Comments for Society and Politics

Comment on Gun Violence Statistics And What They Tell Me by Tarz

Tarz — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:21:45 +0000

Right! I think that the explaination of our fasination with guns becomes a lot less important if someone breaks into your home and threatens your family. I for one would rather have a gun and not use it that not have it.
I often wonder about gun control folks, the celebrites and politicos among them speak against guns then hire men with guns to protect them. Maybe not considering that the regular people have a right to protect themselves too, but can't afford a bodyguard.
People who commit crimes simply don't care about gun laws. And, does anyone really think that a shooter intent on killing people and himself first considers the legality of using a gun?
If all the guns in the US were taken away were made unlawful, if every gun were found and destroyed, criminals would be ok with that, because they would simply make some, and regular people would have none. A fortune would be made selling homemade guns to stoners and such.
Guns are not very hard to make and you can bet enterprising criminals would learn fast.Crimes of passion or emotion will continue with or without guns.
It seems to me that anti-gun people are honest in their beliefs, but not so much in their thinking.

Comment on Quick Notes On WikiLeaks by @klintron

@klintron — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:32:43 +0000

I could be wrong, but I don't think the last 15,000 were necessarily in chronological order, and there are were war docs released from as recent as the end of 2009 (when Obama was president). That's probably as late as they have files. My guess is that the "insurance file" is the other 15,000, un-redacted in case something interrupts their process before they are done redacting names. (But of course it would be more fun if it were something else.)

Comment on Quick Notes On WikiLeaks by Rick Shaw

Rick Shaw — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:41:01 +0000

Very good point…we'll certainly have a better idea of potentially nefarious motives once the remaining documents are released. If they come back a scathing reflection of poor management even under Obama then we can further suspect manipulation (i.e. it could be argued that WikiLeaks was convinced to time the release of the final 15,000 documents to coincide with a political agenda).

I hope to be wrong, because I want to believe in the idea of WikiLeaks.

Comment on Quick Notes On WikiLeaks by @klintron

@klintron — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:08:51 +0000

I'm not sure how withholding 15,000 documents for harm minimization is "cherry picking." And as for the timing, Wikileaks has never claimed to be impartial. They are openly anti-war.

Comment on Quick Notes On WikiLeaks by @klintron

@klintron — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:33:52 +0000

I'm not sure what you're referring to as "cherry picking" in that link. Are you referring to the other 15,000 documents they've yet to leak?

Comment on Quick Notes On WikiLeaks by whoever anywhere

whoever anywhere — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:20:53 +0000

here is a recommendation about the other side of the total transparency expectation. http://shortlinks.de/0719 (no idea if the html will work here, i'll try: click.

Comment on NYC Mosque Near Ground Zero; Let It Be by Rick Shaw

Rick Shaw — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 15:27:00 +0000

The New York Times editorial staff must read my blog. =) They released an article yesterday strikingly similar to this one, though they don't mention how the constitution protects these individuals (you can't say it's obvious because many people these days don't have as solid an understanding of the Constitution as they should). They even conclude their article much the same as I do -- by tying this issue to our identity as Americans.

Comment on NYC Mosque Near Ground Zero; Let It Be by Bret Fisher

Bret Fisher — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:07:43 +0000

Yep, totally agree. I'm not a Muslim "supporter", but allowing any peaceful religion to congregate is something I consider a hallmark of the USA. I think we're mature and "big" enough to understand that the desire for NY locals to worship is not related to terrorists (who didn't live there) who picked a building close by as one of three USA symbols to target.

You know, Dylan Klebold, a Columbine shooter was a practicing Lutheran… should we ban all Christian churches around Columbine, CO? That idea sounds silly, and I'm guessing it's because we've all known tons of good Christian's our whole lives, so that one bad egg didn't affect our overall opinion of Christians. Even though Islam is growing fast in America I think the avg. American knows few if any Muslim's and don't have peaceful Muslim neighbors so they can distinguish between the vast friendly majority and terrorists.

I could care less about the media's role in this event, but listening to CNN yesterday I felt like they were baiting us all on this issue.

Comment on Freedom And Gun Control; Mutually Exclusive Concepts by RickShawMan

RickShawMan — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 14:32:40 +0000

That didn't work for Jamaica or the UK.

Comment on Freedom And Gun Control; Mutually Exclusive Concepts by Toby Simpson

Toby Simpson — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 07:18:00 +0000

i think that gun control should always be imposed at all times to reduce violence.