I am so depressed. I've been watching the news all morning about the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.

Then my co-worker pointed out that 600,000 civilians have died in Iraq and 500 die every day.

I was like "Oh thanks I feel alot better now."

Then I started thinking about Darfur.

Maybe I should call my doctor and go on anti-depressants.

I didn't realize Bush was a member of LBT. Wow, it's surprising how many people have had this surgery!

Did I miss part of your posting? Something must be missing or are you just trying to keep it brief? :eek:

Did I miss part of your posting? Something must be missing or are you just trying to keep it brief?

Actually, I was referring to the fact that the only rule against bashing someone refers to LBT members. I wasn't aware of any rule that says we can't call a assish non-member an ass.

Actually, I was referring to the fact that the only rule against bashing someone refers to LBT members. I wasn't aware of any rule that says we can't call a assish non-member an ass.

So does your rule book say that I can't say anything when someone says something that I disagree with? As in when I think someone is being rude and bullying, something along the lines that I referred to?

So does your rule book say that I can't say anything when someone says something that I disagree with? As in when I think someone is being rude and bullying, something along the lines that I referred to?

No one is saying that you can't. Of course, that means other people can also say things to you. And your outrage is a little suspect, IMO, especially since you recently deleted a post to me that was more than a little rude and attacking.

No one is saying that you can't. Of course, that means other people can also say things to you. And your outrage is a little suspect, IMO, especially since you recently deleted a post to me that was more than a little rude and attacking.

It must have been something you said. I don't remember it but I am sure I disagreed with whatever it was you said. It's ok with me if you want to end this conversation.:eek:

It must have been something you said. I don't remember it but I am sure I disagreed with whatever it was you said. It's ok with me if you want to end this conversation.

Oh, I'm sure it is okay with you. And by the way, here's what you said to me:

Originally Posted by gailannr

Well we already know how brilliant you are, you take up most of the space blathering on these threads to let us know!

All I had said was this:

Carlene, you just gave me the giggles! I was going to say something, but you beat me to it.

Oh, I'm sure it is okay with you. And by the way, here's what you said to me: All I had said was this:

Has this been festering all this while?

Has this been festering all this while?

Nope. I just have a very long memory, especially when it comes to hypocrisy.

Nope. I just have a very long memory, especially when it comes to hypocrisy.

Well, I have noticed the "blatthering" has reduced significantly! So there must have been some truth to it!

Well, I have noticed the "blatthering" has reduced significantly! So there must have been some truth to it!

Actually, no. I just haven't found anyone that needed to be educated about certain issues. And what was I blathering about, anyway? You never answered me in the other thread. Was it me talking about doing my thesis, or was it me debating evolution and other ideas with people what didn't know a heck of a lot about the topics?

And by the way, it may be more of a function of the fact that I haven't had a lot of time lately to be here. The last couple of weeks have been a tad stressful.

Yes, he does, but honestly, would you choose to stay in a neighborhood that you never, ever felt safe in? Especially if you have a choice? A lot of us say that to have lap-band surgery, we'd do whatever it takes, get loans, sell property, etc. Would we not feel the same way about living in an extremely unsafe neighborhood? Isn't our personal safety and the safety of our loved ones and our personal belongings more important than our weight? When it gets to the point where you KNOW you aren't safe, you should be willing to do whatever it takes to get out of there.

Well, apparently we're not all independently wealthy and can just pick up and move when the going gets tough. Bummer, I bet that kind of freedom would be nice!

Housing prices are in a spiral, people have bad credit, etc. It's not just that easy to move on.

In my opinion, I would stay and work with local authorities and other community members to clean up the neighborhood. Why should I have to leave a home that maybe I've spent many, many years living and loving in because a bad element has come along? Why should they win?

Which brings us back to my statement that his community needs to harass it's leaders into hiring more police. It still makes no sense that they have only 3 policemen per shift when they have such a high crime rate.

And my statement about moving was meant to be a comparison of how we tend to view this surgery and how we view our personal safety. Many people say that if they had to, they would take out loans, sell their property, do whatever they had to to have this surgery. Why don't they feel that way about their personal safety?

Both TommyO and I live in Canada where not only are the gun laws very, very strict but where gun ownership has never become part of our culture. This is an attitude which is much more in alignment with the attitudes (and laws) prevalent in England and in continental Europe.

While all English speaking Canadians have grown up on American culture - American TV, movies, etc (the Canuck stuff was just so boring and second rate in comparison, eh) - the actual ownership of guns has never, ever formed part of our culture. Our parents didn't have them and none of our friends' parents had 'em either. And you certainly didn't see them for sale in urban stores.

Nope, as far as I can gather, the gun thang remained the exclusive purview of cops, farmers, ranchers, the military, and gun enthusiasts. It is still difficult to get a gun in Canada unless you are a criminal. I have still, at the age of 57, never handled a gun! None of my friends have 'em.

Our criminals get their guns from across the border. A lot of our new and up-coming criminals are juveniles who belong to gangs. These kids are school drop-outs and are are part of the culturally and racially alienated young. They tend to act like morons and it is difficult to maintain a politically sensitive attitude towards a group of individuals who are so seemingly anxious to destroy themselves.

Nevertheless, these kids are professionals in their own way, as are the other chief groups of gun owners inside this country. For sure these kids do shoot each other up and they have certainly inflated the mortality figures for my city, the City of Toronto.

But the mortality rates from gunfire in this country are still extraordinarily low compared to those in America. This is because most of us have never seen a working gun let alone have access to one. And those of us who do carry guns are professionals; they realise that they are tools of the trade or they are busy shooting each other up over gangland territory issues. Of course this is not to say that an innocent is never harmed by a gun. It is to say that guns are not easily available in this country.

This would mean that much of our violence is of a more intimate nature. When Canadians want to kill each other we have to strangle or knife each other. What this means is that, although we do have gun deaths in this country, the overall body count is far, far lower.

From what I have read so far about this tragic business, the young man who performed these dreadful acts was seriously emotionally ill and had been identified as a troubled soul by any number of individuals for a long, long time. He had been noted as such by a number of teachers and by fellow students but all of these individuals were under the same set of restraints, were they not? What could they have done even if they could have found themselves together and in one place and able to trade stories of this individual's weird and disturbing behaviour?

We live under civil laws which seek to protect the individual and his rights - even the eccentric or artistic individual - but these same laws also, and tragically so, serve to protect the rights of those individuals who by their actions are later proved to be unacceptable to us as a society.

It is true that people who come from countries which are less gun-friendly than the U.S. have issues with your country's current approach to gun ownership. We don't git it! Nope, not at all.

Certainly it is true that firearm ownership made sense at the point when America was being colonised and the issue of the right to bear arms made sense within the framework of America's choice to withdraw from the economic oppression of its colonial masters. The statement of the ability to protect the freedom of this newly born country and the right of each individual to bear arms in order to defend this country made sense within the framework of the era.

But let's get real, eh. The 21st century does not belong to cowboys and goofs who keep loaded guns in their night tables. There is no longer any reason why firearms should be freely available to anyone other than farmers, ranchers, cops, military, and gun hobbyists. There is certainly no reason why anyone outside of the police or the military should have access to semi- or fully automatic weapons. This is just fucken dumb and it is criminal.

I couldn't have said it better myself Green. I live in Australia and have the exact same views.

Hey Angel, Australia is a nation of gun haters on the whole. Lets make love more people and have less weapons and violence!:biggrin1: Susannah