mistercwood

When quoting someone, it's usually traditional to quote what they actually said, rather than what you think they said. Maybe go back and read Bill's post again? You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

While I accept the results of the election are fair and correct based on the system your country uses, your statements here are still objectively false. 1. Democrats obviously did show up, since their candidate got about half a million more votes than the other guy. 2. How on earth does the winner of any US election ever be considered to have a mandate, when barely a third of the population actually votes and less than half of those voted for the winner?? I know compulsory voting would probably never fly in the US, but at least you'd get an actually accurate picture of the will of the people. And if there were the same penalties as here for not voting ($20 fine), the lack of turnout this year would've at least had the silver lining of generating roughly $4 Billion in revenue. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

From what I recall of posting history you and I probably wouldn't see eye to eye on a lot of things, but I can't fault you there... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Speak for youself please, i would have been disappointed either way. Im gonna see it from the only positive way i can, which is that this might send a signal to politicians and polotics in the US and maybe even elsewhere to start dealing with shit in a different way. It will be like one of those storys that you tell your children - "Just look what happend to the US, we dont want a Hillary vs Trump situation" Hillary wasn't a great pick at all, but she was qualified and most importantly she was predictable. You were going to get 4 more years of the status quo. Trump is impulsive and volatile. I truly hope that he either reels that in and actually acts the part, or (as you say) he bombs so bad the entire American nation bands together to say "Let's never fuck up that bad again"... If it's somewhere in the middle, Trump V2 down the track is probably inevitable. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

We're not mad. We're just really, really disappointed. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

As a teenager at the time, I reeeeeaaaaaally liked cake... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

I read the entire transcript. It should have been inadmissible from the start. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

I believe in the end it was left out of the trial for Steven, mostly because of how dubiously legal it looked. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

I'll be making some assumptions along the way here as I don't know you, but am presuming my summation of our backgrounds before was roughly applicable (I figure you're older by at least a decade but that's a guess). You'll need to let me know if I'm assuming too much at any point. Work harder how? I think you've at least got the correct phrase in the conversation - work harder. But that applies to everyone. How so? I'm really curious to see you dive a bit deeper into that statement, for me, please. "Work harder" applies two ways here - you're not wrong that hard work should be a serious component in the, let's call it a recovery, that you're hoping for, from those that are recovering. You've seen it yourself, you had a solid example and expectation set for you from childhood. You understand and clearly place a high value on personal responsibility. But you've been shown that from that start - work hard, do the right thing, and you'll get somewhere. How do you propose someone in their 20's who's never had that guidance in their life suddenly unlearn everything they've been taught to prioritise and start doing things your way? I know from earlier posts you don't feel that black people are as disadvantaged today as they once were - and on the surface that's mostly right. But these are recent changes, culturally speaking. The culture you're seeing and hating wasn't birthed recently and it didn't happen in a vacuum. Bill's question about the chicken and the egg was spot on. When I say you need to put in some serious effort, I mean you will need to work at seeing what came before and really understanding the causes - "just work harder" and "stay as a nuclear family" won't address that, it's too shallow for an issue this big. Work at seeing that taking your background - stretching back for generations of people that were classed as "better than" others and getting all the perks of that - and then comparing it to people whose great grandparents (or even just grandparents) had to use a different water fountain than yours did, is completely ludicrous. Just saying "be better, we did it so you can too" to get this recovery happening won't remotely cut it. You need to actively create an environment where being better is the most attractive option, and one that is truly open to all. And I mean more attractive to someone who doesn't share your values yet. THAT is the hard part. The thing you're railing against is a ridiculously complex problem that will take generations to fix. I can think of some basic components (better education availability, cheaper healthcare, family assistance/training(?), drug offence reform) that might form part of the solution. Implementing them and everything else that would be needed is above my pay grade. I still appreciate that you're trying to have this discussion. I just don't think you necessarily appreciate the problem itself as well as you could. Hell even I'm just spit-balling here for the most part. I'm not black, how can I really know? ETA: Sorry btw for the long delay in responding (I don't bother with many of the bigger conversations here), had to do a few real world things. Also my baby sister has started her tattoo apprenticeship so I went over to her shop to offer a chunk of leg for practise and only just got back... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

I'm sorry but Wendy's right, and this is what I was getting at it my first response to you - it's not enough to look at what's happening now and where you want to go, you need to understand WHY things are the way they are now and how they got there. All of the layers, and there's a LOT of them. And you won't do it from your own perspective alone. I mean, shit, I'm a straight white cis gendered male in his mid-30's living in a 1st world western nation. The entire fucking world I move in is built almost exclusively for my benefit. I don't know your full background, but I'll bet it's damn similar to mine right? We have to work harder to see the world as someone who doesn't and didn't ever have that advantage. To get a REAL solution here is going to take a hell of a lot more effort from YOU (and anyone else looking for change) than I think you realise. I still wish you luck. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Two things: Where does this 50% come from? Is it arrests or convictions? What is the breakdown of the 50% in terms of crime? Misdemeanours or Felonies? Violent vs non-violent? You keep quoting that study, when the numbers are actually against you. If blacks make up 13% of the population, the death-by-cop numbers should be half that for them. For the given stats to be acceptable, your 50% figure up top would have to be composed entirely of crimes that deserved and resulted in a lethal outcome for the perp. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

This has been an interesting thread, and I'm glad you've reeled your emotions in a little more and manged to continue some discussion - the last few posts show you're slipping a little though. Your end goals are good. But you're seeing them and (most importantly) the path there from your historical perspective - work hard, set a good example, if the parents do that then the kids will do the same. This looks straightforward to you because you already had this in your life. "They" didn't, so they don't have the same frameworks and tools to work from. If you keep that perspective you're going to get nowhere, because you're just going to get frustrated with why "they" won't change when it looks so easy to you. If you really, truly want to have this conversation be meaningful, you need to strip your perspective completely from the situation, and work your butt off trying to see through the eyes of the people you're trying to change. You might also then start to see why "they" can use that word, and you can't. I truly wish you luck, because it's a hell of a big task you're looking at and a long road from reality to your end-goals. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

I'm all for poor taste jokes, hell I live for them. I got the irony in the OP, I just didn't see the tone as a joke - it looked like the usual point-scoring. Even if it wasn't that and I just failed to see the intent due to being in text (entirely plausible), it was the dozens of pile-on comments that came after that added nothing whatsoever to discussion about this incident that set me off. The events in Nice were, as you say, ghastly. I don't know how to address them, but I overall agree with the rest of your post. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

While Kallend has a solid point, I agree that keeping his hand out of sight was moronic and pretty much sealed his fate. This is the bit I don't get in so many of the videos out there - cops shoot someone, but then once the initial threat is removed there is no attempt whatsoever to prevent the person actually dying??? I mean wtf? Once they dropped this guy, it was visibly clear he didn't have a weapon to hand, and it's not like he was in any state to stop a quick search to make sure there was nothing on his person that was still a threat. Then they could at least *attempt* to stem bleeding until medics arrive. But no. Let's just shoot him again to make sure he stays down. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

In this thread: A bunch of people being cunts about things unrelated to the source event purely for the sake of being cunts about things unrelated to the source event. Bravo people. Well fucking done. I'll bet you've made your mothers so proud. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

If you* (or anyone else here) think the obscene cost of your healthcare is due to quality, I've got a bridge to sell you... *I understand you've read and appreciate some of Phil's points, you were just end of the thread. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Um. Did you even look? I had heaps of articles popping up on FB pointing out the irony at the time, and a quick google search just now gave plenty of hits. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Oooh -- which would I rather win -- the Internet or the Special Olympics? Ya know, more people participating in the second are probably nice people Wendy P. Yeah but when I win the internet I still get to walk home after... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

That's fucked dude. Sorry for your loss... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

You state that the condemnation of Brock is unanimous. It's not. Go into the comments on any article on the case and there are examples of people still going the victim-blaming route - saying she shouldn't have gotten so drunk, asking if she was leading him on earlier etc. The examples are certainly the minority, but they exist and they exemplify the pockets of society that still don't get it. I get that you're making an effort to understand here, and that's good. But I still think that your working definition of "rape culture" is off-base. Have a read through the examples in this link, maybe it'll frame things a little better: http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/03/examples-of-rape-culture/ You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Um, not "less than she hoped for". Less than the minimum sentence for the crime he was convicted of. Because the judge focused on what the rapist had going for him in the future, not what the victim had lost in the present and has also lost for the future. The message that sends is "eh, rape's not such a big deal if the rapist has a bright future". I didn't get that from her statement, and I think you're almost wilfully missing the point. People the world over are outraged about the sentence, because the judge, and others are doing what so frequently happens in rape cases - they focus on the past of the victim and their actions that night, looking for causes, and then focus on the future of the rapist, and what they have to lose. That's fucking rape culture. It's abhorrent, and it's way more common than you seem to think. I'm with Normiss. Fuck that guy. Doesn't even have the balls to admit he fucked up. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

This thread is an example of rape culture. Rape culture isn't a little club of people who get together and chant about how great rape is. It's the little insidious things. It's the rapists' focus on blaming the alcohol and party culture on the events of that night, and not the fact that he committed rape. He hasn't once admitted to that fact, which shows zero remorse and no understanding of how wrong what he *chose* to do was. It's the rapists' father, stating that this was all a big fuss over "20 minutes of action". She was unconscious. Out cold. You can't get "action" from someone in that state, you can only rape them. But he won't call it that. It's the rapists' friend writing a reference to the sentencing judge, asking "where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists". It's that dismissive attitude, the "forcible rape" metric, that avoids admitting that rape is happening every day. It happens because there are fuck all consequences when weighted against the severity of the crime. You yourself have focused on the rapist in this thread, and how his lifetime registration is a major punishment. It is. And it's supposed to be, because he chose to do a horrible thing. If he hadn't been caught in the act, he probably would've gotten away with it. And then done it again, because he thought this girl "wanted it", so why wouldn't the next one? You haven't focussed at all on the victim and the justice she deserves, or what she has lost in all this. While you rightly agree the rapist deserves punishment, you've focussed on what he lost and stands to lose. That's what's been wrong with this case, and the sentencing. That's rape culture. You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Wait what? You have to identify yourself in great personal detail AND say how you're going to vote before you get the ballot that allows you to vote? WTF??? Is the premise of anonymity not applicable to the Primaries, just the General? Honestly I don't really know how it goes over there and maybe it all makes sense in context, but on the surface that sounds at best vulnerable to abuse, and at worst flat out corrupt... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Troll, troll, troll your boat, gently down the stream... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.

Guuuuuyyysssss.... You are playing chicken with a planet - you can't dodge and planets don't blink. Act accordingly.