Great Vacation Photos! Not.

As I read the news each day, the sheer volume of creative atrocities can be mind-numbing. If you can imagine it, somebody's planning it, done it, trying it as we speak, or covering up evidence of it. Maybe even documenting it photographically. I must have a high capacity for outrage, though, because each day I find myself outraged by something, someone, somewhere, somehow. Hubby knows this, and he is wise enough to accommodate my expressions of disbelief by nodding at me in a soothing manner and agreeing that whatever article I'm shaking at him with the newspaper is, indeed, outrageous. I suppose he has to agree, or he risks a million papercuts and smears of newsprint on his forehead. I understand now why my father has spent so much of his life yelling at the TV. That's how he vents his rage at the state of the world. And of course when you're young you just experience the world. You don't get enraged at it unless you're the victim of some terrible injustice. Which probably means I'm older than I care to admit, even though I don't yell at the cable news anchors. I figure they can't hear me, whereas Hubby can. (However my father routinely hurls some of the most creative insults I have ever heard in the direction of the television. The next time I hear one I'll write it down and share so you can get the idea.) Anyway, the story that has gotten my dander up THIS time (and no, I'm not old enough to have the word "dander" in my everyday vocabulary, but I felt the word is underused) is the grandfather who has been charged with taking pornographic pictures of his 2-year-old granddaughter. It is hard to type those words above without wanting to set someone's boxer shorts afire. With owner in them. Grandfathers are supposed to be nice people. They read stories, celebrate birthdays, teach games, talk about the Good Old Days, make certain foods that are "treats," go places with the kids. That is an abbreviated list, but nowhere do I see room for "take pornographic photos of the grandkids." That is something so heinous it is never even discussed. Like what to do if a fire breaks out in the home. THAT you should discuss. What to do when grandpa starts selling pics of the kids on the internet is just something you don't imagine having to deal with. Note: This guy got caught shortly after getting his photos downloaded at a CVS drugstore in Manchester, New Hampshire, so we can't assume he sold them on the internet. Maybe they were only for (YECH!) "personal use." Of course the guy realized he couldn't just get them developed by his regular Photo Guy. So he did them on the "self-serve" photo kiosk. An alert clerk noticed the images, and the police soon put out photos of the kid in the media in the hopes of catching the perpetrator and ensuring the safety of the child. He admitted to taking the sexually explicit photos during a spring visit to the granddaughter in Florida. The father notified police when he saw pictures of his daughter on TV. Which really makes me wonder what Thanksgiving dinner is going to be like at that household this year. I just can't even imagine how a subject like this is discussed by a family. Hopefully the guy will be convicted by then, and unable to violate anyone's Thanksgiving side dishes with his loathesome presence. Maybe they will serve a Holiday Spam in jail! I can only hope so. Because if I hear about this guy going free (I was gonna say getting off on a technicality but thought the better of it), I will have to take up yelling at the TV in addition to rattling my newspapers. I may even start spraying the TV with holy water and cause the TV to smoke. Which would probably do a lot to ease the burdens on my mental health placed on it by the News System as we know it.