The Bad News Thread

The Bad News Thread

This is for those who want to highlight events that spell Bad News for them.

... and for those who feel just plain Grumpy.

, , and

What I don't understand is the litany of military offences Jaybro. Shooting of unarmed vivilians repeatedly, the peeing on corpses the long standing torture in that infamous prison and now the silly matter of burning the religious stuff which is mind-boggling. To be fair some sources are saying it was "accidental" which is a strange comment in itself. I thought the military had improved over the years so why is so much happening?

Young men with too little to do? Damned if I know. They aren't the best that we have to offer, ill-educated, few prospects in life. It's a puzzle, though.

I saw many grossly stupid pranks when I was in the navy as a youngster.

Pranks we can live with and no problems with that at all. As you say it hints on the quality of those who get into uniform who cannot make it anywhwer much positively. It makes these crimes worse as they are volunteers not inducted? The sad thing is that they dump their gross stupidity and thoughtlessness on the majority, decent uniformed men trying to do their real bit. It leads to bad PR and more deaths including their comrades. The general who made the public apology was right to do so especially as reactions in such a society as is happening in Afghanistan is a very juvenile and elementary one. Justice must be seen in these incidents to be swift and decisive for the benefit of all in uniform?

Well, as Forrest Gump so sagely informed us, "Stupid is as stupid does."

Obama apologized for the incident and was criticized by Republicans, the party of stupid, for doing so.

I knew it ?
and to go along with that-voting

The research, led by David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University, shows that incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people's ideas. For example, if people lack expertise on tax reform, it is very difficult for them to identify the candidates who are actual experts. They simply lack the mental tools needed to make meaningful judgments. As a result, no amount of information or facts about political candidates can override the inherent inability of many voters to accurately evaluate them. On top of that, "very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is," Dunning told Life's Little Mysteries.

However true all that is, there's the important problem that the candidates don't assess issues, tax reform included, based on how "good" they are. Rather, they assess them on personal preference and the preferences of voters who live in their camp. In other words, which group in the voting population stands to benefit most?

What is an "actual expert"? Much that goes for expertise is simply misinformed preference. Should the U.S. pull out of Afghanistan? Not knowing what the future will bring, which expert would make the best choice?

I'd like to get my hands around the neck of the experts who got us into that godawful mess.

Forrest Gump talked a good game. Should have run himself? When you think of some who got to the White House he has been sadly overlooked?

Lieutenant Blueberry is dead.


Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, the creator of Lieutenant Blueberry (and several other comics) died today.
I coudn't see nothing in English, so it goes in French:

Ce personnage va donner l'occasion à Jean Giraud, qui signe Gir dès le premier épisode, de "faire du cinéma sur papier", comme il l'expliquait au Monde Magazine en octobre 2010 à l'occasion de la rétrospective que lui a consacré la Fondation Cartier : "Le cinéma est le réservoir d'images de Blueberry. (…) Concernant le personnage, je lui ai donné les traits de nombreux acteurs à la mode de films d'action : Belmondo bien sûr, mais aussi Bronson, Eastwood, Schwarzenegger… J'ai même utilisé Keith Richards (le guitariste des Rolling Stones) ou Vincent Cassel (qui a campé le rôle de Blueberry au cinéma). A chaque fois, je rajoutais un nez cassé, ainsi qu'une coupe de cheveux à la Mike Brant ! Beaucoup de réalisateurs m'ont également inspiré. Blueberry doit beaucoup à Sam Peckinpah (La Horde sauvage m'a bouleversé). Il y a aussi du Sergio Leone chez lui. Mais pour ce qui est de son amitié avec les Indiens, je suis plus proche de John Ford qui, toute sa vie, a été écartelé entre le machisme blanc de la conquête de l'ouest et la conscience qu'il avait des minorités opprimées."

All that name-dropping was a bit hard to follow. But then I also had to look up simple phrases like coupe de cheveux being a haircut.

Originally posted by Frenzie:

All that name-dropping was a bit hard to follow.

Sorry, he calls to this comic "cinema in paper" and his doing a short list of actors and directors that are references present in his work.
It's one of the most cinematographic comic about western I ever saw, each drawing being a real take up of an imaginary movie.

Oh, I thought he was saying this character was sewed together like a kind of Frankenstein's monster with one guy's nose, the other's haircut, and so on?

Go learn some French Frenzie...

Oh, but I know some French: that's the problem.

(But I speak English at a near-native level and German quite well, so it's not like I feel deficient. I actually blame the schooling system for killing all enthusiasm I might've had for learning French.)

Originally posted by Frenzie:

I actually blame the schooling system for killing all enthusiasm I might've had for learning French.)

I see, that's bad, French is a most beautiful language.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Pranks we can live with and no problems with that at all. As you say it hints on the quality of those who get into uniform who cannot make it anywhwer much positively. It makes these crimes worse as they are volunteers not inducted?

I, too, was a volunteer, 18, ill-educated, and with no prospects whatever. I don't think that 'volunteer' guarantees anything . One of the volunteers I served with on a flight crew was in charge of the inflight galley. The officers in the crew had steaks planned for dinner, and this clown rubbed the steaks with his penis prior to the day's flight. And, no, I didn't turn him in...there was a code to observe.

Sad code wasn't it? You seem to have this rather odd pastime of honour codes that seem to us rather odd and beyond the usual. The fact that volunteers don't guarantee anything is dismaying.

I wouldn't call it an honor code, but it was sad. It was something to do with knowing who your 'friends' were, which side you were on.

Had it been anything more fatal than a disgusting prank, I'd have ratted him out in a heartbeat. He was a genuine Southern lowlife. The notion that many of you in the UK don't observe such codes beggars the mind. Not you personally, mind.

Viewpoints: Anti-Muslim prejudice in Europe
Baroness Warsi, the chairman of the main party in Britain's governing coalition, has said that anti-Muslim prejudice has "passed the dinner table test" and become socially acceptable in the UK.

What say you?

You might give this document on prejudice a scan.

The study you linked to contained no surprises for me, Jaybro. It's main conclusions may appear controversial to certain types of activists and polemicists; but that contention resides in a self-serving narrative… I leave the discussion of the particulars to those others willing to read the study.
And, of course, to those compelled to opine — without having read it.

Homeless people as wireless transmitters.

Nothing like having a prejudice Jaybro to keep the cockles of the heart going. Yeah we don't go in for honour codes much here being terribly British old boy. As for the Muslims they bring it on themselves. More and more we are getting strident stuff from the militants and at the same time a kind of mealy-mouthed attitude from the 'moderates'. Have often said the moderates would get as big a stick as the rest of we Kafurs if the militants got their way. I suspect in decades to come there will be increasing friction here in Europe as Muslims continue to breed as if life depends on them. Graphs already show that the indigenous populations are on the way down and out as they are failing to maintain a basic 2.4 or so. Thankfully I will not be here to see the final takeover but it will be as bloody as the wars of the Crusades. By then there woon't be a reasonable prejudice to be content with as we will have Shariah to keep everyone silent.

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Thankfully I will not be here to see the final takeover but it will be as bloody as the wars of the Crusades. By then there woon't be a reasonable prejudice to be content with as we will have Shariah to keep everyone silent.

You over-estimate the situation, methinks. "Takeover"? Surely you jest.

You sound like one of our Alabama rednecks pontificating on the 'Nigger' problem.

Don't forget West Virginia's Rbt. Byrd, who –late in his career– took great pains to explain that "there are white niggers," too. Surely, one must applaud such sophistication?

Perhaps we need a "Sad News" thread.

Encyclopaedia Britannica will no longer publish a printed version.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/chapter-closed-on-britannica-in-print-20120314-1uzdx.html

Fifty years ago I went into debt for the first time to buy the E.B.
I threw it out only weeks ago.

Unfortunately I am nearer the truth than you realise Jaybro. It is notthe same as the "Alabama question". Genetics tells us that a race requires a certain percentage of births to exist. In Britain and the European continent we are now below the figure and still going down - from meory you need a 2.4 ratio. We are now under 2 and if you take Muslims for example being the most vociferous and large minority along with other immigrants it is getting to around 8. We already know that by mid-century for example the indigenous white population of the US will be a minority. By the end of this century at the birth rate of immigrants both legal and massive illegals we will be outnumbered. That in itself doesn't of course mean anything negative except that as Islam grows so too does the militant wing on it's back. There are already increasing frictions across Europe and growing support for nationalist parties and such and one day it will be more than voices and odd trouble but full blown warfare.

Originally posted by tt92:

Perhaps we need a "Sad News" thread.

I agree with you.
It's not about being "bad", but too much worst, just pathetically, lonely, sadness.
That insidious sad way of things destroying and be destroyed without no one saying a word.

Originally posted by Belfrager:

Jean Giraud, aka Moebius, the creator of Lieutenant Blueberry (and several other comics) died today.

Sad. I found it unlikely that there would be nothing about this in English, so here is New York Times. They neglected to mention the nose's haircut though.

Originally posted by tt92:

Fifty years ago I went into debt for the first time to buy the E.B.I threw it out only weeks ago.

Also kind of final. But it also presumably means the death of E.B. salesmen persuading impressionable youth that the best way to insulate a living room wall is by buying two dozen extremely expensive, but oh so neatly crafted, paper bricks.

The most disturbing thing I've seen on the Internet. You'll need a strong stomach for this one.
http://lightbox.time.com/2012/03/30/pictures-of-the-week-march-23-march-30/#1

Yes, pretty horrific. Reminds me of the monks who burned themselves in Saigon decades ago. What a horrible thing to doand gives you the shivers.

Absolutely horrid.

There's horrid, and there's just plain stupid.

Originally posted by ggg-bro:

There's horrid, and there's just plain stupid.

And then, of course, there's "Porsafillo".

And then there are stories date-lined April 1…

Mind you ggg-bro, if true you have to understand that oddities are a way of life over there and accepted as the norm!

Originally posted by OakdaleFTL:

And then there are stories date-lined April 1…

Same thing, I think!

Originally posted by rjhowie:

Mind you ggg-bro, if true you have to understand that oddities are a way of life over there and accepted as the norm!

And gullibility is universal. Vive la difference!