Posts by BenWilson
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Everything changes, but everything stays the same...
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An aside: I recall my mum telling me when she was at varsity a guy got charged with trying to run a couple over on the sidewalk at Auckland Uni. He missed, as they jumped out of the way.
Pissed? Junkie? Gang member? Underage driver?
No, he was an old geezer who got pissed off that they were holding hands and mucking about when they should have been in class.
That was seriously his excuse. He was not even apologetic.
Sometimes people do the stupidest things, and looking for a deep reason is futile.
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"Ahhh but what is your confidence level that the answer that google has provided you is right?"
I usually find that sampling the first 5 answers shows you if the issue is controversial. Scarily, on most questions of trivia, Google seems to pick Wikipedia first. I suppose that's because everyone can link to it, so the pagerank is through the roof.
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Keen sounds like another cash-in. Only those already net-literate will care a hoot what he says, and most of them will disagree. But he will get plenty of agreement from oldies like my Dad, who loves to jump up and find some obscure book on his shelves that's about 20 years old, and search for ages to find the answer to some disputed fact, rather than finding it instantly with a Google search.
What's his plan? I mean all that he despises is happening anyway. Sadly lamenting the changing world is certainly a popular pastime for the elderly, but it's as ineffective as it's ever been.
And bugger him, I'm definitely more interested in Pamela Anderson than Emmeline Pankhurst. Any time I want to hear about epiphanies I'd certainly like to be able to hear the 11-year-old's ones every bit as much as Martin Luther's. Sounds like he's just lamenting not having mastered search buttons.
As with all Luddites, I'm sure he's got some valid points, albeit not the slightest bit new.
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Shows what primitive creatures we are that telling the truth is such a dangerous thing to do. Anything that's not plain vanilla about this guy has the potential for creating some victims out there - the problem in the US is the victims wind up dead.
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I have to say I'm skeptical that gun control laws succeed in stopping criminals from getting guns. But fatalities from guns seem to be less where there are laws. It's guns in the hands of average joe that really seem to be the problem. If you have a gun, you might want to use it, and if you're thinking that way, so is the other guy.
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James, tell me where in Ozzie I could have walked into a store and purchased a gun with no license?
There are certainly differing studies on the effects of gun control in Oz.
Stephen, "trial areas are doomed because..." - you need to *try* it before making that kind of conclusion.
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I really don't know how anyone can be confident stricter firearm control wouldn't work in the US. It hasn't been tried.
Places where it has been tried it has worked. They could even do it in a few trial states to see the effect. All the arguments in the world are no substitute for an experiment.
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Heh, arguably less gummint is needed to deal with armed crooks all the time! As you say, the culture of popping caps is deeply ingrained. I don't know if it's a majority, but it's certainly a very, very vocal (and well armed) minority.
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I don't find the "they can't solve the problem cause there's too many guns now" argument very compelling. Oz solved a similar problem quite easily. You make the licensing tough, make having an unlicensed gun illegal, and offer an amnesty period. You could even offer cash. Then you start enforcing those laws strictly. When having an unlicensed gun is a crime they can be confiscated with impunity. Any time a suspect is searched the guns are confiscated.
The real problem is the constitution and the culture.
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