Gun ownership poll

[Exhibitman]

George Carlin put it best as far as I am concerned:

Everyone in this country is running around yammering about their fucking rights. "I have a right, you have no right, we have a right."

Folks I hate to spoil your fun, but... there's no such thing as rights. They're imaginary. We made 'em up. Like the boogie man. Like Three Little Pigs, Pinocio, Mother Goose, shit like that. Rights are an idea. They're just imaginary. They're a cute idea. Cute. But that's all. Cute...and fictional.

*****

Now, if you think you do have rights, I have one last assignment for ya. Next time you're at the computer get on the Internet, go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, i want to type in, "Japanese-Americans 1942" and you'll find out all about your precious fucking rights. Alright. You know about it.

In 1942 there were 110,000 Japanese-American citizens, in good standing, law abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That's all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had was...right this way! Into the internment camps.

Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most...their government took them away. and rights aren't rights if someone can take em away. They're privileges. That's all we've ever had in this country is a bill of TEMPORARY privileges; and if you read the news, even badly, you know the list get's shorter, and shorter, and shorter.

_____________________________

ALL THIS DEBATE ABOUT GUN RIGHTS IS AKIN TO DEBATING THE NUMBER OF ANGELS THAT CAN DANCE ON THE HEAD OF A PIN: FICTION. YOUR RIGHTS ARE WHAT FIVE ASSHOLES IN WASHINGTON DECIDE THEY ARE. PERIOD END OF STORY.

[G1911]

Oh yay, it's starting over again.

[irv]

Originally Posted by G1911

Oh yay, it's starting over again.

It certainly is, and as you know, it is even worse up here.

[G1911]

Originally Posted by irv

It certainly is, and as you know, it is even worse up here.

I heard they banned all transfers of handguns for you fellers up north. I’m sure we will see crime plummet as the bad guys just stop. Yes. I’m sure that’s why, and that that will happen.

I would think most on both sides would agree that just because effective power lies in the whim of the state due to their monopoly on the means of control and mass violence, that does not mean the populace should take a nihilistic apathy of not caring, or not doing what we can to preserve rights (I’ve yet to find someone who doesn’t like any of them). Imagine a world where nobody even debated or tried to preserve anything but the will of the state. I find it hard to imagine many would enjoy that.

[Mark17]

Originally Posted by G1911

I heard they banned all transfers of handguns for you fellers up north. I’m sure we will see crime plummet as the bad guys just stop. Yes. I’m sure that’s why, and that that will happen.

I would think most on both sides would agree that just because effective power lies in the whim of the state due to their monopoly on the means of control and mass violence, that does not mean the populace should take a nihilistic apathy of not caring, or not doing what we can to preserve rights (I’ve yet to find someone who doesn’t like any of them). Imagine a world where nobody even debated or tried to preserve anything but the will of the state. I find it hard to imagine many would enjoy that.

I can imagine it. North Korea. A country where 25 million people are starving or thin, and one guy is so fat he's basically round.

[Cliff Bowman]

Originally Posted by Exhibitman

Now, if you think you do have rights, I have one last assignment for ya. Next time you're at the computer get on the Internet, go to Wikipedia. When you get to Wikipedia, in the search field for Wikipedia, i want to type in, "Japanese-Americans 1942" and you'll find out all about your precious fucking rights. Alright. You know about it.

In 1942 there were 110,000 Japanese-American citizens, in good standing, law abiding people, who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country. That's all they did wrong. They had no right to a lawyer, no right to a fair trial, no right to a jury of their peers, no right to due process of any kind. The only right they had was...right this way! Into the internment camps.

You forgot to mention specifically WHO did this and WHO was responsible for it.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Cliff Bowman

You forgot to mention specifically WHO did this and WHO was responsible for it.

Irrelevant. The government does shitty stuff every day; the guardians (courts) are supposed to put a stop to it. Instead. the Supreme Court approved it. They are the true villains of the internment story because they failed to be the check on governmental overreach. As the recent Dobbs case makes crystal clear, all these 'rights' can be reconfigured whenever five idiots decide they want to do it.

[ALR-bishop]

“Sometimes you just have to march right in and demand all your rights. Even if you are not sure what your rights are, or even who you are talking to. And when you leave, slam the door”….. Jack Handey

[G1911]

While I have favored a right to abortion personally (I must concede the increasing push for "after-birth abortion" that appears to be simply first degree murder and my states radical legislation makes me start to re-examine some of my thinking on having limits), I am unable to figure how the 14th amendment provides an unlimited right to abortion through a certain trimester. Try as I might, as I have read it over and over again through my life, I am never able to find this in the document whatsoever. This certainly would be absolutely shocking to its authors. Many on the left have recognized over the last five decades that this ruling was not exactly on solid ground, to say the least. The Supreme Court's 2022 ruling that this issue defaults to the states and the people under the 10th amendment does not appear to be a random decision by five assholes, but a 6-3 ruling to actually use the document they are supposed to be using, as was the decision around the same time that the 2nd cannot be ignored. They have ignored this document many times, such as to allow the internment, but Dobbs is not an example of this. One should never mistake something they don't like with being wrong.

[clydepepper]

Though I certainly do not want to get involved in the original discussion, I feel compelled to ask this one question:


Why are 'radicals' only labeled as such when coming from one end of the 'spectrum'?

[BobbyStrawberry]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

Though I certainly do not want to get involved in the original discussion, I feel compelled to ask this one question:


Why are 'radicals' only labeled as such when coming from one end of the 'spectrum'?

Depending where you get your news (or "news" if you prefer that) it is possible to read about "radicals" like - for example - AOC on the one hand, or Marjorie Taylor Greene on the other...

[G1911]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

Though I certainly do not want to get involved in the original discussion, I feel compelled to ask this one question:


Why are 'radicals' only labeled as such when coming from one end of the 'spectrum'?

I do not think this is true. Each side labels the other sides more extreme takes, or the ones they dislike the most even though that is incorrect usage, as radical. Read the propaganda from each party and you will see this.

I am stuck in the middle with some very conservative (I do not think the state should steal half my money and I like the Constitution as actually written) and deeply left (I’m fine with abortion, I am in favor of universal health care, I am young enough to still be a little bitter about the police harassing young people for being young people in public) views. Both the traditional sides have some radical views.

Some of California’s laws are pretty radical. I’ll stand by that. They tend to go as far to one side in a uniparty state as possible. That seems to meet the dictionary.