WHICH IS TERRIFYING
Gas Bandit's Political Thread V: The Vampire Likes Bats
- Thread starter GasBandit
- Start date
They're not crazy, just desperate and willing to turn a blind eye to rationality.
"-The current situation is untenable"
"-I am working counter to (some facet of) the current situation"
"∴ I am making things better"
It's an unholy team-up of fight-or-flight response followed by confirmation bias.
--Patrick
Necronic
Staff member
I remembered something similar to this happening in the US. Came up with this list. Warning, its a bit disturbing....
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-broken-arrow-nuclear-accidents-2013-5
http://www.businessinsider.com/list-of-broken-arrow-nuclear-accidents-2013-5
Sundance Vacations are accused of Forging court documents: https://medium.com/technology-musings/sundance-vacations-from-scams-to-forgery-ae2afe64fce2
Guy got a court document, thought it looked suspicious, and called the County Court Office. The number was real but for a different case. It appeared it was pieced together from other documents.
The guy advocates that the lawyers listed on the document should start raising shit. Which they probably will. He also mentions about how forging court documents is a felony. No shit! I hope they throw the book at them.
Guy got a court document, thought it looked suspicious, and called the County Court Office. The number was real but for a different case. It appeared it was pieced together from other documents.
The guy advocates that the lawyers listed on the document should start raising shit. Which they probably will. He also mentions about how forging court documents is a felony. No shit! I hope they throw the book at them.
And this is probably what they're trying to avoid.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident
Tragedy upon tragedy, mostly happening to people who had no inkling of how dangerous their situation really was.
--Patrick
UK: Police asking victims to do their own investigations.
As the police, you literally have three jobs:
- Investigate Crimes
- Catch Criminals
- Serve the Public Trust
You don't get to STOP DOING THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR WORK. It doesn't matter if it's minor damage or property loss. It's your fucking job.
As the police, you literally have three jobs:
- Investigate Crimes
- Catch Criminals
- Serve the Public Trust
You don't get to STOP DOING THE FOUNDATION OF YOUR WORK. It doesn't matter if it's minor damage or property loss. It's your fucking job.
In one of my cases, I learned that in Uganda, if you call the people, they ask if you can pay for the gas it will take to drive out and back as a prerequisite for coming out to help you or take a police report. So, you know, UK's still keeping a higher bar than a wartorn developing third world country.
GasBandit
Staff member
Right wing talk radio supersponsor LifeLock completely and utterly fails to prevent somebody from opening a fraudulent account in Neal Boortz's name and collect $15,000 of his social security benefits.
This is like the 7th or 8th time this has happened.
Necronic
Staff member
I thought all that lifelock did was make repeated calls on your credit report so that it forced your account into some kind of "watched" state by the credit rating agencies.
Anywho. Larry Gatlin thinks that its now WW3 and we should reinstate the draft.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/09/03/open-letter-to-barack-obama-world-war-iii-is-here/
Anywho. Larry Gatlin thinks that its now WW3 and we should reinstate the draft.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/09/03/open-letter-to-barack-obama-world-war-iii-is-here/
That may be one of the stupidest things I've read this week. I love the part where he says that he's 66 and would still love to go. Except he hasn't gone (nothing's stopping him), and any draft we enact would refuse to take him.
And yet nothing is stopping many of the ardent "bring back the draft" crowd from joining the military.
GasBandit
Staff member
The whole "if you're so eager what's stopping you from going over there yourself" argument always struck me as pretty fallacious. It's akin to "crime is too high, we need more police officers" "well if you hate crime so much why don't you become batman?"
GasBandit
Staff member
Thanks! It's always gratifying to know I've used the internet to help another come around to the proper perspective.
I'm mostly commenting on his, "I'm 66, and I'd love to go!" thing. It's incredibly disingenuous in a op-ed that talks about the need for bravery, guts, cojones, etc. while calling for the need for a draft.
If he had phrased it as the draft being necessary as an unfortunate answer to the times we live in and about how we can ensure that a new draft would be fair while also being a sound military strategy, then I would have much less of a problem with it (though I likely would still disagree; professional volunteer soldiers are one reason why we have the best military in the world).
If he had phrased it as the draft being necessary as an unfortunate answer to the times we live in and about how we can ensure that a new draft would be fair while also being a sound military strategy, then I would have much less of a problem with it (though I likely would still disagree; professional volunteer soldiers are one reason why we have the best military in the world).
You make it sound like it doesn't take a butt-ton of bravery and courage to advocate for something that won't affect you at all and probably isn't even needed but might get other people killed or injured or give them serious PTSD and cause serious hardships for families all over the country.[DOUBLEPOST=1409937034,1409936758][/DOUBLEPOST]DON'T YOU HUG ME HIPPIE. YOU TAKE THAT SHOW OF EMOTION BACK RIGHT NOW.
GasBandit
Staff member
I generally oppose reinstating the draft, myself, but for different reasons - there's a lot to be said about the difference in efficacy between an all-volunteer force and conscripts. A lot has been made about the suicide rate of troops stationed in the middle east in the last 10 years... can you imagine what might have played out had the ranks been full of draftees?
Look, we all want to be Batman and there can be only one Batman so get in line guys.
I can't say how against that I am. I guess I just did. Shit.
I'd actually offer this instead: Mandatory 2 years public service. It can be military or any of a wide variety of non-profits that help people here and abroad. I mean, I'm not a fan of mandatory anything but I think there's a lot of growth that could happen for people in those 2 years, PLUS people need to be more mature when they get to college so they value it. 2 Years building orphanages or feeding homeless people in the dumps of India will help with that.
I'd actually offer this instead: Mandatory 2 years public service. It can be military or any of a wide variety of non-profits that help people here and abroad. I mean, I'm not a fan of mandatory anything but I think there's a lot of growth that could happen for people in those 2 years, PLUS people need to be more mature when they get to college so they value it. 2 Years building orphanages or feeding homeless people in the dumps of India will help with that.
Four years if the kid is a "you can't arrest me, my dad is a lawyer" type.
GasBandit
Staff member
Could always go the Heinleinian model - Military service is only manditory if you want to vote or hold office. If you want to have a say in how the country is led, you have to show your willingness to put yourself in harm's way for it. But if enfranchisement doesn't matter to you, then you don't have to go.
I tend to think that people serving the poorest of the poor and taking care of the sick would create far better leaders than the alternative but I'm crazy like that. I'd much rather have leaders who know what it's like to be shit on by society and have to decide if you pay your water bill or your electricity bill this month than one who can score perfect on the gun range.
*And no, I'm not saying people in the military don't learn things that can't be useful in real life or don't get opportunities to become good leaders, etc, etc. Just stating what I think might make better leaders.
GasBandit
Staff member
Soldiers often get to learn that, too.
GasBandit
Staff member
I should add that the point of the universal service mandate is not merely to instill maturity in the youth, nor swell the ranks of the military, but also to make sure that any leader who would use the military for their ends has not only felt what it's like to be a grunt in the mud, but probably still has skin in the game in the form of offspring or loved ones - without being able to game the system as was done with a "random" draft (no more Fortunate Ones/Rich Man's Sons/Senator's Sons, as the song goes).
They do but I'll give you 2 guesses as to which lesson I think is more valuable for someone who might be in the position to influence how our society functions and what laws and regulations govern it.