Update for Everyone V: Born Under A Bad Sign

[SATW]

mazel tov b**ches, im drunk

pre-shabbos drunk life

[TheSaint250]

I thought about it and I'm gonna try to take a long break from this forum and politics in general. I might come back when the Democrats aren't a giant disappointment and/or I stop feeling bouts of depression from this political environment. Right now none of this is good for my mental health.

Well, I hope to see you back soon.  All in all, you're one of the better posters here.

Honestly, I've thought of doing the same.  Ever since I started becoming much more active on this site, I can't stay off of it.  Honestly, I think getting into arguments where I end up somehow being responsible for racism in America or something crazy like that is changing my mood in general.  I have been so angry lately, usually after a crazy thread with arguments everywhere that are flat-out ridiculous or insulting.

[Mike Thick]

I thought about it and I'm gonna try to take a long break from this forum and politics in general. I might come back when the Democrats aren't a giant disappointment and/or I stop feeling bouts of depression from this political environment. Right now none of this is good for my mental health.

Understandable -- I took a healthy break post-election for this reason. Hopefully you're able to return soon; I'll miss your commentary on OC elections!

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

In the winter/spring semester of this year--as in, my last semester of undergrad, I took a domestic terrorism graduate class. For the final paper, I opted to do a sweeping survey of terrorism rather than focus on one group, and as such, I reviewed every incident on US soil from 2012 to 2015, which were then the four most recent years. It was a massive undertaking and, in my mind, constituted original research, so I flirted with trying to publish it. My conclusion, adborn out by the data, was that while right-wing terrorism was more common, Islamic (I don't know how you want to phrase that--"Islamist"?) terrorism was more deadly on a per capital and a total basis. My findings were already invalidated owing to the Global Terrorism Database's publication of 2016 statistics which finally happened sometime this year. But it is the events of yesterday that really (A) make me believe that trying to publish such a document might be in poor taste, and (B) want to review the 2016 data to observe the rise of political violence and specifically the type that comes from conventional ideology.

[Crumpets]

In the winter/spring semester of this year--as in, my last semester of undergrad, I took a domestic terrorism graduate class. For the final paper, I opted to do a sweeping survey of terrorism rather than focus on one group, and as such, I reviewed every incident on US soil from 2012 to 2015, which were then the four most recent years. It was a massive undertaking and, in my mind, constituted original research, so I flirted with trying to publish it. My conclusion, adborn out by the data, was that while right-wing terrorism was more common, Islamic (I don't know how you want to phrase that--"Islamist"?) terrorism was more deadly on a per capital and a total basis. My findings were already invalidated owing to the Global Terrorism Database's publication of 2016 statistics which finally happened sometime this year. But it is the events of yesterday that really (A) make me believe that trying to publish such a document might be in poor taste, and (B) want to review the 2016 data to observe the rise of political violence and specifically the type that comes from conventional ideology.

The problem with trying to analyze things like the relative deadliness of terrorist incidents is just that there are so many external factors that can determine how destructive an attack is. The statistics on deaths/attack by type moved dramatically last year just on the Pulse Nightclub shooting, despite the fact that it was a pretty poorly planned-out spree shooting. The Boston bombings, meanwhile, only killed a few people, despite being extremely sophisticated and planned for months, just because the bombs were placed down low, and ended up injuring hundreds in their legs, but critically wounding only a few people.

If you wanted a sample size big enough to compensate for all these tiny things that can get in the way, you'd have to start including all acts of terrorism in Europe as well, and maybe even domestic attacks in the Middle East as well. The problem then becomes reliable data, since a car bombing in Damascus a few months ago would just not get the same amount of analysis as, say, the underwear bomber.

[JA]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

[SATW]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

Thats awful. wow.

[Unapologetic Chinaperson]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

Dang, I'm sorry.

[Beet]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

[Santander]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

What is wrong with you?

[heatcharger]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

wtf

[Beet]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

What is wrong with you?

He has to stand up for himself.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

What is wrong with you?

He has to stand up for himself.

This is what a feminist looks like y'all!

[Beet]

"Feminist" does not mean taking the woman's side in everything sheesh, some people really buy into the worst stereotypes

[Virginiá]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That is so messed up. Sorry to hear!

[JA]

Yeah, cheating confirmed. She told my friend, since he messaged her about this, and said "he broke up with me lolol. I'm sad, but I don't deserve to be." Some people can be pretty awful. Not going to let it ruin my perception of other people though.

Also thanks guys! I truly appreciate all the support

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

"Feminist" does not mean taking the woman's side in everything sheesh, some people really buy into the worst stereotypes

It means protecting women from violence not encouraging it...

e: and sorry to hear about this entire incident / distract from it, Jacobin

[JA]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

Nah, man. That's rather petty and uncalled for. If she has a conscience at all, that'll do worse to her in the end than anything I could do.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Sorry to hear that JA; I can only imagine how crushing that would be.

In any case, I had the benefit of running into the family of a friend from primary school after mass today. The father, who was my confirmation sponsor, was attempting to induce me to join the Knights of Columbus. The family is Catholic, conservative, middle-class (white collar father, but five kids); it constituted an interesting foray into the land of Reaganism which I haven't really lived in for a while (real patriots and civic republicans--Boy Scouts, sports, ROTC, etc.). I developed a habit of giving the wrong name to strangers as a means of CYA, so I semi-unintentionally gave the KofC rep a false first name, despite myself being the son of the former organist.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

In the winter/spring semester of this year--as in, my last semester of undergrad, I took a domestic terrorism graduate class. For the final paper, I opted to do a sweeping survey of terrorism rather than focus on one group, and as such, I reviewed every incident on US soil from 2012 to 2015, which were then the four most recent years. It was a massive undertaking and, in my mind, constituted original research, so I flirted with trying to publish it. My conclusion, adborn out by the data, was that while right-wing terrorism was more common, Islamic (I don't know how you want to phrase that--"Islamist"?) terrorism was more deadly on a per capital and a total basis. My findings were already invalidated owing to the Global Terrorism Database's publication of 2016 statistics which finally happened sometime this year. But it is the events of yesterday that really (A) make me believe that trying to publish such a document might be in poor taste, and (B) want to review the 2016 data to observe the rise of political violence and specifically the type that comes from conventional ideology.

The problem with trying to analyze things like the relative deadliness of terrorist incidents is just that there are so many external factors that can determine how destructive an attack is. The statistics on deaths/attack by type moved dramatically last year just on the Pulse Nightclub shooting, despite the fact that it was a pretty poorly planned-out spree shooting. The Boston bombings, meanwhile, only killed a few people, despite being extremely sophisticated and planned for months, just because the bombs were placed down low, and ended up injuring hundreds in their legs, but critically wounding only a few people.

If you wanted a sample size big enough to compensate for all these tiny things that can get in the way, you'd have to start including all acts of terrorism in Europe as well, and maybe even domestic attacks in the Middle East as well. The problem then becomes reliable data, since a car bombing in Damascus a few months ago would just not get the same amount of analysis as, say, the underwear bomber.

All things that I'll concede. That said, I benefited from the fact that the GTD records both those killed and those injured, so high-impact attacks that nevertheless killed few people could still affect statistics (for the Tsarnaevs, what, 1 or 2 killed in contrast to the hundreds injured). What was sort of revealing was how commonplace and very spur-of-the-moment the attacks I labeled "right-wing" appeared--many abortion clinic incidents and I believe attacks on, say, minorities or Muslims seemed, base on the details, as though as they had been thought of the night before, if not the moment of. The very few left-wing incidents that were to be found--eight, I recall--seemed like the product of "lifestyle" choices; people that had previously identified as committed anarchists, identifiable groups like the ALF, etc. Islamic incidents appeared to be much more of the former. Somewhat poignant in this moment of "both sides do it"-ism was when a student asked while I was presenting what I believed to be the greater threat to public safety, and I deferred instead to the method of radicalization rather than ideology. 2016, I think, would represent an identifiable "remilitarization" of politics which I think would be worth exploring (and if my attitude masks that I believe this to be a very dark fact, please don't be mistaken).

[BuckeyeNut]

[F]inks adultswim.com.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

That's terrible, JA.  You deserve much better and someone will come along who is better.

[Mike Thick]

You're better off without her, JA. Still sucks, but you deserve more than that.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

My (now ex-)girlfriend and I broke up today. 2 year relationship ended because she decided to outright ignore me for 2 days and spend today posting pics of another guy on Snapchat sleeping over, them drinking milkshakes together with hearts, and him shirtless making pizzas, while not bothering to read my messages or message me back.

That sucks, man. Does she have a car? I would go Carrie Underwood on that sh**t.

Nah, man. That's rather petty and uncalled for. If she has a conscience at all, that'll do worse to her in the end than anything I could do.

I'm sorry man. You clearly are a good guy and will rebound from this. Meanwhile, she will be dropped high and dry by this guy most likely.

[TDAS04]

Tomorrow is my 30th birthday.  I will no longer be young.