There Are Good Things Happening in the World, Right?

I'm pretty happy that Valentine's Day has passed us by for another year. Not because I'm single; I haven't had anyone to celebrate the holiday with since 2001, so I'm pretty used to it. And, believe it or not, I'm not taking the opportunity to whine about it like many people are. Fundamentally, I'm for things that promote and foster love. A day that recognizes it is a good thing in my book. No, my problem with Valentine's Day this year was something far, far more sinister.

CVS, in all its corporate opportunism glory, had a cavalcade of cheap crap for people to buy. Apparently, if your relationship was worth $3-$15 dollars, you were coming to me and buying your stuffed monkies and heart-shaped chocolate boxes. And if you were feeling especially demonstrative, you could buy some helium balloons. Some of them- for the low, low price of $13!- actually played music. There were two songs that the balloons played, one of them being "You're Still the One." Now, that's cute, right? What if you heard it 20-30 times a day, four days a week? After a month of that, you're willing to buy the balloons yourself just to get them out of the store. Of course, nobody was buying them because they were absurdly priced for balloons. So people would make them play the little song snippet again, and again, and again. I was ready to jab my own ear drums.

Of course, nothing says Valentine's Day like a sex scandal. But this isn't really a sex scandal as it is just weird. A teacher in Sweden was convicted of sexual harassment for flashing her breasts at a student. But the teacher claims it was for... disciplinary reasons? The story features one of the greatest lines I've ever read: "The teacher, 47, claimed that she had only revealed her breasts in reaction to the boy's provocative doodles and that there was nothing sexual about the act." Oh. She had to pay damages to the kid as part of her sentence. So the kid got to see a woman's breasts and get paid for it. On the downside, he can only go down from here.
Other headlines on the site: "Teacher charged in sex for grades scandal," "Victory for topless bathers," "Police get a grip on serial masturbator." Maybe I should bookmark.

South Korea had one of its big historic landmarks consumed by fire, and it looks to be intentional. Sad. Why set an old wooden structure ablaze? Maybe it's the historian in me, but stuff like that we need to keep around if we can.
Also, do we really need story highlights from CNN when it takes two minutes to read? Are we really that ADD? Geez.
While we're on CNN, a former Khmer Rouge commander died Friday. We're bound to see more of the former communist faction dying off pretty soon; it's been 29 years since their reign ended. For no particular reason, I remember a New York Times headline declaring the death of Pol Pot. What strikes me about this article is that this particular person, like many in the Khmer, were never brought to justice for their crimes. Instead, he fled to the jungle... and eventually joined the Cambodian government, even becoming a general in the army.
What. The. Heck? Where's the UN on that one? I mean, they knew about the killing fields, right? They didn't miss that one, did they? General in the army? And the people were OK with this? (Probably not.) Furthermore, why is this new knowledge? Isn't this something everyone should know about? I bet I could go out on a given day and ask 100 people if they know what the Khmer Rouge is... I'll give you an over/under that seven know of it. Of course, it didn't involve white people, so it's not taught in our schools.
By the way, there are still Nazis in hiding. They still refuse to confess to their crimes. At least they're being sort of dealt with.

And while there are a lot of poorly-run NGO's out there, I have to give it to the World Health Organization for its head-on efforts against tobacco worldwide. They're really focusing on limiting tobacco use in the poorer nations of the world, as the poorest tend to smoke a lot. Also, remind me not to go to Greece- 59% of men there smoke daily? Yuh-uck. And maybe the UN should ban smoking on its headquarters. Just a thought.
Probably the thing I really hate most about my job is selling cigarettes. I want to tell everyone that wants to by them, "No." It makes me sick sometimes. Stop it, please. Just stop. It's such a worthless, dumb thing to do.

And the Westboro Baptist Church, everyone's favorite pious protesters, has notified everyone they will be picketing the funerals of the NIU victims. In my mind, they've crossed the line from villains to pitiable figures. Their absolute hate for the world, frankly, is sad. They're so far gone they can't see the world anymore. Such unadulterated hatred is Satan's domain. If you didn't know, they're all lawyers. They use their controversy and attention-mongering techniques to lure people into doing something they can be sued for.
I can only hope there is enough good out there to counterbalance institutions like Westboro.