Political Opinion

The Lobby
1553

[QUOTE=“newstrader830;485905”]

It’s like putting your opponent in check-mate (in chess). They don’t need to explain to you all the ways they can’t move in order to come to the conclusion that there is nowhere to move.

The type of mind that is being influenced by those ads is not the type of mind that is present on this thread. Those people don’t have a strong opinion to begin with… every individual here clearly has a very strong opinion.[/QUOTE]

This thread has over 42,000 views… Every individual posting has strong views… But only a fraction of those who have viewed the thread have posted. Thus it is possible that the less opinionated, casual viewers could be influenced by any of the posts… Hence a tangible, political result is created… And at the very least, the possibility of that is irrefutably there.

1554

Alright, you’ve graduated to the highly esteemed position of “Political Pundit”.

Votes don’t have any power anyway. Congress kills bills that have public majority support. Oops, Democracy fails again

1555

“Since 1996, the rate of assault in Australia has been far higher than any other type of violent crime. At its peak in 2007, the assault rate was 840 per 100,000 population. In 2010, the rate fell to 766 victims per 100,000 population.”

That’s taken directly from their site.

http://www.aic.gov.au/media_library/publications/facts/2011/figure03.png

Kind of hard to ignore. 1996 is when they did their little gun ban thing.

It’s not about just hitting each other more. With gun bans, criminals have an easier time, knowing people can’t defend themselves.

Look at Table 1 on this page
Australian Institute of Criminology - Chapter 1: Recorded crime

Assault went up.
Sexual Assault went up.
Robbery jumped, then started to decline.
Kidnapping went up.

Australian Institute of Criminology - Chapter 2: Selected crime profiles

Figure 13 shows that the gun ban didn’t seem to have an effect. You guys had a spike before it, then it went down to normal. It then started to drop in 2001-2002

Wish I found something like this on Australia’s site
FBI — Expanded Homicide Data Table 11

I need more data.

1556

You’re arguing about arguing about politics. Which is more waste of time?

1557

How many guns were owned in Australia prior to the gun ban? I know in the US its like 3 guns per person or something along those lines.

1558

Not sure that matters if the homicide rate was unaffected. They’d just use different weapons, which they do. Weapon of choice seems to be knives.

I do believe the U.S. has highest gun ownership rate. Not sure what it is offhand.

No more data lookup for me now. It’s 5am, I need sleep.

1559

[QUOTE=“newstrader830;485914”]

Alright, you’ve graduated to the highly esteemed position of “Political Pundit”.

Votes don’t have any power anyway. Congress kills bills that have public majority support. Oops, Democracy fails again[/QUOTE]

Congress should be killing more bills. It isn’t supposed to make laws based on what the mobocracy thinks.

Emotional legislation gave us the Patriot Act, NDAA, drug laws and a good portion of the unconstitutional bs that is destroying this country.

Sometimes the majority of people are wrong.

The constitution was supposed to protect the rights of the minority from the wrath of the majority. If 99% of people wanted to take your money, would it be incumbent upon congress to pass an unconstitutional law that ruins your livelihood?

1560

Again, these bureaucrats that many of you think should have such a large amount of power don’t care about you.

They are acting on their own interests. They have their own exclusive healthcare benefits (exempt from Obamacare, obviously) and $175k annual salary.

After spending 5 years in Washington pushing through illegal legislation that destroys this country (while getting insider deals and back room money) they then get a $50k+ pension, every year, for life. Then they leave Washington, take their millions, + pension, + exclusive healthcare that they have for life and they often end up moving to K Street where they start lobbying other congressmen and make many millions more.

And these are these are the selfish (Code of Conduct violation) that a lot of people want to run our economy, our personal lives, our education, our healthcare and protect us.

What a joke.

1561

Well hold there mate, I am looking at your data now. The homicide rate has been steadily dropping since 1996 at an all time lowest in 2010. Hows the homicide rate going in the U.S? Statistics only have value if they’re compared to various cause and effect. The gun ban was one possible cause. But I won’t debate this since I am not totally across crime statistics etc

1562

[QUOTE=“Bitterseatrader;485927”]

Well hold there mate, I am looking at your data now. The homicide rate has been steadily dropping since 1996 at an all time lowest in 2010. Hows the homicide rate going in the U.S? Statistics only have value if they’re compared to various cause and effect. The gun ban was one possible cause. But I won’t debate this since I am not totally across crime statistics etc[/QUOTE]

Our homicide rate is at a 50 year low, it would probably be significantly lower if we didn’t have a bunch of gang bangers murdering each other over drug turf because of the failed drug prohibition.

It’s amazing how the media can push a certain narrative and make people think you will get gunned down if you leave your house.

And to illustrate another failed, unconstitutional policy…

1563

Politicians aren’t the problem. They don’t enforce the laws they create, and they didn’t appoint themselves into power in the first place… the voters did.

If your job is to enforce laws, quit your job and do something else. If you voted last election, simply don’t next time. If everyone followed these simple rules, the “problem” of politicians would be solved.

1564

[QUOTE=“newstrader830;485933”]

Politicians aren’t the problem. They don’t enforce the laws they create, and they didn’t appoint themselves into power in the first place… the voters did.

If your job is to enforce laws, quit your job and do something else. If you voted last election, simply don’t next time. If everyone followed these simple rules, the “problem” of politicians would be solved.[/QUOTE]

Politicians aren’t the root of the problem. Corporations aren’t the root of the problem. The shifting away from our founding document and the rule of law is the root of our problem.

It’s not very realistic to think that everyone will somehow come together and stop voting them in. There will always be some degree of ignorance.

It would make a good movie though.

If we wanted to have a sustainable future, we should start to throw all these unconstitutional federal laws, regulations, subsidizes and anything else not specifically enumerated in the constitution.

Leave those issues to the states and localities, where they belong.

1565

People are the root of the problem :46:. We are the politicians and politicians are us, and as long as there’s a system there will be people wanting to hack it. But, that might be a good thing because it means that the system itself was full of exploits in the first place. It’s time to update this thing, not downgrade it…Why should we assume that a bunch of slave owners in wigs had it right?!

1566

Hear here!

1567

As per my original post, the homicide rate has been dropping in the U.S. also.
Murder and non-negligent manslaughter rate column
FBI — Table 1

Figure 13 shows victims killed by firearms.
See the spike around 1996? That’s what prompted the emotional idea to do the ban. I believe there was a mass shooting, that didn’t help things? Then dropped back to normal. Didn’t start to drop until 2001-2002.
Australian Institute of Criminology - Chapter 2: Selected crime profiles

Figure 10 shows the homicide rate.
It didn’t start to drop away from the norm until about 02-03.

Figure 21 on this page shows percentage of firearm use over a greater time.
Makes it look like it was dropping long before 1996.

In my original post, I said that the homicide rate both in U.S. and Australia started dropping. The assault rate went up, and stayed up, while the U.S. assault rate has been going down. This is why I argue the ban caused more harm than good.

I wish it showed percentage knife use through the years also. Maybe Australians have always been more stabby :wink:

I noticed sexual assault. 30% are family members, while largest chunk being 10-14 years old. Makes it look kind of creepy.

1568

Wanna help me write the screenplay? I’m serious, I got connections in the biz

1569

We need the “bitcoin” version of the Constitution. Programmed by anonymous code kiddies and distributed amongst “digital wallets” all around the world!

I just had a second thought… the Constitution is like a Trading Plan. and it seems like the modern average joe just can’t follow the original plan! Looks like the USA is going to have a margin call sooon boys!! C’mon England, come take back what is rightfully yours. Say hello to your new trading centers: Old New York City and Chicagoshire

1570

Haha nice.

Wish i had gotten in on bitcoins :frowning:

1571

[QUOTE=“konan;485959”]

People are the root of the problem :46:. We are the politicians and politicians are us, and as long as there’s a system there will be people wanting to hack it. But, that might be a good thing because it means that the system itself was full of exploits in the first place. It’s time to update this thing, not downgrade it…Why should we assume that a bunch of slave owners in wigs had it right?![/QUOTE]

Yeah, the founders were a bunch of slave owners, so the system they created is irrelevant how, huh?

The system they gave us was great when we followed it. We became the most prosperous nation in the world under that system. We certainly took off more than the Aussies and Canadians did. And in the span of 30 years after the Civil War we outpaced pretty much every European country.

We went from being an afterthought to Europe to an economic powerhouse that out shined it and we did that because we had a very limited and small federal government that didn’t screw around with the economy, didn’t tax the hell out of everyone and didn’t regulate us… At all…

All these issues were handled at the state level.

Guess what. We tried a new system like you suggested. This is a new system. There is no regard for the constitution, all our laws are defacto now.

And now we are 17 trillion in debt with an economy that only shows growth because of the $85 billion dollars that Bernanke conjures into existence every month, and this has an enormous cost.

Consumes are loaded in credit card debt, student loan debt, mortgage debt and are barely getting by. When our economy was thriving under the free market, there was almost no consumer debt, there was very little public debt, our national debt was basically nonexistent, when compared to today, and we had a real economy that outperformed and outgrew even our phony bubble economies.

Now you can joke about the founders and assume that they were a bunch of clueless, slave owning, fools that couldn’t imagine a modern society all you want, but the FTC is, their system took us to the top and this semi socialist, crony capitalist, nonsense we have now is tearing us down.

Hopefully this political ideology of stimulus, more government involvement, more government regulations and artificial interest rates, dies with our economy. But I doubt it. History will continue to repeat itself.

1572

[QUOTE=“newstrader830;486045”]

We need the “bitcoin” version of the Constitution. Programmed by anonymous code kiddies and distributed amongst “digital wallets” all around the world!

I just had a second thought… the Constitution is like a Trading Plan. and it seems like the modern average joe just can’t follow the original plan! Looks like the USA is going to have a margin call sooon boys!! C’mon England, come take back what is rightfully yours. Say hello to your new trading centers: Old New York City and Chicagoshire[/QUOTE]

Haha, that’s a great way to put it.