In today's news...

[AceofWind]

Re: In today's news...

Another day, another shooting

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Claimed to be racial or religious motivations (But seriously, it's probably racial this time)

Apparently taken into custody, and apparently the guy was atheist
And apparently it's already being used as a panic thing by gun control advocates

This was happening at the same time as the white house is holding stuff on TPP, also known as "Another one of those 'trade agreements' that give corporations full power over everything"
They passed it apparently

Edit:

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The patches/flags were edited onto the photo. Probably. So it's litterally being called a false flag

As for more lighthearted news while the world goes to shit,

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There are extremely dangerous gangs and thugs that probably have or will rape and or kill an unknown number of people and he chooses to go and shoot a bunch of Church goers. I'm not saying people deserve to die like this but still, one of his supposed reasoning's is because he places the blame of the rape of white women on all blacks. If he wanted to be a hero and try to prevent blacks from doing this, it would have made more sense to go after actual/wannabe criminals.

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

That's the thing with insane people

They're not sane so they don't think like that

 

[AceofWind]

Re: In today's news...

Some of you likely heard this already but several stores (notably Sears, ebay, Amazon, and Walmart) are no longer selling confederate flag merchandise after South Carolina recently announced the take down of the flag as well as banning it from license plates.

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And Apple in particular is taking it a step further by removing all game apps from their stores that depict the confederate flag period.

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[Crawdaddy]

Re: In today's news...

Would that include, say, a mobile game about the civil war or something? That seems a bit excessive, but then I'm not an American.

EDIT: Gotta say though, I don't mind that the Confed flag is removed from public buildings, as it was never an actual state flag, only a military ensign, iirc.

 

[Iggy]

Re: In today's news...

The United States Supreme Court finally ruled that gay couples have the right to marry nationwide.

 

[lurker]

Re: In today's news...

Personally I'd say full-scale banning the confederate flag won't do a damn thing to defend against this shit again. One dumbass claiming of using propaganda from the Civil War to fuel his hate crimes really shouldn't be a good reason to make 85% of the states south of Texas have to redecorate, to be blunt. Yes, the flag originally was used by the Confederates freakin ages ago to fuel some rather bad ideas of governing, but come on, that was, what, centuries ago? Any idiot still following those ideas seems to be a isolated case here.

 

[Ranger Princess]

Re: In today's news...

The United States Supreme Court finally ruled that gay couples have the right to marry nationwide.

I'll be honest. I never thought this day would come. It's incredible how far we've come in this country in just a few short years. It wasn't that long ago that I was embarrassed to be an American. Now I am not. Wonderful news!

 

[Termite]

Re: In today's news...

Yes, the flag originally was used by the Confederates freakin ages ago to fuel some rather bad ideas of governing, but come on, that was, what, centuries ago? Any idiot still following those ideas seems to be a isolated case here.

Problem is it really isn't that isolated. It may be only a small percentage, but there are still parts of the South that refuse to die.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: In today's news...

Problem is it really isn't that isolated. It may be only a small percentage, but there are still parts of the South that refuse to die.

I lived in Alabama for a few years in the 90s. I saw lots of people who wore the "Stars and Bars" on bandannas and t-shirts. I know racism certainly happened there, but I didn't see anything personally. I think for most Southerners who take pride in that flag, it's more about pride in their Southern heritage, and not about outmoded racist rhetoric.

There are exceptions, of course. Idiots and demagogues who think it's something that they can rally around to give themselves a sense of purpose while they perpetrate violence. And for that reason, I think it's only prudent to remove the flag from any official capacity (i.e. flying over public buildings).

I also predict that this will end up being taken to an extreme (more than it already has, even). They're already debating removing statues of historical Confederate leaders from the Statuary Hall in the Capitol building. Don't get me wrong, slavery was an evil institution, but that does not make every citizen of the pre-1865 South an evil person. And we should keep these statues, I think, along with museum displays of the South, to remind us that even good men can be very flawed, and carry foolish ideas with them to the grave.

I'll be honest. I never thought this day would come. It's incredible how far we've come in this country in just a few short years. It wasn't that long ago that I was embarrassed to be an American. Now I am not. Wonderful news![/QUOTE]

I think this is a great step towards equal treatment for the LGBT community, and I hope that the movement doesn't lose any of its momentum.

With that said, I don't like it when people express embarrassment in being American, or more specifically, US citizens. I don't believe that the US is necessarily better than any other nation or state by default, but I've been a proud citizen for as long as I can remember. We've made lots of mistakes (everyone does), but generally we also go out of our way to try to acknowledge and correct those mistakes (though sometimes it takes us time).

I hate this analogy, because in general I have no use for die-hard sports fans (or sports, except Sumo, because Sumo is AWESOME); but where the US is concerned, I'm much like a loyal fan. Even when my team's having a bad year, I'm proud to wear the colors. And today, when my team's doing great things, I'm even more proud.

 

[Ranger Princess]

Re: In today's news...

Hope: I'm sorry that my comment bothered you but it was how I felt. That's not to take anything away from people who do feel proud of their country. I understand that most people probably feel that way. Maybe it's my German heritage that makes me self loathing and nation hating. As some of my close friends will know, I can be equally sarcastic about human beings in general at times.

Anyway, you might want to take my position with a grain of salt because I'm skeptical of national boundaries of all types, so I probably wouldn't be proud of my country no matter where I lived. While individual cultures can be a nice thing to enjoy, I believe that nations are simply artificial barriers that were constructed by people in power a long time ago in order to give them an excuse to go to war and to kill people they don't like. Lots of people around the world have a lot of pointless wars just because they don't like each other. The worst part is, some of those wars are based on conflicts that happened centuries ago. When people should really be embracing and loving one another, they spend too much of their time hating people just because they were born in the wrong place or speak differently. Although there hasn't been a war recently, we have similar boundaries in our own country between people from the north and from the south and between people of different races.

Here's an example that's been bothering me recently even though it's pretty trivial compared to issues of war and peace. Based on their performance in this year's Women's World Cup, the English national team would qualify as one of the three countries that would represent Europe at next year's Olympics games. All the British coaches and officials would have to do is agree to field a team that includes players from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The reason is that England, itself, is not a recognized "Olympic Nation" while Great Britain is. It's been announced, however, that the UK would not field a team at the Olympics even if the English girls managed to qualify (which they did) because the four countries could not agree to play together on a football field. So in the end, young women with dreams of representing their country in the Olympics are being denied the chance to do so over stupid political squabbles that have nothing to do with football and more to do with where people were born and how they talk and also because those people are very proud of their "nation." Personally, I find it disheartening.

 

[Hopeyouguess62]

Re: In today's news...

RP: Perhaps I spoke too harshly, because I actually can sympathize with your position. To be completely fair, being a "fan" (as I put it) of the US leaves me face-palming quite often. Especially when we do stupid things, like tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone. Bear in mind that as a servicemember, I often take it upon myself to defend the US in word as well as action (when it is defensible), so please take my comments with a grain of salt, as well.

Here's where I get all nerdy about national boundaries:

Spoiler

As for national boundaries in general, that's a stickier subject. Yes, some of those distinctions have a lot to do with things that ruthless princes, but quite a few of them also occurred naturally over time. A number of eminent scholars on the subject, notably Benedict Anderson, have claimed that nations are simply "imagined communities," as perceived by a group of people. The people of a nation believe that it exists, therefore it does. State boundaries (not states in a US sense, but rather in the sense of sovereign powers with distinct boundaries) sometimes coincide with national boundaries, but more often than not a state will contain multiple nations, or a nation will extend over more than one state. And yes, argument over state and national boundaries has been the cause of many wars, the most famous of which would be Adolf Hitler's campaign to unify the German people in the Thousand Year Reich (which quickly became the quest to expand the Third Reich, because lebensraum). Nationalism can bind a people together, but it can also lead people into violence--it has the capacity to do great harm, if misused. On the other hand, some states (like the US) aren't bound by a single ethnic nationalism, but rather a civic nationalism. This allows us to exist as multiple ethnicities, religious groups, races, cultures, etc., under the same banner by way of not tying ourselves to our old identities (for example, you and I are of German descent, but really we're both Americans).

 

[Crawdaddy]

Re: In today's news...

Personally I'd say full-scale banning the confederate flag won't do a damn thing to defend against this shit again. One dumbass claiming of using propaganda from the Civil War to fuel his hate crimes really shouldn't be a good reason to make 85% of the states south of Texas have to redecorate, to be blunt. Yes, the flag originally was used by the Confederates freakin ages ago to fuel some rather bad ideas of governing, but come on, that was, what, centuries ago? Any idiot still following those ideas seems to be a isolated case here.

I'm not a scholar of US history, but as far as I know, the thing is that the Confederate flag as we know it today wasn't actually ever flown as the official symbol of the Confederacy - it was flown by various military units, apparently.

This is the best source I could find with just a quick google search:

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That being said, yeah, I agree that the flag removal is mostly symbolic hand-wringing because -- at least according to my impression of US politics -- neither parties are crazy about ACTUALLY doing anything substantial about gun laws.

 

[super_slicer]

Re: In today's news...

That took far too long.

I understand that the god-squad feels like gay marriage is an attack on their religion, couldn't we just have called it something different and gotten it signed into law quicker? Or did we? Sorry, even though I believe you should be able to marry whoever you want to, I don't have a dog in this fight so I haven't been keeping track of it.


As for the confederate flag... I really hate that stupid thing. It definitely shouldn't be flown above any government buildings (unless they're leaving the U.S. in which case they shouldn't be flying OUR flag...). That said, the rest is just petty new-age nobody can be offended about anything bullshit.

Gun law: I live in NY where the SAFE act was passed. I have a concealed carry license, all it took was asking 4 people to vouch for me, ponying up the cash and waiting a few months. I agree, it should be harder to acquire a license, with background checks and a psych evaluation not at cost to the applicant. Once you have your license however, this shit is getting absurd : Needing new background checks for each firearm you add to your license? Yeah because it's not like they'd take the damn thing away if I'd done anything that would warrant them refusing me adding another. Needing a background check to purchase ammunition? fuuuuuuuu I can see needing a license to purchase ammo, annoying for people who are using long-guns without a license legally because then they have to go get one to purchase ammo, but a background check every time? come the fuck on, they're just trying to waste taxpayer dollars.

That's not even the real issue though, all these restrictions on people who own their firearms legally is absurd when the individuals that commit these acts of violence more often that not DON'T have a legal right to own/carry a firearm.

 

[AceofWind]

Re: In today's news...

Trolling is now illegal in New Zealand, if you live in New Zealand and you attempt to troll someone on the internet, you could receive a hefty fine for doing so and may end up in Prison for 2 years.

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[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

That is retarded, immoral and absolutely unenforcable
And that's -before- the experienced trolls try to make a case out of it that their victims are trolling them

Don't they have better things to do?

 

[Sinfulwolf]

Re: In today's news...

The prison sentences are reserved for 'incitement to suicide', and the bill does seem to be aimed towards preventing cyber bullying. I'm not entirely sure those things are immoral. Unenforceable? Maybe for the majority of the internet, but Facebook can be pretty public, same with other social media sites.

This particular site doesn't seem the best at reporting... the next article it linked me to was talking about how a woman stopped being a feminist because she got a boyfriend.

 

[XSI]

Re: In today's news...

And in more news of politicians being exceptionally incompetent failures at life and understanding the world(From a site that seems a bit more credible at least)

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More of the retarded "But terrorists and pedophiles are teh evuls, pls gib all your privacy", except this time also in the same way that would basically give your credit card info to every nigerian prince who would want it

And I would say a ban on trolling and cyberbullying is pretty immoral, it's essentially trying to make a subjective thing into law. Many very nasty people have claimed they were 'harassed' and 'in extreme distress' because they were ' voicing their views', when said views were "I think all gamers should be shot and killed" and similar views(though in many cases less extreme, and in a few more extreme).
To them, the people telling them they were retards for saying those things are 'nasty trolls' and bullies. So banning 'trolling' and 'cyberbullying' inevitably means that you are no longer allowed to offend anyone, because there is always someone that will take said offense - Even if it is a statement that they absolutely deserve such as being called an idiot for claiming the earth is flat and only 6000 years old, as "serious emotional distress"

Opinion can never be a law because of that, and any attempt to make it so will just lead to everyone accusing everyone else of being a troll for disagreeing with them

 

[Crawdaddy]

Re: In today's news...

David Cameron is coming off more and more like a B-movie megalomaniac villain. I'm not sure if you've seen the famous quote from one of his speeches that got spoofed in that regard:

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And here's the quote from the mouth of other, well-known characters:

Spoiler

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[super_slicer]

Re: In today's news...

David Cameron is coming off more and more like a B-movie megalomaniac villain. I'm not sure if you've seen the famous quote from one of his speeches that got spoofed in that regard:

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...

Pretty sure we all know where this is headed :

Spoiler

 

[AceofWind]

Re: In today's news...

Oh man. You guys remember Jared from the Subway promotions right? Yesterday the police raided his home because he's being suspected for possessing cp. This is in response to the earlier arrest of Russell Taylor who worked with Jared as an executive director

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