Our country as overwhelmingly less censorship than yours. Not open for debate. Better freedoms for protestors and town/city hall meetings. We ge to talk on the phone and nobody else is listening except the person we're talking to. It's pretty cool up here sometimes. You post that like you're it's a bad thing. It's a good thing. Your country should have them too. You see, certain people don't deserve rights. Racial hatemongers and nazi homphobes are on that list. I'm sure most of you disagree with that, but I could care less and I don't want to get in a flame war in this thread. Smoke break, everybody.
Look, we get soft core porn at night (which can be sustituted for daytime Italian TV, which we also get) and nothing gets bleeped on local channels. My regular movie network has hardcore porn, all night, starting as early as 10:30 pm. Do you guys get that sort of thing? If you do, my bad.
The 2,500 people arrested in the Quebec student protests this year might quibble with your claims. Or those who have been censored and jailed because they ran afoul of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And you're right about wiretapping of phones, but the funny part is that this has only been true since April. Your Supreme Court struck down your government's right to wiretap you without a warrant THIS YEAR. Perhaps you should temper your enthusiasm when the truth is closer to "Our government only USED to wiretap us!" No, I'm posting it as if it a decision that Canadians, as a people, and Americans, as a people, have each made. I don't have a firm stance one way or the other. I understand the merits of both sets of values, but am wary of the unintended effect of good intentions. Look dude. I love Canada. My entire paternal family is Canadian. Somewhere at home, I have my citizenship documents lying around, as I am a dual citizen. There isn't a province I haven't visited at least once. I am not criticizing Canada by way of comparison with the United States; I am merely pointing out that our legal climates are very different. In both cases, with good intentions and just cause. I entirely understand and sympathize with why Canada has enacted these laws. The fact that you three have that opinion in common should give you pause, and make you worried about what were to happen if someone were to decide that you belonged to such a group. There is something to be said for the bludgeon of the marketplace of ideas upon hatred and injustice.
I couldn't agree more, but that's a very slippery slope though, especially for a country like America that values their rights and freedoms so much. Who decides who doesn't deserve rights? Where do they stop? We have similar laws in Australia and they do go over the top. A journalist recently got dragged through court for suggesting it was fashionable for "fair-skinned people" of diverse ancestry to choose Aboriginal racial identity for the purposes of political and career clout. That actually happens, i personally know someone who is as white as me and had never really acknowledged the tiny part of aboriginal ancestry they had start identifying themselves as full on aboriginal to receive benefits. Yet just for suggesting that kind of thing happens this journalist was was found to have contravened the Racial Discrimination Act. How do you think something like that would go down in America?
By the way, today the Westboro Baptist Church was in Connecticut and wanting to protest some little girl from Newtown's funeral (not sure if they actually did or not). They stretch the absolute limit of the definition of free speech. Seriously.
Those cocksuckers were planning on protesting at the funeral of the principal, too. The feeling around here (RI/CT/MA) is if they do that, there will be some teeth knocked out of some WBC mouths or worse. I know that violence begets violence and all that shit, but honestly: Fuck their free speech. I know at some point, there will be another mass shooting. If so, I honestly swear, I hope whoever it is does the country a service and wipes those motherfuckers out.
1) Westboro Baptist Church disgusts me. They said the shooting happened because God is punishing them for allowing gay marriage...yeah. Sick fucks. 2) Here's the link I found this out on. Anonymous has called them out and released personal information. http://www.salon.com/2012/12/16/anonymous_hit_westboro_baptist_church_over_sandy_hook_picket_plans/
Question just to throw out there: What do y'all think about allowing teachers (or someone or some group of people at the school) to have a gun on campus for purposes of protection?
Seems like a hell of a lot of trust to give the teachers. Teachers can be unbalanced too. And even more importantly, the possibility of accidents is enormous when there is a gun in the same room as 30 rowdy students.
Agreed with MoreCowbell. That's just another access to guns that kids can get into. What if a 5-year-old accidentally gets it? Or a very angry student knows how to get it? Too much risk. My friend and I were talking about this, and overall, it's just a ridiculous suggestion; what I do think should happen is there should be at least one armed guard at every school now. Whether it be a "rent-a-cop" or a real police officer from the town, it seems a lot safer, they are better qualified/trained, and has already happened in many schools.
Girl plays dead while the rest of her class is killed. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/sandy-hook-school-girl-plays-dead-survives_n_2315947.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/1 ... 15947.html</a> She is the first out, covered in her friends' blood, "Mommy I'm ok but all my friends are dead".
Things I've learned from this thread since I stopped participating: 1) There is zero chance we will ever change. A gunman could shoot up an elementary school tomorrow and kill a hundred kids between the ages of 5 and 9, and after only 4 days, we as a nation will shrug our shoulders with a collective "Its sad, but, eh, what can you do? Can't take my guns, that's for god damned sure!" I genuinely think, after reading this thread, there is not a single tragedy, no matter how large and no matter how many small, innocent children die, that could convince people that maybe, just maybe, the gun culture needs to be reexamined. 2) Americans don't care about countries in the rest of the world, or what they do, or how they are better than us (and rest assured, when it comes to things like life expectancy, education, and gun violence rates, we are not at the top of the list, or even close at this point). 3) Other countries look down on us for our "gun culture." Our apparent solution to this is to wave our guns around more and talk about how much more free we are (and therefore how much better we are, as if the magical equation is "freedom=better" despite the mountains of evidence to the contrary. Just a ton of evidence that we are not the best country). Maybe it is time we take the American Exceptionalism down a notch, step back, and say 'hey, we have a huge fucking problem.' Maybe we should just admit that just shrugging and saying 'shit happens' when small children die isn't the way to go.
Probably prohibitively expensive to arm more than just a couple teachers in any given school with training and equipment (shit my LEO friends training is pitiful and they are fucking cops). Not to mention there would be insurance issues as well. Maybe a gun locked in the principals office but I don't see it being feasible solution. Arguing for more weapons in schools after 20 children were murdered isn't a winning argument. We had an armed police officer at my high school they also implemented a buzz in system a few years after I graduated but we were a half way decently funded suburban high school (of course I've heard Sandy Hook is a rather upscale school district). It's be nice if school districts could find it in their budgets to employ cops or vets. Honestly, I don't have any kids, but turning schools into locked down prisons doesn't sit right with me. I feel bad for our UK brethren that have to suffer through their CCTV big brother crap trying to fight their crime problem. I know we have issues of our own but something about locking kids up is wrong. Since you still haven't actually participated in any way why don't you just stop posting again?
Both of these opinions baffle me. I travel, therefore I give a shit. Our reputation abroad depends largely on whether or not you are a polite, respectful and open-minded visitor or an ignorant cunt. Our policies are often unpopular, but they are unpopular at home and abroad. I will say that the so-called Pax Americana doesn't get the respect or credit it deserves in a lot of places that benefit from it.
Since you'd chosen to ignore all the points I made before, I stopped, because it is pointless to argue with gun nuts who feel that the death of children is an acceptable (and apparently expected, according to some posters in this thread) tradeoff for their ability to own a gun.
As a teacher, I'm more than uncomfortable with it. 1. I'm not provided with enough training to be a good teacher. There's no way they would spend the required dough for that training. Especially when I think (and someone military/law enforcement feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) it takes consistent practice to keep those skills reasonably sharp. Hell, local law enforcement here only gets their ammunition paid for once a year to qualify. I don't even think the professionals are well trained for shit like this in my area. And in a place where most teenagers have access to AR-15's and other various weaponry and people have been known to order ammunition by the pallet (30,000 rounds) that is disconcerting. 2. In a small school everyone would know who the people designated to carry would be and would probably be targeted first, so it would be moot. If someone bursts through the door firing while I'm lecturing about iambic pentameter, I'm toast. 3. That responsibility is more than huge. Running towards the gunfire is not an easy thing to do. And I'm not dumb enough to pretend that I would be able to play hero automatically. My first instinct would most likely be to run/hide. Having the entire school's safety resting on my shoulder's would be unbearable. Being responsible for a classroom at a time is more than enough. That being said the only thing more terrifying than me being the designated carrier is one of my coworkers having that responsibility. Yeah, sure, let's give the hot-headed football coach or the bitter lady that's been teaching for over 35 years a .45 and a case of shells. Sounds like a grand idea. I'm very wary of any teacher that would volunteer for something like this. Odds are they are just wanting to be seen as badass/heroic/or having a large penis. I will also throw out there that my little brother told me that the Oklahoma City Bass Pro Shop sold out of AR-15's today.
One of my clients is one of the largest gun manufacturers. AR-15 sales have gone up 250% in the last week. They're having trouble producing enough to even meet demand.