In Japan: NY Times confirms that yesterday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan—that killed over 1,000 people, and sank boats as far away as Santa Cruz Harbor—also caused an anticipated explosion at Fukushima power plant. In Seattle, people are struggling to contact their families in Japan.

In Libya: Ghadafi’s forces violently captured the opposition stronghold of Zawiyah yesterday, then covered up the damage with bussed-in victory rally attendees just in time for the arrival of a group of journalists. East of Tripoli, Ghadafi’s forces violently detained journalists from CNN.

They’re sorry if you feel that way, okay?!?! The New York Times has finally apologized—sort of—for their terrible, poorly-reported coverage of a child rape case in Texas.

WHAT A RELIEF: Wonkette brings us some breaking news—Ohio will be spared from tsunami trouble.

In related news, it feels weird to agree with Lisa Murkowski: Sen. Lisa Murkowski is the first Republican senator to explicitly come out against cuts to Planned Parenthood’s routine healthcare services proposed by her teammates in the House. In case you were wondering, the only other Republicans to follow suit have ladyparts too.

Today, in creepy things to find while hiking: Detectives are looking into the recent discovery of human remains found by hikers near Harts Lake.

Lawsuit to follow: A Seattle woman has filed a $60,000 claim against the city for the death of her dog, who was electrocuted on Thanksgiving when it stepped on a streetlight metal ground-cover plate in Queen Anne.

Well, it’s official. There is almost nothing good to report today. So, in the spirit of levity, here is a video of the laziest baby sloths in the world, who live at a sloth orphanage in Costa Rica. Good morning?

10 replies on “Morning News”

  1. Enh I Skyped with my brother in Osaka yesterday morning. Learning the worst that happened to his family was the tremor jolted him out of his chair left me relieved. I was also gratified to see some of my friends care enough to ask me (or better, him) if he was okay.

  2. The Jezebel link was going good until the writer started bitching about a teacher-student article where it was not the most obvious that it wasn’t consensual. While THAT original article was wrong in pointing out the victim with enough detail, I can’t say that 100% of all teenage student/adult teacher sexual situations are unwanted and criminal. In this case, it almost sounded like the parents put a stop to it.

    It’s sad that Jezebel had to ruin a good indictment of sex crime reporting with a case of ambivilance.

  3. Was the coverage of the rape really that poor? I actually read the article and all of the callous attitudes were quotes from local residents. The local residents were the ones blaming the victim and worrying for the mental health of the attackers. The reporters just wrote about what they saw.

    Now the point should still be made how fucked up that is but can we stop blaming the NYT for their coverage?

  4. @3
    The NYT doesn’t want to inflame racial tensions. Nearly all of the 20 or so boys were black, the victim was hispanic. If Mudede though had written about the rape, he may have titled it “The Mobile Home Jungle Boogie.”

  5. I didn’t get blame for the victim at all. I got justifiable blame for parents who don’t care for their children.

    Yeah, those who attacked this child should be locked up with ‘child rapist’ stenciled on their prison overalls and conveniently distant guards. But the parents ought to be wondering how in hell their little girl was wandering around dangerous neighborhoods all the time dressed like a girl 5 or 6 years older.

    It isn’t all black and white, you know. Finding decent clothes for my 10 year old daughter that don’t make her look like a 30 year old prostitute is inexplicably difficult. My wife tells me that thong underwear can be bought for my little girl. And the blouses, skirts and pants that are sold for girls her age are often equally provocative. Who in Gods name makes sexually provocative clothes for children? What kind of sick mind even conceives of the idea, and what kind of sick society provides the market?

    Yes, the child is the victim. But she isn’t just the victim of the men and boys who raped her, for whom there is no excuse. She is the victim of parents who care so little about the most important trust they will ever have, their child, that they allow their daughter to wander at all hours over a period of months in a dangerous neighborhood. And she’s also the victim of a society that thinks it entirely appropriate to sexualize pre-adolescent children in dress, culture and behavior.

    This is an indicator of the kind of society Savage and his ilk want to create. Sex positive is just a euphemism. What it really means is ‘I want no limits on my behavior, since I haven’t matured emotionally or psychologically since I was 12.’ It is a society in which these kind of appalling incidents will increase, not decrease. Yes, sex is a powerful drive. That very power can make it very creative and positive. It can also make it very destructive and negative. Yes, it can be very pleasurable, particularly in a loving intimate relationship with your spouse. But the very power of that drive mandates self control over its exercise. My car is very powerful, but I have to follow certain rules in using that power, for my protection and that of those around me. Yet for ‘sex positives’ the potentially destructive power of uninhibited sexual expression has no such limits. This kind of thinking is only possible with the arrested development people like Savage show.

    I’ve told my daughter that when boys interest her, we’ll work with her to find appropriate ways to express her interest and to accept or reject the interest of the boys. It’s a normal and healthy part of life, hard as it is for her dad to think about. I’ve also told her that she has this very brief time to be a little girl, and all her life to be a woman. She has the right to keep being a carefree child at 10 or 11 no matter what the TV or music or friends tell her.

  9. VL, how come you’re such a douchebag? I know why I am, but who fucked you over so badly that you figure it’s OK to be such a dickhead?

Comments are closed.