Return of the Revenge of the Son of Saying Hi to Josiah!

[shauni]

Man, I should have made two comics!

Also, I'm going to London on Friday...for free!

Its great having a relative who gets free train tickets for friends a family as hes a TRAIN DRIVER

[Stevenson]

Aloha! For those that are curious since I have revealed the Undisclosed Location's relative area, I am perfectly safe from the Baltimore riots. I don't live in that area, but I do go to school very nearby so we'll see if that turns out well...

[Josiah]

Hi! Ugh... Hope that doesn't affect you, Stevenson. I really hate it when people try to justify these types of riots. Whatever you stance on the cases, it in no way justifies violent riots.

[shauni]

Hope no one is hurt, however first I'm hearing on riots. The earthquake is getting all the media coverage here.

Best of luck to you stevenson, hope you can get back to your studies soon.

[Josiah]

Hi! The earthquake has gotten surprisingly little media coverage here. Until things got out of hand in Baltimore, the news seems more concerned with Jenner and other inconsequential stuff.

[shauni]

Jenner? Yeah thats not raising a flag for me.

So yeah, there is a bank holiday this weekend, so I've got three days off, then the week after I'm on holiday for two days so a four day weekend. The week AFTER THAT is another bank holiday!

Every week of May is a 4 day week woop!

[Josiah]

Hi! Trust me, Jenner isn't worth the trouble of looking up. Really wasn't worth a fraction of that media coverage.

Only a week and half of school left for me before summer break! Gotta get my summer plans nailed down soon, but I'm gonna wait until next week to work on it. Probably not going to be as epic a trip as the last couple of years, but a month or so in China is looking pretty likely.

[shauni]

I saw some guy in those riots you mentioned on a facebook video. I've not seen anything else or anything on TV, but this guy was dressed head to toe in black, being beaten by his mother as she yield at him in front of everyone for rioting. it was HILARIOUS. She was like half his height and he was flinching!

[Silver]

Saw the interview with the mom though, it's actually really depressing; she was just afraid he was going to get hauled off to jail, beaten and killed by police, or hauled off to jail and THEN beaten and killed by police. Which... is a distinct possibility right now, to be fair.

Anyway. Hope everyone had a happy Star Wars Day and Cinco de Mayo. I... worked eight hour shifts all three days of Avengers weekend, drove an hour and a half to pick up a friend on Monday, got a flat tire from a pothole on the way back, then spent today getting my tires replaced. So much fun.

[shauni]

I finally saw Avengers Age of Ultron last night, gotta say it was great, but I think the first one is my fav out of the two. The new additions to the roster were very good and I did really enjoy the movie!

The best bit for me as "Go to sleep! Go to sleep!” with Hulk and Stark and "Good talk guys. No it wasn't" with Stark again.

[Josiah]

Hi! Yeah, I'd say the first Avengers but better, but Age of Ultron is really good too.

There isn't much danger in any of the rioters being killed by police. Beaten maybe, if they attack the police (which is just asking for trouble), jailed sure (though they totally deserve that). Honestly, if you look at the numbers, the amount of black people killed by police in the US is miniscule and nearly all of them were in clear cut justifiable cases. No comment on Freddy Gray (the one that sparked the Baltimore riots) because they haven't released the investigative results yet. But the whole black lives matter movement is ridiculous. Yes black lives matter, but so do people of every other race. If it was a white guy that had died, the media and government wouldn't be making a big deal and there wouldn't be any rioters or protestors either. And, as I said, there's no definitive evidence yet to say that cops were at fault here. Maybe they were, but this could be like Michael Brown where there was no wrong doing and people are just looking for an excuse to stir up trouble. There's no evidence of wide ranging racism among cops. And if the goal here was really to stop the murder of black people, they should be focusing on the extremely high number of black on black homicides from gang violence and the like.
Do we need to monitor police better? Maybe, but race shouldn't matter. Heck, half the policemen charged in this case are black.
The black live matter movement is, sadly, more about using misleading and even false info to stir things up for political reasons. While the rioters (not the peaceful protestors but the rioters) are thugs looking for an excuse to destroy stuff. I'd say the same if it were white people rioting. There's no justification for destroying and looting like that. I mean, they burned a retirement home. The whole thing is sad and depressing and the way media and politicians are inflaming it for their own gain is just sick.

Sorry for the rant.

[shauni]

I mean, they burned a retirement home.

Yeah okay I was going to comment a completely different response until I read this line, so for once I'm going to stay out of it as there has been no UK media coverage so I have NOT facts about these riots.

That being said, burning down a retirement home is terrible!


The same thing here happened a few years ago. A young Black, unarmed man was shot in the London underground "running from the police" when he was actually running to catch a train.
There were demonstrations that turned into riots and looting.

I saw people driving round a student complex trying to get people out to riot. They didn't even know what for, they just wanted to wreak stuff.

However, there is some truth to the police being at fault. From what I understand you are at least twice as likely to be pulled over in the UK for spot checks if you are not white.

So to sum up, basically everyone is stupid I guess. Rioting for no reason, discriminating for no reason, making assumptions. I dunno. good things turned bad by bad people.

Its the general election here today. I'm going to go and vote, however I don't expect change....

[Stevenson]

Aloha! We, uh, do have a political section...

[Josiah]

Hi! Yeah, we can move over there if people want to continue this discussion.

I've got a busy few days ahead with the end of the semester (grading, commencement, etc.), preparing for summer trips, and starting to get Car Washer ready for Steam. Also, I'll be heading to Arizona Wednesday to spend a couple weeks with family.

[shauni]

Still political, but the last thing I'll mention then move one.

The UK election was yesterday and it looks like the Conservative party are still in power.

.....yay.

OMG I hate that party, I voted for the other guy.

I'm going on holiday next weekend, that soon came around fast! I'm going the the Lake District, so that should be....wet.

On a final note, here is me in the Tower of London.