Xandu posted:

That being said, I don't believe owning a gun is a right and I'm in favor of any steps that will limit people's access to guns. And certainly if the government is comfortable saying 'we don't trust this person on planes' then not trusting them to own a gun is a no brainer.

Fast Luck posted:

Is that the direction you want the "left" in this country to go? can't wait until both parties are in a pissing match trying to be tougher on terrorism than the other, irrespective of constitutionality and due process and any evidence of effectiveness

btw Dems ended the sit-in http://www.politico.com/story/2016/06/house-democrats-sit-in-day-2-224719

got this OP in just under the buzzer

A Winner is Jew posted:

Nice shifting of goalposts, and once again it's not about the bill, it's about making republicans choosing on record between the NRA or national security.

Fast Luck posted:

im not shifting goalposts, that's clearly a false choice, the policy isn't even good which is a fine reason to oppose it, and the republicans are just calling it a publicity stunt (which it was)

paranoid randroid posted:

also The One Fried Mans take on guns is probably something like, I was in Bankok having high tea with the CEO of one of the largest slave labor providers in the eastern hemisphere when suddenly he looked at me and said "Thomas, never bring a knife to a gunfight." This stuck with me for a while until one night in Alexanderplatz I realized, my God, he was telling me we need expanded background checks!

quote:

Last week's events in Canada were truly historic, although we may not know for years or even decades what their final meaning is. It is impossible not to be tantalized by the potential of these events to change the course of Canada's history. What's important, however, is that we focus on what this means on the street. The current administration seems too caught up in spinning the facts to pay attention to how their people are doing. Just call it missing the fields for the wheat.

When thinking about the ongoing troubles, it's important to remember three things: One, people don't behave like computer programs, so attempts to treat them as such inevitably look foolish. Computer programs never suddenly shift their course in order to fit with a predetermined set of beliefs. Two, Canada has spent decades as a dictatorship closed to the world, so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, capitalism is an extraordinarily powerful idea: If authoritarianism is Canada's glass ceiling, then capitalism is certainly its tabletop.

When I was in Canada last month, I was amazed by the level of Westernization for such a closed society, and that tells me two things. It tells me that the citizens of Canada have no shortage of courage, and that is a good beginning to grow from. Second, it tells me that people in Canada are just like people anywhere else on this flat earth of ours.

So what should we do about the chaos in Canada? Well, it's easier to start with what we should not do. We should not ignore the problem and pretend it will go away. Beyond that, we need to be careful to nurture the fragile foundations of peace. The opportunity is there, but I worry that the path to peace is so narrow that Canada will have to move down it very slowly. And of course Ottawa needs to feel like it is part of the process.

Speaking with a small business entrepreneur from the large Protestant community here, I asked her if there was any message that she wanted me to carry back home with me. She pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, reiaya-li-kona, which is a local saying that means roughly, "A gift given in secret soothes anger, and a bribe concealed in the cloak pacifies great wrath."

I don't know what Canada will be like a few years from now, but I do know that it will probably look very different from the country we see now, even if it remains true to its basic cultural heritage. I know this because, through all the disorder, the people still haven't lost sight of their dreams.

zen death robot posted:

A Winner is Jew posted:

Once again it's not about the policy, it's about getting republicans to go on record choosing between the NRA and national security.

And no loving poo poo it's a publicity stunt. It's a publicity stunt to force republicans to go on record choosing between the NRA and national security.

mannerup posted:

DOCTOR ZIMBARDO posted:

pretty cool that racial profiling = national security. when did the republicans get the democrats to make that choice

Fast Luck posted:

so it won't pass, and if it does, it will be overturned. And if it does pass, and isn't overturned, it'll suck poo poo since terror watch lists are bogus. That's our democrats!

paranoid randroid posted:

wanna drop some molly w/ Thomas Friedman and just talk for hours about how loving amazing literally everything is. youre wearing a shirt that had to come over from india on a boat, thats awesome.

zen death robot posted:

It looks like a burger dude

zen death robot posted:

Actually this is a great way to prove a point on an election year

paranoid randroid posted:

Thomas Friedman is basically a pug with an op ed column

Al! posted:

I did this and it wasn't long until he started excitedly talking about how you can get hookers delivered from every nation too and by the way do you want to split one so I ditched him and hung out with Karl Rove who was doing blow in the next room

zen death robot posted:

Your average voter doesn't want to pay any attention to this poo poo so grandstanding is sometimes necessary

zen death robot posted:

Your average voter doesn't want to pay any attention to this poo poo so grandstanding is sometimes necessary

Al! posted:

People being gunned down randomly daily is a pretty big issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Al! posted:

People being gunned down randomly daily is a pretty big issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karl Barks posted:

it's good because dylann roof, the aurora shooter, and the connecticut shooter were all on the terrorist list so they would have been prevented

Al! posted:

People being gunned down randomly daily is a pretty big issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!