Catching up

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I'm inclined to think the drop in church attendance might have had an effect, but I'm not sure.

You might be right about that. I would elaborate further, but that's a discussion for another day.

It's kind of akin to the rise in school shootings,

Man, I'm thankful that we haven't ever had that happen here, and hopefully it won't ever happen. We knew kids that had guns, or at least access to guns, but thankfully they were mentally stable and didn't ever resort to such extreme measures.

We just knew that going to school and shooting the place up would be totally out of proportion to any offense we'd suffered there.

We have had conversations about that topic almost every time we heard about a school shooting on the news, and we always agree that the worst part about the shootings is the innocent people that get hurt during the incident. I don't condone the actions of somebody that kills people that didn't directly do anything to them. If you're going to kill somebody, then go kill the person/people that wronged you, not people that don't deserve it.

Regarding the behavior of people in our society, I've observed that most women today behave far worse than men, and they are more vicious, conceited, and territorial than men. I can't tell you how many times in my life I've been in a room with a group of women that act nice to each other face to face, but as soon as one of them leaves the room, the rest of them start talking behind her back, saying things like ... Can you believe the shoes that b*tch was wearing? I wouldn't be caught dead in those things. ... and ... Can you imagine being that fat? I mean, has she ever heard of the self control? ... and I once heard somebody say ... More men have had a turn with her than a turnstile at Grand Central Station ... implying that she was promiscuous.

Then when the woman returns to the room everybody is nice to her again, and when a different woman leaves they start talking about her, and this cycle of deceit continues. It's not always vicious, or hateful, sometimes it's just gossip, and sometimes they are marking their territory. I know a lot of the women personally that have been two-faced to the other women they converse with, including my mother, wife, and about 80% of our female employees. It just seems that women are more inclined to behave that way.

With guys it's different, if we have a issue with you we will confront you face to face about it, if we think you're a assh*le then we will tell you, we won't say it behind your back. That's how I handle somebody that I don't like, and most of the guys that I know are the same way.

On a semi-related note, today Phoebe placed first in her age group again at her gymnastics competition, so she won 3 straight competitions rounding out the summer series with a clean sweep, now she has to prepare for the upcoming fall competitions.

She likes to get compliments, and be congratulated when she wins her tournaments and competitions, if it's from her family, coaches and trainers, the people that promote the events, the fans, people at school, and almost everybody else, then she's very welcoming of their praise. That is, except for anybody that she competes against, or anybody that she considers to be competition.

After she won today, one of the older girls that also placed first there approached her, it seems like she was genuinely interested in getting to know Phoebe better, she congratulated her, and then, very nicely asked her how she did a specific move out there. Phoebe replied ... If you were a real gymnast, you wouldn't be asking me how to do it. ... and she walked away from her. The girl looked shocked that Phoebe talked to her that way. A few minutes later, the girl that placed second congratulated her, and Phoebe gave her a cold look and then walked away without saying anything. ... I guess that she was marking her territory.

[Murfreesboro]

I think you are right that men in general are far more straightforward than women.

I had to laugh when you described Phoebe's reaction to her competitors. I guess that's one way she psyches herself up, by treating them all as the enemy. I think it's too bad that she can't see any of them as potential friends, but then, I've never been an athlete and don't know squat about what it takes to win those competitions at a high level. Certainly she is to be congatulated for her remarkable string of achievements this summer.

[Andybev01]

Good point about nihilism and i'm pretty sure there's a good dose of narcissism in there, too.

Everybody is terrified of offending or insulting, even unintentionally, that they go out of their way to make sure they don't offend anybody, because they believe there's some sort of repercussion.

It's almost as if they took the golden rule and turned that inside out and twisted it up.

Hi, I adhere to the Peter Griffin code of human interaction When he said." you can kiss the fattest part of my a$$ ".

[Murfreesboro]

I recall, over 20 years ago, when I took a job for one year as a high school counselor for gifted kids. I was to meet with them in a specified conference room, which had posters and reminders of how people were supposed to behave toward each other. While I was waiting for the students, I read them. I remember reading one rule that said violence was strictly forbidden, but then it went on to say that "violence" could be a word or a facial expression (Iike rolling your eyes?). I thought it was very odd, conflating violence with any remark or expression that might be interpreted as offensive.

When my daughter was in college, the 2016 presidential election happened. It did not go as many people expected, apparently, and her college offered safe spaces for students who were upset about it. I thought that was odd, too. To my daughter's credit, so did she. I mean, how are we supposed to continue as a nation if we get so triggered every time the election doesn't favor our preferred candidate? I've lived long enough to see quite a few presidential elections come and go. I did not vote for the winners of all of them.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

During the gymnastics competition Phoebe was being interviewed and the woman asked her to comment about the other kids that were getting much lower scores compared to her, and asked why she thinks that the other girls weren't able to match her pace, and Phoebe replied ... It's simple ... It's survival of the fittest.

It's funny to think that a 9 year old already has that mentality in life, but you know what? She's absolutely right. I've watched how the younger people between 15-25 years old in our society are afraid to step up and go out there and attempt to achieve anything because they are afraid to fall on their a**, and if anything goes wrong they need to be coddled by somebody and have them hold their hand and walk them through it.

The other day I yelled at a employee that f*cked up, and most of the younger employees thought that I shouldn't have reacted that way, and I heard one of them say that I was mean. But that's fine, if most young people today are going to be weak minded fools that can't survive under pressure, then that means that the people with dominant personalities like Phoebe will run right over them, and they will be the people that make this Nation strong again.

[Murfreesboro]

You're right that people, especially the younger ones, really need to toughen up. Ultimately life teaches all of us that lesson, sooner or later. But we do the younger ones no favors by letting them fantasize that their personal feelings will always be spared and coddled.

I bet that employee you yelled at won't make the same mistake twice.