Politer Politics

[Anti Marine Layer]

18 hours ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

So you admit by implication and attempted subject change that you lied about Imane Khleif?

Will you commit to not doing so in the future?

Imane Khleif was not the only thing I mentioned. I also mentioned Chloe Cole, so it's not a subject change.

And I didn't lie intentionally. I saw an article where I thought it said the boxer was transgender and posted what I read.

It's not like the left is perfect in regard to fact checking. Many Democrats still believe the Kamala and Biden lies about Trump's "very fine people on both sides" remark (that it included the neo-Nazis and white supremacists), which he explicitly said it did not. She said it again in her DNC speech. Even Snopes debunked it - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-very-fine-people/

 

 

 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

9 minutes ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

Imane Khleif was not the only thing I mentioned, so it's not a subject change.

You sure seem eager to stop talking about her after being caught in a lie, though.

[Anti Marine Layer]

47 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

You sure seem eager to stop talking about her after being caught in a lie, though.

There's not much more to say about her. Tests from IBA found her to have XY chromosomes and disqualified her. Conservatives probably assumed she was transgender because they have heard similar stories about biological males in women's sports injuring people or setting new records. That in addition to all the other woke stuff in the Olympics (e.g. the controversial scene in the opening ceremony, vegan food provided only to the athletes, cardboard beds, and no AC allowed)

IOC and IBA have different rules for what qualifies a person to compete, and if she were a transgender she would still probably fail the IBA requirements and meet the IOC requirements. 

[hawkstwelve]

There have been screenshots circulating on social media of a person naming local middle schools saying they plan to shoot them up tomorrow. My son goes to one of those schools. A second post shows them saying they will aim at busses too. Apparently similar posts were found online recently for some nearby schools in Iowa. There were also lockdowns in Rapid City and Sioux City last week due to threats found in a bathrooms.

I'm sure it's some dumbass teenagers thinking it's funny, like the kid in Alabama who posted similar crap and just got 11 felony charges, but I almost don't want to send my son to school tomorrow. I couldn't live with myself if I thought it was a prank and it turned out to be true. I can't believe this is where we are at in this country.

My wife is starting to talk about homeschooling. A couple of her aunts have homeschooled and they turned out to be great kids. I'm not normally a huge proponent but even I'm starting to consider it.

[Anti Marine Layer]

21 hours ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

I think she would be quite upset if people misgendered her and then just claimed it was freedom of speech, stop censoring me.

You can call me a she if you want to, even though I'm a he. I won't have a cow over it and ask the government to throw you in prison for hate speech.

[Anti Marine Layer]

21 hours ago, SnarkyGoblin said:

So to the question whether you agree with any gender affirming care, the answer is...no?

Not for minors. The schools are teaching things like if you're a boy and you like to play with dolls, then you're really a girl and that gender transition surgery will save your life. But you better not dare tell your parents about it. As I said before, studies have shown that something like 85%-95% of children overcome their gender dysphoria by the time they are 18.  

This website was made by a person to used to be a leftist. She used to be a DEI speaker and then thought some of the things she was hearing were crazy, so she investigated some more into who's training the DEI people and they all claimed to be socialists and Marxists. She secretly listens in on their trainings every Saturday. They are YouTube links to the trainings in the Socialist Saturday videos.

https://karlyn.substack.com/p/ep-29-protect-your-children-from-bb9

It says "In many school districts, anywhere from 30% to 60% of kids are identifying as trans, non-binary, gender *****, or gender non-confirming. Schools are putting policies in place to instruct staff to not tell you if your children are socially transitioning their gender." 

Do you really believe 30% to 60% of minors are LGQBT and they have been hiding it until now and the schools are saving their lives?

And please don't respond with a Media Bias Fact Check article.

[SilverFallsAndrew]

1 hour ago, hawkstwelve said:

There have been screenshots circulating on social media of a person naming local middle schools saying they plan to shoot them up tomorrow. My son goes to one of those schools. A second post shows them saying they will aim at busses too. Apparently similar posts were found online recently for some nearby schools in Iowa. There were also lockdowns in Rapid City and Sioux City last week due to threats found in a bathrooms.

I'm sure it's some dumba** teenagers thinking it's funny, like the kid in Alabama who posted similar crap and just got 11 felony charges, but I almost don't want to send my son to school tomorrow. I couldn't live with myself if I thought it was a prank and it turned out to be true. I can't believe this is where we are at in this country.

My wife is starting to talk about homeschooling. A couple of her aunts have homeschooled and they turned out to be great kids. I'm not normally a huge proponent but even I'm starting to consider it.

That’s rough. I would probably keep the kids home. Seems unlikely but you just never know. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

3 hours ago, Anti Marine Layer said:

There's not much more to say about her. Tests from IBA found her to have XY chromosomes and disqualified her. Conservatives probably assumed she was transgender because they have heard similar stories about biological males in women's sports injuring people or setting new records. That in addition to all the other woke stuff in the Olympics (e.g. the controversial scene in the opening ceremony, vegan food provided only to the athletes, cardboard beds, and no AC allowed)

IOC and IBA have different rules for what qualifies a person to compete, and if she were a transgender she would still probably fail the IBA requirements and meet the IOC requirements. 

Link or stink!

[Chewbacca Defense]

2 hours ago, hawkstwelve said:

There have been screenshots circulating on social media of a person naming local middle schools saying they plan to shoot them up tomorrow. My son goes to one of those schools. A second post shows them saying they will aim at busses too. Apparently similar posts were found online recently for some nearby schools in Iowa. There were also lockdowns in Rapid City and Sioux City last week due to threats found in a bathrooms.

I'm sure it's some dumba** teenagers thinking it's funny, like the kid in Alabama who posted similar crap and just got 11 felony charges, but I almost don't want to send my son to school tomorrow. I couldn't live with myself if I thought it was a prank and it turned out to be true. I can't believe this is where we are at in this country.

My wife is starting to talk about homeschooling. A couple of her aunts have homeschooled and they turned out to be great kids. I'm not normally a huge proponent but even I'm starting to consider it.

A good friend of mine lives one county over from the school shooting in Georgia last week.  There was lots of chatter about copy cat incidents, and she posted a question on FB asking friends what they were doing.  A couple of her friends said they were keeping  their kids home, but most friends said that after a lot of thoughtful consideration and family discussions (which included the kids) they decided they were not going to live in fear, and the kids would go to school the next day

On the home schooling thing...I friend of mine has 8 kids, and are all homeschooled.  The 3 kids that have been eligible so far have also done running start.  This friend shared an interesting observation.  When one of their kids was really little, they felt the need to run around the room and jump around on the couch while while mom taught the lesson of the day.  When it was over, he could regurgitate the information in great details and even showed some critical thinking/analysis of the information.  I think the kid was around 2nd or 3rd grade at the time.  His point was that by home schooling, they were able to cater to their kids learning styles.  Also, if there was an opportunity that presented itself, they could easily pivot the lesson.  Huge windstorm/atmospheric river....lets learn science/weather today.  You can't expect any of that from a public or private school.

I'm a "victim" of public school.  I was in the "talented and gifted" program in high school, and according to my advisor, my IQ score was very high.  However,  going into high school, I tested very poorly on a math placement test despite being very strong in math.  I got placed in the "slow" class, and my un-diagnosed ADHD just could not handle it.  By the 3rd time of the same concept being explained yet again, my brain was gone to dreamland....literally.  I wore a t-shirt and flannel even when it was 90 degrees out so I could use the flannel as a pillow.  I mastered the ability to stay in a light enough sleep to still track what was going on in class.  On more than one occasion, a teacher thought they could bust me for sleeping only to be disappointed when I gave the answer.

[snow_wizard]

2 hours ago, hawkstwelve said:

There have been screenshots circulating on social media of a person naming local middle schools saying they plan to shoot them up tomorrow. My son goes to one of those schools. A second post shows them saying they will aim at busses too. Apparently similar posts were found online recently for some nearby schools in Iowa. There were also lockdowns in Rapid City and Sioux City last week due to threats found in a bathrooms.

I'm sure it's some dumba** teenagers thinking it's funny, like the kid in Alabama who posted similar crap and just got 11 felony charges, but I almost don't want to send my son to school tomorrow. I couldn't live with myself if I thought it was a prank and it turned out to be true. I can't believe this is where we are at in this country.

My wife is starting to talk about homeschooling. A couple of her aunts have homeschooled and they turned out to be great kids. I'm not normally a huge proponent but even I'm starting to consider it.

No way I would send my kid in this case.  Just not worth it.

[snow_wizard]

12 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Well if anything does happen, at least we know there will be lots of thoughts and prayers from the right.

This is way beneath your usual level of posting.  The implications are pretty awful.

[Skier B]

58 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Link or stink!

https://www.iba.sport/news/iba-clarifies-the-facts-the-letter-to-the-ioc-regarding-two-ineligible-boxers-was-sent-and-acknowledged/

 

[snow_wizard]

25 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

A good friend of mine lives one county over from the school shooting in Georgia last week.  There was lots of chatter about copy cat incidents, and she posted a question on FB asking friends what they were doing.  A couple of her friends said they were keeping  their kids home, but most friends said that after a lot of thoughtful consideration and family discussions (which included the kids) they decided they were not going to live in fear, and the kids would go to school the next day

On the home schooling thing...I friend of mine has 8 kids, and are all homeschooled.  The 3 kids that have been eligible so far have also done running start.  This friend shared an interesting observation.  When one of their kids was really little, they felt the need to run around the room and jump around on the couch while while mom taught the lesson of the day.  When it was over, he could regurgitate the information in great details and even showed some critical thinking/analysis of the information.  I think the kid was around 2nd or 3rd grade at the time.  His point was that by home schooling, they were able to cater to their kids learning styles.  Also, if there was an opportunity that presented itself, they could easily pivot the lesson.  Huge windstorm/atmospheric river....lets learn science/weather today.  You can't expect any of that from a public or private school.

I'm a "victim" of public school.  I was in the "talented and gifted" program in high school, and according to my advisor, my IQ score was very high.  However,  going into high school, I tested very poorly on a math placement test despite being very strong in math.  I got placed in the "slow" class, and my un-diagnosed ADHD just could not handle it.  By the 3rd time of the same concept being explained yet again, my brain was gone to dreamland....literally.  I wore a t-shirt and flannel even when it was 90 degrees out so I could use the flannel as a pillow.  I mastered the ability to stay in a light enough sleep to still track what was going on in class.  On more than one occasion, a teacher thought they could bust me for sleeping only to be disappointed when I gave the answer.

In this case there is an open threat though.  Way different than thinking there could be a copycat out there.

[Sunriver Snow Zone]

28 minutes ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

Well if anything does happen, at least we know there will be lots of thoughts and prayers from the right.

Wtf is wrong with you?

[snow_wizard]

20 minutes ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Wtf is wrong with you?

Yeah.  I really think he went over the line on that one.

[Chewbacca Defense]

3 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

This is way beneath your usual level of posting.  The implications are pretty awful.

You are right, the implications are absolutely awful, only made even more awful by the right's unwillingness to do ANYTHING about the issue beyond "thoughts and prayers".  Why should I even try in the face of the utter stupidity of it all?

These keep happening, and that's all you hear from the right...."thoughts and prayers"  When the left offers suggestions to actually DO something, they get told "STOP POLITICIZING THE ISSUE!!!!  PEOPLE HAVE DIED!!  WE ARE A NATION IN MOURNING!!"  Problem is, with our collective attention span, before the last coffin is in the ground we have already moved on. 

The reality is (IMHO), mental health is a major reason behind a lot of issues, but considering we as a society can't even manage the absolute basics of regular physical health care, there is no way in hell we are going to successfully tackle mental health.  While the mental institutions/insane asylums of years gone by were wrong on so many levels, they did offer, at a very basic level, a place to house people who are dealing with some serious mental issues.  One would think we could take all of the lessons learned with what went wrong with the institutions of the past, apply everything we have learned about mental health today, and come up with something that works, and be willing to fund it.  That is way too much to ask or expect.

Here in  Bellingham we are constantly running into issues of people very legitimately needing very serious mental health treatment, but are getting turned away due to a lack of bed space, and despite the fact this person is really screwed up and needs help, there are 5 more people that are 10x worse, and odds are at least one of them has also been turned away.  Then there's the extreme far left who would get all kinds of butt hurt about locking away people who can't play nice with others. 

 

So, we can't address the mental health issue, that moves us on to the next option:  Bans on certain weapons, red flag laws, etc.  I am a firm believer in 2A, as I said in another post I own several guns myself.  If I had the disposable income, I would probably own more. 

I've shot an AR15, lots of fun. Even though I hate Glocks, its a lot of fun to mag dump a 15 round Glock .40 cal.  If doing away with assault rifles and high capacity mags prevented even one school shootings, I would be willing to give up that little bit of fun.

Look at the carnage that dude in Las Vegas caused, he cranked off over 1,000 rounds in a 10 minute period, killed 60 people, over 400 were wounded by bullets or shrapnel.  Trump administration did at least ban bump stocks, only to have some sh*t for brains sue, and  the Trump Supreme Court overturned the ban (6-3 for those keeping score).

 

From 2009 to 2018 there were 288 school shooting incidents in the US.

Second place went to Mexico with.......8 (eight)

South Africa took 3rd with 6 (six)

And both Mexico and South Africa have some pretty f*cked up sh*t going on in their respective countries.  I have a few friends from South Africa, and if you are not careful, you can find youself in some serious sh*t down there.  Hell even Afghanistan only had 3 (maybe that is due to a lack of schools)

All that said, the "Muh Freeydom" crowds gotta protect their right to have 100 round assault rifles, because we all know that's what Bambi is packing, so gotta be adequately armed when deer hunting (or any other type of hunting for that matter).

I dunno, maybe the Right has it right, maybe all we (as a country) can do is "thoughts and prayers" 

[Chewbacca Defense]

42 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

In this case there is an open threat though.  Way different than thinking there could be a copycat out there.

One could argue that a lot of these shootings are copy cats.  I've always noticed that they come in waves.  We will have 2-4 in fairly quick succession, then it goes quiet for a while. 

[snow_wizard]

The right talks a lot about the mental health aspect of this stuff.  I think the left harps too much on gun control which will do absolutely nothing with millions of guns floating around out there.  Criminals will always be able to get them.  We do need to focus on mental health.  No doubt about it.  I think having a few armed officers in the schools in a no brainer at this point as well.  Not sure why there is always so much resistance to that.

[Chewbacca Defense]

41 minutes ago, Sunriver Snow Zone said:

Wtf is wrong with you?

The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome....."thoughts and prayers"

WTF is wrong with you?

[Tenochtitlan]

8 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

The right talks a lot about the mental health aspect of this stuff.  I think the left harps too much on gun control which will do absolutely nothing with millions of guns floating around out there.  Criminals will always be able to get them.  We do need to focus on mental health.  No doubt about it.  I think having a few armed officers in the schools in a no brainer at this point as well.  Not sure why there is always so much resistance to that.

Yeah, I’m not sure why it has to be an either/or thing. In my opinion we should have stronger background checks for gun ownership and have a ban on those assault weapons. There’s no reason for anyone to need one of those outside of a war.

We do have a mental health crisis in this country. It’s especially difficult, though, to think of a mental health approach that solves the problem of those people who show little or no warning signs before committing a shooting, like the Las Vegas guy (if I’m remembering correctly). At least if he didn’t have access to assault weapons, when he snapped he wouldn’t have been able to commit a mass shooting like that. People like him may not want to reach out for help even if it’s available.

[Chewbacca Defense]

Just now, snow_wizard said:

The right talks a lot about the mental health aspect of this stuff.  I think the left harps too much on gun control which will do absolutely nothing with millions of guns floating around out there.  Criminals will always be able to get them.  We do need to focus on mental health.  No doubt about it.  I think having a few armed officers in the schools in a no brainer at this point as well.  Not sure why there is always so much resistance to that.

There were 2 school resource officers at the school in Georgia.  They also had a brand new security system in place where every teacher and staff member has a special badge with a panic button, so that any teacher can trigger the lockdown alert.

Yet 4 people died and 9 people were injured.  Sure, the resource officers prevented it from becoming 30 dead or 60 dead, but still, 4 people too many died.  9 people were wounded, hundreds of kids will have to live with this memory for the rest of their lives, some saw/dealt with more than others but every kid in that school has to figure out how to process what happened.  I guess, we are lucky that these officers were willing to get in the fight.

And yes, there are too many guns out there, that genie has been let out of the bottle, and certainly, from that standpoint alone, total gun bans would be bad, because only the bad guys would have guns.  I don't have the stats in front of me, but I was surprised to read an article several months ago about the positive impact of the assault weapons and high capacity magazine ban that was enacted in 1994 and expired in 2004.  It didn't put a complete stop to the problem, but it slowed it way down. 

[Hoosier]

If we put the same assualt weapons ban in place that existed from the mid 1990s to the mid 2000s, I'm not sure there would be as much of a reduction in gun violence as there was back then.  But that being said, I'd have no issue with a well-crafted assault weapons ban.  Those kinds of guns have seemingly become weapon of choice for school shooters in particular.  That's just one step though and in some ways it's tinkering around the edges because let's face it, we have a serious problem in this country when it comes to gun deaths.  One person killed here, 5 there, 2 there... it adds up and it's mostly from smaller guns.    

The perfect can't be the enemy of the good.  There are a variety of sensible things that can be done to get the numbers down.

[TT-SEA]

I feel like Trump could call her every racist slur in the book and literally punch her in the face and push her to the ground during the debate and declare he wants to be in power for life while pounding his chest and Republicans and Fox News would still say he won the debate and he would still win the election.   

A little exaggeration there but probably not far from the truth. 

[Groundhog]

On 9/8/2024 at 9:37 AM, Deweydog said:

At least here in the states, and at the macro level, we most decidedly have not been in a recession. I think some of the warning signs were being interpreted as basically nowcasts, probably due to a combined effort to press narratives as well as the fact it’s just been so long since we have experienced one, at least on an organic level. In the face of hyperinflation, overall wage growth, job growth, manufacturing, consumer spending, etc. have remained solid. Only recently have there been some real red meat as far as caution signs for potholes ahead. I imagine that trend will absolutely continue as the delayed effects of rate hikes and other combat tactics make their way through the system. And we have very little in the way of shock absorbers at the moment. Any global crisis at the moment could easily be a catalyst for a renewed wave of inflation as stagflation at that point would be almost impossible to avoid.

Wasn’t there a technical recession in the US a couple years ago, but they fudged the definition? There’s a few ways to skin the cat of what constitutes a recession. I think the focus is on the completely wrong metrics of GDP. That has more than a thumb on the scale to make things appear peachy: inflation is growth; the public sector spending/bloat has little bearing on reality yet constitutes ~50% of GDP. An okay metric is GDP/capita, the best metric is real wage growth. Real wage growth accurately gauges the financial health of households. Little wonder credit card debt is creeping upward. All those words to say: people’s financial situations suck and they feel it regardless of measurements happy-talked to us. 
 

Agreed of obvious signs of trouble. Or, as some say: there are no more bullets in the chamber to deal with the next shock. Here in Canada, the signs are full on Captain Picard barking to Worf, “Red alert! Shields up!” GDP/capita shows full-on depression and has for a few years, real wage growth is negative, and most importantly the yield curve has been inverted for a couple years. So when GDP figures are reported as nominally positive, the masses throw rotten tomatoes. (The rotten tomato throwing literally did happen to Justin’s daddy when he was PM. Well, there is a Jerry Springer-type debate as to whether Fidel Castro is his daddy). 
 

There is a silver lining.  In Canada you have to renew your mortgage every five years maximum. There’s no locking in a rate/terms longer than that. With the yield curve still inverted, a five-year fixed rate is the sweetest deal. It should be the worst deal under normal circumstances. Our renewal is due in a few months with the opportunity to lock in for another five years at a rate below historical averages. With a shift in the federal political situation here, more inflationary policies will be introduced to in the next few months to keep the federal government from dissolving Parliament. We may be able to time the renewal just right before the next bought of inflation bites us in the backside. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

9 hours ago, Skier B said:

https://www.iba.sport/news/iba-clarifies-the-facts-the-letter-to-the-ioc-regarding-two-ineligible-boxers-was-sent-and-acknowledged/

 

Then why does Algeria (a socially conservative Muslim majority nation where being trans is basically illegal) consider her a woman, to the point of having issued a birth certificate at the time of her birth listing her as female?

Maybe, just maybe, the IBA is corrupt? The IOC seems to think so:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/68718463

[Rubus Leucodermis]

2 hours ago, Groundhog said:

Wasn’t there a technical recession in the US a couple years ago, but they fudged the definition? There’s a few ways to skin the cat of what constitutes a recession. I think the focus is on the completely wrong metrics of GDP. That has more than a thumb on the scale to make things appear peachy: inflation is growth; the public sector spending/bloat has little bearing on reality yet constitutes ~50% of GDP. An okay metric is GDP/capita, the best metric is real wage growth. Real wage growth accurately gauges the financial health of households. Little wonder credit card debt is creeping upward. All those words to say: people’s financial situations suck and they feel it regardless of measurements happy-talked to us. 
 

Agreed of obvious signs of trouble. Or, as some say: there are no more bullets in the chamber to deal with the next shock. Here in Canada, the signs are full on Captain Picard barking to Worf, “Red alert! Shields up!” GDP/capita shows full-on depression and has for a few years, real wage growth is negative, and most importantly the yield curve has been inverted for a couple years. So when GDP figures are reported as nominally positive, the masses throw rotten tomatoes. (The rotten tomato throwing literally did happen to Justin’s daddy when he was PM. Well, there is a Jerry Springer-type debate as to whether Fidel Castro is his daddy). 
 

There is a silver lining.  In Canada you have to renew your mortgage every five years maximum. There’s no locking in a rate/terms longer than that. With the yield curve still inverted, a five-year fixed rate is the sweetest deal. It should be the worst deal under normal circumstances. Our renewal is due in a few months with the opportunity to lock in for another five years at a rate below historical averages. With a shift in the federal political situation here, more inflationary policies will be introduced to in the next few months to keep the federal government from dissolving Parliament. We may be able to time the renewal just right before the next bought of inflation bites us in the backside. 

Full-on depression… get real.

Proof living in the right-wing media bubble 24/7 rots one's brain.

[hawkstwelve]

ABC World News Tonight, whose host David Muir is moderating the debate tonight, was found to have an astonishing 100% positive coverage of Kamala Harris since Biden dropped out of the race. Conversely, Trump has enjoyed 93% negative news coverage on that same show. Muir's show has never once claimed Harris is "liberal" or "progressive" and unlike it's counterparts on CBS and NBC, they have never included a pro-Trump voter in their recent news coverage. Certainly not the bastion of fair journalism.

Now, I will say, Dana Bash is about as partisan as they possibly come, yet she moderated the June debate fairly even handed. Maybe Muir will be able to do the same?

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2024/09/09/100-abc-debate-moderator-david-muir-hosts-most-pro-harris-left-wing

[Hoosier]

41 minutes ago, hawkstwelve said:

ABC World News Tonight, whose host David Muir is moderating the debate tonight, was found to have an astonishing 100% positive coverage of Kamala Harris since Biden dropped out of the race. Conversely, Trump has enjoyed 93% negative news coverage on that same show. Muir's show has never once claimed Harris is "liberal" or "progressive" and unlike it's counterparts on CBS and NBC, they have never included a pro-Trump voter in their recent news coverage. Certainly not the bastion of fair journalism.

Now, I will say, Dana Bash is about as partisan as they possibly come, yet she moderated the June debate fairly even handed. Maybe Muir will be able to do the same?

https://newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/rich-noyes/2024/09/09/100-abc-debate-moderator-david-muir-hosts-most-pro-harris-left-wing

If the circumstances warrant, Trump should mention this at the debate.  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Just now, Hoosier said:

If the circumstances warrant, Trump should mention this at the debate.  

I'd give a 99.9% of that happening. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

8 hours ago, Chewbacca Defense said:

You are right, the implications are absolutely awful, only made even more awful by the right's unwillingness to do ANYTHING about the issue beyond "thoughts and prayers".  Why should I even try in the face of the utter stupidity of it all?

These keep happening, and that's all you hear from the right...."thoughts and prayers"  When the left offers suggestions to actually DO something, they get told "STOP POLITICIZING THE ISSUE!!!!  PEOPLE HAVE DIED!!  WE ARE A NATION IN MOURNING!!"  Problem is, with our collective attention span, before the last coffin is in the ground we have already moved on. 

The reality is (IMHO), mental health is a major reason behind a lot of issues, but considering we as a society can't even manage the absolute basics of regular physical health care, there is no way in hell we are going to successfully tackle mental health.  While the mental institutions/insane asylums of years gone by were wrong on so many levels, they did offer, at a very basic level, a place to house people who are dealing with some serious mental issues.  One would think we could take all of the lessons learned with what went wrong with the institutions of the past, apply everything we have learned about mental health today, and come up with something that works, and be willing to fund it.  That is way too much to ask or expect.

Here in  Bellingham we are constantly running into issues of people very legitimately needing very serious mental health treatment, but are getting turned away due to a lack of bed space, and despite the fact this person is really screwed up and needs help, there are 5 more people that are 10x worse, and odds are at least one of them has also been turned away.  Then there's the extreme far left who would get all kinds of butt hurt about locking away people who can't play nice with others. 

 

So, we can't address the mental health issue, that moves us on to the next option:  Bans on certain weapons, red flag laws, etc.  I am a firm believer in 2A, as I said in another post I own several guns myself.  If I had the disposable income, I would probably own more. 

I've shot an AR15, lots of fun. Even though I hate Glocks, its a lot of fun to mag dump a 15 round Glock .40 cal.  If doing away with assault rifles and high capacity mags prevented even one school shootings, I would be willing to give up that little bit of fun.

Look at the carnage that dude in Las Vegas caused, he cranked off over 1,000 rounds in a 10 minute period, killed 60 people, over 400 were wounded by bullets or shrapnel.  Trump administration did at least ban bump stocks, only to have some sh*t for brains sue, and  the Trump Supreme Court overturned the ban (6-3 for those keeping score).

 

From 2009 to 2018 there were 288 school shooting incidents in the US.

Second place went to Mexico with.......8 (eight)

South Africa took 3rd with 6 (six)

And both Mexico and South Africa have some pretty f*cked up sh*t going on in their respective countries.  I have a few friends from South Africa, and if you are not careful, you can find youself in some serious sh*t down there.  Hell even Afghanistan only had 3 (maybe that is due to a lack of schools)

All that said, the "Muh Freeydom" crowds gotta protect their right to have 100 round assault rifles, because we all know that's what Bambi is packing, so gotta be adequately armed when deer hunting (or any other type of hunting for that matter).

I dunno, maybe the Right has it right, maybe all we (as a country) can do is "thoughts and prayers" 

They can ban "assault rifles" tomorrow and I would cheer. Wouldn't change a thing. 

[Rubus Leucodermis]

4 minutes ago, SilverFallsAndrew said:

I'd give a 99.9% of that happening. 

Followed in short order by a segue into sharks and Hannibal Lecter.

[SnarkyGoblin]

33 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Followed in short order by a segue into sharks and Hannibal Lecter.

Did you watch the link I sent about his affordable daycare response?  He has definitely gotten worse.

And I don't blame him. I would do the same $hit if I had the schedule he had and was about to turn 80.

But I'm also not running for president of the United States.

[snow_wizard]

46 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Followed in short order by a segue into sharks and Hannibal Lecter.

Does anyone know why he is talking about Hannibal Lecter?  I haven't really cared enough to look into it, but it is odd.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

It all really boils down to whether Trump can keep a lid on the ranty, rambling old man stuff for the duration of the debate. If he can, he will prevent doing damage to his own cause. It’s the best possible plausible outcome for him.

[Skier B]

1 hour ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Then why does Algeria (a socially conservative Muslim majority nation where being trans is basically illegal) consider her a woman, to the point of having issued a birth certificate at the time of her birth listing her as female?

Maybe, just maybe, the IBA is corrupt? The IOC seems to think so:

https://www.bbc.com/sport/boxing/68718463

I was responding to the fact that Imane Kheliff tested XY on multiple occasions as well as another Olympic Boxer Lin Yu-Ting.  I never referred to these boxers being trans.  If they tested XX this would be a non issue.  I don't know the reasons why Kheliff was assigned female at birth, but Kheliff has never shown any proof to have any rare genetic condition that could explain why a women would test XY.  

You bring up a good point about the IBA could have been corrupt due to the fact that they let Kheliff fight in previous years however their new leadership has put their foot down due to complaints about these boxers.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

17 minutes ago, Skier B said:

I was responding to the fact that Imane Kheliff tested XY on multiple occasions as well as another Olympic Boxer Lin Yu-Ting.  I never referred to these boxers being trans.  If they tested XX this would be a non issue.  I don't know the reasons why Kheliff was assigned female at birth, but Kheliff has never shown any proof to have any rare genetic condition that could explain why a women would test XY.  

You bring up a good point about the IBA could have been corrupt due to the fact that they let Kheliff fight in previous years however their new leadership has put their foot down due to complaints about these boxers.

Quote

IBA Russian president, Umar Kremlev, claimed that DNA test results showed the two athletes have XY chromosomes, citing it as the reason they were disqualified in the world championships. The IBA also cited high levels of testosterone in Khelif's system.

However, the test results were never published and Khelif has never disclosed her biological markers, calling the decision a "big conspiracy." The disqualification came after Khelif defeated Russian boxer Azalia Amineva in the 2023 tournament. IBA said it stripped Lin of a bronze medal because it claimed she failed to meet unspecified eligibility requirements in a biochemical test.

https://www.nbcnewyork.com/paris-2024-summer-olympics/olympics-boxing-imane-khalif-xy-chromosome-italian-boxer-quit/5662035/?os=av&ref=app

When the IBA publishes the test results instead of asking us to believe what its (corrupt) secretary says they contain, let me know.

[Rubus Leucodermis]

Also, she could still be born female and be XY. It’s possible! The world isn’t as simple as “XX = female, XY = male, no exceptions.” Exceptions happen.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlr8gp813ko

And if she is, ultimately, so what? Then she has a genetic condition that helps make her a good boxer. Should she be banned?

Should tall people be banned from basketball because they have a genetic condition that makes them good basketball players? Should those with abnormally large or efficient lungs be banned from long-distance running? Where does it end?

Ultimately, boxing is a rough contact sport. Always has been, always will be. As such, taking part in boxing matches means risking injury. Those unwilling to accept the risks shouldn’t box.

There is zero hard evidence at this point to suggest anything other than Khleif is a good female boxer who won her gold medal fair and square.

[Skier B]

5 minutes ago, Rubus Leucodermis said:

Also, she could still be born female and be XY. It’s possible! The world isn’t as simple as “XX = female, XY = male, no exceptions.” Exceptions happen.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crlr8gp813ko

And if she is, ultimately, so what? Then she has a genetic condition that helps make her a good boxer. Should she be banned?

Should tall people be banned from basketball because they have a genetic condition that makes them good basketball players? Where does it end?

Why in the world would Khelif not officially publish a genetic test to expose the hateful lies of this right wing echo chamber?  

[SilverFallsAndrew]

11 minutes ago, snow_wizard said:

Does anyone know why he is talking about Hannibal Lecter?  I haven't really cared enough to look into it, but it is odd.

Yes, he says other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and allowing those people to come to the US. So they are essentially sending their own Hannibal Lecter's into this country. I think it is pretty reasonable to disagree with this premise, but pretty dishonest to act like what he's saying doesn't logically make sense. 

[SilverFallsAndrew]

Carville expecting great things from Harris tonight. I fully expect the media to swoon over even an average performance. The chances of Trump "winning" this debate are about 0.