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FieldMarshalFry Field Marshal of Cracked from World Internet War 1 Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Field Marshal of Cracked
#107601: Dec 28th 2015 at 6:35:17 AM

we like to think we're better than the French though, despite the popularity of a certain racist party here...

advancing the front into TV Tropes
LogoP Party Crasher from the Land of Deep Blue Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Party Crasher
#107602: Dec 28th 2015 at 6:43:26 AM

[up][up][up][up] European "racism" is more focused on ethnocentrism, religion and xenophobia than race. Even groups that would easily pass as white in the US hate eachother with a burning passion.

See, The Yugoslav Wars

edited 28th Dec '15 6:43:58 AM by LogoP

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#107603: Dec 28th 2015 at 8:38:27 AM

I love when people complain about other people having their heads up their asses, but then they don't have a coherent argument or position, and just ignore all the counter points being made.

Wait, did I say love? I meant to say hate. Hate is definitely the right word.

It's like solid reasoning just doesn't matter anymor-oh who am I kidding, it almost certainly never did.

JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#107604: Dec 28th 2015 at 9:04:38 AM

A potential grand bargain on infrastructure. Cutting needless red tape in exchange for taxes necessary to fund such projects.

Edit [down] Fixed

edited 28th Dec '15 9:21:03 AM by JackOLantern1337

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
tclittle Professional Forum Ninja from Somewhere Down in Texas Since: Apr, 2010
Professional Forum Ninja
#107606: Dec 28th 2015 at 9:33:29 AM

And here's Trump being somewhat reasonable, or just pragmatic:

Trump blasts the Virginian Republican Party after they won a battle through the Board of Elections which requires a person to swear an oath to the Republican Party before they can vote in the state's Republican primary.

Here's Trump's tweets about it:

It begins, Republican Party of Virginia, controlled by the RNC, is working hard to disallow independent, unaffiliated and new voters. BAD!

R.P.Virginia has lost statewide 7 times in a row. Will now not allow desperately needed new voters. Suicidal mistake. RNC MUST ACT NOW!

The voters the Republican Party of Virginia are excluding will doom any chance of victory. The Dems LOVE IT! Be smart and win for a change!

"We're all paper, we're all scissors, we're all fightin' with our mirrors, scared we'll never find somebody to love."
Medinoc from France (Before Recorded History)
#107607: Dec 28th 2015 at 9:34:52 AM

Do Dems actually give a rat's ass about who gets to vote in a Republican primary?

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#107608: Dec 28th 2015 at 9:52:01 AM

Regarding the previous article: I will concede that it seems insane to have major projects require ten years of environmental studies before being allowed.

Regarding what Trump said: he's running to a significant extent against the national Republican Party apparatus, even as he's also running as a Republican. Tearing them down over silly behavior like that is meat for his supporters because they tend to distrust and even abjectly hate the RNC.

The idea that Democrats are sneaking across the aisle in the primaries to get bad candidates nominated is just silly; the Republicans are nominating bad candidates all by themselves. I mean, it's certainly a thing that some people might do, but I have extreme doubts that there's enough of it to make a difference. Mainly we're just passing the popcorn.

edited 28th Dec '15 9:52:50 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#107609: Dec 28th 2015 at 10:21:14 AM

Regarding the previous article: I will concede that it seems insane to have major projects require ten years of environmental studies before being allowed.

...and consultations with just about everyone (and here, Public Enquiries), along with political considerations. That's one reason large British major projects take 30+ years to even get approved.

edited 28th Dec '15 10:22:20 AM by Greenmantle

Keep Rolling On
Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#107610: Dec 28th 2015 at 11:01:43 AM

It happens up here in Alaska, but that's partly because our state Democratic Party functionally doesn't exist - to the extent that it does, it's far more effective when Democrats bring a boatload of votes to support a moderate Republican against the loony bin. Even then, Alaska Democrats (technically, liberals who register as independent) are less likely to vote in a Republican primary (I do and I know others who do, but we're hardly decisive) and more likely to cross the fences to support a Republican who's running against the GOP in the actual election.

edited 28th Dec '15 11:02:27 AM by Ramidel

Ogodei Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers from The front lines Since: Jan, 2011
Fuck you, Fascist sympathizers
#107611: Dec 28th 2015 at 11:09:57 AM

That was with Lisa Murkowski, right?

Ramidel Since: Jan, 2001
#107612: Dec 28th 2015 at 11:29:37 AM

And Bill Walker, our current governor.

I should hesitate to calculate a trend from two data points, of course.

pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#107613: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:28:21 PM

Do I have to draw you a picture? Okay, here goes...

I refer to it as "the so-called Rodney King trial" because Rodney King was not the one on trial, but that's what it became known as. The four LAPD officers who beat him up were on trial. Three were acquitted, one was convicted on a minor charge. But that's not the issue I'm getting at here.

I'm certain there was genuine outrage at the trial's verdict, but I'm equally certain that a lot of those who began rioting, looting, burning, and assaulting people didn't really care that much about it. The verdict was just a convenient excuse to run amok.

Chief Daryl Gates had the LAPD pull out completely from South Central LA, the worst trouble spot, allegedly because it was "too dangerous," leaving the beleaguered citizens to fend for themselves. (Thanks for nothing, Chief!) Those who had guns barricaded their homes and businesses and guarded them, openly armed. Their places were not burned or looted. Those who tried to purchase guns on the spur of the moment were prevented from doing so by California's fifteen-day waiting period.

As the saying goes: "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." The police can't be everywhere at once, even when they don't have incompetent leadership and poor training. In fact, there was a civil lawsuit against some police department for failing to respond in a timely manner. The court ruled that the police can't be held liable for being a day late and a dollar short, and were under no legal obligation to actually defend anybody. So if the cops can't or won't, it falls to the individual citizen to defend life, limb, liberty, and property himself.

Yes, I guess I do have a persecution complex. I'm angry and bitter because I resent being blamed for something that isn't my fault. After every incident of violence that involves a gun, gun-control advocates seem to blame ALL gun owners for the actions of a few lawless individuals. I don't know about you, but this strikes me as misdirected and grossly unfair. I'm not responsible, and the gun isn't responsible. The ONLY one responsible is the person who deliberately pulled the trigger with malice aforethought.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#107614: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:41:22 PM

And your "persecution complex" is going to get worse and worse, because mass murders committed with firearms are on the rise, increasing public sentiment against gun owners and bringing stricter regulation ever closer to reality.

So, you have only yourselves to blame in the long run. Stop the bad guys (including police) with guns from killing people and people wouldn't have such a hard time telling the good guys and the bad guys apart. But you can't do that, because your ethos demands that every red-blooded American go armed 24/7, with or without any training or sense.

I'm afraid you have no sympathy from me.

edited 28th Dec '15 1:42:51 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#107615: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:42:21 PM

pwiegle would you like a hug?

[up]Can you give me some stats on that mass murder thing being on the rise? Because the murder rate has been in steady decline since 1992.

edited 28th Dec '15 1:43:37 PM by Canid117

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#107616: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:43:10 PM

[up]X3 It's only not your fault if you in no way support the NRA, seeing as they are directly responsible for the US government being unable to reduce gun violence, in part because of the blocks they have placed on the US government even studying the causes of gun violence.

Yes the responsibility rests with the person who commits the act, but it also rests with the organisations (and their supports) that actively prevent the government stoping such people, alongside the many groups that inspire, train and arm many such killers.

As for needing to defend oneself, yes if the US is as much of a lawless backwater as you make it out to be then it makes sense that a person has to do such things, but it's also pretty dam fucked up that your country is such a lawless backwater.

[up][up] On a tangent, what is with this idea of being a "red blooded American" it seems like a weird combination of racial purity and being "a real man", it's pretty disturbing.

edited 28th Dec '15 1:45:26 PM by Silasw

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
wehrmacht belongs to the hurricane from the garden of everything Since: Dec, 2010 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
belongs to the hurricane
#107617: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:45:24 PM

I think part of the issue is that some foreigners don't really understand the gun culture in the US, or to be more accurate, why it's a thing or why people make such a big fuss about the second amendment to the point of it being the enormous debate that it is.

I don't really have anything against gun owners since I know that people can use them for hunting and whatnot, but I do have to admit that the reverence and fascination with firearms is a bit of an alien concept to me as a non-american.

Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#107618: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:52:04 PM

[up]They're delightful fun.

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#107619: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:52:32 PM

[up][up][up] It's definitely got a lot of racial purity going for it, since part of the reason for the rise in gun fetishism in the United States was a reaction to the surge in urban violence that was memetically associated with poor blacks (and drugs): the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act was designed to remove the Second Amendment rights of urban minorities. Anyway, it should be patently obvious that the right to own a gun in this country is restricted to whites; if you are a black person openly carrying, expect to be shot on sight.

Anyway, it's hard to find definitive statistics on gun violence due to the bans on data collection, but http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/ has the following information:

  • 2014 incidents: 51,777
  • 2014 deaths: 12,575
  • 2014 mass shootings: 281

  • 2015 incidents: 51,747
  • 2015 deaths: 13,155
  • 2015 mass shootings: 329

So while overall violent crime may be going down, gun violence itself is not budging much, and 2015 had the most mass shootings (meaning 4 or more people killed in the same incident) on record.

edited 28th Dec '15 2:01:41 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Protagonist506 from Oregon Since: Dec, 2013 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#107620: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:58:29 PM

Being a "Red-Blooded American" isn't racial at all, it's an attitude. It's like being a hippy or a goth or a yuppie.

I'd argue that America has a fixation on the Han Solo archetype-a person who's pragmatic, self-reliant, and not afraid of aggression (though, a big difference between Solo and a "Red-Blooded American" is that he's rather nihilistic). This sort of mentality is part of where gun culture comes from-America (particularly conservatives) view the ability to own a weapon as part of your overall self-reliance.

Leviticus 19:34
nightwyrm_zero Since: Apr, 2010
#107621: Dec 28th 2015 at 1:59:42 PM

And of course Han shot first. smile

edited 28th Dec '15 1:59:49 PM by nightwyrm_zero

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#107622: Dec 28th 2015 at 2:00:09 PM

Less Han Solo and more John Wayne. We all imagine ourselves the heroic lone gunman fighting off the banditos at high noon.

edited 28th Dec '15 2:00:17 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Canid117 Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Hello, I love you
#107623: Dec 28th 2015 at 2:02:06 PM

False! High noon is a terrible time as you have just eaten lunch and your reaction times will be slowed. Best to attack at pre-dawn or at dusk.

"War without fire is like sausages without mustard." - Jean Juvénal des Ursins
pwiegle Cape Malleum Majorem from Nowhere Special Since: Sep, 2015 Relationship Status: Singularity
Cape Malleum Majorem
#107624: Dec 28th 2015 at 2:03:20 PM

...and have the low sun at your back to blind the other guy.

This Space Intentionally Left Blank.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#107625: Dec 28th 2015 at 2:03:44 PM

Also, everybody drank back then, so high noon was probably about the time when your hangover from the previous day started to fade and the hair of the dog from your first drinks of the current day kicked in. It's the steadiest your hand would be all day.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

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