cornerstone

I for one am glad that we're only seeing the top half of this picture.

Not much point pontificating, so here are some general things I just happened to find interesting while reading around: 1. Not saying anything about the rights and wrongs of the Second Amendment - but it does seem that the original intention for it was indeed that individuals should be entitled to keep weapons. "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." We have our modern sense of militia, but the right to bear arms was central to the road to independence in a different context. The rights of individuals to keep weapons was a right the previous government sought to deny, interestingly it was a right that colonists claimed was based in English law (pre-independence), and ultimately of course those very weapons came in incredibly handy during the victory of the Wars of Independence. It's not surprising then that the framers of the Constitution (who were visionaries beyond question - even if they did borrow from the Declaration of Arbroath EDIT: the amendment was of course, a subsequent amendment to it! END EDIT) sought to give the public the reassurance they desired. That their rights would not be infringed upon by government interference - it was their insurance against oppression. That they had the right to keep weapons, should the need arise to rise up against government interference. The interesting thing about that, of course, is that Constitutional right to bear arms exists so that public citizens have the means rise up against their own government. To follow that through, the Constitutional right to own a weapon is for the purpose of shooting US soldiers. Personally I don't think that's why many people who look to the Constitutional right want to keep a gun in the US. I think they hold their armed forces in high regard. Which might undermine their own arguments. But it does open one intriguing possibility - when it says arms, presumably the public also have a right to keep advances in modern weaponry such as to defeat the military. I kind of like the idea of Bill Gates having his own stealth bomber tucked away for emergencies, or some kind of Dr Evil island in Hawaii. 2. I think the Wikipedia entries on gun control are interesting because you know that every point that's still there has been argued to death - ultimately it must grind down the BS on both sides to some extent. 3. Gun politics (internationally) seem to focus on homicides, do murder rates go up or down? Perhaps the real difference is in accidental shootings and suicides. Doing a Google News search for "accidental shooting" is pretty depressing. And the gun suicide figures (that I've seen anyway) are startling - they looked to be worse than homicides.

Collect Dunny's? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunny

I hope England keep Steve McClaren until 2012

Awesome!!

Too right - picking the host nation is all horse trading at UEFA. Good luck to Croatia! Scotland will need luck because we're crap, but at least at the moment we're going up the rankings to get a better seeding for the qualifying draw.

Commiserations to Croatia. I'm still bummed about the way Scotland was dumped from the 2008 running last time around Poland-Ukraine sounds interesting though. I'm glad to see football go around Europe away from just the Big Five. It'll be good..... .....as long as Scotland qualify!

My guess is 4 more pages. Mods don't get to play.

OT: I got a call from Kansas City today, and all the time I was itching to ask, "Hey, do you know Jetmid?!"

What motivates people to crime is a lot more complicated than popular opinion would believe. People aren't just good or bad. Decisions aren't always made in the cold light of day with the benefit of hindsight. Many crimes are committed by psychologically damaged individuals. Many people were intoxicated at the time. The whole subject of criminology is interesting. The response is interesting too. Is it okay to shoot someone that breaks into your house to steal your cell phone? Is it okay to shoot someone that breaks into your car and tries to steal it? Is it okay to shoot someone who walks into your shop and steals the cash? Is it okay to shoot someone who walks into your shop and steals a watch? Is it okay for Rolex (or whoever) to shoot you? (Or any of us here?) I think there could be a great case for fewer laws - I have no doubt that this whole tragedy will be jumped on by political opportunists looking for cheap votes, and that equals dumb laws - it's the same everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if the 'solution' ends up banning non-US citizens from owning guns, or something of that ilk.

Fair enough - succumb was the key word in what you were saying, I was looking at the phrases in the context that Logan had used them. A perfectly normal person can have a moment where they don't act rationally. This is perhaps where we really differ. I think folk are the same everywhere, just as many cretins here as there. So why is the murder rate so much higher? Not to mention accidental, non-criminal shootings. I only mentioned the source to question their conclusion from the statistics, not the actual figures. There was a rise, but there are a range of different factors involved - the cause and effect didn't necessarily follow from the statistics. House prices also rose during that time, if you see what I mean. I should add that I don't think gun control in the US is feasible or will ever happen. And I know plenty of people enjoy sport shooting. Don't get me wrong, whether it was the best idea or the worst idea, it worked - and put in a moment of extreme duress who knows what goes through your mind to protect your child. If the scenario played out a hundred times though, you could argue that you end up getting hurt by the gun as many times as by the snake. It's not an ideal way of dealing with a snake - it's something people in Australia deal with a lot. It raises a fair point on-topic though - and those are the differing gun needs of the country and the city. Could different gun licensing not address that?

I think never the twain shall meet on this subject. That sounds like an incredibly dangerous way to deal with a snake. That's everyone isn't it? Quote comes from a conservative think-tank, but nevertheless - the equivalent US rate according the FBI is 55 per million.

Happy Birthday! Tell her you want this for the big 4 - 0.

Nice!

For those that don't know, this is TTK's younger, ever-so-slightly meeker brother...Time-To-Tiptoe

Jetmid unites us all! They may take our trading section - but we'll always know where to buy spare parts for a Boeing....

Roughly $500,000. But it's very cool.

That looks like a great deal from Silix for an ETA. I'd say they're both the same watch, just a different price. Both dealers are in the far east.

Great write-up! Cheers!

For step one, go to: http://maps.google.com/ Then try it.

Like it!!

A sober lesson if ever it was needed not to lick the back of a snowmobile when it's frosty out

Holy smokes! Looks great!!

This looks good enough to eat! Looks fantastic!