Slashdot Mirror

Fair enough, bad habit from too much Twittering, I suppose.
U of Maryland: http://www.healthcalculators.org/calculators/teen_marijuana.asp, Marijuana Public Policy: http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2005/study-teen-marijuana-use-in.html, Partnership for Drug-Free America: http://www.drugfree.org/Portal/About/NewsReleases/20th_Annual_Teen_Study

Why do you think we imprison more of our population than any other western country?

If that would be true, it would be good news. Unfortunatly it is much, much worse. 25% of all prisoners worldwide. Much more then China that has more people.

There is a link to http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/us/23prison.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=allp">a NY Times article in there as well. 751 per 100.000 or 1.000 per 100.000 when only calculating adults. That is 1% of the population. UK is 151, Germany is 88.

"you're not going to stop heroin junkies, you're not going to secure theft sites"

Make heroin maintenance legal and deglamorize smack.

The junkies aren't the problem, the problem is the cost of attempting to stop them by prohibition. Their use isn't a problem, their theft of valuable stuff is a problem.

In fact, ANY drug that makes people more docile and less likely to annoy the rest of us should be tolerated if not encouraged. Lumping of ALL recreational drugs other than alcohol together is silly social policy.

http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthenews/2008/swiss-voters-approve-heroin.html

picked up the habit in college or later

• Research encourages parents to quit
• Young children emulate habits

picked up the habit in college or later

• Research encourages parents to quit
• Young children emulate habits

Try Wisconsin. But they are working on trying to keep kids out of bars...
http://www.jointogether.org/news/headlines/inthene ws/2003/wis-lawmaker-wants-to-stop.html

"Rep. John Ainsworth (R-Shawano) wants to change a Wisconsin law that allows children to consume alcoholic drinks at bars as long as their parents are present, the Associated Press reported Aug. 20.

Ainsworth's bill would only allow individuals age 18 and older to drink in bars if accompanied by a parent or guardian."

So only 18 year olds and up can drink with dad, way to tighten the reigns Wisconsin.

Never been quail hunting before eh? Dispersion isn't some magic factor that corrects for the inherent inaccuracy of a shotgun, you need to use a small size shot, and get quite a few into a bird to guarantee a kill, I don't know exact numbers since my uncle was kind enough to pick the shot out himself - maybe some actual hunter can reply. Furthermore, you use a shotgun hunting moving birds - I would assume that hunting with a hundgun would be for small stationary game, as a rifle or bow is used with large stationary game.

Additionally, modern handgun barrels are rifled, which causes the bullet to spin, giving it more stability in flight.

I'm still waiting for quantative evidence of the accuracy of arrows vs hanguns, not stuff you pulled out of your ass.

Might wanna take your own advice about being informed.

His insights are correct. And his insights on guns are correct as well.

Educate yourself. The statistics speak for themselves. The fact is gun control works, in many, many countries throughout the world.

If you don't believe the numbers in the article, just do a Google search yourself. You'll find plenty of "official" sources that list the exact same numbers.

Burning massive karma here, but it boggles my mind how people can plainly ignore or dispute facts that are right there in front of them.

Or are his insights into the world being flat correct as well?

According to:http://www.plu.edu/~gunvlnce/facts3.html

For 1998 Deaths due to guns Totalled 30,708:
17,424 were gun suicides
12,102 were gun homicides
866 were unintentional or accidental shootings
316 were of undetermined intent

Lets look at it again shall we?

From Joing Together the number for 1993-1999 are under 40K in '93 and under 30K in '99. Most gun deaths are due to suicide (58%). Intentional shooting ranks as 39% (11,071 including 270 police shootings) of gun deaths in 2000.

Your numbers are a bit off. A lot more so than I thought when I first started looking for them. In '99 there were 42,116 people killed in highway crashes More than have died from guns. Where are the people clamoring for Automotive control?

Here is another analysis, and a comparison with a pro-gun academic who fabricated data...

Of a simple six-question quiz on stances that the candidates hold on major issues, the average person got less than three questions right.
'Who wants to privatize Social Security?'
Bush. That's a given.

'Which one doesn't like assault weapons?'
Actually both. Kerry is well-known for supporting it, but Bush gives it lip service

'What is the cutoff income for Kerry's tax increases?' (50k, 100k, 200k, or 500k)
I had heard for "the richest Americans". Politicians hate making specifics mostly because they never implement them as specified.

'Who is a former prosecutor?'
My first inclination was John Edwards. We tend to hear about his legal background quite a bit whereas we only hear of Kerry's Senate/'Nam experience. If I answered "Edwards" would I get this wrong?

'Who favors making the recent tax cuts permanent?'
For whom? They both favor making the middle/lower class tax cuts permanent.

'Who wants to make it easier for labor unions to organize?'
Haven't heard Kerry talk about it, but I know he's supported by more unions than Bush and that the traditional democratic platform is pro-union.

So what's the score? Question 1 is fine, question 2 is really all of the above (thus wrong), question 3 is overly specific, question 4 is obscure, question 5 is misleading, and question 6 is OK. So all told, that's 1 decent questions, 4 bad questions, and one completely wrong question.

I am all-for quizes and such, but the answers to these questions are not as straighforward as you'd have us believe. (Speaking of misleading quizes, try my sig;))

How about going outside with their kids? Combining with others inthe neighborhood to kick out the drug dealers and gangs?

And end up getting very very dead. Like this Baltimore family.

To that extent, I will agree with you, because we do use an industrial-ag model of crop production. We don't need to, though.

Unfortunately, the standard method of ethanol production from growing and processing your own corn is illegal in the US: the end product is usually known as Moonshine.

Here are a few references on the subject.

Interestingly, moonshine enjoys a quasi-legal status in New Zealand. Looks like the Kiwis are going to be ahead of us USers again.

I'd go down the list of weapons used in homicides and apply it to those first...

"The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which compiles FBI crime data, reports that there were 125 homicides in Massachusetts in 2000 and that 47.5 percent of them were committed with a gun. By contrast, the 2002 FBI data for Louisiana, a state with a population one third smaller than Massachusetts, recorded 560 homicides, 73.7 percent of which were committed with a gun."

"It's no coincidence that we have the toughest gun-safety laws the lowest gun-death rate in the country," said Massachusetts State Senator Cheryl Jacques, a longtime leading force for stronger gun laws in the state."
Link

Just thought I'd fill in... :)

Also, I believe in the US, convicted felons are never again allowed the vote and to possess guns.

I seem to remember Ashcroft telling a skeptical Congress that the PATRIOT act would be used to allow law enforcement agencies to root out terrorist threats against US interests.

Now so far we have seen it used against domestic narcotics manufacturers/dealers and now hackers. While there is no dispute that these folks were committing crimes, law enforcement agencies are using this anti-terrorist legislation and the stiffer sentencing and looser evidenciery rules that come with it against non-terrorists. Voters in the next election need to send the message to the current administration that this sort of behavior is NOT ok and will NOT be tolerated.

Um, I certainly hope you are not suggesting the Lamo is a terrorist or is aiding terrorists ? No more than than the NC man running a meth lab is a terrorist. It's misleading to suggest that these actions are somehow related to terrorist investigations, it's just the FBI using the USA PATRIOT ACT to circumvent the normal checks and balances.

You sound like one of those "trade liberty for security" folks... If you are really worried about the end of The American Way don't fear the terrorists, watch the government and stand up for the rights of all Americans.

In your issues paper, you say you are for the legalization of marijuana. That's fine, so am I. However, marijuana is already legal in California for medical use, but can still be arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated under federal law. So, if you were elected governor of California, of what possible relevance is your stand on marijuana?

And just because you have a fishing rod doesn't mean that you are going to catch fish.

I think you should attempt to avoid situations, locations, etc where people might want to do you harm. To me, this is the first step of self defense. It is true that these things are not always avoidable, but I would add that in the case that you are attacked by someone with a gun, merely owning a gun is not going to help you at all. You have to know how and be willing and capable of using it under pressure. It must be easily accessible to you after an attack is already underway. I'd say that outside of criminals, these things probably aren't true of most people who carry guns. Someone's 60 year old aunt probably doesn't have much chance of digging her gun out of her purse after the need has already presented itself with the big bad guy standing right there watching.

Not to mention that some studies have shown that gun owners are actually more likely to be killed by a gun than non-gun owners

I wouldn't have a problem with it here in the U.S. if it was, as someone said, 1/10th of a cent!

Of course, looking back to reality, it would go to causes
I differ on.

Sigh, when I was younger, you could do a search on "Bush" and come up with, um, things, other than politics.

Once, a long time ago, I thought that maybe, by the 21st century, we, as a civilization, might have moved past the point where we like to get our rocks off by watching bloody explosions of gore in perfect digital detail.

Evidently not.

It's a well-established fact that video-game violence causes violent behavior. Yet, somehow, we're still horrified and shocked by the recent string of child abductions, by schoolyard shootings, and by the wars in the Middle East.

What? Surprised at that last item? Consider this: terrorist children, much like American children, are being raised on a nonstop diet of violence and gore, including many Hollywood movies and American video games. These influences render the children susceptible to suggestions that they commit violent acts -- even at the expense of their own lives. And it doesn't stop there: terrorists even use games such as Flight Simulator and Quake III to train themselves for the acts of violence they commit!

Please, I urge all of you: boycott this game, or risk thousands more innocent American and Israeli deaths.

Well, a family successfully sued K-Mart for $1.5 million blaming them for someone who commited suicide with gun bought from their store (link) just shows that you can sue for anything. There is a family suing rescue workers after they lost their baby in a forest since they found it after it was too late to save him...

postercomment compression filter? postercomment compression filter? postercomment compression filter? postercomment compression filter? postercomment compression filter? that was still some dumbass moderation.