For a while there were 7 Republican nominees (current plus Souter and Stevens) and a 4-4-1 split in ideology. So don't get your hopes up if Romney wins.



I think this is where public opinion is a terrible thing. Of course Obama The Politician claimed it wasn't a tax. That doesn't mean he actually thinks it wasn't a tax, it just means that he said it. Surprise, surprise, Obama's a politician and he lies. What politicians say, especially on the campaign trail, means so very little.*

I mean, look back at all the Democrats who fluffed and whined about John Roberts being a conservative tool during his confirmation hearings. How do they feel about him now? If it's any different than they did yesterday, it just shows how insanely emotional the political debate has become.

(Another fun fact that has emerged since I was last active in AT political talk - 2/3 of Republicans and 1/3 of Democrats believe the President can control the price of gas; four years ago 2/3 of Democrats and 1/3 of Republicans believed the President could control the price of gas.)

---

* Don't get smug, all you Republicans. Romney's not even pretending to have any sort of soul so it's not like Romney's going to be able to make any of the tough decisions (Afghanistan, Social Security, deficit) that Obama failed to do. You guys seriously should have rallied behind McCain in 2008 so he didn't have to pull desperation moves with his VP pick. Of all the ironies in the world, the nascent Tea Party movement snubbing the one person in all of Congress who had a 30-year track record of fiscal restraint has to be one of the greatest.

A lot of people. And they have some valid points.

1. The safer your guns are, the less useful they are.

If you keep your guns in a safe, either your kids know the combination or they don't have access. If you keep the ammunition separate, then you need to spend time locating it and loading your weapon. This point is exceptionally valid for "defense for mugging" cases (you can't pull out a working gun in the time it takes to get mugged), and may have some limited relevance in home defense cases (you may have enough time to put together a working gun in the time it takes to get robbed).

2. Just as a matter of statistics, the ratio of accidental to justifiable homicides is about 8:1. That is, for every 1 person who is shot (dead) legally and justifiably by a firearm, there are 8 people who are shot (dead) accidentally. (There were no statistics for non-lethal shooting when I compiled the numbers.)

This doesn't necessarily mean that you don't have the RIGHT to defend your home (with lethal force), but it calls into question the wisdom of doing so. Whether or not the OP's post is a true story or not, let's just agree there are people who train their middle-school kids well and there are some real morons who are going to leave loaded firearms where their untrained toddlers can reach them. And any law we enact has to take both groups of people into account.

3. "Home" defense will vary wildly depending on what type of home you live in.

My philosophy is simple: anyone you can unintentionally injure with a weapon should have a say in whether and how you can own it. If you live in a cabin in the middle of the woods, I don't care if you own anti-tank grenades. If you live in an apartment with 6" walls, I do care if you own a 9" knife. Nobody should carry loaded weapons in public without some kind of permit, and local communities should be able to decide as a group what kind of permits they want to allow.

e.g., For my community, a dense, urban area with mostly single-family residences, I would advocate limiting legal firearms to small-caliber rifles and/or hollow-point ammunition which reduces collateral damage. I would require periodic home inspections to ensure safety for all homes with children, and I would oppose any carry-concealed weaponry in public.

Not sure who remembers me, but years ago I ranted about how Scalia and Thomas were morons but Roberts and Alito would be fine justices.

There is no better example of how right I was than the Arizona case.

On one hand, you've got Roberts and Alito taking sane, conservative approaches to the issue - illegal immigrants are illegal, people who do illegal things should be treated like people who do illegal things, and we give special, but limited, powers to a select group of people to take care of it.

On the other hand, you've got Scalia ranting about how Southern states once used to be able to ban black people from entering its borders. (Ah, the good ol' days!)

JFC, all you Scalia supporters. How many insane opinions does this guy need to write before you realize he's actually insane?

Actually, I should kind of thank Primeval for his gay recruitment messages. I logged into my Earth account after a long hiatus and was like, "Whoa ... Earth is back?"

I'm still in the Oakland area, Fruit and Nut State.

1. lol bakku plays Earth? And newworld, what's your 2p2 username? I'm actually predominately a B&M player so I wasn't super-affected.

2. Nobody got "dolphin" banned except for me. I just didn't realize the seriousness of my offense (I figured I'd get a few days off and didn't realize the mods had started permabanning people for it).

3. I'm not really back. Even the last 6-12 months I was posting I wasn't playing.

4. I do love penis.

... and want to get in touch with me, I've been primarily posting on the twoplustwo forums as callipygian. There are several people from my Earth:2025 days I wouldn't mind keeping in touch with. You can also E-mail me at and I'll send you my new E-mail.

Sorry for the intrusion.

P.S. IMP stop sending me your gay recruitment messages. If I were ever to start playing again I'm going to run suiciders, name them PotomacBot and kill your startups. <3

... and want to get in touch with me, I've been primarily posting on the twoplustwo forums as callipygian. There are several people from my Earth:2025 days I wouldn't mind keeping in touch with. You can also E-mail me at and I'll send you my new E-mail.

Sorry for the intrusion.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming: SOL is ranked too high, global warming is real, 0.999... = 1, and land:land is gay. Go!