Hello Everybody,   
      
   I am sure that everybody has heard of the "Knockout Game" -   
   as widely reported by CNN, FoxNews, and other cable networks.   
   For those who are a total recluse and refuse to watch the   
   boob tube, the story is that teenagers have run amok, run   
   up and smack a total stranger on side the head in an attempt   
   to knock them out with a single blow.   
      
   I am sure teenagers have done this.  But in epidemic proportions,   
   as reported/suggested by cable news outlets?  Of that I am not so   
   sure.   
      
   Kids will be kids, and will be dared by other kids to do stupid   
   things, such as punching a total stranger in the face in broad   
   daylight.  But sooner or later, mommy and daddy will find out   
   about it and put a quick end to their driving privileges and   
   that will be the end of their budding knockout game career.   
      
   Teenagers trying to bash people's skulls in.  People who   
   are usually bigger and stronger than them.  And folks actually   
   believed those cable news stories as fact.   
      
   Such is the power of cable news outlets.  Attempt to make   
   the crimes fit a trend.  Reporting a few true incidents in   
   an effort to inspire a handful of copycat crimes, blown   
   up totally out of proportion to appear as an epidemic.   
      
   May we all live in a land of idiots.   
      
   http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/montgomery.asp   
      
   --Lee   
      
   --- MesNews/1.08.05.00-gb   
    * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)