On one level, this is the easiest question for an author to answer. On another, it's the hardest.
I guess the simple answer is that I write because I can't conceive of a life without writing. It's the only thing I'm good at, the only thing that brings me even a sliver of satisfaction, the only thing that shoves those whirling thoughts of death to the back of my mind. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't write – it's inconceivable to me; I wouldn't be good at much else.
On a deeper level, it's about the transportative function of reading. I've wanted to be a writer of fiction since the age of ten and the reason is that by then I was already under the spell of books, of fiction, of stories that take you out of your life and send you on wild adventures, eventually dropping you back off where you started, a somehow different person. I read voraciously as a kid. I read everything I could get my hands on, whether it was the Famous Five or Stephen King, Alistair Maclean or Wilbur Smith. Books did something to me that nothing else could approach. They pulled me out of my boring middle-class childhood and thrust me into rich and exotic worlds filled with war or revelation or unimaginable landscapes. Writing is transportation. It is also an escape hatch and we all need an escape hatch. I remember that even during dinner I'd have a book snuck on my lap, snatching furtive sentences and paragraphs between bites. Books changed my world as a child and I wanted to to write books because of that – their power, their transformative nature, the way they allow us to view our lives from the side.
Of course, once you start writing seriously, once you start being published, the reasons modulate and shift. This is true of everything. The reasons I give myself for writing these days are different. I get obsessed with an idea, a theory or a period of history and that obsession grows and gnaws inside me until the only way to release it is to write about it. Whether it's the question of representation and the Holocaust in my first novel, cults and Greek islands in my second, Africa and the phenomenon of child soldiers in my third or Liberation Theology and the nature of religious activism in my most recent. A novel (which takes two to three years to complete) allows you to indulge your obsession for a period of time befitting it. Delving deep into the universe of old books, articles, newspapers and rumours. There's nothing better than that. And this brings me to the next reason, perhaps the main reason of why I still write, and that's that writing, for me, serves as an extended mode of thinking. When I start to write about a subject I think I know what I feel about it, but the nature of writing uncovers deeper layers and allows me to probe the subject on many levels and discover new things. Writing is an exploratory activity, a journey into the deep recesses of one's thoughts and beliefs, a way to understand the world and one's self a little bit better.
How I write is a different matter. I nearly always begin with landscape, with setting – knowing where a certain book is set will delineate the parameters of what can and cannot happen within its pages. I'm very interested in the intersection of landscape and consciousness – psychogeography, if you will. Once I know where the novel is set, I read everything I can about that particular place and time. Ideas appear. Notes fill up blank pages. I normally start writing the book when I have the first scene worked out. I don't know where the novel is going or what the characters will come up against but that's part of the fun and thrill of exploration. Write what you don't know you know, I often tell students. I bang out a first draft, or zero draft, very quickly, 4-5 weeks, writing a chapter every day but never looking at the screen, let alone trying to edit. The zero draft is the blank space that allows me to throw out all my ideas and stories and see where they fall.
Then comes the real work – and the real joy – of writing. Revisions. Drafts. I normally end up doing ten drafts per novel, each draft going through the entire book from start to finish. Every draft adds a new layer to the novel. The first few are often concerned with getting the plot shored up. This can take up to a year, sometimes more. It's normally at this point that I find the gravitational centre of the novel, the core around which all the stray thoughts metaphors, characters and scenes coalesce. Each draft then adds further detail. For me, re-writing is the only time I start to feel good about the book – re-write each sentence 20 or 30 times and eventually something decent slips through. In reality, I only spend about 10% of my time writing and the other 90% re-writing which, I think, is common to most novelists.
Stav Sherez is the author of The Devil's Playground, The Black Monastery, A Dark Redemption and Eleven Days. From 1999 to 2004 he was a main contributor to the music magazine Comes with a Smile. From December 2006 he has been literary editor of the Catholic Herald.
This entry was posted in Why I Write on April 6, 2015 by Nicci Cloke.


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Q: Packaging external files with JavaFX deployment I have a JavaFX app that reads in a configuration file.  I'd like the config file to remain outside of the jar to facilitate modification without recompiling.  Is there a way to set up netbeans to grab the config file and include it in the installer?
I've found the option to change to icon and that works fine but I haven't been able to discover how to tell it to also include specific external resources.
I've read the information posted here: http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/deployment/self-contained-packaging.htm but I'm still not seeing a way to accomplish this.

A: I don't think there's a way to do this (though I may be wrong). I needed something similar to this once, and the approach I took was

*

*Package the file in the jar file

*At program start-up time, check to see if the file exists in the expected location on the local drive

*If it's there, read it, etc

*Otherwise, read the contents from the jar and write them to the expected file

This solves the problem of "deploying outside the jar", and it also solves the problem of the user inadvertently deleting the file after deployment, etc.

A: The way I solved this issue (due to having many dependent .dll's and other type items) was to use netbeans to compile the jar, which has things like images/css/fxml etc. etc. and then use an Inno Script to actually compile and configure the installer, since inno makes it pretty straightforward to include extra resources. I have yet to find a way to do this properly within javafx itself.

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April 20, 2017 April 21, 2017 Leave a comment #DarrylHamamoto#gooddoctor#OperationPaperClip#SenatorPan#VaxxedNation#VaxxedNationTour#VaxxedTears-1/37?AaboutAbuseaccusedAdjuvantsAfteraluminiumAMAZINGAnaphylacticandapprovedatautisticautoimmunity–înBABY'SbaddestBeenBigBiggestCause-And-CorrelationCausingchildhoodchildren'sChoicechronicclinicalCluesCombiningdangerousDangersDavisdealerDeclinesdesignedDiagnosesDisagreeingDiseasesdoctorsdoneDrDramaticdrugdueDYINGEpisodefacesforFranzfromHamamotoHaveHeHealthHerHisHPVinjuryIsIt'sKLiteratureMomMOSTneuroinflammationNevernewbornNewsNotnowofoldoneOrlandoOwnPatientsPediatricianPersecutionPharmaplayingPrayBigpreventProfessorrapidlyreceivingRegardingregressionReviewRFKcommissionrisesafeSB277ScienceShinglesshockshotSkipspeakingStudentsstudyStumpedTalksTEARS-testimonyTexansTexasthatTheThereTimetoTruthUCUseVaccinationvaccinevaccinesVAXXEDVisitVitaminWe'llWhatWithWorldyearZostavax
Vaccine News – "It took me 7 years to teach him how to chew"
Big Pharma is the biggest, baddest, most dangerous drug dealer in the world.
Study – Clinical clues for autoimmunity and neuroinflammation in patients with autistic regression.
The charts of 206 children with ASD and 33 diagnosed with autistic regression variant were reviewed. The incidence of febrile illness in the 6 months prior to initial parental concern was significantly higher in the children with autistic regression compared with those with ASD (30% vs 0%; p<0.001). The overall prevalence of familial autoimmunity was also higher in children with autistic regression compared with those with ASD (33% vs 12%; p<0.001). Type 1 diabetes and autoimmune thyroiditis were both more common in families with children with autistic regression. Other non-immune risk factors did not differ between the two groups.
INTERPRETATION:
Our findings suggest that predisposition to autoimmunity, and immune/inflammatory activation, may be associated with autistic regression.
The Vaccine Science Contradiction
The modern human race has been thriving and evolving for at least the last 200,000 years according to Anthropologists. Vaccines have only been around for less than 200 years. So how did humans survive for the 199,800 years before that. The answer is that you are born with a fully functioning immune system, capable of self-immunization. Vaccines are not required for immunization. Your body does it automatically. Just like 10,000 generations of your ancestors who also survived without vaccines. If your immune system didn't work automatically to keep you alive then you would have never been born.
The Amazing Dr. Franz from Orlando.
#gooddoctor #pediatrician #vaxxed #praybig
Episode 7 of The Truth About Vaccines is NOW PLAYING. Tonight's episode is all about Vaccine alternatives and Freedom of Choice. Super important for you to see.
Aluminium Adjuvants Have Never Been Approved For Use In Vaccination
In a press release, describing Professor Exley's latest paper, the founder of the Dwoskin Family Foundation, Mrs. Claire Dwoskin wrote:
"Research at Keele University led by Professor Christopher Exley aims to understand the toxicity of aluminum adjuvants in vaccinations and their latest findings are now published in Nature's 'Scientific Reports.
In a project funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Dwoskin Foundation the group at Keele investigated the relationship between the physicochemical properties of aluminum adjuvants and the immune response. Specifically, they show that the reaction of the aluminum adjuvant at the injection site will determine its subsequent fate and therefore its activity both at the injection site and away from the injection site.
One form of aluminum adjuvant which is most commonly used in vaccines is an aluminum hydroxyphosphate salt and is more toxic at the injection site than the second form of aluminum adjuvant, also commonly used in vaccines, aluminum oxyhydroxide salt. However, the latter is more easily loaded into immune reactive cells with the possibility to be transported throughout the body. It is suggested by the Keele research that this loading of aluminum into viable cells offers a mechanism whereby significant amounts of aluminum, a known neurotoxin, might be translocated throughout the body and even across the blood brain barrier and into the central nervous system." [2, 3, 4]
Countless Childhood Vaccinations Contain Aluminum
Shingles Vaccine Zostavax Is Causing What It's Designed To Prevent
By now I think most people have seen the commercials on television telling us that if we've ever had the chicken pox at any point in our lives, then the shingles virus is already inside of us. As it stands right now, there is a vaccine for shingles called Zostavax, but what we're finding out now about this vaccine makes it seem like it might be pretty dangerous or at least cause some side effects that are actually the same as what we'd see from shingles. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins talks with Attorney Troy Bouk about the dangers associated with Zostavax
Dying 13 Year Old Diagnoses Her Own HPV Vaccine Injury that Stumped Doctors
Health Impact News Editor Comments
One of the true tragedies in modern medicine is the refusal to consider vaccine injuries when diagnosing or treating disease. The U.S. government acknowledges that people die and are injured by vaccines, as is evidenced from the Department of Justice's quarterly reports on settlements in vaccine court: http://vaccineimpact.com/vaccine-injuries-and-deaths-compensated-through-vaccine-court/
However, medical students are given no training in recognizing or treating vaccine injuries, and no studies are ever conducted to find out why some children suffer from vaccines while others do not.
In this story out of the U.K., a 13 year old girl accomplishes something her doctors could not do, and that was diagnose her own life-threatening disease by researching all of the possibilities, without excluding vaccine injuries, something that apparently handicapped her doctors. She discovered that she suffered from an autoimmune disease after receiving the HPV vaccine.
Professor Hamamoto talks about the persecution he faces at UC Davis after speaking the truth to his students. #Vaxxed #DarrylHamamoto #SenatorPan #SB277 #OperationPaperClip
Camera, editing and sound by Joshua Coleman.
"It took me 7 years to teach him how to chew"
Nancy Kirkman's son was severely injured by vaccines at 3 months of age. The family has been subjected to immense heartache and cruelty.
Interview recorded on February 2, 2017 in San Diego, California.
#VaxxedNation #VaxxedNationTour #RFKcommission #Truth #Science #Vaxxed #Tears #VaxxedTears
Baby's Health Rapidly Declines After Receiving 13 Vaccines at One Time – Mom Accused of Abuse for Disagreeing with Doctors
Durenda and her son KJ on his 1st birthday, before he had 8 shots in one day.
by Health Impact News/MedicalKidnap.com Staff
A young Georgia mother had no idea that a routine trip to the pediatrician's office for her son's 1 year check-up would change her son's life forever, and leave her fighting the state for custody of her own son. When the nurse-practitioner told her that her son was a little behind on his shots and they would need to catch up, Durenda Whitehead didn't question the need for the vaccines. She did, however, question the safety of giving 13 vaccines at once.
Durenda's pediatrician assured her that it was fine:
I can give up to 20 at one time.
Durenda was unaware of a research study published in the summer 2016 edition of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons by Neil Z. Miller entitled, "Combining Childhood Vaccines at One Visit Is Not Safe." In a press release, Miller wrote:
Our study showed that infants who receive several vaccines concurrently…are significantly more likely to be hospitalized or die when compared with infants who receive fewer vaccines simultaneously.
Baby's Health Declines After 13 Vaccines in One Day
During his first year of life, little KJ had a few bouts with respiratory illness, but on January 16, 2017, he was healthy, happy, and active.
Study – Combining Childhood Vaccines at One Visit Is Not Safe
Neil Z. Miller
#Texas Well done Texans For Vaccine Choice!!
Thank you freedom Reps!
Zedler let TIP have it!!
#HB2249
Skip that Newborn Vitamin K Shot
How much synthetic vitamin K is in the shot? Shockingly, the national standard mandated by most states for US hospitals to administer is over 100 times the infant's RDA of this nutrient. Since studies have linked large doses of vitamin K with childhood cancers and leukemia, this large dose of synthetic K administered within minutes of birth seems questionable at best.
The fact is that medical science still does not know that much about the metabolic fate of vitamin K. Little to no unmetabolized vitamin K shows up in urine or bile. This is disturbing given the fact that vitamin K is a fat soluble vitamin and therefore has the potential to accumulate in body tissues. More disturbing is that the liver of a newborn does not begin to function until 3 or 4 days after birth. As a result, this little being has very limited to no ability to detoxify the large dose of synthetic vitamin K and all other the dangerous ingredients in the injection cocktail including:
– Phenol (carbolic acid – a poisonous substance derived from coal tar)
– Benzyl alcohol (preservative)
– Propylene glycol (better known as "edible" antifreeze)
– Acetic acid (astringent, antimicrobial agent)
– Hydrochloric acid
– Lecithin
– Castor oil
The manufacturer's insert included with the shot includes the following warning:
Severe reactions, including fatalities, have occurred during and immediately after intravenous injection of phytonadione [synthetic Vitamin K] even when precautions have been taken to dilute the vitamin and avoid rapid infusion ….
The manufacturer's insert is no exaggeration of the risks. On October 17, 2013, a case of anaphylactic shock in a newborn from the synthetic vitamin K shot was reported making the possibility of death from this shot a a very real side effect
Anaphylactic shock due to vitamin K in a newborn and review of literature
Newborn infants are born with an immature innate immunity. They are less likely to develop anaphylaxis since their immune system is weaker than older infants and children. There are only a few reports of side effects after vitamin K injection in neonates although prophylaxis against hemorrhagic disease of the newborn with this drug has been in routine practice in all over the world for many years. We herein report a case of anaphylactic shock developing after the intramuscular administration of vitamin K1 in a newborn. To our knowledge, this patient is the first case of neonatal anaphylactic shock developing due to intramuscular administration of vitamin K1. We suggest the clinicians should be aware of this possibility of potentially fatal adverse effect occurring with intramuscular administration of vitamin K1.
Does this make any sense to you? It makes absolutely no sense to me. How could anyone say that this shot is safe and effective for newborns?
Is There Vaccine Cause-And-Correlation Regarding The Dramatic Rise In Children's Chronic Diseases?
Since the introduction of CDC's hyper-vaccine schedule, which saw children's vaccines schedules increase from 10 to 69 vaccines after the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act was passed into law, very young children are contracting chronic "old age type" diseases early in life—an anomaly heretofore not experienced demographically.
First off, obesity rates (2013-2014) for U.S. children between the ages of 6 and 11 years was 17.4% [1] Three leading causes of death in children between 1 and 4 years of age were congenital malformations, deformations and chromosomal abnormalities. [1] Mandatory pregnancy vaccines have impact upon growing fetuses. For children 5 to 14 years of age, it's cancer! [1] However, according to Contemporary Pediatrics [2] 2014 published data, cancer was the second leading cause of death for children between 1 and 9 years of age (11.8% of deaths). For infants, the third leading cause of death was sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS, 8.4%)—something that seemingly appeared in pediatric medicine context concomitantly with the increase in mandated vaccines, specifically with multi-valent vaccines, i.e., numerous vaccines given at one time. However, the CDC's information about SIDS claims vaccines do not cause SIDS. Try telling that to many parents.
According to Focus for Health, 27% of U.S. children live with chronic diseases! [3] That website asks the question, "Why are today's children sicker than ever before?" The answer: "While genes may play a role in obesity, asthma and ADHD, environmental and social changes are behind the surge, researchers said."5 [Children Sicker Now Than in Past, Harvard Report Says] [4] That Harvard Report found a fourfold increase in childhood obesity; twice the asthma rate since the 1980s; and regarding diabetes: White children's rate was 26.1 per 100,000; black children, 25.4 per 100,000; American Indian youth, 25 per 100,000 including the highest rate of type-2 diabetes. [4] According to the CDC, one in six children in the USA has a developmental disability, which represents a 17% rise between 1997 and 2008. [7]
Furthermore, are you aware the cost of fully vaccinating a child has increased by 2,700% during the last decade? Vaccines are extremely profitable for manufacturers, but very costly in terms of adverse health effects, medical bills for parents, and social issues (day care, school, jobs, welfare benefits, etc.) for infants, toddlers, teens and adults.
The Dangers Of Vaccines and Vaccination
Vaccines Are Unavoidably Unsafe
According to the US Food and Drug Administration, safety assessments for vaccines have not often included toxicity studies because vaccines have not been viewed as inherently toxic. Yet vaccines are legally defined as unavoidably unsafe.
It is not just childhood vaccines that come with substantial risk. Influenza vaccines, vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, and others contain similar risks for adverse events. Also troubling is that vaccination is recommended now for pregnant women, even though vaccine package inserts clearly state they have not been tested on pregnant women, so the effects on the fetus can't be known.
In the 1960s only a handful of childhood vaccines were given. The current CDC recommended vaccine schedule for children now has over 30 vaccines by the time a child turns 6 and an additional potential for up to 30 more by the time they reach 18. Could this increase be linked to our declining health? For example, currently:
One in six children in the US has a learning disability
Over 50% suffer from some type of chronic illness.
Cancer is the leading cause of death in our children
Autism rates have soared from 1 in 10,000 in 1990 to 1 in 68 today
Since genetic mutations change slowly over generations, we must look to environmental causes for these changes. While other environmental toxins certainly are at play in these statistics, disregarding the potential role to the amounts of toxin injected into children through vaccines is not only bad public policy, it is bad science. By disregarding the role of vaccines in our statistics for infant mortality and chronic diseases, we could be doing more harm than good in mandating, or even advising, them.
Vaccine Adverse Effects: Known Risks
The list of adverse side effects for vaccines is long and troubling. A quick scan of the Vaccine Injury Table kept by the Health Resource Center for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reveals that compensation for injury is possible from a variety of the most common vaccines given to children.
Adverse events are the reason the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out over 3 billion dollars from 1988 – 2016 despite the fact that only 1 in 5 claims receives any compensation at all. Studies reveal that a small fraction of those injured by vaccines ever file any claim at all since most doctors reject the notion that a problem was caused by a vaccine despite the reality that such problems are listed on the manufacturers product insert. You can learn more by reading this fficial document: National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.
Vaccines: Adverse Effects List
Various vaccines are linked to the following serious adverse reactions:
Aseptic meningitis, meningitis
Bell's palsy, facial palsy, isolated cranial nerve palsy
Blood disorders such as thrombocytopenic purpura (a disease that destroys platelets need for clotting)
Brachial neuritis
Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
Chronic rheumatoid arthritis
Convulsions, seizures, febrile seizure
Encephalopathy and encephalitis (brain swelling)
Guillain-Barré syndrome
Lymphatic system disorders
Neurological syndromes including autism
Paralysis and myelitis including transverse myelitis
Pneumonia and lower respiratory infections
Skin and tissue disorders including eczema
Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
Vaccine-strain versions of chicken pox, measles, mumps, polio, influenza, meningitis, yellow fever, and pertussis
Vasculitis (inflammation of blood vessels)
Link October 21, 2013 Leave a comment 12aboutAmericaCluesCrisisEconomicGreatlikeLookNextShockingStrikesTheWhatwhenWILL
12 Shocking Clues About What America Will Look Like When The Next Great Economic Crisis Strikes
#1 Would you continue to work as a bus driver if you were stabbed while driving or if a passenger poured urine all over you? Just check out what has been going on in Detroit lately…
After two drivers were recently stabbed and another had urine poured on her by an angry rider, union officials representing bus drivers for the city of Detroit are set to protest in front of city hall at 10 a.m. on Monday.
#2 We are starting to see a lot of "group crimes" happen all over America. For example, just the other day in Brooklyn, New York a gang of 10 young thugs dragged a young couple out of their vehicle and brutally beat them…
Ronald Russo was dragged to the ground. Then he was punched and kicked in the head. He felt more blows all over his body, investigators said. He suffered a fractured nose, a broken septum, a blood clot and abrasions to his shoulder. He was treated and released from Beth Israel Medical Center.
In the midst of the attack, there was a steady chorus of epithets. "White motherf—–!" screamed the attackers, who ranged in age from 12 to 18.
Alanna Russo, 30, was calling 911 when the 12-year-old girl pulled the woman's hair and threw her to the ground. The victim's head slammed into the concrete. She suffered a black eye, bleeding and difficulty breathing, prosecutors said, but she refused medical attention.
#3 A lot of people assume that they are perfectly safe inside their own vehicles but that is not the case at all. A story in the New York Post about a gang of bikers that ruthlessly hunted down a young family that was driving an SUV made national headlines a few weeks ago…
A gang of bikers terrorized a dad driving with his wife and baby daughter on the West Side Highway — chasing after their SUV and then dragging the man out and beating him to a pulp in front of his horrified family, authorities said.
When the bikers caught up with this family they showed the father of the baby daughter absolutely no mercy…
One biker can be seen on the video ripping off his helmet and using it to bash in Lien's driver's-side window.
The crew pummeled Lien on the pavement in front of his wife, Rosalyn Ng, and their 2-year-old daughter, police sources said.
Lien, who also was slashed during the melee, was rushed to Columbia University Medical Center. He needed stitches to his face and chest and had two black eyes.
#4 We are living at a time when hearts are becoming very cold. Some Americans are becoming so desperate for money that they will do almost anything to get it. In fact, one couple in Tennessee has actually been charged with selling their four daughters for use in sex films…
An East Tennessee couple is facing a list of charges, accused of selling their children to take part in sex films.
Connie Sue McCall, 40, and her husband, Ronnie Lee McCall, 61, of Johnson City have been charged by a federal grand jury.
Paperwork shows the couple was selling their four daughters.
Prosecutors say the four girls were between the ages of 5 and 16 when this happened.
Could you imagine such a thing happening in your neighborhood?
Perhaps it is happening, but you just don't know that it is going on.
#5 And it is not only older people that are having their hearts grow cold. It is happening to young people too. Last week, a 17-year-old girl was caught carrying around a dead baby (which she probably gave birth to) in a shopping bag in a Victoria's Secret store right in the heart of Manhattan…
The dead baby found in the teen's shopping bag at a Victoria's Secret store in Manhattan was born alive and then asphyxiated, police said Friday, as the macabre discovery turned toward a possible homicide case.
Police believe 17-year-old Tiana Rodriguez gave birth to the baby at a friend's house and that the infant was later asphyxiated. However, the city medical examiner's office said an autopsy was inconclusive, and more tests were needed.
Who does something like that?
#6 Sadly, a lot of mothers appear to be losing the natural affection that they should have for their children. Just check out another incident that happened in New York City recently…
So much for no child left behind.
A stroller-toting mom who used her 1-year-old son as cover during a massive candy shoplifting spree at a downtown Duane Reade used the tot's pram as a battering ram when workers confronted her — and then ran away without the baby, the NYPD said.
#7 One of the clearest signs that American society is decaying is the fact that groups of kids are banding together and agreeing to commit absolutely horrible crimes. We have seen this with the "flash mob" robberies that are plaguing many cities, but what is even worse is when groups of kids band together to commit violent acts. In Pennsylvania recently, a group of teens cheered on attackers as they beat up a 15-year-old girl…
Speaking exclusively to CBS 3, a 15-year-old high school student, whose identity we are concealing, described a terrifying attack by a gang of at least nine teenage boys as she was leaving an Interboro High School football game Monday night.
The teenage victim described first being taunted by the attackers, who followed her down a neighborhood street, cursing and spitting at her, before she was repeatedly kicked and punched, suffering at least one blow to her head.
The attackers even tried to throw her in front of a passing vehicle and nobody tried to stop them…
The victim says as at least two of the teenagers pummeled her, the others cheered them on shouting, "Come on, let's get her!" At one point, the victim says, the gang tried to throw her under the wheels of a passing car, which swerved, narrowly missing her.
What is happening to this country?
#8 We have also been hearing about a lot of "gang rapes" lately as well. The following is an excerpt from a first-hand account from a 14-year-old girl in Missouri that experienced this type of horrible ordeal…
About five shots tall, I drank it. I guess I didn't know how badly it would mess me up. But the boys who gave it to me did.
Then it was like I fell into a dark abyss. No light anywhere. Just dark, dense silence — and cold. That's all I could ever remember from that night. Apparently, I was there for not even an entire hour before they discarded me in the snow.
You can read the rest of her sobering story right here.
Are you starting to understand why I am so convinced that we have a major problem with our young men in America today?
Instead of raising young gentlemen, we are raising wild animals that seem to have very little self-control.
#9 And sometimes the public does not do anything to stop sexual assaults even when they happen on public streets. In a recent incident in Athens, Ohio, not only did the public not stop a sexual assault, many actually took photos of the assault and posted them on social media websites…
Horrific photos of an alleged rape in progress have been shared on social media after crowds at a college homecoming celebration chose to take pictures and videos of the sex act rather than stopping it.
Would such a thing have happened in our country 50 years ago?
We need to come to grips with how far we have fallen.
#10 In America today, young kids can beat a homeless man to death and it barely even makes a blip on the news. I'll bet hardly any of you have heard about what happened recently to a homeless man in New Jersey…
Three teenagers were in custody Saturday morning, on charges of beating a homeless man to his death in Hoboken, N.J.
As CBS 2's Janelle Burrell reported, Hudson County Acting Prosecutor Gaetano T. Gregory said two 13-year-olds and a 14-year-old were charged in the Sept. 10 death of Ralph Eric Santiago, 46.
What would cause 13-year-olds and 14-year-olds to behave so savagely?
Could it be because we are raising them in a society where basic morality is not taught any longer?
#11 Our young people certainly do not have much respect for the very elderly anymore either. Instead, the elderly are looked at as "weak" and "easy prey". Just check out what recently happened to a 70-year-old man in upstate New York…
A 70-year-old man was seriously injured early Saturday morning after being attacked outside of a 7-Eleven in Syracuse.
Police say James Gifford had just left the store at the intersection of Valley Drive and South Street just after 6:00 a.m. and was attacked by a group of five or six black males, according to Syracuse Police.
Police also said this appears to be an unprovoked incident with an innocent victim.
#12 In this day and age, it is very hard to tell who you can trust. You might meet someone on the street and they might smile and seem very nice, but inside they may be full of all kinds of garbage. For example, just check out what one man in the Boston area planned to do…
A Boston-area man, who was planning to kidnap children, lock them in a basement dungeon, rape and eat them, should be imprisoned for at least 27 years, federal authorities said in court documents filed this week.
Geoffrey Portway pleaded guilty in May to distribution and possession of child pornography and solicitation to commit a crime of violence, according to court documents. He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 17.
"Portway has pled guilty to some of the most vile and heinous crimes known to our society," federal prosecutors wrote in a sentencing recommendation.
This is how twisted and perverted our society has become.

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