AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Given his history I don't think Moses thought it possible, without divine help, for people to cross a large body of water en masse to found a new nation. So I think he can be forgiven for not foreseeing America.

San Bernardino had a shooting in a disabilities service center with 14 deaths and 17 injured.

As far as I can tell, the shooters (at least 3 of them) haven't been caught yet, and that's pretty scary since my home city is pretty close by.

Same, people at work have been getting in contact with their family who's in town and if they're alright. Shit's scary.

In a disabilities service center.

This is somehow even more despicable that shooting up a McDonalds or a Target or something, jesus.

My Florida grandmother called up about that event earlier.

"Did you hear what those Arabs are doing?! Obama is going to take away our guns!"

And she kept going on about it like that.
Her sole reasoning for calling them Arabs was because they wore masks, "Why else would they wear masks?!" Went on to talk about the stuff 'the Fox News' keeps spouting out.
Ignoring the part where someone doing these things likely doesn't want to be identified.

So that's how I learned that happened.


Someone, please tell me that not all Republican families talk like that. There are reasonable Republicans out there, right?

Most of the Republicans I've known have turned into Libertarians or were Libertarian to begin with and didn't know the term. The Tea Party has thrown the Republican party into absolute disarray and now the most radical republicans have the megaphone and the dudes in charge know that shit doesn't fly with bodaciously anybody else, they're scrambling to put anyone but Trump in the forefront because they know how bad that shit looks.

I've met a lot of relatively reasonable Republicans, although a lot of the ones I knew in high school have actually become democrats or independents. Hell, a lot of the more extreme Republicans out there seem like pretty sweet and friendly folks when you meet them in person.

There is merit to Republican/Conservative principles of small government, deferring issues to the states rather than the Feds, and entirely removing the government from the equation. I am increasingly looking at various government regulations and regulatory agencies as impeding innovation and freedom. For example, the Federal Aviation Administration seemed to have wanted to take on a one-size-fits-all policy regarding all unmanned aircraft, including model planes, but luckily they're now actively collaborating with various hobbyist groups to create these regulations which should diminish administrative overreach. I'm also vehemently opposed to governments of any size placing overly strict regulations on businesses like Uber, in an attempt to protect outdated systems like taxi companies and their license system.

As well, the House of Representatives recently passed the Every Student Must Succeed Act, which is a stern compromise in an attempt to undo the damage done by No Child Left Behind. If it passes the Senate and is signed by the President, it would give more power to the States and local governments to meet individualized needs of school districts. The States would still be held accountable for underperforming schools, however, and testing would still be mandated. In my opinion, it's a step in the right direction. It would also help independent movements, like the recent XQ Superschool Project to assist these states and local governments in coming up with new ways for high schoolers to learn.

It really is a shame that the GOP is full of religious-right nutjobs; otherwise I would have a lot of respect for what the party's main goals should be, which is what you said above. They want to de-regulate things, bring more power to states/citizens and leave less for federal government? Okay, that's a reasonable stance and one that would be helpful in solving a lot of issues. But they also want to make women jump through a million government hoops to get an abortion? And they want taxpayers to send a huge, ungodly amount of cheddar to the military, that the federal government is in charge of? At this point it seems like Libertarians are closer to what Republicans claim to be like.

Though really at this point I'm pop flyin' to see any politician with common sense, regardless of party...

I can't remember the last time I saw common sense in a context related to politics.

So some shmucks robbed a jewelry store at the local mall and the bangs of their sledgehammers through the displays were mistaken for gunshots. Police responded en force and choked the already clogged streets with squad cars and are currently making sure everything's cool.
How fucked up is it being relieved that all these dudes wanted was some gold? Like yeah, fuck em for stealing, but thank god it wasn't worse.

were they caught?

Also, yeah, it's bad that things have gotten to that point. I'm worried that one day it'll be "oh, okay, just a drive by shooting and not something worse". That's when shit's bad.

It makes me glad I didn't try to become a scientist of some sort. I'd have already used a doomsday device.

Don't have to nuke the entire world just because the US is bad. Just have to stop believing in the "FUCK YEAH! AMERICA NUMBER 1!!" bullshit and look outside the borders for once.

Don't nuke the entire world because a country is bad. Nuke it because it's hilarious and who is going to stop you *villainous laugh*

This just reminded me of that one person who used to hang around on here... I think she left JUST before I joined (I had been lurking for a while before actually joining). I can't remember her username, but she was kind of crazy. When she died, she wanted to bring as many people down with her as possible. It was kind of nuts.