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It’s been three years since I lived in America and over a year since I set foot on its shores. But it’s still home…. What I want to ask what the fuck is up with all these mass shooting and killings? Anybody got any info on what is causing this? Could it be stress or overall dissatisfaction with the American way?
[QUOTE=Illogic]It’s been three years since I lived in America and over a year since I set foot on its shores. But it’s still home…. What I want to ask what the fuck is up with all these mass shooting and killings? Anybody got any info on what is causing this? Could it be stress or overall dissatisfaction with the American way?[/QUOTE]Guns + social pressures + distraught people = depressing headlines
[QUOTE=Illogic]It’s been three years since I lived in America and over a year since I set foot on its shores. But it’s still home…. What I want to ask what the fuck is up with all these mass shooting and killings? Anybody got any info on what is causing this? Could it be stress or overall dissatisfaction with the American way?[/QUOTE]
I think that it is an overall dissatisfaction with the American way of life. The New York shooting was basically about an immigrant coming to terms with the reality of having to learn English and coping with job loss. Our country exports pipe dreams to developing countries via Hollywood. When immigrants arrive to our shores, especially poorly educated ones, they expect to live the good life shown in the movies. Most of them are quickly disabused of their dreams of finding heaven on Earth. They quickly settle into a life of constant struggle with the language, customs, discrimination and low paying jobs. Some make it but others don't. In this case the one that didn't make it decided to take others with him instead of going home quietly or resigning himself to a life of American poverty.
The Alabama shooting was about a good ole boy gone bad. He decided to kill Ma and Pa because they'd done him wrong. After running an extermination service on his relations he decided to target random strangers for some reason. Job loss and financial issues appear to have been part of this individual's background also.
The father murdering his children was basically taking out his rage, provoked by his wife's cheating, on the children.
Anyway, murdering as many people as possible then committing suicide seems to be the way many are choosing to resolve their problems in this country. The concept isn't really new if you look at the last 15 years or so.
5 dead in Alabama murder-suicide
Agence France-Presse
First Posted 08:10:00 04/08/2009
Filed Under: Murder, Suicide
MIAMI – A gunman shot dead his wife, daughter and two other people before killing himself, reports said Tuesday, the latest in a series of recent murder-suicides that have shocked America.
The body of Kevin Garner, 45, was found Tuesday near the home he formerly shared with his estranged wife in Morgan County, Alabama.
Law enforcement agents said Garner had earlier gunned down his wife, his daughter a sister and her nephew in the town of Greenhill, reports said.
The killings came ahead of a divorce hearing between Garner and his wife Tammy due to take place on Wednesday.
Garner's sister had been due to testify on behalf of his estranged wife at the hearing, the Times Daily newspaper reported on its website.
The United States has been rocked by several fatal mass shootings in the past three weeks.
Last weekend, a man in Washington state shot dead his five children before killing himself after discovering his wife was leaving him.
On Saturday, three police officers were killed by a 23-year-old man at his home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The attack came a day after a recently unemployed man stormed an immigrant services center where he had been learning English in Binghamton, New York and went on a murderous rampage, killing 13 people before taking his own life.
On March 29, a heavily armed man shot dead eight people at a North Carolina nursing home, days after six people were killed in a murder-suicide in an upscale neighborhood in northern California's Silicon Valley.
And on March 10, an unemployed man killed his mother, grandmother and eight others on a vicious shooting rampage in Alabama.
[QUOTE=Chocha Monger]I think that it is an overall dissatisfaction with the American way of life. The New York shooting was basically about an immigrant coming to terms with the reality of having to learn English and coping with job loss. Our country exports pipe dreams to developing countries via Hollywood.[/QUOTE]Actually, if you read his entire letter, it is apparent that he was just totally batshit crazy.
He wasn't dissatisfied with American life. He was a Schizoid Psychopath.
‘Black man did it’ hoax sparks outrage
Pa. mother's abduction claim latest in string of false accusations
By JESSE WASHINGTON
AP National Writer
updated 5:14 p.m. CT, Mon., June 1, 2009
PHILADELPHIA - It's an old lie, claiming that The Black Man Did It.
But it was trotted out again last week when a white mother from suburban Philadelphia said two black men snatched her and her 9-year-old daughter from their SUV and abducted them in the trunk of a black Cadillac.
Blacks across the country were outraged after Bonnie Sweeten was found in a luxury hotel at Disney World. Authorities quickly unraveled the hoax, but not before an Amber Alert, frantic searches and national news coverage that played into images of marauding black men.
Racial boundaries are slowly dissolving in America, with President Barack Obama the most obvious example. Yet Sweeten's story, plus the killing of a black New York City cop by a white officer days later, was a reminder that old ideas remain burned into many minds both black and white.
Furious and disgusted
Sweeten's story has provoked an outpouring of discussion among blacks, everywhere from doctor's offices to blogs. Syndicated radio host Warren Ballentine said his listeners are "furious, and they're disgusted. ... On a scale of one to 10, it's a 15."
"Their hope was that by Obama becoming president, the rest of America would take a look at black Americans and look at us for who we are and not what a stereotype is," he said.
The Black Man Did It lie last made news as recently as October, when a John McCain volunteer claimed a 6-foot-4 black man carved a B into her cheek (For Barack, evidently). Charles Stuart told it in 1989 after he killed his wife in Boston. Susan Smith told it when she drowned her sons in 1994 in South Carolina. Unknown numbers of black men were hanged for it back when lynching was a common practice.
And those are the ones we heard about. Law professor Katheryn Russell-Brown documents 67 racial hoaxes in the period between 1987 and 1996 in her book "The Color of Crime."
So after Sweeten and her daughter were found in Florida, with local newspapers reporting an investigation of whether the 38-year-old woman embezzled large sums of money, many blacks felt not only angry, but resigned and frustrated.
"Here we go again," thought Add Seymour, an Atlanta resident who works in public relations for Morehouse College.
'Lynch mob mentality'
"Not only are people going to use us as the stereotypical crime problem of America, but the problem is people believe it so easily," he said. "It's a lynch mob mentality out there. ... The first thing you think of when it comes to crime is a black man. It's crazy, and it's unfair."
It's also rooted in a confusing mixture of psychology, statistics and sociology, amplified by the media's tendency to focus on crimes against white women.
Seymour's blood starts to boil whenever people lock their car doors as he walks by — yet even blacks sometimes hit that button when black men are in the vicinity. "It's not just white people who act that way," Seymour said.
Common sense or racism?
Raqiyah Mays, a radio host on Kiss FM in New York City, drew a parallel between the Sweetney hoax and the killing of a black cop last week who was shot by a white policeman. The black officer was running after a suspect, his gun drawn.
"How many times have you seen a black man running down the street and thought something negative? As opposed to seeing a white guy running down the street and you think he's running late?" said Mays, who is black. "A lot of us are guilty of it because that's the way society has been set up."
One easy explanation is that black men are convicted of crimes at much higher rates than any other group. So was falling for Sweeten's lie racism, or common sense? And does Sweeten's blond hair have anything to do with the amount of media coverage her story received?
Media coverage questioned
New York Times columnist Bob Herbert recently wrote about the difference in coverage between the killing of a white female college student in Connecticut and the approximately three dozen Chicago public school students, mostly black, who have been killed this school year. He recalled an incident from early in his career, at another newspaper, when he heard an editor pondering the story of a dead child ask, "What color is that baby?"
"Editors may not be asking, `What color is that victim?' But, on some level, they're still thinking it," Herbert wrote.
Even without race, Sweeten's story was both sensational and nonsensical. It began when she called police, allegedly from a trunk, and said men had rear-ended her Yukon Denali at a busy suburban intersection, then abducted her and her daughter in broad daylight.
No one had seen it happen, and Sweeten somehow still had her cell phone. Black men also are scarce in Bucks County, which is 92 percent white and 4 percent black.
Authorities discovered that Sweeten had made the call from miles away, in downtown Philadelphia. Their attention turned to the airport, and Sweeten was soon found. She is free on $1 million bail, facing misdemeanor charges of identity theft and false reporting.
During a news conference after the hoax was exposed, Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry explained the charge of filing a false police report.
"It's a terrifying thing," she said, "for a community to hear that two black men in a black Cadillac grabbed a woman and her daughter."
[QUOTE=DirkDingy]1. No, everything is not about money;however, there is a positive correlation between money, wealth, power, and beautiful women.
For most men, money is the easiest thing to get to attract hot women.
In the 2nd and 3rd world, the trappings of wealth make up about 85%-100% of the equation; in the first world, between 30%-80% of the equation. It's not so much about the Range Rover but about financial stability and security.
To argue the contrary is asinine and unfruitful.
2. Not to be too snoobish, but, all college degrees are not the same--just as all boats are not the same. You could have a yaht and I could have a dinghy. We both have boats (or ships) but they are not of comparable quality.
The military draws a disportionate number of its officers from the lower middle class folk of the South who do not attend elite schools. I am not knocking anyone, I am just stating a fact. I take my hat off to those who serve and thank them for their service.
I think that all men who are fit and not COs should serve.
3. The vast majority of KBR type contracctors in war zones could not have a profesional career in the States or the developed world. KBR mostly looks for warm bodies. The quality of people is fairly low.
Military experience is not necessary to work for a KBR type firm--a pulse and non-felonious record is.
Most middle and upper class Americans will not work for and live under the conditions that KBR type people do in conflict zones. Some should, as one can make some major bank, but most won't.
The few that do are mostly adventerists, wonderlusts, or want to get the fuck away from their wives.
4. Yes, one can be a lower class dirtbag with money. One can also be a well edcuated and rich person with little class, but the former is more prevalent than the latter. A prime example that I recently observed was in Bishkek--KBR type Americans making 68k-80k a year who were uneducated, unsophisticated, and classless who turned off the local population en masse.
Not all of these guys are dirtbags, but too many of them are.[/QUOTE]
[url]http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-college+graduate[/url]
Average College Graduate Salaries
In USD as of Jul 17, 2009
college graduate
$46,000
Compare college graduate Salaries
Job Title, Keywords
City, State or ZipAverage College Graduate Salaries
The average salary for college graduate jobs is $46,000. Average college graduate salaries can vary greatly due to company, location, industry, experience and benefits.
This salary was calculated using the average salary for all jobs with the term "college graduate" anywhere in the job listing.
Average Salary of Jobs with Related Titles
In USD as of Jul 17, 2009
$65,000
budget analyst
$55,000
human resources specialist
$56,000
contract specialist
$55,000
secretary
$33,000
accountant
$47,000
usar unit administrator
$35,000
management analyst
$58,000
it specialist
$66,000
program analyst
$64,000
civil engineer
$58,000
mission support specialist
$48,000
Conflict Jobs: Average Salaries based on my four years around a conflict. From many friends and people I know involved with these jobs.
KBR: $80,000
Dynacorp: $120,0000
Aecom: $120,000
Mantech: $180,000
MPRI: $200,000
So you see the private (college degree required) professional sector pales in comparison to the average contracting job.
I think most people would like to make the most money possible. So you can buy Porsches and other deprecating bull to impress some broad :confused:
I got friends who finished college and now are working in the States they have decent jobs (some have two jobs) but their lives suck. No trips abroad no real-estate possessions etc…
Now with these contracting jobs, job security is an issue but in this economic climate the professional sector also has been decimated.
One guy would have you believe all you need is a pulse to land one of these jobs. That is true if you plan to work in a kitchen or cleaning bathrooms. The reality is though most of the guys that contract had professional gigs back in their own countries, IT, HR, Mechanics, Logistics, HVAC, Estimators etc….. And they just took the contracting jobs because of the bump in salary.
Conflict Zones Conditions: No Working Over Here Is Not For Pussies
Also working in a conflict zone does not mean you are low class or a loser.
The conditions: Free meals all day. 24 hour free access to gyms. Free housing. (Climated control containers or "wooden huts" which you share with 1-8 others) Dust, heat, cold and boredom.
Danger? Depends on exactly where in the conflict country you are located. All bases and all areas are not created equal.
dirtbag
One entry found.
Main Entry: dirt·bag
Pronunciation: \ˈdərt-ˌbag\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1967
slang : a dirty, unkempt, or contemptible person
A Dirt bag:
Now what I would call a dirt bag is the guy who has a a great deal of money in the bank or a great job but never fails to kick down the less fortunate or others he “feels” is beneath him. Makes false comments or comments about things he knows nothing about or insults members of a forum for no reason.
[QUOTE=Illogic][url]http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-college+graduate[/url]
Conflict Jobs: Average Salaries based on my four years around a conflict. From many friends and people I know involved with these jobs.
KBR: $80,000
Dynacorp: $120,0000
Aecom: $120,000
Mantech: $180,000
MPRI: $200,000.[/QUOTE]Illogic,
You are basing Averages vs Individual salaries. I can easily find a lot of IT workers who would say they make over 100K. Especially in cities like LA and NY.
You are comparing a Government pure survey against YOUR OWN small sampling. You have no LARGE scale knowledge of contract salaries. You only know the salary where you were located or your small sampling of friends.
The Government Survey would include pay in areas like in small rural cities like in North and south Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa where anyone making 20K can live good. So if a college grad made 35K. He would be considered almost wealthy for those communities. So He is getting paid good for where he lives. Which brings down the national avgs.
Do you know what these companies pay contractors for the same job in every place. So your comparisons are not fair.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]Illogic,
You are basing Averages vs Individual salaries. I can easily find a lot of IT workers who would say they make over 100K. Especially in cities like LA and NY.
You are comparing a Government pure survey against YOUR OWN small sampling. You have no LARGE scale knowledge of contract salaries. You only know the salary where you were located or your small sampling of friends.
The Government Survey would include pay in areas like in small rural cities like in North and south Dakota, Wyoming, Iowa where anyone making 20K can live good. So if a college grad made 35K. He would be considered almost wealthy for those communities. So He is getting paid good for where he lives. Which brings down the national avgs.
Do you know what these companies pay contractors for the same job in every place. So your comparisons are not fair.[/QUOTE]
These are not invidividals salaries. The lowest contractor worker makes about $60K. The highest about $200K do the math.
Once again while life over there is not great being poor in America is not so great either.
[QUOTE=Illogic]These are not invidividals salaries. The lowest contractor worker makes about $60K. The highest about $200K do the math.
Once again while life over there is not great being poor in America is not so great either.[/QUOTE]Its all about how you want to live your life ... and just because you don't contract overseas doesn't mean the other alternative is being poor in America. Even with that, there are a lot of poor people, who still are quite happy. Not everyone judges their happiness by material wealth.
There are a lot of people who feel as long as they can put food in the stomach, have a roof over their head and the love of family and friends they wouldn't trade it for anything.
The places where people live the longest are not the most wealthest of locations. But where the people surrounded themselves with family and friends and work throughout their lives.
Its often the wealthest of people who are the most isolated, with the fewest of true friends.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]
and just because you don't contract overseas doesn't mean the other alternative is being poor in America. [/QUOTE]
For some guys not contracting the alternative is being poor. That Blue collar market is drying up in America. College degrees are becoming more and more of a necessity to make a decent living. Now here is the problem some people just don’t have the brain power to succeed in college. So what will be left for them? To stay under the yolk of the aristocratic American society until they die?
Before I started contracting I had nothing. Now I own a modest home and luxury condo. I have walked around downtown Tokyo with diamonds on shinning like the sun getting smiled at by cute Japanese girls. I have stayed in 5 star hotels in various countries. Flew first class on various airlines. To some who parents were able to pass them down an education or money this stuff is not a big deal but for a sad few of us these things may have never been possible.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]Even with that, there are a lot of poor people, who still are quite happy. Not everyone judges their happiness by material wealth. [/QUOTE]
I was poor all my life I know how that shit feels to need shit not want but “need” but can’t get it because you don’t have the financial means. Besides being maimed my only fear is being poor again.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]There are a lot of people who feel as long as they can put food in the stomach, have a roof over their head and the love of family and friends they wouldn't trade it for anything. [/QUOTE]
Fuck a friend and as for family well… I think this overrated.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]Its often the wealthest of people who are the most isolated, with the fewest of true friends. [/QUOTE]
I guess this is true.
Illogic,
What you and Dirk are saying is hard to accept for a lot of people. Friends and family is nice to have. But in America if it isn't about money then it don't mean shit!
If you have money you'll always have friends but not the other way around. I wish things were different but that's reality.
[QUOTE=Chocha Monger]Illogic,
What you and Dirk are saying is hard to accept for a lot of people. Friends and family is nice to have. But in America if it isn't about money then it don't mean shit!
If you have money you'll always have friends but not the other way around. I wish things were different but that's reality.[/QUOTE]That is utter nonsense. If there is one thing that brings people together is poverty. The more money you have the less friends you have. You go to any poor neighborhood, everyone knows everyone. Neighbors are almost like families. Now take the reverse. Go to a wealthy neighborhood, next door neighbors won't know the first thing about each other outside of what they look like. There is no relationship between them. Maybe the kids. But definitely not the adults.
Yeah the media hypes wealth, so people are brainwashed to chase it. But what most people come to realize as they acquire it. All that materialism doesn't mean a dam thing, if you don't have friends and people to share your life.
Illogic. If walking around with diamonds having people gawk at you is what turns you on. Well so be it. But I think as you get older and wiser, you will come to learn that all that doesn't mean nothing. So you stay in 5 star hotels and others may stay in holiday Inn. They both have beds and TVs. So your sheet had a higher thread count. Whippy do. You've been caught up in the hype of materialism and some day you might realize it ain't all that. For every sad poor person, there is a equally sad rich person. Its just not as obvious to see.
I'm not trying to start an arguement. But just pointing out another point of view.
You say you don't need friends. Well I know plenty of people who wouldn't want to have all you have if it meant having to leave their friends. Especially to live in a foreign country isolated, regardless whether it was a gated community with all the upscale ammenities. For some have the feeling of that show "Cheers" walking into a bar where everyone knows your name, is a feeling that a lot of people cherish.
As I said before obviously no one wants to be starving. But once you have the basic needs, food, clothing, shelter. You basic vehicle to get around. The rest is just about trying to "show boat" and boosting ones self esteem thru materialism.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]That is utter nonsense. If there is one thing that brings people together is poverty. The more money you have the less friends you have. You go to any poor neighborhood, everyone knows everyone. Neighbors are almost like families. Now take the reverse. Go to a wealthy neighborhood, next door neighbors won't know the first thing about each other outside of what they look like. There is no relationship between them. Maybe the kids. But definitely not the adults.
Yeah the media hypes wealth, so people are brainwashed to chase it. But what most people come to realize as they acquire it. All that materialism doesn't mean a dam thing, if you don't have friends and people to share your life.
Illogic. If walking around with diamonds having people gawk at you is what turns you on. Well so be it. But I think as you get older and wiser, you will come to learn that all that doesn't mean nothing. So you stay in 5 star hotels and others may stay in holiday Inn. They both have beds and TVs. So your sheet had a higher thread count. Whippy do. You've been caught up in the hype of materialism and some day you might realize it ain't all that. For every sad poor person, there is a equally sad rich person. Its just not as obvious to see.
I'm not trying to start an arguement. But just pointing out another point of view.
You say you don't need friends. Well I know plenty of people who wouldn't want to have all you have if it meant having to leave their friends. Especially to live in a foreign country isolated, regardless whether it was a gated community with all the upscale ammenities. For some have the feeling of that show "Cheers" walking into a bar where everyone knows your name, is a feeling that a lot of people cherish.
As I said before obviously no one wants to be starving. But once you have the basic needs, food, clothing, shelter. You basic vehicle to get around. The rest is just about trying to "show boat" and boosting ones self esteem thru materialism.[/QUOTE]
Thaguy, here I agree with you 100%
I also don't know what is the actual advantage walking around with diamonds. Most people would not care, some will envy or hate this person, and some will wanna have piece of it. But nobody will love more him for that for sure. Unless he shares the diamonds:)
One millionaire friend in Russia when got married, he immediately acquired a bunch of new "loving relatives and friends". After one year they finally pissed him off enough, one even stole from him 10K, so the couple ended all relationship with the wife's relatives. Even she had to end her relationship with her farther and mother... It's good to be wealthy, but not that simple sometimes.
You mentioned that in wealthier neighborhoods people do not know each other. In another forum you were wondering why people move to 3rd World countries - one of the reason people are more social there. In my place in USA I have no idea about my neighbors except one, simply because he is foreign. And we can drink, get drunk and talk about anything freely. I told him a lot about this website and what people do here, it looks like I'm taking him to Brazil soon.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865]All that materialism doesn't mean a dam thing, if you don't have friends and people to share your life.[/QUOTE]I can't agree more!
[QUOTE=Thatguy865] Yeah the media hypes wealth, so people are brainwashed to chase it. But what most people come to realize as they acquire it. All that materialism doesn't mean a dam thing, if you don't have friends and people to share your life. [/QUOTE]
Trust me I am better off without the dysfunctional family and pseudo friends I grew up with. I can’t understand people who are grown but still want to live around mom and pops . What do these guys go over and put their heads on their parents lap still?
[QUOTE=Thatguy865] Illogic. If walking around with diamonds having people gawk at you is what turns you on. Well so be it. [/QUOTE]
When you’re poor all your life money and jewelry does turn you on when you first get it. In the Ghetto where I grew up at the guy with the gold chain was the man and if you had diamonds real diamonds you were from another planet. It’s a showing of wealth and prosperity. It’s in-bred. It’s been over four years now since I have started making decent money so I am use to it now. I am not as boisterous as I was before.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865] But I think as you get older and wiser, you will come to learn that all that doesn't mean nothing. So you stay in 5 star hotels and others may stay in holiday Inn. They both have beds and TVs. So your sheet had a higher thread count. Whippy do. [/QUOTE]
Not quite. Have you have ever stayed in the flea bag hotels in the Philippines than stayed in a 5 star. Oh no they are not created equal.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865] You've been caught up in the hype of materialism and some day you might realize it ain't all that. For every sad poor person, there is a equally sad rich person. Its just not as obvious to see. [/QUOTE]
Working in the ME all these years I have finally realized money is not everything.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865] You say you don't need friends. Well I know plenty of people who wouldn't want to have all you have if it meant having to leave their friends. Especially to live in a foreign country isolated, regardless whether it was a gated community with all the upscale ammenities. For some have the feeling of that show "Cheers" walking into a bar where everyone knows your name, is a feeling that a lot of people cherish. [/QUOTE]
Again for me I didn’t have that positive influence of friends or family. To be honest TG I am really not a people person. I have read Machiavelli's book (The Prince) and his thoughts on human behavior still hold true to this day. People are generally untrustworthy and will turn on you at the drop of hat so what’s the point of having them in your circle.
[QUOTE=Thatguy865] As I said before obviously no one wants to be starving. But once you have the basic needs, food, clothing, shelter. You basic vehicle to get around. The rest is just about trying to "show boat" and boosting ones self esteem thru materialism.[/QUOTE]
So you are content with just living average, just getting by? Fuck that. To each his own.
[QUOTE=Goga Fung]Thaguy, here I agree with you 100%
I also don't know what is the actual advantage walking around with diamonds. Most people would not care, some will envy or hate this person, and some will wanna have piece of it. But nobody will love more him for that for sure. [/QUOTE]
How do you know? I had many people compliment me on my jewelry from Dubai to Tokyo. People like to invest in people who invest in themselves.
Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with. Because this is to be asserted in general of men, that they are ungrateful, fickle, false, cowardly, covetous, and as long as you succeed they are yours entirely; they will offer you their blood, property, life, and children, as is said above, when the need is far distant; but when it approaches they turn against you.
And that prince who, relying entirely on their promises, has neglected other precautions, is ruined; because friendships that are obtained by payments, and not by greatness or nobility of mind, may indeed be earned, but they are not secured, and in time of need cannot be relied upon; and men have less scruple in offending one who is beloved than one who is feared, for love is preserved by the link of obligation which, owing to the baseness of men, is broken at every opportunity for their advantage; but fear preserves you by a dread of punishment which never fails.- Niccolò Machiavelli