What's in the news?

[Zakharra]

  It almost seems as if something is forcing the issue by all of these shootings. As if they(general term here) want to prove that firearms are dangerous, so lo and behold, here come a spat of mass shootings that serve to give anti-gun advocates ammunition (pun intended) for their argument.  I still think it would be better to deal with the mental problems of the shooters rather than punish the law abiding by taking away/heavily restricting their firearms.

[Cycle]

Well, this thread's been discussing those issues.

[eBadger]

It almost seems as if something is forcing the issue by all of these shootings.

Well, it's worth noting that violent crime is on a steady and significant decline (the rate now is about half that in 1993), so is violence in schools (by about the same rate in the same period) and Americans are more likely to be killed by lightning than terrorism. 

So the term you're looking for is "The Media."

[Beorning]

A minor news from over here: a band called Current 93 was supposed to play a concert in one of Cracow's churches. But a right-wing blogger accused the band of being Satanists (because their logo is a silhoutte of crucified Christ crossed with a Thelemic symbol, which the blogger mistook for a pentagram) and... the local Church got scared. And they forbade the concert from taking place...

According to Wikipedia, Current 93's leader is a mystic with an interest in Crowley, but also inspired by Christianity and Buddhism.

[Lustful Bride]

A minor news from over here: a band called Current 93 was supposed to play a concert in one of Cracow's churches. But a right-wing blogger accused the band of being Satanists (because their logo is a silhoutte of crucified Christ crossed with a Thelemic symbol, which the blogger mistook for a pentagram) and... the local Church got scared. And they forbade the concert from taking place...

According to Wikipedia, Current 93's leader is a mystic with an interest in Crowley, but also inspired by Christianity and Buddhism.

Ah the internet/blogs, making people jumpy since forever :P

[Oniya]

A minor news from over here: a band called Current 93 was supposed to play a concert in one of Cracow's churches. But a right-wing blogger accused the band of being Satanists (because their logo is a silhoutte of crucified Christ crossed with a Thelemic symbol, which the blogger mistook for a pentagram) and... the local Church got scared. And they forbade the concert from taking place...

According to Wikipedia, Current 93's leader is a mystic with an interest in Crowley, but also inspired by Christianity and Buddhism.

Just from personal experience with Thelemites and O.T.O. (who were, on the whole, generally pretty nice people) - Crowley may not have been a technical 'Satanist', but he didn't get along too well with the Catholic Church.  He didn't quite help matters by playing the 'shock value' card.  The unicursal hexagram has just as bad a reputation on its own as the pentagram. 

[gaggedLouise]

Someone anonymous around here plays copycat with the advance warnings oposted by the Oregon school shooter and spams/posts them with the Jodel app to a number of local students to spread the word. The university campus takes a day off and tells all students to stay at home or off class - it could perhaps seem like an overreaction but better safe than sorry, in this particular case.

Somebody's been acting the phone nutjob.

[Ironwolf85]

in today's news

in the US: more mass shootings, somthing might be done at state level. :o
trump drops in polls (thank god)
Maj Polanski comes forward fired by bengazi panel for refusing to focus on clinton alone.
far right groups plan an "Anti muslim day" http://news.yahoo.com/anti-muslim-protests-span-us-mosques-responding-164024204.html
Fox tries to scare people into anti-muslim fervor with 2010 video of people shouting Alah Akbar on a train, in response to a soccer victory...and get called on it.
Maj. Lisa Peplinski graduates from the ranger school next week, completing a crop of the first female army rangers.
Republicans can't seem to pick a speaker as the establishment fights the far right tea party they invited into congress. (I swear the GOP has become the Do Nothing Party. like or hate them at least the democrats govern...)


in economics:
the philipines had a massive breakout into the world market, in both products and investment
http://news.yahoo.com/philippine-firms-billion-dollar-global-shopping-spree-114625805.html

China's economy has stopped fallen and grown stagnent instead, for now.
http://www.businessinsider.com/goldman-sachs-were-in-the-the-third-wave-of-the-2008-financial-crisis-2015-10

Europe's rail lines shut down due to the refugee crisis. (between capacity not keeping up with the number of people and cities or governments shutting down rail lines sporadicly trying to manage that flow it's an ugly mess.)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/europeans-struggle-as-migrant-crush-shuts-down-their-train-system/2015/10/11/f505f280-6b9e-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723_story.html


in military fuckups:
US/Nato airstrike hits a Doctors without borders hospital, Pentagon pays reparations, provides aid, soldiers help clear rubble and rescue trapped patents.
Russian Federation Rockets fired from ships off the syrian coast over shoot their target, run out of fuel, and blow up in a rural Iranian field. No deaths reported beyond a few goats. But iran is not forthcoming with details. (related: goat sent flying posted to youtube by iranian kid.)
in Ukrane: Gazprom accepts money from kiev in heating oil deal. Nothing else changes for either side, stalemate continues.

In isreal the cycle is spinning up again: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/gazans-join-in-widespread-violence-sweeping-israel/2015/10/09/62186d6e-6e90-11e5-91eb-27ad15c2b723_story.html

In syria:
The Coalition Wounded the leader of ISIS in an airstrike
Isis killed a major Iranian general
The CIA provides 500 shiny new TOW's to FSA fighters facing Assad and ISIS armor, realizing trying to grow new FSA rebels to fight ISIS out of thin air won't work. So... they are finally getting the heavy weapons they asked for in 2013...
ISIS makes gains across syria thanks to Russian attacks on FSA positions to aid the Assad Regime.
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-just-handed-isis-a-big-win-in-syrias-largest-city-2015-10

[Lustful Bride]

Pentagon to be making payments of Condolence to the families of those killed in the hospital attack.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/10/politics/pentagon-condolence-payments-kunduz/

Reminds me of a story my father told me of one guy who kept hitting cardboard cutouts of civilians in training and was screamed and shaken by the DI who repeated to him over and over again. "You Check your targets! You check your targets! You check your fucking targets!"

This is a horrible tragedy but shows why good intel is needed. In that line of work there can be no mistakes. You make one and people get killed.

[eBadger]

Intel is important, yes, but there's also a false social notion that bombing campaigns only kill bad people; as though we're too well informed, too precise, and too concerned to routinely incur civilian deaths. 

[Ironwolf85]

Intel is important, yes, but there's also a false social notion that bombing campaigns only kill bad people; as though we're too well informed, too precise, and too concerned to routinely incur civilian deaths.

still leagues better than the guys we fight, at least US forces actually give a fuck about civilians. Part of why I support them to vehemently. Russia and china get involved they treat it as an Acceptable loss, a lot of third regimes revel in it, but the US or EU go "OMG WE HIT A HOSPITAL, UNACCEPTABLE."

[eBadger]

"OMG WE HIT A HOSPITAL, UNACCEPTABLE."

*Raises brow* If it were unacceptable, we'd stop launching strikes.  Don't get me wrong - our military is concerned about it and we make significant effort to avoid things like that.  I won't argue the mission isn't worth the damage.  But as a nation we have this fantasy - I saw it so often during the Gulf War - that 'precision strikes', 'surgical attacks' and smart weapons only kill bad guys. 

There's this video, for instance, very famous at the time: the Luckiest Man in Iraq.  Footage as a missile closes in on a bridge; a vehicle is seen driving across the target and gets away just before the impact.  It's not a tank or armored vehicle; just a car.  For all we know, it was somebody trying to get their family out of town or rushing to a doctor - and they were only missed by seconds.  Schwarzkopf laughs, haha, so funny: the car was missed by seconds.  The missile wasn't going to stop if it were traveling a little slower, if there were kids or civilians.  It was the textbook example of 'acceptable loss' and Americans found it hilarious, a joyful example of our keen technological superiority. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AjCAuYkrgA

[Ironwolf85]

*Raises brow* If it were unacceptable, we'd stop launching strikes.  Don't get me wrong - our military is concerned about it and we make significant effort to avoid things like that.  I won't argue the mission isn't worth the damage.  But as a nation we have this fantasy - I saw it so often during the Gulf War - that 'precision strikes', 'surgical attacks' and smart weapons only kill bad guys. 

There's this video, for instance, very famous at the time: the Luckiest Man in Iraq.  Footage as a missile closes in on a bridge; a vehicle is seen driving across the target and gets away just before the impact.  It's not a tank or armored vehicle; just a car.  For all we know, it was somebody trying to get their family out of town or rushing to a doctor - and they were only missed by seconds.  Schwarzkopf laughs, haha, so funny: the car was missed by seconds.  The missile wasn't going to stop if it were traveling a little slower, if there were kids or civilians.  It was the textbook example of 'acceptable loss' and Americans found it hilarious, a joyful example of our keen technological superiority. 


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AjCAuYkrgA

I agree the myth is too common uvu

[Lustful Bride]

*Raises brow* If it were unacceptable, we'd stop launching strikes.  Don't get me wrong - our military is concerned about it and we make significant effort to avoid things like that.  I won't argue the mission isn't worth the damage.  But as a nation we have this fantasy - I saw it so often during the Gulf War - that 'precision strikes', 'surgical attacks' and smart weapons only kill bad guys. 

There's this video, for instance, very famous at the time: the Luckiest Man in Iraq.  Footage as a missile closes in on a bridge; a vehicle is seen driving across the target and gets away just before the impact.  It's not a tank or armored vehicle; just a car.  For all we know, it was somebody trying to get their family out of town or rushing to a doctor - and they were only missed by seconds.  Schwarzkopf laughs, haha, so funny: the car was missed by seconds.  The missile wasn't going to stop if it were traveling a little slower, if there were kids or civilians.  It was the textbook example of 'acceptable loss' and Americans found it hilarious, a joyful example of our keen technological superiority. 

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AjCAuYkrgA

To be fair, once you fire the round off, you no longer have control of it. If someone moves into the way you couldn't have predicted it or stopped it. Still as the DI told that one guy in my Father's story. "Check your target" be absolutely sure before firing. We are way too into "push the button and make the problem to away."

[eBadger]

If someone moves into the way you couldn't have predicted it or stopped it.

Far from unpredictable, it's actually quite a pattern.

Drone Strikes Reveal Uncomfortable Truth: U.S. Is Often Unsure About Who Will Die

[Mikem]

Reminds me of a story my father told me of one guy who kept hitting cardboard cutouts of civilians in training and was screamed and shaken by the DI who repeated to him over and over again. "You Check your targets! You check your targets! You check your fucking targets!"

Reminded me of a memorable moment of dialogue in the game Mass Effect 2, made by a Gunnery Sergeant lecturing his Marines on the finer points of firing a Mass Accelerator.

"I dare to assume you ignorant jackasses know that space is empty. Once you fire this husk of metal, it keeps going till it hits something. That can be a ship, or the planet behind that ship. It might go off into deep space and hit somebody else in ten thousand years. If you pull the trigger on this, you are ruining someone's day, somewhere and sometime. That is why you check your damn targets! That is why you wait for the computer to give you a damn firing solution! That is why, Serviceman Chung, we do not 'eyeball it!' This is a weapon of mass destruction! You are not a cowboy shooting from the hip!"

[Ironwolf85]

apparently a muslim in india was lynched last week, the first time I've heard of it sadly. Someone thought some thrown out mutton was beef, and it exploded across social media. Soon a mob attacked the house, killing the man, mauling his elderly mother, and putting his son in the ICU.
apparently the indian prime minister just now addressed it.

apparently indian nationalists are also fanning the parinoia among hindus. Which is sad, because it has a long multi-religious tradition.

[Cycle]

Woman learns that just because you can do something with your smartphone, that doesn't mean you should do that something with your smartphone.

[Oniya]

Her lawyer says that she intends to plead 'not guilty'.  The video is available on YouTube! 

[TaintedAndDelish]

Here's the video of the woman driving drunk \0/
https://youtu.be/AQe8QA5Dmcg

[Mikem]

At 26 minutes she totally rams a street sign and just continues on, blabbering about how drunk she is. I cannot believe the Cops are never where they need to be when someone is blatantly breaking the law.

[Cassandra LeMay]

I cannot believe the Cops are never where they need to be when someone is blatantly breaking the law.

Too busy arresting people for walking while black, I suppose. You got to set priorities.

[Beorning]

At 26 minutes she totally rams a street sign and just continues on, blabbering about how drunk she is. I cannot believe the Cops are never where they need to be when someone is blatantly breaking the law.

Well, they *did* arrest her...

[ShadowFox89]

Too busy arresting people for walking while black, I suppose. You got to set priorities.

*raises hand*

I have several friends and relatives in law enforcement. Stereotyping one group is just as bad as doing it to another, so let's not do it at all. Alright?

[Beorning]

More on the story, including her being tested by the police:

http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/local/2015/10/12/florida-woman-periscopes-her-drunken-crash/73820710/