they are absolutely prime fodder for destructive ideologies.

but i've seen mentally ill atheists take after their bosses with machetes after watching too much anime. i've seen mentally atheists flip out while watching eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.

like at @GenjiKilpatrick said, it usually takes a catalyst for mental illness to turn into violence. but that catalyst doesn't HAVE to be religion. and in the absence of religion something else takes its place.

religions aren't something invented out of thin air. they have existed in every culture i can think of. most of them are really really similar. in the more ancient ones you can trace their dogma to serving an actual purpose benefiting human survival in the region (see cow worshipping hindis, or desert dwelling religions abstinence from pork). they obviously serve a purpose. and they change and evolve over time.

of the billions and billions of devout people throughout time how many of them have brutally slaughtered their children? i know you can list several. but thats out of BILLIONS. i'm not seeking to diminish the atrocities committed in the name of religion. i'm saying correlation does not = causation.

i'll wager my paycheck that there were warning signs leading up to this event. and i'll also wager my paycheck that the people who saw the warning signs were uneducated (about mental disorders) and i'll equipped and scared. declaring religion the cause of these kinds of horror stories doesn't lend itself to prevention very well. perhaps we need to take a better look at our mental health apparatus and not-nearly-adequate outreach, education and support system.

one thing i do think churches could do (and i know many churches that have) is adopt church counseling programs.. staffed by actual trained psychologists and counselors, not seminary graduates. to treat their members and give families an accessible, trusted place to turn to when they start seeing some destructive warning signs.

>> ^Deano:

>> ^campionidelmondo:
Crazy people often do more violent things than eat skittles. I don't see the connection between her crazy actions and religion. Linking this to religion is just like linking school shootings to violent video games. No, nothing that's being mass consumed drove this person from being the nice neighbour to slaughtering people. Stop looking for the fault in the things you don't like and accept the fact that some people are just crazy.

Of course there are connections. Just look at Islam. Christianity isn't as bad but people kill and maim others based on their reading of the Bible.
There's always the "just crazy" view. And I accept that to an extent. But I suspect people like that are prime fodder for destructive ideologies and supernatural thinking.
And she had access to a well established cult that served to radicalise her to a point where her family were no longer physically safe.

Counselor Troi should be even bigger... Else, this parody is pointless. My two cents.

while i totally agree with the sentiments of spoco,gundam and dag.
they put forth a reasonable and civil solution to the situation and maybe this kids school has the resources to do something about it but (in my opinion) their solution ignores the social/economic factors that contribute immensely to situations like this video represents.

we say "violence is not the answer".
ok..i agree with that but what if violence is the only language that the other person may understand?
we are talking about 12-14 yrs olds after all.
so while a young and scared 12 yr old may diffuse a situation AT THAT MOMENT by including a teacher/principal into the equation.it is only at that moment and that particular situation but what happens AFTER?
are the teachers going to follow him around town also?
are they going to give him the equivalent of a bat signal if the bullies find him alone and unprotected?
of course not and the bullies know that also.
they are also not going to forget the fact that they were ratted on and so will double their efforts to terrorize.
so while i may agree with spoco,gundam and dag in theory i do not see it bringing any relief to a terrorized young boy.
nothing is learned and the stakes rise exponentially.

bareboards mentioned a class which employed empathy.
i agree.for what better way to get the bully to empathize than to stand up for yourself and put HIM in the position of being the receiver instead of the giver?
yes yes..i watched the video and while i felt good about the young man overcoming his fear and standing up for himself, i also cringed when i saw the other boy get slammed neck first...
yeah..that could have gone in a whole different direction and we all might be talking about the tragic bully getting his neck broke instead of cheering the kid who stood up.

this video is not about glorifying violence but rather about a young man over-coming his fear.
FEAR=the most toxic and volatile of emotions.it is the mindkiller.
and this young man overcame his....good on him.

i mentioned earlier that some of the bullies i dealt with moved on to other victims.
this is true but only lasted a year or two and by high school most had stopped their bullish ways.mostly because other kids started to stand up to them too and the ones who didnt had people like me stepping in for them.
the best lessons we learn as children are the hard ones.
getting slammed in the face is a great lesson in not messing with people for the sole purpose of entertainment or showing off to your friends.
i still view this video as a win-win but the biggest WIN is that kid overcoming his fear and no principal or school counselor could have given to him what he did for himself on that day.
he faced his fear...and won.

@chtierna

For the record, I didn't say people in Africa were uneducated. I said overall there is a lack of education about condoms--their use and their connection to disease prevention. I also said there is there are severe cultural obstacles to rolling out their widespread acceptance. So maybe before calling me naive, you ought to read the NY Times. I'd like to highlight the part of the article where the AIDS-infected counselors are giving speeches in church urging condom use. Nowhere in that article do you see anything about people not using condoms and getting AIDS because they are Catholic...probably because--like I originally said--that's not been a major reason for the spread.

As to what might have happened if the church had a different view, all I can say is read the article again. Those problems don't go away just because the Pope makes a proclamation.

For your other points--I guess we just disagree there. I'm not sure what you're referring to when you say "religious moderates." Religion is not the same thing as dogma, although if your only experience of religion is Catholicism then maybe I could understand why you believe that. Also, I don't think calling anyone an idiot has any positive effect on their core beliefs whatsoever. It is much more likely, in fact, to make them ignore what you say entirely. I believe this is true whether we're talking about religion, politics, baseball, the weather, or pretty much any topic on which a person might have an opinion.

This video has been declared a duplicate by the original submitter; transferring votes to the original video and killing this dupe - dupeof declared by bleedmegood.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Passion-of-the-Jesus-Camp-Counselor

This video has been nominated as a duplicate of this video by marinara. If this nomination is seconded with *isdupe, the video will be killed and its votes transferred to the original.

*dupeof=http://videosift.com/video/The-Passion-of-the-Jesus-Camp-Counselor

She sounds like Counselor Troy.

Ah yes--The Oil Pollution Act-- that's it.

here is some of the transcript from the above link:

Steve Yerrid is a trial lawyer who was appointed as a special counselor to the state of Florida last week by Governor Charlie Crist. He will advise the governor about legal issues related to the spill. And Daniel Farber is director of the environmental law program at the University of California, Berkeley's Law School.

Steve Yerrid, let me start with you. Can the government, under current law, compel BP to start an escrow fund?

STEVE YERRID, special counsel, State of Florida: Well, Ray, we're clearly on new land right now, a frontier that was created after the Valdez oil spell -- spill -- excuse me.

And what I think they're going to do is premise it upon the -- the responsible party connotation and the Oil Pollution Act, which was packed -- passed in 1990, which makes a responsible party liable for all the damages and the cleanup.

What they want to do now is front-end that and put it in a trust fund to get away from BP looking like an oversight entity and put it on the government, a government we can trust a lot better than we can trust an oil company..................

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:
>> ^longde:
Congress passed a law in the early 90s giving the President the authority to do what he has, with respect to oil companies in this situation. I can't remember the name of that legislation, but what Obama did is perfectly legal.

Dunno about that, it seems to fall squarely on the shoulders of the MMS regulatory body, and then the courts...but I could be completely mistaken. linky.
It seems the MMS actually encourages people to get deep sea leases (all deep water is owned by the federal government). The MMS and the federal government get huge sums of money from these leases. This seems like an institutional failure in addition to all the other aspects. The MMS encouraged leases of offshore drilling. It now accounts for over a quarter of all domestic natural gas and crude oil. At this point, saying "lets shut it all down" would basically destroy us.
Interesting side note, the department of energy was founded in 1977 by Carter to try and purse an end to reliance of foreign oil. However, MMS falls under the department of the interior, not energy. Which is doubly insulting in their dubious leasing habits, as the DPI chief concern is the conservation of natural icons of the US. The fact that they get money, and encourage risky practices and glide over regulation points them out to be a blaring failure of a regulation body.
The legislation you are talking about is the President's role in moratorium. He has the ability to susped activities and such. He does not have direct arbiter, nor enforcer of penalties. Both he and congress have an annual moratoria responsibility. States also hold a veto power to a certain extent over the activities of off shore drilling. No where does there seem to be a piece of legislation that says the president can do what he has done. And as such, there is also no way in which to appeal to a different power, there simply isn't a system setup to handle this action.
The president has taken an unprecedented action at present (zing!)
(o and by the by, I could be completely wrong about this and the president may have some obscure power to do it, and while that is "good" in a certain way, it also seems bad to me to have the president involved with affairs that should be left to the courts...that is why we have them! We may trust this president with that power, but what happens when our "Nero" comes to power?)

1.1.1 You are correct, some word problems are completely generic and are simply translations of math into English. But the kind we are talking about relate math to the real world. Here is an example:



If you have never had a word problem like this, you had a really lousy education.

2.2.2 We are talking about a math class. Say it with me: MATH. Specifically, geometry. GEOMETRY. This is not the forum to discuss law, history, HBTQ rights, Native Americans, Nürnberg, Pearl Harbour, etc. Those topics are excellent for their appropriate classes, such as history and sociology, not in a math class.

3.1.1 Your example supports my point. You took an immoral topic (the deliberate murder of children), and changed into a moral topic (how much food needed to prevent starvation). You see, killing children is bad, preventing starvation is good. Easy to tell the difference, right?

3.2.1 I'm going to assume you are joking now.

4.1.1 The examples you provided are also completely inappropriate for math class. Those are not "interesting topics", they are traumatic tragedies. They would distract from the lesson rather than encouraging focus.

5.1.1 That is simply not true. A good teacher keeps the class on-topic, or nothing would get done. If a student recently suffered a trauma and was not able to focus on work, they should go to the school nurse or counselor.

5.2.1 If the students are eager to discuss a topic that can be worked into a lesson appropriate to the class, then great, run with it. If it is not appropriate to the class and the teacher runs with it, the students will start to manipulate the teacher into class discussions rather than the necessary lessons. I have seen this happen on a number of occasions, but fortunately the teacher was intelligent enough to recognize what was happening and bring the class back to the lesson.

I apologize if I seem rude, but you seem to lack the fundamental sense of appropriateness for a school lesson. Though it is certainly appropriate to discuss emotionally charged topics in history, sociology, or ethics classes, topics in math classes should be emotionally and politically neutral so that the students will stay focused on the math.

I think that many factors assist people staying in stasis regarding the development of their mind and person beyond their current state.

Many of these factors having nothing to do with conspiracy, but simply trying to reach the lowest common denominator. I guess the prime example that comes to mind is TV. The vast majority of the airtime is for entertainment or to sell you things, not to broaden your mind. I must admit that I don't watch TV anymore, but I have a few weaknesses for a few shows that I'll watch online and Videosift allows me a peek into that world (And yes, as soon as I get that side-business up and running, I'll become a charter member again.)

Fluoride has some benefit, but only topical application has been proven useful for adults. The main argument for children is that it becomes part of their adult teeth which makes them stronger. I don't mind the fluoride treatment at the dentist's office. HA... I remember a great laugh I had when I went to a new dentist. The assistant said they were going to do a fluoride treatment to which I responded, "I listen to late night AM radio. You're not going to get me with your mind control!" The look on her face was simply precious. I let her know that I was joking and we moved on. Putting that aside, I tend to avoid fluoride outside of the dentist's office. Oh I just did a google search... I use a Brita filter and looks that that doesn't remove it at all. Well, I'll look into that later.

I remember when I was talking with a counselor several years ago, he was surprised about how I was talking about wanting to actively work on growing more mentally and emotionally mature. He said he had been a counselor for many years and this was a common occurrence back in the 60s and 70s, but these days most people only go the the counselor when they have something "broken" that they have to fix. An emotional triple-bypass, if you will.

As for vaccines, I don't care for them much, but I had them forced down my throat in the military. Luckily, I was able to get out of the anthrax vaccine because they ran out and then the 3 marine guys were successful in temporarily halting it because it was never approved by the FDA. I don't think I've had a vaccine since I've got out. I'm not dead set against them, but mercury isn't a good thing for you. I'm sure a small bit would be fine, but the amount and frequency of vaccine shots people/children are supposed to get these days surely can't be good. If it was something dangerous and I was going into an area known for it or if their was an outbreak - I'd take it. But I'm personally against the yearly flu vaccine.

dag = pushover

Ok stinker247, lookit-If I may, please, and not to damage your obviously compromised sensibilities any further ruffling the delicate lace trim on your panties, an observation:

Referring to your retort after some gleeful, tongue-in-cheek banter in the post you made below re:Schleptedly Begruntingnessocity:

A quick armchair analysis-Ya get hobbled, and instead of taking yer lumps ya begin to poke the place again with some classic, brown-nosing tactics.-
"I found a new embed for a deadpool video, but I'm forbidden from fixing it because of my hobbitting. Oh well."...."Oh well, seeee what I am doing while I am being punished, I am performing good-deeds for the collective to show just how frustrated I am and how willing, to do tricks to gain approval-

Ya make a fucking comment to a woman ya never fucking met in real-time, about anal sex, which whether or not she's a familiar enough wench for ya to take that kind of license with, speaks tomes to your character. You respond directly to my ball-busting in good cheer, with a hearty, "Fuck Off, Choggie" which, violates another fucking rule(ad-hom) of the sift, in tone and sentiment (because you see, there are some of us monkeys who have the innate or practiced ability to be able to decipher the fundamental character of a person through the written word) and this after I offer to do the work for you while you are fucking hobbled, because I'm such a fucking sweetheart of a guy!

Ya then reference my own infamous tenure, assuming you understand the mechanics of my self-immolation here on the sift, it being obvious that you have not a fucking clue as to why I left this place to begin with.......lemme fucking clue ya in:

I left because the place was being hi-jacked by a similar element of snarkish, clueless boobs who love to show their asses and post loads of artless bullshit-The few people who were violently offended at my candor, threw similar fucking hissy-fits to see me emasculated, one even fucking left the place after I was grnted re-entry, because that 40-something adult, has personal fucking issues better left to a professional counselor to attempt to resolve....

But hey, who needs a couch and a draw on yer bank account for the same when you have me, eh?? I offer my observations, free of fucking charge- Evoke my name again, please, lets be pals!!

If you can't tell from my username, my name is Bryce. I live in the Seattle/Tacoma area of Washington State. I'm 31, am married, and have two little boys, 5 and 3.

By trade I'm a psychotherapist/counselor/mental health therapist. Or shrink. Whatever my client likes to call me! I have my Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology, so that's cool I suppose.

I've lived my whole life in Washington. Although I have visited all 50 states by the time I turned 30 (a goal I set for myself when I was about 15 years old) - ahh how those inane dreams drive us years and years later!

Being that I work with people and their problems all day, I'm usually tapped out on people during my down time, which brings me to videosift and the opportunity to entertain myself for countless minutes of the day! I also am very much in to mp4/mp3 players and all that fun China gadget stuff! (I help moderate a great community of audiophiles at a place called mp4nation.net) I play guitar - though not as good as I did in my college days.

I homebrew some tasty beer, though it's been a while since I've concocted a fresh batch as I tend to go through it fairly slowly.

Other than that I spend most of my down time at a great little coffee shop fulfilling my caffeine addiction (and to do all my necessary paperwork) in order to avoid the majority of my coworkers!

I think every high school guidance counselor should be taken out and shot. When I was in high school in 1987, I dreamed of becoming a special effects artist and working at ILM. I even called them on the phone one day, just to talk to someone from there. I told my guidance counselor, some crusty old bastard who immediately denounced it and said "No, no, no. There's no future in that! You want to be a doctor, or a lawyer!"

Gee, no future huh? Asshole.

Ok, so enough with my bitterness. I'm glad you're are going back to your roots and re-discovering one of your first loves. And don't think you're ever too old to get back into it, even career-wise. With enough time and perseverance, you'll most definitely do great things. My first recommendation would be to grab one in which you were somewhat familiar with before, ie. lasers. Then springboard from there.