"Corrupting Morals?" (This becomes graphic, beware!)

I have a confession.

There is a web site I visit sometimes, it is a Gore web site.  It is not pretty, it shows images of accident scenes, videos of horrible things drug cartels do to other people in Mexico, dash cam videos of traffic accidents, etc.  Executions, chain saw decapitations... you name it.  Hollywood has nothing on reality, in my view.

Do not go there if you are faint of heart, it may traumatize you. I mean that. LITERALLY.

Best Gore

I have a morbid fascination with death. It is the inevitable outcome of this terminal disease we call "life."  We will all die, perhaps we have a choice in the manner, means or time, perhaps not.

In my opinion, we are far too removed from two important things in life:

1) Our food supply.  I get seriously pissed off at people who lament the demise of Bambi, the supposed "cruelty" of hunters, fishermen, etc etc... yet they have no problem grabbing a 1 lb pack of ground-up cow muscle at Walmart, or a Big Mac at McDonalds.  (You can debate whether that's actually meat on your own time.)

2) Death.  In years past, when a human passed from this world, the family would cleanse, prepare and dress the body. There would be a viewing or wake in the home. The family would prepare the grave site, then arrange burial.  Some still practice this, but many in American culture are shielded from the "unpleasantness" of death.

So I go back to the idea of the web site I mentioned.  It shows you images of how life can end, or how horrible injuries can be. I consider it to be educational. Frankly, if I die in a horribly stupid manner, please take photos and submit them to the site owner.

And that's where I'm going with this.

The web site owner, Mark Marek, is a European immigrant and lives in Canada.

In 2012, he received a video which showed the apparent death of a Chinese student, subsequent cannibalization and desecration of the body by a person later known as Luka Magnotta. He (Mark) asked the question "Is this real?"  He also contacted authorities, who ignored him.

It was only when body parts started to show up through the mail at Canadian government buildings that they woke up and realized "Whoa, there might be something to this whole video thingy."  Mark was subsequently asked to take down the video, which he did.

Since then, Mark has been arrested.  He has been charged with a rarely used statute under Canadian law of "Corrupting Morals."  Some of his property, particularly computers and cell phone, have been confiscated.

He was allegedly a flight risk, and perhaps he WAS attempting to flee the country.  If so, perhaps now you can see why?

He did not contribute to or facilitate the murder of Lin Jun. Why is reality a crime? First responders deal with it all the time, and so do some average schmucks, even people like my wife who works in nursing.

Mark also posts some anti-Semitic comments on his site. Is that the root issue?  I don't agree with him or other holocaust deniers, but they have a right to their own opinions.

Interview with Mark Marek

Should Mark Marek be able to post whatever the hell he wants on the Internet?  I think yes, as long as he is not exploiting minors, such as is done through child pornography.  Exploiting the dead?  Maybe. They certainly didn't give consent, but crime and accident photos are public record, and sometimes leaked.

It's an interesting moral conundrum, but I fall on the side of free speech.  If someone snaps a cell-phone image of my bloody corpse on the pavement somewhere, I don't think they should be prosecuted for sharing it.

Life can be beautiful, death... not so much. But free speech should never be suppressed.