HarryWeezer

This has been a great conversation. Time for some further thoughts. The core problem with gun violence in the U.S. has little to do with access to weapons. It has little to do with crazy people. We've always had guns and crazy people. What's changed is the nature of society and more than anything else, what's changed the nature of society is hate. When I grew up in the peaceful, safe 1950s, I hated the kid who always bullied me on the way to school. I didn't hate anyone else; had no reason to. My father also hated somebody, the president. When Kennedy was assinated, my father said, "There, that son-of-a-bitch got what he deserved." It was the first time I ever heard my father swear. But he hated Kennedy for getting us involved in Vietnam. I don't think he hated anyone else. Today, we hate each other with a passion and you're seeing the result. Between 1982 and 2011, a mass shooting occurred roughly once every 200 days in the U.S. However, between 2011 and 2015, that rate accelerated greatly with at least one mass shooting occurring every 64 days. You may not believe it but to date in 2022, there have been 246 mass shootings in the United States. Why? What happened? I'm no expert in sociology but as a journalist for 52 years who continues to write editorials and columns for several newspapers, I've been watching societal evolution up close for a long time and in my view, two factors are responsible for turning us into a nation of hate: the Internet, and the dishonest and corrupt media. Before the Internet, people, generally, found their place in society and generally, stayed there. Their sphere of influence was very limited. They associated with each other over the lunch table at work, at the club, the baseball game, the tavern, etc., and argued about pretty much everything and went back to work the next day and life went on. Then came the Internet. Suddenly, an argument over a bar table became an argument for the masses. Suddenly, people who had little knowledge of anything and didn't much care about anything except perhaps their family, had a worldside audience and, long ignored, found they could use their voice and get a reaction. Suddenly, they could bring attention to themselves and we all crave attention. The world had always been broken down into tribes. That's why we have many different nations, many different religions, and people associated by custom, etc. But with the Internet, we started to separate into more and more tribes, tribes based, for example, on but one particular view of but one subject because there were so many of us in the room that we could always find new people to agree with us and join our tribe. And when we're all in the same room, you've (your tribe) got to yell to be heard. With more yelling at each other came more animosity and we began to learn to hate those in the other tribe. But how could society become so damaged, so quickly? Blame the corrupt media. Time was when the purpose of media was to expose truth. It used its free speech protections to help keep politicians honest. But the Internet changed things. Primarily, it took advertising dollars away from print and broadcast media and moved them to the Internet. To survive, media found that it had to appeal to as many tribes as it could. It moved away from writing about what it thought people should know, to what the people wanted to know. It started selling opinion, rather than news. The two largest tribes in the U.S. are Republicans and Democrats. Media chose sides. It wrote one side or the other to keep audience. Today, instead of supporting America, media - all of it - is a threat to the health and welfare of the nation. Those on the left are lied to every day by leftist media, those on the right get much the same. All national media lies to keep audience. Worse, much worse, it hides truth. Their audience does not watch or listen to any other media because they don't want to hear other opinion. And so, they have not a clue what's really going on in the world. A recent example: Fox reported on the attempted assassination of Supeme Court Justice Kavanaugh. CNN, CBS, MSNBC, the New York Times - every leftist media, you name it - have said not a word about it. Because to do so undermines their political platform. Their audience is brainwashed, which is why we have such absolute bullshit going on as allowing men into women's restrooms, as telling children they can be any sex they want, and, well, let's keep to the point. Which is: Americans hate each other intensely over political issues because they don't know the truth of them and that hate has fueled increasing violence and will continue to. One last point. Because of this hate-filled societal evolution, over just the past several years, in my opinion, all of the tremendous progress that we made on race relations in this country has been largely destroyed. Because hate breeds hate. And I have to blame the left for this. The race riots manufactured by racists and the corrupt media, and the destruction of our history which resulted, have done incredible damage. (NOTE: As an XI member, you are well aware of our prohibition on any demonstration of racism so please be careful if you touch on this topic in further discussion.) Thanks for listening... Your thoughts are welcome!

Dick Nixon was referring to Justin's father when he said "that asshole Trudeau" but as with the father, so with the son. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (a distant cousin, to my regret) announced Monday that his government is introducing legislation to "implement a national freeze on handgun ownership" throughout the country. About 55,000 new handguns have been registered annually in Canada per year over the last decade. If you're an American citizen, be thankful we live in the U.S. and the Second Amendment is still in effect. For our Canadian members and friends, deepest sympathy.

- President Biden: "The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong." Agreed. In the last nine school attacks where there were multiple victims, all but two of 11 attackers were under the age of 21. Society has changed. The sale to and possession of firearms by persons under age 21 should be banned by federal law except when that minor is engaged in hunting with a person over the age of 21. - The House voted largely along party lines to pass a pair of background check bills this year, but they haven’t moved in the Senate. Those bills should be expanded and passed. They should require that the sale of firearms at retail outlets, gun shows or any other public venue must require a background check. - It should be an offense to fail to immediately report any threat of violence against schools or children found on social media. - The Uvalde police chief should be fired for failure to do his duty to gain immediate entry to the classroom and neutralize the threat . It is likely some of those children were slowly bleeding to death. The chief gave them an hour to do so by calling it a barricade situation. - The teacher who propped open the door should be prosecuted for endangering the welfare of children under her care. .................................................................................. • May 24: 18-year-old opens fire at Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers and injuring others. • May 14: 18-year-old shoots 10 people dead at a Buffalo, New York, grocery. • May 2018: 17-year-old opens fire at a Houston high school, killing 10, most of them students. • February 2018: 20-year-old kills 14 students and three staff members at school in Parkland, Florida. • October 2015: 26-year-old kills eight students and a professor at Roseburg, Oregon, college. • December 2012: 19-year-old man kills his mother at their home in Newtown, Connecticut, then 20 first-graders and six teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary. • April 2007: 23-year-old kills 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, with more than two dozen wounded. • March 2005: 16-year-old student kills his grandfather and the man’s companion at their Minnesota home, then goes to nearby Red Lake High School where he kills five students, a teacher and a security guard. • April 1999: Two students, ages 17 and 18, kill 12 of their peers and one teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. What’s most in common in this list is the age of the shooters: 18, 18, 17, 18, 20, 26, 19, 23, 16, 17, 18. Only two of 11 shooters were over age 21.

PS: It WAS NOT staged. you Idiots.

How refreshing to see a man stand up for his wife. How typical to see snowflakes and libs condemn it. "The (Motion Picture) Academy does not condone violence of any form." Does that also go for the Ukranians?

We used it to burn the shit out of the latrines.

Please get back on your meds. You're going to hurt yourself.

McGrim: I KILL YOU............... Congrats!

Everyone, please stay well. We've had enough.

Blown away. He was one of the best and a good friend.

From bluesnews.com: Data miners have found an artwork and a logo for Call of Duty: Vanguard in the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War game update, confirming plans for an Open Beta for the new installment in the series, reports Charlie INTEL. Leaks seem to be an essential element of first-person shooter marketing these days, so it's hard to say if this was actually an accident. That said, word is the images and information are being removed from the internet as quickly as Activision can issue takedown notices, though such games of whack-a-mole are difficult to win. The revelations do not contain any shocks: -The images confirm that Vanguard will have an Open Beta, with pre-orders getting early access to the said Beta along with other bonus content for the game. -This officially confirms the World War II theme that was rumored for the title for months.

For those who do not know, FLDMARSHAL was struck by lightning at age 12 which caused his brain to short-circuit. He was once a promising young buck but because of this unfortunate circumstance, all movement of neurons ceased and he is in a permanent state of brain fog. Please don't make fun of what he says. It's not his fault. As Christ reminded us, forgive those who know not what they do.

Like you Rob I always stand on principle. Back in the day when I was a senior admin I left that position because of it and that's OK. The toughest thing about being an admin is sucking it up when you disagree but you know, we're all human and they're going to get it wrong sometimes. But most of the time they get it right and over the long term, it all works out. It always has. Your complaint has been well heard and thanks for doing that. I don't have the slightest idea who this character is and don't care but if he's a cheat I have no doubt that at some point, he'll be gone. Meantime, suck it up. Like me, you're a good clan member and a nice guy and there's not a lot of us left among these Idiots.

If you're referencing your tiny dick, then no, it's not COVID. It's heredity. I once ran across your old man in a bar and he had to sit down to pee.

RIP