Given the state of affairs in this country at the moment, I fight the urge to go full blue font all the time.
Shooting Outside Israeli Embassy In DC
- Thread starter Its On A Slab
- Start date
Just another day in a country awash in guns.
Every day, 125 people in the US are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded.
Nothing will change until nearly all of us all demand change.
everytownresearch.org
In an average year, gun violence in America kills 40,000 people, wounds twice as many, and has an economic consequence to our nation of $557 billion.
Every day, 125 people in the US are killed with guns and more than 200 are shot and wounded.
Nothing will change until nearly all of us all demand change.
Gun Violence in America
Gun violence in America is at a crisis point. Every day, 125 people are killed from guns and more than twice as many are shot and wounded.
everytownresearch.org
In an average year, gun violence in America kills 40,000 people, wounds twice as many, and has an economic consequence to our nation of $557 billion.
Let's be honest: Ilhan Omar has a history of saying things that are either implicitly or explicitly anti-Semitic. So does Pat Buchanan, and his are more overt. I get called a racist by pointing it out with Omar, because we live in a world where every criticism of a non-white person is labeled as in bad faith (unless, of course, that non-white person just happens to be a conservative and then it's okay to use every trope in the book).
At the same time, I'm not one of those people who thinks "once a racist/antiSemite/etc always one," either. People DO change. Not usually overnight, but they do.
At the same time, I'm not one of those people who thinks "once a racist/antiSemite/etc always one," either. People DO change. Not usually overnight, but they do.
PEOPLE don't, usually. Politicians do...
I believe people can change over time. Politicians say they change as soon as the breeze changes direction.
FIFY.
And as Elefantman noted above, most change is gradual. I used to be a hard-line supporter of the death penalty. Now, I am a hard-line opponent of same. This switch didn't happen overnight, however. I had to do the bookwork that led to my understanding of how flawed our justice system is. From a pragmatic perspective death row inmates cost the tax-payers more in the long-run. It's little things like that which, added up over time, eventually forced me to admit I was wrong.
Most sudden and jarring changes usually come about as a result of psychological or neurological trauma (and it's rarely good.)
It is an interesting question to compare what one says on the spur of the moment versus what one says after consideration, and what is released over one's signature after consulting a PR specialist.
I guess all are valid for different reasons, but have to be judged in their context. I give Omar credit for her statement, just like I give Trump credit for his statement on Biden's cancer. They might seem a bit out of character, and others may have drafted the statements, but they were released over the signature of each person, so that counts for something.
The whole "Freedom fries" thing was based on the fact that France did not support the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It turns out that France's was not such a bad policy.
In 2020, we were urged to "defund the police," and it turns out that when you decrease the police presence a lot of bad people take advantage and, at the same time, avoid jail. Since most violent crime in the US is within racial groups (perps and victims are normally of the same race), that meant more black victims of violent crime. This was not what was intended, but it is what happened.
Sober second thought is not to be scorned.
I guess all are valid for different reasons, but have to be judged in their context. I give Omar credit for her statement, just like I give Trump credit for his statement on Biden's cancer. They might seem a bit out of character, and others may have drafted the statements, but they were released over the signature of each person, so that counts for something.
The whole "Freedom fries" thing was based on the fact that France did not support the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It turns out that France's was not such a bad policy.
In 2020, we were urged to "defund the police," and it turns out that when you decrease the police presence a lot of bad people take advantage and, at the same time, avoid jail. Since most violent crime in the US is within racial groups (perps and victims are normally of the same race), that meant more black victims of violent crime. This was not what was intended, but it is what happened.
Sober second thought is not to be scorned.
I'm not her biggest fan, either. I am sick of all of this, though. The immediate cherry picking by media to push a notion THEY prefer is just continuing to fan flames. No matter which "side", they just make everything that much worse.
I don't care for a good many of the labels chosen for positions taken. I truly was never sure what "defund the police" actually meant. Wouldn't a better goal be to improve qualification standards and rethink training methods? You can't work with that as a slogan but actually defunding would have the opposite affect to what's truly needed. Humans require rules and tending and cops. We get out of bounds. We aren't always trustworthy. Many of us are nuts.
I believe in the old maxim: "you get what you pay for." You want better cops, be prepared to pony up the dough. The same applies to schoolteachers. I tried to tell my leftist friends during the Floyd riots that defunding the police would have the opposite effect of what they are looking for. Defunding the police means less police which means more crime. And where is the first place they will look to remove officers? Minority neighborhoods. And since violent crime does not cross racial lines as often as the MSM would have you believe, which victim pool is going to increase? That's right, minorities.
Even stupid people can figure this out, which is precisely why so many racist neckbeards out there were secretly supportive of such asinine policy as Defund the Police. They knew it would destabilize entire neighborhoods and the end result would be less minority lives they had to share oxygen with.
Some violence and crime does cross all racial and socioeconomic lines. If the type of behavior is something common in an environment it follows that this behavior will continue to be so. Unfortunately, child abuse, sexual abuse. spousal abuse, etc. seem to cross all lines. Other forms of crime can depend more on environment and conditions. If gang violence and violence as a general reaction is commonplace where a person lives, obviously the person will be more prone to learn that behavior or be pushed into it due to specific circumstances. I think that's just the way it's always been everywhere. You are spot on about some people realizing it will destabilize neighborhoods. Some just secretly root for it and others actively use it to their advantage. Humans are fun, aren't we?!
I guess my main point was do not rush to judgment. Sometime being too hasty means you say or do things you regret later. I dom not distruct someone just because they paused to think. That is normally best.
You are right "defund the police" is a slogan and there were multiple meanings behind it. Some wanted to divert funding from traditional pollicing to interventionary social workers to de-escalate a crisis instead of coming in the batons and guns.
The problem is that some folks just need force applied to them. They have nefarious purposes and respond only to force. Hard to know which guys need a social worker and which ones need a cop. When it turns sour, even the social worker is going to need a cop.
Al Gore was an ardent anti-choice member of Congress until he ran for Veep with Bill Clinton.
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