Topic: Crazy people

[Ghandi]

There's some crazy person running around on campus in a ski mask and holding a gun. I'm not on camps but my roommate was and (for whatever retarded reason) her teacher let out the class knowing there was a gunman running around. Anyways, so far as I know no one has been shot. But damn, people are fucking nuts.

Edit: He's holding the gun. Not running around in it. Grammar ftw.

[Quemaqua]

Jeez.  I hope this doesn't turn into anything tragic.  The hell is the world coming to?  This place sucks.

[Ghandi]

Turns out he was robbing some dude and the guy walked in on him. The gunman ran onto campus and was waving around his gun and what not. Luckily, he didn't shoot anyone. Moral of the story: don't smoke crack.

[gpw11]

Did he get fully busted?

[Ghandi]

Nope, he got away. Crack gives you special abilities, including the ability to run really far without feeling pain.

[Antares]

damn, that is a scary situation.  I'm glad it didn't escalate into something tragic.

[Ghandi]

Kind of unrelated but...



What the fuck is wrong with people? Good lord. Cowards can't face reality so they shoot a bunch of kids / blow themselves up. How can they possibly think that this solves anything?

[Pugnate]

The world is being flushed down, that's what's happening.

But that Russian arms dealer thing is actually good news.

[Ghandi]

Yeah, that is good news. But you know someone else is just going to fill his place. It's not like the demand for arms is suddenly gone because they captured him.

[Cobra951]

We haven't had a good purge since World War  II.  Without a huge world war to enforce the strongest group's point of view and decimate incompatible ones, what we see now is the way things will stay.  If I need to cut down trees to please my God, while you need to save trees to please yours, one of us has to die, and the sooner, the better, in terms of peace.  Sad.  Reality often is.

[shock]

Don't let yourself be discouraged by the dissemination of 'bad' news by media companies.  They have one goal: viewers or readers.  The best selling stories are the ones that invoke fear into people.  The world is really becoming a better place.  It's not without struggle and setbacks, but it really is improving.

[Ghandi]

Well, I know what stories sell papers. I'm a journalism major so I'm reminded of the fact often. But the best selling stores definitely aren't the ones that strike fear into people. That's a little silly. Notice the theme in the two stores in the picture? Yep - blood.

Anyways, that doesn't mean the stories aren't true. I would argue about your assertion that the world is becoming a better place, but maybe you should define "better" first.

[shock]

Haha, well 'better' is ridiculously hard to define, and is honestly such a blanket statement that I don't know if it is even worth trying to explain.

There are a lot of things to be optimistic about, though.  We haven't seen a large scale armed conflict in 60 some years.  People are living longer, healthier lives.  Generally speaking, real wages are rising across the world.  Education and information are spread to all parts of the world like never before.

I could think of a lot more, but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

[Quemaqua]

The world is really becoming a better place.  It's not without struggle and setbacks, but it really is improving.

My gut reaction was to start laughing, but then I sort of choked on it when I realized how wrong that was.  Now I just kind of want to punch someone in the face.  Your naiveté would be refreshing if it wasn't so depressing.

I don't mean that in a mean-spirited way.  I like you, and it's nice to see someone be positive for a change.  But give it another couple of years and I suspect your boundless optimism will be thoroughly grounded by one thing or another.

[Ghandi]

There are a lot of things to be optimistic about, though.  We haven't seen a large scale armed conflict in 60 some years.  People are living longer, healthier lives.  Generally speaking, real wages are rising across the world.  Education and information are spread to all parts of the world like never before.

Well, here in the U.S. things are a little different.

[Cobra951]

Real wages?  The real price of oil hasn't changed much in 40 years.  It costs about the same amount of gold to get the same amount of barrels.  In terms of US dollars, the cost multiplier is I think about 30-40 times.

I am not making 40 times what my father made.  I never even made the same unadjusted dollar figure at my best that my father made at his best.