[Brazelton] Joe Paterno has died

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doomdragon6

doomdragon6

Staff member
I find it rather rude that I've been called "up my ass" when I haven't really done much instagating here.

I don't watch TV. At all. Presumably, with my very narrow news aperture, that would mean that only the biggest, most important news relevant to me trickles down. I can't really say anything other than, "If it isn't reported on the News Rotation of my e-mail provider, isn't mentioned by any of my friends in the little time I'm on Facebook or Twitter, isn't mentioned on the radio during my very short drives, then there is simply no way I would ever know about it, which means that it does not matter enough for it to have relevance to me.

Please do not make such assertions about me when it's entirely likely you are unaware of events that are significant to me or others.
 
Mathias

Mathias

doomdragon6 said:
I find it rather rude that I've been called "up my ass" when I haven't really done much instagating here.

I don't watch TV. At all. Presumably, with my very narrow news aperture, that would mean that only the biggest, most important news relevant to me trickles down. I can't really say anything other than, "If it isn't reported on the News Rotation of my e-mail provider, isn't mentioned by any of my friends in the little time I'm on Facebook or Twitter, isn't mentioned on the radio during my very short drives, then there is simply no way I would ever know about it, which means that it does not matter enough for it to have relevance to me.

Please do not make such assertions about me when it's entirely likely you are unaware of events that are significant to me or others.
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drifter

drifter

doomdragon6 said:
I find it rather rude that I've been called "up my ass" when I haven't really done much instagating here.

I don't watch TV. At all. Presumably, with my very narrow news aperture, that would mean that only the biggest, most important news relevant to me trickles down. I can't really say anything other than, "If it isn't reported on the News Rotation of my e-mail provider, isn't mentioned by any of my friends in the little time I'm on Facebook or Twitter, isn't mentioned on the radio during my very short drives, then there is simply no way I would ever know about it, which means that it does not matter enough for it to have relevance to me.

Please do not make such assertions about me when it's entirely likely you are unaware of events that are significant to me or others.
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So, you've stated that you have a very narrow news base, and you're annoyed that... people are calling you out for not being aware of the news? :confused:
 
LittleSin

LittleSin

I dunno, Doom. I live in frekkin' Newfoundland, Canada where some of the most interesting news I get via facebook/friends is about a moose walking up the road and I knew about this.

I don't actively watch the news...but I do pick up the paper when it's handy and listen to the radio. This has always been filed away under international news, just short blurbs and I still knew what was happening.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

You guys are all so much better than Doom. You should go throw shit at the walls of his house because that's how much better you are than him.
 
Tress

Tress

Hey, I was just teasing him for not using Google to find the info in this thread. If he wants to avoid news channels/sites, more power to him.
 
strawman

strawman

ElJuski said:
As for the answer to why it SHOULD matter to Doom--well, for the same fucking reason it matters to the rest of us.
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Because the newsgirl with the shiny forehead told you it was important?

Some guy who was successful at his career, who also failed to adequately report child abuse, died.

And lo, the heavens wept.

Story at 11, but first you need to hear about how a local woman took the city to court... and won. This and more coming to you live right after these messages.

STAY. TUNED.

 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ElJuski said:
As for the answer to why it SHOULD matter to Doom--well, for the same fucking reason it matters to the rest of us.
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Not to pull a Charlie, but why is this news of someone ignoring the abuse and victimization of children any different than all the ignoring of abuse and victimization of children that every person is doing every day? From the chocolate slavery thread, to general rape and abuse that happens to children in households all across the world (not just America), to the dumbing down of children if you want to get into systematized mental abuse, why should what one football coach didn't report matter more than all the rest? Odds are that in your neighborhood, there's some kid getting abused by a parent and no one's doing a fucking thing. I bet it just breaks your heart at night, right? No, it doesn't, because you aren't going to think about that. You're only going to think about the kids that the news told you were important, because some football coach didn't say anything. There's a lot of people not saying anything about shit going on around them all the time. It sucks, but it's happening every day and you're not paying attention--you're not doing jack shit to be vigilant. If you really believe that this was the most important thing going on for several months, and that the abused kids in this case are really the only ones of their kind, then your telling anyone they have their head up their ass is entirely pot to kettle.
 
S

SeraRelm

Or we can be upset about the shit we DO know about and try to live life through the stuff we don't.
 
doomdragon6

doomdragon6

Staff member
GUYS GUYS GUYS

I heard my first reference to this outside of this thread today! I was working at the hotel, and a guest came in and picked up the newspaper, and said, "Oh wow, he died?" then walked off.
 
strawman

strawman

doomdragon6 said:
GUYS GUYS GUYS

I heard my first reference to this outside of this thread today! I was working at the hotel, and a guest came in and picked up the newspaper, and said, "Oh wow, he died?" then walked off.
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I can only imagine the pain you must be going through, hearing about such a tragedy in this impersonal way - and from a complete stranger, no less!

I offer you my sympathy, such as it is.
 
ElJuski

ElJuski

Staff member
Seriously, it's just a matter of maybe opening up one or two news websites and glancing at headlines to know what's going on. It doesn't make you a media slave, it doesn't make you an elitist news whore, it makes you a person who is aware of the world around you that has more impact on humanity than the next episode of Yu-Gi-Yoh or the next video game.

It's pretty sad how much self-development and community development is apparently reviled in this country over the idea of self-entitlement and good ol' fashion'd ig'nance.
Added at: 12:18
Not to mention, holy shit, what a break in logic that is to say that just because one thing is getting media attention I should feel heartbroken for it, but I don't for other things, because I don't.

Not to dredge up personal things in this argument, but those kids getting molested at home? THEY COME TO MY SCHOOL.

But on a more logical, global note, it's JoePa, and all this bullshit surrounding PennState, that should make us more self aware that the abuse and molestation of kids is happening, and could be happening in your neighborhood. With the fucking people that you put in charge of caring for your children. So after seeing the whole JoePa thing go down, well, fuck, yeah, maybe your local community centers, schools, churches, etc. should take a look at who is running their stuff and how it's being run.

WHAT THE NEWS MAKING AN IMPACT

NO IT MUST BE THE BRAINWASHING THE MEDIA CIRCUS MAKES ON US INDIVIDUALS WEEOOWEEEOO
 
Mathias

Mathias

ElJuski said:
Seriously, it's just a matter of maybe opening up one or two news websites and glancing at headlines to know what's going on. It doesn't make you a media slave, it doesn't make you an elitist news whore, it makes you a person who is aware of the world around you that has more impact on humanity than the next episode of Yu-Gi-Yoh or the next video game.

It's pretty sad how much self-development and community development is apparently reviled in this country over the idea of self-entitlement and good ol' fashion'd ig'nance.
Added at: 12:18
Not to mention, holy shit, what a break in logic that is to say that just because one thing is getting media attention I should feel heartbroken for it, but I don't for other things, because I don't.

Not to dredge up personal things in this argument, but those kids getting molested at home? THEY COME TO MY SCHOOL.

But on a more logical, global note, it's JoePa, and all this bullshit surrounding PennState, that should make us more self aware that the abuse and molestation of kids is happening, and could be happening in your neighborhood. With the fucking people that you put in charge of caring for your children. So after seeing the whole JoePa thing go down, well, fuck, yeah, maybe your local community centers, schools, churches, etc. should take a look at who is running their stuff and how it's being run.

WHAT THE NEWS MAKING AN IMPACT

NO IT MUST BE THE BRAINWASHING THE MEDIA CIRCUS MAKES ON US INDIVIDUALS WEEOOWEEEOO
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What does piss me off is the media's continued persistence of involving Paterno in this scandal. Are they ever going to fucking focus on Jerry Sandusky in relation to the scandal? Joe Paterno died; focus should be on his career and the good that he did (which definitely outweighs his involvement in this scandal).

I also wish Penn State as a whole could be salvaged from this mess. Penn State is more than just one asshole pedophile, and the football program he abused. Yeah, it matters. Do you know how many Penn State Alumni there are? Do you know how many people went to Penn State because of Joe Paterno? It's important news to a lot of people.

Juski raises an excellent point. This is important to everyone for exactly the reasons stated; even on the flip-side as to show how administrations function on a academic level.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

ElJuski said:
Seriously, it's just a matter of maybe opening up one or two news websites and glancing at headlines to know what's going on.
Click to expand...
What a great way to get informed. Do that with the Washington Post and you're going to think the Democrats are shining gods being held back by the evil conservatives. They don't get into facts unless you actually read the articles.

I'm not saying this isn't important. A situation like this is always important. But you wouldn't hear about it like this except because of who it involves. I have heard of Joe Pa (I didn't connect Joe Pa = Joe Paterno earlier though) and I heard something was going on, but not one person around me brought up the child abuse thing--it always started with "college football coach" or "Penn State", and I pretty much always tune that shit out. Maybe I would've paid attention if the important part came up first, but I think to the people mentioning those aspects, that was the important part and if it didn't involve this coach and this school, they wouldn't give a shit and they wouldn't talk about it.

Mathias said:
What does piss me off is the media's continued persistence of involving Paterno in this scandal. Are they ever going to fucking focus on Jerry Sandusky in relation to the scandal? Joe Paterno died; focus should be on his career and the good that he did (which definitely outweighs his involvement in this scandal).

I also wish Penn State as a whole could be salvaged from this mess. Penn State is more than just one asshole pedophile, and the football program he abused. Yeah, it matters. Do you know how many Penn State Alumni there are? Do you know how many people went to Penn State because of Joe Paterno? It's important news to a lot of people.

Juski raises an excellent point. This is important to everyone for exactly the reasons stated; even on the flip-side as to show how administrations function on a academic level.
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But you do think it would be getting this kind of attention if it didn't involve Penn State and JoePa? I kind of doubt it.
 
Charlie Don't Surf

Charlie Don't Surf

JoePa doesn't deserve to have this glossed over in his "legacy" just because he died. That's why I can't help myself from "dragging his name through the mud", since he shouldn't get a pass for winning a bunch of football games.
 
strawman

strawman

Mathias said:
What does piss me off is the media's continued persistence of involving Paterno in this scandal.
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Joe involved himself in this scandal. Don't blame the media for his actions.

Nevermind, go ahead and blame whoever you want. Those who believe that his contribution to the entertainment industry is worth a few child molestations can blame whoever they want - their opinion is worthless anyway. I can imagine them cuddled up in their university logo blankets whispering over and over, "To make a great omelet, you gotta break a few eggs... To make a great omelet, you gotta break a few eggs..."

If he had reported it properly, made sure the offender was immediately dismissed, and had followed up until the issue was completely resolved - he probably wouldn't have been coach for the last many years. I know there are people who think that the way things turned out is fine because he led his team to victory - and they are implicitly condoning the actions he took, which condone the actions of the offender.

But hey, after all, to make a great omelet...
 
Gared

Gared

Apparently in the wake of Paterno's death, the university faculty is now considering a vote of no confidence against the university board for the way he was fired. Not sure how I feel about that.
 
strawman

strawman

Are they talking about the fact that he was fired at all, or that he was fired for the reasons they stated, or the way he was fired (via phone, rather than in person)?

Because, after his career, an in-person visit from the president of the university and/or board of directors is certainly warranted.

Or a text message - that would have worked too.
 
Gared

Gared

Don't know - they didn't go into any detail on my news radio program on my way to work, it was just a teaser to get people to keep listening to their next hour and I got to work before they started.
 
strawman

strawman

Gared

Gared

That does sound like a rather large amount of faculty and staff. I'm trying to think about how many employees we would have had at WSU, and I can't even fathom having that much faculty and staff, but then, we were a university with a 7,000 member freshman class size on average. How big of a school is PSU anyway? I know they used to be a very small, mostly agricultural school before Paterno got hold of their football program and turned it into the behemoth it was/is today, but I never managed to get a number on how much bigger it became (looked it up, it's approx 60k students according to wiki.answers.com and 43k according to chacha.com). So yes, he had a massive impact on the university itself, the surrounding area, the entire state of Pennsylvania, possibly even the world (I don't know what, if any, major research areas are studied/researched at PSU but there's bound to be something). Just wish he'd done more than just report to his boss when he was informed by the grad assistant what was going on. Maybe he wouldn't have been football coach for the past 9 years, but he may have been allowed to resign gracefully instead of being dragged through the muck like he was.
 
Gared

Gared

Yeah, UofC is huge - though that number does include all of the UC campuses (Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz etc.), it's not just one campus like some of the other major universities - though I think most of them have extension campuses throughout their states these days.
 
Tress

Tress

Gared said:
Yeah, UofC is huge - though that number does include all of the UC campuses (Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz etc.), it's not just one campus like some of the other major universities - though I think most of them have extension campuses throughout their states these days.
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Yeah, we're a special case out here. I don't think you can really lump all the faculty from the university system together. Each campus is so distinct.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

If you go by college systems, the Ohio University system is the largest in the US with 478k students. I always thought Penn State is the largest if you go by a single campus though.
 
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