JoePa Shocking........

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by JCF

I hope this is not too far off topic - or incoherent - or pitiful ( light the flamethrowers, I don't care)

I am so discouraged - It just seems like there is nowhere left to find the balance to all the negative things I see and hear about and read about....
It just looks like to me the dark side has won.
What has happened to all the good people ????
I know they are out there somewhere but they seem to no longer have the power or will to affect what appears to be a wholesale abdication of simple moral responsibility and justice...
I understand no one is all good ( least of all myself) or even that, outside the true psychopaths, the bad folk are not all bad....but I just don't see any balance anymore.
It just seems that every shiny red apple is rotten inside these days...and that suspect or clearly rotten apples are so often held up as shining examples of perfection....
Maybe it has always been this way ?
I am not saying I am right, only that I feel like the the line is crumbling and I am discouraged and I don't want to give up the fight but when I look for some sign that there is something left to fight for or someone to look up to for hope and encouragement all I see around me are bad examples.
I am not religious - though I was raised Catholic - but I have seen and read too much about the Catholic Church and it's abuses and hypocrisy to not cross that one out - At the same time I can see the beauty and truth in the writings...but really - now it just seems like a license to sin - "so I committed adultery sat. night - I'll just say a prayer on sunday"....
All the other religions also seem to me to have that same gulf between the beauty of the doctrine and the messy world of Humanity...
Art ( which was my great pursuit at one time ) also seems to me irrelevant in these times...

I won't add any insight into this specific thread though I think it is relevant to it. I'm fresh out answers.
I guess it shows how desperate I am that I am posting this here on PP Off Topic....

ha

Pardon the interruption.

John, Try to be less philosophical and more pragmatic...stay away from the sewers, hold your head high & live as you see fit. That's about all in this world we can really control...ourselves.

[DaveE]

Originally Posted by mossguy

Agreed! Good things are happening and there are good people out there. We just don't get to hear about it.

Paterno used to be one of those good stories you heard about to counter all the corruption in college football.

[JCF]

I don't watch the tv - news - or sports - or read newspapers anymore - haven't for quite a while now.
Plenty of discouraging stuff going on that I see or hear about first hand all around me.
Never used to bother me so much when I did read or watch - not sure what change - me I'm sure.

As far as philosophy Paul I just hope that we all get what we deserve...
Don't necessarily see it - just hope it.

[Joe Bob]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

I blame the media. None report (or almost no one) report the feel good stories. I agree with you, the news today is just depressing and disgusting.

Shocking.....

If it bleeds, it leads.....

[Macroni]

Originally Posted by JCF

I don't watch the tv - news - or sports - or read newspapers anymore - haven't for quite a while now.
Plenty of discouraging stuff going on that I see or hear about first hand all around me.
Never used to bother me so much when I did read or watch - not sure what change - me I'm sure.

As far as philosophy Paul I just hope that we all get what we deserve...
Don't necessarily see it - just hope it.

John,
Plenty of good out there.......

Luke

[pwd72s]

Yes, still plenty of good out there.

I've also found that life is too short to spend time around people you don't like. So, unless you have to because of your job, split the scene...

But I doubt I'm telling John anything new.

[Normy]

Originally Posted by JCF

I don't watch the tv - news - or sports - or read newspapers anymore - haven't for quite a while now.
Plenty of discouraging stuff going on that I see or hear about first hand all around me.
Never used to bother me so much when I did read or watch - not sure what change - me I'm sure.

As far as philosophy Paul I just hope that we all get what we deserve...
Don't necessarily see it - just hope it.

John, if you don't like what you see, then don't look. But that is stupid-

You are going to find that people are STUPID. We come across as intelligent, but in the end we have 98% the same DNA as chimpanzees. I'm surprised we cannot mate with them, considering some of the rednecks that live near me! In any case, if you want to believe that the human race is horrible, then you will, and everything will look gray.

There are plenty of wonderful people in the world, but we are stupid animals and we make terrible mistakes from time to time. The thing to do is to try to change it. In every job I've ever had, I've had to fight and cajole and work to get into the situation, and when I got there, I tried to improve the place. I've never been fired from a job, and every job I've left was better than when I started. I post a lot of crap on the OT: Politics and Religion section because I think that a lot of negative people with only $ signs in their eyes are actively trying to change the United States. They are being supported by a lot of people who have lost the ability to think, and have a lot of hatred in their heart. I won't stand for ANY of it, and I take action. I took action on two occasions in the past 18 years that I've been an airline pilot, literally grabbing the controls from captain's that had lost control of the airplane. I won't let anyone kill me, and I won't allow any one to SCREW me either!

The long and short is if you want to shut your eyes, then do it, but you'd be better off engaging society and the news and trying to make it better.

N!

[JCF]

Originally Posted by Normy

The thing to do is to try to change it. In every job I've ever had, I've had to fight and cajole and work to get into the situation, and when I got there, I tried to improve the place. I've never been fired from a job, and every job I've left was better than when I started. I post a lot of crap on the OT: Politics and Religion section because I think that a lot of negative people with only $ signs in their eyes are actively trying to change the United States. They are being supported by a lot of people who have lost the ability to think, and have a lot of hatred in their heart. I won't stand for ANY of it, and I take action.

The long and short is if you want to shut your eyes, then do it, but you'd be better off engaging society and the news and trying to make it better.

First, I hope this doesn't become a thread about ME !!!! God help us all....

I agree 99.9% with you Normy.
It's just I don't trust the news anymore.
Any of it, from any source.

Nor am I sure anyone that does follow it can do any more than add their voice to the already deafening noise.
Yeah, I know - you only need to reach one person....

I can say the same thing about my job history as you. I have always done things the right way, not the easy way. True when I tried to make art as in doing public service.
I know that matters - intellectually - and I will continue to try my best - but I am seeing less and less of the actual fruit ( forgive my continued use of that metaphor).

I know we are messy, ugly creatures and I know we are also capable of wonderful and great things.
It is just discouraging, that is all I was trying to say, to see over and over, on every level what seems to be a loss of simple moral responsibility.
This Paterno thing is just another example of someone who was a positive example suddenly being not so much, and/or a culture that enables a good man to lose his bearings in what is a rather clear matter of right vs. wrong.

I am just back from eating dinner tonight at a local Thai restaurant - at the bar.
Someone I know comes in and sits down nearby.
He is (recently) married to a beautiful woman - and the whole time he was there he was discussing with the owner a pretty young thing that comes in every now and then and how disappointed he was he missed her and wanted the owner to call him the next time she was in and he said he would do it - the whole thing was a joke to them - not as in just kidding, but as an amusing arrangement...

Maybe I have developed a too thin skin, as I see and hear of this kind of thing almost daily ( just in this piss ant town)....

Paul, I don't know there is anyplace to go to escape it.
People are the same everywhere - and becoming less so IMHO.

[pwd72s]

John, I don't try to escape it as much as I try to avoid dwelling on it. The Paterno example...can we do anything to "change" it? Nope. Can we do anything about the mess in Washington D.C.? Nope...so...I'm one who tends to do his own thing...screw the rest.

People disappoint, sure they do...but it's up to you how to handle these disappointments.

Back to the pool tournament...there are some damned skilled players there. Maybe I'll get lucky & pick up a skill through osmosis.

[widgeon13]

Who's going to watch the Penn State game today? Does Nebraska feel funny going into this game?

[jyl]

I don't understand why people feel they are being deluged with the Paterno story. Same thing whenever a news story comes up and you guys say it is drowning you.

Don't watch TV news. That's all it takes. Get your news from newspapers (good ones, not the local fish wrap), magazines (good ones, there are a handful out there), and Internet news sites (I mean online sites of actual professional news publishing entities. Not "blogs", until you can distinguish the 0.1% that are decent from the 99.9% that are unreliable, sensationalist, manipulated, or merely repeat a news wire story with some snarky blog attitude-BS).

All of those are "pull" sources not "push". You don't sit there, letting the TV push Paterno-Gate in your face hour after hour. Which they will, because they are programming for a very low level viewer. Someone a lot stupider than I think most of us on PPOT are.

Instead, you pull the news that interests you. No fear, you'll still hear of anything actually important. And you can always switch on CNN for truly "breaking" news.

I watch maybe 6 hours of TV news a year.

[dennis in se pa]

I might watch the game. I am a Nebraska fan.

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by dennis in se pa

I might watch the game. I am a Nebraska fan.

I just checked and don't think we get it here, that's disappointing. What network is it on?

Only get FL vs SC and OK vs Texas Tech.

[Schrup]

Espn 9am pst.

[widgeon13]

Originally Posted by Schrup

Espn 9am pst.

Thanks got it, making the popcorn at 11:30.

[Joe Bob]

Welp, de got beat, 17-14.

[widgeon13]

It was actually a good game.

[URY914]

If I were a player for PSU I'd never take a shower there again.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

It was actually a good game.

I thought that last Penn drive was going to be a nail biter, but alas...

[DonDavis]

Big Ten Conf has decided to remove Joe Pa-thetic's name from the trophy. I approve.

Joe Paterno, Big Ten trophy: Joe Paterno, Big Ten trophy - chicagotribune.com

"In light of the series of events that have recently unfolded at Penn State University, including Grand Jury indictments, an ongoing Grand Jury investigation, a U.S. Department of Education investigation, the Board of Trustees' dismissal of Penn State head coach Joe Paterno and the Board of Trustees' appointment of a Special Investigation Committee, the Big Ten Conference announced today that it will remove Paterno's name from the Championship Trophy to be awarded at its inaugural Football Championship Game on December 3 in Indianapolis."