DescentBB

Me thinks woody needs a new avatar. The Joker is now being associated with the face of a mass murderer.

Ban violent movies! Ban violent video games! And nice try try TC. With any luck the mass murderer of jobs and the economy will be voted out of office and I can go back to my old avatar

which was what? Bozo the Clown?

You mean Ol' Bush don't you? He's the one that originally tanked the economy. Thanks to Republican bullheaded pouting and do-nothingness, not much HAS been done to bring down unemployment. And yes, I'm willing to bet you that if Plastic Android Man gets elected, those 25 Plutocrats, and the Mormon Church, that bought Romney his win will be sooooooo happy, they'll tell their corporate buddies that they can now release some of that boatloads of cash that they've been sitting on for 4 years and finally get the economy going. Mark my words, that's what's gonna happen if Romney gets elected. But hey woody, at least you won't have that "Socialist" around anymore, but just maybe something worse in the long run.

Romney's got the perfect faith to bring the U.S. into the new Theo-Plutocracy too.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... make-money

callmeslick wrote:which was what? Bozo the Clown?

You're not very good at trolling, are you?

Keep it professional, boys.

Well, Holmes does look like Bozo the Clown in his mug shot, doesn't he?

This should piss of every taxpayer in the U.S. We paid for his bastard's guns and ammo.

http://www.naturalnews.com/036574_James ... rants.html

woodchip wrote:

callmeslick wrote:which was what? Bozo the Clown?

You're not very good at trolling, are you?

who was trolling? Just an honest question. Remember, I haven't been here long enough to remember any other avatar.

woodchip blamed democrats all throughout bush's term as well--i don't think electing romney will put an end to that

callmeslick wrote:

woodchip wrote:

callmeslick wrote:which was what? Bozo the Clown?

You're not very good at trolling, are you?

who was trolling? Just an honest question. Remember, I haven't been here long enough to remember any other avatar.

Oh, he had another avatar before Obama was elected slick. I just can't remember what it looked like now since he's stuck with the derogatory to Obama one so long. Even ThunderBunny gave up on his anti-Obama avatar.

Back on topic, it turns out that Holmes DID sent someone at the University a notebook detailing what he wanted to do. It didn't get to the intended recipient until after the shootings. If someone had just delivered it on time, maybe this tragedy could have been prevented.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/25/ex ... mailed-to/

As I've noted before, woody's avatar doesn't make much sense in any context.

Top Gun wrote:As I've noted before, woody's avatar doesn't make much sense in any context.

why would you expect his AVATAR to make sense, since......oh, nevermind.

Keep it on-topic. If you want to take shots at someone's avatar, that's what NHB is for.

bleh

callmeslick wrote:

woodchip wrote:

callmeslick wrote:which was what? Bozo the Clown?

You're not very good at trolling, are you?

who was trolling? Just an honest question. Remember, I haven't been here long enough to remember any other avatar.

Honest Question? You still fail at trolling

CobGobbler wrote:woodchip blamed democrats all throughout bush's term as well--i don't think electing romney will put an end to that

Ah, now we have a mystery man who seems to need a new acct to hide from his past

Not necessarily. Maybe he just joined, and decided to take a few days (or a week) off work and read through all of the DBB topics, going back to it's inception, in ascending chronological order--like a really good novel that you can't put down. It could happen...

woodchip wrote:Ah, now we have a mystery man who seems to need a new acct to hide from his past

"Other users posting from this IP: No matches found."

Sergeant Thorne wrote:Not necessarily. Maybe he just joined, and decided to take a few days (or a week) off work and read through all of the DBB topics, going back to it's inception, in ascending chronological order--like a really good novel that you can't put down. It could happen...

Yes and Obama could become a Republican.

Krom wrote:

woodchip wrote:Ah, now we have a mystery man who seems to need a new acct to hide from his past

"Other users posting from this IP: No matches found."

I could unplug my cable modem and have a brand new IP in no time.

I guess I'll just be that man of mystery until one of you internet geeks figures it out.

I'm just saying woodie, even when the GOP was in full power, 2002-2006, you whined and moaned about the Democrats. How did we get here? Isn't this thread about that crazy kid out in Colorado? I, for one, am glad they finally caught one of these people alive. Forget banning the guns, ammo, and all that crap. What the hell happened to this dude to make him flip his switch?

I bet he's one of those kids that always got a trophy and never got spanked as a kid. Failed an oral exam at school, was pissed he didn't get his way, and this is how he deals with failure. What a loser. This guy is the same as those two from Columbine--rich kids born from a silver spoon and they can't hack it. Bastards. Go survive a dust-bowl, storm a fortified beach, live under the near constant threat of lynching. What assbags...all of them.

You mean like until one of us looks over at .com?

I'll tell you what, in all of this the talk coming from ABC news is pathetic. They're blowing it up as much as possible, working with very little material. One batman poster = evidence of obsession, they've "found a computer" in his apartment, they're working carefully because he may have setup a "firewall" or programmed it to self-delete on start (first is nonsense, the second is easily bypassed by booting from a disk), and on and on. Oh yeah, and he's brilliant... like the Joker...

EDIT - Also everyone who didn't die is a hero. They're all heroes... He would have had to kill me to keep me off of him. Bunch o' pussies if you ask me. Props to the guys who covered their girlfriends/wives for doing the next best thing.

And he doesn't look right to me in the videos they show of him at the science fair either. These people just have no discernment.

C'mon Thorne, cut the people some slack. They were just sitting down to watch a movie that they were excited for and then all hell breaks loose. I don't mean this as a slight against you, but I seriously doubt you would have the gumption to jump in and save everyone. It was mass confusion sir and the people reacted the way one would expect.

You may be right. It's not something that is set in stone, so to speak, or in my case cemented by experience (nothing that big, anyway). It is a fact, however, that I'm not the type to back down when I feel strongly about something. It's one thing to be non-confrontational when the stakes are low, and I'm guilty of that sometimes, but when the chips are down and I see my way clear to do something it's a different matter entirely. It's a matter of having the right mindset, and being prepared to deal with something that serious, which in my experience most people don't seem to be, and I recognize that at times I am not, or haven't been. It may be they just haven't thought it through to the point where they are able to recognize the situation as a time for action. Maybe they don't value that character trait enough. And while I should cut these people some slack (you're right), I can also maintain that any man should hope to do better, while the news is making heroes out of them for less (perhaps some of them deserve it for protecting their loved ones).

Favorite family saying: "I'm not the victim type".

Is it bad to suggest that that man's faith without works was useless (Bible reference) while he laid on the floor praying when he should have reached up and ripped the shooter's nuts off as he stood over him?

People are just so damn passive--so lame sometimes that it gets me, and above all else I don't want to be that way. Too much damn estrogen coming off of the news stream, and it's got me worked up.

Yeah, I've noticed this "hero worship" of victims in the mainstream news a lot. I think they like these tear-jerker stories to ramp up their ratings. But it's just morbid and SICK! It's fawning over the suffering AFTER it happens. It's sad they're hurt and I hope they can heal, but we don't need a blow by blow of the suffering and prayers to God of the victims, plastered all over the nightly news like a bloody carnival.

The true heroes would have been any people that had tried to storm the bastard and taken him down! If they'd beat him to death, all the better. Especially when his gun jammed for that short precious moment. I mean, if you're facing certain death, attack anyway, especially in the shadows of a dark theater. He can't see or keep track of everyone in a packed theater. Even as a "female", I wouldn't have wanted to sit there and take a bullet without trying to grab the guy if the opportunity arose. In the heat of the moment, I'd even try to beat the living crap out of him if I got a hold of him. He couldn't shoot everyone at once, someone would have succeeded. I mean, the guy had time to turn his back and saunter out the exit door pretty as you please after his shooting spree.

I have to agree with Thorne and TC here. It's the instant that you are confronted and the next thought that determines your character. I have been there before, you have just a second to decide fight or flight, consequences do not enter the equation until later.

Yeah, but the problem is, what's a person's reaction to suddenly staring death in the face? Fight or flight? No one knows until they face it. The brain just doesn't have time to think at first because reaction kicks in. I'd like to think that I would stand and fight, but shear terror can be a very powerful motivator to flee.

That is the dividing line TC

It's not just the dividing line, it can be a wall. It's instinct, it's part of the lower brain and it drives reactions much faster than thought. Sometimes it's really tough to overcome one's instincts in just a fraction of a second.

"Cowardice however subtly developed and by any other name remains in effect the same." -Thorne

If self-preservation is the highest ideal our society can aspire to, then we're in trouble, no matter what part of the brain it comes from.

One can only become a coward when one has the time to think about it. Cowardice implies forethought.

So if you're frozen by fear you're not a coward as long as you haven't had a long time to think about it? It's a matter of character development, mark my word.

I disagree with your premise TC. It's a choice about how your gonna be. We are not animals who just react, we are cognitive beings.

Sergeant Thorne wrote:"Cowardice however subtly developed and by any other name remains in effect the same." -Thorne

If self-preservation is the highest ideal our society can aspire to, then we're in trouble, no matter what part of the brain it comes from.

Thorne the cognitive scientist, ladies and gentlemen.

People have to train for many years to react in a specific way to any given event, and still…

Exactly. Even the most well-trained individual might freeze up at an inopportune moment, or be caught unawares. Each of us can think that we would have done something differently, but until we're put in that position, we have no way of knowing that we wouldn't wet our pants and run away screaming.

There's no benefit in using a rough grasp of science to overlook basic truths about ourselves, TunnelCat.

I never said anything about training. Training would help get the job done, if you have the will to do it. In a nutshell, to deal with a situation like that you'd have to be ready/willing to die, if that's what it takes. You'd also have to believe that you have right on your side. You also have to realize that behind those guns and that mask there is only a man, and he is determined that you and everyone else will die to satisfy himself. Myself, when I see injustice done to other people it does something to me. I'd just as soon ★■◆● happen to me, because I am strong and I will deal with it.

I could go into more detail about how a person could be prepared, because I actually do understand it fairly well, but I think I've said enough.

For someone in a situation like that to get up and attack the gunman, I'd say it requires a few things:

• Situational awareness. [From interviews, some people realized immediately what was going on, and others didn't know the gunshots were real for a few moments. Smoke grenades added some general confusion.]
• Position. [Those in the front of the theater would have been in the better position to do something.]
• Training/preparation. [Possibly military training, or simply mental preparedness to overcome instinctual responses TC mentioned.]
• Will/courage. [What Thorne is referring to.]

We can certainly debate whether we would have done something or not. [Personally I'd like to think so, but I'm not certain, because I've fortunately never been in such a situation.]

However, I think it's enough to say it this way: That kind of hero is rare. Rare enough that in this case, even in a theater full of people, no one was able to stop the bad guy.

With that said, there are cases where heroes do show up. For example, at a shooting a few years ago near my parents-in-law lived, a former policewoman stepped in and shot the gunman, probably saving a number of lives.

It doesn't require training, but the more training the better your chances of success. Situational awareness is a moot point, because sooner or later everyone knew what was happening. We're not placing unnatural requirements on heroism here, like having to take down the bad guy in the first 2 seconds or you're a coward. Position is another variable in the equation of success, not a prerequisite for acting.

Foil wrote:However, I think it's enough to say it this way: That kind of hero is rare. Rare enough that in this case, even in a theater full of people, no one was able to stop the bad guy.

True statement. Your use of "able" in "able to stop the bad guy" is a little iffy, IMO, but I know what you mean.

Anyway I just wanted to make one more statement, and that's that if the thought of someone opening fire on innocent civilians doesn't make you angry fast enough to act on that instead of on fear, maybe that's something that could bear thinking on.