orlando shooting.....
 

such a needless tragedy in my town......prayers to all the families and those involved....

Yes. Very sad.

A more political thread is already in PARF for anyone who wants to be particularly controversial/political.

2 hour-long line of blood donors in Orlando.

Hopefully we can find / create some good out of this tragedy. I am numb.

My heart goes out to you all.

I can't understand why something isn't being done about this.

I'm angry and I don't want to get political but once again the usual group are at it again.
You'd think after the recent events in Europe we'd be getting the message by now.

They stopped a vehicle on the way to the West Hollywood Gay Pride Festival today with 5lbs. of Tannerite. Driver was dressed in camo, carrying assault weapons. Maybe another incident prevented.

Wow. That's terrible. Definitely a tragedy/terrorist event averted.

I've always marveled at how you can have the Pride Parade and Halloween and New Years events in WeHo--have tens of thousands of people there--and there's never any violence to speak of. Impossible to replicate that with tens of thousands of straight partygoers.

Huh?

There are tens of thousands of partygoers with no incidents of violence almost continuously. Besides that, how would you know that each of the tens of thousands of partygoers are straight? And how do you know that each of the tens of thousands at Pride Parade are not straight?

Am I misunderstanding something here?

yeah you go shooting all day. have some aluminum nitrate and metal powder on you, a long with a rifle to set it off in your vehicle, and people assume you're up to no good. It's a kalifornien thing....

What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Yes, you're missing the point. Totally. You look at what I wrote and read it like a lawyer or bureaucrat would. Verbatim without any understanding of what life is like in the real world.

Every year, there are a couple nightclub shootings on Hollywood Blvd. Usually gang-related or an issue of some dude who got dissed or in some argument with another equally macho guy, and then someone pulls out a gun or leaves and then comes back with one. Just a mile away, in Boystown (Santa Monica Blvd, west of La Cienega, where By far the partygoers are gay (or gay-sympathetic), crap like that never happens. Somehow the manly straight dudes (who like to carry knives and guns and have low tolerance for using them) seem to be too homophobic to hang out there. Just my opinion, though.

i lived in the middle of hollywood and commuted into santa monica for more than a decade.

the real world fact that you're missing is that santa monica gay clubs are famous for not allowing brown people from my neighborhood in.

after work i'd head to the coffee shop to unwind. this was about the same time of evening when the armenian bouncers were waking up and going in for their own coffee before work. many great stories.

somebody disrespected homs by stepping on his new shoes. he threw a fit and got tossed out. as soon as he was outside he pulled a gun and unloaded it into the club doors, hitting no one.

then there was an awkward pause as he realized he'd used the valet service, and he now had to run for it.

I am saddened beyond words.

This isn't about who the victims are, it is the mind-numbing deaths and injury of innocent people. My prayers go to each and every one, and their families.

Horrible. What has happened to our world? :(

I wish I could have donated blood. I'm B neg and there is not always a B neg donor around when you need one.

Absolutely sick. God be with all of those who lost loved ones or were otherwise hurt by this tragedy. It's not about the target, it's about the perpretators being of the exact same religious affiliation EVERY SINGLE TIME. Are we collectively as a society ever going to honestly confront the enemy in front of us?

It is about the target.
They are American.

About eight years ago I was talking with an elderly gentleman neighbour/friend who had been a NZ army soldier all his working life. I said thanks for your service. He fought in Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia and Borneo. He said "It's a different enemy these days. One all around us that we can't see." Phew, he didn't know how correct he would become.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck......

Meanwhile in parf excuses are being made for this behavior.

Time to wake up people. My condolences to the families of those killed.