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California Attack Has US Rethinking Strategy On Homegrown Terror (nytimes.com)

JoeyRox writes: The recent terror attack in California reflects "an evolution of the terrorist threat that Mr. Obama and federal officials have long dreaded: homegrown, self-radicalized individuals operating undetected before striking one of many soft targets that can never be fully protected in a country as sprawling as the United States." With this new type of terror risk, authorities may begin relying more heavily on citizens reporting suspicious behavior of others. The attack is also expected to renew the debate over privacy versus security for software encryption. President Obama will be addressing the nation tonight to discuss the attack.

676 comments

  1. I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It makes people in American look bad even though they were ISIS supporters. That makes me so happy.

    1. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      She was radicalized in Saudi Arabia before coming here.

    2. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Cows have no guns and see where they are -- slaughtered one after another. Dead Cows don't Mooo! Moooo! Mooo cows Mooo!

    3. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sly one sexconker

    4. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by sumdumass · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And with all this government spying, a very large no fly list that often ends up in old ladies and young children being groped at the airport, why was she allowed in the US in the first place if that is true?

    5. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by fluffernutter · · Score: 2

      Because people are allowed to vacation in Saudi Arabia?

      --
      Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
    6. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was homegrown. Nearly all terrorism in th e US is homegrown. The Republicans forced them into a corner with no other options.

    7. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They constantly rape and kill us, but they never pay.

    8. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      She was in college there. He went there to get her, not for vacation. I'm convinced that Saudi Arabia is the epicenter of problem creation in the middle east.

    9. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by gtall · · Score: 1

      So, you are complaining the government spying isn't 100% effective?

    10. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if you'd line those 1% to shoot them all with a single powerful bullet, they'd fall in a line too.

    11. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not the visit to Saudi Arabia that concerns me. Its all the spying that turned out to be useless. The same happened with the Boston bombers who were warned about by Russia and found that members of a mosque they went to warned the FBI.

      It seems that the spying is only harassing honest citizens who not only do nothing wrong but aren't even realistically suspected of doing anything terrorist related.

    12. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What would you kill them with? Your sharp wit?

    13. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by sumdumass · · Score: 2

      Well we know it wasn't in this case and with the boston bombing so the question to contemplate is if it ever was intended to be effective at stopping this crap or if the goals are something else m

    14. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if it were effective in preventing cases like this that you never hear about? What would be the affect if the us reported that it had seized a nuclear weapon in nyc before it was donated?

    15. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The new head of the UN Human Rights Council? Say it isn't so!

    16. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Foreign name, foreign color, foreign religion.. Yep, totally "homegrown"!

    17. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      That no fly list is a farce. No one with even the slightest clue should be advocating that it's used for anything else. It's probably not even useful as a no fly list.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    18. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      That is a good point. In a similar vein, If I, a white male, rob a black liquor store owner at gun point, and the store owner resists, and I shoot him, it is really the fault of the black liquor store owner because he forced me to shoot him, when he refused to comply with my simple request to give me his money. This is the same argument that is being purported by the black lives matter crowd, the president of the USA, and you. The only difference is that the colors are reversed.

    19. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by fustakrakich · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The government, through Saudi Arabia, is an ISIS supporter. And then, after ISIS, you will hear about ISIS 2.0, or is it Al Qaeda 3.0? Either way, the war is coming home to roost.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    20. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by dunkelfalke · · Score: 1
      --
      "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
    21. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by interval1066 · · Score: 2

      The new head of the UN Human Rights Council?

      Yep. The same people who recently in the news for showcasing the beheading of 200 men for various crimes and insults to the king head the current Council.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    22. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or whether we will want to live in a society with such effective spying. I think that would self-radicalize me.

    23. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Probably true. But Mecca is also there...

    24. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Incredibly. Which is why this greater spying push without that scenario unequivocally being put out in the public eye is so troubling.

    25. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by xeoron · · Score: 1

      My right to arm bears shall not be infringed!!!

    26. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It seems that the spying is only harassing honest citizens who not only do nothing wrong but aren't even realistically suspected of doing anything terrorist related.

      Thats just like ubisofts DRM.

      OMG this means the government has outsourced the CIA to Ubisoft. WE ARE ALL FUCKED!

    27. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      You'd like that, wouldn't you, Mr. ISIS?

      I don't understand the logic of disarming your people to prevent terrorists attacks by people who will always be able to get weapons.

      ISIS doesn't have to steal firearms; they can just bring them across the wide-open borders we have.

      We're being set up for a tragedy of Biblical proportions and most of you can't even see it.

    28. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Yes, especially since so far there is no indication that all that spying has helped to stop a single terrorist attack.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    29. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by ememisya · · Score: 1

      Straight up fear mongering. Be suspicious of thy neighbor for he may worship Satan. So many idiots. Why are we doing this to our selves?

    30. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      No, but lots of equipment is sold and consumed, and people are paid big money. Most of the public buys into it and wants even more. Appeal to primitive instinct and irrational fear is where you will make your fortune. The system works!

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    31. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm I the only one that see the irony in biblical proportions?

    32. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Yes, that is TOTALLY the situation that BLM and Obama are complaining about.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    33. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So nuke it?

    34. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Has there ever been a case where it was effective at stopping a terrorist attack?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    35. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We're being set up for a tragedy of Biblical proportions and most of you can't even see it.

      To be fair, as things currently stand, non-ISIS Americans are far, far better at killing Americans than ISIS Americans. Increasing gun ownership is just going to increase the number of mass killings by ordinary nutbags. ISIS doesn't have to lift a finger -- you guys are happily doing their work for them.

    36. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by cold+fjord · · Score: 2

      It's not the visit to Saudi Arabia that concerns me. Its all the spying that turned out to be useless. The same happened with the Boston bombers who were warned about by Russia and found that members of a mosque they went to warned the FBI.

      It seems that the spying is only harassing honest citizens who not only do nothing wrong but aren't even realistically suspected of doing anything terrorist related.

      That isn't what your example shows. Your example (Boston bombing (and others)) shows a big problem is follow up. Information get dropped or mishandled, or otherwise isn't used to start a timely investigation. This can be the result of not meeting a threshold, resource shortages (time, headcount), poor policy, incompetence, or other issues.

      People keep trying to pretend that the government intelligence agencies are all seeing, all knowing, able to do anything, but that clearly isn't true.

      On the other hand it is also true that they aren't going to broadcast most of their successes to protect their sources and methods.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    37. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      No, the argument is that because guns can be legally obtained by terrorists, the US shouldn't let in refugees.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    38. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Guns don't kill people, Americans do.

    39. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      This isn't "coming home to roost," it is simply spreading. I've got news for you - Islamic extremism has a long a violent history that predates the US, and little of it involves the US or US corporations.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    40. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

      It seems that the spying is only harassing honest citizens who not only do nothing wrong but aren't even realistically suspected of doing anything terrorist related.

      You could turn that into a slogan. "If spying is legal, only the legal will be spied upon." Or something.

      --
      sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
    41. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes. The attempt to attack LAX on New Year's Eve 2000.

      Of course, that was under Clinton, so it doesn't count because Democrats are soft on terra.

    42. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by tsotha · · Score: 1

      Given she gave a home address that doesn't actually exist on her immigration paperwork, we could probably have expected more from our security services.

    43. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by KGIII · · Score: 1

      I read and linked a surprising article at Vice but I can't seem to find it but it indicated that the their dragnet sweeping had resulted in 27 cases out of 174 cases being charged. I am not sure what to make of it but am of the opinion that I'll accept the risk and would prefer to not be spied on.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    44. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Jason+Levine · · Score: 1

      Bah! Everyone knows it's the right to bear arms. Now I demand that I have two additional arms - grizzly bear ones to be exact - attached to my body. Only a good guy with bear arms can be counted on to fight bad guys with bear arms.

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
    45. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by dbIII · · Score: 1

      The upper levels of bunches of spooks are political appointees instead of people with operations or real military experience.
      That results in a disconnection so that properly gathered intelligence is not considered intelligently due to decision makers not being chosen due to ability. The end results make "Get Smart" look like competent superspies in comparison.

    46. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      10% effective would be a major improvement!

      But we see this every f*cking time, the perps were usually "known to the authorities" but were lost in the thousands of others on the watchlists.

      It's really simple: MASS Surveillance DOES NOT WORK, you just create a bigger haystack

    47. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except gun ownership has increased and fire arm related homicides are down.

    48. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I grow potatoes in my backyard, and cannabis in the basement. Potatoes is south american. Cannabis is asian.

    49. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ha! Imagine you're a gun owner and get murdered by a blade or ninja star.

    50. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Oh please! Stop with the scapegoating redneck bullshit, will ya? The fighters are no different than anybody else. They follow the money, not the voodoo.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    51. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      She was in college there. He went there to get her, not for vacation. I'm convinced that Saudi Arabia is the epicenter of problem creation in the middle east.

      Well, it's the biggest ally of the US there (apart from Israel), so it's bound to be the "epicenter of problem creation" (apart from Israel).

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    52. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by drsmithy · · Score: 1

      It is.

      But the US taking over Britain's role in Middle Eastern Meddling for the last half century or so has sure made their task easier.

    53. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      The problem is in America how are you going to tell the difference between this style of terrorist attack and all the other Spree Killings/Mass Murders?

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    54. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the fear-mongering but the war isn't coming home and this will have zero impact on 99% of Americans. It's a shameful distraction that is taking money and manpower away from real issues that affect the majority of Americans.

    55. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Government financed terrorism is kind of a real issue.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    56. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by micahraleigh · · Score: 1

      Well, it is kinda helpful. For example, if you want to keep your party in power, you can put all the opposition leaders on the no fly list and then connect that to owning property, income caps, running for office, etc.

      DHS is already falling behind the IRS who is guiding the process by asking organizations to list out what their beliefs and prayers are and applying basic screening methods (like political alignment with the administration).

      This is just the government helping us to have correct political opinions. Try to give them some credit !

    57. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by TimCognito · · Score: 1

      [...why was she allowed in the US in the first place if that is true?] Because they grope old ladies, while hiring people whose names are on terror watch lists. Seventy-three were just discovered. Because they grope children, but have no screening for the workers in the cargo holds. Because they strip search the disabled in wheelchairs, but no such scrutiny for the mechanics. With all of our bluster about how we must forfeit so mnay of our constituional rights to be safe on aircraft, the Israelis have none of this; and yet, being a bigger target, have had fewer incidents. Go figure. Like all systems: garbage in, garbage out.

    58. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Look, the Feds had all the information they needed to stop the Boston Marathon bombing. The problem was not surveillance. More or less surveillance would not have changed anything. The problem was, as you say, doing something with the information. Similarly, the appropriate Federal officials knew on September 10, 2001, that something involving aircraft was going to happen real soon.

      GP was talking about spying, which you might want to reword as "surveillance". It's pointless to extend it, since we're getting more information than we can use as it is. We need to work on what we can do when we know of something going down.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    59. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Look, the Feds had all the information they needed to stop the Boston Marathon bombing. The problem was not surveillance. More or less surveillance would not have changed anything. The problem was, as you say, doing something with the information. Similarly, the appropriate Federal officials knew on September 10, 2001, that something involving aircraft was going to happen real soon.

      GP was talking about spying, which you might want to reword as "surveillance". It's pointless to extend it, since we're getting more information than we can use as it is. We need to work on what we can do when we know of something going down.

      So your argument is that what the US should do is arrest everybody that the Russians say is a dangerous terrorist with out any further checking and put them into a secret prison. Because "fact checking" aka spying would be in the way of true freedom.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    60. Re:I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      The problem is in America how are you going to tell the difference between this style of terrorist attack and all the other Spree Killings/Mass Murders?

      Easy: if the shooter even remotely looks Muslim, it was terrorism, else it was unavoidable tragedy.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    61. Re: I like how they lie and call this homegrown by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Except gun ownership has increased and fire arm related homicides are down.

      Actually, they are constant. But gun suicides and mass shootings are up.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  2. Who is this person who claims to speak for the US? by finlayson · · Score: 0

    "California Attack Has Some Random Slashdot Poster Rethinking Strategy on Homegrown Terror". There, I fixed that for you.

  3. So we're not going to over-react this time, right? by quintessencesluglord · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is just a rehash of the discussions that happened shortly after 9/11 (nevar forget), and the major events I recall from that was the collective assholes of the nation puckered up (really, the nation was nearly sane just prior), and the local Moroccan restaurant got firebombed (because they were obviously evil in trying to feed you).

    So after the last wave of security theater, what will be different this time?

    Certainly not our foreign policy. Certainly not adopting procedures from countries that do deal with terrorism successfully. Certainly not the need to throw even more money to departments that accomplish next to nothing.

    But kiss even more of your civil rights goodbye.

  4. Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If Obama attempts to label this as a "homegrown" terrorist, it truly conveys that he has NO grip on the situation at all, and is only looking to monopolize on the situation to further his agenda and gain political favors and to further "his legacy". Make no mistake this man was a American born citizen, however his wife was of Saudi Arabia and has just as much to do with the attack as anyone else and was done in collaboration with terrorist contacts he had external to this country. Yes there are domestic elements to it, but to go about it and treat it solely as a "domestic" incident would be stupid.

    1. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He has a solid grip on it. and calling it that is very calculated.

      Homegrown terrorist makes people feel more helpless that they can not do anything about it and need daddy government to help them.

      If you call it a real Terrorist attack, even the hard left liberals will be in line at the gun shop to buy AR15's and a ammo can of 1000 rounds. Americans will gleefully arm themselves to fight a foreign threat.

      but homegrown? I'm helpless, my neighbor could be one! Help me daddy gubment! Where can I report them?

      The LAST thing republicans and democrats want is all of america's citizens arming themselves heavily and organizing.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Homegrown? Come on by gtall · · Score: 1

      Fooled you, his wife was the daughter of Pakistanis, they emigrated to SA about 20 years or so ago. Please try to keep up,

    3. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Apparently nor do you as she was Pakistani.

      It is domestic because it was not (from what has been leaked as "known" so far) directed from outside the US.

      And as wtih Paris, the hyperventilating over the death of a small number is sickening (don't confuse that with a lack of sympathy for the dead/wounded). The number killed in terrorist attacks (even using the incredibly lose definitions of the government) is, well, not even microscopic. So yeah, lets just toss away more of our rights and liberties to let "daddy" protect us from something he can't stop and is very rare (see Paris - they knew most of the attackers) After all, those rights and liberties don't serve any real purpose so just give them back to the terrorists.

      What I do want to hear from Obama before he creates a new Stasi is who from DHS will be fired for giving her a visa in the first place.

    4. Re:Homegrown? Come on by jonnythan · · Score: 1

      Is there some reason to believe there was collaboration with foreign terrorist contacts? I haven't come across that information.

    5. Re: Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then quit reading whatever shit rag news source you've been lied to by. It's all over the real news.

    6. Re:Homegrown? Come on by bigdavex · · Score: 1

      If Obama attempts to label this as a "homegrown" terrorist, it truly conveys that he has NO grip on the situation at all, and is only looking to monopolize on the situation to further his agenda and gain political favors and to further "his legacy".

      What do you mean by monopolize here? Do you maybe mean capitalize?

      --
      -Dave
    7. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      LA times

      Claims the woman was in contact with two foreign terrorist groups. Of course they immediately then say there was no outside influence (because politically that would be damaging to Obama). But yes, they were contacting outside, should have been picked by by NSA legally for contacting foreign known terrorists, should have been under watch, etc. etc. etc.

      The NSA spying doesn't work, even when people contact known terrorists they are not looked at. If you are a journalist that is critical of the administration, say like John Rosen, you will be spyed on, your parents will be spyed on, your friends will be spyed on. It has become apparent that Obama does not consider foreign terrorists with weapons and intent to kill US citizens a threat or a problem worth dealing with. His real threat are US citizens that disagree with his policies, own guns, or who might vote for someone like Trump.

    8. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It shouldn't be news that the NSA spying doesn't work.

      Remember the Boston Marathon Bombing? Turns out Russia literally sent to the US a warning that they had two terrorists intent on carrying out a terrorist attack. This information made it to the FBI. What did they do?

      Interview the brothers, asking them directly if they intended to carry out a terrorist attack. They said no. The FBI dropped the case.

      That's how well our homeland security service works.

      Of course, it could be argued that the FBI couldn't do much of anything else, because the blue states tend to tie law enforcement's hands whens when it comes to investigating "minorities." Because we might hurt their feels or something. Ever notice how these terrorist attacks only ever happen in blue states?

    9. Re:Homegrown? Come on by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Your argument is badly flawed. I have almost nothing to fear from foreign terrorists. The true threat is my own countrymen and always has been. I'm much, much more likely to be shot stopping at a local convenience store than by any terrorist home grown or not. I avoid areas around town that are known to be "combat zones" and when I travel to Atlanta I always pack heat but really I have virtually no fear. My most likely means of demise will be either cancer or heart disease just like most Americans. Cancer due to the exposure to chromium and other substances in my job in the aviation industry and heart disease because I eat too fucking much. Terrorists make for good TV but if anyone stops to think about it they'll realize that they're just an annoyance.

    10. Re:Homegrown? Come on by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      The assault rifles were purchased by a friend of Syed in 2011 and 2012. Syed didn't make his first trip to Saudi Arabi until 2014. This would imply he became radicalized before ever leaving US soil and before meeting his wife, lending possible credence to the fact that Syed was in fact a "homegrown terrorist". To be fair it's not clear if the friend bought the weapons for himself initially and then lent/sold them to Syed sometime thereafter.

      http://www.nbcnews.com/storyli...

    11. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have a far FAR higher chance of dying in a car accident by one of the drooling morons driving cars than ever being even shot by a gun. You really need to understand what are the REAL risks in the world.

        TERRORISIM will motivate the easily panicked quickly.

    12. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The LAST thing republicans and democrats want is all of america's citizens arming themselves heavily and organizing.

      Well, they're already arming themselves.
      "In Wake of Shootings, a Familiar Call to Arms Drives Latest Jump in Weapon Sales"

    13. Re:Homegrown? Come on by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Excellent point!

    14. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are so wrong citizen, you must FEAR the terror!! You seem far too calm, let your government remind you of the potential unlikely horrors that can happen without us watching you.

    15. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama and bush and hilary and their entire entourage have zero grip.
      But that's irrelavant. What's relavant is that they are indeed messing
      with and making situations precisely so that they can manipulate
      and monopolize and have their way with things in the world,
      AND WITH YOU. Make no mistake about it people, when they
      fuck around overseas, and try to take your crypto and ask you
      for ID for everything.... it's not really a bunch of criminal stupid terrists
      they're after... it's more power over YOU they want.
      Masticate on that for a while till it starts to sink in.

    16. Re:Homegrown? Come on by KGIII · · Score: 1

      Why would that imply such a thing? Forgetting that it's not an assault rifle, by any stretch, and just going with the same type of firearm, I own multiples of this same and similar firearms. About the only thing I'm zealous about is my dislike of zealots. If, in the future, I go crazy and get radicalized in the name of Buddha then are you going to submit that I'm already radicalized simply by virtue of my having purchased a firearm (or probably too many, to be honest) that is really good at making holes in paper?

      No, no - they're really *good* at shooting paper. I've even used an AR to shoot trap with a fairly good score. I was, of course, a rifleman but it's not like you're taught to shoot trap in the Marines. I've done it several times (more than I'm gonna admit to) but mostly I use them to mercilessly slaughter innocent bits of paper. They started it, those bits of paper, they had numbers on them and DARED me to needlessly kill them. They're not defenseless, no matter what you might think, I've had several not just jump out of the way but somehow, magically, disappear just as the bullet should have hit them. Sometimes, they even move from side to side. I can tell 'cause they holes aren't all dead center.

      Err... At any rate. If I do go batshit crazy in the future it doesn't mean I am now nor does it mean that I bought the firearms now because I intended to go on a rampage later in life. That'd be silly.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    17. Re:Homegrown? Come on by JoeyRox · · Score: 1

      What percentage of the rifles you own have been illegally modified for rapid clip remounting and attempted fully-automated operation?

    18. Re:Homegrown? Come on by KGIII · · Score: 1

      None because I don't live in a State that prohibits standard magazine functionality and I've already got an appropriately classed firearm that is lawfully allowed to fire in fully automatic mode. None of those are remotely important or have anything to do with the claim. The claim may well be true - and probably is, but the purchasing of firearms is not a definite indicator of such. We might say the modification of those firearms is an indication of such and I'd have no qualms agreeing with that. However, if I go batshit later in life that doesn't mean that I was already "radicalized" when I bought my firearms.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    19. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm much, much more likely to be shot stopping at a local convenience store than by any terrorist home grown or not.

      So don't stop at convenience stores. The sell bad products at extortionate prices and offer unhealthy 40+ ounce sugared beverages and foods which are absolutely terrible for your health. You being more likely to be shot in one is just one more reason not to stop at convenience stores.

    20. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is domestic because it was not (from what has been leaked as "known" so far) directed from outside the US.

      It's very likely that the San Bernardino terrorists were inspired by propaganda, like the Dabiq English language magazine produced by ISIS which contains operational suggestions and instructions for carrying out attacks interspersed with ideological ramblings and glorification of Jihad. It doesn't have to be directly controlled by foreign handlers to have been substantially influenced and advised by foreigners and thus to have a foreign connection.

    21. Re:Homegrown? Come on by dbIII · · Score: 1

      It's not really what used to fit the bill as terrorism, homegrown or not

    22. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      If you call it a real Terrorist attack, even the hard left liberals will be in line at the gun shop to buy AR15's and a ammo can of 1000 rounds

      You mean just like all the other nutcases that go shoot up their co-workers after a little dispute?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    23. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      LA times

      Claims the woman was in contact with two foreign terrorist groups.

      Sorry to tell you, but neither a Muslim terrorist, nor an American gun nut will let his wife tell him what to do. So no matter what he was, it doesn't matter what his wife did.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    24. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      The assault rifles were purchased by a friend of Syed in 2011 and 2012. Syed didn't make his first trip to Saudi Arabi until 2014. This would imply he became radicalized before ever leaving US soil and before meeting his wife, lending possible credence to the fact that Syed was in fact a "homegrown terrorist".

      Or just a plain old American gun nut who happened to be a Muslim. You know, somebody who shoots up their neighbors or co-workers after a minor dispute because he had enough.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    25. Re:Homegrown? Come on by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is, I'm actually in more danger from the sodas and junk food in the store than a would be robber.

    26. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Lawrence_Bird · · Score: 1

      Thats an assinine argument. So any commie terrorism would be foreign because of Marx? Are terrorist acts by pro-life bible thumpers not domestic because their inspiration is the Bible, published elsewhere?

    27. Re:Homegrown? Come on by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      You have a far FAR higher chance of dyingb y one of the drooling morons shooting guns than ever being even hurt by a terrorist. You really need to understand what are the REAL risks in the world.

      TERRORISIM will motivate the easily panicked quickly.

      Fixed your first sentence for you. You must have missed how right the rest was.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  5. Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    In the LA times, I spotted the usual newspeak like "true muslims don't do this" and "Muslims should step up good works".
    Nowhere in the LA Times article have they mentioned the actual killing commands.
    Do the dominant media in your area cover up inconvenient facts (in every beheading, every killing of Jews)?
    For reference, I put Mohamed's commands, and how they are reported, side by side with Hitler's:

    Hitler orders his followers to kill Jews.
    His orders were covered up by his media, controller by a guy called Goebbels.
    Hitler was reported as bringing peace in 1938.

    Mohamed order his follows to "smite at the throats of non-members" (Source: Koran Surah 8)
    and "There is Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him" (source: Hadith).
    US White House reports that "Islam is an ideology of peace" (Dec 2014)

    1. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by ctid · · Score: 3, Interesting

      In this very relevant prank, some jokers put a Koran cover on a bible, then read out various passages and asked random passers-by to comment on them.
      As I'm sure you can imagine, hilarity ensues

      --
      Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
    2. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Have you ever read the old testament? Do you have any idea how often people like Moses and David ordered the wholesale murder of scores of people, including women and children? (One example, check out Number 31). It's awful.

      And yet, neither Jews nor Christians today think this is an appropriate way to act. It is in their holy text, but it is not reflective of their beliefs.

      Islam is the same way for most of the Muslims in the world. The bad parts of the Koran are no different than the bad parts of the Bible, and they are not seen as a command for how to act today.

    3. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Oligonicella · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The relevance is not whether ancient religious texts contain violent and xenophobic edicts, all cultures derived from barbaric times. The relevance is whether current religious people follow those edicts - not some minuscule portion, a significant percentage. This indicates whether a culture has started maturing or not.

      To save others the time, the universal reaction to that little experiment was shock and rejection of the barbaric edicts, not nodding and acceptance, whether they were fooled as to the source or not. You forgot that part.

    4. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      > Have you ever read the old testament?

      Likely only relevant to Jews.

      In case you've never been exposed to any sort of Xianity at all ever, Xians generally disavow most if not all of the Old Testament. That's why they don't keep kosher or otherwise follow the old law.

      If you want to commit mass character assassination, try starting with the New Testament.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      the point was to show the bible is just as horrific as the koran. they believed the horror was in the koran and not the bible and were shocked to find it was the bible.
      if you have people saying these books are the "Word of God" then they cannot cherry pick what they want to believe and follow because they are going against their God and that makes them not as devout as they think they are. If the society really grew up and matured, we'd all be atheists.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    6. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      "Likely only relevant to Jews." - whys id itn the old testament then?

      " Xians generally disavow most if not all of the Old Testament." - If thats the case why is the Lords prayer and ten commandments still being used by christians and its used to justify hate of gays etc if they disavow the old testament - all you are saying is they cherry pick the good(?) bits when its convenient. Why don't they re-write the old testament and rid themselves of Gods word?

      "If you want to commit mass character assassination, try starting with the New Testament." - Jesus didn;t refute any of the old testament or his dads horrific ways/demands and he lied about performing miracles so he is just as bad as his dad - how did i do?

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    7. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well yes, but the "shock and rejection" was accompanied by patronising sentiments about how you can't but expect barbarity from people brought up on such teachings. You forgot that part.

    8. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      Yeah, that's what Christians CLAIM often...until there is some Old Testament idea they want to push. Then they quote Matthew 5:17 so they can justify applying laws written for a Bronze age nomadic desert tribe. Or using John 7:19, or Luke 16:17. "We don't follow those rules, except when we do." If you had a flowchart of all the rules in Christianity, you'd notice that it's impossible to not commit a sin due to conflicting rules.

    9. Re:Did your media cover up inconvenient bits? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Likely only relevant to Jews." - whys id itn the old testament then?

      Because it is there for those who are interested to learn from. The word Torah, often translated "The Law" is actually better translated as "Instruction". The Torah is not your personal rule book from Jesus; neither is it to be used to beat your neighbor over the head. Also, Levitical Law is not binding on Gentiles. It never has been. Gentiles are not part of that Covenant. For that matter, Jews are not engaging in genocide of entire peoples; that may suggest that your interpretation of those passages doesn't mean what you think it means. Just sayin'.

      Rabbi Hillel was once approached by a Gentile with a strange request: 'Make me a proselyte, on condition that you teach me the whole Torah while I stand on one foot.' The Rabbi responded 'What is hateful to you, do not to your neighbour: that is the whole Torah, while the rest is the commentary thereof; go and learn it.'

      " Xians generally disavow most if not all of the Old Testament." - If thats the case why is the Lords prayer and ten commandments still being used by christians and its used to justify hate of gays etc if they disavow the old testament - all you are saying is they cherry pick the good(?) bits when its convenient. Why don't they re-write the old testament and rid themselves of Gods word?

      I would say that Christians usually don't understand the point Rabbi Hillel made above, rather than completely disavowing the Old Testament. Also, neither the Ten Commandments nor the Lord's prayer say anything about gays. You should really read them sometime.

      "If you want to commit mass character assassination, try starting with the New Testament." - Jesus didn;t refute any of the old testament or his dads horrific ways/demands and he lied about performing miracles so he is just as bad as his dad - how did i do?

      How did you do? My personal assessment: needs improvement. Jesus did indeed say that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. (Matt 5:17). But he also said “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt 22:34-40). If you are not doing those, then I don't think you are doing it right. I hope this helps.

  6. Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just don't get it. It seem like every few month we get a public shooting Colorado Springs, Rosenberg, Chattanooga and the list goes on and on. In each one, some call get made for gun control and in the end it all gets brushed under the carpet. But this time because someone happens to shout some Islamic slogan, this becomes a matter of national security. Why does the reason for the killing matter so much?

    1. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I reject the notion "gun nuts" are a significant problem, other groups are doing the shootings and they are not firearms hobbyists.

      The results of our sociological experiment in the inner cities speaks for itself. Paying women to breed like maggots, with "fathers" who are mere sperm donors who do not raise the child, this is the problem. Adult babies with no responsibility, morals, or respect for life and property are the problem. Leave the gun rights of us civilized people out of it.

      The per capita gun ownership rate of my neighborhood is far,far above that of any inner city, but we have zero crime.

    2. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      California is more than capable to act on it's own. Any state is. Yet any time this nonsense happens, liberals just crassly exploit it as an excuse to whine for national legislation. Let them clean their own houses first. Then and only then do they have any standing to meddle in anyone else's business.

      This last shooting is a perfect example of extra gun laws that didn't do shit.

      Get your own shit together first. THEN start meddling in other people's shit.

      It's not time double down on your pet agenda when your pet agenda just failed.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's very easy to answer. This more or less "run off the mill" mass shooting is different because with its pseudo-religious background it can be instrumentalized by both political parties to instill irrational fear on future voters, in order to distract from the real issues in the US, so they don't realize how they are going to get screwed by only getting a choice between candidates named Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, who are both ridiculous, untenable and should never be candidates for a vast number of reasons.

    4. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by mi · · Score: 2

      some call get made for gun control and in the end it all gets brushed under the carpet

      Because the number of people dying a violent death in the US is declining . Constitution-shredding anti-gun zealots try to "not let a good crisis go to waste", but the sentiment does not last long.

      someone happens to shout some Islamic slogan, this becomes a matter of national security

      Because this is a new motivation. One which, considering, what other Western countries are experiencing, could dramatically reverse the blissful trend. This terror-couple were living the life, millions of people world-wide can only dream about — American citizens with steady income, a nice house in a beautiful part of the country, blessed with a newborn daughter and supportive extended family.

      If they can be radicalised into a murder-suicide mission by an organization as revolting as ISIS, who can not?

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    5. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Look at the number of "mass shootings" under Obama's regime compared to before he was in power. You'll see a startling increase. He's also pushing very very hard to remove guns from the hands of law-abiding citizens while at the same time militarizing the police and training the military for operating on American soil. More mass shootings are beneficial to these goals. The more fear they can drum up among the people, the more acceptance they'll get for new laws that work towards totally disarming the law-abiding American people and increasing the police state.

      One might even be inclined to think that the establishment wants this so badly that they might fabricate such events, or worse, cause them.

      Those that fall for this trap don't realize that the road this takes us down is far, far worse than what we currently have.

    6. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      just shows the current guns laws are shit and weak. i mean you can't even ask a customer to stop smoking in a restaurant with getting your head shot off any more. http://www.eater.com/2015/11/3...

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    7. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they can be radicalised into a murder-suicide mission by an organization as revolting as ISIS, who can not?

      Me.

    8. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Nuts are the problem and it is very easy for them to get guns.
      Do you disagree?

    9. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Such simple English, such an eloquent argument. I am honestly impressed. (I fall into neither side's extremist camp, myself.)

    10. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I reject the notion "gun nuts" are a significant problem, other groups are doing the shootings and they are not firearms hobbyists.

      The results of our sociological experiment in the inner cities speaks for itself. Paying women to breed like maggots, with "fathers" who are mere sperm donors who do not raise the child, this is the problem. Adult babies with no responsibility, morals, or respect for life and property are the problem. Leave the gun rights of us civilized people out of it.

      The per capita gun ownership rate of my neighborhood is far,far above that of any inner city, but we have zero crime.

      To clarify, I am impressed by the above argument.

    11. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      RIGHT. Because this helped Paris how? A country with EXTENSIVE gun control had a much worse attack than occurred in the US and the first thing you can think of is to ban guns or otherwise strengthen gun control? How will that helped stop criminals? As you can see in Paris it didn't help at all!

    12. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      some call get made for gun control and in the end it all gets brushed under the carpet

      Because the number of people dying a violent death in the US is declining .

      Then terrorism shouldn't be reason to do anything different either.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    13. Re:Why is this mass killing different? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      just shows the current guns laws are shit and weak. i mean you can't even ask a customer to stop smoking in a restaurant with getting your head shot off any more. http://www.eater.com/2015/11/3...

      As the gun nuts say: "Try taking it with your dead hands."

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  7. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And don't forget, none of the terror incidents of late has involved strong encryption or even the hint of anybody knowing how to use it--so we have to ban strong encryption because reasons.

    Or we could, you know, stop letting people into this country who have backgrounds that correspond to this kind of behavior.

  8. How many people were killed? by Bruce66423 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This latest one was little more than a bad weekend in Chicago. Given that Chicago can't be controlled, the belief that a far more diffuse threat can be seriously challenged is the security state looking for a funding rise. Let's just be grateful that they've stayed low tech so far.

    1. Re:How many people were killed? by c · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Let's just be grateful that they've stayed low tech so far.

      Actually, I'm just kind of grateful they aren't interested in subtlety. In this case, the guy was a health inspector... he could've eventually had a higher body count if the worst thing he did was fucking up his job. If he were actively sabotaging things, it would have gotten ugly.

      --
      Log in or piss off.
    2. Re:How many people were killed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Criminals have access to everything the police have access to. Going high-tech hasn't really been half as effective as people think. The "crime drop" of the late eighties / early nineties was more due to Roe-vs-Wade than the attempts to use high-tech policing.

      The real, fundamental problem, is that when you raise a country in fear, the citizen's first reaction to anything is a radical one. Lesser reactions are skipped over because they fear the repercussions of an unsuccessful attempt.

      Trying to get a group of scared people to calm themselves down when they are "getting points" for showing off to each other every dream scenario where the boogie man can jeopardize their safety is not going to be easy.

    3. Re:How many people were killed? by Chewbacon · · Score: 0

      And New Orleans is emerging as a shooting gallery. No flags on Facebook pictures or outrage there. There is going to be more discussion about getting rid of guns to make us safer, I'm going to hold my breath waiting on the criminals to lay theirs down because really I don't want to live in such a world anyway. People are so myopic they can't see the bigger picture.

      --
      Chewbacon
      The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
    4. Re:How many people were killed? by ScentCone · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This latest one was little more than a bad weekend in Chicago. Given that Chicago can't be controlled ...

      Of course it can be controlled. The problem is that the entrenched liberal local government and voters in Chicago don't want to admit the nature of the problem, or take the steps needed to control it - because that would be, you know, mean. Or racist. Or something.

      Other large cities (even ones with much worse local economies) have far less draconian gun laws, less of a police presence, more guns owned per capita ... and not even a pale shadow of the violence problem that Chicago (or Baltimore, or New Orleans) has. This is a local culture problem, period.

      That said, there are some substantial qualitative differences between local street corner turf wars and grudge killings ... and religiously motivated theo-thug terror killings done in the name of a large and growing, well funded, well organized Islamist group's international agenda. Those things manifest themselves differently, and involve pretty specific demographics, travel, and communication.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    5. Re:How many people were killed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Certainly agree with you there. Fourteen murders corresponds to 8 days of business as usual in Los Angeles.

      So why are we worried about terrorists? Because our local victims are mostly poor and brown, and their motives aren't so pointedly ideological.

    6. Re:How many people were killed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And I'm sure he knew that, too.

      But he's not interested in killing people. Murder is incidental. What he wanted to maximise was publicity, not body count.

    7. Re:How many people were killed? by KGIII · · Score: 1

      It'll be good for New Orleans to get is #1 spot back. They've been suffering for a while now and Katrina really threw them off their game. They had people leave and new ones come in to pick up the pieces. It used to be a hell of a town. Now, when I visit, I don't even feel the least bit concerned and am able to lower my situational awareness. It just doesn't feel right.

      Okay, so I'm *mostly* kidding but 'tis true that the place is different now. I was driving through once and had kind of thought about staying in the city but the police surrounded my car and quite literally escorted me to the highway on-ramp. It has to be one of the most unusual things I've seen cops do in the US.

      --
      "So long and thanks for all the fish."
    8. Re:How many people were killed? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Personally I think that, Detroit and a great big pile of other problems is due to the city not having anywhere near the resources to get their shit together due to the limited money they can get out of a limited number of people that reside in their area. It's a 19th century model that does not take into account people living in suburbs and working in the city - requiring services that their taxes are not being directed towards. There's so many things being done at the city level when it should be done at the state level. Nice well policed suburbs don't really help when the crime comes to visit from ten blocks away. It's only a "local culture" problem because of a very outdated "every man for himself" approach to local governments that have to take on problems far better dealt with at the state level.
      Personally I don't even think a city as large as San Francisco should have a police department - a mayor should not be able to apply pressure to get the cops involved in a simple workplace dispute - they should be treated like anyone else short of the governor reporting a crime and should not hold the jobs of the police involved in their hands. A state sized force is less exposed to manipulation.

    9. Re:How many people were killed? by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      But there are plenty of under-funded (tax-wise, etc) counties and municipalities that have poor populations or shabby parts of town ... and nothing like the violence we see in New Orleans, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore. That's not for lack of policing, it's for the presence of the violent gangs in the first place. Violence doesn't magically pop into existence the moment a cop isn't present. Somebody has to decide to live like that, in some local scale model of feudal Europe. Local cultures in those towns make that choice in some places, and make a different choice in other places. It doesn't matter if the local government is "every man for himself" or state-wide ... none of that would matter if the local population's culture didn't give rise to and tolerate gangs full of violent people, and refuse to help put them away. The evidence is that most cities aren't like that.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    10. Re:How many people were killed? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Yes, but nibbling at the problem with very little resources at the local level when the state can afford an effective response seems a bit "feudal" (and futile) to me. The dead heart of so many US cities looks like a weird artifact of boundaries of revenue collection. Economies of scale and reduced duplication could do the job without sucking more money out of the taxpayer. Do you really need a Mayor on $1million+ per year for a suburb of 25,000 people?

  9. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by benjfowler · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Blaming "foreign policy" is victim blaming

    Islamists, if deprived of that excuse, would rapidly find another. "Foreign policy" is just a bullshit post-hoc justificiation -- and convenient, because they can force us to change our foreign policy to tip-toe around Muslims, so we have to tip-toe around them, and give them more free shit and lebensraum.

    No quarter to fascists. We should be hanging the pigs, not making excuses for them.

  10. So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dec 2nd, 2 baddies kill 14 people in CA = CNN says "assault weapons" for 12 straight hours.

    Oct 3rd, An AC-130 gunship and crew of 13 rain 211 shells on a hospital in for nearly an hour killing 63 patients and international volunteer doctors = CNN barely mentioned it, and somehow failed to categorize the gunship loaded with 211 shells an "assault weapon"

    Why didn't the pres address the nation over this one?

    1. Re:So, ponder this... by benjfowler · · Score: 1

      Get back to me when I can buy a fully-loaded AC130 gunship without an ID check.

      Apples and oranges.

    2. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Because the US military committed a war crime and leveraged everything they had to suppress the story.

      I truly hope that MSF is successful in taking the US to The Hague over this atrocity. I know that may seem like I'm holding the US military to an unfair standard, but actually, under the circumstances they absolutely should have done better. What's the point in having all this modern near-instant communication equipment, surveillance gear, and data-exchange if such tragedy can still occur.

      Here's the latest for those who haven't heard anything in a while:

      http://www.aviationpros.com/news/12143532/us-service-members-suspended-for-attack-on-afghan-hospital-could-face-court-martial

      The US should hang its head in shame, rather than try to suppress this as they have done. For a truly sickening experience, go back and read the news reports in the days and weeks following the event. The blatant way they drag their feet over the incident is just as disgusting as the event itself.

    3. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This is actually a funny point. I'm not sure what kind of ID was required, but let's unpack this one.

      1) Official story basically says the entire chain of cammand was incompetant and they just made a big ooops. I wonder how it would look if a well meaning citizen "ooopsed" and discharged 211 rounds from a legal firearm which killed 63 people. I honestly wonder how that shit would be covered. Would it be okay just because he was a morron?

      I'll make the note that the MSF went WAY WAY WAY the hell out of their way to inform the United States of Killing People where their hospital was located, exact GPS coordinates. They went far beyond the suggested repoting procedures and apparently had spoken to a ranking US chain of commander less than a week prior, once again, informing of their location, as a hospital, so they wouldn't be targeted in any sort of "ooops" attack.

      2) Back to the license issue.... it would appear if you're an empire with endless cash, you don't need an ID. You can pick up a piece of hardware like an AC-130 and find some "radicalized US of A" goons to fly it who apparently won't have the capacity of human beings to understand, better yet, give fuck-all about the fact they are raining howitzer shells on fucking doctors.

      3) It's almost a similar mindset to these assholes that shot up southern cali. It's like they didn't care about the pain and suffering they were about to inflict. They cared nothing for their victems nor their families. They wanted to kill, didn't really give a shit about the consequences, so they did it.

      Hmmm........ who else has engaged in similiar operations over the past 15 years? If I were an American, I may notice some blood on my own hands.

    4. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't reason with someone who has Oslama's big black cock in their mouth.

    5. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmm........ who else has engaged in similiar operations over the past 15 years? If I were an American, I may notice some blood on my own hands.

      The above is utter bullshit.

      The policies and actions of the US government have nothing to do with the wishes or intent
      of the vast majority of US citizens. The US government is engaging in war which has not even been
      approved by the majority of US citizens.

      So take your sanctimonious idiotic opinion and shove it up your ass.

    6. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because he was busy planning a false flag.

    7. Re:So, ponder this... by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      More pertinent, radicalized man goes into medical clinic in Colorado, shoots it up to make a political point and somehow that *isn't* terrorism?

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    8. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why? It was a technical failure of the plane's targeting equipment.

      The plane was originally scheduled to go to another area and therefore wasn't loaded with a list of off-limit targets for the area it wound up in. A technical fault prevented that from being sent to them during flight. Ground forces came under attack and it was redirected for urgent air support. While trying to line up on the correct target, it came under attack and had to reposition. At this point the targeting systems had another fault, lost the proper target, and accidentally reacquired the hospital instead of the original, correct, target.

      Shit happens in a war zone. Blaming the US and US service members for a cascade of technical failures is completely asinine. You set up a hospital in a war zone, you're accepting the risks of being in a war zone. Accidents aren't war crimes.

    9. Re:So, ponder this... by benjfowler · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The military is a broadsword, not a scalpel.

      Military-scale violence cannot be done in half-measures -- one should only draw one's sword if he's going to use it, and then one is committed, forget all bullshit so-called "rules" -- fight to win and utterly crush and humiliate the enemy. In this sense, laws of war are counterproductive; it lowers the threshold of organised violence way too far, and we end up with a long list of pointless scuffles and police actions, and with a lot of the backwards parts of the world just hating us.

      (Laws of war were invented by fucking-idiot country gentlemen in 1945, when we had just come out of a no-holds-barred mechanized, industrialized war, and it was disciplined Western armies fighting disciplined Western armies. The fact is, many of the people we fight, fight like animals, and they do not fight Marquis of Queensbury Rules...) These men were not men of vision -- they were fools who just like Versailles, sowed the seeds of future conflict.

      If I were president of the world, we would have not gone into Iraq or even Afghanistan, but I certainly would have had IS cut to pieces, if they existed. Thanks to 9/11, we have the perverse situation where the Americans invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, riled up the Muslim world; yet we now can't act decisively against the biggest bunch of fascists since the Nazis.

      *facepalm*

      I think we have something to learn from the Russians in this sense. They understand these aspects of using organised violence way better than the West does. I would be comparing notes with them -- they have good experience of losing, then winning spectacularly against Islamist opponents.

      If you're going to have blood on your hands -- it'd better be for a damned good reason. I wish our so-called leaders would think way harder before resorting to force. There IS a time and place for force (human nature being the way it is), but it's getting used way too often.

    10. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2) Back to the license issue.... it would appear if you're an empire with endless cash, you don't need an ID.

      You say that as if there is something special about the US. Inventing, manufacturing, and trading in weapons is what governments do and one of the main reasons people pay taxes. You pay more taxes, they buy more guns.

      Hmmm........ who else has engaged in similiar operations over the past 15 years?

      You mean shooting at civilians? Most of Europe.

      If I were an American, I may notice some blood on my own hands.

      You'd be well advised to worry about the blood on your hands; no matter what benighted nation you may come from, I guarantee you its body count is far worse, and chances are the only reason you're not currently engaged in a deadly war is because of NATO and the US.

    11. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even more pertinent, doctor goes into abortion clinic, kills a born living baby during a botched abortion, cuts it up to pieces and sells the body parts for profit.

      My only question is why is that not a national outrage and its a controversy to have it stopped? Perhaps if people could have reasonable discussions about things crazy people wouldn't think they had to take issue in their own hands.

    12. Re:So, ponder this... by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Get back to me when I can buy a fully-loaded AC130 gunship without an ID check.

      You seem to be implying you can buy a gun without an ID check. You can't, of course, unless you buy it from a private individual....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    13. Re:So, ponder this... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      The really strange thing is that the US helped build the hospital that they didn't know was a hospital. Whoever was responsible for this either did it on purpose or they are too stupid to live. Someone should be in jail but since it's most likely someone with at least 2 stars on his uniform they just sweep it under the rug.

    14. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It will never happen. If you are a permanent member of the UN Security Council, or a key ally (such as Israel or Saudi Arabia) International law does not apply to you.

    15. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Irrelevant. Straw purchases for firearms happen all the time.

    16. Re:So, ponder this... by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      More pertinent, radicalized man goes into medical clinic in Colorado, shoots it up to make a political point and somehow that *isn't* terrorism?

      No, crazy guy who's been living in a series of broken down shacks and trailers without any electricity or running water, and with a long history of irrational violence and apparently delusional behavior does a very bad job killing a bunch of people, and does so without any claim to be part of some larger movement or in coordination with others or any sort of cogent goal beyond the sort of babbling that we also got out of a number of other damaged-goods spree killers in recent memory.

      As opposed to a well educated devout Muslim professional and his recently imported hyper-devout, radicalized wife from Pakistan (where she was associated with a notoriously radical mosque) by way of Saudi Arabia ... who ran a bomb-making factory in their condo, and clearly had long baked their plan, along with attempting to wipe their digital history clean before using an alias to remind the world they were working on behalf of a huge and growing violent Islamist group as they set out to kill a bunch of people in a known-to-be-defenseless gathering with obvious plans to do more of the same.

      Not seeing the difference? Pay more attention.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    17. Re:So, ponder this... by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Definition of terrorism (from dictionary.com): the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes. The homeless guy clearly fits this definition. He killed people with the intent of making a political point in the process. You think that the Paris attackers or the San Bernadino attackers were sane? If so, you have a different definition of sane than I have. Your definition is only likely to be applied to people with brown skin and/or muslim connections and is largely used to justify vast military spending.

      Because that's what your definition is all about: justifying the trillions of dollars that are being lavished on "defence" companies.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    18. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First you say stuff like this.

      Even more pertinent, doctor goes into abortion clinic, kills a born living baby during a botched abortion, cuts it up to pieces and sells the body parts for profit.

      And then this:

      Perhaps if people could have reasonable discussions about things crazy people wouldn't think they had to take issue in their own hands.

      You ask why people can't have "reasonable discussions." Protip because you are framing the issue like that is how abortion happens. Babys born, chopped to bits, and then sold. Yet I am guessing you have no evidence of that chain of events happening. Your own rhetoric is why we cannot have a reasonable discussion about things like this.

    19. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unfortunately, there are videos of planned parenthood doing EXACTLY that. The DNC talking points... "It didn't happen the video is doctored". Watching the video, its real, it isn't doctored. For some reason the DNC thinks that kind of behaviour is not only acceptable, but if you are against it you are an extremist.

      The DNC is not a viable political party at this point for people with ethics.

    20. Re:So, ponder this... by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

      It's because the guns on the AC-130 aren't "assault weapons" they are "crew-served/vehicle mounted weapons."

    21. Re:So, ponder this... by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

      There is video of a baby being chopped up and sold for profit? No, there isn't. Shut it, asshole. I have little doubt you will be the next homegrown Christian terrorist that shoots up a doctor's office.

    22. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The location was called in as coordinates, not "The hospital on the corner of 7th and Main". From 10,000 feet in the air, how should the crew have known those numbers matched with a hospital?

      The Afghanis that called in the strike should be in trouble... but it's always "Blame the US first, and only".

    23. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wasn't a war crime, as war crimes must be deliberate, or deliberately negligent. An accident is not a war crime.

      In truth, even if it were deliberate, it might have been legal under the laws of war - There are (credible) accusations that the hospital stuff turned out civilian patients in order to treat known insurgents. That is not a neutral act, and potential opens the hospital up as a legitimate target.
      That sort of argument has been made before, and it would take a trial to determine what it'd be this time.

    24. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agree with your thoughts on the use of military force. The political need to "do something", even in places where there is no clear winning strategy, is corrosive. No one points out that "doing something" contains a built-in assumption that Western involvement can be positive. What if there is no positive contribution to be made? What if all outside interventions merely make a bad situation worse? Yet the lack of Western involvement, particularly when combined with worsening conditions is invariably met with calls for the West to "do something" and the assumption that failure to do something was the reason for the worsening conditions.

      Certain Western leaders also had something of a fetish for the latest military hardware, notably precision munitions. This was sold as "surgical strikes" and "point and click warfare". What foolishness! All military actions of any meaningful size cause civilian casualties. The causes are endless and of little consequence here; one need only understand that innocent people will be killed or injured. Precision weapons help but they only reduce the body count. Morally they change nothing.

      That's what one needs to balance when considering the use of force. A plausible strategic path to victory and an acceptance of the cost to innocent civilians. Once those considerations can be met, then military force is an option.

    25. Re:So, ponder this... by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Really. Which coherent political purpose did you find the crazy homeless guy to be supporting? Specifically.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    26. Re:So, ponder this... by Undead+Waffle · · Score: 1

      Irrelevant. Straw purchases for firearms happen all the time.

      That's terrible! We should ban those!

    27. Re:So, ponder this... by Undead+Waffle · · Score: 1

      Dec 2nd, 2 baddies kill 14 people in CA = CNN says "assault weapons" for 12 straight hours.

      Oct 3rd, An AC-130 gunship and crew of 13 rain 211 shells on a hospital in for nearly an hour killing 63 patients and international volunteer doctors = CNN barely mentioned it, and somehow failed to categorize the gunship loaded with 211 shells an "assault weapon"

      Why didn't the pres address the nation over this one?

      It's not an assault weapon unless it has a pistol grip, vertical front grip, or collapsible stock. At least according to California. Maybe when those launchers become more ergonomic and get painted "AR15 Black" they will reach the status of "assault weapon".

    28. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because addressing the nation with the truth of what they are doing would get them thrown out of office. It's exactly why THEY want to have all the encryption and TOP SECRET's for themselves and NONE for you while they spy on you and your family. Being honest and open and legitimate simply does not serve their interests in grabbing ever more power away from the peoples of the world at all costs.

      You know, it is your RIGHT and RESPONSIBILTY to RISE UP against all this.
      They're not going to do it... it's not in their interests.

    29. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry bub, the biggest bunch of facists and nazis since WWII is in fact the US government.
      And all their asskissing cronies in the corporate and FVEY spheres.

    30. Re:So, ponder this... by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      Really. Which coherent political purpose did you find the crazy homeless guy to be supporting? Specifically.

      Really? Are you so badly informed? If so, you have no place in this argument.

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    31. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The US should hang its head in shame

      I'm an American and I'm not ashamed at all. In fact, I'm quite proud of our military professionals and how they conduct themselves.

      The blatant way they drag their feet over the incident is just as disgusting as the event itself.

      You've heard the expression, "we've got bigger fish to fry"? In case you hadn't noticed, a little something happened in Paris since the MSF cut it's losses in Afghanistan. The stakes are a bit higher now than a few dead volunteers in Afghanistan who willingly put themselves into harms way in a war zone. The people in Paris were just trying to enjoy a Friday evening in what's supposed to be the civilized capital of a major European democracy.

    32. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not seeing the difference? Pay more attention.

      He sees the difference, but like other jackass Liberals he asks half baked rhetorical questions to bait responses because he thinks he's smarter than everyone else. Typically, these kind of people only realize the error in their ways when the tragedy finally strikes them or their families personally or as they saying goes, a Conservative is a Liberal who has been mugged.

    33. Re:So, ponder this... by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Really? Are you so badly informed? If so, you have no place in this argument.

      Thank you for proving me right.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    34. Re:So, ponder this... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      There is video of a baby being chopped up and sold for profit? No, there isn't.

      Well, if there isn't, ISIS could make one for the GOP. They are good at showing atrocities in their videos, and they like to commit them for money. A match made in heaven.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    35. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CNN says "assault weapons" for 12 straight hours.

      That's because it's a scare word, and CNN enjoys pumping the anti-gun/pro gun-control angle whenever they can.

      and somehow failed to categorize the gunship loaded with 211 shells an "assault weapon"

      That's because it's not an "assault weapon", regardless of what definition you're using.

      Prior to the Clinton era, the term "assault" was used to loosely define a class of SUB military weapons, primarily rifles, which were categorized as having a relatively short range, mediocre accuracy, and a high rate of fire.
      The Brady Bill was the start of a legal, and politically motivated, classification called 'assault weapons'. Most of the things which are used to determine if a weapon is legally in the "assault" category have more to do with making the weapon LOOK scary than they do with the actual performance of the weapon.

      However, none of those definitions apply to full-auto weaponry, mounted weapons, or military weapons in general.

      But to address you question, it's most likely because there's a big difference between shooting up a bunch of people on a Field of Battle in a Declared War Zone, using clearly marked and flagged military equipment, vs. a couple of religious wackjobs deciding they're going to gun down an Office Party.

    36. Re:So, ponder this... by chispito · · Score: 1

      killing 63 patients

      Hyperbole. Lots of people died, but even the operator of the hospital lists it as "at least 30 people" including 10 patients. Source: http://www.msf.org/topics/kund...

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
    37. Re:So, ponder this... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow did you miss the point. It wasn't the size of the guns it was the size of the Media & government response...the 'hospital & volunteer doctors' weren't in the US so of course they are 'those other people that don't matter' very likely resulting in more young people being turned on to terrorism because the US is in fact killing innocent people all over the world. You can't just 'apologize' for 63 dead patients at the hand of your military...you can't just ignore it and hope it goes away.

      But of course 2 random individuals shooting 14 'special Americans' requires further assaults on people's liberty & is used to instil more widespread fear in to Americans....yup that makes sense.

    38. Re:So, ponder this... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      You mean they don't have local facilities marked in their NAV systems? I find that very unlikely.

    39. Re:So, ponder this... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The current Laws of War are based on the Hague and Geneva conventions of the early Twentieth Century. WWII showed that these conventions were insufficient in some ways, and they were changed. In particular, the rules on treatment of people in conquered areas were extensively changed (not that Germany's actions were legal by the laws of war then in effect). There had been generally understood Laws of War before the Twentieth Century, but, to my limited knowledge, these were the first modern efforts to specify them.

      There are rules about who the Laws of War apply to. If some group is using terror tactics, they lose the protection the Conventions afford to combatants.

      In other words, your comment about people and the Laws of War are based on ignorance.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    40. Re:So, ponder this... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      Oh, well, ok then, AC.

    41. Re:So, ponder this... by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      He claimed to support Army of God, one of the few acknowledged Christian terrorist organizations in the United States. I wouldn't go so far as to say Robert Dear was an organization member, but he did say they were "heroes" for their killings of abortion doctors and abortion clinics.

      And come on, he lived in a trailer: http://static01.nyt.com/images...
      That's a far cry from "crazy homeless guy."

  11. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You want to know how to start combatting this? Stop all Islamic immigration, and begin the process of de-Islamizing the US. Yeah, I'm well aware that I will sound extreme to most of you but I've become convinced, looking at the history of Islam, that Islam can NEVER peacefully co-exist with other cultures. All it has ever done is attack its neighbours and it continues to do so today. It will never be tamed or reformed. It can only be stopped.

    Wow, Robert Dear, Allen Lawrence Scarsella, Nathan Gustavsson, Daniel Macey, Joseph Backman, and Timothy McVeigh was all Muslim? The things one can learn on the Internet.

    Here's a list of all the mass shootings in this country for this year, to date. Oh, and your understanding of history is about as uninformed as anything I have come across. By your standards, the United States must be the Great Satan given the amount of people we have killed during the wars we have been directly and indirectly involved in over the last century.

    Please get back to us when you have figured out which other generalized groups to deport. Until that time most of the rest of us will continue to point out how you ARE the problem, not part of the solution.

  12. Get Real by JimSadler · · Score: 0

    Why not simply take these attacks for what they are. Yes, they are tragic and people suffer and die. However,they are a minor hazard. Such attacks are not the end of the world nor will they bring down our nation. We do not want a police state here. Frankly the terrorists have very little ability as the incidents could have been far worse if they had an adequate knowledge of how things work in America. Shooting 28 people who work with handicapped children will get the digestive juices flowing in our public. If they had shot 28 used car salesmen less hate would be directed towards these lunatics.

    1. Re:Get Real by tomhath · · Score: 1

      terrorists have very little ability as the incidents could have been far worse

      You don't think there might be a reason it's harder for them to carry out attacks in the US than it is in some other countries? Really?

    2. Re:Get Real by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, we need to keep this in perspective and not use it as an excuse for other agendas.
      That said, I think there are a few things that could be done.

      First there should be more consequences after the fact for the folks close the couple.
      What should happen to the kid and grandparent?
      Who's fingerprints and/or dna were in the apartment and/or on the weapons stash and what is happening to them?
      Where did the couple worship and what is happening there?
      Who were they in communication with to be a part of ISIS, and what will happen to them?
      If these are educated folks who went to college, where are there classmates now?

      Second, we need to think about what it means to be American and how it should affect immigration.
      We need to be in agreement on a common basis set of values.
      This includes a respect for the ideas behind the Constitution and the words and process supporting it.
      This means understanding what the Constitution is.
      This means submitting to the melting pot process.
      This means understanding that your right to diversity depends on accepting other's right to diversity.

      Third, this logical consequence of accepting diversity thing is really important.
      It is kind of another way of stating the Golden Rule.
      Any religious group that feels morally justified in forcing it's faith on others is being logically dishonest or ignorant.
      Either way, this makes it a logically and morally bankrupt faith.
      There are many examples in history where such a faith has led to serious evil.
      The founding fathers understood this when they drafted the Constitution.
      Considering the Crusades, it seem both sad and ironic that Islam leads some in this direction.

    3. Re:Get Real by Barsteward · · Score: 0

      if i was a terrorist, i'd make my way to the USA and cause as much havoc as i could because its so easy to get guns, ammo etc

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    4. Re:Get Real by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

      Ocean.

    5. Re:Get Real by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      If you were to make it to the United States to attempt your campaign of terrorism you might find millions of Americans trained, armed, and willing to shoot you dead. That is the flip side.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  13. Re:More blood... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was Snowden who actually revealed the problem: the incestuous relationship between several successive US administrations and Saudi Arabia, which is the country that weaponized Islam and keeps the death-cult interpretation of the faith funded:

    https://theintercept.com/2014/...

    The KSA is the real enemy in the region. Time to get rid of it.

  14. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by JoeyRox · · Score: 0

    I'm going to take a wild guess that you didn't read the article.

  15. "homegrown" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A good fix would be to stop immigration from certain countries.

    1. Re:"homegrown" by craigminah · · Score: 1

      Yup...simple really, but I wonder why President Obama won't o that and, more importantly, why Congress voted that bill down this week.

    2. Re:"homegrown" by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      A good fix would be to stop immigration from certain counties.

      FTFY

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  16. Re:More blood... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Snowden who actually revealed the problem

    That was well known, he didn't reveal anything new there.

  17. but ... but ... mah Freeduhms! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We do not want a police state here

    too late, Hoss.

    that horse is waaaaaaay out of the barn.

    and you didn't just close the door after it got out, you burnt down the barn, then gelded the horse as soon as you caught it.

    congratulations!

  18. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by Crowd+Computing · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "California Attack Has Some Random Slashdot Poster Rethinking Strategy on Homegrown Terror". There, I fixed that for you.

    Not just some random poster. The title is actually from the linked NY Times article, right down to the URL. So there's some serious discussion going on, whether we like what comes out of it or not.

  19. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by finlayson · · Score: 0

    Yes I did. The "article" is some random nobody named "JoeyRox" who's plagiarizing text from another article from the New York Times.

  20. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    NY Times is not a reputable news source anymore... They have not been anything but a opinion rag for the past 5 years.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  21. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by quintessencesluglord · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I see you missed the part about the Moroccan restaurant being firebombed. Somehow that wasn't labeled terrorism.

    And so does your victim-blaming narrative fit there too?

    Let's not forget that ISIL is a very, very recent development. I wonder if anyone can point to any recent events in that part of the world?

    Or do you really want me to believe that for over 200 years Islamic people have had little beef with the US, but over the course of the last 30 have developed a hard-on of epic proportions.

    And it was just out of nowhere, and not reactionary to US foreign policy.

    Really?

    As I said, just a rehash of discussions after 9/11. Thank you for playing your part.

  22. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by JoeyRox · · Score: 0, Troll

    So I somehow made up the text and plagiarized it at the same time? That's a neat trick.

    The text in the summary drawn from the article is contained within quotes, signifying attribution to the article per slashdot submission guidelines.

  23. why would it renew that debate, again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The attack is also expected to renew the debate over privacy versus security for software encryption.

    There have been no indications or reports that "software encryption" was involved in any way. So why would this have any bearing on that debate?

    1. Re:why would it renew that debate, again? by pepty · · Score: 2

      Because the light is better under the "encryption" and "Syrian refugee" streetlamps.

  24. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The United States of America

  25. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by gtall · · Score: 2, Funny

    I give up, why would American officials import "millions" of those terrorists? Wait, wait, I know....it is because then Obama could declare martial law and be the Muslim President for Life!!! Yep, that must be it. The only thing preventing this must be the Republicans armed to the teeth. What could possibly make us safer then a bunch of Republican gun nuts running around: Are you a terrorist? Are you a terrorist? You are, eh...BLAM...sorry I had to shoot your kid, Madam, he should be in kindergarten with the rest of the 5 year-olds...goddamn terrorist spawn of Satan.

  26. See something say something by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...Yeah, we need an American Stazi!

  27. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If it's the "War on Death" then we'll need to retire the entire US Armed Forces, won't we? If I recall we killed about a million people in Iraq and Afghanstan. If I recall, we justified this after someone blew up some buidings? https://youtu.be/6xif0jIT_ZM

  28. Why? by Dereck1701 · · Score: 1

    "The attack is also expected to renew the debate over privacy versus security for software encryption"

    Why? Is the any evidence they used any form of communication or encryption? These attacks barely show as a rounding error in overall homicide statistics. Just catch/kill those who commit such acts, remove as many of the drives as possible (unemployment, collateral damage, injustice, etc) and move on with life. Our "solution" to terrorism of wildly throwing billions of dollars at the defense industry and forsaking our rights is like "fixing" a paper-cut on our finger by cutting off our arm.

    1. Re:Why? by pepty · · Score: 1

      Can't we just announce a war on paper?

    2. Re:Why? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      "The attack is also expected to renew the debate over privacy versus security for software encryption"

      Why? Is the any evidence they used any form of communication or encryption? These attacks barely show as a rounding error in overall homicide statistics

      Well all previous reasons for the debate over privacy versus security for software encryption also had little if anything to do with the actual use of them. Including the ones that only used "normal" homicides as a reason.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  29. Re:goodbye 2nd, we hardly knew ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Didn't something similar to this happen in the 1930's? Yea. Seems like there was an effort to round up.... hmm.... can't remember exactly. It involved a strange star patch though. I don't think they lined them up and shot them in the streets initiallly, it seems like it started with something else. They rounded up one group, then another, then I think the story ends with a few million people being mass killed in camps. Didthey call them "FEMA" camps back then? Not sure. I just eat Taco Bell and consume shit I don't need so I'm not really an authority on the subject. I'm certainly no student of history.

  30. Pamela Geller had it right by amightywind · · Score: 0

    Her guards greeted the muslim criminals with a hail of bullets before they could act.

    --
    an ill wind that blows no good
  31. A Modest Proposal by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    If we just put all the Muslims in Planned Parenthood clinics, then our homegrown terrorists will become the homegrown solution.

    http://time.com/3934980/right-...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:A Modest Proposal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're a piece of shit.

    2. Re:A Modest Proposal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, all pregnant Muslims should go to Planned Parenthood and abort their abortions.

    3. Re:A Modest Proposal by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      and abort their abortions.

      Once you have an abortion, isn't aborting it again just piling on?

  32. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by benjfowler · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Without knowing the back-story, the Morrocan restaurant firebombing could've been intra-ethnic score-settling for all we know.

    Muslims have had a beef with America as long as America has existed. Don't believe for a second that Muslims can't dish it out as good as they take it.

    You're being disingenius about ISIL. ISIL is the same shit -- only the flies are different.

    The white slave trade (where literally millions of white people were abducted into slavery by Muslims), has been whitewashed out of history. But the Muslims hate America, because America, very early on, ended the white slave trade by force.

    American actions may have been counterproductive at times ("moderate" terrorists, *cough* *cough*), but Americans haven't waged war against Islam and Muslims per se; they have, however, fought dictators and extremists (just as they fought the Barbary pirates). If this upsets Muslims, then this reflects poorly on the Muslims, not Americans.

    You give these people way too much credit.

  33. Re: What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in."
    - George S. McGovern

  34. Yeah. Software Encryption. That'll Do It by Greyfox · · Score: 0

    I'm guessing they used all that software encryption to get the 4 guns, body armor, materials for pipe bombs and enough ammo to keep the national guard supplied for a couple of months. We really need to do something about all that software encryption. Surely that will solve all these problems!

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

    1. Re:Yeah. Software Encryption. That'll Do It by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The New American Foundation is about as credible as Pravda.

  35. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by benjfowler · · Score: 0

    There hasn't been a Crusade in a thousand years -- and there'll never be another.

    This reads like paranoid street-level Arab crap.

  36. Re: Evolution is for Cows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Learn history first, Islam did not exist 2000 years ago. It's about 1,500 years old

  37. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Mr. Brown was a strong arm thug that attempted to take a Police Officer's gun and then attacked him in the street.

    Even the race baiting US Attorney General couldn't find a way to make it the officer's fault.

    Aaron was just a sad, pathetic little shit that couldn't handle the consequences of his actions.

    Neither of these two were "future leaders".

  38. My prediction.... by erp_consultant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    After 9/11 the government created DHS to supposedly prevent terror attacks from happening again. As others have discussed, this is nothing more than political theater. Billions of dollars and thousands of bumbling bureaucrats later, we are no safer now than we were then. All it has done is create delays for millions of air passengers every year.

    So Obama will predictably call for more of the same. More invasion of privacy, more bureaucrats, more wasted effort. This is what government always does - when an idea doesn't work throw more money at it.

    Meanwhile he will double down on more gun control. The problem is that law enforcement is almost always in a reactive role. A crime gets committed and they show up, clean up the mess, and try to find out who is responsible. In the interim, lots of people die. What he doesn't want to admit to is that is citizens are armed then these types of terror attacks would have minimal or no damage. Instead of everyone standing around watching people get shot someone will pull out a piece and shoot the shooter.

    Once again, political correctness and party politics get in the way of common sense.

    1. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Whatever happened to, "Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself"?

      I don't want to trade liberty for security. Am I in the minority here with my wanting to have my civil liberties?

    2. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I know it would never fly in the states, but I feel mandatory military isn't a terrible idea. I'm not saying everyone should hold a combat role or be forced into killing "the enemy". However I think a large number of people would benefit from going through boot camp/basic training. Aside from the related intent of learning how to properly use a firearm in a combat situation, it would also teach discipline, respect, chain of command, and so on (ie. things that seem to be lacking in the states these days).

      I'm not saying everyone should have to tote around a gun. I do agree that if there were a few gun-holding, trained people around when situations like this occur, perhaps the death counts can approach the number of perpetrators involved rather than being well over that count.

      Note, I'm not suggesting this is THE solution, but rather a possible step towards improving these outcomes. It certainly can't be any worse than Americans losing even more rights, which sadly, I also see on the horizon...

    3. Re:My prediction.... by TykeClone · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Marksmanship and firearm safety should be a part of the curriculum at all K-12 schools.

      --
      A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
    4. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I feel your pain brother. However, your inalienable rights are well inalienable.

    5. Re:My prediction.... by pepty · · Score: 1

      As pointed out upthread, mass killings are a rounding error in the national homicide rate. I think the effect of having more "gun-holding, trained people" drinking at holiday parties would be to push the homicide rate up a tick rather than down.

    6. Re:My prediction.... by pepty · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What he doesn't want to admit to is that is citizens are armed then these types of terror attacks would have minimal or no damage. Instead of everyone standing around watching people get shot someone will pull out a piece and shoot the shooter.

      So how many armed civilians do you need to drop the mass killing rate by 50%? Quite a lot to have 1 or more on hand at every large gathering. Bear in mind, dropping the mass killing rate by half would drop the homicide rate by less than 0.3%. Meanwhile, now every office party where people are drinking now has at least someone armed in attendance. Does getting a CCW permit automatically cause abstinence from drinking and drug use while carrying? What could go wrong? Considering that in the US accidental shootings alone kill ~10 times more people than mass shootings, I think more people would die rather than fewer.

    7. Re:My prediction.... by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      I'm waiting for them to try this kind of terror attack in someplace like Waco, Texas.

    8. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mass shootings are such a tiny percentage of overall firearms deaths, much less homicides.

      Reporting them to death tends to encourage more of them.

      Our murder rate has been steadily dropping for quite a long time.

      Why do these shootings happen more often in blue states, which have much lower gun ownership?

    9. Re:My prediction.... by Solandri · · Score: 1
      Agreed with the rest of your post, but the Department of Homeland Security reorganization was one of the few good things to come out of 9/11. Before:
      • Immigration and Naturalization was in the Justice Department
      • Customs and Border Patrol was in the Treasury Department
      • The animal and plant inspectors at customs were in the Agriculture Department
      • TSA was in the Transportation Department (regulatory agencies)
      • FEMA was off by itself
      • The Coast Guard was in the Treasury, except during war when it got transferred to Defense. Was put in Transportation in 1967 with the regulatory agencies, I guess because they inspect boats
      • The Secret Service was in the Treasury (the Treasury Dept. seemed to be the catch-all Department for any organization which didn't really fit anywhere else)

      Despite the evil that might arise from these groups conspiring together, logistically they are much better off being grouped together and better able to coordinate their activities.

    10. Re:My prediction.... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      "So how many armed civilians do you need to drop the mass killing rate by 50%?" - It's not just mass killings it's all killings. Who you do you thing the bad guys target? The weak and the unarmed, that's who. If you want to let the DHS and police attempt to protect you then that's your business. When it comes to the safety of my family I take matters into my own hands.

      "Meanwhile, now every office party where people are drinking now has at least someone armed in attendance." - Are you trying to draw a relationship between alcohol and guns? Nice try. Nobody is suggesting that anyone should be packing at the office Christmas party. In your scenario alcohol is the problem, not guns.

      "Considering that in the US accidental shootings alone kill ~10 times more people than mass shootings, I think more people would die rather than fewer" - Would you care to cite any reliable sources on this? Meanwhile, I would suggest that many of the accidental shootings occur because of lack of training in the use of firearms and improper storage of firearms. The trigger doesn't pull itself.

    11. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Along with some form of martial arts and other military training, yes, it should be as basic as reading, writing, and 'rithmetic

    12. Re:My prediction.... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      You make a good point about the consolidation and in a broader sense you are correct. But in terms of terrorism - and remember, this is how it was sold to the American public - it has been a failure.

      I'm not blaming Obama for this by the way. DHS was brought in by the Bush administration. Both parties have a hand in this and both have failed to make it work.

    13. Re:My prediction.... by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      that won;t cure the nutjobs, might save a few self inflicted accidents though.

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    14. Re:My prediction.... by waTeim · · Score: 0

      Well you know who else concocted some half thought-out response in an online discussion? That's right, Hitler. H I T L E R. You're HITler, bro. Now go back to Antartica and make yourself useful, learn to dance penguin style or bake a pie, and don't return until you learn to win back God's favor.


      You're Hitler.

    15. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Notice WHERE all the mass killings happen. IN GUN FREE ZONES. Guess what GuN FREE ZONES don't stop a CRIMINAL! In fact the guy that killed all the people at the theater in Aurora, CO stated he went 20 minutes out of his way to go to THAT theater because they DIDN'T allow guns. I have a CCW and I carry all the time. Even into businesses that post "no guns". You know why? Because all it takes is one person with a CCW to STOP a bad thing from happening. It happened in Milwaukee, WI at an Aldi's store. They had posted "no guns" but one brave CCW holder decided to disobey the sign and stopped a cashier from getting her head blown off by a perp! Aldi's in Wisconsin. He drew his weapon and shot the perp in the leg. The CCW holder did not get into trouble and the perp is in PRISON! Now ALdi's have ALL removed their "no guns" signs and no mention of anymore attempted robberies in Aldi's stores in Wisconsin.

      Now tell me again how people with CCW's CAN'T stop shootings?????

      Oh and by FBI statistics more people die from being STAB by a knife than from gun shot wounds - GO LOOK IT UP! And more die in automobile accidents than from being shot. So this means we need to BAN knives like England did. Or have Knife and Automobile control. So we need to apply the same measures to control Knives and automobiles that we apply to guns then.....

    16. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah that same kind of argument was posted by anti-gunners when Wisconsin passed their Conceal Carry law (Act 35) - they said there would be gun fights in the streets. Guess what - it hasn't happened yet. Anti-gunner have THE MOST lame arguments and get their arguments DISPROVED EVERY time!

    17. Re:My prediction.... by Esteanil · · Score: 0

      "There have been 103 homicides in Milwaukee so far this year [August 27], compared with 86 homicides during all of 2014. Thursday, Chief Ed Flynn said he blamed Wisconsin's concealed carry law for some of the violence."

      "we heard 'bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. We turn around, and 150 feet from where I was standing, a 15-year-old had just murdered a 15-year-old with a .40-caliber pistol. I had 60 cops there," Flynn said."

      http://fox6now.com/2015/08/27/...

      --
      I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
    18. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What makes you think we aren't already there? Mainstream news never reports with "Gun owner prevents crime from happening." It just isn't as exciting as leading with blood and blame.

    19. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like maybe in a Luby's?

    20. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, the ATF already did that back in 1993.

    21. Re:My prediction.... by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

      I would say then that Chief Flynn doesn't know what he is talking about.

      I'm pretty sure that the 15 year old murder didn't have a concealed carry permit, and wasn't carrying the gun lawfully.

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    22. Re:My prediction.... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is with school excursions to the rifle range when I was a kid it was, even if it wasn't official and even though most kids had already learned how to shoot.

    23. Re:My prediction.... by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Easier to funnel money out of a large department than a small :(
      Some years back there was a satirical Japanese style comic written in the US called "Dirty Pair" where the protagonists worked for a bunch called the "Worlds Welfare Works Association" - which was a massive Uber department mostly focussed on giving people pointless security jobs and fucking up massively on many occasions. It looked a lot like what "Homeland Security" became. The TSA alone bleeds so much money in the direction of political cronies for fake scanners that who knows what that money could be doing. FEMA should have been by itself and run by someone who understood it's function instead of a Horse Judge.

      Why should animal and plant inspectors be run by someone with Immigration and Naturalization experience?

    24. Re:My prediction.... by swillden · · Score: 1

      Considering that in the US accidental shootings alone kill ~10 times more people than mass shootings, I think more people would die rather than fewer.

      CDC figures put the number of accidental firearms deaths at about 600 per year, so I guess this means we only have 60 deaths per year in mass shootings?

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    25. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are literally more guns than people in the USA.
      And one third of the adults in the USA are gun owners.
      So look around you the next time you're at the theater.
      Those people could save you, and you could save them.
      Except for the stupid fact that in the USA owners of commercial property, and govt property, are allowed to place a stupid sign on their door that says "NO GUNS ALLOWED HERE" which is of course then a SAFE PLACE (lest you be criminally convicted) for some jackass to go perform a glorious MASS MURDER. The govt police CANNOT protect you, they are ONLY there to mop up.

      So to all you stupid people who put those signs in your doors asking to be a victim,
      and to all you stupid people who don't say anything to them to take the sign down thereby ensuring your victimhood,
      WAKE THE FUCK UP.
      Because you're the only one who can defend yourself and your family and those around you.
      It's your duty as an American, as a Christian, as whatever.

      So start carrying today, concealed or open, so you'll be ready to defend yourself if something comes, rather than being a victim.

    26. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does getting a CCW permit automatically cause abstinence from drinking and drug use while carrying? What could go wrong?

      In Virginia, a CCW isn't valid if you're drinking. I don't know if the wording covers drugs, but having drugs and a gun is already a federal felony with a five year minimum mandatory sentence.

    27. Re:My prediction.... by backwardsposter · · Score: 1

      At Obama's speech last night, he called for both "increased gun control" and "arming the Syrian rebels to fight ISIL".

      An interesting position to take guns away from Americans and give them to fighters for hire in Syria, just sayin'...

    28. Re:My prediction.... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      I didn't see the speech but, as I predicted, more calls for gun control. How this is going to help is beyond me. Chicago has the toughest gun control laws in the country and yet one of the highest homicide rates. Same goes for Baltimore. Criminals don't go through legitimate channels to acquire guns. That is kind of what you would expect - they are criminals after all. So making it more difficult to acquire guns will in no way reduce the number of guns that criminals have. All it does is prevent honest citizens from protecting themselves.

    29. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does getting a CCW permit automatically cause abstinence from drinking and drug use while carrying?

      A better question would be "Were it not for CCW permits, would dangerous/irresponsible people still choose to carry illegally?"

    30. Re:My prediction.... by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

      My concern is what percentage of those people who "pull out a piece" are the sort of aggressive bullies who also shoot people for an unintended slight at a bar, and who become the sort of vigilantes who themselves have to be hunted down and stopped.

    31. Re:My prediction.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That may be but nobody goes around being scared of 'accidental shootings' and the government doesn't ask for more powers to attack your liberties because of them.

      But even IF we don't promote that everyone should carry, if all the government did was come out and admit that they can not 100% guarantee anyone's safety from 'random acts of violence' regardless of strickness of gun laws or anything else, than that would be a good start. It would at least stop people from trying to control other people's lives or trying to stop them from protecting themselves if they so choose.

      Demonizing guns & gun ownership for the sake of claiming they are 'doing something' is not going to stop terrorism.

    32. Re:My prediction.... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      I remember watching that on TV. They got the shit shot out of them by those crazy fuckers. The ATF didn't look particularly competent.

    33. Re:My prediction.... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      Probably about the same percentage of people that might pull out a knife or a baseball bat in the same situation. I'm not trying to be facetious but my point is that just about anything can be a weapon. I think what we need are tougher laws for weapons offences and better training.

    34. Re:My prediction.... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      People with guns aren't all that useful in a mass shooting unless they can operate together, which means military or police training, fairly frequently refreshed. Just having more people run around with guns, without the proper training, will give us more cases like the guy who fired at carjackers, missed them, and shot the victim in the head.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    35. Re:My prediction.... by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

      A knife or a baseball bat are slower weapons. Much less likely to kill multiple people in the time you can empty a clip. And since you have to get within arm's length, much more chance that the attacker is in danger, including longer exposure to action by others. Heck, you can hit someone with a barstool, but the odds are you only get one hit on one person before the bartender coshes you. (And I did have some training.) Finally, hand weapons are less likely to kill someone other than their target, like by going through and hitting the person behind, or missing and hitting the person all the way across the room.

      Unless EVERYBODY gets training. And I mean EVERYBODY, every single person, male, female, undecided, whatever. In the course of that training, they also get evaluated - HARSHLY. Then the top 1/4 or so get permits if they enlist as deputy peace officers, and the bottom 1/4 are prohibited from EVER getting permits.

    36. Re:My prediction.... by pepty · · Score: 1

      Who you do you thing the bad guys target?

      Other criminals, for the most part. After that: young black males. If you don't fall in those categories, you really have better things to worry about than being shot to death. Go get some exercise, quit smoking,

      When it comes to the safety of my family I take matters into my own hands.

      If the safety is in the form of a gun, put it in the wife's hands, not the husband's. Most female murder victims are killed by a family member, most often the husband/SO/Ex.

      Nobody is suggesting that anyone should be packing at the office Christmas party.

      The San Bernadino massacre was at an office holiday party, and TV and the internets have been full of people saying how it should have been full of armed citizens.

      "Considering that in the US accidental shootings alone kill ~10 times more people than mass shootings, I think more people would die rather than fewer"

      - Would you care to cite any reliable sources on this?

      Absolutely:

      Mass shooting deaths (FBI):

      https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori...

      Accidental shooting deaths (CDC):

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States

      Meanwhile, I would suggest that many of the accidental shootings occur because of lack of training in the use of firearms and improper storage of firearms. The trigger doesn't pull itself.

      Yes, absolutely. And upping the number of people carrying won't magically increase the percentage of them using holsters and gun safes correctly.

    37. Re:My prediction.... by pepty · · Score: 1

      According to the FBI: yes.

    38. Re:My prediction.... by pepty · · Score: 1

      I'm glad to see you are so worried about defending yourself from MASS MURDER that you put it in all caps. I can't imagine the decorations you use when discussing choking, drowning, or falling to death, each of which is tens of times likely even if you aren't elderly. What sort of gear to do you carry to prevent those fates, btw?

    39. Re:My prediction.... by erp_consultant · · Score: 1

      "Go get some exercise, quit smoking," - Typical liberal - attack the person not the issue. I do exercise and I don't smoke so go fuck yourself.

      "The San Bernadino massacre was at an office holiday party, and TV and the internets have been full of people saying how it should have been full of armed citizens." - You're not seriously suggesting that this was just some random office party shoot up are you?

      "And upping the number of people carrying won't magically increase the percentage of them using holsters and gun safes correctly." - No but proper training will. I don't think that anyone should possess a firearm without proper training. If the government is to play a role in this at all it should be in setting up mandatory training.

    40. Re:My prediction.... by swillden · · Score: 1

      According to the FBI: yes.

      If the mass shooting numbers are really that low, why are we even talking about this? 60 per year is down in the realm of people killed by lightning strikes.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
    41. Re:My prediction.... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      I would say then that Chief Flynn doesn't know what he is talking about.

      I'm pretty sure that the 15 year old murder didn't have a concealed carry permit, and wasn't carrying the gun lawfully.

      Yeah, the gun just appeared in his hand fully illegal. It didn't come from some very legal source with a concealed carry permit who neither carried nor concealed the gun, so the boy could just take it.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    42. Re:My prediction.... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      At Obama's speech last night, he called for both "increased gun control" and "arming the Syrian rebels to fight ISIL".

      An interesting position to take guns away from Americans and give them to fighters for hire in Syria, just sayin'...

      Well, if the American gun nuts are too cowardly to actually use their guns for something good themselves, let somebody else have them - the Americans obviously don't deserve them.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    43. Re:My prediction.... by pepty · · Score: 1
      Go fuck your own singular self. What do you think you (you as in: readers of slashdot. You can guess the predominant demographics) are more at risk of? And who is it that the bad guys target again?

      You're not seriously suggesting that this was just some random office party shoot up are you?

      Nice non sequitur.

      No but proper training will. I don't think that anyone should possess a firearm without proper training. If the government is to play a role in this at all it should be in setting up mandatory training.

      Good. Certification or they just have to show up for the training? Also, since this is the scenario we are talking about: what level of training covers taking out a shooter in a crowded room? Federal Air Marshall pistol qualification? Should we assume that people who can shoot a target at a range will hit the correct person while being shot at?

    44. Re:My prediction.... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      According to the FBI: yes.

      If the mass shooting numbers are really that low, why are we even talking about this? 60 per year is down in the realm of people killed by lightning strikes.

      Well, The findings establish an increasing frequency of incidents annually. During the first 7 years included in the study, an average of 6.4 incidents occurred annually. In the last 7 years of the study, that average increased to 16.4 incidents annually. - if the number of people killed by lightning strikes were consistently on the rise, people would care.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  39. Re:A good start by sycodon · · Score: 0, Troll

    The very fact that you have to qualify "Muslim" with "peaceful" or "moderate" tells you that something is very wrong with Islam.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
  40. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    We are not a muslim country, yet.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  41. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Robert Dear, Allen Lawrence Scarsella, Nathan Gustavsson, Daniel Macey, Joseph Backman, and Timothy McVeigh"

    What organized group did they all belong to other than Crackpot?

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  42. Saudi Arabia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    The real problem is that we haven't invaded Saudi Arabia. That nation needs to be taken apart piece by piece.

    1. Re: Saudi Arabia by unami · · Score: 1

      yes, please, invade another country, leave it in shambles, and then let the europeans deal with a few more millions of refugees. great idea.

    2. Re: Saudi Arabia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So no downside to this plan.

    3. Re: Saudi Arabia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      yes, please, invade another country, leave it in shambles, and then let the europeans deal with a few more millions of refugees. great idea.

      Go learn some history. The US has not invaded any country which was not originally fucked over by European Empires. Any mess in any of those shitholes was caused by you assholes in the first place, then you packed up and left when things got too sticky for you. And now you're blaming us because we had to try to clean up your mess, and the problem is finally coming full-circle back to where it started- Europe.
      Karma's a bitch, suck on it Eurofags.

  43. yeah, let the people spy on each other, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what could possibly go wrong with that?

  44. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quotation marks = "I'm quoting someone else".

    URLs = "Here's where I got this info".

    Submission != "Plagiarism".

    You're welcome.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  45. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Christianity...

  46. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    All across America we see fine young men dying before their prime. Names like Aaron Swartz and Michael Brown should ring a bell.

    Swartz was a coward who took the coward's way out. Not exactly what a rational person would call "a fine young man", because a fine young
    man is not a coward.

    Michael Brown was a THUG and he asked for trouble and GOT IT.

    And you ? You're a fucking imbecile.

  47. Lone Wolfs and encryption by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A self-radicalized individual doesn't need encryption to communicate with others. That would be contrary to the definition.

  48. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 1

    Certainly not adopting procedures from countries that do deal with terrorism successfully.

    Generally the countries that deal with this successfully do so with a much higher level of citizen surveillance than many of us would find acceptable.

  49. Welcome to Soviet and Nazi style U.S.! by gabrieltss · · Score: 2

    From TFA:
    "With this new type of terror risk, authorities may begin relying more heavily on citizens reporting suspicious behavior of others."

    And now you can report on your neighbor from your iPhone and Android phone!
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/ap...
    https://itunes.apple.com/us/ap...

    It was said back in the 80's that the United States would become more like the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union would become more like the United States. Well that is coming to pass. Just do a web search on "United States to become more like Soviet Union".

    From TFA:
    "First, there was CIA director John Brennan, last seen deceiving the public about the CIA spying on Senate staffers, lamenting that privacy laws were to blame."

    "Then thereâ(TM)s the question of why journalists always frame the encryption debate as a perilous balance between privacy and security. "

    Franklin said it best!
    "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
    - Benjamin Franklin

    --
    The Truth is a Virus!!!
    1. Re:Welcome to Soviet and Nazi style U.S.! by gabrieltss · · Score: 1
      --
      The Truth is a Virus!!!
    2. Re:Welcome to Soviet and Nazi style U.S.! by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 2

      It was said back in the 80's that the United States would become more like the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union would become more like the United States.

      The breakup of the East Bloc has led to an outpouring of academics and migrants who bring the bad ideas of those regimes with them to the West. In addition, a lot of the younger generations in Central Europe don't remember how bad socialism and fascism actually were, and are now reverting to the older political ideas common to their cultures. Likewise, US academics, politicians, and journalists often never really understood what European totalitarianism was all about, they simply knew it was pointing rockets at the US and rattling sabers; their support for liberty was rooted in nationalism, not principle.

    3. Re:Welcome to Soviet and Nazi style U.S.! by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      "bad ideas?" really?

    4. Re:Welcome to Soviet and Nazi style U.S.! by dcw3 · · Score: 1

      "bad ideas?" really?

      Maybe you'd care to expand on your comment, and explain why you think otherwise.

      --
      Just another day in Paradise
    5. Re:Welcome to Soviet and Nazi style U.S.! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But what would Ben Franklin say about what "permanent" Safety would cost? And are you so sure that freedom and safety are mutually exclusive? What of the freedom the bad guys have? Don't they impede your freedom to live in peace? I love Franklin, but I think that quote is too simplistic.

  50. Overwatch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I propose a new security service. Lets stop with this 3/4 letter bullshit that doesn't work. FBI, DHS, DHL, blah blah blah, it doesn't work.

    I propose: OVERWATCH.

    Let me remind all citizens of the dangers of magical thinking.

    We have scarcely begun to climb from the dark pit of our species' evolution. Let us not slide backward into oblivion, just as we have finally begun to see the light.

    If you see this so-called suspicious person, report him.

    Civic deeds do not go unrewarded. And contrariwise, complicity with his cause will not go unpunished.

    Be wise. Be safe. Be aware.

  51. no more crusaides? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There hasn't been a Crusade in a thousand years -- and there'll never be another.

    You haven't been following preaching of The Donald and The Ted, have you?

    1. Re:no more crusaides? by benjfowler · · Score: 1

      Only for entertainment value.

      Nobody with half a brain is taking foreign policy lectures off these clowns.

    2. Re:no more crusaides? by zenlessyank · · Score: 1

      That's just it though. We have approximately 80% of the population here that is dumber than a box of rocks and will follow any inane idea and run with it. We can only bumble down the road for so long before we get smacked by a semi.

    3. Re:no more crusaides? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

      Well, that's the problem. If the polls are to be believed, he's number one. And our lady friend, who is also number one, wants to jump into full on war also. The voters aren't even working with a tenth of their brains. They're all dazzled by shiny objects.

      --
      “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    4. Re:no more crusaides? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      If the last 15 years haven't fucked us, than nothing will.

      Personally, I think we've been fucked longer then that.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  52. Pointing out the obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    All these "mass shootings" seem to take place in areas that have a lot of firearms related restrictions, where nobody has a gun and nobody is able to shoot back before the body count ramps up. Try this shit in a place like Montana or Wyoming and people will be returning fire before 10 seconds have passed...slaughter averted by local heroes.

    It also boggles the mind that after a terrorist attack on US soil, that all anyone wants to talk about is gun control. Spin spin spin, that's all the useless media can try to do. Push their agenda on the masses.

    1. Re:Pointing out the obvious by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      All these "mass shootings" seem to take place in areas that have a lot of firearms related restrictions, where nobody has a gun and nobody is able to shoot back before the body count ramps up. ... It also boggles the mind that after a terrorist attack on US soil, that all anyone wants to talk about is gun control.

      But one nice thing about that is the anti-gun-control side of the argument is becoming massively more popular, after the attack in (heavily gun-controlled) France as followed by one in (a gun-free zone in heavily gun-controlled) California.

      So bring on the arguments. Maybe they're result in more effective application of the Second Amendment and more general carriage of firearms. B-)

      IMHO, increasing the density of armed citizens is the only thing likely to be effective against terror attacks on US soil - from either "home-grown" or infiltrated parties. We're long past the point where anything done (or stopped) overseas, or attempts to tighten government-operated security here, would do anything but make it worse (with the possible exception of closing the borders.)

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    2. Re:Pointing out the obvious by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      IMHO, increasing the density of armed citizens is the only thing likely to be effective against terror attacks on US soil - from either "home-grown" or infiltrated parties. We're long past the point where anything done (or stopped) overseas, or attempts to tighten government-operated security here, would do anything but make it worse (with the possible exception of closing the borders.)

      Nice theory - but doesn't even survive the re-enactment.

      A pro-gun rights group in Texas re-enacted the Charlie Hebdo attacks with paintball rounds, in an attempt to see whether an “armed civilian” could have stopped the two gunmen who attacked the Paris office of the satirical magazine, killing 12. The civilian “died” in almost every scenario except immediate flight from the scene.

      Of course he gun advocates who did this interpreted the results differently: in an actual event where the attacked wouldn't know what was happening, they would have reacted better because of actual stress. Or whatever.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  53. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I have a hard-on of EPIC proPortions

  54. We Have 2 Choices by BECoole · · Score: 1

    authorities may begin relying more heavily on citizens reporting suspicious behavior of others

    This is how Police States get started. We can either go the way of the Surveillance/Police State or we can take responsibility for our safety through things like Concealed Carry.

    It's one or the other, not both.

    1. Re:We Have 2 Choices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you looked at the statistics about gun ownership and gun deaths. The issue has never been the guns, it's our culture. Our foreign policy of fucking with other countries to get cheap oil and generally fucking over other countries is what led to foreign terrorism on US soil. Glorifying violence and violent means to resolve conflict is what breads right-wing terrorism. Look at other cultures and how they deal with conflict. Wake the fuck up, you're delusional if you buy that BS reasoning without taking time to study and understand. You must subscribe to Truthiness.

    2. Re:We Have 2 Choices by BECoole · · Score: 2

      From it's inception, Islam has constantly been attacking other cultures.

      Sometimes violence is necessary to overthrow oppression or to defend one's life and liberty. In this case, we must defend ourselves against the Satanic cult, Islam.

    3. Re:We Have 2 Choices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Satanic cult" Islam. How the god of Abraham became Lucifer, son of the morning, is obviously beyond my theological understanding.

    4. Re:We Have 2 Choices by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you looked at the statistics about gun ownership and gun deaths. The issue has never been the guns, it's our culture. Look at other cultures and how they deal with conflict. Wake the fuck up, you're delusional if you buy that BS reasoning without taking time to study and understand. You must subscribe to Truthiness.

      Just check out the crime rates of Sweden and it's correlation to immigration and that will tell you all you need to know about the effectiveness of "how other cultures deal with conflict".

  55. What change? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    From what I can tell, the Obama plan is to double-down on the Bush43 plan which was:

    1. Spy on all non-Muslims, while reducing spying on Muslims to show them we know mean no offense.

    2. Inconvenience all non-Muslims at airports, sporting events, etc. while implementing special less-scrutinizing procedures for Muslims to sho that we are culturally sensitive.

    3. Trample all over the Constitutional rights of non-Muslims, attacking the 1st amendment rights of speech and religion for all non-Muslims, the 2nd amendment right of self-defense, the 4th amendment rights against warrantless search and siezure, etc

    4. Import even more Muslims into the country to prove we are not bigots, while NOT importing the Christians and Yazidis who are being raped and murdered by the day in the middle east.

    5. Tell people to speak-up if they see anything "suspicious" (as long as it's not any of the things above) and then threaten to prosecute them for some unwritten hate speech crime if what they say could be construed as "anti-Muslim"

    Our leaders are a bunch of castrated Dhimmis, bent on destroying Western Civilization. They've probably already started working on a new government tax agency to collect the Jizya for our new Imam overloards.

    There WAS no Islamic terrorism in the USA before our leaders started importing huge numbers of Muslims into the country.

    There is NOTHING wrong with criticizing Islam! Islam is NOT a race. Islam is a belief system people choose to adopt just like Pastafarianism, or vegitarianism.

    There is NO SUCH THING as "Islamophpobia". It is NOT an irrational fear to oppose an ideology that has been lopping off the heads of people who disagree for 1400 years and is intolerant of anybody who disagrees with it. Islam is unlike all other religious or non-religious belief systems practiced by any significant portion of the human race, in that its founder, Mohammed, taught his followers to murder all those who disagree. People need to educate themselves and read the books that underpin various beliefs. No matter which books you read, do NOT ever read individual sentences/verses - always read in at least paragraph-sized chunks to get context. Islam is the ONLY major ideology that IN CONTEXT calls for people who disagree to be slaughtered. All religions are NOT equal, just as all other belief systems are NOT equal. Some systems of belief are quite simply toxic and dangerous.

    1. Re:What change? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fuk islam and all the dum nigs who support it

  56. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good try....

    http://www.infowars.com/no-there-have-not-been-355-mass-shootings-this-year/

  57. Re:goodbye 2nd, we hardly knew ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't need the 2nd amendment to bear arms.

  58. Re:A good start by jonnythan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    What organized groups have carried out numerous attacks on US soil?

    The San Bernardino folks weren't even members of anything.

  59. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We need OBAMA-CONTROL not GUN-CONTROL.
    Guns don't kill Americans, Obama does with his willful negligence and his love of Jihad.

  60. Calm The Fuck Down by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is three very unfortunate deaths due to a couple of lunatics. We've long had lunatics and we've long had worse events than this.

    Despite the three days now of solid round the clock media drama, we do not need to overreact. The ban all guns and establish militarized security at all "soft targets" - every office building, mall, park, church sporting event, anywhere where more than a couple of people gather - attitude is just way over the top. People need to calm the fuck down.

    America needs to turn off their TVs and remember that it is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. Calm the fuck down and stop acting like a bunch of pussies.

  61. Re:A good start by MorePower · · Score: 3, Informative

    Indonesia (the largest Islamic nation in the world)
    Also Malaysia

  62. The San Bernardino perps were NOT home grown !!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Anyone who believes the husband and wife who perpetrated the attack were in any way shape or form "homegrown" terrorists is a clueless idiot or a liar.

    These people were in communication with radical Islamic people from outside the US. ISIS has already claimed they acted in support of ISIS.

    Beware of any actions the government suggests are "necessary" to combat so-called "homegrown" terrorists, because these actions will in reality be relative to an agenda which has nothing to do with actually protecting the average US citizen.

  63. When you can't trust your neighbour by RichMan · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When you can't trust your neighbour not to go on a shooting rampage society has already failed. What we need to do is spend money on building up social structure. Street parties, neighbourhood parties, things that bring people together and strengthen the social structure.

    Going all "report your neighbour" is going to build up the walls of distrust and lead to more problems.

    1. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      It failed for the Nazis, and the Soviets, why can't if fail for America?

    2. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When you can't trust your neighbour not to go on a shooting rampage society has already failed.

      I trust my neighbors to not go on a shooting rampage. Or run me down with their SUV either.

      And I live in a place where it's pretty much guaranteed that everyone within a mile owns gun(s).

      Now, do I trust YOUR neighbor? Well, no so much as I do my own, but prolly more than you might expect.

      Seriously, I'm not sure I've ever been anywhere that people were quite that paranoid. Though you wouldn't know that from the news, would you?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    3. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      When you can't trust your neighbour not to go on a shooting rampage society has already failed.

      No, society's failing is in not recognizing that some people don't want to be assimilated, and consider our society to be inherently evil and in need of being destroyed.

      Street parties, neighbourhood parties, things that bring people together and strengthen the social structure.

      See above. How will a street party help with someone who has come into the country on a fiance visa having already decided that she's here to help destroy the social structure she's been raised to think of as inherently evil?

      Going all "report your neighbour" is going to build up the walls of distrust and lead to more problems.

      So when these two killers' neighbor thought they were being very suspicious (as it turns out, a 100% accurate assessment), and some interaction with law enforcement might have exposed their bomb-making factory and other preparation for the slaughter they just carried out, your concern is that those two people (who think you should die), might get their feelings hurt, and become distrustful? Are you even listening to yourself?

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    4. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by KliX · · Score: 1

      This sounds hopelessly naive, but it's literally the only way to win. Anything else makes things worse - more striated, more violent, more unstable.

      And the "monitor everything!" response.. has anyone supporting that thought where that goes down the line?

      [no]

    5. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

      What we need to do is spend money on building up social structure. Street parties, neighbourhood parties, things that bring people together and strengthen the social structure

      Reports are that the coworkers of this guy threw a baby shower for his wife, not long before he shot them.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    6. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "and consider our society to be inherently evil and in need of being destroyed." So, for example, the right to have an early term abortion and the right to same sex marriage. Those are considered evil and those that allow it are, to these idiots, brainwashed by assholes pretending to be preachers, believe they are inherently evil and in need of being destroyed. And they have done so. Scores of times killing many scores of innocent people. But this was NEVER a problem to address because they were white and christian....

    7. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by RichMan · · Score: 1

      Do you live in a neigborhood of all like minded individuals? Those little enclaves of similar people are part of the problem. It brings the us and them attitude when this community is tight and that community it tight but the two communities are very different and look at each other as different.

      We can't have dots of little isolated communities, we have to be one big community.

    8. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      Not that I know of. We moved here when my inlaws died.

      Walking through the neighborhood, I see people of all colors (asiatic, black hispanic, white) and ages (people with infant children, people with teenage children, people old enough to have great-grandchildren).

      Never particularly noticed whether they all thought the same about any particular issues. They're at least pretty evenly split D/R based on election results....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    9. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by ScentCone · · Score: 1

      Scores of times killing many scores of innocent people. But this was NEVER a problem to address because they were white and christian....

      No, it was no problem to address because those people are hunted down and killed or locked up, depending on how they behave. They don't have hundreds of millions of dollars at their disposal, thousands of compatriots in armored vehicles driving around their neighborhood beheading entire villages, burning people alive, and then recruiting thousands more people by showing the videos online. They're not sending killers into places like Paris, mixed in with refugees, to shoot up restaurants and concert venues full of people. Unless perhaps you can point to where that sort of organized terrorist undertaking is being sustained by teams of people, murder and all, in the US, supported by the groups you're talking about, who then brag about funding and supporting it online? No? I see.

      --
      Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    10. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When you can't trust your neighbour not to go on a shooting rampage society has already failed.

      I trust my neighbors to not go on a shooting rampage. Or run me down with their SUV either.

      And I live in a place where it's pretty much guaranteed that everyone within a mile owns gun(s).

      Ding - we have a winner! I hear gunshots regularly in my neighborhood - mostly hunters - and I have NOTHING to worry about. Occasionally a neighbor is testing their firearm - in which case I'm inclined to walk over and chat with him/her because I know they are outside. Can you say the same about your neighborhood and having that level of trust?

    11. Re:When you can't trust your neighbour by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here lies (a part of) the other problem:
      "It's always someone else's problem not my own."

      If you can't trust ANYONE in your society not to go on a psychotic mass shooting spree, then your society has failed. It doesn't matter if it's your neighbor or mine, what matters is that it happens at all, and that innocent people suffer (or perish) because of it. Polarizing it as a "Us Vs Them" issue, (as both you and the GP have done), just prevents any real action being made to address it. Which only guarantees that more innocent people will suffer (and / or perish).

      The job of any society is to ensure it's survival. There are many ways for it to do so, but the one of the most important, (if not the most important), means by which society ensures it's survival is by encouraging it's individual members to support each other and build bonds between each other. So that when times get tough, the individual is less likely to reject society's survival in favor of their own**. If the society chooses to assign blame and ignore the real issues that it's individual members face, it only encourages it's own destruction.

      **Basically, if the individual can say: "What good has society ever done for me? When I needed help they refused to render aid so why should I?" with any form of legitimacy, that society has a real issue on their hands. Because that individual is liable to reject calls from society to stick together (follow it's laws, up hold the social contract, etc.) when that individual's survival is threatened in someway.

  64. Re: Who is this person who claims to speak for the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're a fucking moron, finlayson. Like seriously one of the dumbest motherfuckers I've seen on this site, and that's saying a lot.

  65. government employee kills 14 people by NostalgiaForInfinity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So the proposed solution is: (1) more government supervision, (2) more gun control, and (3) more encryption? This guy was being observed by the government every day because he was working for the government, the shooting took place in one of the most strictly gun controlled states in the nation, and there is no evidence he needed encryption. In addition, the shooter wasn't a "homegrown, self-radicalized individual", he was radicalized abroad by a belief system many people share and spread.

    What this reflects is the utter impotence of the current administration to do anything meaningful. Obama promised a restoration of privacy, constitutionality, and a radically different foreign policy, and he has turned out as bad as Bush, if not worse.

    Addressing the terror threat will require massive changes in US foreign policy, plus many years of patience for things to calm down. Getting in bed with Middle Eastern despots for oil and cleaning up the messes that European colonialism left across the globe have always been questionable to begin with, but at least there was some economic justification for it. In the 21st century, these policies are just imbecilic.

    1. Re:government employee kills 14 people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      worse. so much worse

    2. Re:government employee kills 14 people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair, it's trivial to drive guns across a state border, so the state's gun control policies aren't very useful for these sort of malicious events that have lots of planning. If anything you are giving support why we would need better national gun control policies to be effective.

    3. Re: government employee kills 14 people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's just as trivial to bring in guns internationally. It's even easier to manufacture them.

      Gun control does not work. It didn't even work in Australia, under the most favorable coalitions for gun control. It would be an utter disaster here.

      What we should do is teach gun safety in school and encourage responsible, law abiding adults to carry guns. I know it's uncomfortable, I'm not a gun owner myself, but it's the best solution.

    4. Re:government employee kills 14 people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure, if by "strictly gun controlled" you mean like the rest of America where you can buy a lethal weapon that allows you to kill from a distance... IN A FUCKING SUPERMARKET.

    5. Re:government employee kills 14 people by DogPhilosopher · · Score: 0

      Getting in bed with Middle Eastern despots for oil

      All ME leaders are despots, because.. well, ME. Are you saying we should boycott ME oil?

      and cleaning up the messes that European colonialism left across the globe

      Ahistoric BS. Muslims colonized Europe, not the other way around. They invaded the Crimea, Turkey, Spain, Portugal, part of France, Malta, Sicily, parts of Italian mainland, and Central Europe as far north as Poland. They were thrown out of most, but kept harassing and raiding for centuries.

      The pirates of the Barbary coast attacked shipping and coastal towns to take slaves all over the Mediterranean, and other places, like Ireland, even the Americas and Iceland. It took the USMC to stop this piracy jihad (it was religiously justified). At the time it was part of the Ottoman empire, which was based on slavery (+castration), as well as on an sectarian caste system (millet). This was changed only after pressure from Britain, which propped them up as a counterweight to Russia. Last slave market in Istanbul was closed in 1908:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      Slavery was re-introduced in 1915, during the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian (= anti-Christian) Genocides. What happened then is the same what Turkey's clients are doing atm in Syria: taking sex slaves, crucifixion, beheading, stoning, amputation, genocide. I'll leave it to you to figure out why (hint: Surah 5:33).

      If you think this is all water under the bridge, you do not understand Arab culture. The majority do not share the West's linear conception of time and ideas about progress. In their mind, land once conquered by muslims remains theirs, even if they lost it 600 years ago. In Egypt for example, children are taught in school that Spain belongs to the muslims. Before WW I, Turkish children were taught that the Balkan was rightfully theirs, independence of Europeans was an affront to Turkish honor, and they needed revenge. This lead to the Armenian genocide.

      PS I should point out it was the Mongols, not Europeans, who broke the muslim's power. They're still butthurt about it ("Destiny disrupted"). Also, a muslim theologian at the time wrote this was a punishment from Allah for straying from orthodoxy, his works are cited by modern islamists. It all has little to do with Europe or US policy.

  66. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    No they were not all Christians.

    McVeigh specifically said "Science is my religion".

    So he was agnostic, if not atheist.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  67. I hate you too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Christians are also murderous animals who believe in an imaginary man in the sky, think the United States should be a theocracy, and constantly wage war on anyone who dares to believe something different than them. Religion is a disease; grow the fuck up.

    1. Re:I hate you too by amiga3D · · Score: 2

      Funny thing is, all those evil Christians who were involved in the founding of this country voted for a Constitution that guaranteed freedom of religion. It's that document all those evil Christians supported that guarantees the freedoms of Muslims and Hindus and Atheists in this country. And it's that very guarantee of religious freedom that so infuriates the radical Muslims that dream of a world ruled under Sharia law. I'll grant that most of the Muslims in this country do not want Sharia law here because they fled the bat shit crazy motherfuckers back in their homelands that delighted in making their lives hell using that same fucked up Sharia law. The problem is that now we have a lot of the younger ones here that have no knowledge of how truly fucked Sharia law is having never lived under it that suddenly are becoming radicalized. Sadly, it seems the only solution is to kill them.

    2. Re:I hate you too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because the founding fathers never expected them to be present except as slaves,

    3. Re:I hate you too by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      The bad thing is that even you know that's a lie.

    4. Re:I hate you too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The founding fathers were not Christians.

    5. Re:I hate you too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny thing is, all those evil Christians who were involved in the founding of this country voted for a Constitution that guaranteed freedom of religion.

      Of course, they mostly meant that you could practice any form of Christianity you wanted. They were mostly concerned that their new country not have a state religion, like the Church of England.

    6. Re:I hate you too by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

      Maybe, but they hardly hold a candle to the murderous animals that claimed to be atheists and killed millions in the name of "science"

      Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, etc..

      The leopard never changes his shorts.

      --
      Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
    7. Re:I hate you too by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      Some weren't and some were. A few considered themselves Deists and some called themselves Christians. As far as I know none were Muslim. Jefferson respected Christ's teachings but did not consider him a divine being. They were a complex group of individuals.
      http://www.jameswatkins.com/ar...

      Most were raised in Christian environments but later came to question much of what they were taught. Still almost all of them respected the Christian religions moral teachings.

      http://www.britannica.com/topi...

      So while they were not all Christians many were and I never claimed all were.

    8. Re:I hate you too by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Funny thing is, all those evil Christians who were involved in the founding of this country voted for a Constitution that guaranteed freedom of religion. It's that document all those evil Christians supported that guarantees the freedoms of Muslims and Hindus and Atheists in this country. And it's that very guarantee of religious freedom that so infuriates the radical Christians that dream of a world ruled under GOD Yahweh's laws

      FTFY. And guess which group is actively trying to change those guarantees in the USA?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  68. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    I did not bother checking the others. One example of the group not being Christian refutes your claim.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  69. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 2

    They claimed allegiance to ISIL, so what are you on about?

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  70. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Business is business... whaddya gonna do?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  71. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by amiga3D · · Score: 1

    You racist pig!

  72. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Orgasmatron · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Islamic practice of slavery has been whitewashed out of history, not just the white slave trade.

    Thanks to letting the left run our schools for decades, now we have at least one generation of people that think that white Christians from Europe were running around Africa with nets capturing peaceful blacks to ship to the new world.

    The generation before them is aware that most of the capturing and selling was done by other blacks, but they think it was entrepreneurship, rather than something the Muslims organized and industrialized as they spread across Africa.

    Virtually no one under 50 years of age knows that the crusades were a response to 400 years of Muslim war, piracy, slavery and harassment of Christendom and Christian pilgrims in the holy lands. Hell, most of the people reading this are going to need to google "Christendom".

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  73. Is Linux Being Used for This? by LifesABeach · · Score: 0

    Then WTF is it on /. for?

    1. Re:Is Linux Being Used for This? by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

      Linux Being Used for This? Then WTF is it on /. for?

      Increased government restrictions on network use and encryption technology comes immediately to mind. B-b

      --
      Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    2. Re:Is Linux Being Used for This? by LifesABeach · · Score: 1

      Ya, you sure figured this one out fast. So, Walmart is going to allow the NSA to block your use of the IOT to not be able to buy Walmart's body armor, AR15's, and pipes? Is America a great country or WTF?

  74. Re: A good start by unami · · Score: 3, Informative

    bosnia, turkey, malaysia, egypt... i'm not that well travelled, but those are the first that come to my mind.

  75. in other words we took all your freedoms by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and spent billions spying on you and we still cant provide the security blanket * we offered you in return,

    *Not that we ever intended to suckers.

  76. Obama to go nuts again..... by gabrieltss · · Score: 0

    This guy has no grasp on reality!

    http://www.infowars.com/obama-...

    --
    The Truth is a Virus!!!
  77. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They claimed allegiance to ISIL, so what are you on about?

    Today I learned that a crackpot can claim anything and someone will take them at their word.

  78. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Left Wingers
    Democrats

  79. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    No they were not all Christians.

    I would like to think that the one group we can all agree these assholes belonged to was what we call murderers. In case you missed this, ideology isn't really important to the dead.

  80. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 2

    fought dictators and extremists

    Um, excuse me? America is busy installing and funding dictators and extremists... Even the famous Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was used as an asset to keep the communists out of Iran after the Shah (remember him, right?) got sick and died. And our former friends Qaddafi and Hussein kept a pretty tight lid on things for us also. And Saudi Arabia? Ooof! Paradise! American intentions in the middle east are hardly what anybody could call "honorable". It's just business.. And business is booming (so to speak), better than it ever was.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  81. Re:A good start by amiga3D · · Score: 2

    That's right idiot. The only way to save the country is to destroy it. Take one of the basic tenets of the founding of American culture and rip it out. Maybe we could implant RFID tags in everyone as well since you like pissing all over the Constitution. As if the fucking "Patriot" Act wasn't bad enough.

  82. Whether you like it or not it is also domestic by aepervius · · Score: 1

    You cannot so easily dismiss the husband. He could have chosen to not go that way. He could have convinced his wife. He could even have tried an intervention or the police. But in the very end he chose to go with her plan. Putting it all on her shoulder ignore that he HAD a choice. Anyway there is plenty of homegrown terrorism in the US. Up to now it was mostly anti federalism, racism, and christian religious terrorism (yes there is some even if rare , like murder of abortion doctor, and sometimes attack on gay people). So homegrown terrorism is not a new thing. It is just that homegrown islamist radicalized terrorism is a new one.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Whether you like it or not it is also domestic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The targets of the pre-existing terrorism were very narrow in scope (baby killers, queers, parasites and bureaucrats). The target of Islam is the infidel (you, me, and everyone else).

      Eff-Tee-Eff-Wye®!

  83. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    ISIL accepted it, so I am still not sure what you are on about.

    Maybe you should read more before commenting?

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  84. You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 5, Informative

    Before I point out the problem let me point out what happened the day of the San Bernardino shooting. Within 30 seconds of the shooting, there was reporting on _every_ major new station that this was a 2nd amendment problem. Within 5 minutes, they had blamed conservatives (especially those dirty Libertarians who are despised by the Government and Media) for the shooting, and claimed that encryption needed back doors for Government snooping. The lie about the Paris terrorist attack being planned over encrypted channels was repeated several dozen times.

    For 4 hours I listened to the puppet media claim that Guns were the problem and that _more_ gun control was necessary, and those libertarians and conservatives were a danger to the world.

    Not one time in the 4 hours was it mentioned that California has THE strongest gun regulations in the country. Chicago was not mentioned either, which is a "gun free" city and county but has an incredibly high rate of gun violence sporting over 10 shootings a day (and over 1 dead per day) in a place where guns have been banned. At least for the citizens that abide by the law.

    Within an hour of the Police finding and killing the 2 shooters we had their names. We also knew that his wife was Pakistani and the interesting circumstances for them meeting. We knew that she dropped their 6month off at a relative's house, an a few hours later knew that they had homemade weapons, links to at least one Jihadist terrorist group from Facebook posts, and attempted to wipe their hard drives.

    For TWO MORE DAYS Politicians and Puppet media (*NBC*, *FOX*, *ABC*, NPR, *CNN*) claimed that the problem was home grown libertarians who owned guns, and facts were ignored to support that narrative. If the word "Muslim" was mentioned it was followed up immediately with Libertarians and/or how we lack gun laws.

    So you post a number as if it has special meaning, and ignore the wise words of Mark Twain. "There are three kinds of lies. Lies, damn lies, and statistics." You also ignore that the source of that number is a Reddit group! Do you also believe every post on Slashdot and Facebook, if it looks official? Why can we not find that same information from the FBI?

    Well, that would be due to the fact that the number is bullshit. According to the FBI there have been 21 mass shootings this year, not 355. A longer term study performed by that same Law enforcement agency shows that the trend has been declining, not rising. The Narrative you post works because "shooting" is intentionally conflated to appeal to the emotions and make it appear that these are all San Bernardino like events.

    Damage of any kind to _innocent_ people is wrong, but remember that crime is not a one way street. Crime does not stop magically when guns are banned, and if you somehow hold such a delusion you can look at the UK and Australia for both long term and short term crime trends with unarmed citizens. Banning guns does one thing. It removes people's ability to defend themselves, making them completely dependent on the Government for defense.

    For the citizens to be able to defend themselves we accept a certain level of risk. The Rights of the people to defend themselves is in the Constitution very intentionally. Nobody stops _you_ from defending yourself or throwing your life to the Government. You currently can not legally demand that others do the same, and hopefully you never will.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      Wow, that's quite a screed for a guy who obviously hates the mass media as much as I do. But what makes it stand out so much that you are the guy picking and choosing what you want to believe, not me. Yes, the FBI uses a different standard of measurement than some guy at Reddit but the fact remains that the shootings listed in the link I provided are multiple shootings and each one is documented.

      But let's get to the point, shall we?

      The problem isn't guns, I think we can both agree to that and the problem isn't gun laws, it's obvious the bullshit gun laws we have aren't working.

      The problem is that the wrong people have easy access to guns and we are not doing enough to stop that. And if the best those who have been charged with the protection of the American public can come up with is banning encryption along with more surveillance, then the problem really lies with the incompetent morons whom we have allowed to be put in charge, isn't it?

      Now, with that said, no one, not the NRA nor those conservative and libertarians you seem so determined to defend, has offered one good, solid way that we can beat this problem - so, unless you have an answer, take a seat at the back of the bus and stop ranting.

    2. Re: You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny you should mention the 4 hour gap between the shooting at the party and the shootout with the cops. These people were well armed and "planned this strike" what were they doing in those missing 4 hours? Playing on the internet? They had an arsenal in their vehicle. If they planned on getting retribution or slaughtering people for Allah, why weren't more people killed? Pipebombs in random locations, drive-by shootings, raiding another business on the other side of town to really drive the "terror" home. Why drive around for hours with that much firepower and not put it to use? Or did they just go home and pretend like nothing happened? The mother didn't mention that, nor did the feds. Something isn't right about this story people. Someone is manipulating some key facts.

    3. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Hmm, it's almost as if the NRA and those conservatives and libertarians understand that desperately trying to solve this non-problem will only do harm and no good. It's like trying to "solve the problem of influenza", which by the way kills more people in the US per year than bullets do, by mandating that nobody ever leaves their house or apartment because that's the only way to stop the disease from spreading. I mean, what the hell is wrong with you.

    4. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I looked at your links. The first one seems to not link to anything. The second seems to show the opposite of what you claim, that mass shootings have been increasing. Still, it is an interesting link.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    5. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many "major news stations" did you personally tune into "within 30 seconds of the shooting"?

      Seriously, where are you getting this information from?

    6. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      The first link points to the FBI's web site, not nowhere. I gave it because that would be the official location of statistics on mass shootings. Show me where a law enforcement agency backs the number claimed by the person I responded to. There is no such number on the site, nor on the DOJ site, etc... That number is only available on Reddit and only because a set of people uses statistics to conflate the number.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    7. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Half honesty all around eh? The wrong people have ILLEGAL access to guns, not LAWFUL access to guns. Check your facts there pal, because you are obviously missing quite a few in addition to trusting bullshit sources because they fit an agenda, over the official Law enforcement information.

      You claim I have no answer, yet I gave a perfectly valid answer. We accept the risks associated with being able to defend ourselves and not be dependent on the Government. You don't like that answer, so you are choosing to pretend it does not exist. You can't debate my position, so claim that I must move to the back of the bus and that I am ranting. So in addition to delusional, you have just demonstrated a high degree of immaturity, irrationality.

      If you would like to debate my points rationally and logically I'll be happy to listen. As is, I'm thinking you are nothing but a troll.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    8. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      tbh I don't care about the person you responded to lol. Your post was much more interesting.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    9. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep and then you ran in there with your gun and saved everyone didn't you? What? You didn't? Then WHAT THE FUCK DO ALL YOU DICKHEADS HAVE GUNS FOR?

    10. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Undead+Waffle · · Score: 1

      I looked at your links. The first one seems to not link to anything. The second seems to show the opposite of what you claim, that mass shootings have been increasing. Still, it is an interesting link.

      I recently read an article on this, which unfortunately I can't find right now. But here was the summary:

      There are 3 "mass shooting" counts. The 353 number from Reddit counts all incidents in which at least 4 people were shot. Whether they died from the gunshot wounds is not considered. An analysis showed that in 46% of these cases nobody died. Another group used different criteria. 4 people other than the shooter must be killed by gunshot wounds. They also excluded anything gang related and anything that happened in a private residence. So basically the type of scenario that most people think of when they hear "mass shooting". They came up with 4 mass shootings per year. The FBI decided not to ignore the "private residence" criteria and came up with 21 or 22. This just shows how important context is and the dangers of throwing around these numbers without understanding them.

      I believe the article said that these high profile mass shootings are becoming more common but overall gun violence is still declining.

    11. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by phantomfive · · Score: 1
      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    12. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by mea2214 · · Score: 1

      Chicago was not mentioned either, which is a "gun free" city and county but has an incredibly high rate of gun violence sporting over 10 shootings a day (and over 1 dead per day) in a place where guns have been banned. At least for the citizens that abide by the law.

      Just a minor nitpick with your observations. Chicago is no longer "gun free." We used to be but that changed a few years ago. CCW is legal here now and you can have a gun in your home. Chicago is down on the list of cities with the highest murder rate but we're a city idiots in the media and huckster directors out to sell movie tickets like to kick around. It's kind of ironic you making a post about moronic media coverage and then repeating a media myth.

    13. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      what makes it stand out so much that you are the guy picking and choosing what you want to believe

      Ask him about the plane that crashed into the pentagon on 9/11 and you'll get some insight. Apparently we need all those guns to stop the government faking plane crashes and murdering hundreds to cover it up.

    14. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      Now we're pals? That's swell.

      This bullshit about being able to defend ourselves is just that - bullshit. In cases where some asshole starts shooting and you, doing your best John Wayne impersonation, return fire, you're only adding to the confusion when the police show up. This isn't just my opinion, ask anyone in the LEO community. They cannot tell if you are part of the problem or not and are just as likely to shoot you - or didn't that occur to you? And it isn't just the police, it's every other half-baked jackass who thinks they can handle the situation. This ain't TV, this is the real world and especially in a coordinated attack, you now become part of the problem, not the solution.

    15. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      Ask him about the plane that crashed into the pentagon on 9/11 and you'll get some insight. Apparently we need all those guns to stop the government faking plane crashes and murdering hundreds to cover it up.

      Wow! You mean that wasn't real?

      I'm sure some guy on SlashDot told me it was. You can believe some guy on SlashDot, right? I mean, look how many intelligent posts that guy named Anonymous Coward has posted! He has to be an authority on everything.

    16. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

      I was SUPER weird to see the Fox reported hesitate and fumble around actually saying Syed Rizwan Farook's name. He even "placed responsibility of publishing this" on some newspaper...and then talked about how many people who are descendants of recent immigrants have more than three word names...Normally Fox is quite "grrr, Muslims BAD" but this time (at least this particular reporter) was quite reluctant to tie Islam to the attack. I guess I'm just used to O'Reilly Limbaugh, etc, making wild and unsubstantiated claims all the time...yet it was quite uncharacteristic of Fox News.

    17. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      If _you_ are so daft as to believe and repeat appeals to emotion and red herrings, that is your fault. Some of us are stronger thinkers than that. Like I said, you can't debate the points so troll with fallacies. Cya

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    18. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      Oh, I didn't realize I was talking to a Senior System Engineer/Architect. My mistake.

      And as an educated intellectual, I'm sure you will appreciate me directing you to the ad verecundiam logical fallacy article available at

      I do this to help keep you from making a jackass out of yourself in the future.

      You're welcome.

    19. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Half honesty all around eh? The wrong people have ILLEGAL access to guns, not LAWFUL access to guns.

      At least a couple of the guns used in the California attack were legally purchased by the shooters.

      Check your facts there pal, because you are obviously missing quite a few in addition to trusting bullshit sources because they fit an agenda, over the official Law enforcement information.

      Right back at ya, Sunshine! You need to do some basic fact checking before going off on a rant.

    20. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep and then you ran in there with your gun and saved everyone didn't you? What? You didn't? Then WHAT THE FUCK DO ALL YOU DICKHEADS HAVE GUNS FOR?

      I think you may have answered your own question. There are a lot of guys out there who are over compensating for the "little package" in their pants. Hope this helps.

    21. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Agreed, the problem is not guns. The problem is ideology.

      However, having said that, there clearly exists a set of guns (and ammo) which no citizen in their right mind would require. I don't think banning them would solve anything, but given that you do not need them, why on earth are they available for sale? No one needs a glock, or an AK, or an RPG (and yes, the RPG is a ridiculous example).

      Of course, the problem then becomes, who decides what is allowed and what is not. That's where it gets really muddy.

      So for instance, magazine size. Is that even a concern? If it is, what is the cutoff? Is 8 bullets ok but 9 is too much? This is just like speed limits, and yet you don't see people complaining that the limit should be 65 instead of 55 (ok, well, you do, but we don't have an NRA like organization to support that).

      If you are going to semi-ban something, you have to make those cutoff type decisions. And that's where it becomes simple to either A) allow everything or B) ban everything. And I would not support either of those 'simple' solutions.

      I think people have a right to hunt and defend themselves, but I don't think that means they should be allowed to own military gear.

    22. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      A lot of mass shootings were with guns that had been lawfully acquired by their current owners.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    23. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I'm just pointing out that he is a guy with "interesting" views and is "picking and choosing" what he wants to believe. I've had many arguments like yours with him (starting with how because he's an "engineer" he knows that hot steel doesn't go soft and buildings don't fall down in fires) and it all went around in a very strange loop. His sig describing himself as an engineer makes us all look bad.

    24. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      I understand.

      Bertrand Russell said it best when he said, “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.”

    25. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      This bullshit about being able to defend ourselves is just that - bullshit. In cases where some asshole starts shooting and you, doing your best John Wayne impersonation, return fire, you're only adding to the confusion when the police show up. This isn't just my opinion, ask anyone in the LEO community

      That'd be great if the police could instantly materialize when there's a problem, but the reality is they swing by some time later to clean up after the fact and go after the guys who have finished what they started already.

    26. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

      You're mistaking his signature file for something that he wrote to you.

    27. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      Yes, that's what happens every single time, unlike how we routinely see tactically trained individuals whipping out their concealed carry and taking out the terrorist before anyone else is hurt.

      Most of us enjoy living in the real world. We know the difference between TV and here. Come visit us, you might find that you like it.

    28. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      No, I am pointing out the hilarity of him making his signature some sort of credibility badge. Most of us don't feel the need to tell people who we are, instead we allow the readership to judge us by what we write.

    29. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      I recently read an article on this, which unfortunately I can't find right now. But here was the summary:

      There are 3 "mass shooting" counts. The 353 number from Reddit counts all incidents in which at least 4 people were shot. Whether they died from the gunshot wounds is not considered. An analysis showed that in 46% of these cases nobody died.

      So no harm done then, ehh? "Guns don't kill people - not in 46% of cases anyway".

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    30. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Half honesty all around eh? The wrong people have ILLEGAL access to guns, not LAWFUL access to guns. Check your facts there pal, because you are obviously missing quite a few in addition to trusting bullshit sources because they fit an agenda, over the official Law enforcement information.

      Yawn. The problem with your harping of ILLEGAL vs. LAWFUL is that the vast majority of that illegal access is to guns that were once lawfully purchased. If their purchase had not been legal, they would not even exist, and thus certainly couldn't be accessed illegally. Problem of ILLEGALITY solved.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    31. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      I should not waste my time on this easy to disprove generalization fallacy, but here are facts. The San Bernadino shooting, which started this discussion, was not carried out with Legal guns. Sandy Hook and the whack job from Colorado were also not using legal guns. "Many" does not come close to "most", and California where the shooting mentioned here occurred has THE strictest gun laws of any State. Meaning we can not honestly claim that Gun laws could or would fix the problem.

      The reason we have a 2nd amendment is that the Government can not protect the citizens from every possible crime or negative event. To believe they can is a delusion I don't believe medication can fix. If you want to come close, go live in China or North Korea where the Government attempts to do that. Even with the best intentions laid out by Karl Marx you have corrupt cops and politicians who benefit from some crimes so ignore them or are complicit in them.

      No matter how good you plan Government, human nature exists. Bad people will hold power and use that power for personal gain. The founders of the USA knew this, so build in the 2nd amendment. Give that up and you have a pretty hard time overthrowing a tyranny (which the US is really not that far from).

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    32. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      I should not waste my time on this easy to disprove generalization fallacy, but here are facts. The San Bernadino shooting, which started this discussion, was not carried out with Legal guns. Sandy Hook and the whack job from Colorado were also not using legal guns.

      Cough. San Bernadino: "All four of the guns were initially purchased legally from federally licensed firearms dealers in California in 2011 and 2012." Sandy Hooks: "These [guns] were legally owned by Lanza's mother who was described as a gun enthusiast.". I couldn't find anything on the legality of the Colorado Springs gun - but since Colorado (outside of Denver) is "gun nuts are welcome" country, chances are it was purchased fully legal.

      Neither of the weapons could have become illegal if they hadn't been legally purchased before.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    33. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Liar! Who owned the Guns? It sure as fuck was not the people that used them, hence they were not legal. Legal in California means that the guns were licensed to the person using the gun. If you take guns from relatives, but you don't call it theft, you are the worst sort of manipulative liar.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    34. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Liar! Who owned the Guns?

      Listen, you idiot, it's not my fault that you are either too dumb to understand what I wrote and think I am lying, or that your only refuge of your feeble mind is claiming I lye because you are losing your argument - but there is a reason they call you guys gun nuts. You are fucking nuts.

      I hope someone takes your legal gun and makes it illegal by shooting you and everybody carrying your tainted genes.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    35. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by s.petry · · Score: 1

      Wait, I am the idiot for telling the truth, and you are the smart guy by repeating a friggin fairy tale? Use your head! If I borrow a gun from my friend, under any pretenses, and go shoot someone, it is NOT MY GUN! If they are not my guns I could not have possibly acquired them legally, I never applied for the license, and I never went through a background check. Changing or adding a law regarding the purchase and acquisition of guns is useless because that was NEVER the problem! See how that works? OMFG, LOGIC! This is not really difficult logic either, it is very simple.

      Perhaps simple logic is beyond you, or you just like repeating what puppets want you to hear.. either way... you are either trolling or mentally retarded so no point in further responses to feed the deficient.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    36. Re:You didn't notice the problem? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Wait, I am the idiot for telling the truth,

      When you call me a liar for telling the truth, and don't understand my point, yes you are the idiot. You stupid fucking idiot.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  85. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    "Without knowing the back-story, the Morrocan restaurant firebombing could've been intra-ethnic score-settling for all we know." - you really need to know the back story before stating a contrary opinion otherwise its based on nothing or vapourware

    "Muslims have had a beef with Crusading Christians for as long as Crusading Christians have existed." - fixed..

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  86. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Here's a list of all the mass shootings in this country for this year, to date.

    Your "list" contains too many "Unknowns" to be useful. But, considering, how relatively few Muslims there still are in this country, the percentage of mass shootings by them is alarming. And let's not forget the non-shooting attacks — such as the two World Trade Center bombings and the Boston Marathon tragedy.

    But we can already extrapolate — by looking at what is happening in France, Belgium, Germany, and Scandinavian countries, where the rulers allowed too many Muslims in at once. Our First Amendment does not allow us to discriminate based on religion, but Islam is not compatible with it (nor the rest of the Constitution) — because it does not leave Cæsar's to Cæsar, and has very clear on how the entire world must live and what the faithful must do to achieve that...

    By your standards, the United States must be the Great Satan given the amount of people we have killed during the wars we have been directly and indirectly involved in over the last century

    No, that would be the USSR, with Hitler's Germany being the (distant) second.

    Please get back to us when you have figured out which other generalized groups to deport.

    That's easy — those, who are here illegally ought to be deported at once — terrorism or not, there are too many of them arriving too quickly to be absorbed. Instead of them adopting American culture, we become more like them — and, contrary to the popular meme, diversity is not strength. It is a luxury — a burden the society has to deal with in exchange for interesting restaurants and clothing designs.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  87. You could call it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...the final solution. Then, hopefully, you'll follow your leader.

    1. Re:You could call it... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      You do understand, don't you, that I am only speaking of those that have become radicalized? Or maybe you think there is some other solution to someone who has decided that the evil people that don't worship Allah must be killed? Mind you I feel the same solution is appropriate for those that think Jesus told them to blow up abortion clinics.

  88. Nothing can be done by ilsaloving · · Score: 1

    I had this whole post in my head about all the possible things that could be done, but then I realized it's pointless cause those things will never happen.

    Nothing can or will ever be done until there is a desperately needed shift in US culture. Between rabid anti-intellectualism, and nationalism, and a "fear everything" approach, the situation will continue to get much worse before it gets better.

    Fox News is a symptom, not a cause.

    1. Re:Nothing can be done by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      If we can get enough of the US population to believe in things like "the land of the free, and the home of the brave", we can start fixing things. Until then, we're not going to make much progress.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  89. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first guy sure fits the role. I'd have to look up who the next 4 since I'd never heard of them, but did Timothy McVeigh actually perform his attack in the name of religion? I was under the impression it was numerous beefs he had with the government, such as taxes, rights, and freedoms. In which case, that is not a comparable event.

  90. oh no they didn't by slashmydots · · Score: 1

    "striking one of many soft targets that can never be fully protected"
    BUUUUUUUUULLSHIT. Try attacking a building like this in George or South Carolina. About a 1 in 10 adults have a gun on them there. If the stupid democrats would just allow people to own and carry concealed guns, there would always be return fire.

  91. Closer to 1984? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So now are we going to edge even closer to the dystopian future of 1984, where everyone is spying on everyone all the time? Privacy really does become a crime? If you're not a carbon-copy of everyone else, you're suspect? Or if you're too much of a carbon-copy, you're suspect? Mass paranoia? Are we going to bring back the Committee on Un-American Activities, 21st Century Edition, and have full-on, Internet-enabled, AI automated, fully mechanized witch-hunts for 'suspected terrorists'? Someone decides to start paying for one too many things with cash instead of plastic, they might be a terrorist, better black-bag them and bring them into the blacksite you keep the enemies of America at, no legal representation, no due process, just waterboarding and finger-breaking until they sign whatever confession you want them to sign?

    Memo to U.S. politicians: You make our country into the above then you may as well start shouting Allahu Ackbar yourselves and declare the U.S. a Caliphate, because the same decaptitating assholes you're trying to 'protect' us from will have won once and for all.

    ********************

    Don't like my opinion? Stuff a sock in it, I don't care.

    1. Re:Closer to 1984? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank you. I found your remarks witty and APPROPRIATE.

    2. Re:Closer to 1984? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sarcasm?

  92. Re: So we're not going to over-react this time, ri by Barsteward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "They have COMPLETELY forgotten that the Muslims have _ALWAYS_ hated us. They hate us because we're white and Christian. They hate us because they think they should rule the world, and because by merely existing, we stand in their way and we are holding them away from their birthright (i.e. our stuff and our territory)."

    Its only a very small section of muslims, blaming all muslims is a generalisation of the worst order. Extremist Christians also want to rule everything so its 50 of one and 50 of the other for all religious megalomaniacs. Its just lucky that there are more sensible christians, different religions and those with no religion to keep the stupid ones in check, but unfortunately the sensible muslims aren't able to control their nut jobs because they'll be killed. Unfortunately because of the religious based rulers/laws in these places, people of different religions and no religion are not allowed to exist because they disrupt the closed thinking and its stops progress to a civil and equal society.
    Its not surprising that virtually all the most dangerous countries are strongly religious, christian and muslim.

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  93. Re:More blood... by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    He just confirmed suspicions, that's all. Still didn't matter though. All the same politicians still get reelected. They successfully vilified him.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  94. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Barsteward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    true, but as you've said that all muslims want to kill every white christian (what about black christians?), you are guilty of the same paranoid ideas

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  95. Re:A good start by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Immigrants should sign a legal document stating support of the Constitution

    Guess you never heard of the Oath of Allegiance. Feel free to look it up.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  96. Re:A good start by Barsteward · · Score: 0

    so what do you do for the 354 other mass shootings this year not done by muslims?

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  97. Re:A good start by Barsteward · · Score: 1

    probably more of a lapsed catholic as he took the last rites but he did say this a year after the bombing "In a 1996 interview, McVeigh professed belief in "a God", although he said he had "sort of lost touch with" Catholicism and "I never really picked it up, however I do maintain core beliefs."

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
  98. the solution to this is easy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Rather than spy on everyone with the idea that intelligence agencies will be able to know eveything, the government needs to engage in ethnic, religious and economic profiling. terrorism resulting from right wing, islamic or other ideological extremists is predictable based on these factors. problem is, americans are afraid of the R card to their downfall

  99. Re:goodbye 2nd, we hardly knew ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I never heard of the Japanese being routinely killed in the internment camps. And they weren't locked up until the 40s. In fact they were treated pretty well compared to the regular prisons.

  100. A cited quotation is not plagairism. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    I recently went through a college-mandated anti-plagiarism training session required of all students.

    (As Zontar The Mindless points out, by example, above) A quotation with a citation is not plagiarism.

    The critical point is whether you clearly distinguish your own work from that of others. (In academic writing you are also expected to give citations, so interested readers don't have to work so hard to track down the original source of the non-original material. Here, doing so is a friendly gesture, but not customarily expected.)

    Note also that Slashdot is a news-related discussion board, not an academic journal. Users bring news and ideas to the attention of others. In the absence of an explicit claim of original work, it is wise to assume any given idea or information presented may not be the original work of the poster.

    It's easy to assume otherwise, because so many of us are used to doing and publishing original work, occasionally do so on Slashdot, and habitually give credit, or otherwise distinguish our work from others, when we write.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:A cited quotation is not plagairism. by finlayson · · Score: 0

      The poster "quoted" from the NY Times article, but did not properly "cite" it. His text (taken largely from the NY Times article, and much of it left outside the quote marks) *does* contain a link to the NY Times article, but it's deep within his (copied) text, and without context - making it seem (perhaps inadvertently) that the text was his own. That's not a proper citation. What the poster should have written was something like "As this [begin link]New York Time article[end link] notes, [quoted text from the article]".

  101. Re: Evolution is for Cows by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    True, but irrelevant to the GP's post.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  102. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Solandri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Or do you really want me to believe that for over 200 years Islamic people have had little beef with the US, but over the course of the last 30 have developed a hard-on of epic proportions.

    And it was just out of nowhere, and not reactionary to US foreign policy.

    Did you know U.S. inteventionist foreign policy began as a reaction to Muslim acts against the U.S.? You've probably heard the opening line of the Marine Corps hymn:

    From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli...

    The Montezuma part makes sense. The U.S. fought several wars with Mexico, so of course the Marines would be involved. But Tripoli? That's way over in Africa. What the hell were U.S. Marines doing there?

    Funny you should ask. Way back around 1800 when the U.S. was a freshly minted nation, it ran into a problem. Prior to the revolution, the U.S. was a British colony, and thus fell under the protection of the British navy. When the U.S. gained independence, it lost that protection. The Muslim Barbary States decided to take advantage of the situation and began capturing U.S. merchant ships and holding the crews for ransom. Their thinking was that since these people weren't Muslim, there was no moral problem with kidnapping them and extorting a ransom.

    The fledgling U.S. was deeply in debt and had its own domestic problems. The last thing it wanted to do was to meddle with things going on in other countries. But it didn't have a navy which could deal with the situation (it had been decommissioned after the Revolutionary War to save money), and attempts to negotiate a treaty with France to protect U.S. vessels fell through. So for the first few years, the U.S. just paid the ransom. Of course paying kidnappers just encourages them, and it became open season on U.S. flagged vessels. Eventually the payments became exorbitant (over 1/6th of the Federal government's total budget), and the U.S. recommissioned a navy (the USS Constitution on display in Boston was one of these first ships). President Thomas Jefferson (y'know, the guy who wrote famous things like, "We hold these truths to be self evident - that all men are created equal") launched a military operation to Africa to end the kidnappings and free the hostages.

    And that is how the U.S. Marines ended up in Tripoli. That is how the permanent U.S. Navy was born. That is how U.S. meddling with foreign nations began. Because a bunch of Muslims decided to take advantage of a fledgling non-Muslim nation which wanted little to nothing to do with what was going on in the Eastern hemisphere, by kidnapping its citizens and extorting a ransom for their safe return. So if you want to play the blame game, the first incident, the precipitating act which began over two centuries of animosity and set the U.S. on a course for meddling with countries halfway around the world, was actually committed by Muslims against the U.S.

  103. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    ISIL accepted it, so I am still not sure what you are on about.

    You are aware that terrorist organizations take responsibility for anything that they can, right? This is what they do.

    Maybe you should read more before commenting?

    That's particularly funny coming from a guy who believes whatever a terrorist organization tells him, don't you think?

  104. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by hey! · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is a situation where Isaac's Asimov's ideas about psychohistory are worth considering. Mass murder is an aberrant, rare behavior and predicting it in an individual or even a modest population is a very questionable thing. But it's quite predictable when you're talking about very large populations.

    Obama has proposed letting in 10,000 Syrian refugees -- not "millions". How will that effect your chance of being killed in a mass murder? Will that effect be significant?

    Well, let's start with the base rate of mass attacks in the US. For purposes of discussion, lets call a "mass attack" as an attack on at least four people. Just in shootings, there have been 353 mass shooting in the US in 2015, and we're on day 340 of 2015. So it's fair to say that mass attacks are a daily occurrence in America. However spread across the large pool of potential victims, any individual's chance of being killed in a mass attack is very low -- so low that in practice we treat the situation as not urgent enough to do anything about.

    Three hundred million is a population large enough to predict with certainty that it contains a substantial number of mass murderers. 10,000 is not. So any fear of letting in ten thousand refugees is based on an implicit belief that there is an extraordinarily high proportion of mass murderers in that population, or that the base rate of mass murders in the US is lower than it is, or both.

    Let's examine the belief that a high proportion of Syrian refugees are mass murderers. Now what we know about most terrorists, at least the kind that operate across international lines, tend to be from comfortable or privileged backgrounds -- not refugees. This was the case for Santa Barbara shooter Tashfeen Malik, who like many of the 9/11 hijackers had an comfortable, uneventful upbringing and a university degree in a technical field. Refugees who commit terrorism tend to operate in-country (e.g. Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades) against the immediate source of their displacement. So the idea that a Syrian refugees will commit acts of terror on behalf of ISIS is pretty far-fetched -- if we're talking only 10,000 of them. If we were talking a million of them it's not something we could discount, and if we were talking a hundred million it'd be a virtual certainty, as vanishingly unlikely as any individual taking this path would be.

    So what this leaves us with in practical terms is the possibility that an ISIS operative may somehow sneak in amongst the refugees. This is something the Europeans definitely can't rule out. In fact two of the nine November 13 attackers were in the EU on faked Syrian refugee papers. However it's important to note three things: (1) had they not been in the EU their places would be certain to have been taken by indigenous participants; (2) Europe is dealing with far more refugees: 750,000 by some estimates; (3) the US program would only let in people who have been through a two-year long vetting process; in Europe they're just showing up and then have to be characterized after the fact. Even so let's assume one or two terrorists make it in through the program; killing the entire program won't stop ISIS from getting people in through other methods, or radicalizing people who are already here, so keeping those guys out will neither stop ISIS or make a dent in the base rate of mass attacks in the US.

    What keeping refugees will do is put ISIS in a more advantageous position. ISIS actually supports the position of people who don't to let Syrian refugees into the US, because that works for them. Remember the famous picture of the dead toddler washed up on the European beach? That saturated the ISIS controlled media in the areas they control, because that's what ISIS wants people leaving their territory to face. Muslims fleeing from ISIS territory demolishes their claim of having established a legitimate new caliphate. It also undermines them in more practical ways -- they've had e

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  105. Re:A good start by srmalloy · · Score: 1

    "We had to destroy your freedom in order to save it."

  106. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by chthon · · Score: 1

    Yes, and the crusading christians only started targeting the muslims after they had already existed for four-hundred years. Thanks to Charles Martel for defeating them in their early progress.

  107. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 2

    Um, excuse me? America is busy installing and funding dictators and extremists... Even the famous Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was used as an asset to keep the communists out of Iran after the Shah (remember him, right?) got sick and died.

    Um, excuse me? Are you seriously claiming that the US installed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini?

    Last I heard he was the revolutionary who created the movement that overthrew the Shah, and the whole Pahlavi monarchy (who had been re-empowered by a US/UK coup after the democrartically-elected Prime Minister nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Company's assets). The Shah didn't die until five years later (although he DID die of a cancer where survival times with then-current treatments were about five years, so he might have been starting to show symmptoms when he was overthrown.)

    Or are you just claiming that the US used him against the Soviet Union once he had established himself and his movement? Governments tend to use everybody and everything they can to promote their interests, regardless of how they got there. Sometimes you build it, sometimes you mine it. "You have to make the good from the bad, because the bad is all you have to work with."

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  108. Operation Gladio by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This statement by President Obama is typical of what we are seeing today: a diminution of our citizens rights at every turn. We are turning into a totalitarian surveillance state complete with informers, and it's all due to a long string of lies. ISIS was Al Qaeda re-branded by NATO to take out Assad. NATO trained ISIS in Jordan.

    http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/06/27/us-and-eu-training-al-qaeda-in-jordan/

    What prompted these recent domestic terror attacks is that just when Assad was almost ousted from Syria by NATO airstrikes and the ISIS proxy army was closing in - the Russians bombed ISIS almost off the Syrian landscape when they sent almost 20% of their bombers in one mission in October.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/17/russia-pounds-isis-with-biggest-bomber-raid-in-decades.html

    The recent terror attacks are to keep the French and American populations engaged in the perpetual war in Eurasia. Google: "Operation Gladio" and "Strategy of Tension" to understand the nature of these attacks as ways to manipulate the population into submission for more governmental powers and diminished rights of the citizen, this is not the first time this stuff has happened as it was a staple of propaganda operations in Europe during the Cold War. After those operations were disclosed in the European press NATO began to more heavily leverage the backup terror network operating in the Middle East to bolster support for Eurasian military maneuvers and as a way to keep the population in a state of shock clamoring for more "protection" which will not result in fewer attacks, only more.

  109. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    I love how you completely ignore the fact that something motivated these people, Muslim or otherwise. One would think that even an idiot would understand that without being able to comprehend what drove these people to these lengths, we will not stop the problem.

    As to your incredibly naive assertion that we can tell anything based on what you believe to be problem caused by "the rulers allowed too many Muslims in at once" I would point out that every single one of the people I named have nothing to do with the group you are so scared of while they are part of the group you self-identify with.

    Instead, I would suggest that the best solution would be to deport every narrow-minded bigot we can find.

  110. Re:A good start by 3Volker · · Score: 1

    Shooting tracker is provided by a openly biased anti 2ndA sub-reddit, not a factual news source. Their list also does not meet the FBI criteria for "mass shootings".

    Consider the following:
    "As for the Washington Post’s citing the 350+ mass-shooting statistic, it’s pure unadulterated nonsense. Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon reported that only 21 of the 355 shootings on this sub-Reddit thread met the standards for the FBI classification of a mass shooting. Second, some of the incidents on the list aren’t even shootings, as indicated by Mediaite’s Alex Griswold. Here’s one that he found:

            A pair of township boys are accused of shooting four others with a pellet gun, police said.
            Nobody was seriously hurt by the 11- and 12-year-old boys who shot the pellet gun at them on April 25 in the Twinbrook Village apartment complex, Detective Lt. Kevin Faller said in a statement.

    Of course, many publications omitted the fact that they’re citing Reddit."
    source: http://hotair.com/archives/201...

    11 and 12 year-olds with a pellet gun is a "mass shooting" ?!?

    Continuously re-posting grossly inaccurate information does not make it fact. Even politifact agrees: http://www.politifact.com/trut...

    Until that time most of the rest of us will continue to point out how you ARE the problem, not part of the solution.

    Illiberal quoting of bad data to claim wrong-think while providing non-factual data, snark remarks, and moral superiority name calling as a rebuttal is the actual problem.

    (not intended to be redundant with this: http://yro.slashdot.org/commen... )

    While we're on the subject of Reddits, here is one for defensive firearm use: DGU https://www.reddit.com/r/dgu (where they allow and encourage debate, unlike the owners of "shootings tracker":GRC)

  111. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    The shah was not overthrown. He was sick and going to die. I won't say the US is nearly as responsible as the UK and Europe, which have much deeper interests in the region. There's a lot of *wagging the dog* going on. Yes, keeping the communists out was and is paramount. The "radical Islamists" are doing what they are hired to do. I hope you don't think they work for free! Russia's market share is down significantly.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  112. Because the shooter was an American? by golodh · · Score: 0, Troll
    The description "homegrown" is accurate, as the shooter was an American. Born and bred. Not a foreign activist who entered here. His wife may be a different story though.

    Apparently being American doesn't stop people from radicalising in whichever direction. In fact we seem to have a steady supply of Americans who have radicalised, but the majority have done so towards conservatism, gun ownership advocacy, anti-abortionism (last week), and racism (throughout the year).

    This particular fellow seems to have radicalised in a different direction. And when he became disgruntled at a work-organised party, he drove home, got his trusty rifle out of his second-amendment umbrella stand, and became an "active shooter".

    For a dataset of mass shootings, see: http://shootingtracker.com/wik... The vast majority of casualties in 2015 (about 400) come from ordinary "I just felt like it" shootings. Funny how people go to town when the shooter turns out to be a muslim.

    1. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 2

      This is raving fantasy.

      Are pipe bombs also in the umbrella stands of "conservatives"?

      The rifles they used were illegally modified. The vast majority of "conservatives" aren't doing that, either.

      The only thing strange is how people "go to town" only when the shooter is white OR Muslim. The large majority of cases are, for some reason, never seen in mass media.

    2. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The vast majority of casualties in 2015 (about 400) come from ordinary "I just felt like it" shootings.

      No, they mostly came from "ordinary" criminal violence, largely gang-related. Shootingtracker.com is a source of noise: there have not been hundreds of mass shootings this year, unless you re-define the term.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    3. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only thing strange is how people "go to town" only when the shooter is white OR Muslim. The large majority of cases are, for some reason, never seen in mass media.

      How exactly are the large majority of cases never seen in mass media different?

    4. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Home grown, implies the terrorist indoctrination was local. Born in the US, true but the indoctrination was all Saudi Arabia, the bullshit by the US government to cover that up is just mind boggling. What did happen in Saudi Arabia, what was done to those people in Saudi Arabia. For all the world it looks like an early accidental work place triggering of implanted response. Likely part of a team, taking into account the very narrow nature of weapons and explosives (very focused thought, not a whole bunch of different weapons), the volume of weapons indicating more than one team. What was the real target and how many Saudi mk ultras are left floating about. No random act of terror this, just a plan running into a glitch. Yet, the US government still gives Saudi Arabia a free hand because it feeds into sales for the US military industrial complex. Stop the Saudis and they end the profits from the Terror Wars, this bullshit has being going on decades, WTF America.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    5. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 0

      This is raving fantasy. Are pipe bombs also in the umbrella stands of "conservatives"?

      Are abortion clinic bombers conservatives? Yes they fucking are. Christianist Conservativists.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    6. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      The vast majority of casualties in 2015 (about 400) come from ordinary "I just felt like it" shootings.

      No, they mostly came from "ordinary" criminal violence, largely gang-related. Shootingtracker.com is a source of noise: there have not been hundreds of mass shootings this year, unless you re-define the term.

      You mean other than: Muslim with a gun shoots people?

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    7. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by golodh · · Score: 1
      Your claim that the came from "ordinary" criminal violence is an assumption, and something you'd have to substantiate.

      Fortunately you can because the link I gave includes a spreadsheet with a web-link for each shooting. The ones I sampled and looked at didn't have any clear "criminal" motive.

      The fact that you point to an opinion-piece that claims to have different numbers (again without substantiation) and that you claim that "unless you redefine the term" these (recorded) shooting don't count doesn't hold water.

      As far as I can see from the web-links those shootings didn't have a clear (i.e. criminal) motive. I think that makes them "Because I felt like it" shootings. The very thing we were talking about.

    8. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by golodh · · Score: 1
      Unfortunately it's laced with life's inconvenient facts.

      I don't know about conservatives but preppers sometimes have IED's (some of the mwere caught and sentenced). I'm not sure whether they stored them in umbrella stands. Perhaps we can set up a survey.

      Rifles being "illegally modified" sounds scary, right? They were filed down a bit for fully-automatic fire and to accept high-capacity magazines (both of which is admittedly illegal in California). Nonetheless it's anything but uncommon among gun enthusiasts (see e.g. http://denver.cbslocal.com/201... ). Gun enthusiasts correlates strongly with "conservatives" too. Also you seem to be able to get those high capacity magazines by mail order.

      So I'd say having high-capacity magazines is really ordinary. Big shocker huh? And who can say about rifles being surreptitiously filed down for automatic fire? Who's going to check, right (unless after a shooting)?

      All links I found in the spreadsheet I downloaded (see my earlier post for a link) were to newspapers, news-sites. How are those not "mass media"?

    9. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The only thing strange is how people "go to town" only when the shooter is white OR Muslim. The large majority of cases are, for some reason, never seen in mass media.

      How exactly are the large majority of cases never seen in mass media different?

      Many (most?) occur in "urban environments". Is that enough of a clue for you?

    10. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What political label would you assign to the babies who have their organs harvested at the clinics?

    11. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oddly, that's also something Lonny Eachus keeps gleefully bragging about: https://archive.is/CWA5S#selec... https://archive.is/iNLJp#selec...

    12. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Are abortion clinic bombers conservatives? Yes they fucking are. Christianist Conservativists.

      In most cases, probably yes. But this has absolutely nothing to do with the subject under discussion.

      I also like your sig. Is your middle name Narcissus?

    13. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Also, I will point out that Syed Farook claimed to be politically "very liberal". That kinds of throws a monkey wrench into your "right-wing second amendment gun nut" idea, doesn't it?

    14. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Being "ordinary" doesn't make them any less illegal. Further, I believe it's illegal to import them into California, so any "mail order" house which did so would also be breaking the law.

      Personally I wouldn't call the modifications "scary" at all. The point was that it was illegal.

      In fact the entire point was: all of this was already against the law. More laws wouldn't have stopped it.

    15. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by golodh · · Score: 1
      @ Jane Q. Public

      No, actually it doesn't. What I'm trying to show is that (apart from being delusional) he wasn't very different from "ordinary" Americans in terms of gun ownership and preparations, and not so very different from several other perpetrators of shootings.

      This shooter (Syed Farook) may have been politically "liberal", my argument centers on: (1) placing his shooting taking against a background of "Because I felt like it" shootings by non-islamists and not finding enormously big differences in terms of number of casualties

      (2) pointing out that the scary sounding modified rifles he possessed are in fact relatively ordinary modifications among ordinary gun nuts. Showing that he really wasn't so far out from mainstream America as regards guns owned. His explosives clearly set him apart though, and place him among the more extreme "preppers".

    16. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Also, I will point out that Syed Farook claimed to be politically "very liberal". That kinds of throws a monkey wrench into your "right-wing second amendment gun nut" idea, doesn't it?

      "Very liberal" was one of the many misspellings in his profile. He meant "very Libertarian". Also funny how your anti-Liberal source forgets to mention his dating profile also talked about how much he loved guns.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    17. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      No, actually it doesn't. What I'm trying to show is that (apart from being delusional) he wasn't very different from "ordinary" Americans in terms of gun ownership and preparations, and not so very different from several other perpetrators of shootings.

      I think I know what you're "trying" to show. The point was, you're not showing it.

      For one thing, far over 100 MILLION "ordinary" gun owners in the United States do NOT do this kind of thing. So your very starting point is a huge statistical anomaly. From the beginning this person is separated from "ordinary" Americans by a nearly impenetrable statistical wall. Any other similarity is just fluff. Guess what? Mass murderers wear jeans and hoodies too. And some of then drive Toyotas. And BMWs. Big deal.

      my argument centers on: (1) placing his shooting taking against a background of "Because I felt like it" shootings by non-islamists and not finding enormously big differences in terms of number of casualties

      And so? How does number of casualties correlate with number of intended casualties? Until you can show the latter, the former is nearly meaningless.

      (2) pointing out that the scary sounding modified rifles he possessed are in fact relatively ordinary modifications among ordinary gun nuts.

      I have no opinion about whether the modifications were "scary sounding" or not. The point about the modifications was that they were ILLEGAL. (And though it is a separate issue: the fact is that they are illegal for no other reason than that they are "scary sounding".)

      But the point I want to make here is that your whole idea contradicts itself. If they're ordinary, then they're not "nuts". Nuts aren't ordinary. If you think the average American is a "gun nut", and you live in America, then you're probably living in the wrong country.

      Showing that he really wasn't so far out from mainstream America as regards guns owned.

      You showed no such thing. The vast maority of "mainstream America" does not own illegally modified guns.

      His explosives clearly set him apart though, and place him among the more extreme "preppers".

      They place him in the category of Radical Islamic Terrorist. Your attempt to compare him to average Americans did not succeed. Not even close.

    18. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      "Very liberal" was one of the many misspellings in his profile. He meant "very Libertarian".

      Oh, you read his mind, did you?

      Then why didn't you turn him in, numbnuts?

    19. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Why are you replying to me? Those weren't my links. You're apparently following an argument between someone calling himself "SmallCorpses4Sale" and another calling himself "Dumb Scientist". The latter here on Slashdot aka "khayman80". Isn't that you? If not, then who are you, and why the hell are you bothering ME on Slashdot over an argument someone else had on Twitter? I do not appreciate this kind of BS.

      Why would you include me in this? Your arguments are with others. Are you just stupid, or what?

    20. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Jane+Q.+Public · · Score: 1

      Hopefully you just didn't read the PSI Slayer link you posted, which repeatedly mentions "Steven Goddard" and his baseless accusations.

      Repeat: why are you putting this crap argument with someone else in a reply to me? You seem to be insinuating that I am "SmallCorpses4Sale", but I assure you I am not, and I take your insinuation -- in a completely different public forum, no less -- to be a deliberately malicious act. Among your many others.

      This exchange had exactly nothing to do with me. Go the hell away and stay the hell away.

    21. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      "Very liberal" was one of the many misspellings in his profile. He meant "very Libertarian".

      Oh, you read his mind, did you? Then why didn't you turn him in, numbnuts?

      Don't ask me, ask Donald Trump.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    22. Re:Because the shooter was an American? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly nothing? Apparently Jane/Lonny Eachus denies saying "Why do you imagine that a majority of the American public is hardly concerned? Are they all nuts?"

      Jane/Lonny's paranoia once again compels him to shame himself by throwing around accusations of a "deliberately malicious act". Lonny's evidence? Nothing. As usual. Thanks for demonstrating how seriously anyone should take Jane/Lonny whenever he throws around accusations of "deliberately malicious acts".

  113. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your logic is somewhat faulty: "Islam isn't a problem because some other bad guys weren't Muslim." It should read that Islam is a problem AS WELL.

  114. Two Strategies in Play by MarkvW · · Score: 0

    (1) Provoke attacks against Muslims. This will ensure support. If you get the US to butcher enough innocent families in their "war on terror," you will necessarily get more money and more adherents. If you can provoke a hateful response against Muslims in the United States you are really kicking ass.
    (2) Be as asymmetric as possible. Inflict terror as cheaply as possible. If you spend ten thousand dollars, you can be certain that the United States will spend ten million in response. The United States is very stupid that way. The United States makes the Russian experience in Afghanistan look brilliant.

    WAKE THE FUCK UP!!!

  115. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What organized groups have carried out numerous attacks on US soil?

    That would be our own police. And when they are not out randomly shooting people for being dangerously blackish, strangling people to death for selling cigarettes, or holding people up at gunpoint to "civil forfeiture" all their cash, they are whining to the press that they can't do any actual police work anymore because they are not allowed monitor what uncle Joe is doing 24/7. After all, nursing homes are hotbeds of political extremism. He might organize the scrabble club to complain about the food or something just as radical.

    When are we going to put our collective foot down and require the police to stop demanding more powers and get back to doing actual police work (WITHIN THE LAW).

  116. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 0

    My initial point wasn't that Reddit was 100% accurate or that it was the last known authority in the universe, it was that there are too damn many shootings which are not accidental. I can accept that you would prefer to argue some other point than admit that gun violence in this country is unacceptably high probably as much as I would love to not have to defend that assertion.

    The fact is, trying to pin all of this violence on terrorist activity is absurd, as I am sure we both agree. There is a problem. The problem isn't with responsible gun ownership, I know, I lived in one of the most heavily armed states in the union (Vermont) and now live in an area where just about everyone owns more than one gun. The problem is that the people we don't want to have guns are getting them.

  117. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by ultranova · · Score: 1

    Don't need gun toting Republicans if we don't let possible terrorists into the country in the first place...

    Unfortunately, US is already settled.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  118. Re:A good start by fnj · · Score: 1

    By your standards, the United States must be the Great Satan given the amount of people we have killed during the wars we have been directly and indirectly involved in over the last century

    No, that would be the USSR, with Hitler's Germany being the (distant) second.

    Admittedly, GP's question went off the rails by saying "we have been directly and indirectly involved in" instead of just "started". Properly worded so it makes actual sense - "started" - the USSR wouldn't be at the top of the list; it wouldn't even be on any list. Germany would get the booby prize for having started the most destructive war ever seen. The US would own the 21st century list, but before that how many wars did we START? Not Korea, not Vietnam, not Gulf War. I'll give you Grenada and Panama, which were both very small potatoes and never led to any significant repercussions.

  119. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by ultranova · · Score: 1

    Islamists, if deprived of that excuse, would rapidly find another.

    But they would have a lot harder time finding funding and reinforcements.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  120. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Or do you really want me to believe that for over 200 years Islamic people have had little beef with the US

    FYI one of the first wars the US fought was against Islamic people, and they've continued from time-to-time. Check out the Barbary Wars sometime.
    Also, it's worth remembering that the vast majority of Islamic people today still have little beef with the US.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  121. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by war4peace · · Score: 1

    The only problem with your rather well thought text is the definition of "refugee".
    If, out of 10,000 "refugees", 10% are terrorist posing as refugees, you're fucked.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  122. Re:A good start by larkost · · Score: 1

    The wife pledged allegiance moments before entering the building to start shooting, and the "acceptance" of that was much after her death. Of couch ISIL accepted it: it fed their ego. Much more important and to the point: so far there is no evidence that ISIL had any awareness that this was going to happen, let alone did anything material to make ti happen.

    So this pair were not members of any organized group in any way that mattered. They went off the rails themselves.

  123. About time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And call it what it is, it's christian terrorism (generally). Two bonuses for this, one you get to show the muslims that you're not picking on them for being muslims, you're picking on the people who use their religion for bad ends, just like you do for your own christians. And two, you get to shut the people complaining that you're picking on muslims in your own country up.

    The only ones you'll piss off are those christians who don't want their religion tied to terrorism merely because they don't want the association, but those will be whinging about not calling it muslim terrorism, so you're regaining some of that position there, and if those christians are so pissed off at the association, they can do what the moderate muslims do: decry the actions and state categorically that they are being led astray since christianity is a religion of peace, and anyone doing violence to others for their religious dogma is not a christian, no matter what they call themselves.

  124. Arm our first responders... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...our fellow, law abiding citizens.

    The only person who has a chance of stopping a terror attack in progress is someone who is already there. Offer free training to concealed carry holders and increase the number of permits issued.

  125. Re:A good start by ultranova · · Score: 1

    That's right idiot. The only way to save the country is to destroy it. Take one of the basic tenets of the founding of American culture and rip it out.

    That's the hard part of the fight. Once it's done, the ideological void provides ideal conditions for mass conversion. As it happens, ISIS seems almost custom tailored to be attractive in such conditions: it is, after all, first and foremost an armed gang.

    Wha West is up against is ruthlessness. ISIS doesn't have any chance whatsoever to defeat us militarily, but if they can make us internalize their ruthless ethos their goal - end of the world - comes that much closer. Hence the terror attacks that are specifically designed to outrage. Hate leads to the dark side, after all.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  126. Re: A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Too many shooting that arent accidental? Even if we include your stats, then add in accidental stats and even stats where the shooting was justified, we still fall way short of other "death dealing" means. Cars, alcohol, smoking, drugs, etc. You gonna ban everything that's dangerous, just to make sure little Timmy or J-quan can queue up for their welfare check on time and safely? Sure sounds like "the land of the free" in the making.

  127. Because, systemd? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It is the source of most of the evil in the universe.

  128. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And if 0% are, which is practically certain, you're fine. Of course, they have dark skin and worship a different religion, which isn't allowed to be a state religion, so you don't figure that they are really human, so fuck em, eh?

  129. Our anti-American Presodent by frovingslosh · · Score: 1

    Obama sees his job as blaming and apologizing for America. Even just last week while he was in Europe at the climate change talks (and this was before the Isis attack on California) he told the world that America was the only place where these mass killings happen. This in spite of the recent Paris killings. In truth France has lost more people to mass killings just this year than America has lost in the entire Obama Presidency (including the Isis California attack that had not happened yet).

    And, of course, he will continue to try to import Syrian terrorists, in spite of the fact that the female shooter misrepresented her information on her immigration form and managed to get in the country anyway. Screw those who urge caution.

    I'm looking forward to hear him apologize to the American people for once for telling them as recently as last month that they had nothing to fear and should go about their holiday plans as normal, that there were no terrorist threats to worry about. I'm sure that he will, he is not so cowardly as to just sweep that under the rug.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
  130. Except they don't. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're about the same proportion in all cases as you find the variation in gun restrictions. Why? Because you can go 50 miles over the border to another state and buy a gun and take it home. And if there's a gun show on, you can buy one over the bumper sticker of another civilian and nothing will be known about it.

    But you will continue to CLAIM in error that such and such shooting happened in a no-gun area, because you want to allow nuts to have even more guns.

    Remember, the NRA DO NOT WANT someone on the terrorist watch list being refused a gun. If anyone is arming the terrorists, it's the NRA.

  131. Re: So we're not going to over-react this time, ri by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    sorry they hate me becuase Im pink and athiest , though they would probally allow me to live If I paid the none muslim tax . You probally hate me because Im an atheist and the christian mob would kill me for it if they could..

  132. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    That's right, only five years. Before then, they printed biblical truth and scientific fact.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  133. The solution seems obvious. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    TSA inspection stations before anyone can enter public places.

  134. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Muslims have had a beef with America as long as America has existed. Don't believe for a second that Muslims can't dish it out as good as they take it.

    Yes, pretty much since Tripoli, where they made it abundantly clear that it was their divine duty to subjugate and pillage non believers.

  135. Re:A good start by Maow · · Score: 1

    "Robert Dear, Allen Lawrence Scarsella, Nathan Gustavsson, Daniel Macey, Joseph Backman, and Timothy McVeigh"

    What organized group did they all belong to other than Crackpot?

    Weapon-loving America?

  136. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

    funny, i remember the same arguments used on bush in his last years in office.

    good to see the same ol same ol

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
  137. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 2

    Muslims have had a beef with America as long as America has existed

    Uh, no, actually. There were Muslim American soldiers in the Revolution, and the first country to recognize the United States was the Sultanate of Morocco.

    Muslims have had "beef" with the US mostly since WWII, as our stupid and brutal foreign policy started to intrude more and more on the Muslim world: the CIA-backed coup in Iran, support for the rogue nation of Israel, suport for Saudi Arabia. The grievances are rooted in geopolitics, religion merely helps gives them some specifics of form.

    --
    Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
    You cannot wash away blood with blood
  138. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    that 350+ shooting number has been debunked already numerous times.

  139. Not the lie by Etherwalk · · Score: 1

    That's not the most worrisome lie.

    It's the Encryption argument that's the lie. Explain to your friends that any competent programmer who attacks the problem can devise an uncrackable communications system. There is literally nothing that signals intelligence can do about a competent adversary. The thousands of articles in the news media about cutting back on encryption in the wake of the Paris attacks, based on the *speculation* that encryption was used, are nothing but a big fat lie that the media is swallowing whole. It is dependent on the ignorance of the press and its readers.

    So explain to your friends. Anyone can do this. The communications strategy from the intelligence community is a fraud. Simply put, the intelligence community is trying to play the public like a fiddle to accomplish a policy change that tramples mud all over the Fourth Amendment and makes the computers in their lives snoop on them for the government.

    1. Re: Not the lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This guy gets it ^^

    2. Re:Not the lie by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2

      Explain to your friends that any competent programmer who attacks the problem can devise an uncrackable communications system

      That's a really bad argument, because to most of the population programmers are wizards who understand the magic that goes on inside the magic boxes that they use. More importantly, you can go to a library, read a book about encryption, and use a pencil and paper to encrypt messages in a way that they can't be decrypted (it's a bit time consuming, but there's nothing involved beyond high-school maths) and, because it's offline and not subject to timing attacks or side channels, it's going to be far more secure and harder to intercept via trojans than anything that involves using a computer. Oh, and there are also a lot of simple steganographic tricks (linguistic steganography is particularly fun, permuting a copy-and-paste troll in such a way that it looks as if you're just trying to get around a forum's spam filter, but are actually encoding a hidden message) that can be done without using a computer to do anything other than post the result somewhere.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  140. Re:A good start by 3Volker · · Score: 1

    Thank you for your civil response.

    My objection is not to the lack of 100% accuracy, it is the inflation of 21 (yes too many) into 350 (overstatement used by press to invoke an emotional reaction).

    While we agree that there a people who should not have access to firearms (or explosives or sharp things or the internet) the hard problem is defining and discovering who should not have them in a way that preserves civil liberties. I have heard no practical non-police-state ideas for that. Given that choice or one of "the real world is free(ish), but you have to accept some risk" I choose risk.

    Are lives saved by the unfortunate yet necessary use of violence less valuable than those taken by unjust violence?

    A recent hype is the proposed use of "no fly lists". There is no oversight or due process of "no fly" so that is worthless. (No, you did not suggest that, it is an example I am hearing repeatedly from "the media" and our "leaders".) Can we accuse our neighbors of being dangerous or insane as a cause to bar their civil liberties? How about an algorithm deciding their name is "too common" and they must therefore be untrusted? (Which has repeatedly happened to me. "Your name is common. Papers please to prove to the state/TSA/bank you aren't the bad person with your (similar yet not identical) name.")

  141. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Indonesia Closing Churches, Yet Faith Still Grows

    Christian persecution is likely only second to Chinese persecution in Indonesia. I worked with some one that was born in Indonesia that was both a Christian and Chinese. It wasn't easy for him there. He immigrated to the US when he graduated from college.

  142. Logic? Logic is a feeble reed... when you're nuts by fyngyrz · · Score: 2

    I don't understand the logic of disarming your people to prevent terrorists attacks by people who will always be able to get weapons.

    I don't understand the hysteria of disarming your people to prevent terrorists attacks by people who will always be able to get weapons.

    FTFY

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  143. It's certainly NOT our culture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of the gun deaths reported are [1] gang related [2] drug related [3] insane people [4] suicides or [5] Muslim terrorists. Remove those and the US has almost no gun violence. Why remove them?

    1. Inner city crime gangs are NOT traditional American entities, and certainly not part of MY culture

    2. The recreational drug trade is not traditional America and certainly not part of MY culture

    3. Traditionally in America actual "crazy" people were institutionalized. The ACLU convinced the US Supreme court to end that in 1975. Having dangerously whacko people walking about is not MY culture

    4. Traditional American culture was Christian, where suicide is considered a serious sin. Suicide is becoming so normalized in modern de-Christianizing America that we've now made "assisted suicide" legal in several states and that's not MY culture

    5. There were very few Muslims in the nation before the Bushes, Clintons, and Obama started importing them by the hundreds of thousands. Islam is NOT part of MY culture.

    If you are still a traditional American, living traditionally, in a place not yet overrun by other cultures, you are at essentially no risk at all of "gun violence". Even the "Wild West" of American history was far less violent than a typical weekend in Chicago under its modern progressive leadership and policies and multiculturalism. By rejecting traditional American values and embracing multiculturalism we are converting the the US into just another backward hellhole like 99% of human civilizations in world history where the only way to keep some peace is by controlling the public and restricting their rights.

  144. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    Bzzzt. Wrong.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Note that the origin of the Barbary Wars goes back to the capture of the Betsey in 1784. The Barbary pirates weren't driven by geopolitics, but by a religion that tells them that the kaffirs owe them, and if they won't pay the jizya willingly, tribute must be extracted by force.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  145. Re:A good start by 3Volker · · Score: 1

    so what do you do for the 354 other mass shootings this year not done by muslims?

    (repeated from above)
    (Re: 355) Shooting tracker is provided by a openly biased anti 2ndA sub-reddit, not a factual news source. Their list also does not meet the FBI criteria for "mass shootings".

    (new!)
    Here is some actual factual data including the FBI definition of a "mass shooting": https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori...

    Average of 11.4 active shooter incidents per year. 16.4 in the last 7 years of the study. Median deaths per incident = 2, median wounded = 2. (page 9)
    The FBI found that 64 incidents (40.0%) would have been categorized as falling within the new federal definition of “mass killing,” which is defined as “three or more killings in a single incident.” (page 9)

    I reject the definition of "mass killing" as 3 individuals, but that is the government's definition. Therefore 64/14 = ~ 5 per year average.

    Another interesting quote: "In 63 incidents where the duration of the incident could be ascertained, 44 (70%) of 63 incidents ended in 5 minutes or less, with 23 ending in 2 minutes or less. Even when law enforcement was present or able to respond within minutes, civilians often had to make life and death decisions, and, therefore, should be engaged in training and discussions on decisions they may face." (page 8)

    (repeated from above) Consider the following:
    "As for the Washington Post’s citing the 350+ mass-shooting statistic, it’s pure unadulterated nonsense. Stephen Gutowski of the Washington Free Beacon reported that only 21 of the 355 shootings on this sub-Reddit thread met the standards for the FBI classification of a mass shooting. Second, some of the incidents on the list aren’t even shootings, as indicated by Mediaite’s Alex Griswold. Here’s one that he found:

                    A pair of township boys are accused of shooting four others with a pellet gun, police said.
                    Nobody was seriously hurt by the 11- and 12-year-old boys who shot the pellet gun at them on April 25 in the Twinbrook Village apartment complex, Detective Lt. Kevin Faller said in a statement.

    Of course, many publications omitted the fact that they’re citing Reddit."
    source: http://hotair.com/archives/201... [hotair.com]

    11 and 12 year-olds with a pellet gun is a "mass shooting" ?!?

  146. Re:A good start by PapayaSF · · Score: 1

    Google makes this easy. Indonesia:

    But radical Islamic groups continue to act violently when it comes to minorities, especially Christians. The groups put Christians, in certain parts of the country, under enormous pressure. Muslim Background Believers are especially targeted. Last year, more than 30 churches of various denominations were forced to close and/or were attacked.

    Islamic persecution of Christians in Malaysia.

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  147. Re: A good start by PapayaSF · · Score: 1
    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  148. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by PapayaSF · · Score: 2

    You have a very naive view of Syrian refugees and Muslims in general. True, most aren't running around committing mass murder, but that's a bit of a straw many, because scores of polls in many countries over many years prove that significant fractions (and depending on the question and sample, sometimes majorities) support imposition of Sharia law, discrimination against Christians and Jews and gays, death for apostasy, death for blasphemy, and support various Islamic terror groups. Read it and weep.

    As for Syrian refugees specifically, a survey last year by an Arabic group found that 4% have a positive view of ISIS, another 9% have a mostly positive view, and another 10% have only a mostly negative view. So if we get the 10,000 refugees Obama wants, that's 400 who support ISIS, plus 900 who mostly support ISIS, plus 1000 who don't think ISIS is entirely bad. Add to that the fact that 2nd and 3rd generation Muslim immigrants are often more radical than the original immigrants, and what could possibly go wrong?

    --
    Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
  149. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    LOL, you think less than 10% of muzzies are terrorists.

  150. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That 353 number had been shown as a fake statistic, includes 122 incidents where no one was killed and also an incident with an 11 and 12 year old using a BB gun.

    The actual number is closer to 20. Still not good or acceptable but not the pure fraud that comes from the 353 number.

  151. Re: Who is this person who claims to speak for the by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wow you're a real fucking moron. Are you as far and as rubber-dicked as you are stupid?

  152. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Of course, they don't have anyone left to kill, jail, or exile.

  153. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If only you could understand statistics.

  154. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    I appreciate your deliberate attempt to engage in a civil discussion, lord knows that is rare enough online.

    Let's get this out of the way. For the sake of discussion, let's accept that the Reddit report contains errors. In all fairness, we can then also look at the other side of the argument where the claim has been made that the FBI claims that only 21 such cases have occurred in the same time frame. What I did was to try to ascertain what the FBI defined a mass shooting as and quite quickly found out that the FBI doesn't really have a set definition for what qualifies as a mass shooting - so how can we say they are effectively reporting on the situation?

    The issue we should be examining is what can be done to reduce the number of shooting victims annually. We do know that in China, almost no murders by firearms are committed - but I am not suggesting that I would be happy trading my rights for such a society. I would be fine making sure that every single firearm owner was held to a stricter level of responsibility. What I mean by that is if you have a gun stolen from you, the first question which should be asked if the was gun properly secured. A specific example of irresponsible gun ownership might be leaving one in the glove compartment of a car. I submit that no one would do that with a substantial amount of money, why should we let someone also be as careless with any firearm?

    I understand that on occasion a firearm might be stolen in a home break in but if it was secured in a gun locker, this wouldn't happen. We need to break the path that allows firearms to be bought legitimately but through whatever means finds their way into the wrong person's hands. None of us what the bad guy to get these weapons, not the police, not me and not you. And no one really is against the millions of responsible firearms owners who hunt or carry for personal protection - but once the situation turns to what it has been lately, people want this to stop.

  155. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Michael Brown was a criminal and deserved to be shot and removed from the society with which he actively engaged criminally. A suitable funeral would have been hanging from a tree as the flies descended upon his rotting corpse.

  156. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by bigfinger76 · · Score: 2

    Mod up.
    If gun control is a viable option, then let the facts speak for themselves. Constantly fudging numbers for shock value makes me doubt seriously the motives of the pro-gun-contol side.

  157. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just curious: which countries are you thinking of that have "dealt with terrorism successfully", that the US should be learning from?

  158. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The only problem with your rather well thought text is the definition of "refugee".
    If, out of 10,000 "refugees", 10% are terrorist posing as refugees, you're fucked.

    Or, gee, I dunno -- the terrorists just fly into the country with a regular visa and do the job anyway. The idea that terrorists are going to go to the trouble of "hiding" as refugees when they can easily enter on a tourist visa is just nutso.

    And even if 10% of your 10,000 refugees turn out to be terrorists and commit a mass killing each over the next three years, they'll still be doing less damage than ordinary American citizens are currently managing. ISIS could only dream of slaughter at the rate Americans manage to do to themselves all the time.

  159. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by bigfinger76 · · Score: 2

    So, the Shah wasn't exiled? That's what you're asserting?

  160. You already know the answer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ban Muslims. Even you leftist asswipes know it to be the only way to stop terrorism.

  161. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    I am asserting that Oceania has firm control of the disputed regions in the middle east at the moment. They are not fighting against dictators and extremists as you have asserted. Quite the contrary. The profit is in the conflict. The shah is a single chapter in the ongoing story. It's a story of power and passion. The nuance of religion and politics can be left outside. Applying our values to this *game of empires* is futile presumptuousness.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  162. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by crow_t_robot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you think 1,000 muslim terrorists in this nation means "we're fucked" then you truly are a pussy. Just because 1 of the suspects in the French attack posed as a refugee doesn't mean you need to run around clutching your pearls and screaming like a bitch about every refugee.

  163. Re:A good start by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

    Why don't republicans ever refer to things like the Planned Parenthood shooting as "Radical Christian Terrorism?"

  164. Re:A good start by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

    More people have died this year from slipping in the tub than from Jihad in the US so what is the big deal? What exactly is the problem?

  165. Re:Who is this person who claims to speak for the by GerryGilmore · · Score: 1

    "The last 5 years"...I take to mean "since Obama became President". I'm more than a little shocked that - even in the current libertarian/conservative bent that /. is under these days - a post that basically memes the old Fox/talk-radio theme that "the NY Times is *in the bag* for Obama", etc gets modded +4, Insightful. Insightful? Really, fellow /. ers?

  166. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

    Even if it's only 310, that doesn't really change the argument.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  167. All rights forfeit, but not Muslim religion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No doubt you can quote from the Koran and find something, somewhere (and maybe many somethings somewhere) which advocate turning the other cheek and tolerance and mindfulness and other precepts espoused and demonstrated by Christ and Buddha. Unfortunately, the Koran and Muhammad himself left plenty of room for warfare and bloodshed instead. And the Muslim community on a world-wide basis, with special emphasis on its Mullahs and other religious leaders, remains remarkably quiet and, especially, inactive with regard to denouncing those who advocate and practice violence.

    If there was a "religion" which advocated killing and torturing as an assured path to heaven, and there was a vastly higher rate of such violence in that community vs Christian and Buddhist communities, would the US, Europe, etc. allow devout (or even not-so-devout) practitioners of said religion to visit and immigrate?

    Would we require all Christians and Buddhists to give up all their other rights just so practitioners of this violence vector would be fully comfortable and accommodated?

    Seems like a an absurd question in the abstract.

    In today's world, however, the absurd has become preferred government policy pretty much everywhere.

    It isn't PC to call it cultural and philosophical suicide, so I will. And I'm not trying to inflame, either - so please give a reasoned rebuttal and not just a down vote, especially if you or yours are Muslim.

    Ten years ago I argued for more tolerance of the Islamic relgion. I still argue for the US staying out of meddling, much less warring, in foreign civil and religious wars. We should also attempt to practice more loving-kindness through donations of food, etc. in all war-torn and impoverished areas. But immigration should be discontinued indefinitely.

    The argument could also (imo reasonably) be made that Constitutional rights in the US are rights of existent citizens and not of non-citizens. So that should make it obvious that "religious" rights of non-citizens should be sacrificed long before existent rights of established citizens and institutions should be compromised.

    It's kind of nuts the choices our "leaders" and institutions and society as a whole is making instead.

  168. Re:More blood... by tsotha · · Score: 2

    Saudi Arabia is full of factions. Some of them are our friends, some are our enemies, and most are mostly neutral. The idea we'd try to "get rid of" a country because some of the people there are our enemies is daft.

  169. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But kiss even more of your civil rights goodbye.

    What the US is going to do is exactly what always happens:

    • If the perpetrator is white, the US will do nothing. Nobody will be rounded up into FEMA camps, no guns will be taken away, the US will not become more totalitarian in any way.
    • If the perpetrator is brown, the US will go apeshit, overreacting about everything and the US will become significantly more totalitarian.

    US legislators never react when a white person commits mass murder because US legislators are more scared of the NRA than they are of ISIS.

  170. This is normal by tsotha · · Score: 1

    Based on what we've seen in Europe, this is the way things work. If you allow immigrants from countries with incompatible cultures, it's the second generation who carry out attacks in concert with co-ethnics from the home country.

  171. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

    That's exactly the same as 3000 dead Americans and two gigantic skycrapers down!

    372 of the victims on 9/11 were foreign nationals.

    Oh, and not that this has anything to do with what you said, but over 30 were Muslim.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  172. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by bigfinger76 · · Score: 1

    What did I assert, again?

  173. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Darinbob · · Score: 1

    Don't forget the home grown self-radicalized terrorists like McVeigh and Kaczynski.

  174. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    Are you sure about that?

    450,000 Christians Flee From Muslim Attacks in the Central African Republic

    ... when millions of black African Christians and Animists were massacred in Sudan (many forced into slavery and forcibly converted to Islam) you never had the threat of Western intervention. Likewise, the mainly Christians of West Papua are currently facing Javanization and Islamization in Indonesia but the world is turning a blind eye once more just like they did when the Catholic Timorese were massacred in vast numbers by the same forces.

    African Christians Slaughtered by ISIS-Affiliates

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  175. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Sorry, not even 250 people dead would be ANYTHING AT ALL compared to the numbers dying in car crashes every week. Or pick any other random cause.
    THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A WHILE....
    Then realize that all these criminal mass murders are nothing but shit you can and should ignore.

  176. Re: So we're not going to over-react this time, ri by KGIII · · Score: 1

    Mostly off-topic... The adage, as I know it, is:

    "Six to one, half a dozen to (or for) the other."

    I.e. they are nominally different but the result is the same.

    Fifty to one and fifty to the other doesn't really convey the same thing. Maybe fifty to one and a half-hundred to the other? Ah well.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  177. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Shut up you Muslim !

  178. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    muslims do think blacks are niggers, especially ones from north africa and nearby regions, they dont even hesitate to call them niggers in casual conversation with white people they've hardly even got to know yet. they just assume everyone hates blacks.

  179. Re:A good start by KGIII · · Score: 1

    Well, it works when we want to believe they're Christians. "Well, they went to church sometimes!" Yeah, I've been to church. The difference is, I'm not batshit crazy with a desire to control other people.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  180. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    I love how you completely ignore the fact that something motivated these people

    I "ignore", because I consider it irrelevant. Glad, you like it.

    every single one of the people I named have nothing to do with the group you are so scared of

    You listed a few names and then offered a list, which, according to you, provided more. It did not — too many "unknowns". So, other than purely anecdotal evidence, you offered nothing.

    I contend, we — the Western world — are allowing in too many immigrants at once. Which leads to us becoming more like them, instead of them assimilating among us.

    part of the group you self-identify with

    You have no idea, how I identify myself. I guess, stereotyping is only wrong, when your opponents do it...

    deport every narrow-minded bigot we can find

    That will certainly disproportionally affect Muslims. Ever heard of a gay-pride parade in Gaza or Riyadh or Tehran or Cairo or Jakarta, for example? Me neither... Are you still sure, you want to do that?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  181. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Properly worded so it makes actual sense - "started" - the USSR wouldn't be at the top of the list

    The USSR did start the WW2 — by entering into the secret Pact with Hitler, and then collaborating with same in dividing up Poland. Fail.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  182. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do you know the terrorists didn't pledge allegiance before? If I pledge allegiance to America today, does that imply that this is the only time I've pledged allegiance to America and that I've never made this allegiance before?

  183. Re:A good start by dcw3 · · Score: 1

    Indonesia (the largest Islamic nation in the world)

    Also Malaysia

    I spent two weeks touring Indonesia back in '86. Jakarta, Jogjakarta (ancient capital), and Bali. My tour guide volunteered to me that they'd had a huge influx of Muslims You might consider reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    Just another day in Paradise
  184. Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am in no way condoning what these people did but wanted to point out that two people who kill 14 are called terrorists while those who perform over a million abortions this year are considered everyday upright citizens. Doesn't seem right to me.

  185. Emphasis. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://heavy.com/news/2015/12/watch-president-obama-speech-live-stream-online-isis-terror-san-bernadino-video/

    31:55

    And since the day I took this office, I’ve authorized U.S. forces to take out terrorists abroad precisely because I know how real the danger is.

    32:28

    Well, here’s what I want you to know: The threat from terrorism is real, but we will overcome it.

    33:01

    Here’s how. First, our military will continue to hunt down terrorist plotters in any country where it is necessary.

    34:10

    Third, we’re working with friends and allies to stop ISIL’s operations — to disrupt plots, cut off their financing, and prevent them from recruiting more fighters. Since the attacks in Paris, we’ve surged intelligence-sharing with our European allies. We’re working with Turkey to seal its border with Syria. And we are cooperating with Muslim-majority countries — and with our Muslim communities here at home — to counter the vicious ideology that ISIL promotes online.

    34:40

    Fourth, with American leadership, the international community has begun to establish a process — and timeline — to pursue ceasefires and a political resolution to the Syrian war. Doing so will allow the Syrian people and every country, including our allies, but also countries like Russia, to focus on the common goal of destroying ISIL — a group that threatens us all.

    35:35

    Now, here at home, we have to work together to address the challenge. There are several steps that Congress should take right away.

    To begin with, Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semi-automatic weapon? This is a matter of national security.

    more "gun control" by proxy-policy. recognize.

    36:33

    Next, we should put in place stronger screening for those who come to America without a visa so that we can take a hard look at whether they’ve traveled to warzones. And we’re working with members of both parties in Congress to do exactly that.

    designate a place a warzone first? effective?

    36:47 (37 min)

    Finally, if Congress believes, as I do, that we are at war with ISIL, it should go ahead and vote to authorize the continued use of military force against these terrorists. For over a year, I have ordered our military to take thousands of airstrikes against ISIL targets. I think it’s time for Congress to vote to demonstrate that the American people are united, and committed, to this fight.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/06/14/america-s-allies-are-funding-isis.html

    37:20 (37:31)

    We should not be drawn once more into a long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria. That’s what groups like ISIL want. They know they can’t defeat us on the battlefield. ISIL fighters were part of the insurgency that we faced in Iraq. But they also know that if we occupy foreign lands, they can maintain insurgencies for years, killing thousands of our troops, draining our resources, and using our presence to draw new recruits.

    38:19

    Here’s what else we cannot do. We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam. That, too, is what groups like ISIL want. ISIL does not speak for Islam. They are thugs and killers, part of a cult of death,

    39:53

    But just as it is the responsibility of Muslims around the world to root out misguided ideas that lead to radicalization, it is the responsibility of all Americans — of every faith — to reject discrimination

    40

    It is our responsibility to reject religious tests on who we admit into this country.

    40:18

    Because when we travel down that road, we lose. That kind of divisiveness, that betrayal of our values plays into the hands of groups

  186. Our source was the New York Times by dbIII · · Score: 1
    From "Dr Strangelove" 1964

    President Merkin Muffley: But this is absolute madness, Ambassador! Why should you *build* such a thing?

    Ambassador de Sadesky: There were those of us who fought against it, but in the end we could not keep up with the expense involved in the arms race, the space race, and the peace race. At the same time our people grumbled for more nylons and washing machines. Our doomsday scheme cost us just a small fraction of what we had been spending on defense in a single year. The deciding factor was when we learned that your country was working along similar lines, and we were afraid of a doomsday gap.

    President Merkin Muffley: This is preposterous. I've never approved of anything like that.

    Ambassador de Sadesky: Our source was the New York Times.

  187. Three thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. The ideology of these two people who killed 14 people who as a profession help those who are helpless isn't one taught in the western nations. Maybe education could help correct the problem?
    2. It takes BIG BIG amounts of money to finance tens of thousands of fighters in Africa. Perhaps identifying the money source(s) could help educate the world's public about the mindset of those supplying the money.
    3. If we identify the thinking of those who supply this money, perhaps we should consider the possibility of re-education, or free education for their young with less violent perspectives?

    Or both sides can fund more weapons, deaths and perpetuate the existing horrors?

    I'm throwing the B.S. flag on the Governments and Media which are doing lots of hand waving and mostly just killing people trying to live their lives.

  188. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So what if I drive around in a car with a McDonalds paint job (without the company's knowledge), helping the homeless, and then died of natural causes. Then McDonalds finds out, agrees with what I did, and then posthumously calls me an employee of McDonalds.

    Was I then an employee?

  189. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One death of an American makes it not worth it.

    You are clearly a fucking fool, but I doubt even you are stupid enough to think that this might possibly result in at least one death.

    I just hope that it's someone you know.

  190. Re:A good start by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    They claimed allegiance to ISIL, so what are you on about?

    Today I learned that a crackpot can claim anything and someone will take them at their word.

    Today I learned that Muslim extremists that proclaim their loyalty to a major Islamist terrorist group and then conduct attacks slaughtering many innocent people going about their business as that terrorist group has directed won't be taken at their word because .... reasons .... like they don't have embossed membership cards and receipts for dues? That must be it.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  191. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Education cutbacks have whitewashed just about everything out of history.

  192. Re:A good start by cold+fjord · · Score: 1
    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  193. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by dbIII · · Score: 1

    It's two separate sentences so perhaps the above poster was not connecting the two things.
    What can be confirmed is that we paid Khomeini a lot at the start of the Reagan Presidency and that he did execute every communist he could find in Iran. However quite a few were executed before he was paid and relations with the USSR hit rock bottom. It's probably making the best of a bad situation.

  194. Re:More blood... by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    The KSA is the real enemy in the region. Time to get rid of it.

    Your clever plot to induce the US to attack the guardians of the Holy cities of Mecca and Medina and thereby instigate a conflict with the entire Muslim world is a bit obvious.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  195. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Their thinking was that since these people weren't Muslim, there was no moral problem with kidnapping them and extorting a ransom.

    Are you really so raised on Disney Pirates that you think that they would have had a moral problem with anyone they could get away with?

  196. Re:More blood... by dbIII · · Score: 1

    There may have been newspaper articles, books and even a hollywood movie with a star studded cast (Syriana - 2005), but a lot of people didn't notice until Snowden.

  197. Read Piaget and fix the faulty thinking process. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The psychologist Jean Piaget wrote "Judgment and Reasoning in the Child", 1923. News stories about the individuals involved in acts of shooting and suicide sound a lot like what Piaget describes as typical of a 7 to 11 year old child except that the people we are concerned with have substituted third party verbal material for their own thoughts and fantasies. Also like 7 to 11 year olds, they shrug off differences between their fantasy and their daily world.

    The first observation I offer is the jihadi narrative is a continuation of the psychological process of making soldiers. The US Civil War was an early example of a government making masses into soldiers. By WWI, nearly a million men could perish in a single day thanks to the recruitment system of the times.

    The Jihadi narrative is shutting off the individual listener's concern for self-survival. In Piaget the young child's egocentric world is gradually replaced by adapted adult ideas. Logic, argument, discussion, debate and dialogue are the external processes that accompany the reformation of the child into the adult.

    Here is a first problem: How do we restart the thinking process? We want to replace the utterly wrong idea of suicide with the much more sane response of "heck no I am not going to do that, I'd get killed."

      A funny thing occurs to me here: What is the history of the Golden Rule (Do not do unto others....) in the mid-East? How could we help the golden rule or whatever Islam has that is the equivalent re-emerge from the existing literature and texts?

    Another thing for the Mid east is to bring back the teaching and reading of the Socratic Dialogues. Some Islamic supremacists have dismissed the Dialogues as having been written before Mohamed, and are thus not to be read.

    In the form of these people whose minds are full of the terrorist rhetoric, I wonder if they are not agonizing proof of the Socratic dictum: The unexamined life is not worth living.

  198. Re:More blood... by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    The whole problem is that the holy cities are under control of the tribe that sheltered and promoted Wahhabism, the cult that ruined Islam. Read up on it and weep.

  199. Re:A good start by dbIII · · Score: 1

    I contend, we — the Western world — are allowing in too many immigrants at once. Which leads to us becoming more like them, instead of them assimilating among us.

    Sitting Bull said something like that.

  200. Re:A good start by 3Volker · · Score: 1

    Let's get this out of the way. For the sake of discussion, let's accept that the Reddit report contains errors. In all fairness, we can then also look at the other side of the argument where the claim has been made that the FBI claims that only 21 such cases have occurred in the same time frame. What I did was to try to ascertain what the FBI defined a mass shooting as and quite quickly found out that the FBI doesn't really have a set definition for what qualifies as a mass shooting - so how can we say they are effectively reporting on the situation?

    It can be daunting to wade through a long report. On page 9 of https://www.fbi.gov/news/stori... they define "mass killing" as 3 or more persons involved. (I disagree that that should be defined as "mass" but that is the definition the FBI is using) "The FBI found that 64 incidents (40.0%) would have been categorized as falling within the new federal definition of “mass killing,” which is defined as “three or more killings in a single incident.” [19]
    [19] Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, 28 USC 530C(b)(1)(M)(i).

    That is applicable to 64 of the 160 "active shooter" incidents from 2000-2013.

    The issue we should be examining is what can be done to reduce the number of shooting victims annually. We do know that in China, almost no murders by firearms are committed - but I am not suggesting that I would be happy trading my rights for such a society. I would be fine making sure that every single firearm owner was held to a stricter level of responsibility. What I mean by that is if you have a gun stolen from you, the first question which should be asked if the was gun properly secured. A specific example of irresponsible gun ownership might be leaving one in the glove compartment of a car. I submit that no one would do that with a substantial amount of money, why should we let someone also be as careless with any firearm?

    While proper security is the responsibility of the firearm owner it is difficult for the state to enforce or set a standard. I have two safes: one high security for weapons, the other is for ammunition. I would still not appreciate the police wanting to regularly inspect my house for storage compliance (and whatever else they decide they can fine me for while they are there). Whatever weapon is ready for a short-term response can't be in the safe. When transporting, I can lock items in my vehicle, but a determined person with tools and time can retrieve it/them; a vehicle is not a safe. Some attorney would gleefully make the argument that my secure storage is sloppy and/or inept no matter how disciplined or secure it was by accepted standards.

    I understand that on occasion a firearm might be stolen in a home break in but if it was secured in a gun locker, this wouldn't happen. We need to break the path that allows firearms to be bought legitimately but through whatever means finds their way into the wrong person's hands. None of us what the bad guy to get these weapons, not the police, not me and not you.

    California is a good example. At the end of my last read they had non-compliant rifles and magazines for california. That means they either executed a felony modification themselves or executed an illegal interstate transfer without the california legal requirement to process through a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder. Two felonies at least right there.

    After Columbine and Connecticut very little effort was made to find and prosecute the sources of the weapons. Why not? This sounds like the kind of "making the guilty responsible" that should have been done. (and don't even get me started on Fast and Furious) Instead we hear platitudes like "we need to put this behind us".

  201. Let's rethink our emergency response system by cyn1c77 · · Score: 1

    Let's not kid ourselves about what's going to happen if you are caught in an active shooter situation:

    1. 5-10 minute emergency vehice response, after my 911 responder takes 2 minutes to determine the situation, after it takes me 2 minutes to duck, cover, and call. So now we're at 8-14 minutes of me sitting in a building with an armed shooter.

    2. Depending on how heavily armed the attackers are, the initial police may not enter immediately and wait for SWAT. I don't really know how long that takes, but even if it's 5 minutes, it's too long when someone is just intent on killing as many people as possible.

    3. No one getting slaughtered has a gun because carrying one is stigmatized by the government and fellow citizens and you can't carry it in most buildings that post against it anyway (but your attacker can!)

    Basically, if you're a soft target in the US, you're fucked. The government considers you soft because you're not really that important. And they don't want you carrying your own gun so they can keep you in line.

    This isn't really a sustainable solution as terrorist attacks increase, but it's generally easier for the government to let some number of people get shot all at once, and then use that tragedy to fund their overseas excursions, then it is for them to let you defend yourself.

  202. Target of homegrown terror .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't understand why these terrorists never go for our leaders, instead they attack consumers in shopping malls.

  203. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by ravenshrike · · Score: 3, Informative

    The vast majority of those shootings are drug dealers shooting at drug dealers. Which is why the proper number to compare against is the FBI's active shooter classification. Between 2000 and 2013 there were a total of 127 such shooters.

  204. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    Only in your flawed logic.

    Absurd reduct

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  205. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    it is important to the living if they want to continue living.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  206. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    I was not aware any of the people listed were policemen.

    Why are you commenting again?

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  207. Re:A good start by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    McVeigh did not kill people with a gun.

    Yes, a bomb is a weapon. But so is an axe, a rock, or a point stick.

    So your categorization is meaninglessly broad.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  208. Stupid policies beget what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/11/world/middleeast/obama-directs-administration-to-accept-10000-syrian-refugees.html?_r=0
    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/15/obama-still-plans-to-accept-10000-syrian-refugees-/

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/624571/machete-attack-Leytonstone-Syria

    And as he was coming out this is what he said "This is what happens when you f*** with mother Syria all of your blood will be spilled"

            Witness

    So tighter machete control too? Just clash cultures see how many police to hire later? Raise taxes to pay for more police and courts? House them how?

    Time to stop the fiction.

  209. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Martial Law and President For Life is actually in fact the plan. If you didn't know that by what's been going on the past 15 years you really need to put down the beer and Simpsons and WAKE UP. They're just in a race to see who can be the ones get there first.

  210. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by funwithBSD · · Score: 1

    And what were they against?

    Oh yes, technology and government overreach.

    Sounds like if we crack down and add more surveillance, we get more domestic terrorists.

    I'd rather just keep foreign ones out than create conditions for more very effective homegrown terrorists.

    --
    Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
  211. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1
    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  212. Re:A good start by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Well, that's just the kind of thing the "religious freedom" people have been screaming for, isn't it? Maybe they oughta be more careful what they wish for.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  213. Priceless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You Americans are priceless.

    A big chunk of Obama's speech dealt with the idiotic way in which people on no-fly lists can buy guns, yet this is ignored.

    Wonderful. Enjoy your open-air lunatic asylum.

  214. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by war4peace · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm Romanian, I see more muslims in a month than you see in a year, most likely.
    They're all fine, I have no problem with them. I buy excellent food from a Syrian store and best sweets from a Lybian store.
    On the other hand, my country isn't regarded as "must destroy" by extremists.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  215. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Bzzzt. Wrong.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Note that the origin of the Barbary Wars goes back to the capture of the Betsey in 1784. The Barbary pirates weren't driven by geopolitics, but by a religion that tells them that the kaffirs owe them, and if they won't pay the jizya willingly, tribute must be extracted by force.

    Yawn. The Barbary pirates were pirates. What excuse for the actions of Christian pirates do you have? What were they driven by?

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  216. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    There hasn't been a Crusade in a thousand years -- and there'll never be another.

    False. There were a number of Crusades up to the the 15th century like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... in 1444.

    Coincidently, there were the anti-Hussite crusades which were crusades against Heretic Christians by Catholics.

    And the reasons why "there'll never be another" is because the Popes since then were moderately sane, while the foaming-at-their-mouths fundamentalist Christians can't call an actual Crusade (and wouldn't, because that's evil Catholicism stuff). Instead they do things like start the Lord's Resistance Army

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  217. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you think 1,000 muslim terrorists in this nation means "we're fucked" then you truly are a pussy. Just because 1 of the suspects in the French attack posed as a refugee doesn't mean you need to run around clutching your pearls and screaming like a bitch about every refugee.

    (clutches pearls and screams "EEK!")

  218. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    I have met a lot of really wonderful Christians, ones who actually follow what Christ taught. Sadly, they are in the minority.

  219. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by dwillden · · Score: 2

    Try four. Even Anti-gun, extreme left wing Mother Jones only counts four. But then they actually have the intellectual honesty to keep to the original FBI definition of 4 Dead, not the three dead that the President ordered the FBI to change their criteria too, or the 4 or more shots fired that shootinglist uses.

    Four, not 355, not 310. Four. Charlestown AME, Marine and Navy Recruiting station, College in Oregon and San Bernadino.

    --
    I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
  220. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    Yes, actually, I still want to do that. I know better than to believe that Sharia Law is being instituted here, or that because a million Muslims came to this country across five years that it would change anything.

    What I do understand is the language common to every bigot who ever walked the face of the earth. Yes, they are always shocked when they are called that because it's tough to see yourself as others do but the terms you use are exactly like the prejudiced assholes of the past said about black integration. It's identical to what was thrown around when we created our immigration laws to keep the Chinese out (once they had finished building our railroads, of course). And it's almost quoted verbatim what the assholes used to fight against interracial marriage and somewhat ironically the same slurs people still use when we talk about gay rights. That last instance is especially wry, don't you think with you using that as an example to defend your particularly brand or prejudice?

  221. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    Hey, did you know that gullible isn't included in the dictionary? No, seriously, did you know that? Don't bother checking, I already did that for you.

    Oh, if you get the chance, please pass this information on to everyone you know. They will surely appreciate it.

  222. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    To be fair, let's leave out politicians who are pandering to their base - on all sides of the issue. I suspect that neither of us have any respect for these people, nor do they really represent us in this day and age.

    Moving down the list, yes, there are people who believe that no one should be allowed to own firearms and given the crap they are being fed by the media, I can almost understand that - almost. The reality is, the message has become so distorted that no one really knows what to believe any further. I live in an area where guns are looked at like a shovel, a tool one needs to own to deal with problems like black bears and other not so friendly animals. Most of my neighbors hunt and eat what they shoot. In Vermont, a fair number of families either shot a deer or had little to no meat for the winter - which I can understand might be difficult for a resident of New York City to comprehend.

    Back to your main point - how the FBI defines mass shootings.

    My definition does not include number of deaths - because we are not talking about mass murder, we are talking about how many people were shot. If three people are shot (or even two) that is a multiple shooting. What differentiates this in my mind is that when a premeditated murder happens there is usually only one victim, even though we both know more than one person is killed on occasion. But, what we are talking about here is when some asshole (or assholes) begin shooting people, it really doesn't enter into the equation if they can hit a victim with a clean kill shot. If there are multiple people shot but not killed, it is a multiple shooting incident. Now, based on that criteria, how many mass shootings have there been in 2015? Well, I think it is safe to say, more than 21 but even 21 is too damn many.

  223. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    One of this countries first treaties was the Treaty of Tripoli. A little known fact is this states that it states that ""the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." If I had the $$$, I would personally pay for ads in newspapers and on billboards all across the country, especially in the "South" and near Evangelical churches, with Article 11. Possibly across the street from Huckabee's and Carson's house too. I even made a facebook page about it, with a list of the "Founding Fathers" that voted for it; but I can't really talk about it in public because I live in Oklahoma and don't want to get dragged out of my house and lynched.

  224. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    The Barbary Pirates were organized and controlled by the local government. Notice that they started attacking our ships when we moved outside the protection of the Treaty of Alliance, and they briefly respected the Treaty of Tripoli.

    Christian pirates, however, could expect to be chased down and killed whenever they came within sight of a military vessel of any Christian country. Privateers were a slightly different matter, since they had written permission from their country to conduct war at sea, which didn't include enslaving the crews and passengers of ships they captured.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  225. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    While the federal government was not founded as a Christian theocracy, several of the colonies had active state religions at the time of the founding. The first clause of the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion", was specifically to prevent the federal government from messing with those churches.

    That said, pretty much no one seriously questions that each state government and the federal government was founded by people with overwhelmingly Christian values, or that our laws and institutions reflect those values.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  226. Re:A good start by KGIII · · Score: 1

    I don't really know. I think the majority of the ones that I've known who were seemingly more than nominally Christian seemed *mostly* sane and not zealots. Even the Jehovah's Witnesses aren't generally *that* bad. They're just annoying. I've had them come all the way to my house in the mountains of Maine on a snowy Saturday. So, there's that. But, I'm not a Christian or anything so I don't really expose myself to a lot of them as far as I know. I don't generally ask what people have for a religion.

    --
    "So long and thanks for all the fish."
  227. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    The Barbary Pirates were organized and controlled by the local government.

    Most of them where independent entrepreneurs, much like American privateers Are you a fucking Communist that you hate free enterprise?

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  228. Awww, aren't they precious? by dfenstrate · · Score: 1

    In this very relevant prank, some jokers put a Koran cover on a bible, then read out various passages and asked random passers-by to comment on them.
    As I'm sure you can imagine, hilarity ensues

    That's cute. But when people 'vote with their feet', it's away from majority Muslim countries, and often towards majority Christian nations. Why do you suppose that is?

    --
    Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms should be the name of a store, not a government agency.
  229. Re:Read Piaget and fix the faulty thinking process by DogPhilosopher · · Score: 0

    To the best of my knowledge, there is no equivalent of the golden rule in Islam. There are moral obligations, but only to your co-religionists. As for critical thinking, that's considered a crime in most of the ME nowadays:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    Quoting Socrates at a muslim fundamentalist, as if he would accept his authority, is pointless. As you rightly point out yourself, he's from the Time of Ignorance (Jahiliyya). If the fundamentalists had their way, anything from that time would be destroyed. Not just books, but tombs, statues and monuments as well, heck, even the pyramids. IS has pledged to destroy the holy sites in Saudi Arabia.

    The type of logic commonly used in muslim theology is reasoning by analogy, not syllogism. Even if you were able to corner a fundi with the Socratic method he'd simply say "you speak like a snake," and probably punch you in the face as well. It's how they're raised, dogma is literally bashed in to them. The average madrassa's curriculum is a brainwashing program, endless recitation while rocking back and forth, memorization of the entire Quran (phoneticallly if you don't speak Arabic). Kids are sometimes beaten to death for getting a surah wrong. Quoting their own scripture at fundis (or even regular muslims) in person is just downright dangerous. If you do it online they'll tell you that the true meaning is lost in translation, that interpretation requires deep knowledge of Islam etc. They'll quote some authority who came up with an interpretation that suits their purpose.

    PS If you feel the need to engage in such discussions online, protect your anonymity. I'm not even joking, it's dangerous. It probably doesn't make the news in the US, but people get killed over this in the muslim world on a daily basis. If somebody publicly accuses you of being an apostate (kaffir, murtad), that's a death sentence, Rushdie was by no means an isolated case.

  230. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    I live right on the buckle of the Bible Belt, having moved here a decade ago from the Great White North. ;-) My neighbors (most of them, anyway) are very giving people. They work incredibly hard to do whatever they can to help our less fortunate neighbors and work tirelessly to volunteer whenever they can. They don't preach and have accepted us (a family of practicing atheists) into the community openly. Yes, I know there are the lunatics amongst us, they are everywhere but thankfully they seem to be in the minority.

  231. Re:A good start by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    "Robert Dear, Allen Lawrence Scarsella, Nathan Gustavsson, Daniel Macey, Joseph Backman, and Timothy McVeigh"

    What organized group did they all belong to other than Crackpot?

    Citizens of the United States. So yeah, Crackpot is a synonym judging by the posters here.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  232. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That is how U.S. meddling with foreign nations began.

    Except, defending one's citizens against kidnapping is not really "meddling with foreign nations" in the sense that, say, installing a puppet dictator is. To claim this is the beginning of interventionist foreign policy is ludicrous, and I can only assume that you're not aware of the nature of 20th-century interventionist US policy if you are able to compare it to this.

    So if you want to play the blame game, the first incident, the precipitating act which began over two centuries of animosity and set the U.S. on a course for meddling with countries halfway around the world, was actually committed by Muslims against the U.S.

    So basically what you're saying is that because some pirates were muslims once, muslims are to blame for every illegal US incursion since.

    That is literally the most idiotic thing I've ever heard.

  233. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They have COMPLETELY forgotten that the Muslims have _ALWAYS_ hated us. They hate us because we're white and Christian. They hate us because they think they should rule the world, and because by merely existing, we stand in their way and we are holding them away from their birthright (i.e. our stuff and our territory).

    Pot, meet kettle.

  234. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

    Why don't you login to post so everyone can know who to block, please.

  235. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by crow_t_robot · · Score: 1

    More people have died falling out of trees this year than from Islamic terrorism in the U.S. Get a fucking grip.

  236. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by jandersen · · Score: 1

    You mean something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ?

    If we are worried about freedom, civil rights etc, then introducing restrictions based on fear is probably not a good idea. The borders of any country are as open as a sieve, unless you introduce a truly draconian regime, so it is likely to be a lot of wasted effort. But of course, we can't just sit passive and hope for the best - we planted our foot firmly in the muck years ago, most recently with our stupid invasion of Iraq, but it has happened again and again for something like a century, if not longer. It is too late to change our mind now - we have to see it through to the bitter end - and no doubt it will be very bitter.

    In the meantime we have to stop contributing so heavily to the causes of terrorism. And we have to stop being so bloody simplistic in our analysis of things - people don't become terrorists because they 'hate our freedom' or are 'envious' - and 'democracy' is not the only thing needed to fix things. It is even possible that democracy has no place in those countries for many years to come - after all, it took us in the West generations to learn to live with it. And, it is very likely that we in the West would help the peace best in the long term, if we were to leave the rebuilding to others, since we don't have too much of a good reputation in the Middle East.

  237. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Yes, actually, I still want to do that

    So, you still want to deport "narrow-minded bigots", which will disproportionately include Muslims. Congratulations, racist.

    That last instance is especially wry, don't you think with you using that as an example to defend your particularly brand or prejudice?

    My prejudice is not against an in-born trait, such as skin-color, but rather a religion. And religions are not all equal. I even explained to you, what is particularly wrong with Islam — it does not leave Cæsar's to Cæsar. And you better know, what this means...

    a million Muslims came to this country across five years that it would change anything.

    Other than several more terror-attacks, you mean? You can't deny that downside. What is the upside?

    What did we gain by allowing the Tsarnaev family to move to Boston and thousands of other Muslim families like them? Sure, most of them did not raise their children into terrorists, but, still, what is the upside?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  238. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Sitting Bull said something like that.

    Sure, he probably did. Only his culture was a disastrous dead-end, while the Western civilization lead — and continues to lead humanity to new heights.

    Westerners moving to America weren't attracted by the Sitting Bull's civilization or wealth — only by the vast unsettled lands conveniently located far away from the rotten monarchies of Europe. That's the difference with today's migrants, who come in to this very rich and reasonably well-governed country, attracted by the wealth of it and the opportunities it provides.

    And I don't blame them for wanting to — I am an immigrant myself. But I do blame (some of) them for wanting to change it — they don't have the right to that. Our children might be entitled to advocate changes, if they feel like it, but the first generation's duty — out of sheer appreciation — is to defend and protect the order, that saved them from misery.

    Diversity is beautiful — I want my kids to know Ukrainian language and songs, for example — but I don't want them to give bribes, as remains common-place in Ukraine... Yet, if you move too many immigrants from the same place at once, government-corruption and other bad things are sure to come with them — haven't you learned anything from the decades-long fight with Italian Mafia, for example?

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  239. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    Fair question, exactly what did we gain when we let your family settle here? Are there any family members you are related to who didn't turn out to be pope? No? No shit, every family has one eventually.

    What do we get when we allow a million Muslims to come here to live? About the same thing we would get when we allow any other million people to come here.

    One more thing, if your best and only argument is that you're not a bigot because you only are prejudicial against religions, then you're really no better than the average garden variety bigot, are you?

  240. People working in the city not paying taxes? by gerald.edward.butler · · Score: 1

    Do you even know what you are talking about? You ALWAY pay city/local income tax in the place where you work, not where you live. Property tax is about the only tax that is based on where you live. In most cases, for large metropolitan areas, a good portion of county/regional property taxes are specifically earmarked for the adjacent major metropolitan city. So your argument is complete bunk.

    1. Re:People working in the city not paying taxes? by dbIII · · Score: 1

      Also - why get so angry over an opinion? I'm in a place where the local government does not collect income tax so your ALWAYS doesn't apply, and I'm suggesting that tiny local governments collecting tax is a major part of the problem anyway. Due to political corruption I've lived in an area where the roads went from paved to dirt at the boundary which on reason why I think about the stupidity of uneven infrastructure - I've experienced it.

  241. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    don't use michael brown. the only witnesses that haven't been discredited by their own later testimony, or by contradicting forensic evidence are the cop and people that agreed with the cop's series of event. should he have been stopped? maybe maybe not, but he matched the description of someone that robbed a nearby gas station. he then proceeded to try and seize a cop's gun through the driver's side window. gets shot in the hand, flees, gets pursued. turns and charges at the officer. the Cop put 5-6 bullets into the kid before he went down.

    don't use michael brown.

    wow, super disturbing
    Captach: Perish

  242. the American People itself dont trust the police by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the united states for years has been under intense gun violence and no single administration has tackled this problems for decades. the police itself is a corrupt body and takes advantage of been weaponised to oppress citizens.

    they need to look inward there problem ain't a surface issue.

    CREEBHILLS BLOG REVIEW|12 World

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  243. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Fair question

    Notably, the answer remains missing in your response...

    only are prejudicial against religions, then you're really no better

    Not true. Prejudice against in-born traits, such as skin color, is one thing — it is something a person can not change and it has no discernible effect on their intellect, fitness, or demeanor. Prejudice against things cultural — acquired from society — is completely different, for it is changeable and does affect their outlook.

    It is common for the weaker minds to not see the difference, but you would notice, that UNESCO has never hosted a Cannibal Month, for example — the very idea is a jest.. Because some cultures really are better — and worse — than others.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  244. People believe bullshit... by ToddInSF · · Score: 1

    This was "home-grown terror", but not the way the media and our typically lying President describe it.

    When your co-workers don't say shit to management about that psychotic aggressive NRA loving, ZIonist promoting religious nutjob constantly harassing another co-worker that happens to be Muslim, this is exactly the kind of batshit crazy thing you get.

    Instead of depicting how this thing is an act of "home-grown terror", which is just another way to justify doing idiotic, expensive, and ineffective bullshit, let's talk about how religious bigots have turned this country into a paranoid shithole ruled by Fox News watching retards hell bent on bringing about Armageddon.

    Because that's what this incident was all about. It was disgruntled employees latching on to their own extremist bullshit, and taking everyone else down with them.

    The media and the President are setting another narrative entirely - because they have something to gain from that. Profiteering is what the USA is all about, and it's no wonder we are DETESTED around the world.

  245. Here you go.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If you want to buy a new one, you can, if you have that kind of money. I am sure the ID check would be trivial once they have verified your funds.

    http://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/02/04/lockheed-to-sell-special-ops-c-130s-to-civilians/

    And if you want a used one, those are available too, although if you buy from a US seller you will have to be approved. Outside of the US, not so much.

  246. Crime NOT 'Terrorism' by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, can we decide that this is just about 'random criminal acts' and is not 'terrorism'...seriously, why give this a different name then anything else that involves murder? In the linked NY Times article I found this particularly interesting..."“It’ll gradually dawn on people,” said Bruce Jones, a former United Nations official and the director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, “that we’ll be living for a long time with the possibility of low-level attacks that can never be predicted and can rarely be prevented.”...to which I thought 'so just like any other crime which cannot be predicted or prevented...

    The best way to address this is to encourage people to protect themselves, its as simple as that. There is no 100% idea of 'safe'...at least short of radical enroachment of individual rights...so people just need to take protection for themselves in to their own hands and thus disincentive these murderers from taking up arms against us.

  247. Re:A good start by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And will ISIL decline such statements, like ever, when it obviously plays well for them? I think not.

    Kinda like their declarations after the Paris attacks that somehow the 3 morons who blew themselves up near the stadium and managed to kill ONE bystander, was all part of the plan that went on exactly as planned.

  248. Re:A good start by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

    Because some cultures really are better — and worse — than others.

    Today's vocabulary word is subjective. That's subjective. It means: Proceeding from or taking place in a person's mind rather than the external world: a subjective decision or particular to a given person; personal: subjective experience.

    What's funny about your little diatribe is that it exposes you to exactly what we call projection - and that's today's bonus vocabulary word.

  249. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So any fear of letting in ten thousand refugees is based on an implicit belief that there is an extraordinarily high proportion of mass murderers in that population, or that the base rate of mass murders in the US is lower than it is, or both.

    Fear.
    OK Let's talk about fear but the fear that no one is talking about. Th fear that only exist in the mind. It's been way over a week and the news still buzzes with stories about this and the people involved. Really making them the anti-heroes of the story. Did you ever think that these lowly little unknown people that did this just wanted to be famous? The be the martyr, to be the fighter's against the monster of the US? Well the media is giving them just that and more. what I don't see being talked about is how news coverage like this INCREASES the chance of attack by someone else just wanting their " 15 minutes" of fame and glory.

    This is a tech news site yet over a week later this shit is being covered by this site. Where's the tech?? These people used a technology that is very old its called firearms they're not considered "High Tech". Yet a week after this is still big news with personal stories and raids on their homes by the news pimps.

    The biggest promoters of these types of acts in our own media and our own government. By the government and the media spreading FUD they are promoting these acts

    So what people died. People die all over the world every day and a lot more get killed everyday all over the world than the number killed here and the sad fact is YOU the US Tax Payer paid for these arms that did the killing All fired up about theses killing? What about the people you paid to have killed? Don't they count?

    Hell no the media doesn't bring up the point that if this wasn't a "Gun free zone" and some of the people had been armed that most likely there would be less dead good guys. Let's not talk about that the mass surveillance we have today did nothing to stop or even know in advance of this attack.

    The really sick thing no one talks about is the millions of dollars made by the media and the companies that advertise through the media off of the death of these people. Sure their death is sad and the event horrible but isn't picking and scraping through the bones of the dead worse than the actual event? The people who work in news are truly some sick fucks.

    Isn't the true horror of this event the amount of money made by the media. Isn't the true horror also the amount of fear spun by the government and fed to the media to turn us into slaves? Killing is bad but making money off of someone's death that is just plain sick. What's next selling souvenir body parts? (Well you did it to the Indians)

    Goddamn sheeple wake the fuck up. I know you are too lazy to check this but if you check the news in the 1830s in Georgia you will find a lot of news just like this shit except instead of the word Muslim you'll see the work Cherokee. A question when will the fat rich white bastards of the world stop trying to steal everything. The real irony is all you white bastards are worried about refugees when the truth is if you want to see a child of a previous refugee all you have to do is look in the mirror.

    Thank you Europe for sending all you thugs murders and thieves here and letting them gain power.

    Another fact never discussed Dear US Government you shot first! If you go around blowing up villages killing women and children sooner or later the people you are attacking will fight back. Its a law of nature its called "Self-Preservation". Doesn't matter about religion you start mass killing any group of people they will fight back. It is their right.

  250. In my day, in MY day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "long dreaded"? "new type of terror risk"?

    In MY day, terrorists were famous rich folks like Patty Hearst, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_Hearst not some new immigrant nobody. You kids today, throwing out the constitution at the drop of a hat. Now THAT is REAL terror.

  251. Re: So we're not going to over-react this time, ri by oldmac31310 · · Score: 0

    Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

    --
    http://www.acetonestudio.com
  252. Re:Logic? Logic is a feeble reed... when you're nu by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    I don't understand the logic of disarming your people to prevent terrorists attacks by people who will always be able to get weapons.

    I don't understand the hysteria of disarming your people to prevent terrorists attacks by people who will always be able to get weapons.

    FTFY

    If the USA joins the other countries in the universe, to become a gun-free society, the consequences or penalty of being stopped with a (untraceable) gun from an unknown owner can be set to a very high penalty. As the number of guns disappear, as they should, the accidental deaths from guns or deaths due to being angry and stressed (rage) while holding a weapon also drops.

    Can I see you out walking with your child and a gun strapped to your body, when a terrorist attacks? Are you going to be a first responder? And what will you do if you kill the innocent bystander?

    At the time of the constitution, there was a fear of a violent overthrow of the government by government militia. Today the militia has tanks, drones planes, bombs and missiles. Can you protect yourself from your own army with a paltry hand gun or rifle? 1053 group shooting deaths in 2 years does not speak well for the USA. Ten thousand deaths from guns each year is a shame.

    --
    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
  253. Re: So we're not going to over-react this time, ri by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They hate us because they think they should rule the world, and because by merely existing, we stand in their way and we are holding them away from their birthright (i.e. our stuff and our territory).

    Seems the other side could say the same thing about the US and be correct. The US does think it rules the world. BTW didn't we invade their country and started blowing up their homes first? Question if I blew up your house with your kids in it wouldn't you hate me? Wouldn't you want to kill me and my family? Well?

    this is a big blind-spot in the American psyche. They think that everyone else is civilized like they are,

    Civilized? So going into a poor third world country and blowing everything up and taking their resources is civilized? Really just who is the real savage here? Killing women and children is pretty savage and not very civilized in my book.

    We're seeing this in Europe right now -- with the millions of people showing up, demanding their handouts and free houses.

    Did you stop and think before writing that if we hadn't blown up everything they owned including their house they wouldn't demanding handouts and free housing.

    Yes I have the right to say these words because I have in the past killed women and children in YOUR name. Yes that blood is on my hands I live with it but it is also on yours. I just wish to God that YOU had to sleep with the nightmares I have to. Yes I am a Veteran.

  254. This has to be a war on ideology, not people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look, this has to be a war on ideology, and not on people.

    I'm with Sam Harris on this, we have to be able to criticize bad ideas, and religion (and specifically Islam) is one of the great repositories of bad ideas.

    For example:

    1) If you believe that stoning anyone for doing anything is the best way to punish that person, you are simply wrong.
    2) If you believe that the evidence a woman presents in court requires more proof simply because she is a woman, you are simply wrong.
    3) If you believe that marrying and having sex with woman under the age of consent (18+) is ok, again, you are simply wrong.
    4) If you believe in miracles, the resurrection, flying horses, angels, demons, heaven, hell, without evidence, and are simply wrong.
    5) If you believe that dying in the service of a believe system will gain you access to heaven and 72 virgins, you are simply wrong.
    6) If you believe that your right to not be offended trumps my right to free speech, you are simply wrong.

    I could go on and on. But, here's the really scary thing. Religion allows you to believe things which if you were the only believer would classify you as insane.

    These, and other beliefs that are worse, and very heavily subscribed too in some regions of the world. We're not talking 1-2%, we're talking 30, 40, 50, 60%.

    So yes, I am concerned about immigrants. I am concerned about 2 things.

    1) The number of immigrants we are taking in is a pittance, and won't solve anything. Watch this to see why https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPjzfGChGlE. This concerns me because I believe it's our moral responsibility to help these people where they are, since we can't take in all of them. Plus I really don't want to brain drain the region by taking only the best, since that's just not fair to the region.

    2) I want immigrants to feel welcome. As part of that, they need to understand that by coming here, they are implicitly accepting that they cannot live by the rules back home. You are not going to get Sharia Law, and you cannot expect to treat women the way they are treated back home. If you want to come and live in the US, I welcome you, but that means you have to be welcoming of us as well. It doesn't mean you have to abandon your culture, but it does mean that you have to raise your moral landscape up to where we are. We simply won't accept the removal of free speech, the stoning of women, the hacking off of limbs, just because that's what you did back home. Period.

    I am singularly not concerned however about terrorists or even security. The security theatre (and it is theatre) we installed after 9-11 is a complete fail and waste of time and money. I am not afraid of terrorism, I believe the best way to fight it is by not changing how we live. We need to show that area of the world that we have indeed found a better way, and the best way to do that is by living it. If it was me, I'd remove every piece of additional security added after 9-11, including disbanding the DHS and I would flood the internet with media showing how we do have a better life.

    But that's just me. I'm sure building a wall and going isolationist is the better way /sarcasm.

  255. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

    I lived in NYC during the 1970s, and I consider being *anywhere* near a gang or drug shooting scene to be closer than I want to be ever again. For people living anywhere near such activity - especially any closer than I did - I'd think it terrorizes them. So I would include those cases of drug dealers shooting at drug dealers as part of the problem.

  256. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by DutchUncle · · Score: 1

    "4 dead". So if someone was shot and first aid got there fast enough that he/she didn't die, it doesn't count? How about permanently crippled, it doesn't count? Or the person was just a lousy shot - or a freakin SADIST - who didn't aim for direct kill shots, it doesn't count?

  257. Nonsense by samantha · · Score: 1

    This was immigrant related so "homegrown" doesn't really apply. And there is zero connection to encryption. And making the people part of Stasi effectively is hardly a solution for anything except creating a massive Police State.

  258. Guns and Mental Health by AusMonty · · Score: 1

    Why not just ensure that the people that own Guns are mentally stable and make sure they are aware that holding a gun has responsibilities.

  259. Are all cultures equal? by mi · · Score: 1

    That's subjective.

    It may be subjective, but I was asking your opinion. Please, state for the record, whether you consider cultures, where kai-kaiing people is acceptable (and even heroic) to be neither better nor worse than those, where eating people is considered an outrage?

    And, should your answer be affirmative, why is it, that neither UNESCO nor any other prominent organization has yet organized a Cannibalism Month (or Week) — complete with recipe-exchanges and denunciations of the evil West appropriating the authentic practice while adopting "knee-jerk" laws against it? Is not ignoring such cultures — and their unique contributions to the wonderful tapestry of diversity — evidence of despicable bigotry and closed-mindedness? Should the Western colonizers not atone for extinguishing most of such rituals?

    Given your already demonstrated tendency to puh-puh inconvenient questions, I regret to inform you, that a post not containing direct answer(s) to the above will be returned unopened.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Are all cultures equal? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      Okay, let's talk subjective.

      Is a culture that can convince its people to drop untold tonnage of high explosives on a civilian population your idea of civil? If we shock and awe 30,000 people based on bad information, are we better than a society which kills a few hundred people to eat? And if we torture people, including raping a child in front of their mother to get information we suspect she might have, are you suggesting that we are better than another society which commits actions which sicken you when the actions I mentioned prior to this don't?

      So, why don't you crawl down off that high horse and think about just how fucking reprehensible the actions of the society you'd like to think is so far superior to others actually is when we take everything into account.

      And while you're at it, why don't you tell me why "UNESCO nor any other prominent organization has yet organized" a bomb the shit out of innocent civilians week so that assholes can pretend to hold the higher ground, morally speaking.

      Is that clear enough for you?

    2. Re:Are all cultures equal? by mi · · Score: 1

      Is a culture that can convince its people to drop ...

      You were asked about Cannibalism. As I feared, you are unable to answer inconvenient questions. Fail.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    3. Re:Are all cultures equal? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      No, you asked about whether our culture was superior to one which embraces cannibalism. I am reasonably sure that anyone with the brains even complete jackass would have understood what I meant when I said, "If we shock and awe 30,000 people based on bad information, are we better than a society which kills a few hundred people to eat?" Apparently not only do you not understand, well, pretty much everything but even the word fail seems to escape your ability to comprehend.

    4. Re:Are all cultures equal? by mi · · Score: 1

      No, you asked about whether our culture was superior to one which embraces cannibalism

      You lie, boy. I said nothing about our culture here. I asked you to compare a culture which embraces cannibalism with a culture that rejects it.

      The question still stands, while you make bombastic proclamations trying to avoid answering.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    5. Re:Are all cultures equal? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      The only question still standing is for you to answer the following one which I noticed you somehow couldn't find an answer to.

      "If we shock and awe 30,000 people based on bad information, are we better than a society which kills a few hundred people to eat?"

      Well, jackass, the only person who can't seem to respond when asked is you. Either answer the question or take you moving the goalposts argument somewhere that people will take you seriously.

      Well, are you going to answer the question, punk? Or are you going to hide behind another pile of insults and misdirection?

    6. Re:Are all cultures equal? by mi · · Score: 1

      If we shock and awe 30,000 people based on bad information, are we better than a society which kills a few hundred people to eat?

      Yes, we are. But the above quote is so awesome, I'll bookmark it for the next time I argue with an America-hating zealot — not all of you would be willing to admit to holding an opinion, America is worse than cannibals.

      Although you would not answer my question, you no longer have to, because you've already admitted, that some cultures are worse than others. We remain in disagreement, over just who is better, but we agree, that not cultures are equally good — and that was my point from the beginning.

      Now that we've established that, why is it automatically bad ("bigoted", "narrow-minded", "racist" even) of representatives of one culture to view representatives of another as others, to, perhaps, not want to associate with them too much, and resent seeing more and more of them as neighbours?

      Perhaps, you think, American culture is so bad, it can be improved by being diluted with as many of those cannibals, as can be persuaded to come over here? And, if not enough willing cannibals can be found in the world, folks who cut off girls' clitorises and who stone people to death over adultery should be used instead?

      jackass [...] punk [...] another pile of insults

      I have never insulted you, asshole. But not any more, crotch-stink. By calling me names, you not only handed me a victory in this debate (as if anyone had any doubts), you've proven yourself — even to observers most partial to your line of "reasoning" — incapable of participating in an argument. Get off my Slashdot for a few months and scrub those sorry wits of yours daily — they are entirely too dim for you to even turn a TV on without adult supervision.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    7. Re:Are all cultures equal? by KenDiPietro · · Score: 1

      It's pretty evident that you have no earthly idea what you are talking about nor what point I have tried to convey to you - none.

      What I did was to attempt to explain why the question you asked was subjective and you interpreted that to mean that I stated that America is worse than cannibals. Without doubt, you may be the single most imbecilic moron I have ever run across, on the Internet or in real life.

      But you keep right on showing the world just how educated you are because without people like you to point and laugh at, this world would be a far less humorous place.

  260. Re:Logic? Logic is a feeble reed... when you're nu by fyngyrz · · Score: 2

    If the USA joins the other countries in the universe, to become a gun-free society

    Right now, there are more firearms (and also, more weapons of other types, such as knives and bats) in the USA than there are people. The idea that the US would become a "gun free society" is completely without any hope of bearing fruit at our current level of technology.

    Can I see you out walking with your child and a gun strapped to your body, when a terrorist attacks?

    It isn't in any way an abhorrent idea to me. But I no more worry about being a victim of a terrorist attack or gun violence in general than I do of being struck by lightning. However, I do worry about my fellow citizens becoming overly and immediately paranoid at the sight of a firearm due to the constant droning of the hysterics in their ears, so I don't carry, although I could, legally speaking.

    Are you going to be a first responder?

    No. Not to lightning strikes or car accidents or heart attacks, either. But if I'm there during the incident, yes, certainly I'd do what I could.

    The appropriate responses are those made by the people at the scene, and the government's subsequent actions, presuming they are constitutionally authorized. I am all for immediate, extremely harsh and highly escalated direct response(s) by any injured or threatened party. Someone brandishes a weapon at me or my family and I manage to gain control of the situation, they will have completely obviated any inclination on my part to treat them as human beings.

    And what will you do if you kill the innocent bystander?

    If I was carrying a firearm (I don't, I'm simply not worried, because I can do math and recognize hysteria when I hear it), and if I was present at a terrorist attack (highly, highly unlikely), and I killed a bystander (also unlikely, highly unlikely in fact as I am an expert with a pistol, but...) I'd regret it, of course. It would certainly be accidental, as opposed to the (presumably) mass killing that inspired me to draw in the first place, so in terms of should I or should I not draw and fire if carrying and present at a terrorist attack, clearly, I should, and just as clearly, the responsibility for the accident lies with those who created the incident in the first place, so I'd be able to sleep all right. As it happens, I have some related experience, just not with firearms, so I know what my actual reactions are in such a matter.

    At the time of the constitution, there was a fear of a violent overthrow of the government by government militia.

    No. The militia was the people. The government was the government. Two entirely separate entities. And there wasn't so much a fear of violent overthrow of government by the people (who were, and remain today, the militia), there was intent and legally sanctioned capability in the very paperwork that authorized the government to do so if it got out of hand. And, in fact, that is basically what happened to ol' king George III.

    Today the militia has tanks, drones planes, bombs and missiles.

    No, the military, which is to say, the government's standing armed forces, has those things. The militia (us, the citizens) variously have knives, small firearms, marital arts training, the ability to cobble up IEDs and so forth.

    Can you protect yourself from your own army with a paltry hand gun or rifle?

    One on one, clearly not. However, that's not the issue and has never been the issue. People die in armed conflicts. Generally everyone who dies in a conflict of any nature on either side has been overwhelmed by either the opposition's firepower, strategy, tactics, or numbers, most often a combination of these.

    The only issue actually related to your question is, can a

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  261. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I see, so you equate the kidnapping of civilians & holding them for ransom to say...O I don't know...overthrowing a democratically elected government (Iran...that's how the Shah got BACK in...)...that's just 1 minor toe in the water of the US in other people's country...Iraq & the overthrowing of Saddam (who the US had previously supported & armed BTW) is just the latest in meddling...

    It wouldn't be so freakin' bad if the US actually knew how to pick a winner but each side they pick ends up losing & the backlash from the winners is that much worse...

  262. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's not racist if it's true.

  263. Re:A good start by david_thornley · · Score: 1

    Stalin had been trying to get an alliance with Britain and France in 1939, who really weren't interested. Hitler, on the other hand, did like a pact that would let him attack in the West before returning to his main target. By your criteria, then, Britain and France started WWII by forcing Stalin into a position where he thought he had to make a treaty with Germany.

    WWII in Europe started with Germany's invasion of Poland. By the time Soviet troops entered Poland, the war was well and truly on (and Poland had lost).

    --
    "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  264. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

    But then they actually have the intellectual honesty to keep to the original FBI definition [...]

    If the FBI ever had a definition of "mass shooting", it's news to me. The FBI term is "mass killing". The comment that I replied to used the word "shooting", not "killing".

    And in case it isn't obvious, the fact that it has to be four deaths to rise to some level of significance says a lot about how complacent the United States has become about violence.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  265. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Pseudonym · · Score: 1

    The FBI term is "mass killing".

    ...or "mass murder", of course. I knew that.

    --
    sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f(q{sub f{($f)=@_;print"$f(q{$f});";}f});
  266. Who started WW2 by mi · · Score: 1

    Stalin had been trying to get an alliance with Britain and France in 1939

    Citations?

    Britain and France started WWII by forcing Stalin into a position where he thought he had to make a treaty with Germany

    He made it not because he was forced, but because he was planning an attack himself. USSR's entire military posture was offensive — materiel dumps, artillery, bombers were located on the edge of the borders. Which is why they were overtaken by Germans so quickly leaving USSR nearly naked in 1941, when Hitler outplayed his pal. Whether Hitler actually knew of Stalin's designs or not remains subject of debate among historians, but it is quite common knowledge, that Stalin was preparing an attack.

    By the time Soviet troops entered Poland, the war was well and truly on (and Poland had lost).

    That's not true. Polish troops were retreating to reorganize, when they were attacked from the other direction by the Red Army — to this day Poland refers to the events as "Stab in the Back".

    Instead of killing the Poles, Stalin could have helped them — but he and Hitler were allies and thus both share culpability for starting the WW2.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Who started WW2 by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Read some sort of diplomatic history of the beginning of WWII. "The Court of the Red Tsar" covers it, and there's other books not coming to mind. Stalin wanted an alliance with Britain and France.

      Stalin was not planning an attack. German forces entering the Soviet Union saw no signs of a planned offensive. Most of the army was on the border, which makes sense for defense. Read your own wikipedia link. I'm not saying he wouldn't have attacked, just that it wouldn't have been in 1941. Something like two of his twenty or so mechanized corps had had formation-level training. The Red Army was not ready for prime time, and he knew it.

      The Polish Army may have said they retreated to reorganize, but at that point they'd been beaten and had no hope of victory, with large numbers of Poles taken prisoner.

      Stalin would not have attacked Poland without the initial German invasion. His forces were something like two weeks late to the party, well after WWII had started.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    2. Re:Who started WW2 by mi · · Score: 1

      German forces entering the Soviet Union saw no signs of a planned offensive.

      They did, actually — and I linked to evidence earlier.

      Most of the army was on the border, which makes sense for defence

      Not at all — the exact opposite is true! If you prepare for defence, you do not place materiel depots on the very border. You don't place your bombers and artillery there either — because an enemy can overrun those in a quick attack, which is exactly, what happened in 1941 and became such an awful problem for the USSR.

      No, if you are truly preparing for defence, you position such long-range weaponry as bombers and artillery away from the border — where they'll be able to hit the advancing invader without themselves being an easy target for his weapons, which still need to be set up on the newly-captured territory.

      Polish Army [...] been beaten and had no hope of victory

      We'll never know for sure now, would we? They didn't have tanks or airforce, but they had plenty of highly-motivated soldiers and officers with perfectly functional rifles, and ample artillery. Having a secure back, they could've dug in for defensive operations, while those slow-moving allies of theirs (Britain, France) made up their sorry minds about helping. Heck, Stalin himself could've helped them — thus preventing an invasion of his own country two years later — but instead he stabbed them in the back.

      with large numbers of Poles taken prisoner

      This is not very important to this argument, but I'm not aware of any significant number of Polish military taken prisoner by Germans in 1939. Can you cite something?

      Stalin would not have attacked Poland without the initial German invasion

      And Hitler would not have attacked them without securing Stalin's cooperation either — both wurdulacs are responsible...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  267. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not only that but apparently he'd be asserting that the hostages held in the US Embassy in Iran was all staged...that's the ONLY way you could claim that Khomeini was 'installed' by the US...Khomeini hated the US specifically because of US meddling in Iran...anything else he has to say can equally be treated with disdain

  268. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by bigfinger76 · · Score: 1

    I didn't post that.

  269. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Whoops! I promise to get new glasses! Can't track who I'm talking to... Anyway, from the department's point of view, the Shah's departure was quite orderly.

    What's all this about endangered feces?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  270. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    Theoretically individual states could still have an official religion, unless their individual constitutions prohibit it. I'm just pointing out that when people say "the United States is a Christian Nation" this is demonstrably false, at least as far as John Adams and the other 40+ Founding Fathers who voted for this treaty show. There is a huge difference between a country being founded on Christian morals vs being a "Christian nation".

  271. Re:A good start by dbIII · · Score: 1

    haven't you learned anything from the decades-long fight with Italian Mafia, for example?

    Yes I learned that Hoover was on the take.

  272. Try to think about it by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Don't get hung up on tiny little bits of tax law that vary from place to place when the big picture is rotting away. The simple fact is very rich states have pockets of very poorly funded infrastructure - abandoned due to an "I've got mine" approach and areas that don't really need the extra tax money spending it on sculptures and mayors on $1million+ per year for a suburb of 25,000 people. It's a fast track to the third world.
    Does it help you if your lovely house is two blocks away from a shithole where the police never go?

  273. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Yes I learned that Hoover was on the take.

    Maybe. The point was, while each individual Italian was, probably, a reasonably nice person, by importing too many at once, America imported Italy's Mafia-problem with them. Those Italians didn't become Americans — they corrupted America with their old-world habits instead — today, decades later, the country is still not quite clean of them.

    It is perfectly reasonable to be concerned, that America is now repeating a similar mistake by importing too many Muslims at once.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  274. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    Michael Brown a future leader of America? Oh my God, we were FUCKED.

  275. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Orgasmatron · · Score: 1

    Erm. There certainly is a Christian nation here, and possibly a Christian state, but not a Christian government.

    That won't make any sense if you think that nation, state and government are synonyms.

    There is a common type of douche around that likes to imagine Christians as ignorant hicks, so that they can loudly proclaim their superiority over these straw Christians to anyone nearby. Most often, they don't understand much of anything, but they sound good because they've got a library of misquotes and snippets-taken-out-of-context in their heads. I've only read like two paragraphs that you've written, but I've got serious deja vu, like I've met many of your brothers.

    --
    See that "Preview" button?
  276. Re: Logic? Logic is a feeble reed... when you're n by mornin+Moon · · Score: 1

    "Personally, were I in charge (never happen), the first step I would take is to see to it that the media, and the net, stopped providing free publicity. The second thing I would do is see to it that our energetic building of a permanent lower class with no hope via eternal public record and subsequent hopelessness..." I think this remark is getting really close to something.

  277. Re:A good start by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Yes but my point was that most of the population of the United States and a pile of other places was built by "importing too many at once" of Irish, Germans, Norwegians, Polish, Italians, Vietnamese etc. Also the number of Muslims imported at once fades into insignificance in comparison the the number of Roman Catholics coming in at the same time from Central America.
    That's why I was so dismissive. You can choose to disagree but it looks a lot like business as usual instead of any sort of threat to me - especially since they are coming because they want want America offers instead of the values of the people they are fleeing from.

  278. Re:A good start by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Sorry to reply again, but I'd argue that the Mafia actually got worse when they landed in prohibition era US - plus it's worth reading books like "Gangs of New York" and a similarly titled one on New Orleans to see what was going on before they turned up. They thrived in an environment that was already corrupt.
    The FBI insisting the Mafia did not exist, among other things (the OSS and the CIA HIRED them at times in the 1950s FFS) led to their longevity so I think using the longevity of the Mafia as a argument against immigration is a bit strange.

  279. Typo "want what" by dbIII · · Score: 1

    Typo - should be "want what America offers" instead of a repeated want.

  280. Why is the terror effect of crime less than terror by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why doesn't the shootings and stabbings and other crimes leading to death instill terror the way Islamists are able to? Why do we differentiate between human lives? Is someone killed by an Islamist more of a tragedy than someone murdered in any other fashion? If my sentence sounds insensitive, than any laws which only seek to curb Islamism are just as insensitive to the actual problem in the USA - Guns.

  281. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by dwillden · · Score: 1

    Nope. You establish criteria for classification reasons. If someone survives they were not killed, and the shooter faces a lesser charge. The criteria were established decades ago. It may seem heartless, but you have to set and stick to criteria.

    --
    I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
  282. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by l0n3s0m3phr34k · · Score: 1

    I understand the ideas that Philo of Alexandria expounded upon, the effects of the Council of Nicea, have read what's left of the War Scroll, while attempting to trace back the transformation of Judaism into a mystical apocalyptic cult that is now a major world religion. I also agree that the "giants in the Earth" are probably ancient oral retelling of encounters with Neanderthals, and that the actual location of "Eden" is currently underneath the Persian Gulf. I also do NOT loudly proclaim anything, if you had read my original post you would have seen that I purposely keep most of my beliefs under wraps due to living in the Bible belt. And it's not just sitting around reading the internet, I've had many discussions with Catholic priests, Rabbis, and other religious figures about my "heretical" thoughts.

    And I also understand the context of Article 11, this treaty was with Muslim pirates who were attacking our ships on the principle that we weren't fellow Muslims. It was actually George Washington's idea for this treaty, perhaps he thought by declaring this it would mitigate the cargo seizures. It was also a declaration against state religions such as the Church of England. Yet the text is an actual treaty, and is part of US law.

  283. Re:A good start by Rakarra · · Score: 1

    I contend, we — the Western world — are allowing in too many immigrants at once. Which leads to us becoming more like them, instead of them assimilating among us.

    Sitting Bull said something like that.

    If he did, then he was right. And he got conquered.

  284. Re:A good start by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Properly worded so it makes actual sense - "started" - the USSR wouldn't be at the top of the list

    The USSR did start the WW2 — by entering into the secret Pact with Hitler, and then collaborating with same in dividing up Poland. Fail.

    So neither the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany nor the invasion in China by the Japanese count as the start of WW2? Or the first two weeks where Germany alone invaded Poland? Wow, that definition of when WW2 started is even odder than the "Pear Harbor, because that's when the US got involved" one.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  285. Re: Of course they have to lie ... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    More people have died falling out of trees this year than from Islamic terrorism in the U.S. Get a fucking grip.

    Well, Washington already knew what to do with those dangerous trees...

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  286. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Nope. You establish criteria for classification reasons. If someone survives they were not killed, and the shooter faces a lesser charge. The criteria were established decades ago. It may seem heartless, but you have to set and stick to criteria.

    So your definition of a mass shooting doesn't count how many people were shot, but killed. That's not heartless, that's fucking with the meaning of words to further an agenda.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  287. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by dwillden · · Score: 1

    It's not mine, it's the FBI's long standing standard.

    --
    I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
  288. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Oh brother! So that's your game, eh?

    Americans haven't waged war against Islam and Muslims per se; they have, however, fought dictators and extremists ...

    Wanna keep playing?

    Well, yeah, Muslim civilians were just the vast majority of casualties in those fights (at least several hundred times as many as dictators and extremists), almost exclusively killed by American strikes. But hey, they were only in the way of your righteous cause, so no harm done.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  289. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Muslims have had a beef with America as long as America has existed. Don't believe for a second that Muslims can't dish it out as good as they take it.

    Yes, pretty much since Tripoli, where they made it abundantly clear that it was their divine duty to subjugate and pillage non believers.

    While the Bible makes it clear that somebody has to tell Jews and Christians that GOD told them it was his will before they can do it.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  290. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Well, it's not really my "righteous cause", but I will quote you this:

    What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

    I would say the ploy is working, "righteousness" doesn't really enter the picture.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  291. Re:What about Aaron Swartz? Michael Brown? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    because a fine young man is not a coward.

    What is a coward? Somebody who kills thousands remotely with a drone, while sitting in an air-conditioned container in the Nevada desert, and get a medal of valour for it?

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  292. Re:A good start by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    Actually I don't believe it is. I would think your advice applies double to you.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  293. Re:A good start by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Of course it is. *Refusal to serve* fits right in with their schtick. No exceptions.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  294. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    So neither the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany

    I doubt, Hitler would've gone further without securing either British or Soviet support or, at the least, "neutrality" first.

    invasion in China by the Japanese

    Yes, some of the blame for starting WW2 is on the Japanese too. That said, I would not even consider the American-Japanese war to be part of WW2 — the conflict was (almost) purely between these two countries, and neither one coordinated its actions with nor received much support from its allies.

    Or the first two weeks where Germany alone invaded Poland

    That happened because of the secret agreement with Stalin — when (and whether) Soviet troops began participating is unimportant. Stalin bears responsibility because he promised Hitler his cooperation.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  295. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by jwhitener · · Score: 1

    Shoudn't we go back even further to the crusades if we want to talk about 'first incidents'?

  296. Re:A good start by jwhitener · · Score: 1

    McVeigh's philosophies fell well in line with a lot of radical militias and separatist groups in the US. He may not have been a card carrying member, but those groups (militias, separatists, etc..) have books, manifestos, and other media that I'm sure he read and was influenced by. Like, he passed out and sold copies of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turner_Diaries . That sort of literature is very common in white supremacist, militia, and separatist groups.

    Robert Dear - that one is easy: he believed himself to be deeply Christian. He used it to justify all sorts of bad behaviors according to people who knew him.

    I don't have time to look up the rest.

  297. Re:A good start by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    So neither the annexation of the Sudetenland by Germany

    I doubt, Hitler would've gone further without securing either British or Soviet support or, at the least, "neutrality" first.

    Well, just like the British would have stopped Hitler after bringing Austria home into the Reich.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  298. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Well, it's not really my "righteous cause", but I will quote you this:

    What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

    I would say the ploy is working, "righteousness" doesn't really enter the picture.

    So propping up radical Islamists to fight the evil Soviet empire was the right thing to do? Is that your final answer?

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  299. Re:Of course they have to lie ... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    It's not mine, it's the FBI's long standing standard.

    For mass shootings or for mass murder? According to tthe Wikipedia page "The Congressional Research Service acknowledges that there is not a broadly accepted definition,[2] and uses a definition of a "public mass shooting"[3] if 4 or more people are actually killed, not including the perpetrator, echoing the FBI definition[4][5] of the term "mass murder"

    To make it clear, your "FBI's long standing standard" is their definition of mass murder, not of mass shootings. For shootings they use the "Active Shooter" definition: An active shooter is an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area - IOW, nobody has to die, not even be hurt for that definition.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  300. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    Well, just like the British would have stopped Hitler after bringing Austria home into the Reich.

    No, not "just like" — for British to stop Hitler, they would've had to fight. For Stalin to stop him, he just had to abolish his own imperialistic designs — on Baltic republics, Finland, and Eastern Poland.

    Taking an expensive and bloody action vs. not taking one. That's not at all "just like"...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  301. Re:A good start by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Well, just like the British would have stopped Hitler after bringing Austria home into the Reich.

    No, not "just like" — for British to stop Hitler, they would've had to fight. For Stalin to stop him, he just had to abolish his own imperialistic designs — on Baltic republics, Finland, and Eastern Poland.

    Taking an expensive and bloody action vs. not taking one. That's not at all "just like"...

    Wait, what? When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, they weren't prepared - how could Stalin have stopped Hitler from invading Poland 2 years earlier?

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  302. Re:So we're not going to over-react this time, rig by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Nope, did I say it was? I am merely remarking that there is no "righteousness" in foreign policy, there are only interests. But since you asked, what's your recommendation?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  303. Re:A good start by mi · · Score: 1

    When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, they weren't prepared

    They weren't prepared to defend — because they were themselves preparing for an assault . Exactly when it was going to happen and whether Hitler knew about it remains an argument among historians, but they are all in agreement, that USSR was preparing for attack.

    An attack-posture favors different weapons and training: faster and lighter vehicles rather than heavier dug-in equipment, materiel-depots as well as artillery and bombers positioned very close to border (to bomb the enemy's defenders on his side), rather than further back (to bomb the advancing invader on your own land), etc. Hitler surprised Stalin and was able to overrun all of those positions and hardware.

    If, instead, Stalin helped the Poland's significant military, Hitler's efforts would've ended there — if he'd even tried it at all. See the other fork of this thread for more links to citations.

    But, at any rate, Hitler and Stalin were allies, when WW2 was starting — both share responsibility for it.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  304. Re:Logic? Logic is a feeble reed... when you're nu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I was carrying a firearm (I don't, I'm simply not worried, because I can do math and recognize hysteria when I hear it), and if I was present at a terrorist attack (highly, highly unlikely), and I killed a bystander (also unlikely, highly unlikely in fact as I am an expert with a pistol, but...) I'd regret it, of course. It would certainly be accidental, as opposed to the (presumably) mass killing that inspired me to draw in the first place, so in terms of should I or should I not draw and fire if carrying and present at a terrorist attack, clearly, I should, and just as clearly, the responsibility for the accident lies with those who created the incident in the first place, so I'd be able to sleep all right. As it happens, I have some related experience, just not with firearms, so I know what my actual reactions are in such a matter.

    So when it does actually happen and you wet yourself and fire indiscriminately into the crowd. It's not your fault because you were scared and terrorists are to blame !!

  305. Re:A good start by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    The percentage is very small. Your claim is nonsense.

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    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  306. Re:A good start by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    As you believe. Keep the faith, oh faithful servant

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  307. Re:A good start by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    That line would seem to work just as well for you.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  308. Re:A good start by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    It would seem that way, wouldn't it? But since I'm not the one propagandizing for more war on false pretexts, I kinda doubt it. A little note to y'all, stop supplying the terrorists with guns and cash, and the war just possibly, might end. Of course that isn't the goal, but whatever. Leave the religious bullshit outside. I ain't buying it. Hired killers work for money, not for "Allah" or any other deity.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  309. Re:A good start by cold+fjord · · Score: 1

    You seem have some mistaken ideas here. How much would someone have to pay you to be a suicide bomber? Is there any amount? And yet people do it. Why? Because they are ideologically committed. That ideology may be secular as it is/was for the Tamil tigers, or it may be religious as it for the Muslim extremists that engage in suicide terrorism. You may not like the fact, but that doesn't change the fact.

    They not only believe in the cause to the point that they will blow themselves up, but also to fight to establish a society built upon the principles they believe in: Islam and Sharia law. Your disbelief has no affect on their beliefs or actions.

    --
    much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
  310. Re:A good start by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Wow! I'm impressed the way you swallow the propaganda. You're a real stand up guy...

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”