1. Does the first panel here reflect reality? I cannot imagine why the bank would care whether she lives in her house or not.
2.
One of Canada's latest lottery jackpot winners tiptoed into an abandoned Taliban stronghold yesterday to blow up a booby trap insurgents left behind.
Sgt. Neil Coates may be $625,000 richer thanks to a Super 7 lottery win, but he can't buy his way out of the army or the duty he feels to fallen friends and the comrades who remain.
"My first reaction was, `Get the hell out of here,'" Coates, 44, told The Canadian Press at the front lines of the NATO operation to clear insurgents from this Taliban stronghold.
"But I talked to my wife about it, and this is what I came here to do, I trained a whole year for this. I owe it to these guys to see it through."
Is that an option? Can you just quit? I was always under the impression that the military owns you for a certain period of time. If you can just quit, why don't more people just quit? (I realize not everyone would just quit at the first sign of war, but you'd think enough would that it would be mentioned in passing in the media either that a lot of soldiers are quitting, or that a surprisingly low number of soldiers are quitting.)
3. The guy behind the Dawson College shootings was 25 years old. Dawson College is a CEGEP, which means really more of senior high school - students are typically 16-19 years old. So why did he pick a CEGEP? I see several options, most of which don't make sense.
a) He was bullied when he was a student there. But this doesn't make sense, because he would have been there years ago. The current students are not his tormentors. Besides, as a formerly-bullied 25-year-old myself, I can vouch for the fact that it wouldn't matter that much any more. It would still matter, yes, he would still be affected by it, but it would be far enough in the past that he wouldn't feel the need to take his gun and wreak vengance. In fact, he'd be more likely to just avoid the place all together.
b) He is currently a student there (perhaps he's a former drop-out?) and is bullied. But again, this doesn't entirely make sense because of his age. He's significantly older than the current students, so he'd more likely just disregard them as irrelevant. Again, speaking as a 25-year-old who was recently in a frosh undergrad class, and with full knowledge of how cruel bullies can be, I cannot imagine his classmates' mockery mattering that much to him. He would have his own life and his own social circle, and while I could see him being very frustrated at this nonsense he has to put up with, I can't see it being enough to drive him to taking out his gun. At 25, he'd be able to see this as a temporary detour and his classmates' behaviour as irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
c) He is not a student there, but he does have a grudge against some people who happen to be students there. Again, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because he wouldn't know them from school, he'd know them in some other circle, and it would be more likely for him to decide to take them out in whatever context he usually sees them, rather than specifically going somewhere he doesn't belong.
d) He has nothing to do with the school. Which just doesn't make sense.
3 comments:
1. I think that does reflect reality...her house fell out of escrow, which means the original buyer backed out of the deal. Unless a new buyer comes along, the property doesn't sell and she doesn't get any money from the sale. That may mean she can't afford to stay elsewhere and she'll have to move back into her house.
2. Not sure about military regs in Canada, but the article mentions Coates had talked to the army about leaving early from Afghanistan before deciding to stick out his tour. "I'd feel pretty badly leaving the section," he said. It also says he's a veteran combat engineer. Could be the army might have recognized his past service, cut him some slack and let him out of his commitment a little early, if he had pushed strongly for it.
3. Who knows? It's difficult to figure out the motivations of deviants. Maybe he thinks he's still 15 or 16, or that it's 1995? It reminds me of a Chris Rock line from one of his stand-up specials, when he was talking about the school shootings at Columbine, etc. (found the exact phrasing via Google): Everybody is wanting to know what music were the kids listening to, or what movies were they watching. Who gives a (word) what they was watching! Whatever happened to crazy? What, you can't be crazy no more? Should we eliminate crazy from the dictionary?
the shooter actually went to the same high school as me. that he was 25 and still living with his parents is problematic...not saying that all people who are 25 and still living at home are deviants...just mentioning it. i would have been in the school with him for 3 years, but, to be honest, he doesn't ring a bell whatsoever. i am going to take a look at my old yearbooks...
1. Oh, I didn't think of it in terms of her own finances, I read it as the bank bossing her around beause they're the Big Bad Bank! It makes far more sense based on personal finances!
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