AAAAAAAAA

A blog post with every single category marked (I'm doing this for scribefire)

Panic

Whilst reading a comments thread over at Calculated Risk - an economics blogsite that is probably the best place on the internet to go to understand the whole subprime mess - I came across some rather disturbing revelations (click on the comments button on this post):

Everyone at work is talking guns! "I bought the wife a 38 special." Coworker #2: "I bought my wife a 9mm Barretta, military model." Later: "We have 1200 rounds for the new gun on hand." Another coworker just bought a 30-06 and a 357...

I wish I was kidding... Four years ago everyone was buying aircraft and boats. Now...

Got Popcorn?
Neil
neil | Homepage | 02.28.08 - 4:31 pm | #
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sunsetbeachguy writes:
Neil has got a point.

The mood around the office has gotten quite surly lately.

I had the thought of arming up.
sunsetbeachguy | 02.28.08 - 4:34 pm | #
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tj & the bear writes:
I'm itching to get a new 12 gauge.

If I lived anywhere but CA I'd already have a couple ARs, too. Glen over at Winter Watch has been teasing me with the Rock River Arms AR-15 chambered for .458 SOCOM.

tj & the bear | 02.28.08 - 4:41 pm | #
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mock turtle writes:
tieornot,

yes BB is in over his head...we all are and anybody in his position would be as well. this is like so many games of chess played where after so many moves there is no way out.

now it's time for the pain.

Scott:
gold still has lots of upside potential but who knows for sure...not me. my play in the last year has been palladium as an alternative to platinum AND because it is the only material on earth that filters hydrogen gas from all others (is also a sponge) H2 economy?!

i also recommend investing in a bicycle, a garden plot and seeds...throw in a roto-tiller or a horse with a plow.
mock turtle | 02.28.08 - 4:47 pm | #
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Dr. N writes:
what's all this talk about guns?? We have a slight (so far) economic downturn and people are imagining mobs running through their neighbourhoods looting and pillaging or worse?
Dr. N | 02.28.08 - 4:48 pm | #
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wally writes:
Neil,
Wherever you work, watch your back.
wally | 02.28.08 - 4:50 pm | #
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mock turtle writes:
suggestions to my friends in the gun crowd,

(i'm pro 2nd amend)

give yourself a choice other than deadly physical force if you need to defend.

most cops and others, who have had to take extreme measures are haunted and suffer... (unless you are a sociopath)...but sometimes you have little choice.

12 gauge pump with the double 0 removed from the first round and replaced with, salt or a bean bag is formidable and of course loud.

also, a mega can of bear spray is awesome (looks like a small fire extinguisher and is filled with 10% oleo-capsicum)..sprays 15 feet...,non lethal and feels like fire has been poured on you.

let's pray non of this comes to pass.
mock turtle | 02.28.08 - 5:05 pm |
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Ella writes:
Tazer anyone?
Ella | 02.28.08 - 5:05 pm | #
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The current recession and all the bad news that is coming out of America has obviously got people spooked - but the people spooked on this thread are not anti-government redneck militia members, they are people with an interest in economics.

Let me say for the record that I do not believe that US society will collapse into anarchy as a result of this recession. Even the 1930s depression wasn't as bad as the possible collapse that these commentators fear. Even they would probably realise that there was some fearful irrationality behind their comments.

What is DOES show, however, is that people are frightened. When Bush appears on TV and says "there won't be a recession" they don't believe him. When Bernanke appears on TV and says "the Fed will fix things up", they don't believe him. With faith in these institutions now at a nadir, people are naturally resorting to "preparing for the worse". This is NOT similar to the Y2K panic.

But, then again, you can hardly be unconcerned about recent panic when the US Dollar is doing this:

Again with the shooting

From the department of horrible yet predictable:

Eighteen people were injured and several people were taken away in ambulances after a shooting at Northern Illinois University, west of Chicago, this morning (Australian time), officials and US media said.

The Northern Illinois University website is urging people not to come to campus.

"It has been confirmed that there has been a shooting on campus and several people have been taken away by ambulance," it read.

CNN reported that as many as 18 people had been shot.

The website of the university reported that the gunman had been killed, the BBC reports.

A local hospital said it was expecting 15 victims but there was no word on their condition.

One student told local radio that roughly 140 students were in a geology classroom when the man opened fire.

Another mass shooting in the United States.

Although mass shootings do happen in other nations, there is no doubt that they happen more often in the United States. What is it about the country that lends itself to this sort of violence? Certainly I believe that the second amendment - a constitutional right that is not present in most other industrialised countries - is partly to blame.

It can't be video games - other nations have video games and they don't have the same amount of gun violence (not to mention the fact that mass shootings in the US pre-date the video game industry). It can't be television - for the same reason.

What is unique about the US that creates such an environment for these shootings to occur?

Christians + Gun Culture + Insanity + Colorado =

From the department of do-any-evangelicals -want-stricter-gun-laws-in-the-US?:

A gunman walked into a dormitory for young Christian missionaries in training in the US state of Colorado early on Sunday and opened fire, killing two people and wounding two others.

The gunman is still missing.

The shooting occurred just after midnight at the Youth With a Mission centre, police spokeswoman Susan Medina said. About 45 people were evacuated from the dormitory in this Denver suburb.

Medina said a man and a woman in their mid-20s died, and two men aged 22 and 23 were wounded.

Paul Filidis, a spokesman for Youth With a Mission, said all four of the victims were staff members. One of the injured men was in critical condition, he said.

Witnesses told police the gunman was a 20-year-old white male, wearing a dark jacket and skull cap. He may have glasses or a beard.

But wait, there's more!:

A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said.

The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt Lari Sevene said.

Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, said he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.

It was not immediately known whether the shootings were related to an earlier shooting about 100 kilometres away in the Denver suburb of Arvada.

Two shooting incidents on the same Sunday in the same state known for its Christian subculture. I blame it on atheism and the rise of militant Islam.

Update:
Five confirmed dead in the Colorado Springs shooting. The New Life Church where this shooting occurred was Ted Haggard's church before he left.

Grammar and Gun Ownership

An expert in grammar shoots down popular interpretations of Gun ownership and the US Constitution.

The second amendment says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The argument is whether the original framers meant this to refer to the existence of militias (which are regulated by government), or whether ordinary citizens can be included in it as well.

The idea is - what do the commas mean? And what did they mean in the 18th century?

Washington DC moving into anarchy

John Aravosis, a rather popular lefty blogger, has just written a piece outlining the extent to which crime is developing in Washington, DC.

Although the piece is naturally subjective (and therefore may not necessarily represent what is actually going on), the arguments he uses are quite compelling, namely that people living in well-to-do areas are now being targeted. A veteran New York Times reporter was killed in the past twelve months, and just recently a young British politician was murdered and his girlfriend raped in the suburb of Georgetown, which, in Sydney parlance, is like being raped and murdered by a gang roaming the streets in Turramurra.

To me, this is one of those self-fulfilling prophecies that come about because of the inaction of those on the right wing of the political spectrum. Desperate to cut back on expenses and ideologically committed to small government, education and law enforcement budgets are substantially pared back, thus allowing the emergence of an unchecked gang culture that cannot be addressed by the local police and which confirms to the right wing, yet again, that people just can't trust the police and that it's better to keep paring back their budgets and instead rely upon arming yourself with your own weapons since the police, and therefore the government, have been proven to be ill-equipped to do the job.

Meanwhile, on the so called riot-torn streets of Paris, people are walking home in relative safety.

Most Brazilians are idiots

Just when you thought Brazil was about to become a more civilised nation and enter the first-world nations club, they have decided to reject the recent referendum to ban the sale of firearms.

The facts are that 36,000 Brazilians died of gun-related deaths last year - the highest in the world. This referendum would have restricted the supply of guns.

But no, Brazilians worked out in their infinite wisdom that life without access to firearms would result in more gun-related deaths than what they suffer now. That's right - by severely restricting the supply of firearms, Brazilians would suffer even more gun related deaths than they do now!

I think I know what is going on - it's the work of the NRA.

You see, had this referendum passed, there would have been a massive drop-off in the amount of gun-related deaths. A drop-off of that magnitude would have given gun-control advocates in the United States ample "ammunition" to force even greater restrictions on American gun-owners.

Fearful of the potential future damage, the NRA has probably funded the "No" campaign in the same way they do it in the US - they focus upon people's fears and argue that restricting firearms is going to hurt law-abiding citizens while the criminals are not affected at all.

The facts are very, very simple. If your nation has lax controls on the sale and procurement of firearms, you will have a very high amount of a gun-related crime, including a high death rate. If your country has very restrictive laws on gun-ownership and prcurement, you have a very low amount of gun-related crime and low death rates as well.

Those are the facts, but the NRA, and their interference in another country's sovereignty, has meant that tens of thousands more people will die over the next few years. And the Brazilians themselves? Can we blame them for being afraid and for not making an informed decision? Yes we can.



From the Department of Wha Happnin?

© 2005 Neil McKenzie Cameron, http://one-salient-oversight.blogspot.com/




This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.