Gyroscopic Investing

The following story caught my eye:

Law Students Severed Head of Exotic Bird, Las Vegas Police Say

You see, psychopaths don't always end up in prison. A lot of them are very smart, and they end up in high-level leadership positions throughout the private and public sectors. Evidently some of them attend the nation's most prestigious law schools as well!

Wow, hold the phone...so we aren't supposed to remove the heads of our pets...who knew!  Reminds me of this scene from Dumb and Dumber (0:27):  http://youtu.be/ULUiV_tj1DI

Gosso wrote: Wow, hold the phone...so we aren't supposed to remove the heads of our pets...who knew!  Reminds me of this scene from Dumb and Dumber (0:27):  http://youtu.be/ULUiV_tj1DI

When people get drunk all sorts of dumb things start to sound like good ideas.

"Hey dude, let's tear that bird's head off and smear his blood all over our bodies and make a headdress out of his feathers!!!"

I agree with the commenter on that page who said that this is just the first step for those two. They will eventually murder human beings if they aren't locked up, treated or otherwise stopped.

I'm grateful for the 60+ degree weather this morning, for the raw tuna I bought this morning, and the fact that I was born sane.

dualstow wrote:
I'm grateful for the 60+ degree weather this morning, for the raw tuna I bought this morning, and the fact that I was born sane.

Two out of three is not that bad

Hey Dual,

Not to ruin sashimi, but are you at all concerned about pacific fish after Fukushima meltdown?

MediumTex wrote: When people get drunk all sorts of dumb things start to sound like good ideas.

"Hey dude, let's tear that bird's head off and smear his blood all over our bodies and make a headdress out of his feathers!!!"

I've done a lot of stupid things when I've been drunk, but killing an animal for fun has certainly never been one of them. Even when I'm extremely drunk, I have empathy for living things. So I don't buy the appeal to drunkenness.

I don't necessarily think those two guys will go on to kill people someday. I just think they're psychopaths. Not all psychopaths develop into full-blown murderers (thankfully).

Tortoise wrote:

MediumTex wrote: When people get drunk all sorts of dumb things start to sound like good ideas.

"Hey dude, let's tear that bird's head off and smear his blood all over our bodies and make a headdress out of his feathers!!!"

I've done a lot of stupid things when I've been drunk, but killing an animal for fun has certainly never been one of them. Even when I'm extremely drunk, I have empathy for living things. So I don't buy the appeal to drunkenness.

I don't necessarily think those two guys will go on to kill people someday. I just think they're psychopaths. Not all psychopaths develop into full-blown murderers (thankfully).

Do you think they would have done the same thing if they had been sober?

(I am making the assumption that they were not sober, since they are students and in Las Vegas.)

MediumTex wrote: Do you think they would have done the same thing if they had been sober?

(I am making the assumption that they were not sober, since they are students and in Las Vegas.)

Oh, I'm sure they were drunk. By "appeal to drunkenness," I was referring to the argument that drunkenness might cause non-psychopaths to kill animals for fun under some circumstances. That's what I don't buy.

Alcohol certainly removes inhibitions, but it doesn't transform non-psychopaths into psychopaths. When I hear about people killing or mutilating animals purely for giggles, it gives me a strange, nauseated feeling in the pit of my stomach. That feeling is rooted in biology and evolution. Simply put, psychopaths are bad news. Before the dawn of modern civilization, I suspect most tribes probably excommunicated them because of ancestral knowledge that such people are dangerous and therefore a risk to keep within the tribe.

MediumTex wrote: When people get drunk all sorts of dumb things start to sound like good ideas.

"Hey dude, let's tear that bird's head off and smear his blood all over our bodies and make a headdress out of his feathers!!!"

How about the old classic of sticking an intact light bulb up your rectum using shaving cream?

Tortoise wrote: Alcohol certainly removes inhibitions, but it doesn't transform non-psychopaths into psychopaths. When I hear about people killing or mutilating animals purely for giggles, it gives me a strange, nauseated feeling in the pit of my stomach. That feeling is rooted in biology and evolution. Simply put, psychopaths are bad news. Before the dawn of modern civilization, I suspect most tribes probably excommunicated them because of ancestral knowledge that such people are dangerous and therefore a risk to keep within the tribe.

They are estimated to be 1% of the gene pool and they serve an evolutionary purpose of forcing the rest of us to draw wagons and stick together.  (BTW, the non-"black or white" sexuality genes aka LGBT are about triple that of psychopaths.)

Tortoise wrote:

MediumTex wrote: Do you think they would have done the same thing if they had been sober?

(I am making the assumption that they were not sober, since they are students and in Las Vegas.)

Oh, I'm sure they were drunk. By "appeal to drunkenness," I was referring to the argument that drunkenness might cause non-psychopaths to kill animals for fun under some circumstances. That's what I don't buy.

They were law students after all.

What do you expect them to do in their free time?