Our Hope for 2018 - Less Anonymous Outrage

As 2017 comes to an end, it's a good time to look ahead for our hope at One Headline A Day for 2018 -- Less Anonymous Outrage.   It's our belief that while the "Outrage Industry" has been alive and well for sometime, it has gotten worse in the last few years and has in part been fueled by social media.    I was able to find two such examples from my local newspaper.   Columnist John Tevlin is retiring and his final column is below.    I took note of following quote:

In the past couple of years, however, I’ve gotten worn down by the weekly screeds and wishes that I lead a short, uncomfortable life. I began to dread the 3 a.m. calls and anonymous notes. After many weekends got ruined by hostile chatter on social media...

Hugh Hewitt's column on our addiction to outrage, correctly predicts the following:

Wait a bit after this column posts online, then check the comments. It will be a cut and paste of every other comment section of every other column, left, right and center. Just as cable news talking heads are beginning to blur into one long declarative sentence of certainty surrounded by nodding heads.

We hope that OneHeadlineADay.com  will be an antidote to our online outrage addition.    We welcome and encourage your comments to the posts here, but we do not allow anonymous comments.   If you feel strongly about your opinion, you should "put your name next to it".

Looking forward to a great 2018.

'Against all odds, I survived a career in journalism' By Jon Tevlin, @jontevlin Being a newspaper columnist is a strange and beautiful caper. Your world is populated by oddballs and knuckleheads, superheroes and sociopaths. You rub and trade elbows with the up-and-coming and the down-and-out. For the same column, you can be called “the last person with common sense in the city,” and a “tone-deaf curmudgeon.” Thanks for that second one, by the way. I had it emblazoned on my coffee mug. People always ask me where I get the ideas for columns. They come from everywhere and nowhere, from breaking news to my slightly skewed curiosity about the world. A lot of times, the columnist Gods (readers) drop one in your lap. As Guy Clark said, some days the song writes you. <more>

A sad, outrageous fact: We've gotten hooked – on outrage  By Hugh Hewitt  Addiction is the story of 2017. Not addiction to opioids, though of course tens of thousands of families are mourning the death of a loved one to fentanyl or heroin or some other variant of the scourge coursing through the United States. Not addiction to the toxic combination of power and lust that has metastasized for so many decades and burst onto the public stage in so many places, with the name Harvey Weinstein now synonymous with a sociopathic need to dominate, humiliate and exploit for a twisted set of pseudo pleasures. <more>

Cause of Deadly NYC Fire Determined

There aren't really two sides to this story, other than to provide the facts and offer hope that this type of thing does not happen in the future.   The CNN post below gives the tragic details on the cause a result of a 3 year old playing with burners on the stove.    This is the worst fire tragedy in NYC in the last 25 years.    The fire spread very quickly in this mostly brick building when the door to the apartment was left open and the building stairway acted as a chimney.    The NBC post gives suggestions on what can be done to help kids from starting fires.  Timely information as NYC gets 100 reports each year of children playing with fire.

Fatal NYC fire started by 3-year-old playing with stove, official says By Matt Rehbein and Eric Levenson, CNN New York (CNN)A 3-year-old boy's screams alerted his mother that a fire had erupted in their first-floor apartment in the Bronx on Thursday night. The boy had been playing with the burners on the kitchen stove, New York fire officials said Friday. When the mother fled the burning apartment with the boy and his 2-year-old sibling, she made a fatal mistake -- she left the apartment door open. The tragic result was the deaths of at least 12 people, including at least four children, the New York Police Department said. It was the deadliest fire in New York City in more than 25 years. The apartment's stairway acted "like a chimney" as the fire burst from the apartment, feeding the flames and allowing them to spread throughout the building, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said Friday. The boy in the first-floor apartment had a history of playing with the stove burners, Nigro said. The fire commissioner reminded all New Yorkers of his department's frequent messages emphasizing the crucial step residents must take in the event of a fire. <more>

NYC Fire Dept. Tips for Keeping Kids From Starting Fires NBC Chicago A fire that killed at least a dozen people in the Bronx this week was sparked by a child playing with a stove, authorities say. Kitchen fires make up 50 percent of all apartment fires and they’re the leading cause of home fires and fire injuries, according to the FDNY. Children cause thousands of home fires each year by playing with matches, lighters or candles, the FDNY says. Kids have a natural curiosity about fire and what to know how it looks and feels, what it can do, and how it will burn. Quick facts about home fires: • More than half of all home fire deaths occur between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. • More than a third of home fires occur during the months of December, January and February. • Children are a major cause of fire, often because they are playing with lighters, matches or candles. Fires caused by kids most often start in bedrooms. • The FDNY’s top three safety tips: Install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors; Have a home fire escape plan, and practice it; Conduct a safety inspection of potential fire hazards in your home and eliminate them. <more>