Eventually, I hope she leaves the GOP. She’s just a kid, her prefrontal cortex has only been fully developed for a couple of years.
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Maybe this is wishful thinking, but I think there are many Republicans who are appalled at the current state of their party. Half of me wishes they would just leave it, but the other half hopes that they will stay and take control of it and fix it.
It may still be the opposition party, but at least it’d be nice if they could make it a respectable opponent. To the degree that I might not agree with everything, but at least I could understand and respect it.
Right now it’s so far out in fringe wingnut land that that is totally impossible. But if enough of their people stood up and took charge, well, it’d still be Republicans and I’d still vote against them, but it’d be a step in the right direction.
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I think this does qualify as justice:
Addendum: I think I posted in another thread, after the shootings, a video of the horseradish prank being played up on him by his mom and dad, with them laughing as he cried. If I remember correctly, someone commented on it, blowing it off as just a funny prank.
Um…fucking no.
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You’re probably talking about me, and… frankly, I still think letting a child make a harmless bet and laughing at the consequence is not an indicator of abuse. And spreading video of it around as though it explains why that child (much later in life) murdered multiple classmates and injured others is absolutely ghoulish and disgusting.
Buying the child a gun and ignoring their suicidal/murderous talk, on the other hand, is clearly entirely different.
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I had no idea who it was originally, which is why I was vague about it.
Doing anything to make anyone feel uncomfortable for one’s amusement is, in my book, abuse. Emotional, mental, physical.
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I feel that definition is so broad that it loses almost all useful meaning, especially in the context of causes of a child actively choosing to commit murder.
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Well, of course it’s gonna be subjective. How about this: I believe that something that is carried out or performed in order to humiliate another person for the amusement/entertainment for one or more people is abuse.
What about at a slumber party for girls, age 8 or 9, and when one of the girls was undressing and naked from the bottom down, a photo was taken of her by one of the other girls because they thought it was funny. Or being forced by one’s best friend’s father to drink a Pepsi that one had accidentally backwashed in and it was really gross, and other people were watching and laughing?
Those things happened to me. Maybe it’s my sensory-processing-disorder (hereafter referred to as SPD), but I find those to be abuse. It sucks and it hurts. My parents never made me do anything to humiliate me for amusement, but other folks did.
And it’s not like he all of the sudden decides to put a gun in his backpack and take it in right after that prank; his anger and shame built up gradually over time, and when he couldn’t contain it and nobody tried to put a check on him, even when there was a very good reason to do so, he carried out the shooting.
That’s the way I see it. My POV and yours are gonna be diff. 
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Police suspect that a 17-year-old from California, Alan Filion, may be responsible for “hundreds of swatting incidents and bomb threats” targeting the Pentagon, schools, mosques, FBI offices, and military bases nationwide, CNN reported.
Recently extradited to Florida, Filion was charged with multiple felonies after the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) traced a call where Filion allegedly claimed to be a mass shooter entering the Masjid Al Hayy Mosque in Sanford, Florida. The caller played “audio of gunfire in the background,” SCSO said, while referencing Satanism and claiming he had a handgun and explosive devices.
“Nazgul,” “Paimon Arnum,” and other usernames police claim are linked to online accounts Filion used are related to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. For example, the owner of the Torswats Telegram channel posted images of a Nazgul, which translates to “Ring Wraith” in Tolkien’s “black speech” language, according to court documents. Authorities say Filion used several usernames containing the phrase “Ring Wraith.” In emails between Dennis and the FBI, the private investigator also flagged a Discord account with the username “Dushatar,” which used a Nazgul as its profile image, court records say. The same Discord user previously used the handles “Paimon Arnum,” “Paimon Arnum Onkmokhob,” and “Paimon Arnum Angmarob,” according to court records, which investigators note are all “detailed, obscure ambiguations of words within Tolkien’s ‘black speech’ language.” Police say they also found Lord of the Rings-related words and online content linked to six Google accounts that they claim Filion used.
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No relation to Nathan, I hope!
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I like Mr. Reich. Plus, his surname is kind of ironic in this thread. (did i use “ironic” correctly?)
To paraphrase Kaiser Willy II before WWI: " I see no countries, I see no churches, I see only human beings." (quote is from “The Proud Tower”, by Barbara Tuchman) somewhere in the chapter on Socialism, and i’m too lazy to look it up, even tho the book is less than 2 ft, away from me)
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Among other things…
The “000” code on the gun safe is just… wow. A lot of gun safes are pretty poorly made to start with, but you might as well just be leaving it open at that point.
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Maybe it’s not enough, but it is a step in the right direction.
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Buy local!
Edit: I noticed it when containers of ice cream were downsized to 1.5 quarts from 2 qts, with the price staying the same. My mom was still alive, cos she commented it, too.
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The lack of accountability and self-awareness is astounding.
I hope this makes such a difference that it makes some parents stop and look at how their child/ren are actually doing in their lives. But, I doubt it.
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In Iowa, no less!
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It’s a 662-page book, on my Libby app right now!
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