Kids. Today’s moral outrage is sooooo easy to come by. Why, I remember back in my day when the entire human race was wiped out. Did we hear any moral outrage? No! We took our extinction with a smile and we liked it!
I know terrible things happen often and it’s true that they don’t all upset me. Once in a while though a story will grab me for whatever reason. Matthew Shephard’s murder made me a bit sad because I couldn’t understand why they would beat him to death. I’m sure he cried and pleaded for his life but those two individuals took the time to tie him down and murder him. I know it grabbed a lot of national attention for other reasons but that’s not why the story interested me so much.
I don’t really know why some tradgedies are noticed while others are essentially ignored. I can’t mourn for everyone but I’m still human and can be affected by the tragedy experienced by others from time to time.
Marc
Oops. Sorry. :o
SNERK
Will you cut that out? I’m starting to like you, which is kicking the manure out of my Loony Liberal credentials. 
For the last two years or so, every time one of these “c’mere, look at this fucked up shit that just happened” OPs is posted, I’ve considered starting a Generic Outrage Post along the lines of the classic “Thread” to do exactly this. It would look more or less like your mad-libs post, but it would be, um, better. 
It would have been sort of fun to write, but I just never found the time or energy to do it, because I pretty much shrug those threads off and don’t spend a lot of time thinking about them.
'Course, I waited too long, and you’ve beaten me to the idea. So now I gotta wait a few months before I can go back to idle consideration so if I do go ahead with it I don’t look like I’m ripping you off.
I look forward to it, and won’t mention any similiarities to prior work if it does happen.
If I wanted to flesh an entire thread out of the idea, I’d go for a collaborative “Moral Outrage Thread: Choose Your Own Adventure” effort. People could post “pages” like:
Upon opening the BBQ Pit forum in Firefox, you notice that SomeDoper has started a thread about the recent incident in South Carolina where a dentist used gourds and root vegetables to commit sex acts on anaesthetized patients, which he then sold on the internet to finance his addiction for underwear made from the skin of beaten German Shepherd puppies.
Do you:
[list=a]
[li]Ignore the thread. Turn to page 2.[/li][li]Decide to rub out all the righteous, vengance-filled spooge you can and craft a response describing exactly what you think should happen to the dentist in prison. Turn to page 3.[/li][li]Make sure the world knows that, unlike Republicans, you’re against health care providers that molest anaesthetized patients by writing a simple yet poignant “That’s sick!!!”. Turn to page 4.[/li][li]Show how compassionate you are by claiming that the dentist is probably suffering from mental illness, and that the posters who don’t know if he’s crazy or not are big fucking meanies. Turn to page 5.[/li][li]Claim that the Iraqi war was illegal, and that the 2000 presidential election was stolen. Turn to page 6.[/li][li]Make a series of satirical posts mocking such threads. Turn to page 7.[/li][li]Show how “holier then thou” you are by telling the judgemental posters how horrible they are. Turn to page 8.[/li][li]Casually mention that God doesn’t exist, that believers might as well believe in a pink flying elephant, and that organized religion, being responsible for all evil, probably caused the dentist to molest those people. Turn to page 9.[/li][/list]
It could be very funny.
Can you work in a way to bash the current administration? And what about stalking your Doper nemisis (side note, I have yet to find mine but I have my eye on you people)?
Don’t forget airline food. Airline food is bad.
For once, I’d like to see the innards of one of the perps examined by the posters. I’d like someone to go past the emotion and start questioning the “why” of it all. Each of these issues has a much bigger conversation than most of us ever delve into. I thought that was the reason we hang out here. To go past the surface and try to find some truth or understanding.
ROFL. I swear that this is the script we all follow, every damn time. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. 
Kalhoun, I am afraid any in-depth discussion would end up like my “big-business owner are teh evil” thread!
Grin. That ad would work for either party. And, it would still be true.
I’m taken, but seriously, dude, if you don’t have one yet, you’re just not trying.
Daniel
Nemesis, singular? Serial monogamy? That is for suckers. I stalk Rick all the time, except when I am stalking Liberal. 
My friend, you stalk Bricker and Liberal in the same manner that a hookworm stalks a wolf.
Oh, I’m sure that I have one. I’m guessing that it’s a secret nemisis.
Do you believe you won that exchange with Bricker?
Thin Lizzy is your nemesis? Dude, you need to acquire a better class of enemy.
Say what? He is talking about BayleDomon.
No, not in the sense of convincing the other side of my case. However, in the definition of proving what I said, having Rick not see that, then poking holes in his argument, as well as others poking holes in his argument, then yes.