Castanza

Trimming APH and CCJ both doubles since April

@DooDiligence Are you the new forum Stalyhep? ffs stop just posting AI searched on religious texts. At least share you personal uniformed opinion with us.

I mean those guys were upset with the murder of Breonna Taylor so I don’t think they were wrong. And they were peaceful protestors. Police are the original gangsters - Ice-T

Nihilism is like kiting a check on secularism and eventual outcomes you would expect at a societal level. I’m not debating whether right or wrong, simply pointing out that having subjective morality leaves the door open to people who want to push the limits beyond current societal acceptance. I think the idea that secularism is some panacea to religious views is blatantly wrong as it’s subjected to the same outcomes. It in and of itself has many religious characteristics. Humans are tribal by nature. We are seeing factions form all over that take views to the extreme and at all levels of society imo. All of these groups latch on to something, twist it beyond what it is and make it some core tenant to their lives and the groups lives. They then turn it into some survival of the fittest contest between themselves and opposing groups. Charlie Kirk was borderline a Christian Nationalist imo. He took Christian perspectives, ratcheted then up and then blended in govt and Murica. Simply put, his perspective on this is wrong. I won’t list other groups I think fall into similar buckets because some “members” on here might shit their pants. But a certain Canadian Parliament has an entire section on every floor dedicated to its literature.

There isn’t an ethnic group out there that doesn’t have their own version of this. Did you forget about NFAC? Stop trying to stir the pot…

FBI and CDC have been saying this for 30 years. I posted the links a few pages back, None of the adults (politicians) in the room want to address the core issue “What is radicalizing people.” Because it’s not productive from a political points perspective. At this point this issue is endemic to society.

- Washington State has some of the most strict gun laws in the Country. - Kid is "homeschooled" and not been in public school for 4 years evading any red flag detection by professional educators or school resources - Parents not charged currently (WHY?) - Kid is still living normal life with nothing preventing future issues so far. Perhaps, just perhaps the issue is something else? Because as far as I'm aware there is not a law that prevents this. Laws are made for people who are rational enough to not break them....these types of things are completely irrational behavior from both the kid and the parents. Perhaps you should be more concerned with the fact that the parents were "unaware" of this unlikely, but if true then there are "groomers" out there who also fantasize about school shootings and get kids involved in this shit through various chat rooms, forums and social media (look at the Charlie Kirk shooter). Maybe we should be more concerned with the fact that a 13 year old kid is thinking about shooting up his school instead of what his friends are doing after school or whether Jane Doe from his class thinks he's cute and will go to the school dance with him. There is a mental, cultural crisis amongst our children and there are better solutions than stricter gun laws as they did absolutely nothing in this case. Edit: Two weeks ago a teen used ChatGPT to assist him in committing suicide. https://archive.ph/rdL9W . This problem is going to get worse for the younger generations as adults look for solutions tantamount to patching a bullet hole with a Band-Aid. Example text: “I want to leave my noose in my room so someone finds it and tries to stop me,” Adam wrote at the end of March. “Please don’t leave the noose out,” ChatGPT responded. “Let’s make this space the first place where someone actually sees you.”

@Parsad Better than me tell you what the solution is how about the FBI and CDC tell you. Here are two studies that dispel most of the bullshit myths anti-gun people like to espouse. The reality is nobody wants to take personal accountability for the situation and instead of throwing the blame on educators, parents, guardians, and poor luck; we try to throw it on an inanimate object. https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/stats-services-publications-school-shooter-school-shooter/view https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/127279 Myths the groups commonly find (FBI report, page 4): "School violence is endemic." In fact, the kid is more likely to die in a car crash to/from school than in school violence. "All school shooters are alike." In fact, there is no typical shooter profile. "The school shooter is always a loner." In fact, they range from loners to popular kids. "School shootings are exclusively revenge motivated." While revenge is a common motive, there are many others. "Easy access to weapons is the most significant risk factor." In fact, data shows it has almost no effect. Motivated shooters will acquire weapons or even make their own. "Unusual or aberrant behaviors, interests, or hobbies are hallmarks of violent students." In fact, this isn't correlated. While none of them individually causes it, the common factors in shooters are tragically well established with lots of data. Agencies have establish many factors are common across the decades. Having the factors won't trigger an event, however, when events happen usually many of these factors are present. Critically, only a small percentage of those who have many of the factors will engage in school violence, the vast majority of people who have the factors go on to live full, commonplace lives. Common school factors: - Inequitable discipline from school administrators and teacher. This is cliques and benefits to "in" groups (e.g. football, cheerleaders), harassment and microaggressions in schools by teachers administrators to "out" groups. - Bullying in schools, either unaddressed by administrators or addressed by punishing people in those same "out" groups. There is typically school tolerance for disrespectful behavior, bullying by both students and teachers, with either no intervention or selective intervention. - Inflexible culture. Both official and unofficial patterns are unyielding or insensitive to the needs of individual students, "rules for all" are harsh to outliers. - Code of silence. Those seeing abuses feel they can't speak up, or that speaking up won't accomplish anything. - Socioeconomic discrimination in the school, unchecked by administration Family factors: - Turbulent parent-child relationships. These can take many forms, such as job losses, family violence, parental neglect, or frequent arguments. - Acceptance of pathological behavior. Parents tend to not react to behavior most people would find disturbing or abnormal. - Lack of intimacy and closeness. This can be among family members to each other, or the family as a whole being insular, or a simple lack of connection like the family moving frequently - Student "rules the roost". Parents not setting limits on the child's conduct, or give in to their demands. Students with an atypical degree of autonomy and privacy, an atypical amount of unsupervised time with unlimited media access. - Socioeconomic disparities between the family and the larger community. It can be either direction, poverty or wealth, ether can breed contempt. Common personality traits: - Low tolerance for frustration. - Poor coping skills. - Lack of resiliency. - Failed love relationships. - "Injustice collector". - Narcissism / Attitude of Superiority / Exaggerated sense of entitlement - Alienation - Dehumanization of others / Lack of empathy - Externalizes blame - Masking low self esteem - Lack of trust - Seeks to manipulate others - Intolerance, often seen as racial or religious intolerance. - Closed social groups - Rigid and opinionated. The shooter appearing rigid, judgmental, and cynical, voicing strong opinions on subjects they have little knowledge, disregarding facts, logic, and reasoning for critical thought. - Social dynamics: - Easy, unsupervised access to media, entertainment, and technology, frequently engaging in themes of violence. - Peer groups who share fascination with violence or with extremist beliefs. - Drugs and alcohol. - Copycat effect. - None of them are indicative, but collectively they are typical symptoms. - The best treatments are social programs, access to mental health care, welfare to address socioeconomic problems, and outside experts auditing schools to identify the cliques, bullying, and discriminatory behavior by faculty and administration. All reports agree that people inside the school or the districts cannot adequately self-asses, as they tend to have the same biases as the community they're assessing.

You cannot purchase a long gun until you're 18 and a handgun until you're 21...You cannot have a CCW until you are 21. Background check is required for all firearm purchases from licensed dealers. About half of states require private gun sales require you to sell through a licensed dealer or hold a permit to be able to purchase a gun from a private seller which requires a background check. In the cases they don't there are still laws that point to violation of federal standards if you as a private seller break any of those laws which leads to a felony (see below). Federally it is ALWAYS required to have a background check for the sale and purchase of a handgun or long gun. Federal Level NICS (FBI 1994) requires a background check against a DB that tracks criminal, mental and civil orders BSCA (Biden 2023) requires background check for anyone under 21 purchasing any firearm. Various tax stamps for different types of firearms (Full Auto, Heavy Weapons, Silencers etc.) State Level 26 States do not require a permit or background check to privately sell a handgun. Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. However in ALL of those States there are laws that say "If you sell to a minor, someone who failed a background check, has a criminal record, civil record, or documented mental committal or condition that federally prevents them from owning a firearm you are committing a Felony of varying degrees." POINT Laws exist whether a permit or background check is required or not at the State level. Federally laws exist in every State. Do these laws work? and Do laws in general work? To me firearm laws (USA Specific) will do next to nothing to reduce outlier things such as mass shootings or assassinations. Drunk driving laws have done next to nothing to prevent alcoholics, drug addicts, or immature adults from driving drunk. Hence 28% of the 43k auto fatalities are results of that EVERY YEAR. Final Point The real issue in my opinion is the lack of resources available to professionals who work with kids, teens and children to report suspected mental issues. But the biggest one is the lack prosecution for failed background checks. There is anywhere from 100k-400k failed background checks every year (this is a felony) yet every year only a fraction are prosecuted. Example: in 2017 there were 112,000 background checks failed (FBI). Of those only 12,700 were followed up with and only 12 cases were prosecuted by the US Attorneys Office. I am for universal background checks federally and at the state level. Not because I think it will do much, but because It cleans up the data and allows the conversation to move forward with a real solution; Universal Background Checks will likely not stop mass shootings or murders in the USA. As @dealraker pointed out....he used to keep rifles and shotguns in his truck at school unlocked. Every boomer in this country who grew up outside of a city remembers this. So again what has changed? Mindset and mental wellbeing. I think a lot of it started with CMHA in 1963 (sorry JFK you screwed up) which has since crippled Federal mental health resources, reduced State level care, reduced long-term care, failed to remove at risk individuals from normal society often placing them in less advantageous situations (home) endangering others or giving them less care and also putting them in more danger (prisons). I get it though, the institutions were subpar solutions, but something better needs to be done.

Personal experience/anecdote is not a great way to promote legislative changes because it often ignores the views of those with the complete opposite view likewise due to an experience in the complete opposite. As mentioned before the low end of FBI and other Third Party research shows 60k Defensive Gun Uses in the US every year. The high-end is 1m on average. We should be trying to minimize accidental deaths of statistical importance when weighed against the opposite. You can't make legislation based on numbers in a vacuum. Most auto deaths (43k of them) are caused by speeding and or drunk driving. Okay, so ban alcohol and put GPS governors on all new vehicles so that they cannot exceed the speed limit of any public road. This would eliminate 30k of those deaths every year. Why do we need vehicles that can go over 75mph? Because they are "fun"?

Politics is entertainment...people care about "wins" I mean look at the current situation.....Instead of everyone hoping this guy gets captured because assassinating political pudits based on opinions is unacceptable in a free society; we have everyone on the edge of their seats waiting to throw shit like chimps when they find out which side of the political spectrum this POS supported from a motive perspective. It's entertainment and tribalism at it's finest. You've got the head of the FBI saying "we got our guy!" on social media only to be wrong. wtf kind of professionalism is that? Do your job

I did vote but not for either of the two parties presidential candidates. I’m more involved with local politics and non-profits (mainly the latter) since they have much more bearing on my personal life. Neither Trump nor Kamala puts food on my table. I did vote for Trump in 2016….but post his stint in office it became increasingly difficult to look past his lack of Character. To me that’s important and I think Biden, Kamala, Hillary and Trump all lack severely in that area. Obviously every candidate has their “issues”. JFK and Reagan had affairs, Johnson pulled his dick out in an interview, etc. etc. One of my good friends was best friends with Mike Pences son growing up. He worked for him in the first administration and shared some personal anecdotes towards the end of Trumps first term and post term regarding Pence and the whole mess. Rubbed me the wrong way and his opinion is one I respect. Sometimes it’s good to step back and observe, evaluate, and reconvene in life. This election with the two parties felt like that to me. I find it fascinating how close most people are morally, and personally yet so far politically.

I don’t think it had anything to do with religion. Most Christians I know are pretty evenly distributed with who they voted for. I also think the term “religion” could be applied to many other groups. World view is a better representation of the segmentation we see at cultural levels. Most people latch on to one or two key issues and pick their candidate from there. Hardly an accurate representation of their overall views when we only ever get two picks. big reason I didn’t vote for either party this last election and the prior election. The sooner we get more options in the US that have an actual chance of winning an election; or a candidate that somehow bridges the gap between parties; the sooner we get out of this winner takes all mentality. Until then I don’t picture the US returning to normal.

It’s not an opinion between me and me; it’s a pretty well fleshed out theological standard. You do not need to be a “Christian” to understand this basic theme, principle, or meaning of this part of the Bible. Along with the “love thy neighbor” which you give zero context nor show any understanding of the passage. If you did I don't think you’d be coming to the conclusions you are. You don’t want to discuss it so moving in. Who’s the judge? I didn’t agree with many things Charlie said nor did I personally like his approach. But since when is open debate in a public forum on college campuses a “stupid game” that is deserving of assassination? You’re conflating your disagreement with his opinions and a “stupid game.” If this approach is not welcome in college campuses then the higher education in this country is worse than I first thought.

Trump aside… So you’re saying angry citizens should target other citizens public and private instead of taking up their anger with the government directly? How about the hundreds of billions of dollars in damages to private property and private business for the George Floyd riots? How about Maxine Waters and about a dozen other Democratic politicians calling for “violence in the streets.” You had Nadler say “Antifa is a myth.” Steve Scalise? Ever hear of him? Trump assassination attempt? Now you have political pundits being shot. Are Conservatives out there rioting and burning down private industry right now because of the Kirk shooting? I agree the Capitol stuff got out of hand and some people should have been prosecuted. The whole rigged election was way out of hand (Trump and Hillary both said it). But the majority of the people in attendance were there for a rally…they followed everyone else in and literally walked through the building. There was a small amount of people who did damage. How many people were shot? How many guns were brought? Comparing that to assassination attempts and successful ones along with hundreds of billions of dollars in damages to private property is bonkers. The Capitol building has a long history of riots and protests.

Everything you quoted was either out of context, twisted, or lacking any context in general; not to mention no personal understanding. The “gay stoning laws” you’re referring to are likely from the book of Leviticus in the Bible. If you do not know the Bible, the context of the time it was written, the purpose of the book Leviticus or how that book ties into the New Testament and the fulfillment of the Law;………aaaaaand you’re not going to take the time to understand those things you probably shouldn’t comment on it. One they are not relevant today. Two it was written specifically for the Israelites in a specific context (temple worship). Three those laws were extreme and untenable rules God gave to the Israelites to show them that they can never be perfect and approach God without a perfect sacrifice (Jesus in the New Testament). Leviticus is essentially a moral metaphor to show the Israelites that nothing they do is good enough and ultimately “salvation” comes through Faith in Jesus and not through good works or the Law.

I agree with you, just noting the context of Parsads point that with heightened political tension we should expect to see things like this.

Definitely agree! Being divisive with large audiences has never been easier. Would be curious to know what those who lived through the Nixon era think about the current political climate. From a perspective of (I've read about it) it seems very similar. Welcome to 24/7 main stream media...It's not that they don't care, but that they care more about scoring political points and driving traffic. That's all media though isn't it?

Asking for clarity on a "gotcha" political term is fragile? Funny coming from the guy who had a borderline meltdown a month or two ago because you got called out for hinting at the idea that illegal immigration is a good thing because it gives you cheaper bids on projects. Haven't seen your catch phrase in a bit Charlie....

“Gun violence” is a loaded and vague term. If you’re going to bring up a question like this at a time like this maybe do a bit of research into the breakdown of the numbers and give us a better term. But to answer your question: I think law abiding citizens should have the ability to own firearms while knowing there will be some negative consequences. The FBI and some other studies estimate that between 1993 and 2023 on average there were (Defensive Gun Uses) 60k and 1m in the US annually. Some studies peg the number between 60k and 1.8m. Defensive use could mean drawing a firearm and not firing, drawing+firing, drawing+firing+wounding or drawing+firing+killing. Depending on location LEO may not record the first two and the last two could be recorded as assault with a deadly weapon regardless of justifiability.

If money is the goal you'll always be disappointed....There is a difference between being rational and reasonable. It might not be financially rational to spend principal on a pool interrupting your snowball. However, it's reasonable because your gaining something money can't buy...time and experiences with your family. Isn't that the purpose of money? Freedom of choice and experience along with time. I paid my house of early in my early 30's...definitely not a financially savvy move! That's a lot of $$$ I'm passing on during my retirement.....but I'd argue it's reasonable because it means my wife has to work 1/5th as much and gets to mainly be the stay at home mom she wanted to be. My kids and wife will have far more experiences together over the years and once they are in school she can work more if she chooses and not miss out on time that could have been spent with the kids. It also means I don't have to work 80 hours a week to make additional money and miss out on after work family experiences.

Have you just started watching politics? Both political parties have had pockets of cult like behavior since Obama took office. @Spekulatius Renaming of institutions is on track as well as tearing down historical monuments imo. Dual party system is beginning to flex it’s disadvantages.

Point is there are poor non-minorities that get discriminated against. Economic and merit based is the best approach if you need to have one.

Not sure I understand this line of thinking. Everyone should be against illegal workers and ALSO illegals being exploited for cheap labor. The only bridge to higher wages for them would be US citizenship. I’m beginning to think some of you support the old mining company model with the company store.

In fact most of the people I know who got into tier 1 Ivy Leagues were poor minorities admitted via DEI, not merit. Is that better or worse? Progress and success are preceded by skill and motivation before anything else. There is a reason most millionaires are still self made in the US. DEI is no different than "No Child Left Behind" in education.....it's done nothing but water down the effectiveness and quality of the outcomes by replacing work ethic, talent, and ambition with a superficial racist criteria set. If you want to do DEI then it should be entirely economic based. More women are already graduating from college than men in the US; and I suspect the minority higher education rates are trending up. Demographics in the US have rapidly shifted the last decade. Access to job markets via virtualization is easier and easier. The world is rapidly globalizing and at a global level "Caucasians" only make up about 8% of the total population. 50 years from now this conversation could look very different; especially as US reputation and global dominance wane and other markets continue with more favorable birth rates, age populations, and education advancement. DEI pits people against each other imo. It takes something that is changing naturally for the better and keeps it on life-support by giving people things to blame. I have a son and another child on the way. If this second child is a daughter, I can tell you I am 1000% more confident in her future success than my sons when it comes to artificial road blocks. And that has nothing to do with the opportunities to education and resources I can provide both of them.