Search Logs

Been getting a fuck load of Search words including "Natalie Holloway" lately. I thought I would drudge it up again cause I last complained about it here.

I came across a very funny funny op/ed about it that I totally agree with enjoy.

In case the link dies I will repost the text here using a quotation (don't freakin' sue me ok? I think your Op/Ed is a bit of gold I won't even include the whole thing here)

Does the name "Natalee Holloway" ring a bell? If you follow the news media in the United States, particular the 24-hour cable stations, it certainly ought to. On the other hand, if you've been living in a cave for the past month or so, here are the highlights: Natalee Holloway is an 18 year-old girl from Alabama who vanished on May 30th from the island of Aruba, where she was vacationing with some of her classmates to celebrate their high school graduation. Based on the amount of coverage that this story has received from the national media (Fox News in particular), one must draw the conclusion that this is a Very Important Issue, and that all Americans should care very deeply and personally about it. I must confess that I do not.

Now, before I get called a heartless bastard, let me hasten to point out that I agree that this story is tragic. Natalee's family and friends have doubtless been going through hell during this past month. I do hope that she can be recovered safe and sound, though that possibility seems very remote at this point. If I were the King of the World, I would snap my fingers and instantly transport every missing person back to the safety of their families. But what makes Natalee Holloway more important than, say, Reyna Alvarado-Carerra? In the United States alone, more than a million people are reported missing each year. The majority of these cases involve minors. The majority of those cases are runaways, but there are also significant numbers of abductions at the hands of both relatives and strangers. This brings us to the case of Reyna Gabriella Alvarado-Carerra. Have you ever heard of her? I certainly hadn't until I started doing research for this story. Reyna is a 13 year-old Hispanic girl who is believed to have been abducted by a stranger in Norcross, Georgia. She was abducted just a few weeks before Holloway. A Google search on her name yields a grand total of 6 results. The same search for "Natalee Holloway" turns up 276,000 results. But Natalee doesn't just get more Google search results. She's getting airtime, baby. As I mentioned in the intro, American news outlets are awash with a veritable cornucopia of Natalee fever. She also gets assistance from the Dutch Marines and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who apparently already have enough resources at work battling mundane things like terrorism. Here's the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, and the reason I am writing this treatise: CNN is now reporting that Holland is sending three F-16 warplanes to assist in the search for Natalee. I was given pause by thinking about the sheer cost of this endeavor. My brother-in-law is a recruiter for the Air National Guard, and I have a rough idea of how much money it costs to even get one of those things off of the ground. How much do you suppose is being spent to equip these planes with the special search equipment and then actually get them to Aruba? ...