Calax

Yeah, shooting watermelons isn't like shooting a human. Except I wasn't saying that it was supposed to be. I was more pointing out how the energy of the bullet was used. Shoot a sucker with a shotgun and it explodes from the fact that the energy is spread out more on impact. Shoot it with an ar and it splits... but the energy is probably going to be expended in something behind the target rather than in the target.

That guy... Wow. He's special. I get the feeling he hasn't ever actually had to deal with a home invasion. And doesn't have kids. "Have an AK next to your bed" my left nut.... A shotgun, which carries a smaller amount of ammunition, and will knock a guy over. Generally it makes more of a mess than an AR. And even if you're not the best shot, you could at least wing em (aiming with a softball is easier than aiming with a dart). Remmington 870 vs watermelon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEvUWQLqoZg M16 equiv vs watermelon. (same yahoos) Yes they both fall over, but the amount of force that's expended on the target by the shotgun is significantly more than with the AR. That's why people, like our VP (Who's a shotgun owner/user btw), say to use a friggin shotty rather than an AR.

But to own a car you still need to register it. And to be allowed to use one you must be properly trained in its use and maintain a license and insurance in case of its misuse. And some vehicles of high enough power levels that using them for normal uses is ridiculous are not allowed on the road. Guns should be treated similarly. I do not disagree with the first or second statements, but the third one I am not entirely sure about. Isn't that more about pollution than anything else? What exactly is the analogue there? Actually, most higher end cars have a limiter built in to prevent them from passing a certain top speed. Because beyond that speed things would be way to dangerous and it'd be to easy for them to completely loose control. This is done by the companies because if the car can go faster than where it's limited (around 150 mph) all of a sudden insurance premiums skyrocket due to the fact that beyond that point it's really easy to get into a crash. Now, this isn't direct government legislation, but it's part and parcel to the requirement of insurance to even think about driving a car.

In the short term? No, it probably wouldn't curb the amount of shootings and/or massacres with these weapons. HOWEVER in the long term, restricted access to something like AK-47's and AR-15's would cause the overall number of those to drop in the USA. Simply because the amount of effort somebody would need to put in, usually wouldn't be worth the "reward" (people are lazy). Eventually there'd be effectively none in the US, but you'd still have your Shotguns, Rifles, and pistols for self defense. And before you get into "LOL criminals will jsut get it anyway!" consider the fact that they're criminals. Criminals are committing murder too, does that mean we shouldn't legislate to prevent murders? Also, whoever is going to be doing the shooting is probably gonna be able to be stopped by a hand gun, shotgun, or rifle. So stating that "You need AK's to stop AK's" is about as valid as saying that the Stuart Kings should be returned to power.

I'd suggest a shotgun hits a man sized target at household ranges much more easily than any form of AR... for the inexperienced user. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F0icW2-ovk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Imdr0249M1w I couldn't find both parts in the same spot because of the fact that each one specifically supports a separate side (and cbs was the only one I could find of the second clip), but it makes the point that even though they were trying to say EXACTLY what you're saying here (that AR's shouldn't be banned because they work for self defense) they couldn't find a story about that, so instead the co-opted one that used a shotgun, and tried to be fuzzy about the weapon used. And yes, I freely admit that the stats she gives about concealed carry could be true, but they could also be heavily edited so that murder rates aren't per 1000 people or whatever.

I have a family friend who used to be a trainer for Merkava tank crews before she moved to the US. Some days when my parents were too busy, they could sometimes count on her to pick me up from school. One day she was driving her son and I home when some news came on the radio about the Gaza pullout (it was 2005) and she asked me how I felt about it. Now I grew up in a family that was quite critical of Israel's policies (my grandmother lived during the Japanese occupation of China, so she sympathised with the Palestinians), but my parents also raised me with enough sense to be sensitive. So in response, I gave the usual hamfisted answer: "Well, I think it's kind of sad they the settlers have to leave their homes." Her answer to that surprised me: "Well they have to leave. That land doesn't belong to Israel." These days, I take comfort that lot of Israelis are as likely to criticise the policies of their government as the rest of the western world, and that there are people doing good work for "Breaking the Silence" and B'tselem. I think this is one of the things that needs to start getting more publicity. It's practically un-heard of for American politicians to even look wrong at an Israeli policy, but even within their own government there's significant backlash to some of the more draconian measures being imposed.

Nah, it's basically the talking points from the speech with "Obama" saying that he certainly hasn't done whatever he's telling everyone else to do, or that he doesn't expect to be held to the same standards etc.

Cut out about half the cute little "jokes" and you've actually got a good summary.

Calax, I'd like to try and help you but I don't know all the details. What program are you in, currently? What I can say, is that I know many students who have had their degrees interrupted. In fact, the average length of time to receive a degree at my university is 6 years...while the "expected" time is 4 years. In fact, the maximum time to receive a degree is 25 years. And I completely sympathize with you and your home situation. For what it's worth, you aren't the first student to lack academic support from home, and I know firsthand how that feels. This is technically year 8(ish) of my schooling... well six of actual educational sorts of things. I'm in the History program at my school, which doesn't like it's history department.

Now you have two good motives to not fail. Yeah, But I haven't even ****ing signed up for classes yet and they're saying "OH, what happens when you fail?" Gee, why even start if you're betting I'm gonna fail again?

Just had another conversation with the parents about schooling. One minute it's "Horray! You can get into classes" The next it sounds like "We're pretty sure you're gonna fail again, so if you do, we're not even going to think of supporting your educational endeavors for the 2 years/18 months after you fail. Oh, and we're probably not going to fully support you as you try to get back into school!"

Thanks, but one's an ex chicago gangster, I'm not eager to get shot.

I think i'm going to re-evaluate my friendships... my life is getting stupid.

To be fair, at least one of them was totally shut down by various backdoor amendments to congressional acts. No state will allow Gitmo detainees to be placed there, and Congress made it so that Obama can't give them to foreign powers under any circumstances.

Arr! You be Fergettin my Piratey Goodness in that que! Don't be makin me come over there and make you walk the plank!

Why is that? (The argument about size, not the one about the US being composed of several smaller states?) Smaller nations/communities are by and large more tightly knit. And in general easier to police. In America you've got groups in all different areas, from all different populations and you have to take a week to get from one end to the other. In Japan you can get from Satsuma to the northern provinces in a day or less.

Realizing the only thing right now keeping me from finding a reasonably sure fire way to kill myself... is the fact that when I get this way I deliberately tank myself in alcohol

More Suikoden. The intro is finally over and I'd forgotten that if you say the right things, one of your bodyguards will beat you into unconciousness to get you out of the palace during the Coup. And I'd mis-remembered the amount of time it takes to get to the coup (out of the prologue basically)... 6:30. Six and a half hours of world building and set up for the actual conflict of the game.

Citadel was moved to London to merge with the crucible (as it was part of the firing mechanism.

I'm not going to replay it to check myself, but the wiki seems to support my memory, to whit: I think the idea was that hte Keepers were the left overs of a previous race that'd made it to the Citadel, but they'd been morphed to be Citadels caretakers. They'd ensure that they, and the Reapers equipment, weren't found. Once the signal was transmitted they'd open the way for the rest of the reapers, and kill the Relay network. But the Protheans managed to spike the Keepers programming so that they wouldn't be able to hear the Reapers anymore. Which is why ME1 occured. Soverign tried to trigger, it failed, so he launched his attacks on the Citadel to do it himself.

I think it's more the question of "there is no real sense of privacy in Japan in the way americans think of it"

This has been well known to many a MMO player. Although most groups I know use Ventrilo.

Metal Gear. DMC2 was HORRRIBLE and had NO idea what it wanted to be.

Watching World is not Enough out of semi-boredom. I ended up looking up Denise Richards filmography due to her horrible performance. And just googled her (hey, playboy pictoral apparently), and the image search is... scary. She looks like a Stepford Wife in any shot she's smiling.

I may have it backwards then... although when I see "democratic republic" I always think of "Communist" states. There's no shortage of governments that are decidedly NOT democratic that call themselves so simply because it's a term that people consider "ideal." It's not like we should expect a political entity call themselves "The Oppressive Inhuman Police State of Absolute Rule" or anything. What countries may call themselves is often not very useful. Was it Carlin who made the joke that as the Congo's name gets bigger, the worse off the country is?