News of the day

I'm very sorry to hear of the Westminster Bridge massacre yesterday. This is an area of London that I visited with my children and late wife as both tourists and citizens. I feel deeply for those who were injured and killed in yet another senseless act of violence.

The US was hit by its second category 4 hurricane of the year yesterday.  Two weeks after Hurricane Harvey dumped up to 50 inches of rain on the Houston area, Hurricane Irma paid Florida a visit.  Here's hoping that all of our PA friends from the effected areas came through unscathed.

The T wrote: Unscathed, one full day with no power, which is really good luck. A couple of trees down but nothing more. If the hurricane had gone through south east FL as it was originally expected it would've been cataclysmic

Really glad you are safe. The power of nature, eh?

Teo, I'm glad to see that you are OK.  My parents are still without power but otherwise they made it through unscathed too.

It was even more devastating on several Caribbean islands, particularly Barbuda and St. Martin. I'm sure Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the Bahamas also had a lot of damage.

Absolutely wonderful story on the BBC news website reporting that an Irish champion greyhound (as in doggy racing) has tested positive for cocaine.

The mind boggles....some people will do anything for money

Edited by lazland - September 14 2017 at 11:09

Yes, a man with 10 automatic weapons stood on his 32nd story hotel balcony and fired into a crowd of 22,000 people. Last I saw 58 dead with 515 injured. 

Edited by JJLehto - October 02 2017 at 21:43

The funny thing is while I, like many Americans, see the need for sensible gun laws I have always been fairly neutral on this issue, even believing as long as you pass stringent criminal and health screenings then sure why not have your damn assault rifle (though personally I see no reason why anyone needs an automatic weapon, see no appeal in guns, and am a little sketched out by people who have this rager for them). Though as mass shootings have increased and the prevalence of automatic weapons used with em, I am now starting to reconsider. 

These mass shootings are always either a case of mental illness, or terrorism of whatever variety. The latter, not sure off hand what can be done, but for the former again stringent screenings are needed and a better mental health system in general. 
Then there are all the other gun crimes, the bunch that happen every day and gets little attention outside local news. I think this is mostly socioeconomic and needs to be tackled a whole different way, and gun laws may not be super helpful there. But thats all for another time. Yeah it's ridiculous here. The majority of sensible people are basically held hostage by a very very loud, ideological minority. 
At the very least there is evidence to suggest gun control would reduce suicide, of which 40,000 a year currently happen, and there may be evidence suggesting less guns does lead to some decline in crime rate. I think it's something we should at least look into, but oops we can't...I found out today apparently there is a ban on federal funding into gun research in the US. No joke, was passed by Congress in 1996 spurred on by ya guessed it, the NRA. Apparently even though it's still possible to do, and Obama actually asked people to research it, the lack of funding and fear of immense social backlash has paralyzed researchers. 

Blacksword wrote: The Second Ammendment may have been appropriate in the violent beginnings of the USA, in the days of muskets, tricorn hats and going into battle on horseback, but it actually doesn't stand up now. At it's heart is the citizens right to form militia's to defend itself against tyrannical governance. What's not understood is that if a tyrannical government seriously wanted to 'enslave' citizens, they would simply carpet bomb them from the air, and a basement full of semi auto's is not going to stop that. Unless the ammendment is ammended to allow for citizerns to have tactical nuclear weapons on their front lawns, it's not worth paper it's written on, and is really just an excuse for the arms industry to profit from mass murder.

chopper wrote: Blacksword wrote: The Second Ammendment may have been appropriate in the violent beginnings of the USA, in the days of muskets, tricorn hats and going into battle on horseback, but it actually doesn't stand up now. At it's heart is the citizens right to form militia's to defend itself against tyrannical governance. What's not understood is that if a tyrannical government seriously wanted to 'enslave' citizens, they would simply carpet bomb them from the air, and a basement full of semi auto's is not going to stop that. Unless the ammendment is ammended to allow for citizerns to have tactical nuclear weapons on their front lawns, it's not worth paper it's written on, and is really just an excuse for the arms industry to profit from mass murder. I guess they just want the right to shoot any  who burgles their house or generally upsets them in some way. Whatever it is they don't seem likely to give up the right any time soon, no matter how many times this sort of thing happens

As an American colleague once said to me when I asked him why you 'need' guns. He said it asn't about need it was about ones 'goddamn right!'