Which is More Important to You the 2nd Amendment or Unity

[nuperspective]

new tea party slogan...

the tea party... because nothing says your mad like wearing a 3 pointed hat.

[LoopStationZebra]

blah blah blah blah

the bad news is you dont pay enough tax in the US already.

blah blah blah blah

Never fear. Pretty soon there will be VAT and new income taxes and property taxes and then we'll be in the same shit filled boat as you lot whereby our economy is (even further) at it's fucking knees while social service programs and entitlements are greatly expanded - only on the backs of the middle class because the rich? Oh. Well. They'll just keep shuffling their money to offshort accounts and shifting jobs overseas so that the Indians and Chinese can buy iPods.

[beats me]

I'm saying that whatever issues we have within our country isn't going to be solved with "everybody grab a gun!" and trying to create a mass opinion that everybody is under constant impending threat from the the government/police/gangs/terrorists/neighbors is largely alarmist bullshit.

But I will also admit that given the amount of guns in this country coupled with the amount of depression, anger, and alcohol and drug use, the amount of gun injuries or deaths in this country is shockingly low.

Obviously the issues we have within our country will not be solved by everyone getting a gun... Getting a gun, learning how to use it, and building local networks of people who will stand with each other, share resources and so on are not mutually exclusive choices. Sure there are some loonies with guns, but having a gun and defending the right to have one does not make you a loonie, isolated and holed up in your house.

The U.S. military states itself that it is expecting social unrest, riots etc as the gap between rich and poor continues to grow. So the military is preparing to repress such rebellion. History is also rather clear on that point - as the wealth gap increases, so does civil strife and usually government repression of its citizens.

I think people on the left, liberals progressives or whatever have abdicated rationale response to the current circumstances. There is a profound state of denial. There is a near complete vacuum of social movement... so there are millions of people who are justifiably angry, disillusioned, lost their homes, jobs and sense of meaning. With that absence from the left, many people turn to something like the Tea Party movement. Almost daily I hear liberal types ridicule the Tea Party movement, but that ridicule is an expression of their own sense of self importance and arrogance and whose underpinning is fear. It misses that lots of the people drawn there are just folk angry with the collusion of the government and Wall Street to steal from them; afraid of a social order that is collapsing under its own inherent contradictions; angry as they realize that their government does not represent them.

Since the left is afraid of the real world and that their false niceness and cant we all just get along whimpy-ness has led to that abdication I mentioned, that vacuum has opened the door for reactionary freaks on the right to have a voice much louder than their actual numbers. Noam Chomsky says he has never seen anything like this and that the far right could well sweep into power just as it did in Weimar Germany.

The current administration is claiming essentially dictatorial powers (right to detain/imprison/assassinate US citizens without trial) and it is not very far from there to a full on police state. Our rights are gone. The only thing between here and a full on police state is inertia. Historically once a government claims such powers, it is not long before they start using them on a larger scale. Once lost, such rights are hard to regain and usually it takes revolt to do so.

It is only a peculiar turn of mind that is labeling people who see this historical context and its current parallels as conspiracy theorists (nutcases).

You make a lot of good points except for your right wing agenda. I can't believe you honestly think the last administration didn't use the exact same tactics. If anything they were the architects of it all and it's just continuing.

I agree the democrats have no teeth, but both sides are idiots. The republicans don't have the master plan that will work for the majority of people either. I get tired of people approaching politics like a sporting event of picking a team and that team has all the answers. It's the great distraction that keeps from anything actually getting done.

And I'm also tired of the right digging up "the greatest generation" WWII vets to voice their outrage. While I appreciate what they did for this country, that was 60 damn years ago and this country and the world is a different place. Nobody is going to return to the late 40's and 50's so quit thinking that's a blueprint to apply to today.

[stringtapper]

Stuff.

You make a lot of good points except for your right wing agenda. I can't believe you honestly think the last administration didn't use the exact same tactics. If anything they were the architects of it all and it's just continuing.

I love it! You think he's a right-winger! Have you ever read any of the posts this guy wrote during Bush administration? The guy's citing Noam Chomsky for christ's sake!

And also, here's a rich point, where in his post did he say anything about the Bush administration not doing those things? (Hint: he didn't.)

See this is why I hate cheerleaders for the right and the left. If you criticize their side then they automatically assume that you're on the opposite side. It never occurs to them that you might actually be someone who doesn't blindly follow either side and instead think for yourself.

[beats me]

Stuff.

You make a lot of good points except for your right wing agenda. I can't believe you honestly think the last administration didn't use the exact same tactics. If anything they were the architects of it all and it's just continuing.

I love it! You think he's a right-winger! Have you ever read any of the posts this guy wrote during Bush administration? The guy's citing Noam Chomsky for christ's sake!

And also, here's a rich point, where in his post did he say anything about the Bush administration not doing those things? (Hint: he didn't.)

See this is why I hate cheerleaders for the right and the left. If you criticize their side then they automatically assume that you're on the opposite side. It never occurs to them that you might actually be someone who doesn't blindly follow either side and instead think for yourself.

Honestly I don't follow a lot of political threads on here and I'm not starting a coffee table book of who sides with which party. So you might want to tone down your giddy love of misunderstanding a bit. I'm just going by the context of what was in that post. But whatever works for you.

I'll just go back to posting about the superiority of Apple. It's less confusing. I'll let the men here continue to solve the world's problems.

[john doe by choice]

shitty thread is still shitty, apparently

[LoopStationZebra]

I always quite enjoy these trite political and Mac vs PC threads. People love to slag them off but, honestly, what the fuck else are we going to talk about besides how great hip hop used to be, the pros and cons of sound cards, is Alchemy the only synth you'll need, blah blah blah blah fuckin blah?

[dum]

Stuff.

You make a lot of good points except for your right wing agenda. I can't believe you honestly think the last administration didn't use the exact same tactics. If anything they were the architects of it all and it's just continuing.

I love it! You think he's a right-winger!

x2

ah beats me, the quintessential ameritard.

*wipes single tear from eye*

[starving student]

shitty thread is still shitty, apparently

don't forget to wash your hands on your way out

[starving student]

deva really does make some good points but everybody wants to gloss over the fact that the fuckin tea party and supporters (not every single last one) but majority support going the fuck back to when strom thurman was a teenybopper now if you don't think there is something wrong with that picture then you aint drinkin enough tea cause SOME folks don't feel like them was the good ole days but all you mofos who talk about how fudged up the goverment is now, of course post the bush era always just want to slip those little things in like they don't get noticed.. I think it's mighty mighty strange that so many claim to know americas history so well but act like they don't know the history of this same crowd of people., let me explain it to you, strom thurman aint no hero, the forefathers were demons, militias have historicly been terrorist of some of americas most captivated citizens, the 40s and 50s was no joke and the confederacy is nothing to celebrate, now BE HONEST, if you can't sit down at a table and act like you know these simple notions are fucked up then how the hell do you expect people to sit down with you and work out confusing issues such as healthcare and finances on a national scale.

[stringtapper]

[LoopStationZebra]

Hey speaking of knives did you know that you are twice as likely to be the victim of a knife crime in the UK as you are a gun crime in the US?

True stat, that. lol.

[starving student]

Hey speaking of knives did you know that you are twice as likely to be the victim of a knife crime in the UK as you are a gun crime in the US?

True stat, that. lol.

woorrrdddd?????

[Angstrom]

On UK Knife Crime versus US gun crime:

UK Statistics

the police recorded 37,830 offences involving knives in 2008/09,
accounting for 7% of total offences (#1)

US Statistics
Crimes of violence 4,892,000
Firearm 7.1 %
Handgun 6.3 %

4,892,000 * (7.1%) = 347,332 gun crimes (#2)

Per Capita Calculation
Uk Population = 61,414,062
0.06159 % of UK population suffers knife crime

US Population = 307,006,550
0.11313 % of US population suffers gun crime


Conclusion
Even after factoring the relative population size differences between the UK and the USA you are nearly twice as likely to suffer gun crime in the USA as to suffer a knife crime in the UK


References
(#1) http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/cvus0704.pdf
(#2) http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/webfile ... e08-09.pdf

[djsynchro]

Not to mention they got the fattest asses in the world.