Contributing Factor

Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill – Revised and Updated Edition: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie, and Video Game Violence – Lt. Col. Dave Grossman and Gloria Degaetano (Harmony Books)

A short time after a teacher was shot and killed by a 14 year old at a middle school dance in nearby Edinboro, Pennsylvania, a sleepy, little, college town; I had the opportunity to interview Lt. Col. Dave Grossman about the original edition of his book with co-author Gloria Degaetano, Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill. In revised and updated edition of the book, the authors continue to make the case that the exposure our kids get to violence in the form of movies, TV and video games has desensitized them to violence and conditioned them to be more violent.

15 years after the that original edition of the book, not much has really changed; there continues to be a steady stream of violent acts committed by kids on an all to regular basis and there continues to be a sharp divide between those who have their beliefs confirmed by the book and those who disagree with the conclusion. One thing that has changed is that there has been a steady ratcheting up of the level of violent content and the access to this violent content has been multiplied by the advent of tablets and other smart devices that have become a part of our everyday life.

While I continue to believe that violent video games, movies and TV does not create killers, I think it’s foolish to believe that there is not at least a contributing factor to these violent acts that can be traced back to the video violence. When you track back through both the infamous instances of violence; Sandy Hook and Columbine and even the cases that didn’t stir national headlines, has the authors have here, there are a striking number of cases where violent video games and a high level of not only activity, but a proficiency at the games are part and parcel of the shooters lives.

Adam Lanza, who gunned down 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary, was an aficionado of the Combat Arms, shooting game with 83,496 kills to his credit including 22,725 head shots. Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were regular players of the early shooter classic, Doom. Did the games make them killers? I have my doubts, but do believe that the repetition of playing the games made them more efficient killing machines when the succumbed to their twisted mental view of the world. While I confess to not knowing the statistics on the more recent cases of violence involving kids; during what I call the Columbine era of school yard violence, the shooters involved 9 of the 13 high profile cases were confirmed to be prescribed psychotropic drugs like Luvox or Ritalin for behavioral issues. The other four shooters may have also been some prescription meds, but those involved in any treatment of the four, never disclosed if that was the case. So like violent video games, TV or movies, these medications could be a contributing factor.

Just as I did back in 1999, I still believe that Grossman and Degaetano have put together a compelling case that video violence has caused possibly irreparable damage to our kids and elevated the potential for sick, twisted, minds to continue to cause great damage to our society.  

Nice Try…but it’s Back to the Drawing Board for “Environmentalists”

Environmental Debt – The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy - Amy Larkin (Palgrave Books)

Wow…where to start.

I guess I have to at least start by giving Amy Larkin, a longtime environmental activist and consultant some credit for at least trying to bring a new perspective of the impact on the economy that environmental activism as wrought.

In her book Environmental Debt – The Hidden Costs of a Changing Global Economy, tries, ever so desperately at times, to make the case that the costs associated with the impact of alleged, man-made global climate change have created a drag on the economy that is having a far reaching negative impact. Larkin’s solution is to propose that “big business” changes its ways and somehow miraculously changes the climate.

The problem with the theory start pretty quickly in the book; as typical of so-called environmentalists, Larkin loves to mix her terminology in an effort to make her case. She interchangeably uses environment, climate and weather, three very distinct and different things as if they are one and the same.

She cites no less of an expert than now former, failed, CNN opinion host Piers Morgan in conversation with weatherman Chad Myers that somehow human activity and climate change is the cause for supposed increases in the intensity of weather events like hurricanes. The Morgan, Myers exchange: “Chad, you’ve been in this game for nearly three decades. Is this global warming that we’re seeing? From a meteorological point of view, is there any other explanation? (Myers) It is a prime suspect. I don’t have another one.”

Now that is what I call deep, scientific reasoning! The problem for Larkin, Morgan and Myers; it isn’t happening! Even the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) the group so often cited by so-called environmentalists, had to admit in 2013 that North Atlantic tropical cyclone activity was down 71%! from normal rates. Flip on the Weather Channel during hurricane season and you can just hear the desperation as Jim Cantore and his ilk hope for a huge weather hit that just hasn’t materialized.

While Larkin proposes a new way for business to approach the environment and claims to come from a business background in her approach, she does seem to quite have even a rudimentary grip on global economics. In the section on renewable energy she talks about wind and solar in glowing terms on the global front, citing how the Chinese have skewed the market with their ridiculous subsidies of the solar sector. Larkin’s response would be to have the U.S. and other global players dump even more public dollars into the already glaringly failed attempts, see Solyndra and countless others.

Larkin acts as if there is no costs associated with government subsidies; apparently you just go to the money tree and pick off a few more dollars and the magic happens. Larkin apparently isn’t aware that people have to pay taxes to cover these subsidies to failed solar and other renewable industries. Perhaps if we removed costly and often time onerous government regulations then the cost of trying the R & D of these kinds of projects could be undertaken without subsidy and no that doesn’t mean we should willy-nilly pollute the environment.

I also have to give Larkin’s publisher, Palgrave, credit; at least they are willing to stand up to reviewer scrutiny unlike the gutless weasels at Beacon Press who won’t even send out review copies of The Real Cost of Fracking, authored by a veterinarian and a microbiologist of all things.