In urban parlance the term "getting real" can sometimes be used to denote a breakdown in positive social interaction between two groups of people, and is often put into play when things have taken an unfortunate turn towards violence and mayhem. Which, of course, makes for a great rap music topic, one that especially appeals to privileged suburban teens looking to derive vicarious thrills by imagining what exactly is going down amongst certain less fortunate minority populations in this country. It has been a multi-billion dollar industry for a while now. A form of social criticism that ironically profits those often held responsible for many of these societal ills in the first place.
All of which is pretty much accepted in this world of ours, and not quite the hot button concern it was a few years back. But today we have an issue that is decidedly more current and now. We're talking about what happens when things go south amongst those engaged in the blessings of social media.
Ask yourself this. What if certain audiences for this stuff were to turn bad themselves, and then act out their rage in actual physical violence, even murder? According to three stories that hit the news wires yesterday, that is exactly what is happening in America right now. Social media is getting real, and the vehicle for much of it is Facebook.
Here is our first shocking development, which comes to us from ABC News.com (click here):
Facebook 'Defriending' Led To Double Murder, Police Say - A Tennessee couple removed a woman they knew from their list of friends on Facebook, and authorities say the woman's father and her boyfriend, upset over her treatment, retaliated last week by murdering the couple in their home.
Marvin Potter, 60, and Jamie Curd, 38, have each been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and are being held in the Johnson County Jail, said authorities in Mountain City, Tenn.
On the morning of Jan. 31, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation alleged, the two men shot and killed Billy Payne Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth in the house they shared. Payne's throat was slashed. The couple had an 8-month-old baby boy, who was found unharmed in his mother's arms.
You just never know how that "friend" things is being received on the other end of a social media transaction.
Yesterday Associated Press published a story about a father who took his daughter's comments about him on her Facebook page very much to heart. And then acted out his anguish and rage with videotaped gunplay (click here).
Father Shoots His Daughter's Laptop For Posting a Mean Comment About Him on Facebook - A North Carolina man was none too pleased with one of his daughter Hannah's Facebook posts. So instead of just telling her, he decided to tell the world exactly how he felt in a YouTube video. After already grounding Hannah for three months for what her refers to as a similar incident in the past, Tommy Jordan decided to take his disciplinary action to a whole new, more public level. Jordan uploaded a video of himself sitting in a lawn chair reading aloud his 15-year-old daughter's post and then shooting nine hollow-point rounds into her computer with his .45-caliber gun.
Now that is some radical parenting. Later in this article it is reported that Tommy Jordan's video "has received more than 650 comments, 1,300 "likes," and 800,000 views on YouTube." As you can plainly see by all those "likes," the response has been exceedingly positive.
One final Facebook story hit the wires yesterday, and it deals with the use a sexual predator had made of the popular social media service in furthering a deviant scheme (click here). The young girls involved in this story are 13 to 15 years old.
AG: Pa. man's Facebook 'surfer' page lured teens - A married father used phony Facebook profiles to pose as two different Florida surfers to solicit sexually graphic messages and photos from seven teenage girls in western Pennsylvania, and two of the girls eventually agreed to meet for sex with the surfers' middle-aged "friend" - yet another fake persona he used, the state attorney general said Friday.
William R. Ainsworth, 53, of Mars, was charged Thursday with 68 counts, including involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and multiple counts of charges that include attempted unlawful contact with a minor, possession of child pornography and criminal use of a computer.
Ainsworth has been jailed in Butler County, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh, since he was arrested on similar charges in September, when authorities say he traveled to the home of a 14-year-old girl for sex.
Ainsworth's September arrest led authorities to uncover "an elaborate and disturbing false identity scam" in which Ainsworth concocted profiles depicting two 15-year-ol high school dropouts who had run away to become surfers, Attorney General Linda Kelly said at a news conference Friday. The profiles were created using pictures of anonymous teens investigators believe Ainsworth lifted from MySpace pages.
Apparently for some Facebook has become the nexus where their troubled fantasy world meets a rather disturbing reality. Getting real, as they say.
http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
Lookie here: I am officially unfriending Joe Mosca, John Buchanan, Josh Moran, and Nancy Walsh.
ReplyDeleteWatch out, 7:54. None of them takes rejection well.
DeleteJohn Crawford!
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean you are not recommending we buy stock in the new IPO, Facebook?
If you don't they shoot you.
ReplyDeleteSo, instead of 'unfriending' better keep your friends on facebook to those who are real 'friends.' What is all this numbers game about except ficticious uber popularity that should have gone out with high school?
ReplyDeleteIf you are stuck with unwanted friends--it is possible to just cancel your facebook account and then open it up again and start all over from scratch. Or it that won't work?T here needs to be a new catagory--not 'unfriend' as that is just too, too sad a term given our fragile sense of 'self' maybe you could 'refriend' and leave out folks.
Also, if you are asked to 'friend' someone and don't, they will know that won't they?
I think they need to put a "buzz off" button on there.
ReplyDelete"If you're in a position to lose a chunk of money and want to speculate on Facebook, go ahead:' Grim warnings against 'gold rush' of Facebook IPO
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096670/Facebook-IPO-If-youre-position-lose-money-want-speculate-ahead.html
Good information 9:10 am.
ReplyDeleteI've heard this before.
How about a button that shows someone with their hands up in the air screaming, "Don't Shoot!"
ReplyDeleteIt would seem that the bottom line for facebook...freedom of speech has gone to a new level of disrespect. Then they empower themselves by signing their names to it.
ReplyDeleteYes there's a great deal of irony in the fact that the profits from rap make the powers that be more powerful - almost as much irony as in the fact that a kid with some form of autism that makes him socially inept has brought the world the most popular form of social media.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Is social media autistic?
DeleteThe internet is just people.
ReplyDeleteYep, you could always reach millions of readers without having any brains, skills, or credibility. How could there ever be something new.
DeleteTrue 1:07, the form is new. The content? Not so much.
DeleteNo Loony Views News today. I was awaiting the big explanation for why we should vote for the UUT tax. Maybe we can vote no on it because we won't be spending any tax money on a "adjudicated" weekly paper that doesn't come out when it is supposed to?
ReplyDeleteHave you checked the only two places the paper is always delivered, the Senior Center or City Hall?
DeleteIt is usually at the CRA Bottle Shop or Happy's, where I buy my beverages. No LVN either place. Maybe they didn't pay their printer bill. This was supposed to be a big important issue.
DeleteIt's only a matter of time before that Henderson house of cards falls down.
DeleteWashington, DC (USNews) – President Nute Husein Romnesantorum today told lawmakers to back a deeply unpopular Conservative Republican rescue in a vote on Sunday, or condemn the country to a "vortex" of recession.
ReplyDeleteHe spoke in a televised address to the nation, ahead of Sunday's vote on 3.3 trillion dollars in wage, pension and job cuts as the price of a bailout from China and the International Monetary Fund.
The effort to ease US’s huge debt burden has brought tens of thousands into the streets in protest, and there were signs on Saturday of a small rebellion among lawmakers uneasy with the extent of the cuts.
President Romnesantorum, said Congress had a historic responsibility to back the bill, or face catastrophic consequences of a March 20 bankruptcy deadline to service its debt.
"A disorderly default would set the country on a disastrous adventure," he said. "It would create conditions of uncontrolled economic chaos and social explosion."
"The country would be drawn into a vortex of recession, instability, unemployment and protracted misery and this would sooner or later lead the country out of a stable currency, and a spiraling death of the dollar."
OMB's finance committee approved the bill on Saturday, and a full vote in the House expected late on Sunday.
The House bipartisan coalition has a huge majority, which should ensure approval of the package needed to secure America’s second bailout since 2014.
But the number of dissenters in the Democratically controlled Senate is growing.
About 49 Senators belonging to the Democratic party, backed by the unions, shrugged off threats from party leaders and warned they might reject the bailout. It would take 2 more votes to scuttle the law, blaming it on Republican partisanship.
Six members of the cabinet have already resigned in protest.
"It is important for lawmakers to understand what is at stake is the end of the United States as we know it." The President told the USNews.
Lawmakers need to approve the deal by Sunday, otherwise the country will not make a February 17 deadline to submit the debt swap offer to its Chinese private-sector bondholders,
Nightmare, the fed owns 75% of our bonds.
DeleteIt's only 2012, 2014 isn't here...yet
DeleteWould have been interesting to see what WAS on Robert Matheson's facebook page and who his friends were before the page was scrubbed clean by someone...Speaking of which, isn't that creep due to return to the burg sometime very soon?
ReplyDeleteYes. He is going to take Bart's place on the PUSD Redistricting Committee.
Delete@ 8:05 Har har!
DeleteIt's not as funny to those of us with school aged children.
With all the important things you should be writing about why did you choose Facebook again? Why don't you write about Sandy being Chris' campaign manager and what bad judgement he showed by picking her. Or is it that you won't write anything bad about Chris? So far you haven't said anything, seems strange to me. You usually jump on the slightest thing.
ReplyDeleteWhat seems important to you might not seem important to me. And you have posted about this topic at least 6 times now. That said, I will have some remarks to make on the race for the 2 year CC seat on Monday.
DeleteI'll tell you what's stange, how the hell is this Colin Braudrick guy getting all this money for his campaign?
DeleteHe's already put out a very expensive mailer, has hundreds of signs on every curb, put up by realtors, he is being financed and supported by the same people who fought the residents who got Measure V. All the NO on V. people are banking on this Braudrick to be their third majority vote on the city council along with his housemate, Josh and "lookie here" Nancy Walsh.
Now that's strange......or actually it's pretty disgusting.
As for Chris Koerber. The guys out walking the city, going door to door. He's a financial expert and an honest guy. His wife is a very decent woman who is running his campaign from her home.
Get off the "trash Sandi crap" it's getting old and she ain't running for office. She's a registered voter, has a right to support anyone she wants, same as all you dirt bags and Colin "cougars".
I sure prefer him to a guy who is being supported by the Bart Doyle gangsters. As they would say on facebook...GET REAL.
I have only posted about it twice, but I think I am not the only one. I will be honest, I have something personal against Sandy ever since measure v. I don't know Chris well. I don't know Colin at all, but don't trust him at all. He will do whatever PD wants. And he is in the pockets of the unions. That would make another good story. Right now I am planning on writing in John Shear for the two year seat. He is a real hero.
Delete8:03, perhaps you haven't noticed, but in the upper right hand corner there are the words "Create blog."
DeleteYou can always start your own. Free and easy.
8:28 don't give it a second thought or anything, but you are saying that for one candidate, nothing matters more than who supports him, while for the other candidate, who supports him is irrelevant.
Delete@ 10:30, How dare you point to the heart of the double standard!?! Hypocrisy can live on only when it is not dragged into the light of day. Your use of logic has no place here.
DeleteYou are right, of course 11:51. But both sides are doing it.
DeleteZing! So true, dear Moderator, so true.
Delete11:51, thank you, and I'm delighted that someone noticed what I thought was a very accurate post. However, logic does belong here in the Tattler comments. Most of the people who post are reasonable, intelligent people. We just have a few wackos who have a hard time with mood control.
DeleteSmall town politics at its finest. This is going to be an interesting election cycle, that's for sure.
DeleteI can't to read Mondays blog! Go get'em John! We seem to have no choice in that seet. Both seem to be suspicious to me.
ReplyDeleteJust so you have the facts. Colin is paying for his own campaign. His ex wife told me he took money out of his 401k to run for office. To me that seemed like dedication. His ex wife was even suportive of him. I did not expect that.
ReplyDelete9:25
DeleteBS, none of us believe that for a minuet and neither do you.
The guy is a fake. A plant by Bart Doyle.
He's dedicated all right...but sure not for the people of Sierra Madre. Just look closely at who supports him. Toni Moran, Teri Buchanan, Carol Canterbury, the Mary's Market thugs, Bart Doyle, the list of dirts goes on and on.
This guy is another Mosca. Koerber couldn't possibly be as bad as this guy will be. I'm sure not voting for him, and would hope others think about this very carefully. We want to save Sierra Madre not give it away to the DICs.
Minuets!! I LOVE classical music too!! Is Colin a musician? What a talented man. Perhaps he's a better speller than you as well.
DeleteGood one. He is certainly a better tap dancer.
DeleteMinuets is a regular poster, and has been misspelling that word for years. It's one that spellcheck doesn't catch....
DeleteI liked Colins mailer. He seems qualified. I like what he put about protecting trees. I was surprised he had a MBA, seems like he might be a financial expert too.
ReplyDeleteSeems like stupidity to me since he is going to loose to Chris.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like it, he looked like a Josh Moran wannabe.
DeleteObviously a narcissist. If he was a financial expert, he wouldn't be sharing a house with Josh Moran. Use your head for something besides a hair rack.
Keep supporting Chris here at the Tattler, that way he is assured a loss in this election.
DeleteSo having a roommate to lower expenses and living within your means is a strike against you here at the Tattler. I thought fiscal conservatism was the cornerstone of Tattler politics. You espouse it for City Hall, but when a candidate walks the walk you trash him for it. Typical.
DeleteThere are many viewpoints in the Tattler readership. To lump them alltogether is thoughtless.
DeleteTypical of a dirt campaign is to reduce everything to personalities and feelings. The last thing they want people to talk about are issues. That is where they are at their weakest. Especially now that our last two mayors have run this town into the ground.
Delete@11:23
DeleteSo, you've talked to the candidates about the issues that are important to you?
I don't need to waste time with minuet dancers to know where my votes are going.
DeleteHuh?
DeletePlease don't feed the Trolls.
DeleteThey're greedy little gobblers, aren't they?
DeleteThey've been very busy this morning, it's quite entertaining.
DeleteWhat some people fail to realize is The Tattler is about entertainment. If folks wanted dry and empty discussions about the happenings about Sierra Madre, they'd be flocking in droves to, say, Coburn's site. But they're not. They're coming here. And that is because people really enjoy no-hold barred political discussion. Those few who do complain that things get too rough around here are actually being quite hypocritical. If they themselves don't derive some sort of satisfaction from it, then why do they keep coming back? I find that to be endlessly amusing.
DeleteWonder if Colin knows Mr. Packer? Up on Vista Circle Dr.?
ReplyDeleteBoth worked at the same homicide division for the L.A.P.D.
Packer's wife is with the Mary's Market, Josh Moran, now Colin Braudrick campaign headquarters.
This woman went door to door during the last election along with a small group of dirts, mostly in the real estate business.
They hold meetings up there at the market.
These people need Braudrick to win, like they need their next breath of oxygen. They need to get their money back they lost when the citizens of Sierra Madre voted for Measure V. the measure that saved our downtown, and saved our property values, not to mention our safety and security.
I wouldn't vote for one of my close friends who works for LAPD and is in the SEIU union, nothing wrong with being in a union, I am in a union. However, the police officer's union encourages their members to run for city council
seats so they can influence negotiations for better pay and benefits for police. This is okay, except....not for Sierra Madre at this time.
It will bankrupt us, and we'll be in real trouble financially.
Nope, I'm voting for Chris Koerber, hope you will too. Think about what makes sense at this time here in this town!
What makes sense in this town right now is to do away with our Opie & Andy Police Department and contract out to the fine professionals in the LA County Sheriffs Department. I think the savings would almost cover the misappropriated funds from the Community Redevelopment Agencies.
Delete...about this election:
ReplyDeleteFor the two years on the term abandoned by Joe Mosca--it would appear that the candidate with the financial skills that we need to shepard Sierra Madre along wisely would be Chris Kroeber.
I think it is a smart move to return MaryAnn MacGillivray so her insight and institutional memmory can carry us forward.
John Capoccia possesses the intelligence and life-time career skills in the public and private sector to guide the City Council with wise decisions.
Hey, I just read on the Facebook that Colin and Josh's house had a fire, fire department put it out. I bet it is a Boyle publicity stunt.
ReplyDeleteToo bad you can set out Colin's mailer down side by side with the ones put out by John Buchanan, Joe Mosca and Josh Moran and I think you would see the copycat effort to bamboozle the voters of Sierra Madre. Prepare to be bamboozled again!
ReplyDeleteHis yard sign logo is also very similar to Joshs signs from the last election, hmmmmmm. Did they use the same graphic artist?
DeleteForget the signs, what about the cheesecake photography?
DeleteBut, he's so dreamy!
DeleteIt's great that the Tattler comments are here for people to vent.
ReplyDeleteBut there isn't actually any good information that would help anyone choose who to elect.
I think it's the 2 same posters who keep coming back, ready to mud wrestle about the Koerber/Braudrick race.
Oh boy,
ReplyDeleteJust read the agenda report for the next Planning Commission meeting (you can find it on Chris Koerber's wepsite). Danny Castro is going back to the Planning Commission next week to ask the Commissioners to clarify that Measure V does not apply to the assisted living facility project.
No, I'm not kidding.
On what planet or alternate universe does Measure V not apply to that project? I'm shocked, quite frankly, that Castro would do that given the level of opposition. Kudos to Chris for posting the information that City Hall just can't be bothered to do.
DeleteI think Colin is a nice man and well meaning. And, I'm impressed that he has an MBA. The reason I am not voting for him is that he is a close friend of and lives with Council Member Josh Moran. In fact, I heard Mr. Moran encouraged Colin to run.
ReplyDeleteJosh was a fierce opponent of Measure V and has always been a friend of over-development. Josh even opposed the reasonable efforts of his other Council Members to restrict development in the narrow defiles of the canyon area.
I'm concerned that Colin will vote in unison with Josh.
Colin believes he can "bring Josh around." I think that the opposite might be true. Colin not only lives with Josh, he spends a lot of his time with those Josh spends his time with. A lot of them are involved in his campaign. When he walked down to the podium and bizarrely claimed that Fay Angus had said that Buchanan and Moran were in on Matheson's crimes, that was a kool aid moment for Colin. That is what he'd been hearing in the circle he hangs with. Whether he knew he was passing on a lie or not, it was very telling. He had no idea what was really going on, or what those outside of the Moran circle might think. Didn't have a clue. Just that side of the story. That is when the veil came off and he lost my vote.
ReplyDeleteMe too 1:34. Before that, I thought that really either of the candidates would do a good job. After that unnecessary defense that played into Moran's saying Fay Angus had set a "new low", I don't trust Braudrick to get the real substance of what's going on.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that these comment boards hold so much hate and distrust. Judging by the tone, Colin will almost certainly win a City Council seat. The higher the Tattler opposition, the more likely it is that you will hold public office. Any doubters of my theory should take a closer look at Mr. Crawfords ill fated council run in the last election.
ReplyDeleteLet the flaming begin.
Yes, there can be no doubt that the average Sierra Madre voter has an insatiable need to be manipulated and bamboozled. You don't have to look any further than Josh Moran or Joe Mosca to see that.
DeleteThere's something to that 11:01. The more rage a few posters share in their efforts to defeat a candidate rather than support one, the more it's used against the candidates they do support. Gives the opposition a great advantage.
DeleteThe people of Sierra Madre have been lied to so many times by candidates who make all the right sounds but once they are elected shaft them. What does Colin stand for? And why was there nothing about that on his post card? It read like a Joe Mosca card. All fluffy and sweet.
DeleteIt's getting real on The Tattler, too.
ReplyDeleteIt has always been real on the Tattler.
Delete