Random Political Thoughts

[PB the Deplorable]

I am not worried about your chance of survival. You chose to put yourself in harm's way. I am worried about the passerby, next door neighbor, roommate that get shot due to an "accident".

Which is why I chose not to have one in the dorm, in apartment buildings, in a busy city neighborhood, or when the kids were little.  Out here in sleepy suburbia, if someone decides to break in when I'm here - at evenings and nights, on weekends- and the sound of a racking shotgun, or ultimately one pointed at them isn't convincing, it's fairly unlikely there will be others involved in some accident.

The whole idea of having one for defense is to pull it out and not have to use it.  In fact this happens all the time.  I'm not sure how often passersby are accidently shot by people defending themselves - I'm guessing not that often or the Media would be gleefully reporting it... the answer is probably something along the lines of firing the people running our inner city schools, and start to actually educating those kids, and when a violent person is arrested and convicted - leave them in jail until the are well past the violent youth stage of life.  We don't need the continual repeat offenders.

[onan]

Which is why I chose not to have one in the dorm, in apartment buildings, in a busy city neighborhood, or when the kids were little.  Out here in sleepy suburbia, if someone decides to break in when I'm here - at evenings and nights, on weekends- and the sound of a racking shotgun, or ultimately one pointed at them isn't convincing, it's fairly unlikely there will be others involved in some accident.

The whole idea of having one for defense is to pull it out and not have to use it.  In fact this happens all the time.  I'm not sure how often passersby are accidently shot by people defending themselves - I'm guessing not that often or the Media would be gleefully reporting it... the answer is probably something along the lines of firing the people running our inner city schools, and start to actually educating those kids, and when a violent person is arrested and convicted - leave them in jail until the are well past the violent youth stage of life.  We don't need the continual repeat offenders.

You and I agree here. My argument goes to the conceal carry aspect. And I am not against conceal carry. I am very concerned for the lack of training involved in attaining a ccw license. When the Boulder Colorado movie theater shootings occurred, so many stated "if only someone had been armed." The level of naivete in that mindset does concern me greatly. I think home defense is more than understandable even though the actual likelihood of your home in suburbia being invaded is statistically nill.

[West of the Rockies]

It was a releif to know in hindsite Clinton allowed Loreal to sell advanced rocket technology to a corporation controlled the the Chinese Red Army for a few hudred thousand in 'campaign Contributions', instead of purposefully selling us out.  I guess.  Notice China now has a huge market share sending satellites into space and now we have none.

We are hearing about Obama wanting to take away our guns from people that new him as a professor and are tellig us what he said at the time.  We are also watching the Ds accross the country push as many anti-gun laws through as the constituents will tolerate without tossing them out of office.  Plenty of Ds - from those in safe seats, down to just citizens writing letters to the editor - are on record as wanting to eliminate gun ownership.   Are we to believe something other than anti-gun hysteria is at a high, or that Obama is opposed to collecting weapons?  There is an awful lot of smoke, and you're suggesting there is no fire.

The stock market is at an all time high because Helicopter Ben is buying $85 Billion in bonds with newly printed money every month.  The banks were bailed out but are not lending.  Corporations are holding onto their money and not hiring, buying inventory, building warehouses, or buying equipment.  That money has to go somewhere.  Recent history suggests another bubble is forming

Federal tax rates on the highest marginal rate may be low.  The tax rates on what average American's are earning are awfully steep.  A good way to compare is to look at Federal tax revenue as a percentage of GDP or GNP over the years, not at top marginal rates that only apply to the last dollars earned at very high income levels.  A person with a snall business (Sched C) making $100,000, is paying $20, 000 in federal income tax, $15,000 more in FICA and Medicare, plus state income tax, plus sales tax on much of what he buys, plus gas tax, plus property tax if he wons a home or gets passed thru in his rent, plus taxes any that companies are paying that get passed on to him when he buys their products or services, plus any number of smaller niusance taxes.  We are a long, looong way from the 1950s tax levels.

And, oh yeah, he gets to hear how greedy he is, how he didn't build that, and how he needs to be paying his fair share.  And he's on the hook for those very same people who are belittling him for their fat salaries and underfunded pensions.  Is this a great country, or what?

Hey, PB...  See, I note something quite the opposite.  You say there are Dems "across the country" pushing all sorts of restrictive gun laws.  I see the NRA and its supporters pushing with ferocity the idea that we need more guns, that we need to start arming our teachers, and so forth.  Perhaps it's an internet myth (urban ledgend), but I recall just a few days ago reading that some city back east (and south, I believe) has just passed a law requiring its citizens to all own guns.  (I doubt such a law is constitutional, by the way... it's also rather ironic that the people who like such a law probably are apoplectic that Obama is requiring them to purchase health insurance). 

You see the liberals gone wild.  I see the opposite.  Well, at least we agree on some things.  Noory sucks.  Being a father is important work.  Beer is good! 

[stevesh]

Today's Huffington Post main story features the account of 11 children killed in Afghanistan in a NATO air strike, including a large image of seven of the corpses. Three-quarters down the page, below the sports news and the important announcement that Megan Fox has dyed her hair red, is a small headine leading to the story of a 25-year-old US embassy employee in Afghanistan killed in a suicide bombing, wherein the Taliban terrorists are referred to as 'insurgents'.

The people who run the Huffington Post are shameless, contemptible, un-American scum.

[Pragmier]

To their credit, most of the major news outlets have shown restraint and not published that photo of children's corpses. NATO is investigating the allegations they died as a result of an airstrike. Meanwhile, the US embassy employee was one of 6 Americans and 1 Afghan killed by explosions, and that story was buried. The HP updates their website continuously throughout the day, and I wondered if maybe the American deaths had been the lead in a previous edition - but checking here nixed that theory.

[Yorkshire pud]

Today's Huffington Post main story features the account of 11 children killed in Afghanistan in a NATO air strike, including a large image of seven of the corpses. Three-quarters down the page, below the sports news and the important announcement that Megan Fox has dyed her hair red, is a small headine leading to the story of a 25-year-old US embassy employee in Afghanistan killed in a suicide bombing, wherein the Taliban terrorists are referred to as 'insurgents'.

The people who run the Huffington Post are shameless, contemptible, un-American scum.

Sadly, it isn't just the USA that has access to the Huffstapo post. They're not un-American; they're just selective (VERY) what they deem as news. So called 'celebrities' that few have heard of, and most couldn't care less about are reported if they fart, whereas real news is buried. But as the song says 'The public want what the public get, and the public get what the public want'..It isn't just Huff that do it either.

[Pragmier]

Yorkie you keep reminding me: Going Underground is one of my favorites! Still remember seeing that video at the dawn of MTV. The single was nowhere to be found, so I practically wore out the VCR. They also appeared on Tom Snyder's show around then in an attempt to break through. What a revelation for someone buried in south Florida top-40 misery.

[Yorkshire pud]

Yorkie you keep reminding me: Going Underground is one of my favorites! Still remember seeing that video at the dawn of MTV. The single was nowhere to be found, so I practically wore out the VCR. They also appeared on Tom Snyder's show around then in an attempt to break through. What a revelation for someone buried in south Florida top-40 misery.

It's been a quirk of my life that I've known directly or known/worked with people who knew/know entertainers and household names..In the late 80's I worked with a guy who went along to pub gigs that Paul Weller and his band played at. So much so, he became a friend and part time roadie! But things changed and he left the area, before the Jam hit the main stage. For me the late 70's and most of the 80's music was such a buzz. I wasn't really into punk rock though...and with that totally off topic slant, back to partisan hatred! 

[West of the Rockies]

With Thatcher's passing, it points out that there are a lot of ex-politicians who are now of advanced age and will be moving on in the next few years:  Carter, Mandela, Bush Sr., Gorbachev.... (I actually had to look it up to see if Gorby was still alive; he's sort of disappeared from public view.)

[Yorkshire pud]

I think everyone knows one has a higher chance of being killed if armed themselves.

...Or being incompetent/careless/complacent... This guy shouldn't make mistakes: so where does that leave those who have an IQ in double digits but allowed to keep firearms?

A four-year-old boy shot and killed a police officer's wife as the policeman was showing his weapons.Daniel Fanning â€" the Deputy Sheriff of Wilson County in Tennessee - was showing his weapons to a relative in a bedroom of his home when the toddler came in and picked up a gun off the bed.
He then accidentally shot and killed the deputy's wife, Josephine Fanning, 48. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

"Within seconds this small 4-year-old comes into the room, unbeknownst to the officer, and just picked up the gun and shot her," Sheriff Robert Bryan said
"Danny Fanning is going to have to live with it. Our prayers, our thoughts go out to him and the child."
The child is not related to her or her husband. The Sheriff called the shooting a terrible accident.
The gun was not Fanning's service weapon and the sheriff says the deputy's weapons are normally stored in a safe. No charges are pending, but the state is continuing to investigate.
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tennessee ranks among the highest in the nation for accidental firearm deaths.

[onan]

In my opinion there is no such thing as an accidental shooting. If a 4 year old has his hands on a weapon loaded or not someone is accountable.


That is the issue not being discussed about the Newtown shootings. Yeah it is a horrible tragedy. It is also the responsibility of the mom who left her unbalanced son at home with enough fire power to take out more than 100 people, had he chose to do so. Her guns her responsibility.

[Eddie Coyle]

That is the issue not being discussed about the Newtown shootings. Yeah it is a horrible tragedy. It is also the responsibility of the mom who left her unbalanced son at home with enough fire power to take out more than 100 people, had he chose to do so. Her guns her responsibility.

My exact thoughts since the afternoon of December 14, that Nancy Lanza should be just as vilified as her son, if not more. The tragedy is that the killing spree extended beyond their home(it is fitting that tributes to the dead never include her as far as I can tell). At best she was grossly irresponsible. To have a six shooter in the same house as that kid was pushing it, but she had a goddamn arsenal.

         But...it is a likely false flag because John Wells and his myrmidons think so. 

[onan]

Yeah, kind of stupid of me to expect responsibility from a dead woman. But my point is all gun shootings have a few more responsible than are usually reported.

[Eddie Coyle]

Yeah, kind of stupid of me to expect responsibility from a dead woman. But my point is all gun shootings have a few more responsible than are usually reported.

             The gun shop owner who sold to her lost his license the other day. That's a step in the right direction...but we're still catching minnows in the big picture.

[Yorkshire pud]

             The gun shop owner who sold to her lost his license the other day. That's a step in the right direction...but we're still catching minnows in the big picture.

To give an analogy: We had a hospital here in the Uk, where the death rates were far higher than the average; After an inquiry (prompted by outraged patients' family's and clinicians) it established a catalogue of errors, bad management, terrible training protocols and just basically inhumanity.  The ex CEO of that hospital (before the inquiry) was made the overall boss of all the health service...And still is. Recommendations have not included sanctions on the former management structure (including the ex CEO), but simply making sure the nursing staff have extended training before made fully fledged nurses..To say there is outrage is an understatement!


The same can said for your minnows. The'll be caught easily, but the ones manufacturing are not only lauded as standing up for 'freedom', but will face no criticism let alone sanction. They instead have the NRA on the end of the lead to go and yap at the opposition.

[PB the Deplorable]

... After an inquiry (prompted by outraged patients' family's and clinicians) it established a catalogue of errors, bad management, terrible training protocols and just basically inhumanity.  The ex CEO of that hospital (before the inquiry) was made the overall boss of all the health service...And still is...

This right out of the of the Governmental and Fortune 500 management 'how to succeed' handbook.  A person that ends up appointed to or promoted to a certain level obviously has political skills and has made friends in high places. 

Then it becomes a case of ignoring the incompetence and focusing on the 'experience' of said individual.

[West of the Rockies]

Well, I see that disgraced Anthony Weiner is eyeing a comeback.  I guess with Mark Sanford being welcomed back into the fold, Weiner might as well see if he can ride the career-politician gravy train for a while longer.  Here we have two guys, one Repub, one Dem, and both got caught with their britches down.  Here's one instance of "both sides doing it"!  You wanna shout out, "Clinton!"?  I'll call back "Gingrich!"  Politicians are randy buggers.... 

And yet, now that I ponder the situation, have times really changed so much?  I know we have a tendency to deify our forefathers, but is there not ample evidence to suggest that some of them were playing more than pattycakes with various willing women?  I'm starting to wonder if Robert Heinlein was onto something... maybe we Americans are a bit puritanical about matters of the mattress!  (Heinlein appears to have been quite the sexual libertine....)

Are we expecting too much of our politicians?  With power and wealth come all sorts of opportunities for corruption...  Should we just expect it now?  I'm all for a good come-back story, but I don't wanna be taken for a sap.... 

[Yorkshire pud]

We did get amused at the collective apoplexy caused when Janet Jackson's tit fell out..and raucous laughter when it was described as a 'wardrobe malfunction'..just who the fuck thought that one up?


We do though expect our politicians to be perfect. No hidden skeletons, No dalliances with anyone but their spouse, Nothing that is more radical than indentikit politician.
France has a different approach, where it's almost compulsory for politicians to engage in extra curricular activities of a horizontal nature
François Mitterrand for example played the final stroke of bravado with his mistress attending his funeral; standing with his wife! It's true to say though that over in France, they have quite strict press privacy laws that would have prevented them revealing it anyway.

[BobGrau]

We did get amused at the collective apoplexy caused when Janet Jackson's tit fell out..and raucous laughter when it was described as a 'wardrobe malfunction'..just who the fuck thought that one up?


We do though expect our politicians to be perfect. No hidden skeletons, No dalliances with anyone but their spouse, Nothing that is more radical than indentikit politician.
France has a different approach, where it's almost compulsory for politicians to engage in extra curricular activities of a horizontal nature
François Mitterrand for example played the final stroke of bravado with his mistress attending his funeral; standing with his wife! It's true to say though that over in France, they have quite strict press privacy laws that would have prevented them revealing it anyway.

Let's not forget a certain Mr. Berlusconi, also...

[West of the Rockies]

We did get amused at the collective apoplexy caused when Janet Jackson's tit fell out..and raucous laughter when it was described as a 'wardrobe malfunction'..just who the fuck thought that one up?


We do though expect our politicians to be perfect. No hidden skeletons, No dalliances with anyone but their spouse, Nothing that is more radical than indentikit politician.
France has a different approach, where it's almost compulsory for politicians to engage in extra curricular activities of a horizontal nature
François Mitterrand for example played the final stroke of bravado with his mistress attending his funeral; standing with his wife! It's true to say though that over in France, they have quite strict press privacy laws that would have prevented them revealing it anyway.

We in the states sometimes start to giggle when even married couples reveal anything about their sex lives that is not quite mainstream (60 seconds of foreplay followed by two minutes in the missionary position!  )  When New York Jets coach Rex Ryan was discovered to be play-acting his foot fetish with his wife (yeah, it was kind of stupid to put it on YouTube, Rex), lots of people went into freak-out mode here.

[PB the Deplorable]

We did get amused at the collective apoplexy caused when Janet Jackson's tit fell out..and raucous laughter when it was described as a 'wardrobe malfunction'..just who the fuck thought that one up? ...

Pud, you do realize the US is not precisely as presented by the Media?

I'm giving the uproar following Janet's incident at the SuperBowl to our Media friends.  Sure, there were some church going types that decided to jump on the bandwagon, but it's the Media that bring us the anitics of Hollywood, and absolutely love this stuff.  And the same trailer trash that listen to George Noory eat it up while the rest of us look on with amusement.

[Yorkshire pud]

Pud, you do realize the US is not precisely as presented by the Media?

Of course, that wasn't lost on me; but what was amusing was how the band wagon was well and truly jumped on. We do seem to have a section of society that gets it's knickers in a twist over the trivial yet the things that really matter, that really should generate concern and anger are swept away as unimportant. 

And the same trailer trash that listen to George Noory eat it up while the rest of us look on with amusement.

I'm guessing you're not including the people on Coast gab who listen to GN as trailer trash?....Or are you?

[Yorkshire pud]

...And anther f***ing avoidable tragedy.. I wonder what Alex Jones would say about this one? Protecting the 2nd amendment for responsible gun owners? What is tragic is that someone this stupid was allowed to have children. How can you tell though? (That was rhetorical)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57578783/6-year-old-boy-dies-after-n.j-accidental-shooting/

[PhantasticSanShiSan]

...And anther f***ing avoidable tragedy.. I wonder what Alex Jones would say about this one? Protecting the 2nd amendment for responsible gun owners? What is tragic is that someone this stupid was allowed to have children. How can you tell though? (That was rhetorical)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57578783/6-year-old-boy-dies-after-n.j-accidental-shooting/

Is it really a tragedy though? Why? It might be a situation that is quite unpleasant for some, but it's far from being a real tragedy.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe that 6 year-old was gonna be the savior of mankind, or the inventor of a new gun.

Evolution happens on it's own terms.  And it's not pretty.

[Yorkshire pud]

Is it really a tragedy though? Why? It might be a situation that is quite unpleasant for some, but it's far from being a real tragedy.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe that 6 year-old was gonna be the savior of mankind, or the inventor of a new gun.

Evolution happens on it's own terms.  And it's not pretty.

I'll leave you to your own pain. I'll leave others to comment on your considered thoughts.

[FightTheFuture]

...And another life saved by a responsible gun owner and the second amendment:


     [size=78%]http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/armed-citizen/2013/young-woman-fights-off-attacker,-kptv,-portland,-ore-040113,-kgw,-portland,-ore-04022013.aspx[/size]






Only one downside to this story: the victim chose not to rid society of one more useless piece of human debris. 




Stay armed, and shoot straight.

[PB the Deplorable]

...And anther f***ing avoidable tragedy.. I wonder what Alex Jones would say about this one? Protecting the 2nd amendment for responsible gun owners? What is tragic is that someone this stupid was allowed to have children. How can you tell though? (That was rhetorical)

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57578783/6-year-old-boy-dies-after-n.j-accidental-shooting/

Can someone explain to me how national gun registration would stop a single accident or intentional killing, or prevent the illegal sales going on now, or prevent the criminal that is illegally getting guns now from getting them?

[Pragmier]

P*B are we differentiating between national gun registration and universal background checks?

[Yorkshire pud]

Can someone explain to me how national gun registration would stop a single accident or intentional killing, or prevent the illegal sales going on now, or prevent the criminal that is illegally getting guns now from getting them?

This wasn't an accidental death; it was gross (on a scale unmeasurable) negligence and stupidity..A bit like leaving the keys in the car and sitting the child in the drivers seat, sticking a brick on the gas and letting em go on the freeway in rush hour. You seriously think that child's 'parents' deserve firearms as of right? Personally I don't think they should be allowed to breed, but no doubt there's some archaic amendment that would contravene.

[Yorkshire pud]

...And another life saved by a responsible gun owner and the second amendment:


     [size=78%]http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/armed-citizen/2013/young-woman-fights-off-attacker,-kptv,-portland,-ore-040113,-kgw,-portland,-ore-04022013.aspx[/size]






Only one downside to this story: the victim chose not to rid society of one more useless piece of human debris. 




Stay armed, and shoot straight.

And if possible, wear your super hero suit with shorts on the outside...the girls love it.