When you need to rant...

[CensoredAlso]

those who are eager to say it isn't the fault of guns being easy to purchase, but a mental health problem are the same ones that cut funding for mental health.

Frustratingly, yes.

 

[charlietheowl]

As for the mass shooting brats? I think we can also lump them in as terrorists and what they're doing is terrorism.

I think that terrorism, as a concept, has been narrowed down to an act that only can have religious/radical causes, probably from years of being passed around as a political concept in elections. But any act of mass shooting is an act of terrorism, because it does nothing but strike fear in the public. It probably just doesn't get labeled as such because of the media not wanting to get gun lobby groups angry.

 

[Drtooth]

If we can't even pass a bill saying that those on the "Do not Fly" list can't purchase a gun, you know the lobby is too powerful. Obviously, they not only give money to corrupt politicians, they also threaten to bury those politicians by funding another loyal minion if they don't give them exactly what they want. It's an abusive as heck relationship. The only ones who are really for the NRA are the gun manufacturers and crazy as crap mountain men that feel that everything's an imaginary conspiracy that's incredibly circular. The whole, we need guns or else they'll take away our guns mentality which, yeah... "mental" is the key word. All the crap we have to put up with to keep us "safe" from terrorism, it was only a matter of time before we found the biggest gap that we can't close. Letting people hoard guns no questions asked. Legally or illegally purchased, something has to be done about gun hoarding. No one's saying that, and it's disappointing. If you really need to, one or two is fine. Gathering that much weaponry...how come that never sets off any suspicion?

As far as the terrorism angle goes, well... if this was a Three Stooges short or a Get Smart episode, I would find this hilarious, but as real life it's incessantly chilling. It's frightening how certain people are making the same mistakes that actually benefit the terrorists' cause. Like we didn't learn a thing. The media is still overexposing this latest story, unwittingly giving them a platform. Fact devoid hatemongering is starting back up again, scaring people into the arms of those who want all out war (exactly what terrorists want, because that's such a great recruiting tool for them). It's just alarming since we're giving our enemies exactly what they want. And what's worse, people are actually naive again that we can just drop a couple bombs and these scary monster men will all the sudden go away because life is exactly like fiction. Bad guys all melt away when good guys win.

The startling truth is this. We can't logically fight a war with these guys. Why? War is essentially a nice should be outdated but isn't concept of which when two or more countries don't like each other send wave after wave of their own men to settle a disagreement until one leader says "Bah! This is boring and costly." and gives up. Or gets a bomb dropped on them. Either one. Now, what happens when you fight a rabid, thoroughly brainwashed hivemind of whom human lives, theirs or anyone else's are meaningless, and are thin skinned enough to want to kill as many as possible, but don't you dare harm a hair on their heads? People who thrive on war essentially? An unstoppable villain that wants you to fight them. How do you fight them? You don't, not because of hippy peacey nonsense, but because you can't. These terrorists are like internet trolls, and mutilating others is their "i did your mother last night." They want a reaction because they use it. And they're getting a heck of a reaction.

 

[MikaelaMuppet]

I had to erase everything off my iPod Touch because it was having some problems.

 

[D'Snowth]

Okay, seriously, this isn't even funny anymore.

So, normal/seasonal weather has finally returned, we've finally gotten back down to where we should be for this time of year, and I am happy about that.

But. . . .

As it turns out, this is only temporary. Seriously, this normal pattern is only going to last for just this weekend, then come next week, we're not only jumping back up into unseasonable spring-like weather again, but it's apparently also going to last through Christmas (seriously, it's going to be in the 70s for Christmas), but it's apparently also going to last into January.

Words cannot begin to describe how utterly ****** I am about this. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE! We've never been in the 70s during Christmas! We've never lost two thirds of the first month of winter to warm, spring-like weather (we do usually lose the last half of February to early springs)! I wait for months through unbearable southern summers for winter weather to arrive; I always look forward to the days I can break out the sweaters and sleep in my jammies, but I have seriously been deprived of that, and it's got me so out of whack, I'm virtually on the verge of a breakdown.

Nobody would listen to Al Gore when he tried to warn us all about this years ago. Nope. I bet if he was Republican, people would have taken him seriously instead of dismissing him as a nut job.

 

[Drtooth]

Like I said in another thread, I do not trust a warm December. Never. They can say "El Nino" pattern all they want, but it'll be the same. Warm, deceitful December, mild beginning of January... then it happens. The jet stream collapses by January 15 dropping us from above normal temps to well below normal temps. Then February.

Yeah...

February.

Last year, we had a cold and warm December with a really warm Christmas day.

February came and it never stopped snowing. It never warmed up to normal to melt the snow, and we kept getting record snowstorms within days of each other. At least 2-3 a week. This past winter was late, but it sure made the heck up for it. Ditto the year before. Not quite as much snow, but brutally cold all the way through March. In fact, the only time in the past few years it actually was a mild, relatively snow-less winter (and we still had some storms here and there) was when there was a massive blizzard in October. Thankfully it didn't hamper coastal areas, but the further west...it was horrible.

 

[D'Snowth]

We had a warmer than usual Christmas Eve last year (in the 60s), that was a first for us, and we may have the occasion of a warmer than usual day or two in early December . . . but we have never lost two-thirds of December to 60s and 70s.

Last January was pretty uneventful, but it was about average as far as temps go: 40s for highs, that's pretty normal for us. Then Feb came along, and I'll agree, it was odd: we suddenly got hammed with snow and ice the very tail-end of the month . . . that's odd, even for us, because we don't usually see snow in February (we don't even see snow in December much of the time), our snow is usually exclusive to January, but not last year. It was doubley odd because anymore, spring usually arrives by Valentine's Day.

The only time we had no snow whatsoever was the winter of 2011-12: that was an unusually mild winter (the highs were pretty much consistently in the 50s, which is what December and much of February's like for us), and with the exception of like three flurries, we saw no accumulation whatsoever that winter, and we'll usually see at least three inches at some point in January.

 

[The Count]

The fact that there are certain forum members registered here who are in fact spambots, and I can't delete or ban them until they post any spam posts with obviously spammish URL thread titles. Even more annoyingly, they think they're cute stating some deviation of New York like neyyork or newyork as their location.

 

[Drtooth]

I really, really, really really wanted to stay out of this, but I no longer can take it. I get where in a new normal of an endless political electoral cycle and it's mostly due to the big multibillionare jerks that want to make sure that they keep getting all the government cheese they possibly can get while stepping on whoever they can to get it. I get we'll be bombarded by ads for the 2020 election before we even elect someone in 2016 because of this. I get that hateful rhetoric carefully manufactured by focus groups and marketing execs spewed by immoral demagogues has been the theme since 2000 at least. And what burns me up first is that they can't even take a freaking break until after the holiday season to shove their fear mongering down the public's throats. If these politicians are so freaking Jesus-y, why not give a break to hypocritical mudslinging? I hated seeing that crap during Christmas specials.

But further more, with all the "Trump said this" and "Trump said that" crap making rounds everywhere, what really bugs me is that the other candidates are saying actually worse things. But none so much as Marco Rubio's incessant "BOoooOOoooOOOO! Spoooooooky!!" fear campaign. I've seen hypocritical garbage spewing out of the now far right Republican party, and it's starting to sound like noise. But Rubio's campaign is the equivalent of dangling a rubber cockroach and making "ooogie boogie" noises to scare a five year old. And I find it disgusting. The message of his ads essentially boils down to "Boogiemen in Middle East! Boogieman in charge of Russia! Boogie Man in North Korea! President is a [derogatory term that also means cat]! He no blowy upy stuff fast enough! Me hit button make all go away!" Now, all the race baiting Trump can vomit out is far less disgusting than this. Why? Well, consider the fact the last guy and his surrounding yesmen did the same thing and bullied the world into fighting a nonsense war based on family feud (the guy we were fighting was our bestest best friend until he turned on another oil rich nation...and even then it was none of our business and he was never a direct threat to us) left the world in a miserable state, a leader that isn't a hotheaded, delusional idiot that actually works on our own domestic problems is what we need.

And you know what else? Know why those boogiemen leaders haven't attacked us yet? They want us to make the first move so they can come off the victim to their own people. The best thing to do is ignore them. Especially since, heh heh, Russia's crazy bond villain dictator is actually well beloved. Yeah. And just as far right as the American Republican party has swung. We have to stop being the world's big brother, especially when they sick their bigger brother on us. Seriously, nothing Trump can say will ever trump the disgusting war drum slamming 1984-esque tactics of Thirsty Boy.

Oh, and TV on in other room, the very same ad I've talked about here ran 3 times. Thanks Citizens United. Lemme guess Citizens as in Citizen's Bank, right?

 

[D'Snowth]

You know the real reason why nobody gets bent out of shape over anything D'ump says? Because he's not a politician. People believe it's time to take politics out of politics and let the "people" take back control of their country, and D'ump, supposedly, is one of the people, and is apparently speaking the minds of the people. I mean, let's face it: he haven't come very far at all in terms of racial harmony in this country, so of course a silent number of the public is in tune with this image he's portraying of making America a country full of white conservatives, which is the majority in this country - if you're not that, you might as well not even be in this country. Seriously, one of the things I hate most about voting is when you have to declare your party: again, mine is an uber-red state, so whenever I tell them I'm a blue boy, they always give me looks like I might as well escort myself off the property. Whenever a Republican says something stupid, everybody's like it's the most perfect sense they've ever heard; but when a Democrat says something important, everybody's like, "typical stupid libs."