News stories that completely obsessed you

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I didnt know a better way to say that but I had a few. One particular news story has been consuming my waking thoughts since I read about it (wont say which one) but it was so sad that it's making my depression worse and it's all I ever think about most of the time. It even corrupts my ability to focus on classes.

And even after making a $100 donation from reading this story, I still dont feel any better. It's messing me up man.

So anyway, can anyone relate?

The frilled shark
The exploding whale carcas
The baby meerkats that were murdered becuase they bit a little ret*d brat and the parents didn't want her to get rabies shots. The meerkats had been vacinated for rabies.

Its hard to help you when you're so vague. I haven't obsessed over any threads here YET. Maybe I'll obsess over this thread about thread obsessions.

edit: thought you said thread obsession:

If you were not directly responsible for the news, and you have donated money, then I don't see why you would still feel bad about it. Is it something related to the story over which you have no control?

I watched CNN for hours a day when the the whole 9/11 thing was going on.
Lately I've been looking out for autism stories because it's autism awareness month.
I've been keeping an eye on the swine flu vaccine. Kids under 5 aren't allowed to get it now because of death and illnesses.

Last edited by pensieve on 28 Apr 2010, 11:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Caylee Anthony- I followed the case and read everything that was posted on the Internet- all of those documents that were disclosed. There were several hundred documents too. I read every news story and blog- all of it. Sometimes I would stay up all night reading those damn police interviews. I never gave money though, because that family was far too messed up and I didnt want any of my money in the murderer's commissary fund at prison. If news starts to pick up again with her trial I will probably get absorbed in the story once more.

I've read a news story five years ago, in the summer, about two teenage boys who tied a woman up in a chair, cut cross shaped wounds, into her knees and drank the blood. I thought that it was the funniest thing, at the time.

Another story that I remember reading, was in the Saturday paper, on December 10th, 2005. I've read that the London Routemasters were taken off of Route 159, which was the very last route that they were operated on. That was not a very good morning, or December for me.

I was obsessed with 9/11 when it happened as well. I am also obsessed when big earthquakes happen as well as plane crashes. Basically any large scale disaster. It is very sad when people die though. For some reason I don't care nearly as much about regular crimes. The main thing I am obsessed with are large scale things that don't happen every day. Basically the biggest stories of the year. When the Haiti earthquake happened I had to watch all the reports about it and read everything about it as well. I want to buy a book about earthquakes and all the details. I am also interested in the weather. I recently bought a book about that. I've watched the weather channel when I was young but I just go on the weather.com website now. I had hail here earlier today. I live where cows are.

I usually become obsessed over anything involving serial killers, school shootings, psychological disorders (especially ones involving developmental disorders, personality disorders, memory and intelligence) satanism and the occult.

Stories involving psychological disorders obsess me because i'm so familiar with them and
i'm constantly seeking insight into my own brain and it's dysfunctions.

Stories involving serial killers, rampage killers and school shootings obsess me for all sorts of complex reasons. On one hand, these people are so alien to me and I find their actions repulsive. But I will not deny the rage and misanthropy that dwells within me. It is there whether I want to be or not. So in a certain sense, I can identify with the rage and hostility that fuels many such people. This life and the humans in it can push you to the brink sometimes and i'm surprised there's not MORE serial/rampage killers and school shooters. Being a marginal member of society hardly lessens this rage, in my case at least. I'm the most harmless and non-violent person in the world, but the fury of hell burns inside me nonetheless.

I have always been fascinated by all things "supernatural" as well. While I am firmly grounded in atheism/materialism/determinism, I do find occult topics fascinating. I am not an absolutist in regards to my materialistic worldview and I keep an open mind towards non-material aspects of reality. I've never been able to wrap my mind around the existence of a personal god. Many occult explanations regarding the nature of ultimate reality seem much more logical to me, irrespective of whether there's any truth to them or not.

This story obsessed me when it occured and it still does to some extent. This documentary recently aired on the Sundance film channel.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Until_The_Light_Takes_Us


Again....I find many of the actions and political/ideological views of the individuals involved repugnant. Several of them (especially the infamous Varg Vikernes) are neo-fascists, social darwinists, homophobes, misogynists and downright nazis. I self-identify as a libertarian socialist a la Noam Chomsky and Mikail Bakunin. Still....I can relate to their rage, alienation and misanthropy in GENERAL. My own rage simply emanates from diametrically opposite sources in most cases. People like them are responsible for much of it in fact.

However....I will give credit where I feel some is due insofar as their ideas about capitalism, commercialism, "americanism", the environment and religion are concerned. And I love alot of black/death/thrash/doom metal music irrespective of the artist's worldviews and actions.

Though I certainly respect everyone's religious beliefs and think no less of anyone whose beliefs differ from my own atheistic ones. That said....the church burnings these individuals were responsible for are to be deplored.

There was one a few years ago about a woman who had 'comitted adultery' by having a child out of wedlock (I think her husband had died). She was going to be stoned to death once the child was weaned. That preyed on my mind for a long time. I wish at the time I had known what to do about it.

Stories that stick to your craw topic

This is an interesting phenomenon--this sort of info is stuck right in the front of my mind, where it lives and sort of creates an atmosphere all around, and influences my perception of my concious life.

This has been happening since I recall existing.

I read Onet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onet.pl for hours a day when the whole Smoleńsk catastrophe thing was going on. It's a bit like when JFK was assasinated or like 9/11 - on a much smaller scale, of course. I wouldn't be suprised if some Poles prayed to the dead president who out of the sudden was raised to the status of some sort of holy martyr (he was the worst president our country ever had but one's tragic death always changes everything - my home country had such a situation for the last time when the president Gabriel Narutowicz was assasinated - it was in 1922) - people are sooo EASY to manipulate their opinions

Other than this, I was obsessed with the 9/11 back then. Also the Caylee Anthony case (here it isn't a case which is aired on TV but I do have the net). The presidential elections in our country. Natural disasters. The Washington sniper (I followed it on TV, radio and newspapers for I didn't have the net, I got it in 2003). School shootings (especially this Cho guy in Blacksburg 3 years ago - if I did it, it would be a very similar case - NO ONE would EVER find out much more of me and why I did it - I would remain a person forever holding the status of the famous Churchill's "enigma wrapped in secret" ). The Columbine massacre in 1999 (it's my special interest now).

And of course, last but not least, on the opposite, MJ's death, Diana's death and JP II's death - how could I ever forget this? And the Fritzl's case. I was obsessed with the Fritzls and MJ's death as much as I am with the Tupolev crash now. I was also very interested in the famous "flood of the millenium" in 1997 as well - just because I liked disasters and will always do, not because I had fears the water could reach our house - we are situated in the safe place of our town which not without a good reason is commonly known in our country as "little Rome" because just like real Rome it's situated on 7 hills which was a good protection during the flood

News stories that have obsessed me:

The 2008 floods that hit Cedar Rapids and Palo, Iowa
-in relation to the top one, the series of articles one of the local papers did on my mayor friend
Columbine
When a friend was assulted into a coma, about 15 years ago
News articles about the friend's football career in high school and college (my family took this person in when he was a child for a couple of years)
I know that this is going to sound strange, but about 1987 or 1988, when the young man fell in to the icy Red River in Fargo, ND. Don't know why this caught my attention, but it was big news in the Upper Midwest at the time and the kid was about my age.

There may of been others, but I can't think of them off of the top of my head. But the trend is that the story usually has to do with someone whom I have been associated with.

His name was Alvaro Garza. He fell through the ice on December 4, 1987 and was underwater for 45 minutes. When pulled from the river, he was clinically dead, with no heartbeat and a body temperature of 77 degrees. He spent several days on a heart-lung machine but eventually made a full recovery. He was 11 years old at the time of the accident.

Garza lives with his family in Texas now, where he is an oil driller. Interestingly, one of his children nearly drowned about 10 years ago while swimming in a river at a Texas state park. The boy was pulled from the water and required CPR, but survived.

hurricane katrina aftermath, both what happened to the people and also the tragedy of several hundred thousand domestic animals dying of exposure thanks to those circumstances, that one affected me for a year or two, it was horrible. I still have all the photos and it still really upsets me if I focus on it two much

The tsunami.
for some reason, John F. Kennedy Jr. dying in the plane crash, I watched c-span for days about that.
9/11 of course. Valerie Plame.

I actively avoid these obsessions nowadays but I never used to and I practically lived in news obsession.

Hurricane Katrina captivated me as well. I was deeply upset by the way the people at the Superdome and Convention Center were treated.