FWIS3

Everyone knows about them, did you also know that there were bombings in Beirut that killed about 40 people on the same day that IS claimed responsibility for?

News is very picky about what they report.

Actually, I heard about the Beirut bombings via the media. But, then I tend to listen to NPR while I am driving around town.

And 20 or so people were killed in a Baghdad bombing.

The Paris story is still the biggest news, and not just because of the body count.

Yes. It's unprecedented in peacetime. The last time Paris had a curfew was 1944.

All of us news junkies have likely heard of the Beirut bombings as well, and they are also obviously horrible, but I will agree with geonuc on this one.

Oh, you guys missed what I was trying to say.
I went on the BBC website.
Front page : Paris bombing
Spain 2- 0 England
Morman's upset over treatment of gays by leaders.
Some crap about Trump.
etc
Not even a mention of Beirut.

I totally agree that Paris is the major event, but, I'd rather see priorities in reporting.
43 people dead in Beirut got Trumped. That is really disturbing to me.

For once I agree with vendic.

I mean, we all know that news media priorities are skewed. But it's still messed up.

It's news for the masses. They like their bread and circuses. Trump is way more entertaining than hearing about Shiite's bombing Sunni's who are bombing Kurds who are bombing Turks who are bombing Isis.

From the reaction I've seen, it's more like "OMG!! They were going to bomb the Eiffel Tower! I know someone who was there once!"

Gullible Jones wrote:For once I agree with vendic.

We agree all the time. You just haven't yet digested all the facts in some cases.

grapes wrote:From the reaction I've seen, it's more like "OMG!! They were going to bomb the Eiffel Tower! I know someone who was there once!"

Human nature I guess. I've seen a lot of those type of posts too. People want to relate to the event somehow.

vendic wrote:

grapes wrote:From the reaction I've seen, it's more like "OMG!! They were going to bomb the Eiffel Tower! I know someone who was there once!"

Human nature I guess. I've seen a lot of those type of posts too. People want to relate to the event somehow.

Well, yes. I've been to that Paris stadium a few years back to watch France vs USA, for example. I go down there for weekends sometimes- it's only 250 miles away from where I type this- on the train that almost got up this past summer. I am far more connected to Paris than I am to Beirut or to Baghdad, no "somehow" about it, and that's pretty common in the Western world. (But then I had similar feelings when they shot up that shopping mall in Kenya a year or two ago which I've also been to.)

To clarify, the difference and shock that people are feeling in Europe right now is because this happened in Europe. It's very safe here on a level that is unimaginable to many in the USA, where yet another mass shooting is expected. (Edit: to see what I mean, check the first plot in this post.) So yes, people are going to gasp when this kind of stuff happens in their proverbial backyard, and I think that's a pretty common thing to expect from human nature at that.

Rommie wrote:It's very safe here on a level that is unimaginable to many in the USA, where yet another mass shooting is expected. (Edit: to see what I mean, check the first plot in this post.) So yes, people are going to gasp when this kind of stuff happens in their proverbial backyard, and I think that's a pretty common thing to expect from human nature at that.

That jumped out at me when I read this. Unimaginable?

Gees, we just drove five hundred miles this weekend, where I'd never been before and where I'd never known anyone, and walked around a town in the dark, chose a restaurant at random, and never thought once about the possibility of being gunned down.

O *sure* I sit with my back to the door and check for raptor ingress points but doesn't everyone?

grapes wrote:

Rommie wrote:It's very safe here on a level that is unimaginable to many in the USA, where yet another mass shooting is expected. (Edit: to see what I mean, check the first plot in this post.) So yes, people are going to gasp when this kind of stuff happens in their proverbial backyard, and I think that's a pretty common thing to expect from human nature at that.

That jumped out at me when I read this. Unimaginable?

Gees, we just drove five hundred miles this weekend, where I'd never been before and where I'd never known anyone, and walked around a town in the dark, chose a restaurant at random, and never thought once about the possibility of being gunned down.

O *sure* I sit with my back to the door and check for raptor ingress points but doesn't everyone?

I meant more how mass shootings happen very regularly in the USA on levels that are unfathomable in the rest of the Western world. I'm not saying people are paranoid about being gunned down when out and about, but rather a lot of people are used to a mass shooting every few months.