{"id":128,"date":"2012-04-15T06:56:04","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T01:56:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/?p=128"},"modified":"2012-11-27T06:01:57","modified_gmt":"2012-11-27T01:01:57","slug":"your-worst-ten-minutes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"Your Worst Ten Minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I recently sat transfixed in front of my computer watching the YouTube video of the judge who had been secretly taped by his teenaged daughter in anticipation of a spanking for violating family rules.\u00a0 The assault with the belt was replete with extremely offensive language, made all the more repugnant by the passive assistance of the girl’s mother.\u00a0 However humiliating the episode, the girl, apparently 16 or 17 years old, suffered no real physical harm to the belting on her backside.\u00a0\u00a0 She is seen on the video calmly getting up after\u00a0 the assault and turning off the hidden video recorder.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The video, once posted, went viral, and the storm ensued.\u00a0 The judge suffered immediate removal from the bench, with investigation pending.\u00a0 All the worse, this particular judge presided over family law disputes, including divorce and custody issues.\u00a0 He and his wife separated;\u00a0 the relationship with his daughter must likewise be deeply estranged for her to launch her post.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 My first reaction, as that of most viewers judging from the blog posts, constituted equal parts revulsion and outrage.\u00a0 What a monster!\u00a0 The overt sadism of the conduct suggested someone on a very dark power trip.\u00a0 He must be prosecuted, I thought.\u00a0 He must be permanently removed from the bench and bar, I concluded.\u00a0 He must be isolated on an\u00a0 island colony for human monsters, I silently opined.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then a second wave of thoughts struck me, almost completely at odds with the first set:\u00a0 what if this constituted the momentary raving of a good man overcome by maddening frustration with the challenges of teenage parenting or of life in general?\u00a0 What if, in the words of the immortal sage, Meatloaf, he stood momentarily “corroded and defeated by anger, envy, and hate.”<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What if I just saw the 10 worst minutes of behavior in his entire life?\u00a0 What if my 10 worst minutes as a parent, or as a human being, got videotaped and posted on the Internet?\u00a0 How much better would\u00a0 I fare?\u00a0 What would our 10 worst minutes look like for any of us?<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take no less than Jesus Christ.\u00a0 He saw buying and selling of goods in the synagogue. \u00a0He went postal, according to the Good Book.\u00a0 He ranted; He shouted; He knocked over furniture; He busted stuff.\u00a0 If that got videotaped and posted, what would people think of Him, if that presented all they had by which to judge Him?<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So back off from Christ.\u00a0 How about me?\u00a0 I have completely lost my temper at my children, my wife, my secretary (merciful God, never striking any of them in the manner shown in the video).\u00a0\u00a0Yet, how would my red-faced shouts look in full color with one million hits and counting?<\/div>\n
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All this thinking resulting in some resolutions.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am done reaching conclusions based on YouTube clips, no matter how visually compelling.\u00a0 We must remember that context matters, and often much more exists to the story than meets the eye.\u00a0 I will not judge, lest I be judged.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I will try and conduct myself so that any random 10 minutes will look good on YouTube.\u00a0 No easy feat.\u00a0 Think about it.<\/div>\n
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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I will do all I can to remind others that YouTube maybe watching at any time for their 10 worst minutes as a human being.\u00a0 Proceed accordingly,\u00a0with caution, and perhaps, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I recently sat transfixed in front of my computer watching the YouTube video of the judge who had been secretly taped by his teenaged daughter in anticipation of a spanking for violating family rules.\u00a0 The assault with the belt … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=128"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davidjcarr.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}