I have officially reached the point where the last people I would call if I was in danger or needed help are the police.

Actually, it's pastimes.

'Murica, the land of obesity and police executions. I hope all of these cops lose their jobs and get charged with murder.

Can we finally admit that militarizing the police was a really bad idea?

I used to catch a lot of flack because I say I'll never call the cops and that I just truly do not believe they ever have my best interest in mind. But more and more stories like this are coming out and I don't understand how anyone feels that cops are actually here to protect us.

The police are the ones who murdered Winkler. They shot first and sorted things out later. The stabber is certainly a violent criminal, but it's messed up that the cops are getting a pass.

The problem is that minority will defend this murderer until the end of time.

So... they shot the apparent victim too, the one who was bleeding from the neck? For good measure?...

if you know he has hostages, you don't shoot the people running towards you, particularly if one is obviously injured. They could very well be (and in this case, were) the hostages running to you for safety. And this wasn't one officer making a mistake; it says THREE cops fired on BOTH of them. This was a case of cops…

"I don't want my kids experiencing unbiased reality before I've had a chance to inoculate them against it."

The people I know don't call people freaks and then tell themselves that they're good people who 'hold no ill will'. They care about people. They show empathy, they recognize that treating people with respect and decency is healthier than instantly ridiculing and mocking them. They're willing to learn about people and…

Mmmm... I'm also generally a proponent of waiting until you're older but my best friend from high school got married when she was 23. They'd been together 7 years, they both had good jobs and were able to buy a house just a few years later. Some people are ready at a younger age.

This is tangentially related, but I've been working at a community college tutoring students taking legal classes there. I've been talking with one student for about a month about the case of Michelle Kosilek, who's an inmate in MA who is seeking sex reassignment surgery. My student started about being pretty…

More fitting, though. ;-)

Full disclosure: the ring my wife wears wasn't worth $10k, but it was somewhere between $5k and $10k. Let's leave it at that.

not all of them Dr. Vader. just the ones that involve 5 figures.

Idiot Loses $10K Engagement Ring After Leaving It in a Dressing Room

Other things that could distract older kids:

A very overweight person

"It's not that I think our children would be disturbed, it's that I think they're young enough that they might see a loving relationship between two people and think it's something good, rather than an abomination that must be rejected by all decent people."

Hey, at least you can vote on things like that, though I'm not to sure about the actual results. Here, we have a mysterious combination of government policy, expert opinion, and pork barrel appointments.