November 5, 2013

I side with the Democrats most of the time

85% Democrats on economic, domestic policy, social, environmental, healthcare, immigration, and science issues

81% Green Party on domestic policy, economic, environmental, healthcare, science, social, and immigration issues

55% Socialist on immigration and healthcare issues

23% Republicans no major issues

11% Libertarian

October 16, 2013

Democrats are NOT responsible for the shutdown - don't listen to media lies

enough of this 'enough blame to go around' crap or 'let's not play the blame game'.

repugs demanded that their points be accepted or the government is shutdown. The President cannot accept this situation and what is to stop the repugs from dismantling everything they don't like in future discussions by using the same threat?

the repugs are completely to blame. can you imagine what fox news would be saying if democrats had done this to bush or a future repug president?

April 1, 2013

actually 'no'

I do not want to ban all guns, but I do want reasonable controls to eliminate misuse. I do want to ban weapons that are used in a lot of homicides and massacres - sort of like how the insurance industry requires higher premiums for 'red' colored sports cars.

however, I see the pro-gun crowd throw obstacles in the way such as:
1. focusing on trivial technical details
2. focusing on grammar
3. focusing on a subsection of a sentence in the second amendment
4. taking a page from climate deniers and cherry picking events
5. ignoring facts they don't want to believe
6. saying stupid things like 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' when people use guns to kill people. the bigger the gun, the faster the shooting, the more people that can be killed by the weapon
7. name calling
8. when all arguments fail, go back to point 3.

March 28, 2013

even when i objectively read the pro-gun comments - i don't see any logic

or sympathy. in fact, there's a lot snark and name calling - and then they use the typical gop talking points like 'liberals are anti-us - when did ever say anything negative about liberals'

I think we're just raising our number of posts and wasting time. there is no good faith discussion going on here. wtf - how can anyone possibly say 'guns don't kill people, people kill people' when the bullet discharged from the gun is what's killing the person. its certainly accurate to say 'people use guns to kill people'.

January 21, 2013

in any given population, there are always going to be exceptions

So if we did all the things you suggest, i still think there will be criminals/morons/lunatics that will use the weapons at hand to inflict the greatest damage. I would suggest:

- for the self-defense argument: people should be able to buy certain types of guns and cartridges. This would include handguns, shotguns, rifles with limited cartridge sizes
- full background checks on everyone buying a gun. time should not be a factor in completing the check. It must be reasonable and complete
- all laws should be rigorously enforced (especially gun laws)
- there must be a requirement to purchase liability insurance for anyone carrying a gun
- weapons and bullets that can inflict damage above a threshold should be banned from civilian use

January 19, 2013

The American Dream: Al Gore vs Romney

Both Al Gore and Mitt Romney are wealthy, worth easily in the hundreds of millions of dollars. But this is where the difference in how they attained the American Dream becomes stark.

Al Gore has made his hundreds of millions of dollars by building companies in media, computers, and to help the environment. He has made movies, written helpful books, and won international prizes (Nobel), movie awards, and television awards. In short, his wealth is created through helping others while creating wealth.

Romney made his wealth by taking over companies and either shutting them down, outsourcing large pieces to China (while claiming to be pro-American), or modifying capital flow (e.g. pension plans) already under the companies control. Romney has made his money off misery and downsizing.

I believe Al Gore is the imbodiment of the American Dream and a true American role model.

January 11, 2013

Is the republican party having a contest to find the dumbest of the dumb in their party?

i mean

1. bachman's not paying her staff
2. more idiots coming out to defend the 'true rape' comments during the election
3. threats being argued to be free speech
4. the answer to gun violence is more guns and in a twist the answer to gun violence is not less guns because there are already too many of them out there

January 10, 2013

Exactly. In our Democracy, voting has a higher priority

yet almost 50000 were not allowed to vote. Ways were found. That's where the outrage really is.

guns are about money. the nra and gun manufacturers used the 2nd amendment and placed emphasis on certain words, removed others, and changed the meaning of others to whip people into a frenzy in order to sell more product and get more profits. That's it. They are not doing it for sacred reasons, or for patriotism, they don't give a shit when innocent people are killed so why would they care about any gun owners themselves (similar to the cigerette companies who didn't care that people died from using their product - the more loyal the faster to die)? they don't.

January 6, 2013

you're absolutely right - i've seen them all the time

this discussion always starts the same way:

- OP that wants to reduce gun violence and offers suggestions
- gun lovers pick through the post and identify places they can ask for more information, why offering platidudes of how there is no evidence that gun control reduces gun violence (with no evidence ironically, or selected evidence)
- personal attacks - e.g. you don't understand history, i'm a historian see, so anything i say is right
- logic similar to 'there is no proof that human activities contribute to climate change' are offered
- eventually the discussion goes to the 2nd amendment gives me the right to arms 'not infringed' ignroing the 'well-regulated militia' clause

You're right, anyone in these threads have or should have seen the comments. You shouldn't need to spend your time finding and restating what's already been said in order to express an opinion.

January 3, 2013

Weed: Legalize and tax it

Legalizing and taxing weed would solve many problems:

1. another source of revenue for States
2. a cure for many diseases
3. many people will vote for Democrats if Obama does not fight the will of the States moving in this direction. This will create for Democratic victories for years to come.

4. resources wasted on fighting the will of many people who use Weed properly can be diverted to fighting the real threat that is emerging - voter suppression in key States such as Florida

5. drug decriminalization will reduce drug crime (as happened after prohibition ended).