Skip to content
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

  • Home
  • Books
  • Videos
  • Bio
  • Archives
  • Links
  • Me-Mail
Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

So Sad

June 13, 2016June 13, 2016

A friend turned 21 this month and flew from New York to Disney World to celebrate.

Finally old enough to drink, Pulse was on his short list for Saturday night.

He and his friends decided to do something else.

One of his college classmates did go to the bar that night and was murdered.

So senseless.  So sad.  So tragic.

The murderer was suicidal and, basically, insane — as are any willing followers of ISIS.  Either they literally think they’ll be rewarded with 72 virgins (not raisins or Virginians) and eternal paradise — which is nuts* — or they so hate their lives, their failure, their inability to find meaning or happiness, that they explode.

Or both.

Fortunately, it is a near infinitesimal percentage of people who do.  But when each can wreak so much carnage, and the carnage is intentional — unlike the 100 Americans routinely killed on highways each day — it consumes us.

As it should.

Trump blames the President for not using torture and killing the families of terrorists — and other unspecified means — to defeat ISIS.  The President won’t even use the words Trump and others want him to.

But if you feel that way about the words, or know others who do, I commend to you these four minutes. Fareed Zakaria makes clear how dangerous that path would be.  Watch, and let me know what you think.  Ask your friends to, as well.

But for now, what else is there to say?

So senseless.  So sad.  So tragic.


*Virgins, raisins, Virginians: all equally nuts.  The story of Scientology — taken literally?  Nuts.  The possibility that God literally parted the Red Sea for the Jews, all of a sudden, as in the movie?  Nuts.  That Jesus literally walked on water or that every Mormon gets his own planet? Nuts. As the brilliant unschooled Ugandan woman says near the end of The Book of Mormon — embracing her new faith yet rolling her eyes that these white missionaries, now disillusioned, could ever have believed the story literally — eeet eeeez a MEH-ta-phor!

 

Post navigation

← It Won’t Be Trump
The President’s Speech →

Quote of the Day

"We've forgotten all the sacrifices that the people who've gone before us made to give us this wonderful life that we have. We accept it; we take it for granted; we think it's our birthright. The facts are, it's precious, it's fragile -- it can disappear."

Ross Perot, 1988

Subscribe

 Advice

The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need

"So full of tips and angles that only a booby or a billionaire could not benefit." -- The New York Times

Help

MYM Emergency?

Too Much Junk?

Tax Questions?

Ask Less

Recent Posts

  • Stuffing The Goose

    June 30, 2025
  • Yes! (Plus A Bonus)

    June 29, 2025
  • How Does THAT Make You Feel . . .

    June 27, 2025
  • Randi, David, Ken, and HYMC

    June 26, 2025
  • Six Links For Your Consideration

    June 25, 2025
  • Weekend Reading

    June 20, 2025
  • Oh, My

    June 18, 2025
  • 3 Quick Clips

    June 17, 2025
  • A Quick Poem

    June 15, 2025
  • Must Read

    June 14, 2025
Andrew Tobias Books
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
©2025 Andrew Tobias - All Rights Reserved | Website: Whirled Pixels | Author Photo: Tony Adams