Your Most Disturbing Realizations

[Zombie_61]

Garland is being pressured to criminally indict a former president; while refraining from such action
as regards a certain relation to the current incumbent. As to the applicable constitutional issues
surrounding the infamous January 6th, prosecutorial strict construction is tenuous; wherein senate
majority will not necessarily cast partisan. The other latter individual presents criminal accusation
beyond his person. The Attorney General is caught between a rock and a flat concrete slab.

No one forced him to pursue that career; sometimes we have to take the bad with the good.

 

[Fifty150]

In the modern era of cancel culture, and being politically correct, many have passed judgement on actor Will Smith. Now video emerges of retired athlete Mike Tyson.

You hear it parroted, repeatedly. Violence is wrong. No matter what, people don't deserve to be hit. No matter what, we should never resort to physical violence.

I have come to the realization that I am no different. I don't know if it's a disturbing realization. I'm not saying that violence is right. I'm saying that in my lifetime, I've used it. I've done a lot more than slap somebody, then storm back to my seat. I've done more than reaching over the back of my seat to slap someone.

The disturbing realization is that violence is the universal language.

For every violent action, there is context. Motive. Means. Opportunity. People fight. People fight back. People fight, in order to overcome, and stop a fight. If I were to tell you that I was wearing steel toe boots, and kicked a woman in the head, from behind - you have no context. If I were to tell you that she was straddling a child, and stabbing the child - you have context. Fortunately, most people will never respond to a call, of a woman stabbing a child. And I hope that none of you will have to act with violence, use more violence, to stop violence.

Violence is pivotal to survival of the human species. It culls the herd. Warfare, along with disease and famine, is a key component to check and balance human population. For thousands of years, across many cultures, violence was the key to maintaining a peaceful society. It reinforced the system of justice. Hangings. Floggings. Stoning. Burning at the stake. What do you call that when you dunk a witch in water? Or when a nun lowers a yardstick across your knuckles? Children were spanked.

For those who believe that all violence is wrong, then there is no conversation.

 

[Bushman]

Will Smith was out of line, but I can definitely agree with defending Mike Tyson. I mean, really, who picks a fight with a champion boxer?

I recently watched Manchester By The Sea, a lovely film set in coastal New England.
The protagonist assumes guardianship of his sixteen-year old nephew who adamantly
states he "is not going to college." His nephew intends to become a fisherman like his dad.
College is not for every kid and there is nothing wrong with a blue collar trade skill or similar option.

I think a major societal problem is that while one parent wants their kid to go to college, and another wants their kid in the trades, society doesn't often enough ask the KID what they want in life. Too often are people who still have to ask to use the restroom demanded to make life changing decisions about their future, with the answer "I don't know" not being acceptable.

College could be for more people. Our society could invest more into the community college system. We could teach trade skills applicable to that community.

Dropping out of an expensive 4-year school to get my associates as a community college was one of the best decisions I ever made. A year into my major, I became disillusioned, and community college was a great way for me to "find myself" without paying a fortune to do so. Plus, I got my Gen Eds out of the way, and was able to focus on my new major at another school.

 

[Hercule]

Dropping out of an expensive 4-year school to get my associates as a community college was one of the best decisions I ever made. A year into my major, I became disillusioned, and community college was a great way for me to "find myself" without paying a fortune to do so. Plus, I got my Gen Eds out of the way, and was able to focus on my new major at another school.

Good for you for realizing that. I work at a mid-size liberal arts college that is just stupid expensive. I see the general population here and I wonder where they're going and what their education will actually get them. As we go through the college search process with my son, I try to coach him to look at the bigger, longer term picture of what the institution has to offer with regard to the areas he wants to pursue - math and computer science with the opportunity to participate in music. Fortunately he has what it takes (he's his mother's son in that regard) to back up higher aspirations where that's concerned. He's doing the summer session at Stanford this year as a junior. There are three schools I will not allow him to even look at, including the one where I work, which is my own alma mater.

 

[tonyb]

Depends on how you define "freely." "Go to college or you'll be unemployable" is sort of like pushing someone up to the edge of a cliff with a gun to the back and saying "you could choose to jump."

Good analogy. Right up there with “the sailor made to walk the plank voluntarily jumped,” or “the condemned chose to climb the 13 steps to the gallows platform.”

 

[Zombie_61]

...Dropping out of an expensive 4-year school to get my associates as a community college was one of the best decisions I ever made. A year into my major, I became disillusioned, and community college was a great way for me to "find myself" without paying a fortune to do so. Plus, I got my Gen Eds out of the way, and was able to focus on my new major at another school.

When I was in high school back in the late-70s this was a popular plan for my fellow students who were planning to go to college--get the General Education requirements out of the way at a community college so they could focus on the higher/career education later. I'm pleased to hear it still works, at least for people who are capable of taking charge and mapping out their own futures.

 

[tonyb]

..,

Dropping out of an expensive 4-year school to get my associates as a community college was one of the best decisions I ever made. A year into my major, I became disillusioned, and community college was a great way for me to "find myself" without paying a fortune to do so. Plus, I got my Gen Eds out of the way, and was able to focus on my new major at another school.

Among the beauties of community colleges is that they bring education to people whose circumstances make it very difficult to access it any other way — they live (and work, by necessity) in more remote locales, where there are few if any four-year schools; their high school grades might not have been good enough for admission to many four-year degree programs; they desire education but they’re at something of a loss as to how it might be accessed and are in many cases intimidated by the prospect of it; etc.

FWIW, some of the more valuable and enlightening courses I ever took were in a community college. And the courses there were, on average, no less rigorous than what I experienced at four-year schools.

In the state of Washington several community colleges have dropped the “community” part and are now offering bachelor’s degrees. That’s all to the better, as best I can tell.

 

[Fifty150]

Mike Tyson. I mean, really, who picks a fight with a champion boxer?

His body has taken a lot of damage over the years. He is old and gray. Speaking from experience, combat sports sends you into middle age with a lot of aches and pains. He is not hitting with the same strength or speed as a half a lifetime ago.

As for who picks a fight with him? A belligerent drunk. That guy was drunk. Who would behave that way, period? He was taunting him, messing with him, and provoking him. I don't know if in fact a water bottle or water was thrown. But the video shows him playing around with Mike Tyson, like a very bad child. This is the same way fights start in a classroom - in the 3rd grade. 1 kid sitting behind another kid, and clearly doing everything possible to antagonize him.

 

[Fifty150]

Violence is simple. Until you have context.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^
God bless Leslie Nielsen, a master of deadpan if ever there was one. He had great material to work with in his later career (credit to others for that), still, it’s hard to imagine anyone else better playing the oblivious stuffed shirt.

 

[EngProf]

^^^^^
God bless Leslie Nielsen, a master of deadpan if ever there was one. He had great material to work with in his later career (credit to others for that), still, it’s hard to imagine anyone else better playing the oblivious stuffed shirt.

Agree... Some years ago the Disney Channel was showing some early-Disney adventure stories with LN as the star. Before the show started, a voice-over announcer explained that these weren't comedies, and that LN was originally a serious actor. Despite that, I interpreted all his dialog the way Lt. Frank Drebin would have said it. The shows were unintentionally funny based on later-years experience.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I remember when the original "Police Squad!" showed up on television as a summer replacement series in the early '80s, and much was made of the fact that Nielsen was chosen for the lead precisely because he'd been the type of actor known for playing square-jawed, straight-arrow authority figures with an absolute committment to the sincerity of the role. If they'd cast an actor who approached the part with a smirking self-awareness, or a winking sense of camp in the Adam West style, it wouldn't have worked at all. You have to play this kind of comedy as if you don't realize it's comedy at all -- and Nielsen absolutely nailed that.

 

[ChiTownScion]

Dropping out of an expensive 4-year school to get my associates as a community college was one of the best decisions I ever made. A year into my major, I became disillusioned, and community college was a great way for me to "find myself" without paying a fortune to do so. Plus, I got my Gen Eds out of the way, and was able to focus on my new major at another school.

That was pretty much what I did.

Neither of my parents were college grads nor had even attended. So of course, that- and essentially back fence gossip- made my mom an "expert" as to how my higher education was going to play out. I was still responsible for costs "as much as I could handle" but I had no choice as to where I'd attend.

I started at a local university of my mother's choice: lasted not a year, but two weeks. I was never so miserable in my life. Obtained a 100% refund on tuition after chatting with a dean (who told me that in all likelihood I didn't belong in college anyway) and handed the check back to my parents, telling them to keep their money and that I'd pay my own way henceforth. Worked the rest of that semester and the following January, enrolled in a community college. Got the Associate degree and two years later transferred to a university. All the while working my way through, paying my own tuition and costs.

Hard to say if it was the community college or that semester of working a crappy job, but I definitely had the fire in my belly to get the best grades that I could. My calculation is that I saved enough by attending community college to cover the costs of my entire undergrad years and half of my law school costs: so, for me, it was a prudent decision to attend a community college.

 

[basbol13]

My most disturbing realization is that under New Posts THERE ARE A VAST MULTITUDE OF PEOPLE SELLING MERCHANDISE, and it's getting harder to follow the fun threads. Wish there was a way to separate the sellers from the people who want to converse.

 

[tonyb]

That was pretty much what I did.

Neither of my parents were college grads nor had even attended. So of course, that- and essentially back fence gossip- made my mom an "expert" as to how my higher education was going to play out. I was still responsible for costs "as much as I could handle" but I had no choice as to where I'd attend.

I started at a local university of my mother's choice: lasted not a year, but two weeks. I was never so miserable in my life. Obtained a 100% refund on tuition after chatting with a dean (who told me that in all likelihood I didn't belong in college anyway) and handed the check back to my parents, telling them to keep their money and that I'd pay my own way henceforth. Worked the rest of that semester and the following January, enrolled in a community college. Got the Associate degree and two years later transferred to a university. All the while working my way through, paying my own tuition and costs.

Hard to say if it was the community college or that semester of working a crappy job, but I definitely had the fire in my belly to get the best grades that I could. My calculation is that I saved enough by attending community college to cover the costs of my entire undergrad years and half of my law school costs: so, for me, it was a prudent decision to attend a community college.

We’re close in age, I think. Back when we were “college age” a youngster could pay his tuition and keep himself housed and fed working a job that didn’t pay much more than minimum wage. That was my experience, anyway, and that of many of my contemporaries.

Housing costs these days leave me hurting for the young people. I acknowledge that my living situations were humbler than most back when I was their age, so my covering the month’s rent with a single day’s pay (or maybe two, if business was slow) wasn’t the norm even then. But I knew of nobody who was paying more than a fourth of their income on housing, And those were the people living pretty darned large, by my standards,

 

[basbol13]

We’re close in age, I think. Back when we were “college age” a youngster could pay his tuition and keep himself housed and fed working a job that didn’t pay much more than minimum wage. That was my experience, anyway, and that of many of my contemporaries.

Housing costs these days leave me hurting for the young people. I acknowledge that my living situations were humbler than most back when I was their age, so my covering the month’s rent with a single day’s pay (or maybe two, if business was slow) wasn’t the norm even then. But I knew of nobody who was paying more than a fourth of their income on housing, And those were the people living pretty darned large, by my standards,

I understand what your point is , but if you would punch the cost of tuition then to now into a Historical Currency Convertor, you'll discover that in actuality, "college costs" then and now haven't changed much. As opposed to you, I don't know if your parents paid your tuition or not, but when I was 17 left my home lived out of a car for a year and worked basically a full time job over the weekend and nights to put myself through one of the largest universities in the country and went on to professional school (which I also paid for out of pocket) afterwards. I think that paying for it myself helped me to strive to better myself and I believe the university really aided me in accomplishing my goals in life. When I say the university aided me I mean that the aggressiveness of the students and the uncaring attitude of the professors taught me a valuable lesson since leaving home that if you don't do it yourself and push for what you want you'll always be in the doldrums. And won't accomplish anything.
With that said, I believe that you don't have to go to the best or worst school to rise to where you want to be and to be happy at the same time in point of fact you don't even need to go to school. The idea is to be the best you can be in whatever profession or job that you choose, be excited about the work you do, be ethical in all your dealings, and respectful to even those who are unrespectable. Essentially live a life that is an example to all around you , hopefully when you look on your life at the end you can be secure in the thought that you did life on your terms.

 

[Fifty150]

Thanks to "cancel culture", we may never see any of the Naked Gun movies again.

I haven't seen reruns of The Cosby Show lately.

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will probably disappear from syndication as well.

And depending on how this "Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard" fiasco turns out - we could also lose reruns of 21 Jump Street.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We’re close in age, I think. Back when we were “college age” a youngster could pay his tuition and keep himself housed and fed working a job that didn’t pay much more than minimum wage. That was my experience, anyway, and that of many of my contemporaries.

Housing costs these days leave me hurting for the young people. I acknowledge that my living situations were humbler than most back when I was their age, so my covering the month’s rent with a single day’s pay (or maybe two, if business was slow) wasn’t the norm even then. But I knew of nobody who was paying more than a fourth of their income on housing, And those were the people living pretty darned large, by my standards,

As I have said before, by greatest asset in getting through my higher education was in those willing to give a kid a chance to work hard and earn his way. I don't know that if I had parents paying my bills that I would have taken everything for granted.

Actually, the opposite was more likely. The lingering remnants of Irish Catholic guilt would have gnawed me to bits. Pro-rating tuition down to each individual hour in a classroom costing the parents x number of dollars and such. Never felt that in grade school or high school, as parochial school tuition was their circus admission price. Taking it to the undergrad and grad level, on the other hand, it became me who was calling the tunes. Short of snagging a Fulbright scholarship, how does one pay off that kind of (for lack of a better word) guilt?

I'm with our Miss Lizzie 100% when it comes to anger over hearing old pharts of my own age slamming stereotyped "entitled millennials." A friend of over 50 years essentially offered my oldest son a job opportunity that included my boy's passion (welding), but when he began employing that kind of rhetoric, I decided that- friend or not- he wasn't someone who I wanted my kid working for. I'm a bit sensitive when it comes to providing younger people with affirmation and positive reinforcements. I would have never made it but for that, and I want to see it passed on to others.

 

[Trenchfriend]

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air will probably disappear from syndication as well.

 

[Fifty150]