Posts by MeanMrMustard

44

Humans brought to Earth, not native to it.

by Bad_Wolf in

below i link the article.

i thought some points on the claim were interesting.

such as how prolonged direct exposure to sunlight hurts us vs other animals, sicknesses, etc.

MeanMrMustard

This is the plot of at least two recent movies. Also, I think every Star Trek series that has ever been made has had an episode dedicated to this idea. Heck, I think ST the Next Generation had two!

105

Another School Shooting: The Gun Violence/Mental Illness Debate Continues

by jp1692 in

in the aftermath of the valentine's day school shooting in florida, i have read quite a number of articles, blogs and posts about the event.

it is disturbing--and i think inexcusable--that many people take the opportunity to use horrible tragedies such as this to push their own particular agenda.. in particularly insensitive and tone-deaf tweet, conservative political commentator tomi lahren wrote: "can the left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda?

my goodness.

MeanMrMustard

@Cold Steel:

Yes, but how does one keep guns out of the wrong hands without taking them out of the right hands?

Exactly. How do we even try to answer that without first being able to ask the question? We can’t. The other gun thread started off really well, and then someone (maybe it was Fink, maybe not) jumped in with a ban on certain types of weapons. Fine. But it can’t stop there. It can’t stop with ambiguous word salad. You have to go deeper and be exact. We have to be able to ask what is meant by “assault rifle?” What is meant by “mentally ill?” Who makes that call? What is the process? Are we mixing up correlation with causation? (which is what we have been trying to get Fink to respond to)

Even something like how we define the “good” hands and “bad” hands.

Whenever something like this happens, people scream GUN CONTROL without giving any workable solutions. The government needs to register guns before they confiscate them, so any proposals that would implement registration is a non-starter by gun owners.

Yeah. Another thing to consider..

If we take away AR-15s, bad guys will use Ruger Mini-14s. Take away those and they'll use something else. These things don't stop until the guns are gone.

I agree.

In the 1960s, guns were plentiful. Even Sears had them. And anyone could buy them if they were old enough. But school shootings were unheard of. Crime was low and violence was unheard of if one stayed out of the wrong areas.

I was reading up on some gun stats. I don’t have them available right now, as I am on my phone. But even in the 70s the percentage of households with guns was a lot higher. There are more guns now, but also more people. The population was more “saturated”, for lack of a better term, with guns in the 70s. And there were a few shootings. But I mean that literally - like 5 to 10 for the entire decade.

But things are different now. We've become angry, resentful and distrustful as a nation. Our leaders are dishonest, conniving worms and they perhaps they always were. As we've become polarized no one wants to give. Those in the U.S. who voted for Hillary felt they were entitled to victory, and they took to the streets when she lost.

It's just the way things are now.

I am not so sure. These shooters end up being people with troubled, abusive childhoods. You don’t find a lot of shooters from stable two-parent families. The breakdown in the family is likely another cause, which has gone up quite a bit since the 60s.

A lot more use of the SSRI anti-depressants as well.

105

Another School Shooting: The Gun Violence/Mental Illness Debate Continues

by jp1692 in

in the aftermath of the valentine's day school shooting in florida, i have read quite a number of articles, blogs and posts about the event.

it is disturbing--and i think inexcusable--that many people take the opportunity to use horrible tragedies such as this to push their own particular agenda.. in particularly insensitive and tone-deaf tweet, conservative political commentator tomi lahren wrote: "can the left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda?

my goodness.

MeanMrMustard

@Fink - wha do you mean by “assault rifle”?

Also, by what process are they removed from the population?

(See my post on page 2 regarding definitions - unless you don’t actually want to make any progress, in which case, continue the ambiguous word salad bullshit)

105

Another School Shooting: The Gun Violence/Mental Illness Debate Continues

by jp1692 in

in the aftermath of the valentine's day school shooting in florida, i have read quite a number of articles, blogs and posts about the event.

it is disturbing--and i think inexcusable--that many people take the opportunity to use horrible tragedies such as this to push their own particular agenda.. in particularly insensitive and tone-deaf tweet, conservative political commentator tomi lahren wrote: "can the left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda?

my goodness.

MeanMrMustard

@freemindfade:

Probably the only one looking in retrospect that had no clear signs was this Stephen Paddock oddity.

Paddock didn’t fit the normal profile. Did anyone (like the FBI) ever come up with an explanation for how he got his money? I don’t buy that he got rich as a “professional gambler”. That entire story fell away a lot faster than the other psycho mass shootings.

105

Another School Shooting: The Gun Violence/Mental Illness Debate Continues

by jp1692 in

in the aftermath of the valentine's day school shooting in florida, i have read quite a number of articles, blogs and posts about the event.

it is disturbing--and i think inexcusable--that many people take the opportunity to use horrible tragedies such as this to push their own particular agenda.. in particularly insensitive and tone-deaf tweet, conservative political commentator tomi lahren wrote: "can the left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda?

my goodness.

MeanMrMustard

the call for gun control is NOT intrinsically "anti-gun" or an "anti-gunowner" agenda. It just isn't. Get over it.

These debates go off the rails because of lack of clear meaning. If by “gun control” you mean “keeping guns out of the hands of people who would like to shoot up schools or movie theatres, etc.”, then everyone is on board. Period. Everyone wants this.

But that is the easy part. Now, how should we do that? The argument gets heated. And always for the same damn reasons. Someone throws out “gun control”. Then someone else says, “ok well, what do you mean by that?” Now what follows is usually an unclear definition, or something that would equate to a ban. So the argument goes on and on.

Even talking about “mental illness” and guns - which everyone agrees is a bad mix - we should really define what we mean by “mental illness”. Who gets to decide? How? What process?

These are not obfuscating questions. They are real questions, especially for those who want another law. Law runs on specific language with specific meaning.

So how about this. What gun control law would you propose? Write it out below. Just say it. And if someone asks, “what do you mean by <insert term here>”, don’t take it as being in favor of kids getting shot up.

48

Trump and the MEMO

by ducatijoe in

those of us here wasting our time trying to show who trump really is .... it's like trying to reason with all those still in the organization.

they have found a new person to fill their heads with lies and control they way they think.

in many ways this ts amazing to me.. i am out of the wbts and free.

MeanMrMustard

@ducatijoe: You’re welcome.

48

Trump and the MEMO

by ducatijoe in

those of us here wasting our time trying to show who trump really is .... it's like trying to reason with all those still in the organization.

they have found a new person to fill their heads with lies and control they way they think.

in many ways this ts amazing to me.. i am out of the wbts and free.

MeanMrMustard

@ducatijoe: I fixed it for you (not counting stuff like you’re vs your):

Those of us here wasting our time trying to reason with people who hate Trump .... it's like trying to reason with all those still in the Organization.

They have found dishonest news outlets to fill their heads with lies and control they way they think. In many ways this ts amazing to me.

I am out of the WBTS and free. No one will ever tell me how to think.

And ducatijoe, For you sake Of tryin to invalidate the election of this man ..... I hope YOU are armed.... I am.

If you are not.... your fucked

53

Which is better minimum wage or minimum income?

by hoser in

jw
friends

we were having this discussion in the office the other day and we came to the conclusion minimum wage is better because it still adds to the economy vs minimum income which someone could potentially stay at home and do nothing and still get paid without producing a thing for the greater economy.. thoughts?.

MeanMrMustard

@hoser:

I agree a combination of things is likely to happen. Prices could adjust up, or employment can adjust down, or both. In most minimum wage hikes, I think it’s some combination.

But the point of proposing a massive hike, to say $1,000,000/hr, is to force those in favor of a minimum wage to acknowledge the effects beneath the surface. It is not the case that law makers establish or raise a minimum wage, and the only thing effects are wonderful.

If you require a minimum wage of $1,000,000/hr, and the business didn’t shutter its doors immediately, then prices would have to go up. Firing all the employees and retaining just one wouldn’t cover the losses. If all employees are retained, then prices would have to rise even more. Of course, if automation can help, that might come into play over time too. Employment would fall from it. But it wouldn’t be cheap. After all, some entrepreneur would have front the capital, the risk, and employee people at the higher rate too. So even simple machines would cost millions.

Not to mention input costs along the supply chain of everything, just for raw materials.

At this point, the superficial boon from the minimum wage vanishes. The poor have millions of dollars, but are still poor.

These effects are still there, but to a lesser extent, with small hikes. With small hikes, employers do the math and might think: “Well, if I have to pay $15/hr then I would rather take the college student then the uneducated guy just out of high school...” So over time the demographics of employees shift, and prices might go up a little. The port have to pay the higher prices, but with less jobs.

It is just a mess.

9

computer question

by Jerryh in

i have the 2015 watchtower library working fine and have started to enter some book marks.. i have the library program on a flash drive to pass around to some other folks so they can show .

witnesses at their door what they are supposed to believe.

getting the book marks transferred is .

MeanMrMustard

Note: you can transfer them to another user by copying the files into another users profile space under the WT folder. However, you probably can’t force the WT to read the bookmarks from a flash drive.

9

computer question

by Jerryh in

i have the 2015 watchtower library working fine and have started to enter some book marks.. i have the library program on a flash drive to pass around to some other folks so they can show .

witnesses at their door what they are supposed to believe.

getting the book marks transferred is .

MeanMrMustard

Notice the path. It is in your profile space. In other words, the WT library uses the space set aside for application settings specific to the user. You seem to have a roaming profile - are you running it at work?

In any case, you are out of luck in this regard. The WT has programmed it to specifically use this space.