Nobody should legally have a gun, ever.
Only police, military, and other law-enforcement agents should be able to legally have guns.
Law-abiding citizens can legally own guns--no felons, violent criminals, minors, etc.
Give 'em to everybody. The more guns, the better.
Let everybody have any type of firearm they can afford--if you can buy a .50-cal, more power to you.
Nah, I'd want to flee to a country with no economic or social liberty, myself.Originally Posted by jrgen
Living in a country with nudity on television must be truly horrible.
I don't understand why they all don't just flee to a country with only minor problems such as high murder rates.
I hope you're kidding there, since you apparently live in Sweden.
1. Censorship is the start of irrational law.(1)Since this statement comes from a society that allows nudity on broadcast television, (2)tied a bible to the tail of an ass that was driven out of Paris, (3)legalized Marijuanna as well as just about every other drug, (4)and has legalized prostitution, I'd say that this is the depth of hypocrasy.
2. I don't know anything about this one - but it does amuse me.
3. And I'd bet they don't waste $50 billion dollars per year spending drug-users to prison for a couple of years, throw them back out on the street, then throw them back in jail again for another few years. Repeat ad infinitum.
4. There is no logical reason for prosititution to be illegal. There's one big city in the US which doesn't have a huge spread of disease due to prositition. Guess which one it is? Las Vegas. Licensing and regulating prostitution(by legalizing) prostition does FAR more to prevent spread of disease than does prohibiting it altogether.
for once(that I can recall as of late), I can completely aggree with Raistlin.
Anyways I would attempt to delve further into this, but first... I am sore from setting up for Dog Days.. not to mentioned sunburned(and I got 2 more long days to go yet... I will be in baaad shape), and My dog needs a bath.
but what I will say is this. Cloud 9 has pretty much already said that gun's isnt cause of our violent crime rate (other country examples). Thus outlawing them would be pretty pointless, no?
It is the society that needs reformed. Afterall all the censorship in america is kinda ridiculas considering we "are the land of the free". Censorship = freedom? since when?
STILL Updating the anime list. . . I didn't think I was that much of an anime freak! I don't even want to consider updating the manga list!
Mexico, which has some of the strictest gun laws in the world has a firearm homicide rate thats 50 TIMES HIGHER than the US. England, with its recent gun bans has a firearms homicide rate that is about DOUBLE what the US has. Care to check your facts before making statements.
BTW, the statement about the French tying a bible to the tail of a jackass and driving out of paris, then setting a nude whore on one of the cathedrals is from a religious tract that my church passes out that deals with immorality these days.
Hachifusa:
Are you serious about what you said about drugs should be legalized? Have you ever been to Amsterdam? On a flight I had connecting through Amsterdam on the Rastafarian... er Royal Dutch Airlines, over half the people's luggage got lost, and on top of that, mine was severely damaged when it finally showed up two weeks later. Might as well face the facts; drugs make you dumber than a brickhouse, and when you have such things easily available & legal, you have a whole country full of spaced-out druggies. Hell, if I didn't have the moral values and proper upbringing, I'd have made a billion dollars off of selling drugs by now and lauged the whole way to my Swiss bank account, right before I bought my own island in the Carribean. The main thing I have against drugs is that they're nothing more than an escape from reality, and I've had many horrible experiences in my life, but I've never stooped so low as to try washing them away with alcohol or floating them off on a cloud of hashish smoke.
As for nudity on TV, even in this country things are going downhill, which is why I don't own a TV or watch it (okay, my flatscreen monitor has 13 TV channel capabilities, but I just use it for my PC and PS2). The point I was trying to make is that no society is perfect, and for everything that's "sick" or "wrong" with American socitey, I could find something that's "sick" or "wrong" with European, Asian, African, or Austallian society (and since I've been to all these places, except Africa, I can have the confidence of basing my statements off of firsthand observations).
In General, I think that censorship is a bad thing, however, I also believe that those few parents in this day and age who actually want to raise their children with some kind of moral values shouldn't have to constanly fight against the whoremongering media, filthy pimps on the street and all the other abominable things that people do in the name of freedom. I can guarantee one thing, when I have a family of my own, I will never allow my children to watch TV, except for the Discovery Channel, TLC, the History Channel, and Animal Planet. Everything else is just pure garbage (whether it is American, French, British, or whatever).
Believe you me, I'm not one of these self-righteous people who likes to preach from his pulpit, without ever being tested by the temptations of the flesh. I served in the US Navy for 6 years, and I've been dragged to whorehouses in Thailand (because of a Navy regulation that you must be accompanied by at least one other sailor at all times in foreign ports), I've seen the insides of bars all around the world (again,for the previously stated reason), yet I never gave in to the temptation to "know" women of negotiable affections or drink myself drunk. I know about the evils of this world because I've seen them firsthand, and it just makes me sad, really. I mean even when I was stuck on the ship as long as the other guys, I could find better things to do with myself in port than to drink myself stupid or go to some strip club.
But as ShunNakamura said, all of these things could be fixed if society was fixed. If parents would teach their children that life was about more than just chasing the almighty Dollar (or Euro, Yen, Dinar, etc), and that there IS a right and a wrong, and that there are consequences for doing wrong, then maybe, just maybe society as a whole might have half a chance. For my concluding remark, I read in a National Geograpic History book of Space Exploration in the 20th Century, the author made a remark that a realist is someone who will admit that maybe one day some aliens will show up and show us how to end poverty, famine and how to create a renewable environmentally friendly energy source. The optimist is one who thinks we can do all that ourselves.
Well, rational as that sounds, it's not what the numbers say. Scroll back up and find my links to the Kleck Study. Self-defense with a firearm is the safest respone to an attack, safer than knives, safer than bare hands, safer than reasoning, and safer than not resisting.
And you sir, get a medal for being freaking awesome.
Nobody thinks that it's that bad down there. Guns aren't the problem, there's no shortage of guns in Canada, but we don't have the homicde rates you do. Even if you take our smaller population into account, the number of homicides per capita doesn't even come near those in the U.S. *cough*proof and more proof *cough*
What I find surprising is the number of people saying they would gladly kill somone to protect their posessions. There is no reasonable argument you can make for this. Things can be replaced, insurance helps with that. They stole pictures of loved ones (not sure why a robber would give a crap about taking them), you'll still have your memories assuming you don't get yourself killed. Did they take your credit cards? Call the credit card company and have them deactivate them, or even better, let the cops use any purchases made on them to help find the guy. If your cards are stolen, you aren't liable for any purchases made on them. Worried about identity theft if they get you personal information? Again, let the cops track them down using it. The fact that some of you don't see cooperating with them, rather than confronting them as a reasonable option isn't just disturbing, it's down right scary.
As long as its not pointed to my Head, fine. Of course minors or felons shouldnt have them, even though they already do. Ill probably get a shotgun when Im older, fdor protection of course. My house has been broken into three times when I was by nyself at home. My pellet gun didnt really hurt the guy too much but it scared him off.
Active after a year? ZOMG.
But yeah when i DID post a year ago I was an ass to everyone. So sorry about that. You can totally tell I used to think i was "gangsta" just by my name. Boy have I changed.
I've no argument to conjure against comporable Canadian-US homicide rates, but I will point out the obvious on the second link, which is that US homicide rates are largely falling, and in 2000 were at their lowest rate since 1965. I don't know the figures for 2003 and 2004, if they exist yet, but I'll wager the trend is pretty much the same. So, whatever's happened, I think the US has something of a handle on it.
Actually, my justification is that you don't know someone is there only to steal your TV/Money, and even if they are you don't know they will run away once they have it, instead of seeking you out and beating you to death, raping your wife, etc. etc.. And yes, as I've said, death is a pretty damn disproportionate penalty for theft, but when someone has broken into your house, they're not in a courtroom and you're not a judge; they are in your home as a potential attacker (And I challenge anyone to actually ask such an intruder their intent.), and you are the defender. The two situations are not well exchanged. If you assume the best of them, there could be yet another case of a hardworking innoffensive family being traumatised or entirely wiped out. If you assume the worst, there could be yet another case of a criminal being injured or killed. It seems like very simple math to me. EDIT: Also, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that people will be dissuaded from crime if they know people are willing to defend themselves.
Also bear in mind that many things have sentimental value, not just pictures and such. I'd be mortified if a robber grabbed a bundle of paperwork from my bedroom in the hopes of getting information he could use to purchase things, because chances are it's not anything he could gain from - I've only got one pile of such documents and they're kept seperate from the important ones, which are things like letters from friends, and my girlfriend, and so forth. He can take whatever banking and credit information he wants, but if he touches that, I will not hesitate in stopping them through whatever means are necessary. They are by far my most important possessions, and completely transcend monetary value.
I suspect that the US places such an emphasis on the importance of private ownership probably explains some of the difference in mentality. Whilst Europeans and Canadians seem reasonably happy to shrug and call their insurer, more Americans feel justified in actively defending their possessions. Which is something I not only understand, but fully advocate.
Why, of course I was serious.Hachifusa:
Are you serious about what you said about drugs should be legalized? Have you ever been to Amsterdam? On a flight I had connecting through Amsterdam on the Rastafarian... er Royal Dutch Airlines, over half the people's luggage got lost, and on top of that, mine was severely damaged when it finally showed up two weeks later. Might as well face the facts; drugs make you dumber than a brick
You seem to be pretty moral, and know that there is a right and a wrong, and that one should not escape into drugs. I agree. I loathe drugs, and don't understand the necessity that people have to try them, or why people associate drugs with a higher plane of existence. However, I know that I am not able to force this belief on anyone, and that the government has no right whatsoever to tell me what I put in my own body. It is with that that I believe drugs should be legalized. For the same reason that the Prohibition of the twenties was illegal, so too is our current illegalized drugs.I am not advocating using a gun to take back a five dollar bill someone tried to steal. I am saying that they have no right to take my money, and I would gladly use my gun if someone were to enter my house and try to take everything I own by force.
If anything, I think it's downright scary that you want to cooperate with a common criminal.
i actually think if just about every house owned a gun like 75% of people did and were willing to use them, crimminal activities in home invasions would lessen because would any run of the mill dude break into your house if they could easily kill them? Not as likely..it has to be one that is very planning and coordinated to do so.
Granted, if drugs were legalized and taxed we never would have to worry about a budget deficit ever again. Of course, my main objections are how it will affect society as a whole. One might argue that even with drugs being legalized, the only people who'd do them are those who're likely to try them anyways. The difference between, say, marijuana and alcohol is that you can have one glass of alcohol every week (or even every day) withoug becoming addicted. I even have a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey once in a blue moon (last drink I had was over a month ago), since it's supposed to be good for your health. Marijuana (or crack, or meth, or even nicotine), all it takes is one or two uses and you're fully adicted to the drug. I've seen what happense to people who are addicted to drugs (including alcohol), and if they're lucky they'll end up on welfare, while the not-so-lucky ones (since drug addicts are generally unemployable due to their brains being essentially fried all the time) end up in the gutter.
That being said, I know a few people who didn't even think of starting drugs because of the fact that they are illegal and to get caught using them would essentially have caused them to get kicked out of college and be forced to work at unskilled jobs for the rest of their lives (until someone stabs them in the back and steals their stash or they get shot while robbing some place to support their habit), and now think what would happen if we should have laws that make it easier to go down that path?! I'd move to the mountains somewhere and start my own monastary for people who have some sense about them and wait until everything collapses so we could re-build something halfways decent from the wreakage. Society needs laws in order to function, otherwise there'd be nothing left but complete anarchy, for which the only law is the 'law of the jungle' (which is 'Kill or be Killed,' or as the Japanese say it, '弱肉強食' (the flesh of the weak is food for the strong)).
Er, marijuana is not addictive at anywhere near approaching the same magnitude crack and heroin are addictive. In fact, it's generally agreed to be less addictive than alcohol and nicotine (and there are people who will claim that nicotine is even more addictive than heroin).
also caffiene has a vey high addiction and toxicity rate compared to some other illegal drugs.
the legalisation of drugs would also end the jobs of drug dealers and their prostitutues and gangs of murderers and thugs.
drugs would be safer. they would be regulated, pure, people would know what they are getting, what strength it is and it doesn't contain ajax powder. there would be a huge reduction in overdoses due to consistent strengths. they would also be cheaper even after tax. if we choose to create an industry out of it then we create jobs.
it's a total doublethink to say "prohibition of alcohol was a bad idea and caused lots of crime but drug related crime is not caused by drug prohitibition as drug prohibition is a good thing"
...
This is a strange occurance.
I agree completely with Cloud No. 9.
Odd.
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