Plenty of people yesterday were indeed saying that Charles and NOT Amanda needed to be heralded as a hero. Some of this was quite tame but some of it was practically blaming her for her situation. I didn't agree with that yesterday, but in light of this information I believe even less that he is a hero. A dude who…

Just to be clear I'm not actually picking on Ramsey for what he did in the past - I'm just shocked that other people don't change their first impression of him as a decent guy in light of this new information. They'd rather ignore it so that he can fill their need for a hero in this tragic, sad story.

I saw that documentary. Was crazy weird. Now I sort of have this morbid obsession and I Want To Go To There.

I would love to come to Jamaica someday! Obviously I have no idea what it's like where you are for a comparison, but this is my impression of NZ. It is an easier life for us here than it was in Sweden in many ways but there are a few ways life is difficult.

By not thinking of him as a hero I had it in for him? Not so. I saw the video, and just like everyone else I thought "What a genuine, kind, caring, decent and brave human being". Since this has come out I have rethought my initial assessment of him as a top bloke. I am not taking Charles to task for what he did both…

You do some things right - like school lunches. We don't have that and it's a major talking point here. People think it's "unfair" to pay for the lunches of poor kids because it will give their parents an excuse to slack off. I find that a pretty weird attitude to have!!

"years of rigorous graduate studies and explaining my degree (no, I wasn't training to become a minister)..."

Because people reacted to him like "Hey, there's a decent guy who really cares about women, and saved them from an awful abusive situation! What a great guy!" and yet after this has come out, very few people are willing to think "Oh, hang on. This is a decent act from a very likable person who actually also did some…

Basically I'd be really stingy about awarding anyone the title of Hero. They'd probably really have to go out of their way and it would have to be at a really considerable cost or risk to themselves. The best "heroes" are those who readily admit that they were just trying to do the right thing and that there isn't (or…

North Korea is grey. :( It's just a big fucking question mark around this place, eh?

It's weird, I live in New Zealand but my partner is Swedish, so I figured if we ever got knocked up we'd run away to Sweden. NZ is nice enough if you have a little money, but child poverty and like, ancient bullshit childhood diseases that should've been wiped off the face of the earth years ago, are still a real…

Certainly not, but I think it'd be great if people would at least appreciate the grave irony and learn from this situation that 1)domestic violence is incredibly common, even among otherwise decent people and 2)sometimes, people who behave that way are capable of horrendous, despicable things, so each incidence of…

When the "hero" says that he "thought it was a domestic violence dispute" and that he was "raised to help women in distress" and the perpetrator of this crime also turns out to have a history of domestic abuse, then yes it has everything to do with it. Even before hearing about his past I thought heralding him as a…

I'm just saying ten years isn't an incredibly long time. Unless you've spent the whole time in a backyard/basement being abused.

Erm, the Castros made their kidnappings over 10 years ago. The passage of time certainly hasn't made them better people worthy of forgiveness.

Yeah and the comments at the end of the article this story links to. I guess those people didn't just read that Ariel Castro also began a long career of abusing women with a little domestic abuse, so they are failing to see the very depressing irony.

Then that just brings us back to the point made previously - Amanda, not Charles, was the real hero on the day. First for surviving, second for getting the fuck out, and third for sending help back for the other two girls. Yesterday someone in the comments had a problem with Amanda being labelled a hero but this shows…

Laura. You are my vegan Jez hero, you know that. But we totes differ on our opinion of whether or not Cavaliers should continue to exist. This squee is great PR for a breed that really don't deserve it - you might be creating demand for dogs which are often (I will admit not "always" before someone jumps down my…

Sorry bro, can't spell, no sympathy. Those are the rules.

I have been reading about Natascha Kampusch and Jaycee Dugard - I don't know why I do that to myself it's terribly depressing - it seems to me this rape dungeon scenario is just fucking epidemic and the shit I have seen on both stories horrifies, saddens and disgusts. A psychologist on a video concerning Ms…