Discussion about hot topics trending today

[Gatefan1976]

Let's see, Jimmy Carter's daughter Amy was savaged by the right, Chelsea Clinton was, the Obama girls. Republicans have a lock on that kind of behavior.

No, they do not, not anymore.

[thekillman]

It also does us well to remember what tends to happen when government officials are the only ones with the weapons....authoritarian governments tend to perpetrate the worst mass murders in history AFTER confiscating all the guns.....and brainwashing gullible idiots into thinking that the widespread confiscation of citizens' weapons is for their own good

Tell me what you expect to do against predator drones?

Stop the insane and mentally ill from getting guns. Kids aren't allowed to drink until 21, why can this 19-year-old legally buy a gun? Why is it that a kid with known issues, who couldn't even be trusted to bring his backpack to school, could get a gun?

How many warning signs need to go off before people will consider that if you give every idiot a gun, you'll have lots of idiots with lots of guns? Stop giving idiots guns.

Yet not even something so basic can be passed into law, and every time the facts hit everyone in the face "it's not the time to discuss it" and "we need to know the facts". 8 facts into the year, more than a fact per week in the past year, and it's still not enough evidence that young troubled kids shouldn't have guns?

[LtColCarter]

To be perfectly honest...I never watched that show because of the confederate flag. It gave me the chills just looking at it. Though I do think some people did overreact to it. The difference for me is that government has no place using those symbols. Private individuals are different. It's that distinction that both sides of the "issue" don't get. Or maybe the do and just don't care.

Just curious...how old were you when the Dukes of Hazzard was on TV in the late 70s/early 80s? When the show aired...I was barely 8 years old. I just liked the show and had no idea about the symbolism of the car.

As for the Confederate Flag...I agree with the comments that the flag should be in a museum. Should we white wash history and take away shows like the Dukes of Hazzard.

Update: I found it interesting when I did an Amazon search for a confederate flag, which I didn't find, I was surprised that "team deplorable" and "Trump 2016" flags did come up. Intriguing!

[Annoyed]

Just curious...how old were you when the Dukes of Hazzard was on TV in the late 70s/early 80s? When the show aired...I was barely 8 years old. I just liked the show and had no idea about the symbolism of the car.

As for the Confederate Flag...I agree with the comments that the flag should be in a museum. Should we white wash history and take away shows like the Dukes of Hazzard.

Update: I found it interesting when I did an Amazon search for a confederate flag, which I didn't find, I was surprised that "team deplorable" and "Trump 2016" flags did come up. Intriguing!

If you're curious, I was in my mid-20's when the Dukes came on the scene. Although I know full well the historical meaning of it, I saw the flag as a symbol of rebellion against authority which was misusing that authority, that was the theme of the show; Dukes vs the corrupt Boss Hog.

That wasn't what initially drew me to the show, though. Approx 10 years prior, my first car was a '68 Charger, that I had gone through, big arse (440) engine and all. To this day, that is my favorite of all the cars that I've owned, and I've owned a crapload of them (30+). That thing would pass anything but a gas pump, but who cared? Real old style high octane (93+ as I recall) premium gas cost .35/Gallon back then.

*snicker* About 10 years after that, shortly after the show's debut, my little brother did a copycat, and bought a Charger. He didn't get into the mechanical / performance mods as much as I did, but he did dress his out in The General's colors, Confederate flag on the roof and all.

To this day, there are still one or two like that running around this neck of the woods. And if I ever win the lottery and can afford one, I'm gonna buy a fully restored 68/69 Charger.

[mad_gater]

Tell me what you expect to do against predator drones?

Stop the insane and mentally ill from getting guns. Kids aren't allowed to drink until 21, why can this 19-year-old legally buy a gun? Why is it that a kid with known issues, who couldn't even be trusted to bring his backpack to school, could get a gun?

How many warning signs need to go off before people will consider that if you give every idiot a gun, you'll have lots of idiots with lots of guns? Stop giving idiots guns.

Yet not even something so basic can be passed into law, and every time the facts hit everyone in the face "it's not the time to discuss it" and "we need to know the facts". 8 facts into the year, more than a fact per week in the past year, and it's still not enough evidence that young troubled kids shouldn't have guns?

history is rife with accounts of less well organized rebel forces putting up a darned good fight against better organized and better armed military forces, the American Revolution being one of those cases in point, with the less organized and less well-armed colonists being able to defeat the better armed and better organized British army

for predator drones all you'd need are some people gifted with electronics and computers to either take them down with EMPs or hack into their firmware to disable them...or...as Scotty said at the end of ST III: The Search for Spock:

"The more they overthink the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain"

which was in reference to the fact that it only took him removing a few innocuous parts from the Excelsior's transwarp drive to render it dead in the proverbial water

[mad_gater]

Tell me what you expect to do against predator drones?

Stop the insane and mentally ill from getting guns. Kids aren't allowed to drink until 21, why can this 19-year-old legally buy a gun? Why is it that a kid with known issues, who couldn't even be trusted to bring his backpack to school, could get a gun?

How many warning signs need to go off before people will consider that if you give every idiot a gun, you'll have lots of idiots with lots of guns? Stop giving idiots guns.

Yet not even something so basic can be passed into law, and every time the facts hit everyone in the face "it's not the time to discuss it" and "we need to know the facts". 8 facts into the year, more than a fact per week in the past year, and it's still not enough evidence that young troubled kids shouldn't have guns?

it will never pass because you overlook the punchline of my post...that if you put every weapon you got into the hands of the government and their police force, it won't be long before you get an authoritarian police state....or would you actually enjoy being oppressed by another Hitler, or another Stalin, or another Mao, etc.?

and I think maybe you also answered your own question another way...."Stop giving IDIOTS guns"....perhaps the people in charge of educating the next generation should stop turning them INTO idiots in the first place

and again....not to belittle school shootings....but the number of casualties and killings for each of these events even when taken in combination PALES in comparison to the atrocities leveled by governments AFTER they've brainwashed the citizenry into giving up their weapons "for their own good"

[SoulReaver]

Can you honestly decry a lack of moral fibre while engaging in the same act?

(isn't that what FH just said?) yes we can :|
action & reaction are not the same thing

these people don't just lack a moral fibre they're morally bald

I get your point, but is it useful to do so?

hey there's nothing in it for me cept the hell of it it's more of a message to the US Left

it's about the tacit godvernment-imposed double-standard they've accepted even to the point of 0 tolerance within their own ranks. Al Franken was pressured to leave because a pic of him which he himself took showed him [not] touching [the armor plating of] an adult attention-seeking slut who spent half her life naked whereas the neocons elected a self-confessed predator who boasted about it; the neocons applauded when Weiner was sent to jail for talking to a 15y/o while endorsing a former DA who molested a 14y/o who got away with it & was nearly elected to the senate
yet the Democretins lumped Franken & Weiner in with the real predators because despite their 2016 fiasco these dumb****s still think this will avail them
so you have 2 sacrificial lambs on the altar of political correctness & it's not the religious Right but the secular Left who's supposed to worship at that altar
the neocons praise Jesus yet the progressives are the ones to turn the cheek (then drop their pants for more spanking)

basically the bible-Trumping self-right-eous Right is allowed all the moral transgressions while the Left is expected - and accepts - to drive alone on the moral highway

pathetic

this almost makes me admire the unwavering loyalty of the trumpets who stand up for their king no matter what he says & does (if he wanted more loyalty than that he'd have had to fill his cabinet with labradors & retrievers)

maybe after their fiasco the Left should ask themselves if they wanna be right or if they wanna ****ing win

That act not being critical of an adult, but attacking a child.

a child who's not any child and who (by all accounts) vindicates it
remember when you called Annoyed out on misreading Ltcolcarter's post?

now lemme help:

if at least Baron were reputed to be a nice kid or at least a normal kid but nope he's not "out of it" in fact he's supposed to have the exact same arrogant self-entitled mentality as his daddy(like a future king Joffrey)

[aretood2]

it will never pass because you overlook the punchline of my post...that if you put every weapon you got into the hands of the government and their police force, it won't be long before you get an authoritarian police state....or would you actually enjoy being oppressed by another Hitler, or another Stalin, or another Mao, etc.?

and I think maybe you also answered your own question another way...."Stop giving IDIOTS guns"....perhaps the people in charge of educating the next generation should stop turning them INTO idiots in the first place

and again....not to belittle school shootings....but the number of casualties and killings for each of these events even when taken in combination PALES in comparison to the atrocities leveled by governments AFTER they've brainwashed the citizenry into giving up their weapons "for their own good"

Stalin and Mao came into power because the common folk had guns with which to build armies and overthrow their governments. Hitler came into power by an open invitation of the German people and was given carte blanche to do as he pleased. The same thing is true about Iran, Hussein's Iraq,
and so on. Napoleon came to power because of the citizenry with guns...the revolutionary bloodbath of France was a result of an armed citizenry. It was an armed revolt of the armed citizenry that put Castro in power in Cuba. The list goes on and on.

That said, a better course of argument would be Mexico. Guns are (Through legal loopholes) basically banned in effect and yet there is so much gun violence. In the Mexican state of Michoacan, the citizenry did rise up with their less than legal guns and throw out the gangs and cartel for awhile. An armed citizenry seems to be a viable solution in Mexico, but one that no one is really willing to try, but where it has been done has in fact yielded some positive results. Only problem is that the some of the rurales (the name of armed citizen brigades) ended up getting infiltrated faster than you prepare and eat two bean burritos.

To me, however, it is a proof of concept. If people are armed, they can fight back against kidnappers, road bandits, defend private property, and generally hold off the bad guys until the marines or soldiers or federales show up. Not to mention, the common thief might in fact think twice about approaching someone.

[Annoyed]

history is rife with accounts of less well organized rebel forces putting up a darned good fight against better organized and better armed military forces, the American Revolution being one of those cases in point, with the less organized and less well-armed colonists being able to defeat the better armed and better organized British army

for predator drones all you'd need are some people gifted with electronics and computers to either take them down with EMPs or hack into their firmware to disable them...or...as Scotty said at the end of ST III: The Search for Spock:

"The more they overthink the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain"

which was in reference to the fact that it only took him removing a few innocuous parts from the Excelsior's transwarp drive to render it dead in the proverbial water

Hell, a good shotgun ought to take one down pretty quick. They can't be armored all that much.
Damned good excuse for a Scotty quote, though.

[Gatefan1976]

Hell, a good shotgun ought to take one down pretty quick. They can't be armored all that much.
Damned good excuse for a Scotty quote, though.

Predators are armed with hellfire missiles, with a range of 8 kilometres.
What's the effective range of a shotgun again?

[Annoyed]

Predators are armed with hellfire missiles, with a range of 8 kilometres.
What's the effective range of a shotgun again?

If it knows where you are, that is. Don't tell me it's not possible hide from it until it's too late for it. Underdog populations have been doing that to more advanced forces for a long time. Hide underground till it is too late for the drone to do anything and pop it. Granted, it won't be an easy, every time kill, but this is one way a population might take the government's toy out.

[SoulReaver]

lol @ the neocons who say they defend their precious 2nd amendment rights yet also defend those who will execute them for exercising those same rights

like Andrew Finch (a GOP voter too apparently - if so, funny story) he was gunned down like a dog...because basically he was suspected of exercising his right to bear arms. and whom did the neocons defend? the victim? nope they defended the killers!

might wanna make up your minds

[mad_gater]

Stalin and Mao came into power because the common folk had guns with which to build armies and overthrow their governments. Hitler came into power by an open invitation of the German people and was given carte blanche to do as he pleased. The same thing is true about Iran, Hussein's Iraq,
and so on. Napoleon came to power because of the citizenry with guns...the revolutionary bloodbath of France was a result of an armed citizenry. It was an armed revolt of the armed citizenry that put Castro in power in Cuba. The list goes on and on.

That said, a better course of argument would be Mexico. Guns are (Through legal loopholes) basically banned in effect and yet there is so much gun violence. In the Mexican state of Michoacan, the citizenry did rise up with their less than legal guns and throw out the gangs and cartel for awhile. An armed citizenry seems to be a viable solution in Mexico, but one that no one is really willing to try, but where it has been done has in fact yielded some positive results. Only problem is that the some of the rurales (the name of armed citizen brigades) ended up getting infiltrated faster than you prepare and eat two bean burritos.

To me, however, it is a proof of concept. If people are armed, they can fight back against kidnappers, road bandits, defend private property, and generally hold off the bad guys until the marines or soldiers or federales show up. Not to mention, the common thief might in fact think twice about approaching someone.

oh I don't disagree that they were first elected because they were saying all the right things that the people wanted to hear....however what I'm getting at is that the real nitty gritty, the mass murders....didn't start until AFTER their successful campaign to brainwash the citizenry into either surrendering their weapons or using them in service to whatever their version of the "greater good" was by joining whatever Gestapo-like police force they had

any dictator worth his salt knows that you don't start right away with the heavy-handed authoritarianism.....you introduce it slowly but surely and make the people think that you're a benevolent soul, right up until the point they get executed as "politically inconvenient"

like cooking a frog, you don't just toss the frog into water that's already boiling as the frog would just jump right back out but if you put the frog in water on the stove that's room temperature and turn up the heat slowly the frog will happily wallow in the slowly heating water until it's too late for it and it no longer has the strength to escape the now boiling water because it's already more than half-cooked

[mad_gater]

If it knows where you are, that is. Don't tell me it's not possible hide from it until it's too late for it. Underdog populations have been doing that to more advanced forces for a long time. Hide underground till it is too late for the drone to do anything and pop it. Granted, it won't be an easy, every time kill, but this is one way a population might take the government's toy out.

now if you wanted a gun capable of taking out a predator drone on range alone rather than hiding from it until it was within range then you'd need to find a way to build a real-life M99 Stanchion (the gun in Halo that was powered by basically a mini-MAC whose rounds could punch through several instacrete pylons and still have enough energy to travel quite a distance, likely that 8 km to take out that drone before it can fire its missile)

[Annoyed]

Another thing to consider is that US has had private gun ownership for a very long time, but the mass killings are a recent phenomenon. Maybe the cause has more to do with other changes in our society over the past several decades. Such as the gibberish the education system is peddling, the lack of values being taught, the lack of discipline applied to youngsters when they misbehave, the "anything goes" mentality we teach. Hell, a parent can't even spank the little hellion for fear that they will be brought up on abuse charges when the little snotnose goes running to the teacher or someone else.