Rep. Giffords shooting

[Samadhi]

Sad news. Six dead including a 9 year old girl and Rep. Giffords shot through the head and holding on for life. But some very heroic stories. Like the 3 people who subdued him, the intern who rushed in (instead of running) to tend to Giffords' wounds, Giffords' aide who (while shot himself) told that same intern "Stay with Gabby, stay with Gabby."

Unfortunately the rhetoric is already spinning up about "a vitriolic political discourse" and the fingers are pointing, naturally, at the right wing. Also, Arizona is a concealed carry state so that's coming up. Never mind that two of the guy's favorite books were The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. Rand Paul read this guy's writings and his opinion (in an interview) is that the guy is paranoid schizophrenic. This makes the shooter irrelevant to the discussion, he's a nut. We could have been having beer summits and glad handing each other in all our discussion and having group hugs; this guy still would have killed. People will still try to make political hay of this.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[lexprod]

This is a really sad moment, and again the news has to try to make sense of it so they latch onto the latest trend. In this case it's the crazy political atmosphere of the US, like we're all at odds with each other 24/7 and two steps away from violent action. Before this it was Islam, Video Games, and Rock N Roll. Here's hoping most people have better sense than to blame any political party for the acts of a madman.
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I'll have a P please...

[Death Mage]

This is all becuase of tea parties! Damn those little girls and their imaginary friends! Damn Toy Story and Mrs. Nesbit! This tragedy would never have happened without you!!

Ok, seriously, it's a shame those who were injured and died (including a high-ranking Arizona judge). It's easy to quickly say "Well, a Democrat was shot (not that you'd know that reading CNN, as usually they didn't actually identify the party for the democrat), so it must be the evil right wing conspiracy that did it!" Problem is, much like the "Microsoft Flight Simulator trained the 9/11 pilots" early knee-emphasis-on-JERK reaction, it falls apart when the truth is revealed.

This guy is the one behind the shootings. He's not right-wing, or left-wing, he's bat-shit-insane wing. Maybe he latched onto a message, but he would have latched onto any were that the case.

We live in the disinformation age. Take all news you hear with a grain of salt, and look for answers yourself. That includes this post, don't take my word for it, look at the available information yourself.
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[Pablo]

Here's what I don't understand. Every day, I see bumper stickers that say "Support our Troops". I never see one that says "Support our Congressmen". Yet, every day a soldier dies and no one seems to give a shit. But when one congressperson gets shot, the prayers, sympathies, and tears flow like water, and the media salivates and devotes ALL their resources.

WTF? Why is her life more important or more valuable than that of ANY lowly soldier?
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All religions are the same - Guilt....just with different holidays.

[Samadhi]

In a terrible bit of irony, when Giffords turn to read the Constitution came, she read the First Amendment.

[Samadhi]

Pablo: I think it's because soldiers go to war. In foreign lands against people who want to kill us. This was at a shopping center. I don't at all mean to mitigate the loss and sacrifice of our soldiers but it's expected. We get inured to it. Maybe you're right and we shouldn't be. But they go in knowing and accepting, believing they are protecting the rest of us (let's *not* get talking about that, we have another thread for that).

But this hits hard because anyone in the US could have been in that situation. You could have gone shopping and seen your Representative over yonder and thought "Oh, I guess I'll go over and [thank her/give her a piece of my mind]". Then suddenly some maniac starts shooting everyone. That's why everyone is horrified.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Samadhi]

I don't know if this is irony or what but, the 9 year old (how sick do you have to be to deliberately shoot a beautiful 9 year girl? There's a special place in hell for this guy) was born on 9/11/01.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Thok*]

[Zag]

I have to agree. I hate the new culture of "shout down your opponents" and "vote no on everything" and "refuse to discuss or compromise," but I don't blame the actions of a madman on it. I don't even blame Sarah Palin's crosshair targeting of Rep. Giffords; no reasonable person could have thought it was meant literally.

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Samadhi, I'm curious about your new sig, "Praise Boehner! The first colored Speaker of the House. It makes me want to cry." The first colored President didn't seem to have that affect. Am I not understanding your message?

[Samadhi]

I'm poking fun at Boehner's tan and his tendency to cry.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Zag]

Oh, sorry. ~slaps forehead~

[Pablo]

[Samadhi]

The media will probably use the fact that he liked The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf as evidence that he was just way out there where (as I've already heard said) "the extreme right meet the extreme left." Or they'll ignore that and focus on the fact that she was a Democrat that voted for the Affordable Care act.

If they focus on the former that will annoy me. A: He's crazy. B: Both those books are socialist aka left, not right at all.
If they focus on the latter, it's ridiculous. She used to be a Repulican and there were heavy signs she would vote for repeal.

[Samadhi]

[Thok*]

[Zag]

Sorry, I didn't see that he made comments about grammar. What were they? (Also, it should be, "...they have more facts than we.")

[Death Mage]

[Thok*]

[Zag]

[Antrax]

~awards Zag 2 debating points for being the bigger man~
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Pablo]

[Pablo]

[Death Mage]

It's OK, Pablio. I don't expect anything more from Zag. Samadhi had already posted some examples - including, effectively, all of human history - and Zag turned around criticized a word he'd never heard before, instead of trying to look it up. I've just learned that it's not worth talking to someone who's that blindly ignorant. Sure, you could cite the civil rights movement in the US, the entirety of the US Civil War, history lessons on how the senate was conducted in ancient Rome etc. It'll all wash over someone who's already made up their mind that this new, horrible, evil tactic that <insert group they disagree with here> has come up with, so why bother?
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* These senseless ramblings brought to you by Insanity™. If you just can't figure the dang thing out, it must be Insanity™.
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[Chaz]

I blame government intervention.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Pablo]

[Zag]

Ha ha! You lost it a long time ago.

What worries me is thinking that Chaz believes what he said. But no, I'll assume he was joking, and with that assumption, it was pretty funny. Well done, Chaz (I hope).

[Pablo]

[Death Mage]

[Chaz]

I didn't say which government intervention I was blaming; clearly, this was the fault of the Nazis and Communists.

However, yes, it was meant more in the spirit that Zag took it to mean. Though I still would be forced to argue that the asshat couldn't have tried something like this in an aware society. We've become docile and negligent in all matters of personal defense.

Ignorant or insightful as my view may be, it was the current government of the US that allowed this individual to be fostered. You can make excuses, but the facts will remain unexcused.

So, while I am joking about blaming government, the joke is only funny because there is an underlying element of truth to it. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Jack_Ian]

Mein Kampf and The Communist manifesto seem like troll-bait to me.
Maybe he's a meatworld troll.
I say we ignore him and move on.

[Samadhi]

[Thok*]

[Chaz]

[Jack_Ian]

I wonder if the local shopkeeper was aware of his mental instability before selling him the weapon.
The right to bear arms should be restricted to a musket. Anything else should require a little more effort to acquire.
The target is irrelevant.
The issues are guns and mental health.
Even if you are paranoid about personal security, you are as good as dead if a crazy person is intent on your death and there is ready access to such lethal weaponry.
Sometimes I despair at comments about the bad guys have weapons so the good guys need them. It's a vicious cycle.
If possession of an unlicensed weapon put you in jail for an extended period and if handguns were restricted to security personnel, while on duty, gun crime would be reduced. It stands to reason.
The right to bear arms was a way to prevent the government from taking rights from citizens. I don't believe it was ever intended to mean that each citizen is entitled to such extreme offensive capability.

[Chaz]

Indeed. What we needed was laws to prevent this sort of thing from happening.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Chaz]

What's to stop a crazy person from getting a job working as "security personnel" in some no-name desperate company who would lower the bar all the way down?

What's to stop him after he does?
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The enemy's base is down.

[Thok]

[Chaz]

A bigger mob.
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The enemy's base is down.

[Zag]

Yay! Mobs all the time, and the guy who can afford the biggest one wins!

Seriously Thok, give it up. Chaz has formed this world view that is based on the concept that "Right will win out" and is, no doubt, religiously inspired. There's no point in arguing with it

[Thok]

Fair enough Zag. I really just wanted more evidence for when I notify the Utah police to watch out for Chaz as a potential risk.