Philosophy 115Board

Tag, I try not to discuss what I really think about politics online - it makes my blood pressure spike, and I play NationStates to have fun, not to get all worked up. I just broke that rule a little, and I won't go much further.

There seems to me to be a good case that handguns are more of a danger than a benefit to the owner and their family. Even so, cigarettes are like that too, and I get pssed at those who want to ban them. And of course, banning or restricting handguns doesn't keep people from having them, it just means they have to go to the black market. More laws would reduce, but cannot eliminate. So I can't say I'm strongly anti-gun - I'm pretty sure that that issue will never determine how I vote. But the right-wing cult of the gun is something I just can't connect with.

There is a strong thread in the American right at the moment that I would call an obsession with toughness - the idea that violent, even brutal, solutions are to be preferred over other options. Emotionally, rightly or wrongly, I connect the pro-gun movement with that. And the meme of toughness offends me so deeply that I do vote against those who propagate it, even if I find them otherwise clearly preferable to their "progressive" opponents.

USA: +7 Tough ;)

Welcome back, Wally!

Tuf, actually.

My nation Inner mundania, which is my attempt to model the United States as a NationStates nation, has a Tuf rating of +0. But I don't consider that to be all that meaningful; the NS issues system is so lacking in nuance it's terribly difficult to model a real-world nation in it.

I was surprised when I computed this score just now; I was expecting about +3.

Since I'm probably the only native of P115 who follows all things bot in Ulthar, I wanted to make relatively clear what I was talking about.

IMHO, Inner mundania doesn't come off so much as the USA, particularly with that 90% tax rate. What would the USA look like in NS terms? I'd say under the Bush administration, a Capitalist Paradise; under the Obama Administration, Capitalizt.

In most regards I'm a classic American progressive. On the other hand, I'm not much bothered by honest American citizens owning a legal firearm for legal purposes, as Tag rightly points out in most crimes involving a weapon, the weapon was obtained illegally. Hence I am bothered by lax laws and lax law enforcement allowing firearms into the possession of criminals and the mentally disturbed--IMHO, the NRA and gun enthusiasts ought to agree with me on that.

I reckon most do. I do. Although if you ever had purchased a firearm, and saw all of the papers, the numerous forms that we have to fill out, I think you'd wonder how a criminal could procure one so easily.

Also, ARB, I'm just wondering...
"
There seems to me to be a good case that handguns are more of a danger than a benefit to the owner and their family. "

I've really never seen that. It's obviously not a benefit to the family if the handgun owner is some uneducated idiot who leaves his gun within reach of little Timmy. Not to sound like one of those goons, but I'm looking at the drawer that holds my handgun while I sit right here. It's not a danger to anybody. I had a baby crawling around in here earlier, it couldn't open that drawer if it wanted to.

A lot of gun violence statistics come from the inner cities, from illegal weapons. You take away inner city gun violence, or minority gun violence, and the level is much lower. More restrictions means people who are willing to file their papers, register their handguns and abide the laws, are unarmed while those who go buy one from some felon who scraped the serial numbers off, or stole it, have no problems. Illegal guns have always been illegal. Lax gun laws have nothing to do with illegal weapon usage.

I actually think that Inner mundania gets the government type right: Inoffensive Centrist Democracy. Though there's a case for NY Times Democracy also. IM has periods of Democratic Socialism, and NY Times Democracy. It has occasionally briefly turned into a Left-Leaning College State or a Capitalist Paradise, but it's never stayed there long. I was very amused by the fact that the first time it became Democratic Socialist was on the night of Obama's inauguration.

Its taxes are ridiculous, of course, as is its budget. (Defense 1%? Don't make me laugh that hard.)

Would I want to live in Inner Mundania? In terms of the way it answers its issues, I kinda think I do already. It ain't perfect, but it sure beats Zimbabwe.

NSH beats RL Zimbabwe.

Tag, would you, then, be in favor of closing the loophole for virtually anyone to skip background checks and paperwork at gun shows in order to purchase a firearm?

Not really, no. It doesn't even beat North Korea.

It seems to me that a country with the largest economy in the RL world by definition would have a Frightening economy That limits government choices.

have a merry equinox to you all!

The Equinoxial Drifting Pinhead of Ragaskan is banned from Final Fantasy.

??? Why?

I'm here as an ambassador of Free Thought. Equinox Parallax proposed embassies and we accept.

@Dr G: Well, IM got that one right.

Well Dr George, I was in a drifting mood, so I went to "Final Fantasy". I called the owner:The rogue nation of flibbleites "pinhead", I guess he didn't not like it, or maybe I found his true colour. Anyway I got banned.
Quotes from his telegram: "You DARE come into MY region and call me a pinhead? Ragaskan is now banished from Final Fantasy for all eternity."
To remind me of the foolishness of the act, I added "pinhead" to my name.

It's probably not a good idea to insult the founder of a region (even as a joke) as a newbie, but IMHO that was a complete overreaction. You did strike a nerve. Live and learn.

Here are some articles on a topic we've breeched from time to time: wealth inequality.

www.nytimes.com /roomfordebate/2011/03/21/rising-wealth-inequality -should-we-care?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=thab1

(remove the spaces)

Welcome to P115, The Pale Blue Dot of Terra Amore! We look forward to the mutual enrichment our regions will gain from this exchange!

Terra Amore, feel free to use the embassy for you on our forum, under Ambassador's Row.

We're collecting quite a few embassies. We're our own little U.N.!

Does anyone find it strange, that when Abu Ghraib came out, you couldn't look anywhere without finding a news article about it, and how it showed a lack of accountability on George W. Bush's part...But there was recently a story released in a german newspaper, detailing a military unit in Afghanistan who had been killing civilians, taking trophy pictures and mutilating the bodies? This all happened while Obama was president...and I've hardly read a thing about it, let alone seen the same outrage directed at our President.

http://news.yahoo. com/s /theweek/20110322/ cm_theweek /213402_20110322115100 Remove spaces

For the record, I don't blame our President, this one or the previous one, for things that a select few do on the ground. It's a terrible thing that's happening, but there are so many people before our President that should be responsible. But the numerous NYT front page headlines, and the blogs who continued to cover it like it were the most important story in the world, made sure that anger was directed at Bush. I find it a tad curious that it's not the route they chose to take this time.

it's the media who is to blame. they don't do their job properly. Putin would be proud of the patriotic US media complex.

Dr G: We're our own little U.N.!

What a terrible thing to say! And anyway, if you're not discreet about it, they'll sue.