In the foggy haze of my memory, I recall an infamous incident in which a public figure (congressman?) was caught in a political scandal and rather than stand in the spotlight of humiliation, he shot himself during a press conference. The graphic video of his suicide was played on national news shows for the next couple of days. Does anybody remember the details of this incident or the man’s name?
R. Budd Dwyer. He was the treasurer or something the like for Pennsylvannia and had been indicted on embezzlement charges, I believe.
Do a search for the name given . I did and found the video and story behind it. I’m not posting the link however coz if you want to see this horrible stuff you can find it yourself .
Horrible stuff, eh? That’s plain vanilla. Try spending a year in Viet-Nam and watching that shit all the time except it’s your friends being blown up instead of some crooked government official. When you come back the federal government insists that the experience couldn’t have affected you THAT much, just go home and don’t bother us.
tcburnett, i totally agree with you that how you are affected by things depends a lot on your previous experience. Today we see in the news that they make huge deals out of things that for other generations would be nothing, but such is life. I have great admiration for WWII veterans who fought the war and came back to rebuild the country like nothing had happened. By contrast it seems today everybody is whining about the smallest things. I guess it just depends on your personal experience. I want to gag when they make a huge deal on TV aboout some incident which is truly minor when put in perspective. Americans today do not realize how lucky they are and how easy they have it. (sorry for the hijack)
Hey man, nice shot.
Hey Zar–if you think that kind of shooting is “nice”…show us some “nice shooting” yourself.
Your remark about the tragdey of a human being’s death is totally tasteless. :mad:
Get some class, dude.
Amazing how some people can use the worst experience mankind has thought up as a badge of honor, isn’t it?
Dude. sigh.
Sometimes hard it is
Living in the land
Of the utterly unhip.
That’s why I say, hey man, nice shot
Sad to say but scenes of mass graves, bombings, etc. leave me somewhat unaffected. Guess I’ve become jaded for having seen it so many times on the news.
Not so with executions, suicides caught “live” so to speak, and later broadcast. I know what’s going to happen. And I cringe when I see it. Fascinated by the horror of it. That’s exactly how I felt when I saw the Dwyer video. TV news did not show the final seconds, cut to sound only… which was even more chilling.
I later saw the whole video. Not much better, I’m afraid.
I’d take that from one someone who was there with me. Not from you. Don’t make judgements about people or places of which you know nothing. And don’t be nasty. I didn’t start that war and I certainly didn’t enjoy it.
Tomorrow is the Forth of July. Contemplate the fact that you would probably be a British subject paying tea tax if it weren’t for the people who fought and gave what they had to create the United States of America. Apparently you think your libery and freedom are guaranteed by…well, I’m not sure what you think. I don’t suppose this will interest you but have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated. But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt. Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year, he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion and a broken heart. Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates. Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution. These were not wild-eyed, rabble-rousing ruffians, or claimants to a ‘badge of honor’. They were soft-spoken men of means and education. They had security, but they valued liberty more. Standing talk straight, and unwavering, they pledged: “For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” They gave you and me a free and independent America. The history books never told you a lot about what happened in the Revolutionary War. We didn’t fight just the British. We were British subjects at that time and we fought our own government! Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn’t. So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July Holiday and remember the patriots…ALL of the patriots including my lost friends. It’s not much to ask for the price they paid. Freedom is never free and patriotism is not a sin. The Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.
tcburnett, first let me say that I have nothing but utter respect for the fact that you fought for my country, which I love, but where in yojimbo’s post does he make the statement “Watching the video is way worse than being in the Vietnam war?” It seems like you came out of nowhere and virtually attacked him for using the adjective “horrible” to describe a man putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. Incidentally, my father was shot in Vietnam and lost most of the ability to use his left hand. I seldom remember the man talking about the war, even when pressed and am certain he never condescended anyone else’s hardships because of his injury.
tcburnett, thought I’d let you know that I cut out your info about the 56 signers of the D of I and sent it to a few friends. Thanks.
Anyone ever see The Big Lebowski?
I’m sorry you’ve had such bad experiences . I’m also sorry that when I used the word “horrible” , I didn’t consider that people who had fought in wars that my country had nothing to do with ( and before I was born ) might think that for some reason I was referring to them or their experiences . Are there many Germans , Russians , other American Vets , Vietnamese , East Timorese , Bosnia’s , British , French , Italians , Spanish , Turkish , Cambodians and a myriad of other nationalities that have felt the pain of war posting on this board ? I would not like to offend them in the same way . :rolleyes:
BTW . IMHO seeing a man put a gun in his mouth and blow his brains all over a wall . Fall to the floor and have blood pump for his head and nose is horrible and I didn’t post a link because a link to another horrible image was deleted by the Admin. the other day .
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=29475
I’ve been seeing that paragraph that tcburnett quotes about the signers of the Declaration of Independence a lot lately. A search gives over 100 versions of it on the Internet. Has anybody independently verified the accuracy of the statement? Excuse me for being cynical, but whenever I see something quoted endlessly with no attribution I get suspicious. (A verification consists of something other than “I found this website with the same quotation”.)
Wendell: I have also seen it make the rounds of several chat rooms, in each case giving credit to a member of some other discussion board. But I’ve never seen an “official” source mentioned. tc found it could reinforce the point he was making; I guess it would have been more appropriate to “preface” it in some way or another.
Unless he is the author, of course!
[to continue the hijack]
Don’t know if the above facts are true but I know what the British did to the seven signatories of my country’s Proclamation of Independence.
[end of me hijacking]
I don’t know about the origins of that “Signers of the D of I” spiel, either, but Snopes has a thing or three to say about it. They also link to what appears to be a bulletin board post which does a point-by-point debunking of it.
By the way, tcburnett, if you’re going to post something like that, it might be a good idea to mention that it came from a web page or e-mail or whatever. The original author being unknown, I don’t think there’s any copywrite issues, but it couldn’t hurt.
Boy, don’t I feel silly?