Or they'll be thousands of years ahead of us in technology and will only surrender on the brink of total victory in Earth orbit because of some crazy religious revelation....
Why do we need a victory over Russia? They aren't even maintaining a replacement birth rate and have 1.4 billion hungry Chinese on their border. Why spend American blood and treasure when demographics will take care of the problem for us?
Third, no worries. A small, controlled population with a ratio of 1 male to 10 females properly sheltered will be able to keep society going. Naturally, the females will need to be chosen for their attractiveness and the males for the knowledge and skills they know (I'm thinking lots of engineers will be needed so sign me up).
They probably need lots of Penetration Specialists too;)
The next step for the authorities will have to be to abolish jury trials for terrorist offenses.
Half the people around here think that would be a great idea. They bemoan all of the pitfalls of the jury system but fail to see the problems with the alternative that allows the government to strip you of your freedom without the consent of your fellow citizens.
What normal person wouldn't spend a few years at Club Fed for those bad boys?
I don't think you go to Club Fed when the victim of your crime was Uncle Sam himself. He can be a rather unforgiving sort. I'd imagine you go to Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison for this sort of stupidity.
That reminds me of a scene in one of my favorite movies. Michael Douglas takes a fast food joint hostage because the burger doesn't look like the picture;)
"Turn around. Look at that picture. It's big, it's juicy, it's three inches thick. Now look at this sorry sad squashed thing. What's wrong here? Can anybody tell me? Anybody at all?"
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
It's sourced from his autobiography, apparently. Rather ironic that the Indians got their independence and then continued to disarm their population. Then their cops cowered in fear and didn't return fire while their fellow citizens were being gunned down during the Mumbai attacks.
I'd like to hear the anti crowd rationalize away a gun ban in the face of that kind of violence. Armed citizens could have halted those attacks in the early stages and saved lives.
Upstate New York has been bleeding for years and it has nothing to do with the financial sector. Our businesses run away from the state and set up shop elsewhere because they are overtaxed and over regulated. As a random example, our electricity costs 40% more than Pennsylvania even though it's generated with almost the exact same mix of fuels (nuclear/coal/natural gas). We actually have more cheap hydro resources (see the New York State Power Authority) than they do yet our juice costs 40% more.
Our state is so fucked up that Albany passes unfunded mandates on the counties. The counties then have to fund these mandates out of property taxes. Our combined tax burden is the highest in the United States. This isn't going to change soon unless someone can bring the public sector unions to heel but what are the odds of that happening under a Democratic governorship/state legislature?
Given all that extra overhead, why would you set up shop in this state? You are going to take your jobs and go somewhere else. Meanwhile the state continues to lose the best/brightest/youngest. Basically we are California, only we aren't insolvent yet.
So yes, there are other states that have been hurt more recently. Florida and California both come to mind. But we've been bleeding for a long time. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
I was mocking the people who always resort to arguments like "It's the Jews/Illuminati/Freemasons/Skull & Bones that really run the world". Guess that was lost on the mods and you and I wound up with a -1. Oh well, I got the karma to burn.
This is interesting, but I wonder what would happen if they fired all these different rounds at drywall, at a 45-degree angle instead of straight-on.
Even if you halve the penetration it's still going through enough interior walls to maim someone in the next room. Understand that I'm not poo-poo'ing the shotgun as a home defense weapon. I just hear novice shooters saying that they bought a shotgun because they don't have to worry about it killing their kids in the next room and I want to pull my hair out. If it's powerful enough to stop a determined attacker it's powerful enough to worry about it going through drywall.
Some people advocate using bird shot but I think that presents a whole new set of problems. It might be a great deterrent if you are up against some punk kid who just wants to steal your stereo but what happens if you run into someone else? If I'm facing someone who is bound and determined to kill me I want them to stop right now. That isn't going to happen with birdshot.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence my friend. It's no mistake that the most liberal/regulated/taxed states are the ones that are hurting the most right now. Here in NYS we've been hemorrhaging jobs and young people for the last two decades because businesses have been taxed and regulated to death.
It'd be nice to find a middle ground between the two extremes but our political system doesn't seem to be structured to lead to that result most of the time. More's the pity.
and lead shotgun shot is less likely to penetrate walls and hurt others
I agree with all of what you say except this part. Any shotgun load powerful enough to stop a determined human aggressor is powerful enough to easily slice through interior walls. Here's an interesting test of the ability of shot to penetrate drywall. #4 buckshot went through six pieces of drywall without issue. 00 buckshot went through seven and a rifled slug went through all twelve (no surprise there). They did the same test with various pistol and rifle rounds. A 9mm went through six walls (the same as the #4 buckshot). The.357 went through nine walls. Not much of a difference between the handgun loads and the shotgun loads, though I'm a little disappointed they didn't test the.45 ACP.
A handgun is still good for carrying around the house though.
That's one of the reasons I picked a handgun as my home defense weapon. You don't get as many strange looks if you answer the door with a concealed handgun as you would if you answered it with a shotgun slung across your back;) The handgun is also easier to maneuver around tight quarters if you have to leave your safe area to get the kids and it leaves you with a free hand if you need one. The shotgun is probably still a better bet for the new gun owner though.
Congress is owned by the health insurance companies, the financial companies, the military contracting companies, and the big agribusiness companies. The telcos are at most a minority owner with about 5% control.
Couldn't you just have boiled that all down to "Congress is owned by the Jews" and saved yourself all those keystrokes?;)
Everything the Government does is open to exploitation. It's the regulatory equivalent of playing whack-a-mole. The question is will these purposed regulations do more good than harm.
And that changes my point how, exactly? Go to any restaurant or liquor store in the United States and ask for 'champagne'. Nine out of ten of them will bring a list of sparkling wines, the vast majority of which aren't even French (let alone from 'Champagne')
In the USA, a syrup producer in Kansas could not call their product 'Vermont maple syrup.' Calling a cheese 'Parmesan' or a sparkling wine 'Champagne' is like calling a syrup 'Vermont.'
No it's not. The difference is that Vermont maple syrup has never been sold as just "Vermont". It's sold as "Vermont maple syrup". For better or worse "Champagne" has become a genericized trademark. Nobody (besides a few wine snobs and angry Frenchmen) is going to look at you funny if you request 'champagne' instead of 'sparkling wine'.
Wow, videos that talk to random people on the streets. That's convincing. Why don't you link to a KKK rally next and use that to support the argument that the United States is like South Africa in 1979?
Don't underestimate the effectiveness of "peashooters". Peashooters would have stopped the Rwandan genocide if the victims had them. Peashooters (combined with easy to build IEDs) are giving us a tough go of things in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And where were those inalienable rights in Guantanamo ?
What's your gripe with Gitmo? Torture or just the fact that we are holding them without trial? If your gripe is torture then I'd agree with you -- if your gripe is the fact that we are holding them without trial then you need to get a fucking grip on reality. Enemy combatants have never been given access to the civil courts. Or do you honestly believe that we violated the rights of the German/Japanese/Italian POWs we captured by holding them without trial until the cessation of hostilities?
As usual it's do as I say, not as I do.
The only "as usual" that I see here is the standard issue knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
Slashdot Mirror
So, you're telling me libertarians don't exist.
What makes you think every libertarian is a "free market extremist" (whatever the hell that means)?
Or they'll be thousands of years ahead of us in technology and will only surrender on the brink of total victory in Earth orbit because of some crazy religious revelation....
Why do we need a victory over Russia? They aren't even maintaining a replacement birth rate and have 1.4 billion hungry Chinese on their border. Why spend American blood and treasure when demographics will take care of the problem for us?
Third, no worries. A small, controlled population with a ratio of 1 male to 10 females properly sheltered will be able to keep society going. Naturally, the females will need to be chosen for their attractiveness and the males for the knowledge and skills they know (I'm thinking lots of engineers will be needed so sign me up).
They probably need lots of Penetration Specialists too ;)
Mein Fuhrer, I can walk!
And nuclear weapons are sensible then?
Say what you will about nuclear weapons but they are probably the only reason that humanity hasn't fought World War III yet.
The next step for the authorities will have to be to abolish jury trials for terrorist offenses.
Half the people around here think that would be a great idea. They bemoan all of the pitfalls of the jury system but fail to see the problems with the alternative that allows the government to strip you of your freedom without the consent of your fellow citizens.
What normal person wouldn't spend a few years at Club Fed for those bad boys?
I don't think you go to Club Fed when the victim of your crime was Uncle Sam himself. He can be a rather unforgiving sort. I'd imagine you go to Federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison for this sort of stupidity.
That reminds me of a scene in one of my favorite movies. Michael Douglas takes a fast food joint hostage because the burger doesn't look like the picture ;)
"Turn around. Look at that picture. It's big, it's juicy, it's three inches thick. Now look at this sorry sad squashed thing. What's wrong here? Can anybody tell me? Anybody at all?"
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
It's sourced from his autobiography, apparently. Rather ironic that the Indians got their independence and then continued to disarm their population. Then their cops cowered in fear and didn't return fire while their fellow citizens were being gunned down during the Mumbai attacks.
I'd like to hear the anti crowd rationalize away a gun ban in the face of that kind of violence. Armed citizens could have halted those attacks in the early stages and saved lives.
Upstate New York has been bleeding for years and it has nothing to do with the financial sector. Our businesses run away from the state and set up shop elsewhere because they are overtaxed and over regulated. As a random example, our electricity costs 40% more than Pennsylvania even though it's generated with almost the exact same mix of fuels (nuclear/coal/natural gas). We actually have more cheap hydro resources (see the New York State Power Authority) than they do yet our juice costs 40% more.
Our state is so fucked up that Albany passes unfunded mandates on the counties. The counties then have to fund these mandates out of property taxes. Our combined tax burden is the highest in the United States. This isn't going to change soon unless someone can bring the public sector unions to heel but what are the odds of that happening under a Democratic governorship/state legislature?
Given all that extra overhead, why would you set up shop in this state? You are going to take your jobs and go somewhere else. Meanwhile the state continues to lose the best/brightest/youngest. Basically we are California, only we aren't insolvent yet.
So yes, there are other states that have been hurt more recently. Florida and California both come to mind. But we've been bleeding for a long time. Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.
I was mocking the people who always resort to arguments like "It's the Jews/Illuminati/Freemasons/Skull & Bones that really run the world". Guess that was lost on the mods and you and I wound up with a -1. Oh well, I got the karma to burn.
This is interesting, but I wonder what would happen if they fired all these different rounds at drywall, at a 45-degree angle instead of straight-on.
Even if you halve the penetration it's still going through enough interior walls to maim someone in the next room. Understand that I'm not poo-poo'ing the shotgun as a home defense weapon. I just hear novice shooters saying that they bought a shotgun because they don't have to worry about it killing their kids in the next room and I want to pull my hair out. If it's powerful enough to stop a determined attacker it's powerful enough to worry about it going through drywall.
Some people advocate using bird shot but I think that presents a whole new set of problems. It might be a great deterrent if you are up against some punk kid who just wants to steal your stereo but what happens if you run into someone else? If I'm facing someone who is bound and determined to kill me I want them to stop right now. That isn't going to happen with birdshot.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence my friend. It's no mistake that the most liberal/regulated/taxed states are the ones that are hurting the most right now. Here in NYS we've been hemorrhaging jobs and young people for the last two decades because businesses have been taxed and regulated to death.
It'd be nice to find a middle ground between the two extremes but our political system doesn't seem to be structured to lead to that result most of the time. More's the pity.
and lead shotgun shot is less likely to penetrate walls and hurt others
I agree with all of what you say except this part. Any shotgun load powerful enough to stop a determined human aggressor is powerful enough to easily slice through interior walls. Here's an interesting test of the ability of shot to penetrate drywall. #4 buckshot went through six pieces of drywall without issue. 00 buckshot went through seven and a rifled slug went through all twelve (no surprise there). They did the same test with various pistol and rifle rounds. A 9mm went through six walls (the same as the #4 buckshot). The .357 went through nine walls. Not much of a difference between the handgun loads and the shotgun loads, though I'm a little disappointed they didn't test the .45 ACP.
A handgun is still good for carrying around the house though.
That's one of the reasons I picked a handgun as my home defense weapon. You don't get as many strange looks if you answer the door with a concealed handgun as you would if you answered it with a shotgun slung across your back ;) The handgun is also easier to maneuver around tight quarters if you have to leave your safe area to get the kids and it leaves you with a free hand if you need one. The shotgun is probably still a better bet for the new gun owner though.
Guess I should have tagged that with <sarcasm> tags for the mods with no sense of humor......
You may want to add a movie to your Netflix queue, because I think you may be missing something :)
Try it anywhere else in the world, and you will get Champagne.
And I should care, because?
Congress is owned by the health insurance companies, the financial companies, the military contracting companies, and the big agribusiness companies. The telcos are at most a minority owner with about 5% control.
Couldn't you just have boiled that all down to "Congress is owned by the Jews" and saved yourself all those keystrokes? ;)
Does it open anything up to exploitation?
Everything the Government does is open to exploitation. It's the regulatory equivalent of playing whack-a-mole. The question is will these purposed regulations do more good than harm.
And that changes my point how, exactly? Go to any restaurant or liquor store in the United States and ask for 'champagne'. Nine out of ten of them will bring a list of sparkling wines, the vast majority of which aren't even French (let alone from 'Champagne')
In the USA, a syrup producer in Kansas could not call their product 'Vermont maple syrup.' Calling a cheese 'Parmesan' or a sparkling wine 'Champagne' is like calling a syrup 'Vermont.'
No it's not. The difference is that Vermont maple syrup has never been sold as just "Vermont". It's sold as "Vermont maple syrup". For better or worse "Champagne" has become a genericized trademark. Nobody (besides a few wine snobs and angry Frenchmen) is going to look at you funny if you request 'champagne' instead of 'sparkling wine'.
Wow, videos that talk to random people on the streets. That's convincing. Why don't you link to a KKK rally next and use that to support the argument that the United States is like South Africa in 1979?
Might as well have a peashooter then.
Don't underestimate the effectiveness of "peashooters". Peashooters would have stopped the Rwandan genocide if the victims had them. Peashooters (combined with easy to build IEDs) are giving us a tough go of things in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And where were those inalienable rights in Guantanamo ?
What's your gripe with Gitmo? Torture or just the fact that we are holding them without trial? If your gripe is torture then I'd agree with you -- if your gripe is the fact that we are holding them without trial then you need to get a fucking grip on reality. Enemy combatants have never been given access to the civil courts. Or do you honestly believe that we violated the rights of the German/Japanese/Italian POWs we captured by holding them without trial until the cessation of hostilities?
As usual it's do as I say, not as I do.
The only "as usual" that I see here is the standard issue knee-jerk anti-Americanism.
California is in a financial crisis with 20% + unemployment
What does that have to do with Israel? California's problems are largely self-inflicted.
Welfare for the nation's own people? Well they made their own bed, didn't they?
Why are you confusing people with the State Government of California?