Gyroscopic Investing

Tortoise wrote: I agree fully that Dorner's supposed integrity went completely out the window once he flipped out and his violence started affecting innocent people.

I guess the main thing that stood out to me were the reports by people who knew Dorner personally that he was such an honest person with such a rigid code of personal ethics prior to the LAPD fiasco. I wouldn't have guessed that at all if I hadn't watched the interviews.

I believe that part too. But sometimes a rigid worldview or personal code can cause a person to lack the mental tools to deal with a situation that contradicts them. It seems like that might have been what happened to Dorner. If he held himself to high standards of honesty and ethics, then being immersed in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is the LAPD could have been enough to make him so jaded as to believe that none of it mattered anymore, that his entire worldview was a lie, and breaking out of it may have made him feel intoxicatingly powerful.

</armchair psychoanalysis>

The Onion (fake news):
"Los Angeles On High Alert As LAPD Back On Regular Duty"
http://www.theonion.com/articles/los-an ... /?ref=auto

Pointedstick wrote:

Tortoise wrote: I agree fully that Dorner's supposed integrity went completely out the window once he flipped out and his violence started affecting innocent people.

I guess the main thing that stood out to me were the reports by people who knew Dorner personally that he was such an honest person with such a rigid code of personal ethics prior to the LAPD fiasco. I wouldn't have guessed that at all if I hadn't watched the interviews.

I believe that part too. But sometimes a rigid worldview or personal code can cause a person to lack the mental tools to deal with a situation that contradicts them. It seems like that might have been what happened to Dorner. If he held himself to high standards of honesty and ethics, then being immersed in the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is the LAPD could have been enough to make him so jaded as to believe that none of it mattered anymore, that his entire worldview was a lie, and breaking out of it may have made him feel intoxicatingly powerful.

</armchair psychoanalysis>

His naive idealism coupled with a lack of cynicism may have made his mind brittle, and when faced with what seemed like an overwhelming wrong perpetrated on him--he probably thought that you shouldn't get fired for reporting that a colleague kicked a retarded man in the face--it may have just overwhelmed his ability to cope with the situation in a productive way.

It sort of reminds me of Michael Douglas's character in Falling Down.

Good advice today for young people entering government service might be something along the lines of: "Don't ever lose your sense of pessimism.  It will provide you with the coping skills needed to counter the waves of stupidity that will occasionally wash over you."

KevinW wrote: The Onion (fake news):
"Los Angeles On High Alert As LAPD Back On Regular Duty"
http://www.theonion.com/articles/los-an ... /?ref=auto

That is hilarious. As disgusted as I am with the people all over the web who think Charles D is some kind of a hero, this Onion piece is spot on. 

dualstow wrote:

KevinW wrote: The Onion (fake news):
"Los Angeles On High Alert As LAPD Back On Regular Duty"
http://www.theonion.com/articles/los-an ... /?ref=auto

That is hilarious. As disgusted as I am with the people all over the web who think Charles D is some kind of a hero, this Onion piece is spot on. 

For some reason I have this picture in my head of an updated version of the TV show Adam 12, except rather than protecting and serving the community in a nostalgic good-guy style, the new Malloy and Reed could dramatize a different unsavory actual event in recent LAPD history each week.

In the pilot, Malloy could kick a retarded man in the face after throwing him to the ground, and the rest of the episode could show Reed being intimidated into not reporting the event.

In the second episode, Reed is filled with rage at the memory of a fellow officer who was killed by a rogue cop and he acts out his rage by burning down the house in which the suspect is hiding.

In the third episode, Malloy and Reed could participate in a shooting incident where seven police officers fire hundreds of rounds into a vehicle carrying two female newspaper carriers because they thought it was being driven by a single black male suspect.

I'm sure that there would be plenty of content for this new show.  I think that the viewing public would probably also enjoy watching it.  It would be a whole new take on the cop TV show genre. 

It would be sort of like Reno 911 except it wouldn't be funny.

Medium Tex, you're on a roll with these tv analogies today and it's cracking me up.
But, all I want to state today is that Jesse Jackson Jr is insulting my levelheaded leather chaps sensibilities with his reckless, profligate fur cape purchases.

MediumTex wrote: It would be sort of like Reno 911 except it wouldn't be funny.

I absolutely-guarantee-it the networks would not pick it up!

Simonjester wrote: LAPD "we didn't start the fire" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow4Q80j6H0c

MangoMan wrote:
I have a FOID card. I'm not trying to skew the debate, and I agree that is not ok for the police to do what they did. I'm merely wondering how having guns would have helped these women in this particular situation.

What's a FOID card?  I'd look it up on Google, but they're down right now.

smurff wrote:

MangoMan wrote:
I have a FOID card. I'm not trying to skew the debate, and I agree that is not ok for the police to do what they did. I'm merely wondering how having guns would have helped these women in this particular situation.

What's a FOID card?  I'd look it up on Google, but they're down right now.

Permit to touch firearms and ammunition in Illinois. Firearm Owner IDentification card.

Thanks, P.S.  I'm gonna get one of those next time I go down South.