Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Everyone loves a hero, but, no one seems to care about the dead.

May 25, 2018

...The National Rifle Association (click here) quickly seized on the incident as "just another example of how the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," according to a tweet. The powerful gun rights lobbying group commonly touts the mantra as part of its strategy in the wake of gun violence to identify ways -- apart from restricting firearms -- to enhance public safety....

Or in this case, the injured. And don't forget, this is Oklahoma. States Rights dictates Oklahoma may need people to carry weapons IN THE TRUNK OF THEIR CARS, but, that does not mean it applies to every state in the country. In my opinion, the willingness of the NRA to look the other way to the fact four innocent people were injured is scarier than stated anywhere in the article.

...Four people were injured during the shooting, including a woman and a girl who were shot inside Louie's while celebrating a birthday, CNN affiliate KOCO reported. They were hospitalized, said Mathews, the police captain.

Another woman also was wounded by gunfire, and a man fell and broke his arm after Tilghman began his assault, police said.

Police detained "a large number of witnesses" and, early on, said there was no indication of terrorism

"It's like, every day you hear the same story," Benton told KFOR. "But it was just very odd to be in the middle of it."

The heroes as they are stated here didn't carry a side arm into the restaurant. So, the entire focus of the NRA is propaganda and profits and not facts or reality.

We have seen other instances like this as well. There was the church shooting last year when a person saw the gunman leaving the scene and was later run down by someone with a gun. The end of the killing spree is always welcome no matter who ends it, but, the fact remains there is no protection from the initial assault. The NRA needs to tell the country how exactly they explain the dead, regardless, of the good guy with a gun.

This is not the USA, no matter how much the NRA would like it to be.

While I wish this wasn't happening in Pakistan either, there is no place for military style weapons in the USA. There is no reason to have them. There is no purpose for an AK-47 among the people of the USA. It makes NO SENSE for our society to have succumbed to the violence issued by Osama bin Laden.

I find it encouraging there was at least a peace committee with members in Pakistan. That is a real way forward, but, here again, the ISI is failing that peace committee if it's members are targets.

But, this is not the USA. It is uniquely Pakistan, even it would seem in their agricultural areas. In believing weapons belong on the street only invites violence. Where there is no purpose for a gun in USA society, evidently there are those that believe they should find a purpose.

May 29, 2018

Malik Amanullah (click here) a member of the peace committee in Bajaur Agency was targeted by terrorists through a remote controlled bomb on Tuesday in Chahar Mang area of Tehsil Nagoi.

According to sources, he was severely injured due to the explosion and immediately transferred to the Agency Headquarters Hospital for treatment.

Security forces cordoned off the area and began a search operation.

In March, residence of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Syed Akhunzada Chattan’s came under missile attack in the agency.

Officials had confirmed that the PPP provincial president and former member parliament was present in the house when it came under attack, however, no casualties were reported.

Political administration in Bajaur and Mohmand agencies and Charsadda police officials have revised security arrangement at all entry and exit points....

Where is the breaking point in young adult development when Caucasian men decide they are defined by the power of a weapon?

May 30, 2018
By Manny Fernandez, Julie Turkewitz and Jess Bidgood

Santa Fe — The exact reasons (click here) why a teenage gunman shot his fellow students and teachers here at Santa Fe High School remain a mystery. His model for carrying it out is more clear.

The 17-year-old junior wore a black trench coat and fired a sawed-off shotgun, the same attire and weaponry used by the two gunmen who killed a dozen students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999.

He wore a T-shirt with the phrase “Born to Kill” on it in bold, similar in design to those worn by the Columbine attackers, which read “Wrath” and “Natural Selection.”

His crude arsenal included canisters of carbon-dioxide gas and Molotov cocktails, two types of explosives used by the Columbine gunmen.

The picture he had posted of his trench coat on Facebook showed a small red-star medallion with the Communist hammer-and-sickle on the collar, the same type of button a Columbine gunman attached to his boot....

Parenting matters. Separation - Individuation issues continue throughout the life of a child, including teens into young adulthood.

What no one wants to admit is that the killers of the late teens and early twenties are a product of our society, not just parenting, that values violence and hatred over any other emotion.

When a young mind sees nothing but violence as a means of entertainment a SINGULAR EMOTION takes over and the definition of that life becomes clear to them. A person needs a wide range of emotions and experience in their life otherwise they are deprived of a quality life. A late teen and early 20 something that has been teethed on violence only knows a few emotions and never experience compassion, kindness or empathy.

To begin with it is a mostly Caucasian male issue. (click here)

It is also a gun issue. There has been a change in the gun culture in the USA. The gun as a culture icon represents power and for those without power, it represents an answer to that problem. 

...But after the September 11 attacks, (click here) I spent several years at war and then lived abroad as a civilian for another several years. And when I finally returned to the United States in late 2008, I noticed something different about the gun culture in the country to which I was so eager to return. For one, driving with my mother from our home in East Tennessee to Nashville, I noticed how many billboards on the side of the highway advertised guns. And not just any guns—these were not .30-06 hunting rifles or shotguns, but rather, the kind of tactical firearms, including assault rifles, that I had carried in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why in the world, I thought then, would anyone have a need for such weapons?...

No person in the USA feels more defeated by society than a poor achiever in school. I think there is a perfect storm with these young men when they define their adulthood as someone who can shoot a gun. It is a culture issue and it is serious.

Adolescence, 1990 Spring; 25(97): 105-116; JA Daniels; "Adolescent separation-individuation and family transitions," 

This paper (click here) discusses the relationship between family structure and the achievement of the adolescent developmental task of separation-individuation. Adolescent separation-individuation is viewed as a continuum. At the right end of the continuum, adolescents reach successful therapeutic separation-individuation--a sense of self--while remaining connected to the family as a functional member. At the other end of the continuum is nontherapeutic dysfunctional separation-individuation. These adolescents are characterized by disruptive behaviors, rejection of societal and family norms, and potential suicide. Successful accomplishment of separation-individuation appears to be affected by a number of factors (e.g., conflict, parental relationship, accomplishment of previous developmental tasks). Adolescents from nontraditional families may have more barriers to overcome in order to therapeutically complete this task. Interventions to promote therapeutic separation-individuation need to incorporate all members of the family and support from the community. Through anticipatory guidance, dissemination of information, affiliating behaviors, and support groups, practitioners can help equip families with the skills needed for successful accomplishment of this task.

James Cameron states there is still a great deal of ocean floor to be mapped.

30 May 2018
By Matt Young

Director James Cameron attends the Deepsea Challenger photocall at California Science Centre.

Deep-sea explorer James Cameron (click here) has said it's no surprise that the missing MH370 plane has not yet been found and that it would be "human arrogance" to think otherwise.
Almost four years since the filmmaker said he believed the plane would never be found due to a lack of "vehicle funding", the Titanic director told news.com.au there was still no end in sight for one of aviation's greatest mysteries.
In Sydney earlier this week as part of Vivid Ideas and to launch his major new exhibition at the Australian National Maritime Museum, James Cameron — Challenging The Deep, he told news.com.au that finding the missing plane at the bottom of the ocean is like finding a needle in a haystack....
..Cameron's comments come as the US technology company which has been scouring the ocean floor for more than three months failed to find the wreck site and today, officially ended its search.
Texas-based Ocean Infinity chief executive Oliver Plunkett said 112,000sq km of remote ocean floor had been searched — more than four times larger than the proposed crash zone around the Indian Ocean.
"I would firstly like to extend the thoughts of everyone at Ocean Infinity to the families of those who have lost loved ones on MH370. Part of our motivation for renewing the search was to try to provide some answers to those affected," Mr Plunkett said in a statement.
"It is therefore with a heavy heart that we end our current search without having achieved that aim," he said.
Australian Transport Minister Michael McCormack said the search for the missing plane was the largest in aviation history and had tested the boundaries of what humans and technology could achieve at such deep depths....

Jimmy Kimmel is right about the show "Dan."

Good morning. I got caught up in a racism town yesterday evening and did not review Ireland and climate. Until later this AM.