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[2 of 3]

My condolences to everyone in Las Vegas. 


...and now Tom Petty. 

[Greg]

Vegas....why?  I want to know why.


Was he on an anti-depressant?   Did something happen in his life?


Why hurt people who had never harmed you?  No matter what was going on I dont get why you would shoot someones kid or mom or sister or whatever.




Tom Petty...Idk.   Tom Petty?  That one really threw me.  I dont know why.  Never liked his music much except I did go buy Damned the Torpedoes when it came out and thought it was fantastic.  Still do.  But...like Springsteen, Neil Young and some others I never liked their music but thought highly of them as artists and thought they were great people too.  Tom Petty...thought he would be that 85 year old still looking and sounding the same.

[Mervap]

Well, just as I've gotten my head around Tom Petty being gone, the news is different....the same end result is likely, but who knows?

Las Vegas is still sinking in. I have no words at all....

[Greg]

Las Vegas is still sinking in. I have no words at all....

Vegas.     I dont know much about it.  This seems to be what America is now in a sense though.


But....gun control.  I live in an area where guns are everywhere.  Ill bet 80% of the people on my block have guns.  People are never shot here.  Are guns the problem?
Ive never shot a gun.  I dont like guns.  I dont like the military.  Im vegetarian.  But I dont think banning guns would really do much.


I think guns are the symptom.  The problem is something else.


I know, I might have just as well have written blah blah blah blah.  And ended it with some comment about Hitler.

[2 of 3]

I think guns are the symptom.  The problem is something else.

Yeah, I think you're right. Other countries have guns and they don't seem to use them on each other.(sure, it happens). I'm not sure what you can do now though.

This is kind of shocking:  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/oct/02/america-mass-shootings-gun-violence

[Mervap]

I think guns are the symptom.  The problem is something else.

I agree. There are a number of 'something elses'. We in the USA have a gun culture that, as far as I can tell, exists nowhere else...we are addicted, as a nation, to the idea that we have a right to own whatever kind of gun we want. It's a bit sickening, really.

Plus, there seems to be an undercurrent of a feeling of powerlessness in many people now, that they don't have any control or voice. It's existed for ages, I know, but the folks who are feeling it are new to that end of things....and they own guns.

[Mervap]

I reckon the "shaking head thread is as good a place as any for this post.....

I have watched NFL football for many years....I get that the players in the NFL are, by almost any measure, employees of their respective teams. With most employee/ employer relationships, the employee works at the pleasure of the employer. The NFL is different in this respect: Average people cannot do the things most of them can do....they have a special set of skills that compels a large segment of the US population to tune in.

Putting aside the obscene amount of money involved on both sides, I must comment on the whole "National Anthem Controversy". Our president has inserted himself into what should be a purely NFL matter and stated that NFL players not "standing, hand on heart" ought to be suspended for a game for a first offense, then suspended for the remainder of the season for a second offense. Now, as a Caucasian guy, I cannot accurately comment on player motivations for kneeling during the anthem and will not attempt to. What I can say is that enforced patriotism is not only not true patriotism, it is a slap in the face of everyone who believes in the principals of freedom. 'Nuff said....comments?

[2 of 3]

Patriotism is weird. Just the idea that something is special because it is of a certain location on earth is weird. Thinking you are different because you are a "insert whatever" is weird. Politics is weird. Religion is weird. Keeping up with the Jones' is weird.

I'm weird. 

Does nobody take the high road anymore? The players are making a statement (deservedly so), and people are butthurt about it? How about sympathising instead of making it worse? How about the president trying to bring people together instead of separating them with ideological weirdness. If somebody is drowning you throw them a rope, you don't hang them with it. Some people are weird. The "man" in charge is their king. There is a problem out there and the players, who have millions of fans are inserting awareness in their own way. It shows you can still love your country and that it's ok to point out it isn't perfect.

[Mervap]

It shows you can still love your country and that it's ok to point out it isn't perfect.

That, exactly...