Politics Thread: Edge of Seventeen

[Gfted1]

Where you see protesters as world fixers, I see them as whiney attention seekers. Especially the ones that weren't even diretly injured; "I was within three hallways of a shooting. Me scars are everlasting!"

[Gromnir]

outgoing national security adviser h.r. mcmaster addresses atlantic council. perceptive. reflective. erudite.

 

 

mcmaster's version o' the two-finger salute.

 

snippet for the ADD crowd.

 

 

and

 

 

https://twitter.com/twitter/statuses/980828513698828288

 

 

as an aside, am wondering what is the betting odds on mattis keeping his job for the rest of the year. most insiders suggest mattis is safe, but is gonna be strange for him as a near singular outlier 'mongst the trump wh personalities.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Malcador]

Where you see protesters as world fixers, I see them as whiney attention seekers. Especially the ones that weren't even diretly injured; "I was within three hallways of a shooting. Me scars are everlasting!"

 

Ok, speaking up is whining, no exceptions.

[Bartimaeus]

​

​

Aw crap, I just read that she used a handgun. Now were going to have to suffer through staring deeply into our navels about the banning of handguns. Maybe even trot out a sad looking, shaved head, victim.

 And if this were the Congo, she would have had a spear? Why do you want to ban spears? What about legitimate spear fishermen?

I always find it curious how people protest literally anything. Are whiners more disposed to continual whining? Perhaps genetically?
 

Where you see protesters as world fixers, I see them as whiney attention seekers. Especially the ones that weren't even diretly injured; "I was within three hallways of a shooting. Me scars are everlasting!"

​

​How do you feel about people protesting about protesting, out of curiosity?

[Gfted1]

Were whiners too!

 

Oh snap, I'm about to trigger myself aren't I?

[Gfted1]

Its things like this I'm talking about:

 

Parkland student shot five times protecting his classmates says he’s not a hero.

 

Meanwhile, the likes of Gonzales and Hogg cant get enough of the sound of their own voices.

[Gromnir]

am not certain why perceived whiners would bother a person.  a bunch o' teens who sudden get asked their opinion by national news outlets in the wake o' a tragedy?  not surprising such kids give an opinion, eh?  those victims then feel as if they matter and can make a difference by sharing their views?  not surprising when such dewy-eyed kids try and make a difference... and good for them.  we want kids to believe they can make a difference.  is frequent the only generation which can make a difference is the one which doesn't realize they is unreasonable or ignorant.  good on them.

 

*shrug*

 

Gromnir is free to embrace or reject the opinions o' any given speaker.  a parkland survivor, in our estimation, has no special insight regarding gun control.  if cletus dunwoody's truck were hit by a small meteorite as he drove home from his wednesday night bowling league, we sure wouldn't think cletus has special insights regarding astrophysics or the great celestial tapestry. carl sagan, on the other hand...

 

 

parkland survivors as self-appointed pundits regarding gun control?  

 

*snort*

 

similar, am not bothered when tv or movie actors offer their opinions 'bout autism or global warming or whatnot.  

 

what bothers is the ignorant sheep who do give special status to victims, tv celebrities and folks who largely inherited their wealth.   after all, such eye-roll worthy ignorance is how we got trump in the white house.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Malcador]

Its things like this I'm talking about:

 

Parkland student shot five times protecting his classmates says he’s not a hero.

 

Meanwhile, the likes of Gonzales and Hogg cant get enough of the sound of their own voices.

 

Ok, so what's the problem ? He said the rote thing anytime calls anyone a hero (when was the last time someone said "yep, I am a hero" when asked that kind of queston ) And the other two decide to start a movement of sorts, good for them to not be lazy Internet activists. 

[Gfted1]

Hrm, now three people that don't understand why I find whiners to be annoying? I guess I'm just the mayor of Crazytown.

 

BTW, where does the reach of "victimhood" end? These people weren't even injured. Is just being in the same building a justification? Is everyone that was inside Mandalay Bay while dude was shooting out the window at the concert a victim themselves? I'm pretty sure Ive been within at least 2 city blocks of gunfire, am I a victim?

 

EDIT: @Malc: The intent of that example was to show the difference between those that do, and those that say.

[HoonDing]

Some ppl whine

 

other ppl just run in there even without a gun

[Gfted1]

Not Scot Peterson!

 

That's not right of me to mock his cowardice, hes just a victim too. An outside-the-building victim, but a victim nonetheless.

[Volourn]

And, the hero's (and he *is* a hero) family is suing the school.

Edited April 4, 2018 by Volourn

[Malcador]

Hrm, now three people that don't understand why I find whiners to be annoying? I guess I'm just the mayor of Crazytown.

 

BTW, where does the reach of "victimhood" end? These people weren't even injured. Is just being in the same building a justification? Is everyone that was inside Mandalay Bay while dude was shooting out the window at the concert a victim themselves? I'm pretty sure Ive been within at least 2 city blocks of gunfire, am I a victim?

 

EDIT: @Malc: The intent of that example was to show the difference between those that do, and those that say.

 

That doesn't work as the kids are doing something rather than saying, just a different thing than the guy who got shot. 

 

Also all this talk has made me think of something.  Time to unveil my most savage vengeance of all!

 

 

:D

Edited April 4, 2018 by Malcador

[Hurlshort]

Aw crap, I just read that she used a handgun. Now were going to have to suffer through staring deeply into our navels about the banning of handguns. Maybe even trot out a sad looking, shaved head, victim.

Well, a dozen people are not dead, so a handgun was clearly not as dangerous here as the ones with the AR-15.

 

Of course, she seemed to have a different motive, but what-evs.

[HoonDing]

Imagine a handgun mass shooter with Chainshot skill.

[Gorgon]

Hrm, now three people that don't understand why I find whiners to be annoying? I guess I'm just the mayor of Crazytown.

 

BTW, where does the reach of "victimhood" end? These people weren't even injured. Is just being in the same building a justification? Is everyone that was inside Mandalay Bay while dude was shooting out the window at the concert a victim themselves? I'm pretty sure Ive been within at least 2 city blocks of gunfire, am I a victim?

 

EDIT: @Malc: The intent of that example was to show the difference between those that do, and those that say.

IMHO : The kids get a free pass and you are just going to have to sit there and take it.

[Gorgon]

Different shooting, never mind.

 

Hard to keep track of them all isn't it.

 

mmm hmm.

[Guard Dog]

The University of Miami's Complexity Interdisciplinary Group, which is headed by a physics professor has released a study showing Americans are so polarized when it comes to news the margins have become the mean. No shocker there right? I'm more surprised that a Professor of Physics is studying such a thing. I guess the fields of mechanics, statics, and dynamics are now so thoroughly mapped as to leave him with nothing else to do! 

 

Anyway here is the link. It's interesting enough but no new ground is broken here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article207841309.html

 

I just found the fact it's a physics guy doing it amusing. That makes as much sense as making an electronics engineer into an environmental analyst. 

[ShadySands]

 

Hrm, now three people that don't understand why I find whiners to be annoying? I guess I'm just the mayor of Crazytown.

 

BTW, where does the reach of "victimhood" end? These people weren't even injured. Is just being in the same building a justification? Is everyone that was inside Mandalay Bay while dude was shooting out the window at the concert a victim themselves? I'm pretty sure Ive been within at least 2 city blocks of gunfire, am I a victim?

 

EDIT: @Malc: The intent of that example was to show the difference between those that do, and those that say.

IMHO : The kids get a free pass and you are just going to have to sit there and take it.

I wouldn't even know who these kids are if people weren't complaining about them

[Guard Dog]

Exactly like i said earlier. Their 15 minutes were up. They had their say and their protest and their marches. Most of them seemed happy to go back to their lives. Well, not Hogg. I suspect that guy is going to overstay his welcome. But every time someone insults them, belittles or speak ill of them the media goes to them for reactions and that 15 minutes gets extended. To say nothing of the fact the one who does it looks like a jerk because they are kids. They don't know anything.

 

If you really want something to go away you ignore it. Don't make a big thing about it. Americans have the attention span of a gnat. They will be forgotten before you know it. But if you keep them in the spot light by saying stupid s--t about them it drags on and on.

[213374U]

The University of Miami's Complexity Interdisciplinary Group, which is headed by a physics professor has released a study showing Americans are so polarized when it comes to news the margins have become the mean. No shocker there right? I'm more surprised that a Professor of Physics is studying such a thing. I guess the fields of mechanics, statics, and dynamics are now so thoroughly mapped as to leave him with nothing else to do! 

 

Anyway here is the link. It's interesting enough but no new ground is broken here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article207841309.html

 

I just found the fact it's a physics guy doing it amusing. That makes as much sense as making an electronics engineer into an environmental analyst.

Physics is about observing a phenomenon, inventing a mathematical framework that adequately describes it, and drawing useful conclusions based on that. A mathematician's purpose is fundamentally the same but bleeding edge math and physics are hella esoteric after 300+ years of more or less steady progress and a few super geniuses. Was Von Neumann more a physicist or a mathematician? It's an arbitrary distinction, useful mostly for curricular organization.

 

I'm thinking the "complexity" in the group mentioned refers to the study of complex systems, in which physicists (as well as many others) are heavily involved.

 

Don't mean to sound patronizing or anything, but a physicist is exactly the kind of scientist I'd expect to be heading something like that.

[Guard Dog]

 

The University of Miami's Complexity Interdisciplinary Group, which is headed by a physics professor has released a study showing Americans are so polarized when it comes to news the margins have become the mean. No shocker there right? I'm more surprised that a Professor of Physics is studying such a thing. I guess the fields of mechanics, statics, and dynamics are now so thoroughly mapped as to leave him with nothing else to do! 

 

Anyway here is the link. It's interesting enough but no new ground is broken here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/article207841309.html

 

I just found the fact it's a physics guy doing it amusing. That makes as much sense as making an electronics engineer into an environmental analyst.

Physics is about observing a phenomenon, inventing a mathematical framework that adequately describes it, and drawing useful conclusions based on that. A mathematician's purpose is fundamentally the same but bleeding edge math and physics are hella esoteric after 300+ years of more or less steady progress and a few super geniuses. Was Von Neumann more a physicist or a mathematician? It's an arbitrary distinction, useful mostly for curricular organization.

 

I'm thinking the "complexity" in the group mentioned refers to the study of complex systems, in which physicists (as well as many others) are heavily involved.

 

Don't mean to sound patronizing or anything, but a physicist is exactly the kind of scientist I'd expect to be heading something like that.

 

Oh I was probably trying to make a joke where there just wasn't one. The group actually has a wide variety of expertise involved in it. 

[Zoraptor]

Looks like Boris Johnson rather over egged the case against Russia for the Skripal poisonings, as per usual, since Porton Down did not attribute any manufacturer and he and the foreign office repeatedly claimed they did.

 

For anyone with knowledge of organic chemistry that was pretty obvious, you cannot get a country of origin from chemicals except in very specific circumstances since a chemical is a chemical wherever it comes from. Full on damage control now though. Pretty stupid approach too, you can over egg while remaining technically truthful and if you can rely on media not to question you can easily get away with being vague rather than specific; and it isn't like the circumstantial evidence ain't enough for the general public.

 

Similar with the Khan Sheikhoun CW attack too, since it was a year ago today. The more actual detail released the less consistent sense is made, such as 40% of victims turning up at hospitals too early and in some cases literally teleporting 100km, and there being conventional rockets that have supposedly diagnostic chemical bomb 'filler caps' (eg, to right of main debris). Not that the Russians are any better at it, but if they're worse it isn't by much.

[smjjames]

I think I saw something about them having difficulty identifying the specific chemical, or something. In any case, it's supposed to be something that only Russia would know how to make.

[Gfted1]

I wouldn't even know who these kids are if people weren't complaining about them

That's because you don't have cable.