I realize you have voted for all previous so-called 'assault weapons' bans, so I am probably wasting my time in writing this, but as a believer in conducting reasoned discourse with those who disagree with me I will continue.
HR 6257 is a reiteration of the useless 1994 Assault Weapons Ban. Unlike statements from other legislators and from the media, this ban along with the present proposed one targets mostly semiautomatic rifles, along with certain cosmetic features that have little, if anything, to do with the performance of the firearm. The phrase "military-style" is used frequently in the description of "assault weapons", which is merely a cosmetic feature again.
FBI and DoJ statistics place none of the weapons mentioned in the bill in their top 10 guns used in crimes, or top 10 guns stolen or traced.
The fact of the matter is that there is no clear definition of "assault weapon". A 1991 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey of convicted felons found that less than 1% of those felons even carried an "assault weapon" during the commission of a crime.
AK-74s and WASR-10s and AR180s cannot be stuffed into the waistband of a street thug who is going to make a drug deal. Every other rifle on that list is not even remotely favored by criminals. Even if they were, do you think criminals would pay attention to HR 6257, which is just another law - similar to the laws against robbery, rape, murder, and drug possession that they already ignore? The same FBI information from the 1991 survey found that 80% of felons who used a firearm to commit a crime gained it through illegal means to begin with.
HR 6257 is just another piece of messy, redundant, and poorly-defined legislation. Stealing a firearm is a felony, along with possession by a felon. We do not need more legislation trying to define what is already defined. What is needed is enforcement against REAL criminals.
Let us use California as an example. Our state along with some of our cities have very tight firearms regulations, yet we experience a higher-than-average violent crime rate. Places like Washington, D.C. and Chicago with high crime rates also have stringent restrictions on firearms. This is what happens when law-abiding citizens are disarmed, leaving at the mercy of the police, or God forbid, the criminal.
Why are we criminalizing firearms on the basis of how they look? The Second Amendment doesn't specifically enumerate that US citizens are allowed to keep and bear "military-style rifles" as arms, but this analogy would be akin to stating that the First Amendment only protects written speech if a quill pen or printing press was used.
"Arms" are "arms", and the right of the people to keep and bear them shall not be infringed. Without them, the body politic of the US is effectively toothless and unable to defend itself against oligarchy, tyranny, and against each other.
I know many ordinary people with families, good jobs, and a clean criminal record who own these types of firearms.
Are you willing to be complicit in turning these people into quasi-criminals in the eyes of their government? With your high rating in Civil Liberties proudly displayed on your website, it frankly surprises me to see your distaste towards the ability and option for normal Americans like myself to be armed in order to protect ourselves and our loved ones against a tyrannical government and a common burglar alike.
I ask you to make the proper decision regarding HR 6257 - the Bill of Rights is one thing, but the ability for ordinary people to defend those rights is what is at stake. Take a REAL stand for liberty, instead of taking a step towards erasing the ability for self-defense and the last recourse of the people against an invader, whether foreign or domestic.
20.11.08
Feeling nostalgic...
Scrooge Mcduck And Money Disney cartoon short Part 1
Scrooge Mcduck And Money Disney cartoon short Part 2
It is truly a shame that media companies have never put out anything remotely educational like this for years. The sooner that kids learn how to handle money wisely, the less inclinations they will have to spend with reckless abandon. Instead, they learn useless stuff like "self-esteem" (wow, I didn't know I could only gain respect for myself through someone else telling me so!) or how everyone is all the same. All this watered-down namby-pamby utopian drivel is turning our kids into whiny, spineless wastes of carbon who are more concerned with not making others feel bad or how many minorities and handicapped people are in their group.
The biggest problem I see with the middle class is that everyone is obsessed with either spending or saving. How many of them are paying attention to mutual funds? How many of them do something as simple as looking at the stock tickers for the NASDAQ or the DJIA or the S&P 500 while they check the news or their email?
The recent financial upsets on the personal level are not because the economy's going to hell in a handbasket (a recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of NEGATIVE growth, and the last time I checked our economy still has POSITIVE growth - morons!), but rather that people are spending way outside their means. This is not necessarily something to pin on 'evil, predatory loan sharks', but simply a lack of self-control on the part of the middle class and poor. Sure, lots of people are "rich", with lots of cool stuff filling their junky and more-or-less-useless SUVs each time they come back from the mall. They present a glamorous front, but that glamour is purchased with borrowed money that they may not be able to repay if they keep buying and borrowing time and time again.
Again, this is a problem of individual self-control, not something to be pinned on media execs and corporate marketing divisions. I have noticed that increasing numbers of parents refuse to say 'no' to their children. As infrequently as I visit shopping malls (my social claustrophobia and avoidance complex has kept me away from what probably has been a wealth of study opportunities), I have seen this trend.
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, Detective John Kimball, in Kindergarten Cop: "You lack discipline!" Kids run around screaming in stores, talk back to their parents, and generally behave like little savages. Parents are not supposed to be your friend. Friends won't give you a well-deserved and sharp smack on the behind when you're out of line. Parents are supposed to teach good behavior to their children, not mollycoddle them and leave them unprepared to face a world that is, to wax Hobbesian, nasty and brutish at times.
When parents do not set limits for their children, this creates an expectation that often stays with them for a long time. We can see this with the 'Generation ME', with the people in their late 20s/early 30s who expected the ability to own a brand new car along with a high five-figure income right out of college. These are also the kinds of people who spend their money on superficial accessories for their cars, cheaply-made designer knockoff clothes, wear UGG boots, listen to Coldplay, and drink Bud Light, because nothing says "I'm classy" like mass-produced domestic piss-water.
These kinds of people do not spend within their means. They likely have more than three credit cards, have no money invested, and perhaps enough money saved to last them a month or two if they found themselves without a job.
There is also a big difference between being "rich" and being "wealthy". The former implies that someone either has lots of disposable income, lots of expensive stuff, or both. Wealth is gauged by the kind of financial capital that one has available, usually in the form of a business, property (houses/land, classic cars, and other things that appreciate in value). It also denotes that one has money invested in lieu of letting it essentially lay stagnant in savings.
If I had to explain investing to someone with no economic knowledge, I would put it this way:
Investing is more like spending than saving. You want to watch for good deals, and take a shrewd risk. The money you invest is no longer part of your disposable income for the time being, but it is being injected into the economy - also like spending moreso than saving. The best part is that the money you invested will grow, and you will have more than what you started with because the company or companies used the investments of people just like you to expand their production, conduct research, and become more profitable - if you made a good decision regarding which company or companies to invest in.
You're probably thinking, "who has time for all of this research and reading, Mr. Viking?"
I say to that "TURN OFF YOUR DAMN TELEVISION AND STOP DOING USELESS THINGS LIKE THAT." The Internet has made investing so much easier. You don't have to deal with a living, breathing stockbroker anymore. Companies like Scottrade and Ameritrade allow people all over the world to invest money and keep tabs on their stocks from nearly any computer with an Internet connection. Technology is a huge advantage that humans have, but we need to learn how to utilize it wisely.
Spend less.
Keep up with your savings.
Invest more.
The economy (and your wallet!) will thank you.
Scrooge Mcduck And Money Disney cartoon short Part 2
It is truly a shame that media companies have never put out anything remotely educational like this for years. The sooner that kids learn how to handle money wisely, the less inclinations they will have to spend with reckless abandon. Instead, they learn useless stuff like "self-esteem" (wow, I didn't know I could only gain respect for myself through someone else telling me so!) or how everyone is all the same. All this watered-down namby-pamby utopian drivel is turning our kids into whiny, spineless wastes of carbon who are more concerned with not making others feel bad or how many minorities and handicapped people are in their group.
The biggest problem I see with the middle class is that everyone is obsessed with either spending or saving. How many of them are paying attention to mutual funds? How many of them do something as simple as looking at the stock tickers for the NASDAQ or the DJIA or the S&P 500 while they check the news or their email?
The recent financial upsets on the personal level are not because the economy's going to hell in a handbasket (a recession is defined as 2 consecutive quarters of NEGATIVE growth, and the last time I checked our economy still has POSITIVE growth - morons!), but rather that people are spending way outside their means. This is not necessarily something to pin on 'evil, predatory loan sharks', but simply a lack of self-control on the part of the middle class and poor. Sure, lots of people are "rich", with lots of cool stuff filling their junky and more-or-less-useless SUVs each time they come back from the mall. They present a glamorous front, but that glamour is purchased with borrowed money that they may not be able to repay if they keep buying and borrowing time and time again.
Again, this is a problem of individual self-control, not something to be pinned on media execs and corporate marketing divisions. I have noticed that increasing numbers of parents refuse to say 'no' to their children. As infrequently as I visit shopping malls (my social claustrophobia and avoidance complex has kept me away from what probably has been a wealth of study opportunities), I have seen this trend.
To quote Arnold Schwarzenegger's character, Detective John Kimball, in Kindergarten Cop: "You lack discipline!" Kids run around screaming in stores, talk back to their parents, and generally behave like little savages. Parents are not supposed to be your friend. Friends won't give you a well-deserved and sharp smack on the behind when you're out of line. Parents are supposed to teach good behavior to their children, not mollycoddle them and leave them unprepared to face a world that is, to wax Hobbesian, nasty and brutish at times.
When parents do not set limits for their children, this creates an expectation that often stays with them for a long time. We can see this with the 'Generation ME', with the people in their late 20s/early 30s who expected the ability to own a brand new car along with a high five-figure income right out of college. These are also the kinds of people who spend their money on superficial accessories for their cars, cheaply-made designer knockoff clothes, wear UGG boots, listen to Coldplay, and drink Bud Light, because nothing says "I'm classy" like mass-produced domestic piss-water.
These kinds of people do not spend within their means. They likely have more than three credit cards, have no money invested, and perhaps enough money saved to last them a month or two if they found themselves without a job.
There is also a big difference between being "rich" and being "wealthy". The former implies that someone either has lots of disposable income, lots of expensive stuff, or both. Wealth is gauged by the kind of financial capital that one has available, usually in the form of a business, property (houses/land, classic cars, and other things that appreciate in value). It also denotes that one has money invested in lieu of letting it essentially lay stagnant in savings.
If I had to explain investing to someone with no economic knowledge, I would put it this way:
Investing is more like spending than saving. You want to watch for good deals, and take a shrewd risk. The money you invest is no longer part of your disposable income for the time being, but it is being injected into the economy - also like spending moreso than saving. The best part is that the money you invested will grow, and you will have more than what you started with because the company or companies used the investments of people just like you to expand their production, conduct research, and become more profitable - if you made a good decision regarding which company or companies to invest in.
You're probably thinking, "who has time for all of this research and reading, Mr. Viking?"
I say to that "TURN OFF YOUR DAMN TELEVISION AND STOP DOING USELESS THINGS LIKE THAT." The Internet has made investing so much easier. You don't have to deal with a living, breathing stockbroker anymore. Companies like Scottrade and Ameritrade allow people all over the world to invest money and keep tabs on their stocks from nearly any computer with an Internet connection. Technology is a huge advantage that humans have, but we need to learn how to utilize it wisely.
Spend less.
Keep up with your savings.
Invest more.
The economy (and your wallet!) will thank you.
1.11.08
There's sure a lot of not-knowing going on.
Things that Barack Obama "didn't know" (or at least doesn't want others to know):
His aunt is an illegal immigrant [link]
His friend Rashid Khalidi has a soft spot for Hamas (but the LA Times won't release the video showing Khalidi and Obama at a party); Khalidi and Obama do have a history together, much like Bill Ayers, which the Obama campaign and major media outlets refuse to acknowledge. [link]
Bill Ayers still holds the violently radical ideas of overthrowing the U.S. government that he did when he co-authored the Weather Underground manifesto, Prairie Fire [link]
The Weather Underground bombings continued from the time Obama was eight years old until he was 20. Everyone knows who the Unabomber is, and he wasn't nearly as prolific or fear-inspiring as the WU. Obama, as politically-active as he describes himself during his college years, does not have an excuse for not knowing who these people are.
His black nationalist/separatist preacher was spewing racially divisive and hostile rhetoric from the pulpit for over 20 years of attendance.
Let's see what would happen if McCain were involved in the same kind of activities:
-Involved with a white nationalist church
-Friendship and/or professional relationships with Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, or Terry Nichols
-Associates within the European neo-fascist community
He couldn't even run for municipal dogcatcher, let alone Senator or President. Now, we ake a mixed race man with a deep history of involvement in radical leftist politics, add in some messianic glorification by the MSM, fancy words and feel-good statements, and you have a candidate that few dare to question.
His aunt is an illegal immigrant [link]
His friend Rashid Khalidi has a soft spot for Hamas (but the LA Times won't release the video showing Khalidi and Obama at a party); Khalidi and Obama do have a history together, much like Bill Ayers, which the Obama campaign and major media outlets refuse to acknowledge. [link]
Bill Ayers still holds the violently radical ideas of overthrowing the U.S. government that he did when he co-authored the Weather Underground manifesto, Prairie Fire [link]
The Weather Underground bombings continued from the time Obama was eight years old until he was 20. Everyone knows who the Unabomber is, and he wasn't nearly as prolific or fear-inspiring as the WU. Obama, as politically-active as he describes himself during his college years, does not have an excuse for not knowing who these people are.
His black nationalist/separatist preacher was spewing racially divisive and hostile rhetoric from the pulpit for over 20 years of attendance.
Let's see what would happen if McCain were involved in the same kind of activities:
-Involved with a white nationalist church
-Friendship and/or professional relationships with Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, or Terry Nichols
-Associates within the European neo-fascist community
He couldn't even run for municipal dogcatcher, let alone Senator or President. Now, we ake a mixed race man with a deep history of involvement in radical leftist politics, add in some messianic glorification by the MSM, fancy words and feel-good statements, and you have a candidate that few dare to question.
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