That's me after driving for hours through the night drinking coffee and finally arriving at a rest area on the Interstate. Sans the hammer and chisel.

Thanks

If you're ever in a fight with a rock monster, perhaps a bow lathe would be quicker and easier to get up and running - http://videosift.com/video/Moroccan-Bow-Lathe (you still need the chisels though)

You can use that to melt metal and chisel your way out of prison.


Anyone know what I'm referencing? Power Points to the first right answer.

This. The classist element here is palpable. The video even says, "people from all backgrounds." Coulda fooled me. I didn't see any well-to-do folk in there. I'd like to see the counter video where the tall chiseled guy in the suit says hi to random women on the street and we see their reactions. I bet you get quite a few blushing, smiling, tilting their head and tossing/twirling their hair. The reality is that this video is about undesirables with the gall to come up from the sewers.

Where there is a legitimate point comes from inherent physicality differences. Just the other day I turned around in line to find myself about 6 inches from a guy who's got to be 6'8" 325 pounds. I clock in about 6' 230. I'm not used to that feeling. I suddenly realized what it must be like for women all the damn time. Now if some little dude were to comment on my ass, sure, I will engage and laugh it off... But that dude? Even a "hey there" would make me sweat. That said, it's still a reaction rooted in stereotypes.

This brings me to a final point, which is what I'd call a form of sizism. Not the usual fattism, but rather the assumptions that go along with bigger people more generally. Brawny guys, particularly dark skinned brawny guys, are automatically assumed to be dangerous. BNBG, so to speak. While there is some obvious rational basis to this assumption, I think it has gone way to far and negatively impacts the social inclusion of bigger folk. We big folk have to go way overboard with passivity to not be seen as a rapist in waiting. Else, embrace your inner meat head and go cruise the gym scene.

I wonder how much Nike paid for product placement in the scene where the messenger runs from Marathon to Athens and shouts "Sneakers!" while his hard, chiseled abs glint in the dim grey cloudy sunlight... then collapses in glory.

> You let a kid play with a coin collection, or telescopes or chisels and by and large,
> they are not at huge danger of killing themselves or someone else.

> Let a kid play with a collection of guns on the other hand.

You're a bad parent !!!

Do you let your kids play with lighters and nail polish remover too? Sheesh!

>> ^deathcow:

You could kill with any of those items.


You let a kid play with a coin collection, or telescopes or chisels and by and large, they are not at huge danger of killing themselves or someone else.

Let a kid play with a collection of guns on the other hand.

Trying to say that anything is deadly when used in certain ways is a childish argument to deflect from the problem that guns are designed to kill people, the other things are not inherently dangerous.

>> ^Sagemind:

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.


Don't get me wrong, I believe that what the man did was wonderful and truly human in a way that the bitterness and hate displayed by the other people miss. However, I feel like it might be jumping the gun interpreting the emotion displayed by this scum as you (and others) have. I'm not saying that there couldn't be healing there, but I also feel like those tears may be more of the selfish and insane attitude that made him a serial killer to begin with.

I'm not sure who said it first, but Carrie Fischer had a great line in her one-woman show: bitterness is like you drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. I agree wholeheartedly that what this man did was far more productive to himself and others than the vitriol spilled by those who couldn't show compassion towards this waste. Still, I understand them and wouldn't trust this man to be anything other than what he clearly is: cold, unfeeling, and already dead.

Not to get gruesome, but this man faced FAR more compelling moments which should have evoked empathy. He faced his victims and strangled them to death (if I googled the right guy, over 90 time) Think about that. He had people in his control who he tortured. They were awake and likely pleading for their lives. Probably women. Imagine their eyes filled with tears as he did whatever horrors he did to them.

To think that a moment of forgiveness from one of his victim's families makes him in any way human is just naive. I am far more likely to believe that his tears were motivated by the same hyper-narcissism that he felt killing his victims. We will never know exactly what was going through his head as he cried in this clip, but I doubt it has anything to do with healing or becoming human. It more than likely has to do with another selfish, "I'm great and this guy gets me" insanity.

All this said, I vacillate on the death penalty. I remember the quote Gandalf says about the subject and find it one of the most compelling anti-death penalty statements: Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

This guy is about as much of a clear choice of someone I would have no problem putting to death. This isn't OJ for which you could argue that there is tainted evidence... this guy not only admits his horrible guilt, but is verifiable in a much more concrete way. Yet, I can't help but to think that we could learn from him and hopefully good can come of that, either to help prevent the creation of other monsters like him, or at least clues on how to catch them easier.

In the end though I empathize with both sides of those who spoke. I agree that the gentleman who forgave the killer will lead a relatively happier life, in as much as he can having lived through what he did, but I completely understand wanting this man to suffer after what he did to his victims. He is not human, he will never be, and I don't believe his tears are noteworthy as an example of his humanity, but rather curious as a psychopath who smiles or whistles as he inflicts horrors on others.

>> ^Sagemind:

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.


Brilliantly put. It's so easy to condem and turn away. It's far harder, but far more worth while to see the person still there.

>> ^braschlosan:

>> ^Sagemind:
Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.

Fuck yes. Thank you for understanding how a cold person can become good again. Im not a killer but there was a time that I did things I regret and you couldn't be more right.

Unless the killer in question is a complete sociopath, in which case they probably don't care whether you hate them or forgive them.
>> ^Sagemind:

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.

>> ^Sagemind:

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.


Fuck yes. Thank you for understanding how a cold person can become good again. Im not a killer but there was a time that I did things I regret and you couldn't be more right.

>> ^Sagemind:

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.
...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.


Very well put.

He is so used to negative feedback from people, it probably just fuels how he validates his actions. It is the unexpected act of kindness that he was not prepared for.

When I see someone who is sick, I see a symptom of that illness. When I see a member of society acting in this fashion I see a symptom of a social illness. We are all responsible for our own actions, don't get me wrong. However I wonder if there was any point in this man's upbringing where something could have been done differently so that he wouldn't have brought so much pain to others.

On a side note I have a ton of respect (despite his tendency towards believing in mythology) for a man who can forgive another for such a devastating act of cruelty.

Emotions, hate and everything negative create a killer - thereby emotion, forgiveness and love shall set him free.

...And by free, I mean free to remorse and begin a process of feeling what it is to be human again.
Since negative forces create a killer, condemnation and negativity will never penetrate to hard shell he has around him. The unexpected realization that someone is reaching out, someone you expect only condemnation from can be the chisels to start the first crack of remorse and acceptance that maybe someone out there cares.