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#1821 Re: The Garden » Elementary School Shooting in US » 723 weeks ago
i told you before, statistics can prove anything.
i do understand you. i have made the effort to understand you.
you don't understand. your presumptions & automatic defensiveness PREVENT YOU from understanding.
i'm not trying to claim anything. where did i claim how morally superior i am? i admitted i enjoy guns ffs! it was axlin, who jokingly (perhaps), took the morally superior tone when he forgave people for misunderstanding his culture.
i've explained solutions.
i've said before guns aren't solely responsible. i'm not calling for americans to ban guns (as mrID claims). re-read my posts then maybe you'll understand.
a workable solution is stricter laws on who can obtain guns. a workable solution encompasses that w/better care & attention to those on the fringes of society & on the fringes of mental health. i'm just now repeating what i've already said.
there are solutions. you just seem to refuse to consider them, basing your beliefs on some absurd notions of 'freedom' or the idea that the american constitution and those who believe in it are exempt from change.
yea, people believe strongly in a flawed document that was written hundreds of years ago by powerful men who were corrupt & liars. explain to me what exactly is it that makes america so different from other people who believe in other old documents exactly?! "freedom"?!
freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.
freedom doesn't even enter into the debate. when kids can get their hands on guns so easily, when the mentally ill can get their hands on guns so easily, there's simply something wrong. you said people were trying to simplify the problem, well there it is. it is simple. there's right & wrong, there's decency & there's craziness, maybe even evil. freedom has no importance in a matter such as this. you fix the problem & move on.
fwiw - i know america isn't the wild west. i know it's entirely possible to go thru your life in america w/o coming across a gun or even getting into the political debate on guns - just like it's possible to live anywhere in the world & not be involved in certain matters of the state or certain dangerous situations. my point here is, again, america is not that different. it's just it's gun laws make a special case in it's society. irish society has it's only special cases & issues (abortion for example), the british you could say about their apparent disdain for the EU. whatever, every country has their own particular political issues, it doesn't mean people cannot relate & understand.
& in actual fact, it's been proven ( 
) that outside voices can help lend experience & knowledge to other societies & help them improve their safety & peace.
you just need to walk away from this discussion because you're not capable of helping come up with a workable solution. on top of that, you're not trying to; you're just trying to claim how morally superior you are.
#1822 Re: The Garden » Elementary School Shooting in US » 723 weeks ago
buzzsaw wrote:...the fact still remains that no mass shooting has ever taken place in the US anywhere where there are a lot of guns.
This is where the idea of more guns becomes less idiotic than it sounds on the surface. I agree it sounds crazy. But as they say facts are facts.
i told you before, facts aren't facts.
they're a device for obfuscation & propaganda.
guns are not tools of protection, they're tools of destruction.
you protect yourself w/love & care. of caring for the sick, the mentally sick. you don't protect your society w/ready-made deadly weapons.
#1823 Re: The Garden » Elementary School Shooting in US » 723 weeks ago
holy fuck.
thanks for your forgiveness.
& fwiw it's absolutely nothing like you going up to a black guy & tell him how it is to be black, or a straight man how it is to be straight..
people can't understand your culture?
man oh man.. this is such silly bullshit.
this notion of the implausibility of change isn't, like w/p much anything, solely confined to a section of americans. there are plenty of people in other countries/other cultures who reject change in their environments & politics.
YOU ARE NOT DIFFERENT. fucking hell. this is just too silly.
considering the changes american culture over the past 50 yrs (or elsewhere for that matter to, cause people are the same wherever they're found at the end of the day) it's frankly baffling to believe there couldn't be changes on the issue of guns. it's a silly argument you guys are protesting. your society is proof changes can be made, yet you're arguing the exact opposite.
#1824 Re: The Garden » Elementary School Shooting in US » 723 weeks ago
it's in your favour to be different?! wtf? how the fuck can you say that after the massacre of four & five yr old children?! get a fucking grip mate.
What he's saying that you don't get is that this country was founded by freedom; the freedom to do what we want to do.
"what is the meaning of freedom in such a context?"
the freedom to amass weapons & murder children? seriously, you're using freedom as an argument in the face of & defence of rampaging murderers?! that guy wanted to kill a lot of people, what's more important to you, seemingly, is that he had the freedom to do this rather than laws to stop him (& his mother) obtaining weapons?! really?!
certain illusions about freedom plague people, societies. & this notion that you're free to enjoy guns is evidently dangerous to others & to others' "freedom".
freedom doesn't come into it (which is where your constitution IS wrong & does need amending). using 'freedom' is an abuse, an excuse & lazy. you can be free w/o the need to enshrine a right to hold firearms. if anything, the fear (& that is what it fundamentally is) that comes from gun culture prevents the very freedom you think exists.
guns are not freedom, they are not protection.
freedom is an illusion anyway. you want to be free then you break societies conventions, & then you probably end up one of these 'bad guys' you're so fond of referencing. freedom is isolation.
you want to be in a safe society? that's not freedom. you're bound to & by other people, family, friends, society. it's welcoming & home.
how do you get there? change the laws.
#1825 Re: The Sunset Strip » Bon Jovi Discussion » 724 weeks ago
These Days was '94 or so? Think u need to add a few more to that 10 yrs.
I do give them stick but they do have a few awesome songs n albums & yea These Days was good. But since then theyve become even more pussified. They resigned themselves that they'd never be 'cool' & just went after the easy money. They prob didnt have the talent to do anything special anyway so just became an entertainment act rather than a rock band. Meh. My mates want me to go see them this summer & I'm kinda tempted but only due to milf/cougars that'll be there!!
#1826 Re: The Garden » Elementary School Shooting in US » 724 weeks ago
let mejust preface what i'm about to say w/this: i actually enjoy guns & if i were american or lived in america i'd probably have amassed a small arsenal by now.
BUT the logic espoused by some of the americans regarding the issue of gun control is fatally flawed.
guns are objects of destruction, they are not designed to protect.
you protect people by fostering a society based on trust & well-being. you don't protect people by making guns readily available. it's a preposterous notion.
& of course people like buzz have their statistics (my current fave is the one about states which have more lax gun laws having lower numbers of killings/massacres). statistics cannot be trusted, statistics can prove anything. 49% or something of all people know that(!). or this idea about "bad guys", which is frightening in itself, it's so reductive & childlike.
i don't mean to be frivolous of course.
there is a sickness in american society regarding this issue. yea guns are blamed & they're only part of the problem.
america, and everyone everywhere for that matter, need to take better care & understanding of those on the fringes of society & on the fringes of mental health. tightening gun laws should be one of only a number of preventative measures the country takes to try and solve this problem. there needs to be a major change in policy in the treatment & detection of the mentally unstable as well.
it's not something that can happen overnight, but people have to start trying to change things for the future. america's still a relatively young country & should take time to address the wrongs in their constitution.
#1827 Re: The Sunset Strip » Jack White Discussion » 724 weeks ago
that is fucking cool. just another small addition to JW's legend.
p jealous tbh!
#1828 Re: The Sunset Strip » Black Crowes Discussion (THEY'RE BACK!!) » 724 weeks ago
ffs not even a dublin date?
missed the chris robinson brotherhood this yr, they didn't do a belfast date either. fuckers!
theyre one of the best bands, but infuriate the shit outta me w/the venues they play, or rather don't play. they never come near me unless it's bloody england.
& you know the prob w/england of course? all the english people 
#1829 Re: The Sunset Strip » The Video Game Console Thread » 724 weeks ago
i finally d/led Journey off PSN - it was in those 12 days [before] christmas deals w/The Unfinished Swan (wtf?!).
i played it this morning & gotta say it is worth all the hype & brouhaha.
it's slight & short (concise?) but still somehow epic & grand.
you have two buttons aside from the direction, jump & shout. for someone who absolutely loathes the elaborate button configuration of most modern games, Journey really is right up my street.
it does go by really quick, but there's a good amount of fun to be had (once you get past the slightly annoying carpet/path building stage). surfing sand dunes/flying magic carpets & just flying are all elements mixed in w/on-rails, puzzle & action sequences.
the co-op element is, for me, perfect. your companion drops in or out & there's no communication & you don't even get their name until the end of the game. & there's no way for them to spoil the game for you or vice versa. it adds an extra dimension to the game, a bit of company in an otherwise mostly desolated world.
it's just a great experience. a great journey!
#1830 Re: The Garden » Elementary School Shooting in US » 724 weeks ago
Aussie - One of this yrs massacres did take place in a cinema, @ the dark knight rises.
This idea of 'we'd be less save cause only the bad guys would have guns' is reductive bordering on the asinine.
If there was a willingness to confront the lunacy then maybe there could be a chance for change, which would be incremental but welcome. But @ the end of the day money talks, & the gun business is big business & won't go quietly away just because hundreds die. That's not something I agree w/& things can change eventually (the smoking industry, perhaps - or the health service) but atm its hard to see a drastic change in laws coming. The culture, the lunacy that pervades, is too crazed & emotional for good progress to happen.
