Well said, JDJK. It's incredible how these cockroaches come out of the woodwork, defending the crazed Rosie O.D. theories and calling people turds because they buy into the moronic idea that it was an inside job. The sort of sick mind that believes that venal nonsense is far, FAR more cynical than the evil hate-filled portraits they paint of Bush, Cheney et al. It's sick to have that much hate and cynicism in one's heart.
David: and your point is? Or is it just assumed in your post that conservatives and industry are just evil and spread false information for their own profit? Go take a long walk off a short pier, comrade...
So-called "saving" is a bad idea in most cases as it is better for people or businesses on any income level to plow a healthy percentage of profits back into investment, research and development. Any corporation or wealthy individual who has been around long enough and succeeded has done this as a matter of course. The article and this discussion leaves aside the whole point about taxes and government intervention (read: profiteering) in financial transactions between entities.
Blogger astanhope seems never to have observed natural phenomena, believing we aren't at war basically all the time. Wars don't start when they're legally declared or are announced on tv, they start in the minds of a war-monger when he perceives he can bully the people around him and force them to do what he wants them to. Let anyone - or anything - get away with this for any length of time and you are asking for trouble. Didn't you ever use bleach to clean out those unsightly stains from your toilet bowl? Or use Listerine or some other germ-killing mouthwash to keep your teeth and gums healthy? It's the same with people, sadly. Some people just don't "play nice". Some people are like the bad bacteria that science, and the progress of human civilization should have taught everyone paying attention by now that certain natural phenomena - like said bad bacteria, or violent men with pathological tendencies need controlling by whatever means necessary. Otherwise whatchagonnado? Let the rats, roaches, ants, fleas, burglars, rapists and everything else invade your home in the name of "peace" and try to convince them all by calm persuasion to live in perfect harmony? Please tell me "astanhope" you at least once had an ant or a flea problem - or perhaps something as simple as athlete's foot that you had to deal with. The analogy may be crude, but so are people - as anyone can see by sticking their head out of the window. What is it that we have to say to you pacifists to smack you out of your coma and wake up?
Typical woolly headed crapola. Perhaps we should all leave our doors unlocked - or send Oprah over to hug Iranian president Madmaninadinnerjacket - or all hold hands and wear flowers in our hair...
Peace is not a natural state of affairs. It's worth striving for, but it will never, ever be fully achieved. If you want peace you have to prepare for war.
Tommy Cooper was a god. Here's a great sketch that no-one else seems to remember, and sadly I can't find video of:
Tommy knocks on a front door and a woman answers. He says, "Is Jack there?" She looks down and solemny replies, "Jack died last night". Tommy pauses, looking confused, and finally says, "Did he say anything about a can of paint?"
Keep drinking the modernist Kool-Aid maps. Bernini's work has been loved and treasured for 500 years, and will be for millennia to come. The only sculptor of the last 100 years or so who even comes within a planetary orbit of the craftsmanship, artistry and transcendent beauty of his work is Rodin. The modernists and abstractionists might have dominated the art world for the last century or so, but only because the art world has been stuck in a "hipper than thou" mode for all that time, with everyone falling over themselves to come up with something more outrageous than the next guy. E.g Gilbert and George's "turd" art, and Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ".
Why are places like the NY Met Museum filled to bursting all year long, whereas most regular commercial art galleries are populated only by otherwise useless art history grads? (Where else would get our unreadable art criticism?) As the brilliant David Hockney says - people like pretty pictures. I don't want modern art to go away - I just don't want it to be the only item on the menu.
Bernini's David is so much more dynamic and descriptive of the David and Goliath story than Michelangelo's rather one dimensional, albeit very beautiful homo-erotic portrait. Once you realize this I think it opens the door to appreciate the genius in so many other Bernini pieces. Bernini captures the precise moment of the drama of the fable, as he does with Apollo and Daphne, which you can't see clearly in that top picture, but can be seen more clearly here: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1620/apollo_d.html where the nymph Daphne is metamorphizing into a tree. A wonderful site for viewing Bernini sculpture is the Italian Thais site: http://www.thais.it/scultura/bernini.htm
I've lived in both the UK and the States. I feel a lot safer actually in the States than in, say England because of the presence of guns. That may sound counter-intuitive, but the simple possibility that the guy might have a gun prevents untold instances of trouble from even starting. That applies across the board - from bar room brawls to armed theft/assault. An armed society is a polite society. Or words to that effect...
So - if you ban guns then do you also ban the police force from having guns? I too would like to live in a world where criminals didn't have guns, but like a lot of things in life that's an unrealistic wish - or even aspiration.
Madmen like the VT killer, or hard core professional criminals will always be able to get their hands on guns. You just have to ask yourself whether you want to try to live in that ideal world without guns - while the criminal element cheat - or live in the real world and level the playing field.
It must be nice and cozy in that mindset of yours, knowing that all you have to do to protect yourself against a man with a gun is to call the authorities. What struck me about much of the video footage shown after the VT campus was "secured" by police was the sad and impotent pointlessness of all of the firearms the cops were armed with. If the victims had had some of that firepower then perhaps 31 of the 32 might still be alive.
As the cliche goes - if you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns. You simply cannot ban anything, it doesn't work.
And re: your "statistics". I don't give them any credence. Perhaps if they were broken down into the US states that allowed concealed carry laws and those that didn't I'd be willing to bet you might just find that most of the gun crime happens in the "gun control" states.
Or is it just assumed in your post that conservatives and industry are just evil and spread false information for their own profit? Go take a long walk off a short pier, comrade...
So-called "saving" is a bad idea in most cases as it is better for people or businesses on any income level to plow a healthy percentage of profits back into investment, research and development. Any corporation or wealthy individual who has been around long enough and succeeded has done this as a matter of course.
The article and this discussion leaves aside the whole point about taxes and government intervention (read: profiteering) in financial transactions between entities.
Didn't you ever use bleach to clean out those unsightly stains from your toilet bowl? Or use Listerine or some other germ-killing mouthwash to keep your teeth and gums healthy? It's the same with people, sadly. Some people just don't "play nice". Some people are like the bad bacteria that science, and the progress of human civilization should have taught everyone paying attention by now that certain natural phenomena - like said bad bacteria, or violent men with pathological tendencies need controlling by whatever means necessary.
Otherwise whatchagonnado? Let the rats, roaches, ants, fleas, burglars, rapists and everything else invade your home in the name of "peace" and try to convince them all by calm persuasion to live in perfect harmony?
Please tell me "astanhope" you at least once had an ant or a flea problem - or perhaps something as simple as athlete's foot that you had to deal with. The analogy may be crude, but so are people - as anyone can see by sticking their head out of the window.
What is it that we have to say to you pacifists to smack you out of your coma and wake up?
Perhaps we should all leave our doors unlocked - or send Oprah over to hug Iranian president Madmaninadinnerjacket - or all hold hands and wear flowers in our hair...
Peace is not a natural state of affairs. It's worth striving for, but it will never, ever be fully achieved. If you want peace you have to prepare for war.
Tommy knocks on a front door and a woman answers. He says, "Is Jack there?"
She looks down and solemny replies, "Jack died last night".
Tommy pauses, looking confused, and finally says, "Did he say anything about a can of paint?"
Why are places like the NY Met Museum filled to bursting all year long, whereas most regular commercial art galleries are populated only by otherwise useless art history grads? (Where else would get our unreadable art criticism?) As the brilliant David Hockney says - people like pretty pictures. I don't want modern art to go away - I just don't want it to be the only item on the menu.
Nail-head, meet hammer.
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1620/apollo_d.html
where the nymph Daphne is metamorphizing into a tree.
A wonderful site for viewing Bernini sculpture is the Italian Thais site:
http://www.thais.it/scultura/bernini.htm
An armed society is a polite society. Or words to that effect...
I too would like to live in a world where criminals didn't have guns, but like a lot of things in life that's an unrealistic wish - or even aspiration.
Madmen like the VT killer, or hard core professional criminals will always be able to get their hands on guns. You just have to ask yourself whether you want to try to live in that ideal world without guns - while the criminal element cheat - or live in the real world and level the playing field.
As the cliche goes - if you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will have guns. You simply cannot ban anything, it doesn't work.
And re: your "statistics". I don't give them any credence. Perhaps if they were broken down into the US states that allowed concealed carry laws and those that didn't I'd be willing to bet you might just find that most of the gun crime happens in the "gun control" states.
When mass killers meet armed resistance; 3 different stories:
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/04/when-mass-killers-meet-armed-resistance.html
Penn and Teller on Gun Control:
http://freestudents.blogspot.com/2007/04/penn-teller-on-gun-control.html