Re: continuing proofs America is wacko [3]

by Eldorion Tue Nov 10, 2015 1:15 am

So glad that I got out of college before this wave of ... offensiveness policing or whatever you want to call it reached its current peak. Or maybe it's just that incidents of it get more attention these days; I dunno if there's any hard data about its prevalence and I've been deliberately at a remove from college culture since I graduated 2.5 years ago.

by bungobaggins Tue Nov 10, 2015 8:36 pm

When I was in school, when the campus preachers came around students would argue with them or just shout and be obnoxious. Kind of like a mini-Speaker's Corner.

I'm only like 6 or so years removed from all this, but what would they do today? Hold hands and declare a "safe space"?

by bungobaggins Tue Nov 10, 2015 10:07 pm

More from this exchange.

Very telling here: "IT'S NOT ABOUT CREATING AN INTELLECTUAL SPACE...IT'S ABOUT CREATING A HOME"

Well, why did you go to college?

edit: I really hate to say it, but stuff like this just pushes me further to the right.

All this PC crap is really getting annoying.

by bungobaggins Tue Nov 10, 2015 10:19 pm

These kids probably think they're part of some great movement.

They've got no fucking clue.

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by halfwise Wed Nov 11, 2015 12:44 am

Yep, American students these days are ##%@ pansies.

by Eldorion Wed Nov 11, 2015 3:28 am

bungobaggins wrote:edit: I really hate to say it, but stuff like this just pushes me further to the right. All this PC crap is really getting annoying.

I agree that stuff like the Yale videos are annoying as shit but I don't think I ever went to the extent that these guys did on social justice issues so it doesn't necessarily push me away. And I do try to think seriously about some of these issues that get raised and sometimes there are worthwhile points raised, though I've generally remained pretty firm in my position on the free speech issue (though I'm not really sure how easily that can be pegged into the modern left-right dichotomy).

by chris63 Sat Nov 28, 2015 3:13 am

by Mrs Figg Sat Nov 28, 2015 1:01 pm

to be fair its not just the US, its everywhere.

by David H Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:04 am

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/12/03/us-usa-guns-stockpile-insight-idUSKBN0TM2LU20151203

Man’s hoard of nearly 5,000 guns shows ease of amassing arms in U.S.
By Peter Eisler

As sheriff’s investigators threaded past the battered cars, cast-off tires and rusted farm equipment cluttering Brent Nicholson’s front yard, there was no hint of the sinister stockpile hidden behind his windowless front door.

Inside, the guns were everywhere: rifles and shotguns piled in the living room, halls and bedrooms; handguns littering tables and countertops. Outside, when they rolled up the door on the pre-fab metal garage, more arms spilled out at their feet.

“This has completely changed our definition of an ass-load of guns,” said Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks. Six weeks after the discovery, officers are still cataloging the weapons, many of which have proved stolen, and the final tally is expected to be close to 5,000. “I don’t know if there’s ever been (a seizure) this big anywhere before,” Brooks says.

The question of how one man amassed such a stockpile of guns arises just as there is renewed American soul-searching over the widespread availability of firearms in the wake of a series of mass shootings.

Even in a country where more people own more guns than anywhere else in the world, Nicholson's cache is extraordinary. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives doesn't rank gun seizures by size, but a spokesman says Nicholson's hoard probably is among the largest ever.

by halfwise Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:25 am

I just see him as a hoarder who happens to like guns. I'm more interested in how he got stolen guns and turning off that pipeline than the fact that he himself had so many guns per se.

by David H Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:59 am

I think just having a "definition of an ass-load of guns" says something about American culture. Smile

by halfwise Fri Dec 04, 2015 2:09 am

yeah, I liked that.

by David H Fri Dec 18, 2015 5:34 pm

Over two hundred years later, the Royal Navy is still impressing American seamen. Mad

http://www.seapowermagazine.org/stories/20151216-coastguart-royalnavy.html

U.S. Coast Guard Fills Personnel Gap in Britain’s Royal Navy

By RICHARD R. BURGESS, Managing Editor

ARLINGTON, Va. — Three dozen U.S. Coast Guardsmen are serving with the U.K. Royal Navy (RN) to alleviate a manpower shortage in the RN, not as a routine personnel exchange program.

Speaking Dec. 15 at a Special Topic Breakfast sponsored by the Navy League and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Coast Guard Commandant ADM Paul F. Zukunft said that 36 Coast Guardsmen currently are serving full-time in the Royal Navy.

“Sixteen years ago, [the RN] was looking at budget challenges and they figured that one way they could meet budget is if they bring in no new [personnel] accessions,” he said. “They did that for three years. So now, over 16 years [later], you’ve got this big hole in the Royal Navy in sea-going ratings, engineers [and] electricians.”

According to Zukunft, “the First Sea Lord, Sir George Zambellas, said ‘I would love the United States Coast Guard to come serve in the Royal Navy. We’ll take up PCS [permanent change-of-station] costs, put the folks up in homes [to] live the great European lifestyle.’”

“’Why don’t you ask the United States Navy?’” Zukunft said he asked Zambellas. “’They’re much bigger than we are.’

“He said, ’Well, you have old ships, we have old ships. Yours aren’t under warranty, ours aren’t under warranty. When they break, far away from home, the first thing you do is call is the duty engineer to come down and fix it. You don’t call a contractor.”

by Mrs Figg Fri Dec 18, 2015 5:44 pm

halfwise wrote:Yep, American students these days are ##%@ pansies.

ALL students today are f****** pansies. they get hissy if their local Starbucks runs out of roasted tomato Panini.

by bungobaggins Thu Dec 31, 2015 10:59 am

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicagarrison/all-you-americans-are-fired#.gnp1xppvzz

by Pettytyrant101 Wed Jan 06, 2016 1:15 am

'Evangelical ministers Ken Copeland and Jesse Duplantis claimed they talked to God on a private jet and that their supernatural feat was impossible to accomplish while riding in coach....Copeland went on to say that commercial airline travel was impossible for preachers in a “dope filled world” and that riding coach was like “getting in a long tube with a bunch of demons....Other preachers, such as Pastor Creflo Dollar, have been told by God to buy private planes. Creflo was able to raise $70 million for a Gulfstream Jet to fulfill the mysterious will of the Lord.'

I need to get on this evangelical bandwagon and get a bunch of gullible fools to give me 70 million for my own plane! Nod

by halfwise Wed Jan 06, 2016 1:31 am

Actually, it helps a lot if you move to America. Rolling Eyes

by Pettytyrant101 Wed Jan 06, 2016 8:52 pm

Both funny and depressing at the same time.

by halfwise Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:17 pm

The bigger question: is it the government's job to shut down businesses that prey on dumbfucks? I don't think it is, but it may be their business to take away their tax exempt status.

by Pettytyrant101 Wed Jan 06, 2016 9:46 pm

Definitely on that last one (although I already thing all churches and religious bodies should both have to pay taxes and adhere to the law of the land, no exceptions- the idea ion the modern world a group can be exempt from the law because they claim unprovable, invisible superbeing says so is ridiculous)

by David H Thu Jan 07, 2016 3:35 am

The local churches run the majority of the homeless shelters and food banks around here. A little coldblooded to tax them for their charity, don't you think?

by halfwise Thu Jan 07, 2016 2:39 pm

It's a thorny issue how to distinguish a non-profit from a for-profit. Clearly an non-profit needs to pay its workers, and put aside money for infrastructure and growth. A for-profit does the same. For-profits often also have social outreach programs. How to tell them apart? scratch

by Pettytyrant101 Thu Jan 07, 2016 4:34 pm

Put them on a fair footing would be my solution- have a charity tax- all charities and churches get the same rate.
But no further exemptions on tax or any other laws (like marriage) on religious grounds until they can unequivocally prove the existence of God and what He wants.

by halfwise Thu Jan 07, 2016 4:52 pm

Still doesn't solve the problem of a for-profit business declaring themselves a charity and claiming profits are for future expansion and just compensation for administration. No idea how this is handled in the real world, if it really is. It seems not to be.

by Pettytyrant101 Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:00 pm

Thats easy you would have to declare to be one or the other- the idea of a for-profit business getting tax exemption would then be impossible.
If they want to be charitable they can donate sums of money to existing registered charities- and they would be allowed to do so with the appropriate taxation on that.