Doom Shepherd

I can imagine my 5'1" mother carting around a shotgun while she walks the dog... Mind you, I need a LOT of alcohol in my system to imagine it... Rather than the .38 she actually does carry. :rolleyes:

i wouldn't say that article is spun... but if you put it on the Kepler, we could keep hunting planets for another 20 years. not disputing that. But like I said, it's a skewed number because civilians don't have to shoot someone to prevent a crime. And even the DoJ says that a large percentage of actual crimes (over 1/3) go unreported. http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/vnrp0610.pdf So how many Prevented crimes go unreported? Nobody really knows, but in every survey that actually attempted to find the answer, it always appeared to be a very large number. My brother used to deliver pizzas. Pizza guys are preferred targets, because they carry cash. Out on deliveries, he was several times approached by "suspicious" characters. During these events, he would casually brush his jacket aside, which would reveal his holster. His testimony was that the people approaching him would rapidly find reasons to be somewhere else. As no crime actually took place, nothing was recorded. Therefore his... I believe it was three incidents, would never show up in anyone's statistics, much less the FBI's homicide stats. Lastly... Any article that calls a contrary point of view "delusional" is most certainly a violently skewed propaganda piece, and not a good example of scholarship OR journalism.

There are approximately two million defensive gun uses (DGU's) per year by law abiding citizens. That was one of the findings in a national survey conducted by Gary Kleck, a Florida State University criminologist in 1993. Prior to Dr. Kleck's survey, thirteen other surveys indicated a range of between 800,000 to 2.5 million DGU's annually. However these surveys each had their flaws which prompted Dr. Kleck to conduct his own study specifically tailored to estimate the number of DGU's annually. Subsequent to Kleck's study, the Department of Justice sponsored a survey in 1994 titled, Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms. Using a smaller sample size than Kleck's, this survey estimated 1.5 million DGU's annually. Note that for a gun to be used defensively, according to these studies, does not require that the gun be FIRED (which is how the liberal statisticians usually skew their surveys - when you see a study that claims to "debunk" Kleck's study, they ALWAYS only talk about actual shootings/justifiable homicides.) If someone accosts me, and I put my hand on my pistol holster, and they run away, that is a DGU. If someone breaks into my house, and hears me chamber a round in my shotgun, and runs away, that's a DGU, even though no bullets are fired and no one is injured.

Article is probably gone because it got too old. Here is more recent, though less detailed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22524597 This might be more detailed: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-12/u-s-to-overtake-saudi-arabia-s-oil-production-by-2020-iea-says.html Of course, right now the US has a ban on exporting oil, enacted in the 70's, so if that isn't raised, it will be a lot more difficult to become an oil exporter. Maybe we shuld just keep it. I found this bit most interesting - and obvious.

I'm just amused by the idea of anybody in CHINA talking about countries with bad leaders. (And apparently, China has really crap media, too, if he actually believes that junk.)

Oxygen. But seriously, there's a reason I haven't had alcohol in the last 15 years.

They make meds for paranoid schizophrenia now. The Illuminati hasn't existed for around 400 years, and was not a power even when it did.

I'm sure it will turn out that the IRS did what they did because a Conservative posted a video on YouTube that was insulting to their faith.

And anybody else who still likes to make fun of the left's considerable use of it during his early days. We rate this statement Mostly False: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/jun/06/jim-mcdermott/irs-targeted-liberal-groups-bush-years-jim-mcdermo/ "I fired at random into the crowd but it's okay because I didn't hit anyone."

That's an excellent example of overcomplicating a problem by adding an excessive amount of suppositions, but it didn't answer the questions posed.

Maniac Fundie, huh?

So suppose a woman REALLY wants a gun because her ex-boyfriend wiped his ass with the restraining order, and the police aren't having any luck tracking him down?

Not alone in this country, or in the world, though other countries like Canada and Sweden abolished the practice in the 1970's as well. Better methods arose.

You calling Holy 'Bama a liar? You Teapartier! (Also the US Treasury and every remotely credible media outlet.) http://www.factcheck.org/2013/05/irs-officials-misled-congress-public/ Not that I'm saying that BTG's analysis isn't kooky, because it is, but the facts don't bear out your statements, either.

Quantum Leeroy Jenkins

I don't hate. Hatred is a sign of weakness. Rather, I would list the things I tolerate only because utterly and totally eradicating them from existence would take more time and effort than I am willing to expend. But THAT would take more time and effort than I am willing to expend. At the moment. (Everything I AM willing to expend the time and effort required to eradicate has already been destroyed.)

It would still make it feel better. That's what I'm saying. At the time I had the headache, it actually seemed like a viable option!

But wait... This thread is supposed to be abour ratnts, so... I had the WORST goddamn migraine in my fing life EVER today. In ancient times, they treated migraines by cutting holes in the victims head to let out the evil spirit that was causing it. ... SEEMS LEGIT.

Of course, democracy also has dangerous flaws, in that it gives the crackhead down the street an equal say as the guy with two doctorates.

First, "No True Scotsman" Arguments don't work. Second, the fact that ALL the large-scale Communist experimens have gone on to score Killtaculars on their own People should be a clue to what it actually takes to make forced equality appear to work. Coerced equality requires heavy-handed authoritarianism, and the heavier it gets, the more it breeds resentment and rebellion, the more it needs to crush and stifle dversity and creativity. The extreme Right and Left may serm to be at opposite ends of the field, but in fact spacetime is curved and the field's opposite ends are actually close enough to rub elbows. The best ground is on the 50-yard line.

Fixed that for you. Thanks I guess? Do you have an opinion on Iraq becoming Yugoslavia (ethnic civil war)? See my most recent posts on the Syria situation.

"I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

I played French Horn and Mellophone (the marching version) from 4th through 12th grade, in marching and stage band.

National socialism=Nazism, Nazism must be destroyed in all forms. HEY!!! Don't insult communism and I won't insult your backasswards democracy. Communism is even more kill-crazy than Nazism, and must ALSO be destroyed in all forms. And then peed on. The best POSSIBLE thing a time traveler could do for humanity would be to go back to the 19th century, toss a bomb onto Engel's living room (Marx freeloaded off of Engels - like a good Communist - and stayed on his couch), and ultimately save a hundred million lives. So there.

I have over 500 Star Trek fiction novels. I own 65 different versions of Optimus Prime. I have 28 models of different Star Trek spaceships and space stations, with a further 5 under construction and 6 more in unopened boxes. I've done M-F-M and F-M-F. Once each. I give platelets (the clotting part of your blood) once a month.