Please Don’t Talk About Murder While I’m Eating…This is actually the name of a Ben Harper song from his album Both Sides of the Gun. I highly recommend this album if you like good politically infused listening. I feel this way often, I’ll turn on the radio in the morning and all of a sudden I am in the Middle East surrounded by suicide bombers. Something about murder and food just doesn’t mix. I, like many people who were interviewed for Tachi’s essay Radio Texture, listen to the radio for, well, texture I suppose. There is something motivating about inviting the world into your kitchen as you are starting your day. But there is also something disconcerting about the fact that I can count on hearing about a suicide bombing incidence on NPR as surely as I can count on Garrison Keillor’s slowly drawled puns. If we want to talk about desensitization, let’s talk about the reports of violence in the Middle East. It just seems uncanny that literally everyday this is reported on. It leads me to wonder, do commentators feel that now that they have started reporting on it everyday they have to continue in a consistent manner? I have no issue with this. I just think about it often because I am affronted with it every day on NPR and not with reports of violence anywhere else. It almost leads me to a point of complacency with the situation. But this is precisely the crux of the issue. What are the effects of us expecting that this condition will continue in a steady capacity? Does this have an effect on the outcome of the situation? If reports of this violence come in a steady stream at the same time every day, won’t this embed the realities of the situation into a place in our subconscious that becomes more comfortable and less outraged?