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What Is This World Coming To?

Started by Randy, July 06, 2020, 11:20:05 PM

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Randy

July 4th shootings.
The link mentions Chicago but the article mentions other places in the country. It's like people decided that shooting was fun or something. No rationale was given but there were quite a few kids hit, one of them fatally in the head.

QuoteShootings across US
In the nation's capital, 11-year-old Davon McNeal was killed Saturday night after a group of five young men began shooting in the southeast part of the city, Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Metropolitan Police Department said.
Davon was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead. The shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m., MPD Chief Peter Newsham said.
Davon was shot in the head moments after he and his mother stopped in a neighborhood to visit, the boy's grandfather told CNN.
The youngster jumped out of the car to run into his aunt's house to grab a phone charger, said grandfather John Ayala, who founded the DC chapter of the Guardian Angels and has been fighting gun violence for many years.
His mother, sitting in the car, heard gunshots and saw her son duck. She thought he was trying to dodge the bullets, Ayala said, but then noticed he wasn't moving and found he'd been shot in the head.
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

billy rubin

randy, the world is heading towards heat death.

thats all there is to cosmology, philosophy, morality, and everything else.

entropy.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Recusant

#2
The shooters all had their reasons. It's nothing new in the US, and no significant change on the horizon. If the "gun-grabbing" Democratic Party gets both houses of the US Congress and the presidency in the next election perhaps a law or two may get passed, or existing laws revised. They'd be immediately challenged in the courts, and with the influx of Trumpist judges in the federal courts (not to mention the US Supreme Court, which has already ruled against "restrictive" gun laws) chances are good that they'd be struck down. God bless America.  :eagletear:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


billy rubin

yep

thats who we are.

lots of weapons, not much sense.

much like the scythians, maybe.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

billy rubin

and with less excuse, i'll say.

one of the things that modern civilization is supposed to have done is to bring us into a greater awareness of the human condition and the stupidity of applying stone age mores to our culture

\but my country has no problem with it. we maintain a facade of comprehensive advances in art, literature, the sciences, and so on

but we kill each other at the water hole just like our ancwestors did 14,000 years ago.

at least the scythians were innocent of pretending to be other than what they were.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

No one

The world is fine, it's all those rotten humans that are the problem!

Icarus

Reportedly there were 67 shootings in Chicago with only 13 fatalities. A similar number in New York City but with fewer fatalities.   Is it interesting to observe that not one of those shootings and killings was by a cop?  Does that suggest that maybe we should attack the problem at its source, not so much by de-funding police departments.

There are reasons for the madness that these numbers imply.  We must address those reasons and work on solutions or at least some mitigations. 

Recusant

Hurrah! The police in the US managed to not murder anybody in the last few days! :jumps:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


No one

Or, they just haven't found the bodies.

Randy

All this happened on the American Independence Day. Why? I mean does this always happen or is it just that people like fireworks no matter what the source. In this case, guns. Is there something significant about the day that the news just had to report it?
"Maybe it's just a bunch of stuff that happens." -- Homer Simpson
"Some people focus on the destination. Atheists focus on the journey." -- Barry Goldberg

Davin

Quote from: Tom62 on July 09, 2020, 07:38:03 AM
Innocent people being killed by the police is a rather rare event, you are more likely to be killed by lightning (even if you are a black man). Yes, any death caused by the police is awful but we should keep things in perspective and not close our eyes for other causes of death.
I find this kind of reasoning rather odd. What are you trying to lead us to? A type of natural event kills more people than the police murdering people, so care less about the police murdering people and let's start asking lightning to stop killing so many people? Odd, irrational, and quite silly.
Always question all authorities because the authority you don't question is the most dangerous... except me, never question me.

billy rubin

Quote from: Randy on July 09, 2020, 03:28:25 PM
All this happened on the American Independence Day. Why? I mean does this always happen or is it just that people like fireworks no matter what the source. In this case, guns. Is there something significant about the day that the news just had to report it?

crowds and alcohol


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Recusant

May have been some calculation involved. A gun-totin' criminal who had an inclination to shoot up somebody or bodies might consider that the general percussive racket on the Fourth would act as sonic camouflage for the operation. Slightly improves the odds for a successful getaway.
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken


Dark Lightning

Why not both!?  ;D In my previous neighborhood, we were just a block from the 3rd highest crime reporting district in the City of LA, in the San Fernando Valley. Essentially in the barrio. We heard gunfire all the time (usually midnight- 2AM after the bars closed), and especially on July 4th and New Year's Eve. Not just the Hispanics, either. We had a crazy white guy living next door that launched fireworks and shot his .45 pistol into the air on those days. It sounded like Armageddon in that neighborhood.

Tom62

Quote from: Davin on July 09, 2020, 08:06:40 PM
Quote from: Tom62 on July 09, 2020, 07:38:03 AM
Innocent people being killed by the police is a rather rare event, you are more likely to be killed by lightning (even if you are a black man). Yes, any death caused by the police is awful but we should keep things in perspective and not close our eyes for other causes of death.
I find this kind of reasoning rather odd. What are you trying to lead us to? A type of natural event kills more people than the police murdering people, so care less about the police murdering people and let's start asking lightning to stop killing so many people? Odd, irrational, and quite silly.

No, it is not silly. What I am trying to say is that innocent people being killed by the police is a very sad but rare event. We are talking about <1% of all deaths. Solving that particular problem doesn't bring the murder rate much down. The way I see it there are couple of major problems that need to be solve more urgently:

- too many guns in the hand of  the "wrong" people and too much gun obsession
- random killings of innocent men, women and children by gangs or thugs
- black on black homicides (90% of all African American homicides are committed by African Americans)
- proper police training. In many European countries it takes several years of training, before one becomes a police officer; in the USA training only last on average slightly more than 600 hours (source: Wikipedia).

The question is about priorities, not about asking lightning to stop killing people.
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
Robert A. Heinlein