't feel pity, remorse or fear.  And it absolutely will not stop, ever,  until you are dead."

The Terminator was fiction of course, but it reflects the reality of how abusers like Jared Remy think and behave.  And Aaarnold was the perfect individual to play the role.  He was huge, physically powerful, and utterly focused, to the exclusion of all else on his task.  It is not unusual for America's ample stock of Jared Remy's, much like The Terminator to literally be willing to sacrifice their own existence, and that of anyone who gets in the way in order to prevent someone like Jennifer Martel from escaping their control.

These men are not mentally ill.  There's no excuse for what they and their enablers (Helloooo RemDaaaaawg!!) do.  They're just assholes, and asshole is not a mental illness.

Chicken Soup offers some training advice...

For those of you who insist on training the next Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold it's important to remember that the most critical element of producing a domestic terrorist is to establish a general relationship between the trainee and the rest of American society founded upon fear and hatred.

This is best accomplished by showering those who are cruel and violent toward the trainee with positive attention.  Award them with athletic scholarships, expensive, hyper-masculine automobiles, and of course...lavish sexual favors from enthusiastic social climbers.  Blaming cruelty on the victim is also important.

It's also important to remember that the production of a domestic terrorist by this method is a probabilistic process much like producing an alcohol related traffic fatality.  You'll need to reward a large number of cocky, violent sociopaths and blame a lot of victims before being rewarded with a media worthy final product.

Good luck folks.

Chicken Soup with Ray Rice and Roger Goodell...

No American who is civilized enough to have earned the right to complain about terrorism would be caught dead at one of Ray Rice's games.

Chicken Soup with Frank Sinatra...

The Fancyyyy...Whore Schneider,

She spreeeead her legs wider,

Hoping...Prince Steroooid...could pass.

Chssss.  Chssss.  Chssss.  (Cymbals)

With a grunt and a heeeeave,

She pushed haaaard toward her beav',

But Prince Sterooooid emerged...from her ass.

Chssss.  Chssss.  Chssss.  (Cymbals)

Chicken Soup's spree killer thought of the day...

Social climbing sperm dumpsters lavishly reward bullies.

Toadying sycophantic cowards blame bullying on the victim.

Keep up the good work folks.

Chicken Soup with Elliot Rodger...

 

Say Hello to Elliot Rodger

It's common for people to confuse an explanation with an excuse or a defense.  Don't get confused.  It's just an explanation.

Suffering from Aspergers makes it almost impossible to develop social skills, the self confidence and the sense of belonging that social skills provides one with, and the overt signs of self confidence that women are attracted to.

Men who lack self confidence are the male equivalent of women who are homely.  They're just not attractive.  Men who are gushing with self confidence are very attractive to women.  Unfortunately, most women appear to be completely unable to tell the difference between a confident young man and a cocky, violent sociopath like Jared Remy.  Men who enjoy bullying and humiliating socially awkward men like Elliot Rodger appear to be almost irresistible to some women.  This tendency to reward bullies is the real reason he hated women.

In the last couple of decades there's been an increasing number of movies, television shows, and of course, video games where the basic premise is that the world we live in isn't real.  These products are primarily marketed to individuals in their teens and early twenties and have an especially strong appeal to young males who not only don't "fit in" socially but have spent their lives being made to feel powerless by bigger, stronger males.  Elliot Rodger grew up in a world where escapism was never any further away than his fingertips.  Like Adam Lanza and so many others before him, he probably had no difficulty developing a fantasy world where killing those he hated and then taking his own life would simply transport him to another, no doubt more pleasant world.

Bullying and ostracism made him hate just about everyone and allowed him to place no value on human life.

Escapist forms of entertainment like videogames, virtual reality, and the internet allowed him to lose his fear of death.

Firearms allowed him to be much more lethal than he would have been with just his bare hands.  Don't be fooled into believing that the absence of a gun would have saved lives.  He could just as easily have bolted a homemade sword to either side of his vehicle and driven through a crowd of people or rigged up something to spray burning gasoline into a crowded room.

Once again no one appears willing to address the problem of adolescent cruelty.  We're going to see more Elliot Rodgers committing kamikaze type massacres.  

This is not an excuse or a legal defense, but I believe it's pretty close to what was going on in his mind.

Chicken Soup with Jared Remy...

If Americans valued human life, this thing would have been dead or safely locked up in prison many years ago.

Good job assholes...especially this asshole!

Do I look "heartbroken?!!"
Nope.
All of Precious Roid Monkey's victims were other people's kids.  And as we all know, the lives and safety of other people's kids don't matter.

And of course...Jerry and Phoebe Remy who bailed Jared the violent roid monkey out of jail 19 times, and paid all his bills, and provided him with an "allowance" like he was 11 years old, and financed his legal defense, and continue to finance his legal defense are "heartbroken and filled with disgust and remorse" by their son's criminal behavior.

No they're not.  They're simply embarrassed.

Jerry and Phoebe Remy spent a fortune making sure that Jared's victims remained in as much danger and experienced as much terror as possible.  They obviously wanted Jared's victims to understand that the criminal justice system could not protect them from their precious baby roid monkey.

What a couple of sick fucks.

 Jerry and Phoebe Remy's behavior is certainly as disgusting as any other asshole who finances terrorism, but what is far more disgusting is the public's unconditional love and support for the two people who shamelessly enabled Jared Remy's life long violent crime spree...as if the parents of a violent, steroid bloated habitual criminal were taken by surprise when Baby Roid Monkey finally murdered one of his many victims.

After all...isn't violent asshole just another mental illness to be treated by a head shrinker?

Parents often worry about the cost of higher education and for good reason.  Education is expensive.  Jerry and Phoebe Remy spent an undisclosed but no doubt impressive amount of money educating their son Jared about the value of human life and the importance of public safety.

They spent a fortune teaching him that human life has no value and public safety simply did not matter.

No matter what Jared did to his victims, no matter who lived in fear, no matter who was injured, mommy and daddy would be there with a checkbook and a lawyer to protect their precious Baby Roid Monkey from the big, bad justice system.

After all...John Lloyd was just a fat retard, hardly worthy of life when compared to the genetically superior wunderkind of Jerry and Phoebe Remy.  And how dare those women complain?!!  Don't they realize they've got the best there is?!

As always...

No American who is civilized enough to have earned the right to complain about terrorism would be caught dead enriching Jared the raging roid monkey's enablers.  Stay the hell out of his majesty's restaurants and stop listening to his broadcasts.

Further reading...
More further reading...

Chicken Soup with The Best of Chicken Soup...

Human depravity of the kind witnessed in places like Texas Christian University, Steubenville, Maryville, and of course Columbine before the massacre will not be going away anytime soon. I'll never run out of vile people to blog about. And yes...I know The Onion is satire. I included that link because satire is often far more accurate than anything the mainstream media is willing to print. With that in mind, I think it's time to sum up some of the basic elements of why yesterday's victims of community sanctioned cruelty become tomorrow's serial killers, mass murderers, and terrorists.

Whether you're still in school or well into old age or anywhere in between, if you hate bullies then this post is for you. This was my first attempt to systematize the high school and college experience that so many people are familiar with. It's been described as a bit simplistic or sophomoric...and admittedly, it is, but it's also useful to anyone who feels the need to categorize all of the individual social cliques they had to deal with in their teens and early twenties.

This post further systematizes the bullying process. It should remind many readers of specific individuals they were forced to interact with during their adolescence and early adulthood.

This post describes bullying from the victim's point of view and references a case of bullying that occurred almost two years ago. I can find no significant media coverage of the outcome of His Majesty's court case.

For anyone interested in systems analysis, this post is for you.

This post emphasizes the principle of leading by example.

Here I attempted to put loud, obnoxious, and very righteous Americans under a spotlight. One of the political hot buttons I had in mind when writing this was abortion. Imagine how quickly one of those right wing nut cases would arrange for his lilly white, ultra pure, super Christian daughter to quietly get an abortion in a distant city if she were raped by an ugly, drug addicted, black guy.

Distraction from America's real problems is a common method of avoiding any obligation to address them. Terrorists are supposed to be the most evil people in existence...at least...that's what we're told. Yet no one seems anxious to mention the fact that Americans like killing, maiming, and torturing their fellow Americans in numbers that put even the most prolific terrorists to shame.

This post is in honor of all those heroes of resilience who claim to have been bullied and never even thought about killing anyone...Yeah...right.

And finally...this post employs an Orwellian reference to describe the ability to embrace two mutually exclusive beliefs simultaneously.

I hope you've enjoyed the soup.

Chicken Soup with shameless fundraising organizations...

This weblog is mostly about people and institutions that enable abusers, so writing about an organization that on the surface appears to be raising money for a good cause might seem off topic.

It isn't.

Yesterday evening I received a call from a number that my caller I.D. identified as 202-817-XXXX. For obvious legal liability reasons I won't be publishing the entire telephone number. The name that appeared was "Washington, D.C." which coincides with the area code.

I normally don't pick up calls I don't recognize because they're almost always telemarketers, but since the call originated from the capitol city of our glorious empire I took the chance. After I said "hello" there was a several second delay before the caller started speaking. He identified himself as a representative of a veteran's organization I did not recognize and cannot now remember the name of. As he continued with his pitch, I noticed two things:

1) His pitch was very smoothly delivered as if he'd spoken the same words a thousand times without losing his salesman's artificial enthusiasm.

2) Unlike most telemarketer calls there was a complete absence of background noise. Normally one can hear a subdued cacophony of voices all blended together. This caller could have been sitting in a soundproof room.

The caller conjured up terrible images of veterans who fought for our country who are now cold, sick, jobless, homeless, and hungry. He finished his pitch with, "We're asking for a one time tax deductible donation. Can we depend on you?"

Like most people, I don't want to either feel, or appear to others as someone who cannot be depended on. But...unlike many of my fellow Americans who no doubt blindly provided this organization with their credit card number, I am cynical to the bone. I decided to ask a few pertinent questions, "Can you tell me how you got my number and do you have any idea who you're calling?"

After several seconds, the same smooth, practiced voice responded, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

At this point I knew I was talking to a computer. I decided to ask a really easy question, something anyone raising money for cold, hungry veterans would surely be able to answer accurately, "Can you tell me the name of the President of the United States?"

Again there was a several second delay. "I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

I burst out laughing and hung up.

I was pretty disgusted with this call for a number of reasons. There really are war veterans who really are suffering from service related disabilities. Many of them really are unable to find a job or receive the medical care they need. And every career conman on Capitol Hill is proud to be photographed with a veteran or two, preferably veterans who are smiling and wearing uniforms bedecked with medals.

So why are those veterans-in-need having to hire a fund raising organizations to beg for money? Or are these organizations raising money out of the goodness of their heart? And what percentage of the money collected actually finds it way anywhere near a veteran? And why doesn't the fund raising organization hire disabled veterans to man their phone banks? Perhaps computers work cheaper and don't take bathroom breaks? What should the next Timothy McVeigh learn from the fact that America places such a low value on the well being of its disabled veterans? And why have America's corporate lapdogs in Washington, D.C. deferred their responsibility for those veterans to organizations who's only objective is to maximize profits?

Feel free to relay this story to your favorite member of Congress.

Perhaps the person known only as "Completely disgusted by ignorance" could fire off a strong letter to her Congressman.

Chicken Soup has an embarrassing question...

Someone using the online name "Completely disgusted by ignorance" expressed her disagreement with my perception of Ryan Tucker's criminal behavior on Debbie Schussel's website a few weeks ago. The post she left a comment on was dated August 22, 2006 and the comment she appeared to be replying to was dated November 19, 2009. It's unlikely she stumbled upon it randomly so I'm left to assume that she was doing an internet search for Ryan Tucker.

I replied to her comment with an invitation to present the facts of Ryan Tucker's behavior as she perceives them.

"Completely disgusted by ignorance" is always welcome to enlighten all of us "schmucks" by presenting a few "facts." We could begin with why she believes that we're "schmucks." Could it be that her achievements in life are so great that she has every right to look down on the rest of us? Has she cured cancer, developed a new and efficient form of spacecraft propulsion, established world peace? After all, I've led a pretty unremarkable life. I've been consistently employed for the better part of forty years. I've managed to avoid establishing any professional relationships with our nation's law enforcement community. In a society that boasts an impressive divorce rate, I've managed to stay married to the same woman for 25 years. Stranger still...we actually like each other. My children are earning high grades in their various science disciplines in college...

But that's about it...the portrait of a total loser.

Her Majesty in comparison has...um...well...what is it she's been doing anyway? What exactly has she accomplished that makes her feel so superior to the rest of us?

I have a potentially embarrassing question for Her Majesty...

Have you ever supported yourself by working a job?

Please...enlighten all of us ignorant schmucks. Regale us with tales of your many worldly accomplishments

I'm assuming that this is the same woman who is the subject of the post immediately preceding this one...but I cannot be sure. Perhaps she will enlighten me with facts.

Chicken Soup with Ryan Tucker's greatest fan revisited...

Many years ago a close acquaintance of mine relayed a memorable scene from the play, "Evita."

Evita Peron is complaining to an old naval officer that people are still referring to her with a very uncomplimentary term. The naval officer calmly replies, "I've been retired for years and people still call me captain."

Someone whom I assume to be a close female relative of Ryan Tucker left a few comments here and on other weblogs criticizing our decision to remind readers of Ryan's criminal behavior. She expresses her frustration with the fact that after so many years Ryan Tucker and his three friends still have to read about their crime. I'm also assuming she's concerned because his children are now perusing the internet and beginning to realize that their father, in spite of being retired for years, is still being called a violent criminal. So here's my solution:

Assuming you really are a close female relative of Ryan Tucker, you can expose the horrible lies written about him by bringing his children to meet Bryan Boyd. They will see that he is perfectly healthy. They will see that he is not a brain damaged cripple living in his mother's spare bedroom. They will see that he has a regular job, a girlfriend or wife, and lives a reasonably good life. And when you're finished exposing me as a liar, have Bryan Boyd leave a comment on this weblog explaining that he was not attacked by four vicious sociopaths, one of whom attacked him at least once before. Have Bryan Boyd provide a link to his Facebook page or weblog where I can view photographs of Mr. Boyd enjoying his good health. Do something besides whine about the fact that in the information age, being a close female relative of a violent criminal is embarrassing.

And if you are the woman who knowingly chose to marry a violent criminal when you could have chosen almost any one of a million far more civilized men to spend your life with, there is something very important you can do for your children.

You can strongly advise your children to avoid doing anything they don't want the entire world reading about for the rest of eternity.

Tally Ho Horned Frog.

Chicken Soup comments on Izzy Kalman's defense of the First Amendment...

As readers may already be aware, Chicken Soup has been prevented from leaving comments on Izzy Kalman's Psychology Today website. When I attempt to leave a comment, I'm rewarded with a blank white screen. After a few attempts, I did what Kalman probably hoped I'd do. I simply stopped trying.

Then I read his latest article.

Izzy Kalman criticizes any effort to restrict what students can say while preventing me from posting comments, not just on his articles, but on every article by every author on the Psychology Today website.

I then found that I could leave comments under the name and e-mail address I'd been using all along as long as I didn't do it from home. Here's what I wrote.

"If you are a public school student and you are physically strong, unusually aggressive, or skilled in the fighting arts...in other words...if other students have good reason to fear you, then you enjoy the right to say anything you want about anyone.

If you are physically weak, unaggressive, and unskilled in the fighting arts, you are free to keep your mouth shut or someone will shut it for you.

By the way...why am I not allowed to post here from my i.p. address? Is my freedom of speech unusually disturbing to you?

My comment was titled, "Some are more equal than others" and though I didn't include this description in my comment, I like to think of Kalman's interpretation of our Constitutional Rights as the First Amendment, Columbine Style.

Feel free to let him and his readers know what you think.

Chicken Soup with Matthew Barnett's rapist and attempted murderer enablers...

I wrote about Matthew Barnett's behavior in a previous post.

A few weeks ago America once again shamelessly demonstrated its customary level of depraved indifference for violent crime victims. Matthew Barnett received the token, ritual finger wagging from the Judiciary including such horrible, medieval punishments as "a suspended sentence of four months in the county jail and two years of probation." In layman's terms this is roughly equivalent to the "double secret probation" imposed upon Delta House in the movie "Animal House."

Judge Glen Dietrich also imposed seven special restrictions:

1) "No alcohol." Yeah...I'm sure this is enforceable.

2) "No contact with the victim." There were no such restrictions placed on the assholes who harassed the victim's family enough to prompt a change of address. Nor was there any mention of the arsonists who burned the victim's home. Blaming an electrical fault is worse than insulting to anyone with an I.Q. over 50.

3) "100 hours of community service." No doubt coaching children's football. He is, after all a role model.

4) "Restitution of $1800 for counseling services for the victim." No doubt paid for by the wonderful parents who role modeled his majesty's behavior.

5) "Drug testing." How often and how much warning will he receive from his politically connected family?

6) "Substance abuse counseling." This has a questionable history of success.

7) "Acknowledgement of wrongdoing to the victim in the form of a verbal apology delivered by the Jackson County prosecutor. That apology was “heartfelt” and “genuine,” Peters Baker said during the press conference." He wasn't even required to apologize himself. The prosecutor did it for him. This last gem of depraved indifference is especially heartwarming. A politically connected rapist and attempted murderer was saved from the embarrassment of having to deliver a disingenuous verbal apology in person.

As the group "Anonymous" tweeted, "Good job America."

I'm sure the world's terrorists are sleeping soundly knowing that we're such a caring and civilized nation.

Chicken Soup with the Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game (SCMRPG)...

At the request of one of my readers I'm writing about a website titled, "Super Columbine Massacre Role Playing Game" otherwise known by its acronym, "SCMRPG." No, I can't pronounce the acronym either.

The link will bring you to the front page of the site where anyone who understands why individuals choose to build bombs or pick up a gun will find two points of interest. If you scroll down just a bit you'll find the official trailer that features cheesy, early 1980's Atari style images of the videogame in question. These images are combined with an audio track where journalists reveal their ignorance about human behavior, or perhaps just their herd mentality by blaming mass murder on videogames. If you scroll down a bit further you'll come to a montage of windows. The lower right hand window includes a statement from one of the parents of the deceased.

"My son was killed in this senseless tragedy. He is dead now because two angry boys had very easy access to guns."

Being a parent, I can certainly feel sympathy for the individual being quoted. But, from the standpoint of someone who understands why it happened, his/her statement only reveals the usual mindless herd mentality of those who want to blame the Columbine Massacre on anything but a toxic environment where large, physically powerful sociopaths were deified, lavishly rewarded, and allowed to victimize anyone they looked upon as different and therefore unworthy. Consider the oxymoron "wrestling scholarship" while pondering the consequences of maintaining such an environment.

Several years ago I encountered an internet character known as "Trench Reynolds." During one of our online debate/arguments where he was displaying his usual hatred for individuals whom he labeled as "mutants," I asked if he'd ever bothered to talk to them and take the time to listen and understand their position. His response was to provide me with a couple of web addresses where "mutants" congregate and to wish me luck. SCMRPG was one of them.

I posted regularly at the site from about June, 2009 until January, 2013. I encountered a wide variety of characters ranging from articulate and cool headed to borderline explosive. I stopped going there largely because I'd learned about as much as I expected to and became bored with it. The name I was using, "Columbine101" linked to my Chicken Soup weblog which allowed anyone who was interested the opportunity for further reading.

A few days ago I learned that Adam Lanza also posted there under the name "smiggles." I don't remember him but given the fact that there are hundreds of individuals posting there and the possibility that we may never have posted under the same subject headings that's not surprising.

Feel free to visit the site and if you have any questions or comments particularly regarding anything I may have written, please address them here as I no longer post there.

Chicken Soup with one of Ryan Tucker's most loyal fans...

Way back on November 17, 2010 I wrote about a violent, 300 pound sociopath and NFL hero named Ryan Tucker. Normally, he would have stayed in the background but at least one of his fans recently left a comment riddled with grammatical errors and what I consider to be blatant falsehoods.

"WOW! What is this all about? Do you know Tucker, as a person? Did you know Boyd, as a person? This was an incident that happened while all individuals involved were in their teens. Where are they now? Ever crossed your mind that this incident changed their lives forever? And yet they have to continue to read about it. I just don't understand why you would have to bring this back. Why not make a blog about positive events? A bar fight is the best you got? And that is simply what it was.... a frigging BAR Fight that was not started by any of the players. Check your facts, this is absolutely a ridicule of men who battle bad guys on a daily basis. These were boys behaving like immature boys!!!! Why glorify and condemn. That is not for you or anyone else on this earth to do. Do a current, where are they now story. See what good things all of them have done for their communities. My guess is that would be way too one sided and no fun for you to print due to your biased opinions. Totally immature!"

Based on this individual's claims, I'm left to assume that all of the authors who wrote news articles and the author of this book (scroll down to "Crime Pays") have all decided to blatantly lie in writing just so they can say bad things about poor, poor Ryan Tucker.

As for the "where are they now story," the individual who left this comment is welcome to have Bryan Boyd contact me and tell me all about his quality of life since the attack. And while you're at it, contact Scott Meyer and James Loftin. I'd like to hear their side of things as well.

As always...no one who is civilized enough to have earned the right to complain about terrorism would be caught dead defending what Ryan Tucker and his friends did to Bryan Boyd.

Chicken Soup with Izzy Kalman's latest Psychology Today article...

It may be my imagination, but Izzy Kalman seems more defensive than in the past. At the beginning of his latest exercise in victim blaming, Kalman declares his financial interest in the "anti-bullying industry" with an "Author's Transparency Declaration."

Then he includes a quote from someone named Rumi. "Yesterday I was clever so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise so I am changing myself." This isn't unusual. Kalman frequently uses quotes as if he believes that we'll become more supportive of his ludicrous ideas.

Here's a quote I dug out the Old Testament (Joel 3:10) that reminds me of school shooters:

"Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong."

The meat of his article tells the story of a man who learns that he is sick because of a bacterial infection from which he has no immunity. The doctor refers him to a company that will follow him around 24 hours a day, sterilize anything he's likely to come in contact with, and do whatever it takes to protect him from bacteria regardless of cost. Obviously Kalman is trying to equate what this business is doing with the efforts of the anti-bullying movement.

This is one of his worst analogies yet...

People are not bacteria. If you kill millions of bacteria with disinfectant spray, none of the other bacteria will become frightened and stay away from you. If you make an example of some of the worst bacteria by treating them like dangerous criminals and locking them in a cage far away from their victims, none of the other bacteria will learn from their example. If everyone ostracizes bacteria, all of the other bacteria will behave exactly as they've always behaved.

Really Izzy...

How does a man with a Masters Degree in Psychology shamelessly advertise his inability to tell the difference between human behavior and the behavior of bacteria?

Izzy Kalman then continues by attempting to equate administering an antibiotic with blaming the victim. The doctor refuses to provide penicillin because that would be the same as blaming the victim of the infection.

Where does he get this stuff?

I occasionally visit the websites of various hate groups and I've seen many of their members interviewed on television or in documentaries. There's no end to the creativity they'll summon in order to rationalize their hatred of whoever they happen to hate. I don't know why a school psychologist has chosen to fixate on hating victims so tenaciously but it's very reminiscent of more honest bigots.

Kalman titles the concluding section of his article, "Taking responsibility doesn't mean the problem is your fault." He includes a couple of ridiculous examples.

He says that if you own a house and it snows, it's your responsibility to shovel the snow out of the driveway. Owning a house doesn't make it snow so it isn't your fault. Kalman is correct on both counts, but he's hoping his readers are just stupid enough to miss the fact that meteorological effects, unlike bullies, are not predatory. Snow is just snow. Bullies are violent sociopaths who find hurting smaller, weaker people pleasurable.

His second example involve an individual who has developed "emotional problems" as a result of growing up with abusive parents. He says it's not your fault for being abused, but it is your responsibility for addressing your emotional problems. Once again Kalman is betting on stupid readers. If Kalman's such an expert at teaching victims how to stop making others abuse them, why doesn't he offer a little advice for those who are currently being abused by their parents? How about a program called AbusiveParents2AdmiringParents? Those who successfully turn their abusive parents into "Buddies" would never develop "emotional problems" in the first place making the whole question of taking responsibility for them academic.

As always...buyer beware.

Chicken Soup reviews Izzy Kalman's book, "Bullies to Buddies."

I bought Izzy Kalman's book through Amazon and the sticker on the cover was a harbinger of things to come:

"CLEARANCE $1.00"

Let's begin...

Every book has a legal page where readers can find the copyright date, the ISBN number, the author's credentials (Izzy Kalman, MS, NCSP), etc. A couple inches from the bottom of "Bullies to Buddies" readers can find the following disclaimer:

"The advice in this book is based on the author's two decades of experience helping victims of teasing and bullying. It is not intended as a substitute for professional counseling and the publisher makes no claims for its effectiveness. If problems persist, the help of a competent professional should be sought."

I cannot attest to the legal effectiveness of disclaimers but I do know that many of them are inspired by insurance industry pressure. In the mid-1980's I was a skydiver living in California. A fellow skydiver had purchased a new canopy and was preparing to attach it to his rig. When he spread it out on the grass we all noticed the following warning label: "WARNING! IMPROPER PACKING PROCEDURES MAY RESULT IN INJURY OR DEATH TO THE USER!" No shit Sherlock. The label was made of the same material as the canopy, was about 18 inches on a side, and had been sewn in. It took the guy about two hours with a very small pair of scissors to remove it without damaging anything.

Back to Izzy.

Lot's of books include an acknowledgements section where the author thanks the patience of his long suffering family, the professionalism of his agent, editor, etc. and sometimes a particular teacher or other person from his past. Kalman does this as well but there was something different included. Izzy Kalman attributes his success in life to luck. His acknowledgements section begins with three sentences, "I am a very lucky person. I don't know how many can say they lead as satisfying a life as I do. It is all due to luck." Kalman attributes his high quality of life by using the words luck, lucky, and fortunate at least nine times in less than two pages. Most people who are remotely successful at anything make some attempt to claim some combination of hard work, self sacrifice, and personal wisdom to their station in life. Kalman, perhaps in an effort to appear humble goes overboard in his efforts to avoid doing this. In fact, he thanks his editor, Monica Rosenberg who "practically taught me how to write."

Izzy Kalman has a masters degree and twenty years of professional experience. I can't imagine how many reports he was required to produce in all that time. And he thanks his editor for teaching him how to write. This isn't a good start...

There is a two page section titled, "Introductory Notes for Parents and Teachers" that includes a startling admission. In the first paragraph Kalman mentions a "rash of tragic school shootings, epitomized by Columbine" and states, "It emerged that these horrific incidents were committed almost exclusively by victims of teasing and bullying." In contrast to the opinions of Trench Reynolds, Emily Bazelon, and no doubt many others, Izzy Kalman openly admits that Columbine was the result of bullying.

If there's one mistake Izzy Kalman makes that best sums up why this book should not be taken seriously it's his use of the terms, "bullying" and "teasing and bullying" as blanket descriptions for a wide range of behaviors as if they were all equivalent. I'll break that "wide range of behavior" down into five categories:

1) Playful teasing between two or more individuals who have a preexisting relationship. Individuals who belong to an established peer group often refer to each other in degrading terms. This is harmless but appropriate only within that established peer group. Many adults cite this behavior to claim that "all kids get bullied" in an effort to avoid any responsibility for addressing the problem.

2) Harmless Pests are individuals who have poor social skills, often the product of dysfunctional family environments. These characters will blurt out inappropriate comments in the middle of a lecture or crack a joke long after the correct moment for such a joke has past. They are not violent and will become embarrassed when challenged or criticized. These individuals are often targeted by bullies.

3) Potential friends will sometimes quietly tease another individual, often as a prelude to being invited into a peer group such as that described in Behavior Number 1. A lot can go wrong here. This can be misinterpreted by a previously abused individual as the prelude to more teasing leading to eventual physical abuse. If the individual being teased reacts badly, he can become something of a social pariah. This often attracts the attention of real bullies, most of whom are behaviorally indistinguishable from any other predator.

4) Verbal Bullying: A bully will often loudly insult a target individual in an effort to embarrass him, lower his social status, and make others afraid to befriend him. Unlike the behavior described in Example 3, the bully will be very loud and aggressive in the manner in which he insults the victim. The bully's behavior is often accompanied by what rape victims describe as "The Predator Stare". These individuals are dangerous sociopaths and should always be considered potentially violent.

5) Physical bullying was described in some detail here.

Throughout the book Kalman overtly places the responsibility for bullying on the victim. Here are a few examples:

Page 4: "Someone does have the power to make everyone stop tormenting you. That person is you."

Page 7: "Without realizing it, you are actually making them bully you."

Page 10: "I understand how I've been causing my suffering."

Page 42: "Everyone thinks that in a fight, the first person to hit is the one who started the fight. The truth is that the second person to hit really started the fight."

In the past a common defense for rapists was that the victim was "dressed provocatively" or that her station in life (wife, prostitute, promiscuous woman) meant that it was impossible to rape her. Kalman does this repeatedly with victims of bullying. He does cover his ass a bit on page 39 with the following warning:

"People who go around injuring others and aren't afraid of getting in trouble are dangerous. They are more than bullies. They are criminals. With such people, your natural fear is healthy. Be afraid of them, and stay far away from them. If you must be near them, make sure you have people around who can protect you."

Is he kidding?!! How does an unpopular teenager make sure he has people around who can protect him? What a moron!

On Page 2, Kalman describes people as what they are, "animals" and admits on Page 16 that "we are not biologically designed for the environment in which we now live (civilization)." This is a description I wholeheartedly support and describe in my Bully Enablers Post linked above in Behavior Number 5. Gavin de Becker in his best selling book, "The Gift of Fear" also emphasizes this fact with the statement, "We may live in the space age but we have stone age brains." Unfortunately, after admitting that it is the environment, not the population that is civilized, Kalman claims that people are civilized:

Page 18: "We are no longer cavemen. We are civilized people." Yeah, right.

He also repeatedly claims that because we live in a civilization, the law protects us from violent people:

Page 19: "They know we can call the police on them, and then they lose."

Page 39: "There is an invisible shield protecting me, and if they go through this shield, the law is going to punish them and I am going to win."

Page 42: "But we now live in a civilization. It is against the law to hurt others. The bullies know this, and they are not trying to send us to the hospital."

Page 47: "But we now live in a civilization. You are not an enemy looking to eat me. The law forbids you from injuring me; and if you do injure me, it is probably an accident."

From beginning to end, Kalman appears to treat all incidents of "teasing and bullying" as if they were examples of Behavior Number 3. In my opinion, Izzy Kalman is at best naïve and at worst criminally negligent. He leads his readers to believe that bullies intend no harm and that because we now live in a civilization that bullies who "accidentally" injure their victims will somehow be punished. This is utterly false and an hour or so of perusing this weblog will prove it. Bullies are given free rides and endless second chances while it is the victims who end up dead or in prison after being driven insane by their tormentors.

Anyone considering the use of his techniques or attending his seminars should strongly consider otherwise and remember the true meaning of the label on this book: "CLEARANCE $1.00"