Financial topics

[John]

Here's a story that may shed some light on the earlier discussion
of crime by the "Hero Generation":

Truth about Britain’s feral youth: Small core of youngsters commit
staggering 86 crimes by age 16

By Rebecca Camber, Crime Reporter

PUBLISHED: 11:30 EST, 24 June 2012 | UPDATED: 11:30 EST, 24 June 2012

A tiny band of delinquents who commit around 86 crimes by the age of
16 are responsible for the majority of youth offending, according to a
study.

It also found that nearly half of juvenile offences can be traced back
to a small number of thugs who make up less than 4 per cent of the
teenage population.

The research by Cambridge University has been hailed as a
ground-breaking study into Britain’s feral youth as it suggests for
the first time that it is not opportunity which makes the thief, it is
morality.

A tiny group of young delinquents are responsible for the majority of
youth offending according to a study by Cambridge University

A tiny group of young delinquents are responsible for the majority of
youth offending according to a study by Cambridge University (picture
posed by models)

While the majority of schoolchildren know the difference between right
and wrong, it was a tiny minority of 3.8 per cent of teenagers who
were judged to have no morals that committed 47 per cent of the 16,000
juvenile crimes studied.

This small group was responsible for the most serious property crimes
such as burglaries, robberies and car theft.

Many of them were serial offenders who had begun committing crime
before the age of 12 and were considered ‘highly versatile in their
criminality’, regularly committing acts of violence, vandalism and
shoplifting.

More...
>> Cameron to axe housing benefits for feckless under 25s as he
>> declares war on welfare culture
>> Why criminals believe in heaven: People who trust in redemption
>> more likely to break the law than those who think there's a hell

Researchers studied 700 teenagers over five years from the age of 12
to 16 in Peterborough, which was chosen for its average size, crime
level and social make-up.

...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... ge-16.html

[aedens]

Make them Texas rangers or hang them was a solution some time back. Liberals have no viable solution as they only take money.
Restitution is give back. Morality is like gravity since without it nothing works. Educated beyond usefullness as they collapse.
They understood back then that if teen agers got shot for being stupid no one would be on Earth. Agenda can at times can be good and
sometimes bad. As they confront "cry" you are being flanked. The nonconformist liberal studies understand the Alpha dominant
will destory themselves, but not fast enough for the nuture and nature they proclaim as utopian fabian stratagem. Frankly most
Americans are sick of both camps. Same issue as the EPA capture by science on the carbon tax. Follow the commodity chain and
who regulates export. True regional acid rain was real, and layered to regulatory cargo cult capture today. Also true one
scientist calculated one lower volcano and calculated it was the same as 100,000 years of the industrial age. The current EPA cult
are baseless and rogue. Just remember also who rebuilt Germany after the first war.

[vincecate]

Maybe it is the times they live through that make them heroes, not the parenting they received, or did not receive.

It is the world of danger and desperation that they inherit, not just the moral values that were passed on to them by previous generations, that brings out the strength, determination and toughness in the survivors. My father's brother went through the same war and remained drunk after he got out of the war until he drove a car into a river. One, of my mother's brothers, flew a fighter plane into the ocean during a training exercise in England during WWII. They were not all strong enough, tough enough, or lucky enough to survive.

Yes. War does make for a survival of the fittest situation. The early airplane designers also test flew their designs. Bad designers were eliminated. War certainly does this too. During a war you won't see someone survive and rise to the top of command just because he is good at BS or reading a teleprompter.

[Reality Check]

Maybe it is the times they live through that make them heroes, not the parenting they received, or did not receive ...

Yes. War does make for a survival of the fittest situation. The early airplane designers also test flew their designs. Bad designers were eliminated. War certainly does this too. During a war you won't see someone survive and rise to the top of command just because he is good at BS or reading a teleprompter.

Which brings us back to the point of judging the current "Hero Generation".

It may be a little early to judge the current "Hero Generation". In the case of my parent's hero generation families: two siblings from each family volunteered for military service in World War II, but 8 siblings in those two families did not volunteer and did not serve. Half of the those four who did volunteer did not survive the experience.

The two that did survive would have been judged very favorably by any objective standard and they set the standard for all of their siblings and peers.

So it may be just a little early to judge the current Hero generation. But enjoy them while you can because some of them will not survive the coming troubles and you may not either.

[Higgenbotham]

Reminds me, I rented to a man years ago who was of the Hero generation and had served in the Army for 20 years, including WWII. He was dying and died in my house. He told me a lot about his experiences. Two things I remember. One, he told me they killed their own soldiers that they deemed useless and a threat to the group (unable to pull their weight). Two, if a guy was injured real bad instead of trying to save him they would sometimes finish him off with a bullet.

[Reality Check]

Reminds me, I rented to a man years ago who was of the Hero generation and had served in the Army for 20 years, including WWII. He was dying and died in my house. He told me a lot about his experiences. Two things I remember. One, he told me they killed their own soldiers that they deemed useless and a threat to the group (unable to pull their weight). Two, if a guy was injured real bad instead of trying to save him they would sometimes finish him off with a bullet.

Your point ?

[Higgenbotham]

Reminds me, I rented to a man years ago who was of the Hero generation and had served in the Army for 20 years, including WWII. He was dying and died in my house. He told me a lot about his experiences. Two things I remember. One, he told me they killed their own soldiers that they deemed useless and a threat to the group (unable to pull their weight). Two, if a guy was injured real bad instead of trying to save him they would sometimes finish him off with a bullet.

Your point ?

Not sure I can draw any conclusions beyond that.

One conclusion could be that war is a time when people deemed to be less fit are culled (even by their own peer group who would probably know best who can carry their weight).

But another conclusion could be that natural killers survive and spread their genes after the war and that's why killing never stops.

Mainly the point was that I was told this happened from someone who I deemed to be a reliable source because some of what he told me I was able to check and it was true. And I think what he said would surprise a lot of people.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/22/us/8- ... wanted=all

"Don't forget to turn off the water heater."

[Reality Check]

Mainly the point was that I was told this happened from someone who I deemed to be a reliable source because some of what he told me I was able to check and it was true. And I think what he said would surprise a lot of people.
"Don't forget to turn off the water heater."

I doubt you would have been "able to check" the part of the story that you believe "would surprise a lot of people".

But let's assume that 100% of your house guest's story was true.

If he were the regulator in charge of banks in the United States during the financial crisis I would be willing to bet that a lot fewer of those bankers, regulators and rating agency managers responsible for this ongoing crisis would still be doing the same things today.

And that, in my humble opinion, would be a good thing.

[Higgenbotham]

I doubt you would have been "able to check" the part of the story that you believe "would surprise a lot of people".

I've never seen or heard any other accounts of Americans killing their fellow soldiers during World War 2. Though I had read some of the Soviets doing so, I thought. A little digging brought this up:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Did_soviet_ge ... n_soldiers

Now as far as what I was able to check from this guy. He said he survived the Battle of Osan (Korea) where he was one of seven American troops who came out alive. Some years later, he opened up a locked trunk and took out a Certificate of Valor issued by the Army describing the facts as he had told me which of course my inclination was not to believe the story when I heard it. War stories are like big fish stories as far as I'm concerned. The second thing he told me as that he transported enemy soldiers and later I saw some evidence of that but don't remember what it was. The third thing he told me was that after the war he cleaned mines off the beach in Okinawa and got some bad sunburns. Later, when he had surgery on his forehead for skin cancer that reminded me of his story and the fact that it might be true. He didn't stay at my house; he rented a separate house and I talked to him maybe a couple hours per month over a period of 10 years.

[Higgenbotham]

In World War I, World War II, and Korea, the typical fragging took place in the field and for the most part during skirmishes and firefights. An inexperienced or overly zealous lieutenant would be shot by his own men while the platoon or squad was preoccupied with the enemy. The victim would be listed as Killed In Action. The killing generally followed a cold reckoning by the men in the unit that the lieutenant was a danger to them. Albeit ruthless, this type of murder at least can be understood as the result of a life or death assessment.

This is pretty much exactly what my renter told me. He didn't admit it outright, but indicated they had killed fellow soldiers that they considered to be a danger to the unit.

This account states that "fragging" was not considered to be common during World War 2.

http://www.eugenelinden.com/Fragging_an ... ptons.html

I'd never heard of the word "fragging" until today.