Posts by James Bremner
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
RB,
I agree, it is absolutely terrible, but I don't see a solution to this problem either. Simply calling for stricter gun control or bans of guns (like I used to) is just way too simplistic, the whole ball of wax is much more complex then to be solved by simple solutions like that.It is the people who pull the trigger that need to be focused on, but how you do that is tough. I agree that my idea of a mental health register is probably another good sounding idea that would be a governmental nightmare, but how the hell was nothing done about Cho at VT? The more you read, the worse it gets in terms of the signals he was giving off.
As you stated, crime in NZ in some categories is worse that the US. Here are some more stats that should have all those "America, the terrible crime waste land" stopped in their tracks. Beleive it or not, violent crime rates in countries with strict gun control like Aussie and the UK are significantly worse than in the US.
http://www.geoffmetcalf.com/guncontrol_20010302.html
So much for the gun control argument, it just doesn't fly. If it did fly, I would be all for it.
In additional to the stats at the link above, if you account for the fact that an extraordinary portion of violent crime in the US is young black male against young black male and/ or involves buying or selling drugs (another terrible fact, but a subject for another string), then my risk of being a victim of violent crime in the US is substantially lower still.
Strange as it may sound, I don’t think of the US as a dangerous place. The US has 75 times the population as NZ, so you can get 75 VTs for every Aramoana and be more or less even in terms of per capita risk (not accounting for the number of victims in each case).
Someone asked about buying a gun in the US as a resident alien. When I bought my shotgun, I needed my LA driver’s license, green card and passport and my social security number. The guy called up some kind of central database and they did a search to see if I had a criminal record or warrants outstanding etc. There isn’t a waiting period for a shotgun, so I could take it with me when nothing bad about me was found. There are checks in place, but if you have not had trouble with the law, you will be able to buy a gun quite easily in the US.
If you want to understand how the apparent contradiction of right to carry laws reduce the incidence of multiple victim public shootings, read the following paper. It is long, but appears to me to be very solid. The conclusion is on page 22.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=272929
After you have read the paper you may well come to believe that maybe those people calling for carry laws in response to the VT shooting aren’t just a bunch of crazed redneck Americans after all. As hard as it may be for many on this blog to accept, they appear to have the facts on their side.
The paper is very interesting stuff and goes to show that this whole issue is much more complicated than most of us are aware, and is certainly not going to be solved by emotional knee jerk reactions calling for stricter gun control after a terrible incident. That is the worst way to make public policy.
-
Danyl,
My point is that if you ban guns completely you leave law abiding citizens defenseless. If you banned guns completely you may well end up with fewer shooting like the one at VT, as those kind of nuts would have a harder time get a gun, but you would end up with a lot of other crime and murders as criminals take advantage of the fact that other citizens can no longer stop them coming into their houses etc.As an example, home invasion type crimes that I seem to read about all too frequently in NZ are rarer in the US, in fact I can only recall one. I don't know anyone who has been burgled since I have been in the US, meanwhile my sister's house in Auckland has been burgled twice in since I have been in the US. Would you break into someone's house if you thought they may well be armed? Probably not. Even before I bought a gun, the fact that others did have guns in their houses substantially reduced the risk of someone breaking into my house. That is good.
Remember, when I first came to the US I was all for gun control, I thought the US gun laws were insane and to reduce crime and murder in the US it was critical to reduce the prevalence of guns. But it’s just not that simple.
It is not guns that are the problem, it is who has the guns that matters. Maybe there should be some kind of national mental health registry, where if you have been identified as having mental problems you are not allowed to buy a gun or ammo etc., that might have kept guns out of Cho hands, or rather made it harder for him to get them. Drugs are illegal, has that made them impossible to obtain?
-
The gun thing in the States is a bit hard to understand, but one thing is for sure, the cat is well and truly out of the bag and there is no getting it back in, there are cultural and practical reasons why it wont happen.
When I first arrived here I was all in favor of strict gun control, or even banning guns, but now I am not so sure. Even if you could ban all guns and had a magic wand that could make all guns in the US disappear overnight, the next day guns would be coming across the border by the container load. Whether it is alcohol during prohibition or drugs and illegal immigrants more recently, the US has such long borders that it really can't every control.
The fact is that all those guns would end up in the hands of people who aren't worried about firearms convictions. All that would have been achieved in this scenario is that you would have disarmed the 95% of the population who are decent honest law abiding people, but enabled the 5% of the population who are bad guys (maybe it is 5% or 1%, I don’t know) to have a lethal advantage over everyone else (except cops, but they can never be everywhere all the time), which is hardly a desirable outcome.
My big change of heart about gun control came about in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. The aftermath of Katrina proved to me that bad stuff really does happen, it is not just in the movies, there really are circumstances when law and order breaks down and without the means to defend yourself and your family, you are well and truly screwed. The thought of being a sitting duck and not being able to protect my family struck me pretty deep down, I really do think that it is a fundamental right, and in fact a duty to defend, and be able to defend yourself and your family against an aggressor. If you can’t or won’t do that, what the hell is the point of you? I know my wife would tell me to go to hell in an instant if I told her I wouldn’t or couldn’t defend her and our son against an intruder or attacker.
Before Katrina I had never owned a fire arm in my life, a week after Katrina I bought a shotgun and from now on, I will never not have a gun in my house.
So, if gun control or gun bans are not the total answer, what is?
I think the first place to start is to acknowledge that in this human race of ours, in every culture, nationality and race, there are some people who are fundamentally evil or disturbed individuals who are prone to doing bad things. The killer at VT fits both criteria. We need to focus on identifying these people and intervening before it is too late. Cho gave off plenty of signals that he was a walking time bomb and whether there wasn’t the procedure or ability to intervene at VT, the fact is that he wasn’t stopped when he could have been. Read the article below for the type of stuff that can and is being done, but apparently wasn’t done at VT. Cho should have had a compulsory psyche assessment and counseling and whatever other treatment was deemed necessary by a shrink immediately after he wrote those disturbing plays that we are all reading about now. Not only might he not end up killing a bunch of people, but he would have had a much better chance of having a satisfying and constructive life.
http://www.campussafetymagazine.com/Articles/?ArticleID=20
I saw a video clip of Eric Harris, one of the Columbine killers, showing Dylan Kelbold all the places in his room where he was hiding guns, ammo and pipe bomb materials. Where the hell were his parents? When he heard of the shooting at Columbine, Harris’ father called the police and told them that he thought his son might be involved, so he knew that his son was potential killer. And what had he done to intervene in his son’s warped world? Apparently not much, and obviously not enough. Parents should be held accountable for their children’s’ actions if bad parenting contributed to the situation. There should be another class of crime, something like, Negligent Parenting Contributing to Homicide, because that was a major factor in the Columbine disaster.
There are problems with culture as well. As a society and as a world we are far too ready to tolerate, even excuse and justify appalling behavior. We shouldn’t be surprised that if we excuse bad behavior, more follows. The following article below does a better job that I ever could of looking into this issue in the US.
-
A great article in today's Journal.
The Trouble With Islam
Sadly, mainstream Muslim teaching accepts and promotes violencehttp://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009890
The money graphs:
"It is vital to grasp that traditional and even mainstream Islamic teaching accepts and promotes violence. Shariah, for example, allows apostates to be killed, permits beating women to discipline them, seeks to subjugate non-Muslims to Islam as dhimmis and justifies declaring war to do so. It exhorts good Muslims to exterminate the Jews before the "end of days." The near deafening silence of the Muslim majority against these barbaric practices is evidence enough that there is something fundamentally wrong."
&
"Yet it is ironic and discouraging that many non-Muslim, Western intellectuals--who unceasingly claim to support human rights--have become obstacles to reforming Islam. Political correctness among Westerners obstructs unambiguous criticism of Shariah's inhumanity. They find socioeconomic or political excuses for Islamist terrorism such as poverty, colonialism, discrimination or the existence of Israel. What incentive is there for Muslims to demand reform when Western "progressives" pave the way for Islamist barbarity? Indeed, if the problem is not one of religious beliefs, it leaves one to wonder why Christians who live among Muslims under identical circumstances refrain from contributing to wide-scale, systematic campaigns of terror."
That'is two top quality articles in a couple of days that make the same or similiar points to the ones I have been making. For those of you who still disagree, all I can say is that you are on a river in Africa, in de Nile. 'nuff said.
-
Danyl wrote:
"Russell's original thesis for this thread was that 'the left' are not apologists for Islamic fundamentalism. It seems to me that many of the posters here have gone some way towards disproving that."Way to go Danyl!! Couldn't have said it better myself.
I read the posts after my listing of a handful of the nasty things to happen within the Islamic world with resignation, not disbelief. There really is deep seated denial in the world today, truly a case of none so blind as those who will not see.
The examples I gave are all linked to fundamental tenants of Islam.
That women are second class citizens that have to be literally owned by a male relative, either her father or her husband. That women tempt men and therefore must be covered outside the house. That it is the duty of Muslims to spread Islam, by peaceful means or otherwise. If a Muslim dies in the pursuit of spreading Islam, he hits the jackpot and goes straight to paradise, complete with 76 virgins. These aspects are obviously stronger in the more extreme parts of the religion, like Wahabbism.
How about some nice quotes to further emphasize the point:
"Human rights are a Judeo Christian construct that have no place in Islam": Iranian ambassador to the UN in 1986
"To take as a wife a girl before she becomes a woman is a divine blessing": Ayatollah Khomeini.
Child rape is a divine blessing. Nice, really nice. Well I guess Mohammed did it and he is the perfect man whose example is to be followed, so it must be okay.
And those quotes are not from Abdul the goatherder from the backblocks of Afghanistan, they are from major figures in the Islamic world.
And no, there is nothing wrong with Islam!! Don't be ridiculous you ignorant bigot!!
Getting back to the original subject of the thread, here is an article about what a number of progressive in the Middle East think of progressives outside the Middle East (that would many of those who post on PA).
The article is titled "BETRAYED, HOW MIDEAST PROGRESSIVES FEEL ABOUT THEIR WESTERN 'COMRADES'
And I will preempt Simon. Yes, the link is to an article in the New York Post, a Dr Evil Darth Vader Satan's Spawn Rupert Murdoch paper. However, just because the Observer and Guardian are left leaning papers, doesn't mean that everything they print is a load of bollocks, and just because the Post is a right leaning paper doesn't mean that everything that they print is a load of bollocks either.
I think it is plainly obvious that many on the left/ progressive sphere around the world are in a de-facto alliance with the extreme elements in the Middle East, not by deliberate design, but in practical effect. And before you spit a bunch of bile back at me, stop and consider who wins if the US and multi national forces leaves Iraq or the Middle East as the left wants it to? Not the moderate progressive elements in the region described in the article, not those who want to create a tolerant society that respects human rights, woman and free speech. The winners in that scenario are Al Qaeda, Islamists and the extreme elements in the Iran regime. How do you feel about doing spade work for that brutal, miserable cast of characters? That is exactly what you are doing.
-
Simon,
I read once that the only part of fundamental that Indonesian Muslims want is the first 3 letters, fun. They are not very receptive to the fundamentalist message, which is something for which to be thankful, I hope this approach to Islam would somehow spread to the Middle East.I wonder if you and your wife would feel so safe and secure in Afghanistan when the Taliban ran the show? How would your wife feel about being beaten with a stick if she had an ankle showing? How about Saudi Arabia, would you wife like having to be covered and accompanied by a male relative whenever she stepped out of the house and not being able to drive a car because she was a woman? Would she like Kashmir where Islamists have thrown battery acid into the faces of women who are in public without being “covered”? What about the stoning to death of women who have been convicted of “adultery”, which is frequently rape? However, as a woman‘s word automatically counts for less than a man’s in Islam and Sharia law, the man’s version of events is assumed to be correct, by law.
What did you think of the Australian cleric who recently said that women who are in public without being covered are like a piece of meat left in the street? Implying that of course a cat or dog is going to eat the meat if it is left in the street, i.e. that women who don’t wear a veil are asking to be raped.
What about the death threats and what have you over a few harmless cartoons?
What about Theo Van Gough who was murdered because he made a movie about the miserable plight of women in Islam?
I could go on and on, I haven’t covered honor killings, homicide bombers and Palestinian mother’s exhorting their children to become homicide bombers and other fun stuff yet, but I think you should get the point.
What is the common factor running through all of these horrendous and barbaric situations? Islam. To say that there isn’t some kind of issue within Islam and parts of the Islamic world that needs to change somehow, is to deny what is starring all of us right in the face. How many Hindu, Buddhist or Christian suicide bombers have there been over time? Not too many.
Unfortunately in this politically correct world we live in today, to be frank and honest is to risk being called a racist or bigot or whatever other pejorative is the favorite of the day, which greatly hinders progress. How can you do anything about a problem, if political correctness prevents you from being able to speak about it?
Of course it is very cool and chic to insult Christians, the most “clever and sophisticated” do it all day long, but then they won’t threaten to cut your heads off, will they? And of course Christians are just as bad as Islamists; I mean to say, you just can’t tell the difference can you!!
-
Stephen,
I am very well aware of the bible bashers around this part of the world. When I first came to the US I was very suspicious and uncomfortable with the relogiosity of the US. Now it doesn't bother me, not because I have become one, but because I have spent enough time around them to know that the sterotypes I held when I first arrived here are not correct.The main thing they seem to get out of bashing their bibles is the idea that you should "do unto others as you would have done to yourself", "turn the other cheek" and "one day you will be judged" so all they seem to want to run around and be nice to people and do good things to as many people as possible before their day of judgement.
And becuase of this those "Xtians" do some pretty amazing stuff. It is about 18 months since Katrina hit and there are still church groups from all over the South and across America coming to NOLA to help people clean up and fix their houses. It is amazing, it really is. Religious groups must have donated millions of hours of time to the clean up. And I have to say I haven't noted any secular groups, no "Atheists of Manhatten", no "Secular Progressives of Berkley", no "Humanists of San Fran". Just those damned Christians helping someone out every time you turn around.
So's that why Christians don't bother or worry me at all, they can play with their Scripture all they like for all I care.
-
Kyle,
Mohammed spread Islam with tremendous brutality. Apparently his army would approach a town or city. He would send out an emissary who would tell the people to convert to Islam or he would kill everyone in the town or city, which he did on several occasions. A hell of a lot more people were killed by Mohammed's armies during the spread of Islam than were killed during the crusades.
I didn't know this until relatively recently. I thought that all religions were pretty much of a much, but reading up on the history of Islam was a pretty sobering experience.
It is true that many Muslims live quite peacefully and happily and hopefully one day a lot more of them will be like that.
The most virulent strain of Islam which is causing so many problems today is Wahabism which developed in Saudi Arabia in the middle of the 19th century, while the Ottoman Empire was still dominant in the Middle East, and before the west started messing with the Middle East.
The Ottoman Empire had been declining for a long time due to its own internal problems, before the European powers finally administered the coup de gras after WW1.
It is a very popular view that the West's interference in the Middle East is the cause of the problems there today, but based on what I have read, this is not correct. The Middle East’s problems are mostly of its own making, but how those in the Middle East love to blame everyone else for their short comings. I mean to say, they blame Israel for just about every problem they have, which is just ridiculous.
-
Neil,
Mohammed Atta "came from conservative tribal backgrounds and feeling alienated by modernity". That seems a bit of a stretch.He was born to a middle class Egyptian family, went to university and then went to live in Germany where he got a graduate engineering degree from a German Universtity. This is a rather strange "conservative tribal background".
The other 9/11 guys came from quite well to do Saudi backgrounds. Many of the suicide bombers in Iraq have been well to do Saudis also.
How do these facts reconclie with your theory?
-
RB,
Here, I agree with you. Opposing the hijab ban is one thing - I don't think a government has the right to tell me what I can or can't wear on my goddamn head - but even thinking about sharing a stage with such a person is lunatic.
Good! So we agree on something!
Unfortunately, as a few google searches and surfing of the web will show, examples of people like Ken Livingstone codling a crazed Islamic nutter cleric are a dime a dozen. And that is how to many of us, it looks like some on the left, to some or a significant degree, support or agree or enable some these clerics. Which all seems very strange.