I just didn't want you to go on some sort of p*rn-searching rampage. It'll only end in tears. Well, *something* would end up in Kleenex, anyway.
www.bangbus.com? I have trouble believing any of those women would risk their lives the way they are doing on those videos. Getting in a van with strangers for $50? I think most of them have to be prostitutes.
Sorry that you had friends kill themselves, but that doesn't change what the act of suicide is. It is a selfish cowardly act. I went through crap in my life for a long time and I thought about killing myself, but I knew I could never do it. Suicide is giving up on life and deciding not to fight anymore in cases of depression or desperation or whatever. If you commit suicide if you have a terminal illness that causes suffering then I can see why someone would do that. However, killing yourself as a way to get out of life's problems is a joke. In this climber guy's case he is just dumb. Sorry if that offends people, but it's true. He is just as dumb as the suicide bombers in Israel. If this was a political statement then maybe he should have thought about it more before he said something. Maybe he could have made a statement about the corruption and poor government that exists in many Muslim nations as a reason for their suffering. If he was truly mentally ill as someone said then that does change the situation, but any sane person who kills themself in an attempt to make a political statement over something like Iraq is stupid. Maybe someone should have been making a political statement by killing themselves over attacking Milosevic. There were Muslims involved there who we helped save through the use of force and regime change. I am ranting now...but if this guy was sane and making a political statement then he is just dumb and I would say that to anyone's face.
OK I'm going to speak in this thread, although I don't really feel like it. I knew Ryan. I was a few years ahead of him in school, so I only knew him through his brothers. I played football with the eldest and graduated with the middle brother. When I went back to visit the place I met Ryan a couple times and he was a very nice guy. Quiet and unassuming, he basically blended into the crowd. Having said that, I must say that I find his death terribly disturbing. The fact that he felt that he could do this with absoutely no thought of his personal safety is sickening. While I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to laugh either. I'll probably just shake my head and think about the kid I knew and the family he left behind. I don't know what exactly he was trying to accomplish with this stunt but no statement, be it political, social, or religious, was worth the cost he paid. Rest easy Ryan, and I hope your family is able to cope with this tragic situation.
Am I the only person who thought that line was priceless. I'm still chuckleing and I don't even know what a chuckle really is. Anyways, it's a shame when somebody died, especially for the family of said person. I don't feel too bad because in this case, not climbing up the side of a skyscraper bare handed would have prevented this death. Hopefully, in the coming days, his motives will become clear to the public. A little digging will explain a lot.
You can get all the bangbus videos on Morpheus. Uhhh... not that I have them myself... a friend told me.. yeah, that's it! whew.. Anyway, yeah, I think they're mostly staged. Then again, there are some really stupid people out there, so who knows.
rocks_fan, Oski the report is it was suicide. look in this thread for the Chronicle article link that Rocketman95 posted. also, I guess, by Jeff's statement, that I'm the only person he ever said "**** you" to. oh, well, stands to reason that two 11k posters would have their cat fight. that said, you guys should go see his band this weekend. I've seen him play, and it is well worth it. I'm still afraid to meet Mrs JB, though. lastly, I agree with Batman Jones. This was a mental illness suicide. There is a lot about suicide that is a disease. You can enter a state of a completely different personality where you need to be saved moreso than you are actually trying to escape something. Trying to escape involves more normal reasoning than exists in a lot of suicides. Some can be planned and thought out, but not all. but in the end, saying a suicide resulting from long periods of mental illness is cowardly and selfish is to simplified for me. It seems more of a hurtful, selfish or protective statement from the victims or friends of the victims, than anything else. In mental illness, the suicide brings us all a little bit too close to the state of mind that the person lived with than most of us want to go. The pain of the loss is enough, and it seems sometimes we lash out in a "why did you do that," "how could you do it" almost in a manner of not wanting to know diseases can produce such human vulnerabilities and being upset that you are having to comprehend it. The way I deal with suicide is to support the survivors just like any other death. I feel I have no right to pass judgement or disrepect the person by calling them a coward...and it serves no purpose to even speak those words...other than as a carthartic venting by the closest survivors.
"No hero in your tragedy No daring in your escape No salutes for your surrender Nothing noble in your fate Christ, what have you done?" I think that describes suicide pretty well.
Well, first of all he did have a history of depression and mental illness according to all accounts. If that makes him dumb in your book, I'm just glad I don't know you. Cause you sound like a prick. Disagree with the suicide bombers all you like. I know I do. But calling their acts cowardly is the top of simpleminded parroting. Bill Maher was right. Call them anything but cowardly. They died for something they believed in. Again I understand the reactionary instinct to be mad at a suicide. But when someone has become so sad and so desperate that the only way they can figure out of it is to die, and when their loved ones can only react with anger at the person who was so sad, well, we have a different opinion about who's being selfish. I don't believe suicide is in any way heroic. But it is absolutely a courageous act. Nothing takes more courage than deciding to die. And calling it cowardly is softheaded. dimsie: I think you know I love Bill Hicks. He never joked about specific people who'd died of sadness, though. In the bit you cited the group he parodied was the stuff of urban myth, deployed by the just say no crowd to justify stupid drug laws. He never made fun of suicide. That was more Howard Stern's speed. Bill Hicks was angry and cynical but he wasn't mean. That said, I think anything's fair game. If you're gonna joke though, make a good joke. Hicks did. Stern didn't. And if you're gonna get upset about a suicide, be upset first for the pain your loved one was going through. It was the worst possible pain. The loss of the friends and family, while significant and real, pales by comparison.
I generally agree with the gist of your post, but: Elvis Presley. Merciless. Hilarious. And if that wasn't a man who died of sadness...
No it's because they knew they couldn't win. These guys are total candy a$$es. If you want to fight, well stand in front of me and fight. Don't be a sissy and hit me when I'm not looking then not be around to get yours. Say waht you want but if suicide bombers are so brave why don't their fellow brothers who organized the thing stand up and fight. Easy answer they are afraid. Great to see how Brave all the brothers of Al Queda were. These guys hide in caves and get innocent civilians killed because they are too COWARDLY to stand and fight.
I agree with this. It’s sad that such a young and physically healthy person died this way. + Dimsie: You could be a Quebecois with a name like that, or an Acadian, or perhaps a Cajun? That would explain some of the spice, that the Maori ancestry of course.
this is crazy! I just got an inkling to search for any news relevant to my friends death years ago and one of the top google returns was my favorite site on the net! I know this thread is like 6 years old but I don't really care... this guy who died was a friend of mine. I've been climbing for over 13 years now and I've been on several trips with Ryan, and at the time of his death I probably knew him for about 7 years. He was unbelievably skilled at climbing... for anyone who is in the know, the guy could climb grades as hard as v13/5.14 which is world class elite. I do believe that he intended to make it to the top of the tower that day and not die. But he knew the possibility of death was possible so he wrote a note to leave a message behind... the message was that the war in Iraq would be the next Vietnam and it wasn't worth it. Thats more or less what it said... it wasn't some pro Muslim manifesto or whatever. The guy just got tired... you could see him shaking his arms out and whatnot trying to rest them, but he just couldn't hold on anymore so he let go... simple as that. I'll never forget the day it happened... It was in the morning and I was outside at the outdoor basketball courts at UH just shooting around and my girlfriend at the time came out and told me... it was sad. PEACE
How can you be so sure? My understanding is they were trying to talk him in from an open window and he had the option of talking to them/being pulled in if he were really tired. Plus, why would a guy leave a note talking about the Iraq war in his pocket? Why wouldn't the note say something along the lines of "if you are reading this, then i have died. my intent was not to kill myself...but i did want to draw attention to the fact that i think the iraq war is wrong...blah blah blah". How can we even assume this guy was climbing the building as part of enjoying climbing and/or doing it for sports-related reasons and/or just doing it to say he did it...especially when he carries a political note in his pocket? I think your friend might have had a screw or two loose.
