gehringer_2 Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 (edited) 12 minutes ago, chasfh said: I'm constitutionally unable to able to ignore the panhandlers without guilt pangs. I don't know why. I went to HS in downtown Detroit and the bus stop was a walk across Cass Park. There were always a few down and outers there, and you knew anything you gave them was only going to drink, or worse, but sometimes those guys were so sad, knowing that didn't matter. OTOH, I find myself unmoved by energetic folk at the freeway ramp with the 'will work' sign and the day's kit piled neatly at the base of the nearby light pole when there is at least one help wanted sign in a window within a 100 yards of where they are standing. Edited March 17 by gehringer_2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 So all panhandlers have Mercedes. Good to know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 (edited) 32 minutes ago, chasfh said: So all panhandlers have Mercedes. Good to know. This popular trope goes back at least to 19th century London. A C Doyle wrote a Sherlock Holmes episode about Holmes being asked to investigate the disappearance of a middle class clerk (with a talent for disguise) who it turned out was living a double life, making a fine living panhandling as 'The Man with the Twisted Lip" Since the world is a big place, it's one of those things that is almost certainty true when reported as a singular anecdote, but that tells you nothing useful about your actual likelihood of meeting a panhandler running a con versus a destitute person. Edited March 17 by gehringer_2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 19 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said: This popular trope goes back at least to 19th century London. A C Doyle wrote a Sherlock Holmes episode about Holmes being asked to investigate the disappearance of a middle class clerk (with a talent for disguise) who it turned out was living a double life, making a fine living panhandling as 'The Man with the Twisted Lip" Since the world is a big place, it's one of those things that is almost certainty true when reported as a singular anecdote, but that tells you nothing useful about your actual likelihood of meeting a panhandler running a con versus a destitute person. In a world where anything is possible, sure, it's possible. But I have my doubts about the veracity of the story in the first place. It doesn't really come together very well in the piece, does it? They seem to be hanging their entire credibility on the word of some woman being interviewed, and a grainy picture that doesn't seem to me to match the other very clear picture quite well. It does allow us to come to a convenient and satisfying conclusion, though, doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted March 17 Author Share Posted March 17 Of course, let's not forget the Panhandler in Chief: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger337 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 1 hour ago, GoBlue23 said: If they could kick their drug and alcohol habits, they probably would. In the end, it's still a scam. Offer them food or a job and then you'll find out who the authentic ones are. Humans like to assume that people with tough lives deserve their fate. It would make then uncomfortable to think otherwise, because then they would have to accept that it could happen to them. It is very difficult to kick drug and alcohol habits and virtually impossible to "kick" mental health problems. There is a small percentage of scammers out there and they are usually easy to identify. People like that are disgusting, but the vast majority of people on the streets are in dire need of help. You see homeless people sleeping on the street with sores on their bodies in the middle of the winter. You think someone like that is going to drive home in a Mercedes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 (edited) 1 hour ago, GoBlue23 said: Are we really defending thieves and scammers now? Here's another one for you. This one fake too? Before we talk about this one, let's talk about the first one you posted. What makes you think that woman is telling the truth? Take a look at the picture of the car. It's showing a man in what looks a douche Yankee hat driving with what appears to be a woman riding shotgun, and a person in between them, probably a child. How do we know that it's them? The woman in the car is wearing a hat; the woman on the street was not. I can't positively ID her. The probably-child between them, I can't make a positive ID that of him, either. How does she know that's them in the car? Why didn't she take a picture or video of them getting in the the car? That would be a lot more convincing. And even if it's they in the car, how do we know it's her car? Maybe it's his car, he's a trafficker, and he's running them out onto the street against their will. That would make it a scam, to your point, but that doesn't de facto mean it's her scam. It's true the report said the license plate was registered to a woman, but why didn't they name the woman? They certainly had the right to, and that would have been consistent with standard investigative journalism practice. Plus, the details from the interviewee seem kind of sketchy. She says they were counting money and laughing in the car. How does she know they were doing that? Were they holding the money up above the window and counting it so everyone around them could see? Who does something like that? The picture doesn't show any laughing, either. And the thing she said, the thing with the boulder? Do you really believe that? I mean, come on. All I know is that some woman got on TV and held their attention for two minutes with a story about a fake poor panhandler that's basically calculated to outrage. And hey, it worked, didn't it? And like I say, it might be true. But I see no proof positive that it is true, or that the woman has been proven by this story to be a thief and/or a scammer. To be clear, I'm not trying to change your mind. Your mind is made up, and good for you. I'm just saying, I have my doubts about this story that is 95% the word of the woman being interviewed and 5% a picture that might or might not even be the panhandler in question, a picture which came from the woman, which I guess means it's 100% the word of the woman being interviewed. That's plenty enough for a lot of people. It's not enough for me. Edited March 17 by chasfh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gilmore Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 I’m pretty sure I have shopped at that Vons store in the video and I don’t remember seeing that woman…so it can’t be true. (I am joking to make the point that anecdotal evidence is crappy- but I have gone there). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 3 minutes ago, GoBlue23 said: Because it's much more likely that she's telling the truth than it is that she's making up a story to get 30 seconds of fame on the local news. I don't think that's true at all. We live in a society where people want to get on TV and be instantly famous all the time. I can totally see someone making up a story that they are confident can't be corroborated just to get on TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger337 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 Thousands of veterans are homeless. Many of them suffer PTSD from fighting in battles in order to make your life easier. Yes, I know there are some homeless who pretend to be veterans to get your sympathy, but many are real veterans too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigeraholic1 Posted March 17 Share Posted March 17 1 minute ago, Tiger337 said: Thousands of veterans are homeless. Many of them suffer PTSD from fighting in battles in order to make your life easier. Yes, I know there are some homeless who pretend to be veterans to get your sympathy, but many are real veterans too. They are forgotten and their stories are irrelevant. My Dad would have my brother and I pull coupons for a free pack of cigarettes from magazines (early 80’s mind you) and take a stack to the VA hospital and hand them out the the Vets living there. He always instilled on us these guys deserved our kindness. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 29 minutes ago, GoBlue23 said: I've been using VA hospitals for 30 years now and have never seen anyone in or around one that appeared to be a homeless veteran. The programs to help homeless veterans must have greatly improved over what they were in the early 80's. of course the guys from 'Nam are in their 70's now. At that age you've pretty much either gotten off the street or it's killed you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigeraholic1 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 32 minutes ago, GoBlue23 said: I've been using VA hospitals for 30 years now and have never seen anyone in or around one that appeared to be a homeless veteran. The programs to help homeless veterans must have greatly improved over what they were in the early 80's. Ignorance is bliss. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oblong Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 Nobody I know is hungry so there is no poverty. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiger337 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 35 minutes ago, GoBlue23 said: I've been using VA hospitals for 30 years now and have never seen anyone in or around one that appeared to be a homeless veteran. The programs to help homeless veterans must have greatly improved over what they were in the early 80's. Yes, they have improved a lot, but there are still a lot of homeless veterans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romad1 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 One thing that bugs the crap out of me are all my fellow vets harping on me to apply for disability for my service related injuries. I don't have any really. I could maybe have some hearing loss from trying to listen to HF radio through USAF EC130 Compass Call jamming while working an exercise in Battalion Air Liaison Office during the first half of my career. It wasn't pleasant but it sure as crap wasn't some sort of combat wound. I never actually saw any combat during my time 1987-1995. I had some really stressful days later where I had to deal with the consequences of an inflight emergency as the command post operator but that was indoor work and I was in no physical danger. I had a monster headache after my shift but well, that's just stress. I hate to see a guy claiming 10% for hearing or some other vague symptom and getting a check every month when he's shamming the system and there is a guy out there who had his truck blown to crap driving an MSR in Iraq with no legs or whatever getting not that much more than the shammer. I lose a lot of respect for my fellow vets when they try to make me complicit in such sham disability claims. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1776 Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 My nephew is hell bent on joining the military and has passed all tests to date. While having a conversation with his dad, I was told that military pensions are being phased out. Or are already out. Is this fact? Thx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted March 18 Author Share Posted March 18 (edited) 1 hour ago, GoBlue23 said: They also changed it from being based on your pay at the time of retirement to an average of your highest 36 months. A little break for officers that get busted... 😱 j/k Edited March 18 by gehringer_2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 18 Share Posted March 18 15 hours ago, GoBlue23 said: Because it's much more likely that she's telling the truth than it is that she's making up a story to get 30 seconds of fame on the local news. There's also this followup from the news station that caught her red handed. Caught her red-handed how? They asked if that was her and she didn't answer either way, probably because she was asked in English and can't speak English. Then they drove away in a minivan. So where's the Mercedes? Where are the red hands? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gehringer_2 Posted March 19 Author Share Posted March 19 More of what 2024 is about. https://news.yahoo.com/6-former-mississippi-law-officers-043844273.html Quote JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Tuesday to about 20 years in prison for his part in torturing two Black men last year after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman. Hunter Elward was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tom Lee, who handed down a 241-month sentence. Lee is also due to sentence five other former law enforcement officers who admitted to subjecting Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romad1 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 28 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said: More of what 2024 is about. https://news.yahoo.com/6-former-mississippi-law-officers-043844273.html Yep...the people who are going to call Hunter Elward a hostage are the people we need to fight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tigeraholic1 Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 42 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said: More of what 2024 is about. https://news.yahoo.com/6-former-mississippi-law-officers-043844273.html Good ,well deserved punishment. I picture the judge, Tom Lee looking like this when he handed down the sentence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasfh Posted March 19 Share Posted March 19 2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said: More of what 2024 is about. https://news.yahoo.com/6-former-mississippi-law-officers-043844273.html Reads more like 1924. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1984Echoes Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 An earthquake in New Jersey? That shouldn't BE...! But yes, we had a 4.8 Earthquake here this morning. Anyone else in the Jersey or NYC area feel it? I'm pretty close to Easton, PA so I only got 15-20 seconds of shake and nothing fell off the shelves or wall so very minor in my area... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smr-nj Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 I commented on it in a thread (not in the political forum)…..(General Discussion forum - random randomness thread) Unless, of course, we’re buying MTG’s take on it that it’s a message from God 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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