What is wrong with this picture?

I don't think one should leap to such conclusions as necessarily making a connection between the vicious and irresponsible behavior of some misguided youths, and the political preferences of the community there. There are dumbass kids everywhere who might have "cheered on" in such a scenario, even here in Portland.

that this incident totally reflects the meat-headed, steriod loaded, joe six pack mentality that America has become. This incident is a prime example of why, if America does not wake up, the world is headed into a new dark age. We have a population of joe six packers and right wingnut crazies who view war as a form of entertainment and religious fulfillment. Meanwhile we have an aging physical economic infrastructure that is lapsing and reaching the end of its life cycle. What a war can destroy in days, takes ten or more years to rebuild. Of the billions appropriated for Iraqi reconstruction, less than five hundred million have been spent. Iraqi reconstruction will take decades. Meanwhile, the USA is in desperate need of its own reconstruction.

What is new in the culture of America the Great?

No different than Jon Stewart's sick jokes at the war in Iraq!

An illegal attack on a sovereign state created by HIS country...and it's material for comedy?!!!

Turn that happy-go-lucky cynic sicko off.

It's too bad because he could have raised the sensitivity level of all those who laugh at nothing and everything. (Maybe he is a disguised fundamentalist Zionist???)

 http://www.tdn.com/articles/2004/11/09/area_news/news07.txt

Man jumps from top of Cowlitz Way Bridge
By Leslie Slape
Nov 09, 2004 - 07:40:16 am PST

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A crowd of onlookers gasped as a young man jumped Monday afternoon from the top of the Cowlitz Way Bridge, where he had been perched for an hour and 15 minutes.

As he plummeted 75 feet to the Cowlitz River, those watching from the south side of the Allen Street Bridge streamed to the north side in a body, heedless of honking cars, to watch the rescue.

Members of the Cowlitz County dive team quickly hauled the 20-year-old Olympia man into a boat. The crowd then broke into small groups discussing what they'd just witnessed -- some worrying about the man's state of mind, others treating it lightly.

"I just won 10 bucks," one man shouted to another.

Tyler Malakowsky, Jordan Roemer, Brandon Ervig and Jake Fleishman, all students at Loowit High School, watched the whole event, which began shortly after 2:30 p.m.

"I don't think anybody thought he'd jump," said Roemer, 17, of Kelso.

"I heard people yelling 'jump,' " Malakowsky said. "That's pretty mean."

Capt. Vern Thompson of the Kelso police said that the jumper was "upset over something and appeared to be under the influence of drugs."

He said the man repeatedly shouted that he was angry with "the world."

The man had a couple of knives which he used to inflict minor cuts on himself, Thompson said. He was not seriously injured by the knives or the fall, Thompson said.

The man was transported to St. John Medical Center for mental evaluation.

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I would say that it's something of a stretch to dis the citizens of an entire county because of this article.

I do think it is a stretch to apply this event to everyone in this country, but I can vouch that longview/kelso are very wierd places. My mom is from there, while she's been a staunch democrat/feminist for years, has pictures of herself from high school wearing a mini-skirt and campaigning for a republican candidate for mayor. I remember her telling me that's how things were back then (in the 60's), but it seems like little has changed. No one in the family stayed in that town, consider the fact that it was built on a swamp, and created by a corporation. If that's not a strange enought set-up, maybe it's something in the air from the paper mill... also consider that that area has the highest concentration of serial killers, possibly in the entire world.

Sounds ripe for a documentary......

You wanna do a documentary on my family? It's kinf of like the Royal Tennenbaums, and my grandpa donated money to the first Bush campaign, yet has since repented.