Ah, Southern Baptists. You stay classy.

[Left]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

I have no idea if it did.

I CAN say that during my 3 years in Texas, I saw shit that - while not this bad - made this look sort of par for the course.

On the other hand, the author punched my rage button, whether or not it's true, so effective article.

I live here, I never thought it wasn't real.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

[Left]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

There is that, I'd be asking the security for the recording.
Though when someone does something that outrageous, it *does* have a tendency just to make you freeze in horror, or at least it does me and a lot of people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2489204/

You're probably familiar with the freeze response...I hate having it myself.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

You think it was staged or something?

No. I just smell something funky.

I mean, the lady posted this on her blog. It's not like anyone else saw it happen, and she didn't report it to Wal-Mart or the police, so there's no incentive for anyone to pull the surveillance tape and look at it. Yet. Now that it's gotten so much play someone's bound to.

Most of those "tapes" are memory buffers with about a week's storage, these days, except for the cameras looking down on the registers.

So there probably won't be any film.

Ah.

So, yeah, it's just a story that may or may not be true.

I know that if that happened to me I would be all "WHOA DID YOU SEE THAT?" and I would find an employee immediately, at the very least. I worked retail for 13 years, and while nothing like that ever happened, people were constantly tattling on each other and reporting weird shit and strange behavior in the store.


I can also see just going into shock and not saying anything and going home. But that's not really compatible with the "if you touch my child again I'll cut your hands off" statement, which seems remarkably self-possessed.

I dunno. Something probably happened. I'm just not very convinced that it happened the way she said it happened.

[Suu]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

That man would have had every bone in his bigotted fucking ass shattered if he ever touched my child.

[Doktor Howl]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

There is that, I'd be asking the security for the recording.
Though when someone does something that outrageous, it *does* have a tendency just to make you freeze in horror, or at least it does me and a lot of people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2489204/

You're probably familiar with the freeze response, I've had it a few times and I hate it want to move, but can't.

This is a fact.

I have a similar response.  I stand there staring in horror like everyone else, but my hands are doing stuff with blunt objects.  Which I imagine is a product of conditioning.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

There is that, I'd be asking the security for the recording.
Though when someone does something that outrageous, it *does* have a tendency just to make you freeze in horror, or at least it does me and a lot of people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2489204/

You're probably familiar with the freeze response, I've had it a few times and I hate it.

According to her, she didn't freeze. She confronted the guy.

What I'm questioning isn't whether it could have happened. It's that the story itself, the way she relates it, seems to have some inconsistencies and features that make me question it.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I don't get not going batshit on the guy, either. Urg.

[Doktor Howl]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

You think it was staged or something?

No. I just smell something funky.

I mean, the lady posted this on her blog. It's not like anyone else saw it happen, and she didn't report it to Wal-Mart or the police, so there's no incentive for anyone to pull the surveillance tape and look at it. Yet. Now that it's gotten so much play someone's bound to.

Most of those "tapes" are memory buffers with about a week's storage, these days, except for the cameras looking down on the registers.

So there probably won't be any film.

Ah.

So, yeah, it's just a story that may or may not be true.

I know that if that happened to me I would be all "WHOA DID YOU SEE THAT?" and I would find an employee immediately, at the very least. I worked retail for 13 years, and while nothing like that ever happened, people were constantly tattling on each other and reporting weird shit and strange behavior in the store.


I can also see just going into shock and not saying anything and going home. But that's not really compatible with the "if you touch my child again I'll cut your hands off" statement, which seems remarkably self-possessed.

I dunno. Something probably happened. I'm just not very convinced that it happened the way she said it happened.

Some people come unglued hours after an incident ends.  Some people come unglued immediately.

Some just flee, and come unglued the moment they're safe in their homes.  I mean, you think about it, from a survival POV, she did everything right.

Which in itself gives me the hinkies.

But the thing is, the story might be true, on account of Texas.

But it might not be true, because as Nigel says, it doesn't feel true.  And a lie in service to a cause is still a lie.  The ends do not justify the means.

That all being said, I'm gonna go with "take her word for it because Texas" until something causes me to discredit it. 

[Left]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

There is that, I'd be asking the security for the recording.
Though when someone does something that outrageous, it *does* have a tendency just to make you freeze in horror, or at least it does me and a lot of people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2489204/

You're probably familiar with the freeze response, I've had it a few times and I hate it want to move, but can't.

This is a fact.

I have a similar response.  I stand there staring in horror like everyone else, but my hands are doing stuff with blunt objects.  Which I imagine is a product of conditioning.

Yup.  I was trained to stand there and space out to take...well, whatever they wanted to dish out.  I have to fight that.

Added:  Not necessarily disagreeing with you, Nige, you could be right.

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

There is that, I'd be asking the security for the recording.
Though when someone does something that outrageous, it *does* have a tendency just to make you freeze in horror, or at least it does me and a lot of people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2489204/

You're probably familiar with the freeze response, I've had it a few times and I hate it want to move, but can't.

This is a fact.

I have a similar response.  I stand there staring in horror like everyone else, but my hands are doing stuff with blunt objects.  Which I imagine is a product of conditioning.

Yup.  I was trained to stand there and space out to take...well, whatever they wanted to dish out.  I have to fight that.

Added:  Not necessarily disagreeing with you, Nige, you could be right.

I was trained to black out and beat the shit out of whoever started dishin'. So many fun ways to respond less than beneficially.

[Left]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katie-vyktoriah/what-happened-when-my-son-wore-a-pink-headband-to-walmart_b_3696113.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Well that didn't take long.

I'm not 100% convinced it actually happened.

Is it the religious rant, or her not going feral super mom on the jackass?

Mostly the not going feral mom part. The not reporting it, at least to Wal-Mart security. The outrage that, in a momentary encounter that had to have been difficult for bystanders even to parse, nobody stepped in to interfere, and nobody comforted her afterwards. The startlingly detailed description of the offender's clothes right down to his shoelaces, in a confrontation that could only have lasted seconds.

Maybe it's nothing. Maybe it all totally happened exactly as she reports. Maybe something very similar happened and she exaggerated the story for her blog. But something smells fake.

There is that, I'd be asking the security for the recording.
Though when someone does something that outrageous, it *does* have a tendency just to make you freeze in horror, or at least it does me and a lot of people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2489204/

You're probably familiar with the freeze response, I've had it a few times and I hate it want to move, but can't.

This is a fact.

I have a similar response.  I stand there staring in horror like everyone else, but my hands are doing stuff with blunt objects.  Which I imagine is a product of conditioning.

Yup.  I was trained to stand there and space out to take...well, whatever they wanted to dish out.  I have to fight that.

Added:  Not necessarily disagreeing with you, Nige, you could be right.

I was trained to black out and beat the shit out of whoever started dishin'. So many fun ways to respond less than beneficially.

Sans the blacking out part, probably better than having an out-of-body experience on the spot.

[Doktor Howl]

I was trained to black out and beat the shit out of whoever started dishin'. So many fun ways to respond less than beneficially.

I'm not going to talk about what I was trained to do.  Coyote already has a good idea, even if he was a REMF, and not too many of the rest of you would understand.  Nigel probably would, on account of her family.

And, plainly stated, it isn't good to think about this sort of shit much, no matter what your background is.  Shit happens, you deal with it.  Everything else is just talking shit and raging for applause (even if the applause is just your own, in your own head).

[Cardinal Pizza Deliverance.]

I was trained to black out and beat the shit out of whoever started dishin'. So many fun ways to respond less than beneficially.

I'm not going to talk about what I was trained to do.  Coyote already has a good idea, even if he was a REMF, and not too many of the rest of you would understand.  Nigel probably would, on account of her family.

And, plainly stated, it isn't good to think about this sort of shit much, no matter what your background is.  Shit happens, you deal with it.  Everything else is just talking shit and raging for applause (even if the applause is just your own, in your own head).

I had a real good friend who came home from the Marines. And got called back twice to Afghanistan. And came back each time a little more . . . distant. He went boogedy and I haven't heard from him in over five years. So I kinda dig.

Sorry. I'll drop it.

[Doktor Howl]

I was trained to black out and beat the shit out of whoever started dishin'. So many fun ways to respond less than beneficially.

I'm not going to talk about what I was trained to do.  Coyote already has a good idea, even if he was a REMF, and not too many of the rest of you would understand.  Nigel probably would, on account of her family.

And, plainly stated, it isn't good to think about this sort of shit much, no matter what your background is.  Shit happens, you deal with it.  Everything else is just talking shit and raging for applause (even if the applause is just your own, in your own head).

I had a real good friend who came home from the Marines. And got called back twice to Afghanistan. And came back each time a little more . . . distant. He went boogedy and I haven't heard from him in over five years. So I kinda dig.

Sorry. I'll drop it.

No need to be sorry.  You weren't being offensive.  I was just saying it ain't healthy to spend a lot of time imagining committing acts of violence.  There's a reason people love war movies and gun camera footage.  It's horrible.