Not really sure what debate you're looking to have, but the fact is, the guy comes from a family that was very wealthy. That is a fact. His grandmother released a book in 1982 about her life. She inherited quite a bit of money from several relatives and businesses (that she helped run prior to the deaths of family members). You seem to be ignoring the fact that I'm not debating that the guy has ability. There's no argument - clearly, he's good at what he does. The whole point of the question was what was the starting point for the richest in each state. In Griffin's case, he comes from a family with lots of money. I didn't intimate he inherited it, or was given it, or otherwise didn't work. All I said (and again, this is fact) - is that he comes from a family with a lot of money. If that pisses you off (or my characterization does), then I don't know what to tell you. Love them or hate them, facts are facts.
I guess I didn't know what point you're looking for. I was objecting to a silver spoon got him where he is characterization. But if you're going for "he grew up with money, thats a big part of why he is how he is genetically" somehow, like a "you're more likely to go to college if your parents went to college" sort of thing, then I'm cool with that. Im not "pissed off about facts", I just get annoyed with the shade that some people like to throw at perceived advantages and what impact they had on success. I guess I was differentiating between him and someone like the Thompson-Reuters dude who inherited everything.
And this is the point I am disputing. There are huge advantages to coming from money - whether or not it is given to you outright. I'll give you a real world example that I am intimately aware of because it involves me and one of my clients. As you probably know, I've quit my job dogwalking to pursue my dream of writing a book. One of my clients is a writer, has published a book, and is an investigative reporter for a major magazine. My client's scenario: like me, he is a former attorney. He had enough and decided to become a writer. He quit his job, ended up waiting tables and going through his savings to realize his dream of becoming a writer. Times were tough, he had no one else, and he faced some very tough choices. He's a great guy and I'm glad to say it all worked out for him. My scenario: Sure, it sounds great that I'm quitting my job to pursue a dream, but my wife makes a lot of money. If I don't bring in a dollar while I'm writing this book, I still eat, I still have a place to live and generally get to go about my life the same as it is right now. Let's say my book is completed and is more successful. Ability wise, does that make me a better writer? Maybe. But comparing the two scenarios - my client's road to success was far harder than mine would be. I'm not considering raw talent, let's call it a draw. But my situation, due solely to the fact that my spouse makes a lot of money - even if she doesn't give me any - puts me in a much better position to succeed than my client. So yes, I'm saying 'the silver spoon' has a lot to do with where he is now. Was the money given to him outright? No. But he was given the money to invest initially (and installed a satellite dish on his dorm roof I believe), and proved himself. So in essence, I'm comparing my situation to this guy's, as opposed to my client's, because the situation I am sitting in means that if I fail, the consequences are minimal, whereas my client was facing very significant real world issues if he failed. That's the power of money, it is a safety net that allows you a much better chance to succeed than not having it.
I disagree. Growing/investing money is different than writing/artistic talent, and you can't really compare the two. It very well may be that your friend, who was writing without a net, wrote better because of the potential failure. You may hold back and be conservative/boring/unsuccessful because you don't have that motivation. And then it could be that writing is very much like music in that it totally depends on your content, demographic, style, distribution, timing, world events, and a million other things totally out of your control. He could be a shit writer who hit a chord with a lot of people and got a good review on a specific podcast that helped him achieve critical mass, so then became "successful", whereas you could write a critically acclaimed, phenomenal book that doesn't sell shit because nobody heard about it. The key is to write for the sake of writing, not to write in the hopes of being successful. Same can be said of any artistic endeavour... if you try to manufacture success, odds are you'll be missing the key elements that will make it successful.
Unfortunately I see way to many conversations like the following (Taken from Huffington Post today) that illustrates just how much people are unable to grasp the situation or statistics: "The conservatives were floored with the true report on the murder count by state. The Red states lead the country. On top of that white on white murder leads the country in murers. White crime tops all crime in the country. White gangs lead all gangs in crime." "I'm no conservative, by any stretch. But you realize, those figures will be quickly countered by the other side. They'll just pull out the demographics of red states, and the normalizing factor 'per capita'" "That's just it. They always talk about per capita in order to dodge raw numbers. The article that was published yesterday exposed their rhetoric as being false." They can't understand that 13% of the country's demographic committing 50% +/- of the murders/violent crime is a problem.
RE: The bombing in Turkey yesterday http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/europe/turkey-istanbul-explosion/index.html Yeah, I'm thinking letting "Refugees" into the country is not such a good idea. The recent events in Europe are certainly underscoring that thought.
Oh you haven't heard, there's a simple solution to the refugee crisis: just complete conform your way of life to them, because they're more important: Pathetic. Sharia Law is IMAGINARY. People do not conform to visitors. It's the other way around.
I remember when that quote was going around the internet years ago, I want to say it was 2007 or 2008 or something. To be fair, there was much more to her statement than just that quote. She had written a book about how Muslim immigrants were lazy and violent, unwilling to adapt to the cultures they immigrate to and demand that the cultures adapt to them. Her quote was in the context of something like (paraphrasing): "Some of these Muslim immigrants are fanatics. Women need to be cognizant of that fact when they leave the house since these people are so rigid in their insanity." So she wasnt being an apologist, she was stating that people in her country need to have awareness of whats going on.
Chicago Protesters Plan To Block Stock Traders Over Police Shooting Video http://www.ibtimes.com/what-black-w...-plan-block-stock-traders-over-police-2263545 Meanwhile, there have been 150+ shootings in Chicago in the first 13 days of this year and 21 murders. Exactly zero of these shootings were done by the police. And the police are the biggest problem? From what I've read there is a legitimate grievance between the black community and the CPD, however...when people start marching, protesting, and questioning everything every officer does....even legitimate self defense and justifiable shootings...what do you think is going to happen? The officers are going to say "Fuck it." Just like happened in Baltimore last year, and what appears to be happening in Chicago now. Keeping people from going to work is not going to help their cause. It's going to piss people off that they can't get to work and pay their bills. I would like to know exactly where the protesters' income comes from that they can take a workday spending their time keeping other people, who have absolutely zero to do with their anger, from going to work so they can survive. What the fuck are they hoping will happen here?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-...t-suicide-bombings-gunfire-casualties-reporte Take a guess who is going to be responsible for this? We have gone over this before(many times), but eventually everyone is going to need to recognize the problem isn't a region of the world or a political group.
No. It is a religion, and that religion is Islam. No other religion turns girls into bombs and poison-gases their schools because they fear educated women. No other religionhas members that throw gay 12-year-olds off rooftops while crowds gather with their children to cheer it on, run people over with tanks or rape them before murdering them just to close a loophole in God. It is the worst religion in existence and its practices need to be reigned in. HARD. It's not a "different" culture, it's just plain worse. And the bleeding hearts HAVE to accept that as fact.
That's card-carrying common sense. Then WHY is there still a large SJW backlash that is both a) Blatantly insisting that any insults towards these criminally insane pigs is racism, "culture appropriation", etc. and b) trying to outright cover this up? That's right, racism. Just one thing: Islam is not a race. It is a belief, which makes it open to question, doubt and ridicule and there are no exceptions. People have rights, beliefs do not. And people have a RIGHT to fear Islam. If 10% to 20% of them are fundamentalist extremist, how much is that of about 1.5 billion people again? Don't tell me it's a few "bad apples", that's fifteen times the population of my country. It's a culture that represses every form of fun as a sin and never gets laid but it's ALL the fault of The Great Satan. In the West I don't see people bringing their children to public outdoor beheadings. They take them to something worse: hot dog-eating contests. We have right now a large demographic of people who would rather tune out a TRUE rape culture, one that exists, unlike the world they live in-- just so they don't have to admit they're wrong? The regressive left is so fucking lost in space they can't even hear the laughter directed straight at them.
To show how tolerant and progressive they are and because other people are against it. They get laid all the time. We call it rape. As long as they commit their crime against a non-Muslim, they don't see it as a problem.
If the European governments dont wake up its going to happen and at an alarming rate. Their have been afflicted with pathological altruism towards the refugees because the term "refugee" automatically illicits sympathy. And lest they be called be called a racist/islamophobic, they will bend over backwards for them and try to ignore the chaos they are causing in northern Europe. Its telling that the refugees didnt stop on the first piece of free soil they landed on, they traveled all the way to northern Europe. Why? Because they know what strings to pull to get the governments to comply. Now there is a major problem with the refugees acting like animals and refusing to integrate into European culture. They dont want to integrate, they want to dominate and take over. The rubber band has been pulled so far to the left there is a serious risk of it snapping back to the right in the form of militant nationalism across Europe not seen since WWII. What happens then is far right groups will get into power and the real people seeking refuge will be terrorized in retaliation for the trouble their brethren are causing. Realistically there could be an all out war across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East because of this. The wheels were set in motion by these governments 100 years ago, and it might now finally come to a head.
Relevant, and My favourite Maher final New Rule ever (you just have to tune out SE Cupp's insanely obnoxious laughter):
No, we have crazies shooting up abortion clinics because they are warriors for the babies, and white kids shooting up black churches because of blatant racism, or who shoot uo a fucking kindergarten class because reasons, I guess? We have assholes who picket soldiers' funerals because "God hates fags." We have people who just lose their shit and start opening fire anywhere cause why the fuck not, I guess, we get no explanation, and quite frankly we don't want one. It's easier to make it fit into our own preconceived narrative, like "those people are savages." Turn on the fucking news, we as a nation are in no place to call anyone ELSE savages, given how insanely fucking violent our culture is. And before you step in with your "but but but..." Remember: you're the one saying it's okay to fear an entire religion because of the 20% that are nut jobs. Therefore, logic dictates, it's okay for them to fear the US for the 20% that bomb abortion clinics, send antrax in the mail, blow up the Oklahoma federal building, take federal wildlife preserves hostage, shoot up theaters/churches/schools, support Donald Trump, protest soldier funerals, cover up molestation of siblings because they're a god-fearing family on tv. They can fear us for our rapists and the Bill Cosby apologists, for our culture that worships at the alter of guns, that has an entire holiday dedicated to blowing shit up, where we have turned wars into video games we play for fucking fun. We're in no position to get all judges on any other culture when ours is just as fucked up when viewed by outsiders. Hell, I'm leaving just epic amounts of crazy shit out. Watch the news for 20 minutes and see how fucking violent we are as a nation and continue to call them savages. Every night we are inundated with stories of rape, murder, robbery... Every few weeks another mass shooting, and that is just the shit that gets attention. Then there are the drug deals gone bad, the junkies, the massively overcrowded prisons. They're no more savage than us. We have people who beat the shit out of each other every day after thanksgiving for the best deal on a shitty tv, for fuck sake. We are violent over god damned Black Friday deals. Fuck, we're just my violent in general, but we bust on other cultures for their violence all the fucking time, like we're on some high unimpeachable horse. We're all fucked. I'm gonna go get drunk. Ps: yes I am aware Crown is Canadian, eh. My point still stands.
So you honestly think that a handful of violent morons acting on their own is exactly the same as an organization with millions of dollars in resources, countless weapons, possibly millions of followers, and regularly conducts attacks worldwide against innocent people?
They won't. They'll just keep yelling at everyone else about how ignorant they are. Right after they've lectured you on rape culture in the 'west'. The only way they're going to acknowledge it would be if these people actually had the power to realize their goals. Then they would no longer be the oppressed.