jerome t. scuggs' weekly politix thread

[DankNuggets]

i'm not sure about local gov'ts passing laws to ban guns. I know it's in effect for several states, but how is it necessarily constitutional? Is it because the right to own guns is in the bill of rights and not in the enumerated powers section? Is it because such laws do not ban guns outright, but only certain types? I thought it was the domain of states to make laws on topics not "given" to the federal gov't.

"Well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." .

Doesn't say who can't infringe i guess. Also doesn't say that ak47's are 'Arms'. we can assume that given the musket ball technology of the day, a weapon completely incapable of causing mass violence, they didn't want to give every idiot an assualt rifle. But who's to say that a handgun isn't a reasonable weapon to use for defense/militia purposes? and they're illegal in NY aren't they?

[Heroin Bob]

Does his purposed punishment fit the crime? is it rational and ethically right to kill someone who has not done the same to another person?

so your proposing we put him in a violent crimes prison yard in a dress and makeup and allow gang rape from about 20 people?

he left a young girl bloodied and mutilated, and thats just her outward appearance. this guy deserves to die. your a piece of shit

[Heroin Bob]

yeah the supreme court really screwed up on the 2nd amendment issue, I agree with Jerome.

The environment is more important.

agreed with supreme court being dousche bags. remember the elites in washington will always know more than them cajuns.


also


if your pro environment, as you say you are, wouldn't you want us doing our drilling instead of people using sub par tech in a forest some where creating multitudes more pollution? or are you just for the environment you can see around you and do not really care about earth but also like to wear those 'go green' shirts....



off note, any one see pelosi going coocoo for fairness doctrine? stupid bitch

[Kolar]

I think it would. The Constitution bans Congress from passing any law which would respect an establishment of religion. That has been interpreted to apply to all levels of Government including even School Boards as it happened in the ID debate. So it will have to go down to the wording of it, which is irrelevant to a majority of Americans, politicians and Judges.

Edit: I think there's a lot of people who deserve a far worst fate then either of our justice systems can provide, but as you said the inequality of a few innocent people is not worth it. We have probably killed a fair amount of innocent people but if we lived in a different world where there was absolutely no doubt of guilt for every single suspect then the debate would fall to the next level, is it morally and ethically right to take a life, be it a State or individual making that decision.

[Jerome Scuggs]

How can you be in favor of the Second amendment, specifically a vague statement which has little relevance in our time (not looking to debate it, we'll get no where like the thread before and the one before that...) but not so much the Eighth, which specifically deems cruel and unusual punishment illegal. Those dissenting only support such measures because they don't want to appear weak on crime, real law and order types. This wasn't about that. It's about the Constitutional rights of a individual, not a piece of shit child molester but a human being. Does his purposed punishment fit the crime? is it rational and ethically right to kill someone who has not done the same to another person?

Both the second and eighth amendment deal with the rights of individuals. Regardless of how relevant they might be now (see the points about environmentalism), as Kennedy said they should stand for all time.

The Constitution is a very clear document that sets the standards for which it is to be judged. The Constitution's framework is a respect for individual property rights, "self-evident", from which all other rights stem from - free speech, ownership (of guns), et cetera (As a sub-point, this is why I believe government-owned industries and programs are unconstitutional - ethics aside). As I stated earlier, in my eyes the only crime that deserves capital punishment is murder, but that doesn't mean capital punishment should be the result of every murder.

Though you'd definitely have a fun time trying to convince me that child molestation is somehow less cruel or unusual than a good ol' bullet to the head. Child molestation is a really sketch topic for property-rights advocates and its corresponding branch of philosophy, due to so many mitigating circumstances. I don't think that the death penalty should be the first and foremost punishment, but I'm sure there's at least one dude out there who's fondled more than enough children to deserve capital punishment.

edit: as for your edit... while on-face I saw it as a triumph for the 2nd amendment, it does bring about the question of federalism and states' rights. Perhaps Congress can't pass a law banning guns, but does that also include local governments? interesting train of thought...

[Kolar]

How can you be in favor of the Second amendment, specifically a vague statement which has little relevance in our time (not looking to debate it, we'll get no where like the thread before and the one before that...) but not so much the Eighth, which specifically deems cruel and unusual punishment illegal. Those dissenting only support such measures because they don't want to appear weak on crime, real law and order types. This wasn't about that. It's about the Constitutional rights of a individual, not a piece of shit child molester but a human being. Does his purposed punishment fit the crime? is it rational and ethically right to kill someone who has not done the same to another person?

Justice Kennedy said it best (lacking a quote) the Constitution is meant to stand in the best and worst of times, not when you think it can help you win an argument or embolden your opinion. At least the left-leaning Justices are consistent with their recent rulings and are not of the opinion that they are somehow subordinate to (still) President Bush or the Republican party.

Edit: DC should have the legal authority to control weapons in their jurisdictions as should any City or municipality.

[Epinephrine]

My cousin was also almost arrested for having lunch with his 5-year-old daughter at a mall when someone reported him for "suspicious behavior." He literally had to show proof of identification to prove he wasn't a pedo trying to take a little girl out.

Billy Ray Cyrus: "I'm her daddy, she's my daughter so if a daddy hasn't hugged his daughter recently, I recommend he does."

[Jerome Scuggs]

My cousin was also almost arrested for having lunch with his 5-year-old daughter at a mall when someone reported him for "suspicious behavior." He literally had to show proof of identification to prove he wasn't a pedo trying to take a little girl out.

jesus... that sucks, and it's gotta be super fucking awkward if it was in public. wow.

I was so hoping that you meant that they lifted the gun ban so people could go shoot Hanna Montana in the face.

ahahaha

I just found an interesting article on Digg about energy regulations:

http://cleantechnica.com/2008/06/26/...he-technology/

The US today converts fossil fuel into electricity at 33% efficiency, throwing away two-thirds of every unit of fuel we burn in cooling towers and smoke stacks. That’s the same conversion efficiency we had last year. That’s the same efficiency we had in 1980. In fact, you have to go all the way back to 1957 to find a year when the electric sector wasted more energy than they do today.

During the same period, we’ve seen automobile fuel economy skyrocket (especially on a horsepower-adjusted basis). We’ve seen massive increases in the efficiency of our electric appliances. We’ve even seen boring old steam boiler efficiency increases with modern controls, recuperators and preheaters. And yet the efficiency of electricity generation is stagnant.

It’s not stagnant because we’ve hit any fundamental limit. Indeed, studies by the US Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency have identified a whopping 200,000 MW of potential (that’s 20% of the peak power demand of the US) for proven technologies that either recover waste energy from industrials and/or cogenerate heat and electricity from a single fuel source.

The worst of these technologies is twice as fuel efficient as the current electric grid. Fully deploying that potential would not only cut CO2 emissions by 20% — about the same as if we took every passenger car off the road — but would also cut our energy costs, simply by burning less fuel. And those are just the technologies we’ve taken the time to quantify.

So what’s holding these technologies back? Nothing more than our regulatory paradigm.

[Galleleo]

edit: and yes, i will be very interested in seeing how the lifted gun ban goes down. i wonder if Montana had anything to do with the decision...

I was so hoping that you meant that they lifted the gun ban so people could go shoot Hanna Montana in the face.

[laureth]

Here's to the US Govt.
Reform! Rebel!

[Squeezer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...%27-tests.html

"...But the increase in child protection measures is so great it is "poisoning" relationships between the generations, according to respected sociologist Professor Frank Furedi...

Furedi said most adults now think twice before telling off children who were misbehaving, or helping children in distress for fear of the consequences. "

i think this is a pretty interesting report because i have similar feelings. like, i even shy away from going to public parks now, people who have children always look at me and my friends like we're going to rape them. and god, when toddlers randomly wave at you or say hi or whatever little kids do, i have to like, ignore it and look around to make sure a parent doesn't think i'm trying to kidnap their kid.

and on a more general note... wow. the UK really is slipping down that slope to a Big Brother state. parents aren't even trusted with their own kids anymore.

My friend and I discussed this the other day. When I was a kid I got lost onboard a ferry heading for Seattle. I remember an elderly gentleman found me and walked with me in tow for 20 minutes until he found my very relieved parents.

The other day my friend had a similar situation with a child in a park. He was all alone on the swingset (no adults in sight) and we were kicking a soccer ball around, so he went and asked if the boy was ok. He said his mom had left for a minute and would be back. My friend chose to sit on the swing next to him and talk for a while until she came back. When she eventually returned, my friend got an earful about how he shouldn't speak to her child because she doesn't know him. He replied that she shouldn't leave her kid unwatched at a public park because there might actually be threatening people there. She blushed and walked away, and it was fairly clear that she recognized her mistake, but what kind of a person feels the need to step outside themselves and help others when you're bound to get that in response?

My cousin was also almost arrested for having lunch with his 5-year-old daughter at a mall when someone reported him for "suspicious behavior." He literally had to show proof of identification to prove he wasn't a pedo trying to take a little girl out.

[Jerome Scuggs]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...%27-tests.html

"...But the increase in child protection measures is so great it is "poisoning" relationships between the generations, according to respected sociologist Professor Frank Furedi...

Furedi said most adults now think twice before telling off children who were misbehaving, or helping children in distress for fear of the consequences. "

i think this is a pretty interesting report because i have similar feelings. like, i even shy away from going to public parks now, people who have children always look at me and my friends like we're going to rape them. and god, when toddlers randomly wave at you or say hi or whatever little kids do, i have to like, ignore it and look around to make sure a parent doesn't think i'm trying to kidnap their kid.

and on a more general note... wow. the UK really is slipping down that slope to a Big Brother state. parents aren't even trusted with their own kids anymore.

[Jerome Scuggs]

as for the death sentence...i thought you were against it!?

i really don't know... i think that the idea of a 'universal' death penalty is stupid, i.e. commit this or that crime and whammo, you die. it should boil down to the individual scenario.

in terms of property rights, if you violate someone else's property (i.e. murder), then the aggressive individual has broken the 'social contract' and loses his own rights. therefore, if you commit murder, you give up your own right to live, and if a jury of your peers decides you gotta die... then you gotta die.

my only thing with the death penalty is... what if the guy's innocent? in today's shitty, clogged court system, you hear about people being proved innocent years after the case. i think as forensics becomes a better and more accurate science, that doubt will be removed. i think alot of people aren't against killing criminals, they're against accidentally killing an innocent man. remove the doubt and hell yeah, fry anyone who tries to fuck your day up.

[Saturn V]

i think honda has already developed some sort of engine that emits water vapor, but i've done little to no research on it so i'm not exactly sure if that's 100% accurate

Honda FCX Clarity, being released in California for leasing only.

http://automobiles.honda.com/fcx-clarity/

[Izor]

standard lib move...act all high and mighty about an issue until it inconveniences 'em. Same jackasses that were whining about the environment trying to ruin it now hahhahahhaha

as for the death sentence...i thought you were against it!?