Just for starters, I would like to say that I really enjoy a good cigar. Call me manish, tell me I have balls, but it is true. Cigars rock.

Also, I have a lot of trouble responding to you guys because I usually do it in the mornings and I'm not thinking very clearly in the morning. Maybe I will start oddwording at night.

I agree with you Mikko and Vin. Art doesn't incite a person to commit a crime. The intention must already be in the person - there has to be something in a person's personality or character that must already exist. I think that people are born with the capabliities to do different things - including commit certain crimes, whereas others are not. Murder has been around much longer than A Clockwork Orange. Organised crime has been around a lot longer than The Godfather. If anything, it is the crimes that have been committed that inspire the art.

And I can't remember the last time I saw murder/rape/arson glorified in the media/cinema/music. Maybe you guys could offer an example, but I can't think of one. Actually, I've probably heard it sung about, but I've never heard the lyrics "Listen to me, kill your mother because she doesn't love you and kill your father because he fucked your sister." That's fucked up.

I _completely_ agree with what you say about parents, VIn. People don't want to take responsibility - don't want to ever THINK - that perhaps the reason their child cuts him/herself, gets into fights or kills another person is because they perhaps failed somewhere in their role as a parent. And there are some people who DO fail as parents. It's not enough to be there and give money and shelter. It's important to be emotionally and mentally responsible and caring as a parent. It is in human nature, as I'm sure we've all experienced, to want to palm off the blame to someone else when things go wrong.

It's also true that raising children is all of society's bloody responsibility. It should be a co-operative effort between the government, schools, and parents. The media also has a certain responsibility, but the media is the media, and money is money.

If you all tell me what your time zones are, then I shall calculate the differences. I think Mikko is in the Eastern Standard Time Zone, Vin and Han are on Greenwich Mean Time, and I'm in the Australian Eastern Standard Time Zone (+10.00). Tell me if I'm wrong.