Former Kansas City Star sports writer Martin Manley killed himself yesterday morning outside a police station in Overland Park, Kansas.
Before his death, Manley created a massive website that attempts to explain why he committed suicide. It also involves a rant about 9/11 conspiracy theorists and opinions on everything from food to sports.
“No, I wasn’t fully satisfied with my life, but I was fully satisfied with my death!” the intro page to his site says.
He also left supposed GPS coordinates to his gold fortune, but police confirmed that it was a hoax.
“I’ve planned to end my own life for as long as I remember,” he wrote. He claims he sent his friends and family personalized suicide letters yesterday morning, and decided to create the website so that his life and death wouldn’t be forgotten.
So why’d he do it?
He says that none of “the major reasons adults commit suicide” apply to him. But he cites looming economic collapse, an increased amount of general suffering in the world, and the challenges of old age as reasons.
Archived From His Site:
911 & Conspiracy theories:
In 2004, I was in Sarasota, Florida. While there, I stopped by Booker Elementary school. This is where President Bush was when informed that planes had hit the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. If you don’t remember it, while Bush is sitting in with some elementary kids and their teacher, an aide comes in and whispers in his ear. Bush continued on with the pre-planned event for a few more minutes. You can easily google the video.
The two pictures below show the door (top) through which Bush entered the room and the wall (bottom) which was the backdrop for the video.
I went by the school to inquire about it, but it was in the summer and nobody was right there to answer any questions. Unlike most schools in the north, all these school rooms have outside entrances. Being summer, they were locked. However, quite a few of the rooms can be accessed from each other. All you have to do is find one room open to the outside and then you can get to any of them. When I got inside, I saw documentation that indicated which room was the room. If you watch the video closely, you can tell it is the room.
The morning of 911, I was watching CNBC. At the time I was heavily involved in investing in the markets and they had just opened. Within minutes, there was a report of a plane hitting the World Trade Center so I switched to CNN. Before long, it was on every channel. I called one of my friends (Joe) who was watching it and we were on the phone together for over two hours – most of the time just dazed.
I consider it the worst day of my life even though I didn’t know anyone personally that was affected. At our church, we drew names of victims to pray for their families. Our family drew Deborah Welsh, age 49 – the same age as I was at the time. She was a flight attendant on the plane that went down in the Pennsylvania field near Shanksville.
I can’t imagine going through another 911 attack. Since I expect things to happen that will dwarf the misery of that day, I’m glad I won’t be around to see them.
And… THE RANT
As you probably know, some nut jobs believe Bush was aware of the attacks well in advance and did nothing to prevent them. Some NJs actually go farther to believe Bush and the government sponsored the attacks.
Of course, there are many conspiracy theories about 911. It never ceases to amaze me how otherwise seemingly rational people can be so IRrational about some things. I don’t know if these conspiracies all began with JFK’s assassination and man’s landing on the moon in the 1960’s or if those just happen to be the oldest conspiracies which blossomed in the NJs’ internet minds a few decades later. Either way, if we were living in the 1890’s, the buzz would be the Civil War never happened, that it was recreated on a sound stage. The whole mindset of these people is bizarre, to say the least.
Conspiracy theorists don’t want to face obvious questions. Somehow, they would rather revel in the excitement of the mystery of what is (or might be) happening in some secret room. Presumably, it confirms their belief that they are smarter, or at least more perceptive, than the masses – when, in actuality, the masses are LTA’sO.
They will tell you that the government brought down the towers as opposed to the planes and that a missile hit the Pentagon rather than a plane. Never mind that every piece of evidence shows that it was one of the hijacked airliners. Never mind that if it had been a missile, the crew and passengers of the missing jet have done the greatest job of hiding out over the past 12 years since Amelia Earhart. A real life Lost series, a never ending X-File.
If you try to explain in rational terms why what they believe cannot be true, their eyes gloss over as though they are being spoken to in another language. These are arguments the NJs will never ask themselves because it causes them to think – and that can be painful when they aren’t used to it.
It reminds me of the old Lost In Space episode where the robot starts asking itself questions. Before long, it gets stuck in a circular line of reasoning and the poor fella ends up frying his brain. “Warning, warning. That does not compute!” I’m afraid that’s what would happen if they allowed a little common sense to seep into their world.
The latest of these are the revelations about the government listening in on phone calls as part of the process of discovering terrorist activity and heading it off before it happens. I’m sure there are millions of people out there that actually wonder who is listening in on the other end of the line or reading their emails or tracking their internet usage. If you are one of them, here is a little statistic for you.
There are, at most, a few thousand people that might be involved in monitoring this information and attempting to make heads or tails out of it with respect to threats against the United States. Considering there are 300 million Americans that are sending emails, text messages, phone conversations, faxes and God knows what all… all day long, it would take…
…listen up… 10 MILLION people monitoring all this data to be able to analyze and evaluate it. That’s over 3,000 times as many people as are involved in the process. It’s IMPOSSIBLE. The odds that anything you or I have ever said or written will be analyzed by these people are miniscule.
I’ve often wondered whether these people check under the bed before they hit the hay? Do they refuse to own a cell phone just in case somebody is sending silent waves through it to give them brain cancer? “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” Sad, very sad.
Gun Control:
Considering the fact that I used a gun to take care of business, I felt I was suddenly qualified to discuss the issue of gun control. Up until now, I was just another bozo with an opinion. Ah, but no longer. Now, I’m a dead bozo with an opinion.
The massacre of 20 small children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut was perhaps the worst thing I had heard of in the United States – at least since 911. I don’t cry much, but I cried over that a lot. Even as I type this, tears are in my eyes. Even as I proof this for the 20th time, tears are in my eyes. This horrific act was made possible by the availability of guns which are designed for one purpose only – taking life on a massive scale.
I did a story on the shooting at Newtown a few days after it happened on SportsInReview.com. It wasn’t related to sports, but it was related to me – and it was my site, so I could do whatever I wanted and… I wanted to talk about it. Here are a few of my thoughts at the time.
I went out target-shooting a few weeks before the Newton tragedy with family members and the trigger of one of my guns broke leaving me with one gun. The problem with the second gun was that after every shot, the cartridge would get stuck in the chamber and I had to pry it out. It was pathetic. They were both 22-caliber and I theoretically owned them for self-protection. Of course, I kept them in a plastic fishing tackle box in the trunk of my car so if someone broke into my house, the guns wouldn’t have done me much good – even if they worked. Consequently, even if I had them in my hands, they would be a hundred times more valuable as defensive weapons if I simply threw them at the intruder. So, I’m not a “gun guy”. Nevertheless, I lived in Kansas and I was a lot more sympathetic with the idea of owning a gun than perhaps those on the east or west coast.
Naturally, when I got down to the last weeks of my life and decided the best way to end it was with a gun… I had to obtain one. I sure couldn’t use either of the pieces of crap that I already owned. So, I got what I needed – a 380 – which I think is/was a lot more likely to do the job – even apart from the fact that neither of the other two 22’s worked.
I never bought into the whole “second amendment” argument as it relates to the 21st century. Originally, it was put into place for the simple reason that our forefathers were fighting or had just fought off a government that threatened them with weapons. If those in the revolution had no weapons, there would be no United States of America, but rather New England of the New World. So, I understood why they thought it was so important.
And, I also comprehended the need to make sure that our government could never take over our citizenry – although they already have accomplished that via fiscal irresponsibility. But, with respect to force, the fact is that there are so many different levels of law enforcement from the military on down that it’s IMPOSSIBLE for government to take over this country by force. The reason why, besides the fact that they are bozos, is because every single Highway Patrolman or National Guardsman or Secret Serviceman or Air Force Pilot or Army Grunt is somebody’s brother or sister or mother or father or son or daughter. They aren’t all going to suddenly decide to start killing off or jailing millions of Americans. And, the reason why is because… that’s who they are – Americans. Besides, the odds are they feel more strongly about the second amendment than you do!
If a person simply wants to look at the “government” as some mysterious nebulous entity, then that’s fine, but also ignorant. There is simply no way on earth that all of the law enforcement organizations including the military are going to band together to go throughout the country and confiscate weapons or anything else. That’s just paranoid nonsense.
Because I’ve considered it nonsense, I did not subscribe to the notion that anyone needs to personally own combat weapons. I couldn’t even comprehend why it was ok for a civilian to own anything beyond 1-2 hand guns and 1-2 hunting rifles or shotguns. Semi-automatic rifles with large magazines – which is what the killer used at Sandy Hook, are for what possible good? Well, I guess if we didn’t know before, we sure know now what they are good for. Limiting these types of weapons hardly takes away the “rights” granted by the constitution or protection against tyranny. Rather it takes away the extremes – something the founders of the constitution could never have even remotely imagined.
Everyone I knew was always very responsible with their weapons. But, is everyone that owns a weapon 100% sure that everyone they know is 100% responsible? From all reports, Nancy Lanza was an outstanding citizen, a giving friend, neighbor and mother. She was a very responsible adult… with a hobby. That seems innocuous enough. The scary part is that there are surely a thousand or a hundred thousand or a million Nancy Lanzas out there. And, it only takes one Nancy Lanza with an irresponsible acquaintance or family member to bring a country to it knees as did Adam Lanza in Newtown.
It’s questionable whether anything can be done to protect us against another Newtown outside of making society a police state and that’s a reflection of everything we are not. But, if there were no automatic weapons or if there were restrictions on sizes of magazines, the death toll at Newtown would have been a lot smaller.
I’ve always been about freedom. Freedom is what makes us special, but it also makes us vulnerable. In theory, we could have our cake and eat it too, but we’ve long ago abdicated that ability and our $17 Trillion debt – which is spiraling out of control, makes us incapable of putting enough band-aids on the problems we face.
I was fully appreciative of the argument that society may well deteriorate into every man for himself when the US economy inevitably collapses and that’s when you really need self-protection. Fine. But, if automatic weapons did not exist, you would still be able to defend yourself just fine with hand guns, rifles and shotguns. You just couldn’t enter a movie theater or a school or a sporting event and wipe out 100 people.
The bottom line is the NRA doesn’t want to lose membership dues and gun companies don’t want to lose profits. It’s that simple. Nobody would lack for protection in this country if all automatic weapons and large magazines were outlawed. And nobody would be threatened if everyone who owns a gun were required to register it.
There’s my two cents. I no longer have a stake in the game so let the chips fall where they may. I can only say that I am thrilled not to be around to see it!
LotterIES Ripoff:
This isn’t about sports. It’s about odds. And, it’s about sanity. As you probably know. even if you’ve never spent a cent on the lottery (like me), the Powerball Jackpot is up to $500 million dollars and the odds of someone winning tonight are over 90%. This is going to be the second highest payout ever behind a $646M jackpot from the Mega Millions last year (split three ways with a winner in Kansas, Illinois and Maryland). I’m not going to tell you what to do, but you should know at least one thing before you fork over your hard-earned money.
I always wondered whether or not it would make cents to spend $2 on a lottery ticket if the pot grew large enough. The theory being that there was a lot of “old” money in the pot that had already been lost by the bozos who tried to win already. This is, by my way of thinking, the benefit of a “progressive lottery” because if you simply waited to play until the pot was huge, it might be true that you could actually get $1+ return for every $1 you spent. At that point, it would be free entertainment and I might consider “playing”.
So, I finally decided to research it. I can tell you right now that if you’ve ever wondered the same thing… forget about it. It’s a scam no matter how big the size of the pot is. In fact, once it surpasses about $400M, your return on your $1 investment actually begins to decline. The reason being that the number of gamblers increases at a logarithmic rate the higher it goes. And, the more tickets sold, the odds of splitting it multiple ways increases dramatically.
I can’t criticize anyone for spending money on whatever it is that gives them a thrill. Personally, I wouldn’t waste a cent on anything in which the reward was monetary because the system is ALWAYS designed to win in the long run. For every dollar you give them, you get back 90 cents on a slot machine and progressively less depending on the form of gambling. The house always wins and so do the states that support this legalized raping and pillaging of middle and lower-income Americans. It is, without a doubt, the most regressive form of tax there is. You can be smart enough not to participate, but if money is no real issue to you and you find it fun to “play”, go for it.
I suspect, or at least hope, anyone reading this – meaning anyone who typically reads what I write – would not also be one to “play” the lottery. It’s a scam in every conceivable way in which something could be called a scam. If you tried to set it up personally, you would be thrown in jail because you would be, essentially, stealing. But, the hypocrisy of government allows it to get away with stealing. Of course, that’s become the bidness of gubment, so why should I be surprised? I’m not. In fact, as time has gone on, I’m just surprised they haven’t been smart enough to figure out more ways to pull the wool over our (your?) eyes.
The lottery begins on the premise that it will never give away 100% of what it is given. Not even close. But, it’s far more sinister than that. Even if you win, you only get 26 years of payments despite the fact the dollar you gave them was priced in TODAY’s terms. Add the 40% you lose to Uncle Sam and your state from taxes despite the fact the dollar you gave them was AFTER TAX 99% of the time, and already you are only getting 50 cents on the dollar.
But, as I said, I wanted to know about progressive pots that keep building based upon “old” money that was already lost from previous attempts at striking gold.
I found a great website that discusses this very issue. The guy’s name is Jeremy Elson and here is his site.
His math and logic are impeccable IMO. Without going through all his steps (read them if you so desire), you have to factor in net present value, taxes and ties. And, after that, you have to evaluate the progressive pot issue based upon the increased number of tickets sold.
As he nears the end of his discussion, he shows a graph. And, on that graph, it indicates the return on your dollar grows until the pot gets to about $400 million. After that, it begins going back down. But, even at the peak of about $400M, you are only going to see about 69 cents on the dollar. If the lottery were to grow to say $700 million, your return would drop to only 45 cents on the dollar. Even casinos in Vegas would go to jail for that return!
This is nothing more than a HUGE scam perpetrated upon people who either 1) believe in “luck” or 2) are ignorant of simple issues related to probability or 3) simply want to “play” and feel that a few bucks every week is small potatoes.
But, I also think it is related to a mentality that has seemingly overcome this nation whereby we want that which we have not earned. Thus, credit card debt as well as all debt is out of control – and it is led by the Federal Government. Millions of people believe they can be a winner and, if not them, then who?
There are dozens of good analogies trying to explain the odds of winning and getting a fantastic (sarcasm) return of somewhere around 50 cents on the dollar. Should you decide that you want to throw away money for no other reason than ignorance or “fun”, your chances are about the same as if someone had put pennies one right after the other from Los Angeles to Chicago. One of them has an X written on the back. You come down from outer space and with one chance, pick the one with an X. Good luck.
I can never think about this whole lottery issue without remembering an experience I had in a grocery store in Topeka, Kansas about 20 years ago. I was behind a woman who was checking out. Once her total had been determined, she asked for five tickets of some kind. They were a dollar apiece. The cashier gave her the tickets and then began checking me out. As my stuff was being scanned, I was watching her. The first ticket she scratched off was obviously a loser. She just discarded it. The same for the second, third and fourth. Finally, she came to the fifth ticket, scratched and let out an excited yelp (or whatever it is called when women win something). The cashier asked her what she had won. “I won two bucks!” she said with glee on her face.
Well, I just couldn’t resist. I’m sorry, but I’m not wired to let stupidity go without doing something to arrest it – not to mention make fun of it. I looked at her and said, “Maam, if you want another thrill, just give me $5 and I’ll give you $2 back in winnings. And, I’ll do it all day long!” She looked at me like a deer in the headlights. Frankly, I don’t know if she had never put two and two together before or if she just couldn’t believe anyone would be so negative as to bring her down off her high. Either way, she was, and almost certainly still is, a moron!
Unfortunately, there will be millions of morons throwing money away all day today not realizing they are handing the person a dollar and, on average based upon $500M, getting 62 cents in return.