• 0 Posts
  • 35 Comments
Joined 2 months ago
cake
Cake day: May 24th, 2025

help-circle

  • The one who shot is still a murderer, yes. I don’t know if it was Mr. Mangione, I have not reviewed the court file and only know what I read in the media, which is a bit hit or miss. I know that the shooter resembled Mr. Mangione and that Mr. Mangione has been arrested, and that police reports some evidence found, that is all.

    The act certainly was murder, an intentional premeditated killing. One could argue that it was justified as the actions of the one who was killed led to a lot of death and suffering. While it was not the assigned role of the murderer to execute this person, it can be argued that the ones who’s job it is to protect the public from such as the person who got shot, (notice that I refuse to call him a victim, he was not) remained passive and did not fulfill their task, this includes the justice department, police investigators and policy makers. By all accounts the person who got shot was a leading figure in an organization that extorted money from both the state and the public. In any other country the would be considered a criminal organization and prosecuted as such. It can be argued that the killer, whoever he might be, took it upon himself to take an action necessary to protect society, at the risk of his own life, safety and prosperity, If you look at the arguments that serious gun rights activists have advanced for keeping the current interpretation of the 2nd amendment, the actions of this killer checks nearly all of the boxes. Since in the US the policy makers and judicial system is openly bought by wealthy large corporations to such a degree that it surprises me they don’t wear the names of their sponsors on their suits, it really surprises me that what happened in this case does not happen constantly all over the place.

    Your strawman argument about hotel owners does not really hold water, as we don’t suddenly have a condition that requires us to stay in a luxury hotel, which is not the same for hospitals, medication of other medical care.

    I know it’s anecdotal but I have an different points in my life required medical services, if I had not been able to get those services, I would not be alive today. I have never had a desperate life threatening situation that could only be solves by a stay in a very expensive hotel.

    However you do have a point. There are murders, like these, that can easily find a moral justification. The problem with this, is indeed where you draw the line. Who is bad enough that we should kill them, and who is not. We could start killing the really bad ones, but where do we draw the line? Who gets a pass?

    The person who gets a bunch of people killed for his annual bonus seems easy. However does the drunk driver who endangers a lot of other people on or even beside the road get a pass or a bullet? What about the person who we think corrupts the morals of our children? You can easily end up in a system where anyone can be killed on any grounds real or imagined. It reminds me of the situation in revolutionary China and France, where anyone could get lynched by a mob or convicted by a hasty court for being counterrevolutionary, having sympathies for the old nobles, etc.

    What is clear from this case and the reaction of the public is that the way money for healthcare is handled in the US is atrocious. The governments in the US spend more money per citizen than any other nation and the costs for healthcare for the average American are spectacularly higher than in any other nation. The quality of the healthcare provided is not so exceptional that this high cost is warranted, the high cost seems entirely due to the for profit organizations that govern the care and the insurance who priorities their major share holders over the actual service provided.

    I don’t think people who work to keep this system around and profit of it need to be shot. They need to be fired, prosecuted and forced to return all the money that they embezzled over the decades. The companies need to be dissolved and their funds used to provide free healthcare for all. The US can not keep supporting this parasitic system.


  • Well look at it this way, the guy that got shot indirectly killed thousands and made a lot more peoples lives miserable through needless suffering and financial ruin, the guy who shot him killed one, in an attempt to stop the indirect killing. The first reaction of the company the guy that got shot worked for was to allow compensation for medical claims more easily (“rectified” since, but a bunch of people got essential help early in) therefore the shooter saved a lot more people than he killed. So why would anyone not glorify the killing as it was a net win.








  • Hmm I hadn’t thought about the shocks on hard tires bbeing so tiring though that does make sense. It does make a serious difference in resistance though, main downside for me of hard tires is less grip, both because of a smaller contact area with the ground and because an uneven roard makes you bounce more. I suppose it’s a matter of adapting to circumstances. I do lower pressure for soft or smippery roads a tiny bit sometimes.


  • I’ve been thinking about your post as I was biking to work this morning. I see others have talked to you about tires in the meantime but for on road riding I can really recommend pretty slick tires even on a mountain bike they will make a huge difference in resistance, especially if you inflate them as hard as they can take(look on the side of te tire for something that says inflate to xx psi). Hard smooth tires run nearly as good as racing tubes.

    Another thing I was thinking about is saddle height. Most new cyclists put their saddle way too low, which is understandable as you want to be able to put your foot on the ground when you lose balance. However that is not the best thing for transferring muscle power to your pedals. I found that for good force you want to have your saddle so high that when you sit on it and you put a foot on the pedal at it’s lowest point, with your foot parallel to the ground, your leg is fully stretched.

    This does mean that to put a foot on the ground you have to keep your other foot on the pedal and slide forward off the saddle. The posture of your leg for pedalling will be way better getting more power to the bike and reducing stress on the knees.

    Make sure your foot rests on the pedal with the front part, like you can see bike racers do. That allows for more muscles to work on pushing than when the pedal is under the middle of the foot.

    Beware that raising the saddle does change the front-back balance a bit as your weight sits higher.

    I read you bike down stairs, if it is only one or two steps that is not going to change much but if it’s a full flight of stairs that might be a problem.

    Frankly I’m 52 years old and have been riding bikes since I was 3 and I have not ridden off more than a couple of steps at a time for the last four decades, it’s just not something I wish to inflict on my bike, nor on myself. Hopping down half a meter while at speed is no problem, but really riding of flights of stairs? You are a braver man than me.






  • It goes for the players among each other too. It’s not just the one character in OP that dislikes or distrusts the party. It’s up to the rest of the party to also accomodate them. If you have a moral character in the group you might refrain from murdering, raping and pillaging for shits and giggles.

    As they say “the only way to have a friend is to be one”.