Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

I for one actually believe that economic circumstances do play a part, a large part, in the amount of crime a society gets. So yes, if these people were better off, they might not riot because someone got shot. They were a part of a group of society that might react like this. The middle class people of Middle England are not, generally speaking.

So let's not rule out the economic aspect. But it doesn't explain jack shit alone.

Reports from the scene said that people were turning up in cars from miles away just to fill them with phones and cosmetics stolen from Boots and Carphone Warehouse.

The british underclass are certainly pragmatic, if anything.
 
I for one actually believe that economic circumstances do play a part, a large part, in the amount of crime a society gets. So yes, if these people were better off, they might not riot because someone got shot. They were a part of a group of society that might react like this. The middle class people of Middle England are not, generally speaking.

So let's not rule out the economic aspect. But it doesn't explain jack shit alone.


It is not easy being poor. I am at the moment, and I have never worked harder in my life. If this guy really was the local gun dealer, he may of also been the local charity supply/support. People won't generally tolerate a(n illegal) gun dealer working out of their area unless they are also helping the community. Sort of like a corporation that uses some of it's wealth to fund museums. It is easy to look past some of the wrong that earns a person/corporation money, as long as they make good toward the community.
 
Surprising amount of people in Tottenham out and about with their buckets ready to water the old waterwheel and justify the british police's approach to public gatherings. Stupid people. Throw the bucket and go home.
I agree this is mindboggingly stupid. But it doesn't justify kettling innocent people. And I understand it won't happen again anyway as kettling's been ruled illegal or something.

Reports from the scene said that people were turning up in cars from miles away just to fill them with phones and cosmetics stolen from Boots and Carphone Warehouse.

The british underclass are certainly pragmatic, if anything.
That they are. Most are. Heck, I'm sure there were pretty good deals on Samsung Galaxy SII's. Perhaps there were some iPhone 4s to put in the blender as well. However, I don't condone this bullshit. I'm just making jokes about it.

It is not easy being poor. I am at the moment, and I have never worked harder in my life. If this guy really was the local gun dealer, he may of also been the local charity supply/support. People won't generally tolerate a(n illegal) gun dealer working out of their area unless they are also helping the community. Sort of like a corporation that uses some of it's wealth to fund museums. It is easy to look past some of the wrong that earns a person/corporation money, as long as they make good toward the community.
That is very true. The IRA stayed relatively popular in Northern Ireland for ages because they tended to use a drill on the knee caps of people they tought dealt drugs.

I'm not poor. But I'm not bloody loaded anyway (student, small work here and there). But I have to say that I wouldn't loot the local shops if there were a riot (except perhaps for tobacco in the case I just couldn't get it, but that's self defence), so there is an element of morals playing in.
 
Group of white redneck teens beat and murder a black guy in cold blood and get caught red handed:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html?iref=NS1

Jackson, Mississippi (CNN) -- On a recent Sunday morning just before dawn, two carloads of white teenagers drove to Jackson, Mississippi, on what the county district attorney says was a mission of hate: to find and hurt a black person.

In a parking lot on the western side of town they found their victim.

James Craig Anderson, a 49-year-old auto plant worker, was standing in a parking lot, near his car. The teens allegedly beat Anderson repeatedly, yelled racial epithets, including "White Power!" according to witnesses.

Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith says a group of the teens then climbed into their large Ford F250 green pickup truck, floored the gas, and drove the truck right over Anderson, killing him instantly.

Mississippi officials say it was a racially motivated murder. What the gang of teens did not know was that a surveillance camera was focused on the parking lot that night, and many of the events, including the actual murder of Anderson, were captured live on videotape.

CNN has exclusively obtained that surveillance tape. The group of teens that night was led by 18-year-old Deryl Dedmon, Jr., of Brandon, Mississippi, according to police and officials.

"This was a crime of hate. Dedmon murdered this man because he was black," said Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith. "The evidence will show that."

Asked if there could be any doubt whether the intent was to actually hurt and kill a black person, Smith responded: "No doubt about it. They were going out to look for a black victim to assault, and in this case, even kill."
Dedmon led and instigated the attack from early in the evening, he took part in the beating of Anderson, and Dedmon was also the actual driver of the Ford 250 truck that would serve as the murder weapon, according to officials.

As the teens were partying and drinking miles away from Jackson that night, in largely white Rankin County, Dedmon told friends they should leave, saying "let's go fuck with some niggers," according to law enforcement officials.

Then, the gang of teens climbed into Dedmon's green truck and a white SUV Cherokee, and drove 16 miles down Interstate 20, to the western edge of Jackson, a predominantly black area.

The teens would have seen Anderson immediately as they exited the highway, as the parking lot where he was standing is just beside the exit ramp.

"This is the first business that you get to coming off the highway and so that was the first person that was out here and vulnerable," said district attorney Smith.

On the videotape, obtained and reviewed by CNN, the group of teens is seen pulling into the parking lot, and stopping where Anderson is standing, though he is just off camera and not visible.

The teens can then be seen going back and forth between their cars and Anderson. Witnesses told law enforcement officials this is when the repeated beatings of Anderson took place.

Dedmon pummeled Anderson repeatedly as he crumpled to the street, according to officials, though this is not visible in the videotape. Finally, after the beating some of the teens left and some got into the green truck.

At this moment on the video, Anderson becomes visible, as he staggered into view and walked towards the headlights of the truck. The truck suddenly surges ahead, running over Anderson, then continuing at high speed away from the scene.

Shortly after he allegedly drove the truck over Anderson, Dedmon allegedly boasted and laughed about the killing, according to testimony given by some of the teens to detectives.

"I ran that nigger over," Dedmon allegedly said in a phone conversation to the teens in the other car.

He repeated the racial language in subsequent conversations, according to the law enforcement officials.

"He was not remorseful he was laughing, laughing about the killing," said district attorney Smith.

Later that morning, James Craig Anderson's family learned their 49-year-old brother and son died in a hit and run. Only later, when witness statements were taken did they learn the real horror.

"It appears there is no doubt that this was a racially motivated killing," said Winston Thompson, the attorney representing Anderson's family. "The family is still in shock still in disbelief."

Smith and officials in the Hinds County District Attorney's office say they plan to indict Dedmon for murder and a hate crime.

Deryl Dedmon is thin, weighing a mere 130 pounds, and short -- at 5 feet; he has straggly blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

The teen, just 18 years old, has been charged with murder and now faces a possible double life sentence. Calls to Deryl Dedmon's attorney have gone unanswered.

During a bond hearing his attorney told the court he saw nothing to back up the "racial allegations."

At Dedmon's home, a girl who answered the door pretended not to know him though the pick-up truck he allegedly used as a murder weapon sticks out of the family's garage.

Police say they returned it after the vehicle was processed. A second teen, 18-year-old John Aaron Rice, has been charged with simple assault, for his part in the beating his attorney also did not return calls.

Neither teen has entered a plea.

The other teens in the group have not been charged.

And James Craig Anderson's family has decided to remain silent for now, trying to come to grips with a crime they thought was in Mississippi's past: the murder of a man just because he was black.
 
Lord forgive them, they do not know what they're doing.
 
People make me sick.
 
On a lighter note, how does everyone feel after today's thrilling stock market ride?

I put my hands in the air the whole time.
 
Stopped paying attention to the stock market right about here:

bullprayer2-2317.jpg
 
Perhaps there's some investment options in tulips.

What hits me is that this will hit our export industry like a hammer blow.
 
Lord forgive them, they do not know what they're doing.
At least one of them knew exactly what he was doing. Considering he's in Mississippi, he'll probably die for it.

On a lighter note, how does everyone feel after today's thrilling stock market ride?

I put my hands in the air the whole time.
While it brings me great joy to think of some Gordon Gekko type ripping his hair out, I might actually buy some stock once the market bottoms out.

Stopped paying attention to the stock market right about here:

bullprayer2-2317.jpg
What is going on there? Please tell me the filename "bull prayer" is a joke ...
 
During the big crash of 2007(?), a group of Wall streeters gathered at the bull to pray.
 
During the big crash of 2007(?), a group of Wall streeters gathered at the bull to pray.
That's so painfully heretical and ironic that I can't even laugh.
 
And they failed to see it before they planned it.
 
While it brings me great joy to think of some Gordon Gekko type ripping his hair out, I might actually buy some stock once the market bottoms out.
I'd buy property. But that's too expensive for me right now, I just can't find the cash. But perhaps we should have a Recession v.0.9 BETA Traders Thread. Stocks might be the right ticket.

During the big crash of 2007(?), a group of Wall streeters gathered at the bull to pray.
It's funny the republican party hasn't started burning them, then.

Anyway, that's like something taken out of the Phantom.
 
One odd thing - Management keep cutting costs across the board (of a nations businesses) by outsource and offshore ? ?hooray?!

Why then are not businesses making squillions of Pounds/Dollars/Euros with vast increases in their stock price?

You do not think that what has actually happened is that in these businesses they must recruit, at a cost premium, loads of people with job titles involving the words "manager" and "co-coordinator" eating up any and all profits, plus the additional redundancy and social costs make the whole thing actually nonsense.

I know that firms using Indian call centers are getting a very negative reaction here and some have re-on shored.
 
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Modern economists and modern leaders are the root to all evil.
 
It's funny the republican party hasn't started burning them, then.

Anyway, that's like something taken out of the Phantom.


Most of them are republican and their supporters.
 
Football Hooligans = Looters, not the nine O'clock news had the solution to Football Hooligans that would work for looters.

 
Eurogamer said:
Report: North Korea farmed gold worth $6 million

Kim Jong-il is in part funded by gold farmers, according to a new report.

The North Korean leader ordered a team of hackers, based in northern China, to break into the servers of South Korean massively multiplayer online games Lineage and Dungeon and Fighter to allow "factories" of dozens of unmanned computers to play non-stop.

Gathered virtual gold was then sold for real world cash on third party websites to gamers. The gold farmers were each required to send at least $500 a month back to the Pyongyang government, the police said.

According to the New York Times (registration required), Kim Jong-il raked in more than $6 million in two years from the operation.

The hackers have ties to an agency called Office 39, which allegedly generates cash for the regime through drug trafficking, counterfeiting and arms sales. Isn't that nice?

Seoul cops said four South Koreans and a Korean-Chinese were arrested on charges of organising a hacking squad of 30 young video game experts, the New York Times reports.

North Korea denied responsibility and accused Seoul of inventing a conspiracy.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-08-08-kim-jong-il-grabs-USD6m-from-gold-farming
Office 39 is a very creative workplace. They're also too good at counterfeiting.
NY Times said:
From all accounts, superb quality is a feature of much North Korean contraband: methamphetamine of extraordinarily high purity; counterfeit Viagra rumored to exceed the bona fide product in its potency; supernotes. It?s an impressive product line for a regime that can barely feed its people. When I discussed this with Asher, he let out a sigh. ?I always say that if North Korea only produced conventional goods for export to the degree of quality and precision that they produce counterfeit United States currency, they would be a powerhouse like South Korea, not an industrial basket case.?

And finally, news that will shock even the most hardened man! The Fatherland Liberation War Museum of the DPRK uses Comic Sans in their exhibits.
 
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That gold farming is actually quite genius of NK. Perhaps Diablo III's new auction house makes more sense in light of that (yes I did just tie together politics and diablo).
 
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