As we are often prone to do, we were having a discussion at work the other night...

We were discussing the merits (or the lack thereof) of sites like rotten.com and other sites that show images of dead people or other similarly grotesque material. I don't feel that the individuals who maintain sites along these lines are showing proper respect for the people who have been killed (or their families) but I am supremely hesitant to believe that they should be censored. One individual I was talking with brought up how people become desensitized to death/killing. Yep, that's an absolute possibility. However, there is plenty of other material on the internet that also does the same thing that people would cheer about (don't go to this link if you are squeamish). I would also posit that the ability to kill many people without looking into the whites of their eyes and then have the pictures (or video) distributed worldwide in near real-time also desensitizes people to death/killing. Our country will show such material when we deem it pragmatic but condemn AlJazeera and other media outlets for showing some of the costs of war. Very interesting...