1 minute ago, wwest5829 said:

While I am Buddhist and left of center, it is not my TV I am concerned about. The US has a drug epidemic, there are those who might well threaten life to get money to buy drugs. If using force or stealth to enter my home and threaten me or my family, I would have absolutely putting an end to their misery ... better luck next life. See, like other "well balanced" and educated humans I can argue the issues ... it all depends.....

Except for a small thing called facts.

Statistically you are much more likely to kill or injure yourself or a family member than to thwart an intruder.

17 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

Nothing happened under Obamas term. That was the point. I can't believed you took time to research Newtown. Good for you. Italian restaurants and places that sell burgers or pizza are not Burger King or McDonalds. You are the big big winner!! Yah!! Go  Mikebike. Can you research the meaning of life now? You certainly have the time. 

Not sure what you are upset about.

Nothing happened because people and legislators of good intent were overpowered by money in politics. The same happened before 44 and the same is happening now.

Fast food does not exclusively refer to the global franchise mob. Your claim that Newtown had none was patently absurd.

Calling out spotty posts and claims is fun!

You mean like the nordic countries, and possibly France? It is not as though democratic socialism is a theory. Why would any enlightened administration follow Stalin or Mao when there are much better concrete examples in the west?

2 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

Absolutely serious.  Pandora's box is already open.  How would you go about getting the 300 million guns away from the bad guys along with the good guys?  Maybe the good guys will turn theirs in...  But that leaves them defenseless against the bad guys who can declare open season to burglarize all the undefended homes.

 

Gee how would you do that? Without any precedent? Not as though Aus went through this 20 yrs ago...

27 minutes ago, alex8912 said:

Under Obamas rule a class of 20+ 5 and 6  year olds were killed in affluent Newtown, Connecticut. You think that would have been a real turning point.  There are no fast food restaurants in Newtown as in many many USA communities BTW. 

1. mass shootings have happened under all administrations in living memory;

2. In the wake of Sandy Hook, the gun-rights lobby outspent, out-organized and out-maneuvered gun-control advocates at both the state and federal level. A FRONTLINE examination of state legislation and federal lobbying expenditures shows that gun-rights groups outspent gun-control backers by nearly $10 million, and that around the country, states passed more than twice as many laws expanding gun owners’ rights than they did gun-control measures. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/how-the-gun-rights-lobby-won-after-newtown/

3. A list of restaurants in Newtown lists burger joint(s), pizza joint(s), and Asian "quick bite" joints. All fast food in my book.

On 11/2/2017 at 10:51 AM, Stubby said:

Alcohol and drug addiction is not anyone's fault. It can creep up on your unawares and it can happen to the best of us. Few wake up one morning and say: "Ooo, I'm an addict, I'd better do something about that". It doesn't work like.

And yet all addiction research indicates this is exactly the way it works. Yes, addiction can creep up on you "unawares". But to begin a cure the addict must "wake up one morning" and acknowledge their addiction and then work incredibly hard to overcome it.

2 minutes ago, rosst said:

Unfortunately the driving of vehicles into crowded pavement is what is and will proliferate if gun controls are imposed.  It is too late to put the genie back in the bottle. 

Another master of false equivalence... Do nothing, everything kills...

On another note I just got my concealed carry license for my F150. I like to have my truck on me in case someone attacks me in my office with a U-Haul rental... LOL!!!

5 minutes ago, pattayadon said:

What can you change?

Yeah!! Its not as though the US has a system to change laws and make things better for their populace... ya know, keep reducing the bad and increasing the good... a more perfect union and all that!! Nah - just accept the status quo!!

43 minutes ago, punchjudy said:

it's a country of extremes.

 

a lot of good and a lot of bad

Of course. And good actors on both sides. Nothing to see here. Move along. 

Its not as though the US has a system to change laws and make things better for their populace... ya know, keep reducing the bad and increasing the good... a more perfect union and all that!! Nah - just accept the status quo!!

Proper eye exam in hospital, cheap as chips and we'll done. Order frames online, I got really funky sunglasses for 400 baht. Have prescription lenses put in sunglass frames. For my eyes (+5.5 n +6.5) total cost about 3000 baht.

And apparently even in the USA citizen, unofficial observers are a thing. http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/policies-for-election-observers.aspx#accreditation

19 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Right.  North Korea and Zimbabwe as monitors.  Too funny.  And you say MSM reporting is bad.

 

I do not agree MSM reporting is predetermined.  Biased?  Absolutely.  All media outlets have a bias.  Some more than others.

Why would you continue to deny that there were representatives from many countries monitoring the 2014 election (officially sponsored or not)? You can literally contact each of the people listed and ask them yourself. Very strange.

3 hours ago, Dagnabbit said:

Is this a soap opera or something?

 

Why on earth announce something and do nothing? To get an 'attaboy' that you are moving forward?

 

Just make the arrest - the build up is pathetic.

Very sound investigative tactic. If the indicted individual coughs up dirt on some bigger fish the indictment may go away...

23 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

They weren't offical observers!  Just individuals who went to Syria during the elections.  Read the entire article! LOL 

 

You'll need to find a more qualified article to prove proper election observers were there.  Here's one of their articles.  Click bat at it's worst.

 

http://www.syriasolidaritymovement.org/2017/10/26/on-returning-from-syria-more-convinced-than-ever-western-media-narrative-is-bullshit/

Hahaha... you really don't pay attention do you? We already determined that this was not an official UN monitoring. It WAS monitoring though!! Do you disagree that much of the MSM's reporting is based on a predetermined narrative?

2 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

Please post a link showing a large group of international observers where there.  Credible links only.  Here's what I found.  Too funny.

 

http://time.com/2821649/syria-election-will-boost-assad/

 

NK and Zimbabwe.  Good gosh.  I love this part:

Again, a sham.

On 10/27/2017 at 1:20 PM, mikebike said:

An official United Nations press conference featuring five U.S. observers of the June 3 Syrian presidential elections was held on June 18. The briefing, held at the U.N. headquarters here, featured Joe Iosbaker of the Anti-war Committee — Chicago; Paul Larudee of the Syria Solidarity Movement; blogger Jane Stillwater; Judy Bello, founder of the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars; and Scott Williams of Fight Imperialism, Stand Together and the International Action Center. These activists joined a distinguished group of observers from 32 countries who visited polling places across Syria.

 

Source: https://www.workers.org/2014/06/24/syria-election-observers-un-elections-big-defeat-u-s/

OR

On June 1, I met with a delegation of North Americans going to observe the Syrian elections on June 3. I hope to be in Damascus shortly, if possible to likewise observe Syria’s historic election. Below is a list of the delegates.

Joseph Iosbaker, 55

Judith Bello, 63

Elias Hazineh, 62

Scott Williams, 25

Dr. Paul Larudee, 68

Other North American delegates include:

-Tony Seed, Canadian

-Jim W. Dean, American

-Jane Stillwater, American

International delegates include:

-Roohulla Rezvi

-Feroze Mithiborwala

-Jatinbabu Desai

-Dilip Kumar

-Anahita Shireen Mukherji

-Mansor bin Puteh

-Muhammad Abbas Komeili

-Safdar Abbas

-Nasir Shirazi

-Khurram Nawaz Khan

-Salim Ghafouri

-Declan Hayes

https://orientalreview.org/2014/06/03/international-observers-endorse-syrian-elections/

Just because the MSM was following a particular narrative, as is there won't, does not mean observers were not there.

On 10/28/2017 at 8:14 AM, craigt3365 said:

Research is a good thing.  The elections were a sham.  Plain and simple.  Amazing some bash the US, but praise Syria for corrupt free and fair elections.  Unreal.

 

https://www.voanews.com/a/assad-rules-out-syrian-elections-with-foreign-observers/2932940.html

Assad: No Syrian Elections With Foreign Observers

It sure is!! We were talking about the 2014 election and you bring an quote from 2015 - indicating Assad was unhappy with the monitoring... 2014 election WAS monitored by a large group of international observers.

4 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Whatever an official United Nations Press Conference might be, it has nothing to do with whether or not there were official UN observers of the Syrian elections in 2014.

There may be ambiguity regarding whether or not the observers were UN sanctioned or sanctioned by another body, the fact remains that there were NA observers - 32 countries in fact, not the 5 you claimed.

10 hours ago, ilostmypassword said:

Really, the UN had observers including North Americans? You got some citation to prove that? Because according to the what's linked to believe, only a self appointed commission consisting of Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Uganda, and Brazil said the elections were fair. Not only not UN appointed, but, as far as my familiarity with geography goes. not actually located in North America.

5 hours ago, craigt3365 said:

As was pointed out earlier by another member, the genesis for today's problems started pre WWII.  So extremely relevant to this discussion.

Only relevant to the extent that nothing was learned from that past, mistakes were repeated, and the situation exacerbated.

14 minutes ago, craigt3365 said:

I think you can say the track record of Western nations and their escapades in various parts of the world has not exactly been good.  Many of todays problems started a long time ago.

Yes, very true. There are few “western” nations without fault when you look at history.

But specifically relevant to this discussion is post WWII - post colonial reset - history. Only one nation has stood at the apex of shaping western foreign policy for the last 70ish years.

Just now, BuaBS said:

Government overreach again. Let people decide what to use even if it kills them.

In theory I agree completely. Unfortunately because of industry incentives to Drs to push opioid painkillers for any and every ailment over the last couple of decades many were addicted without being able to make an informed decision.

This is optics to con the sheeple into believing something is being done while the hogs on both sides of the aisle continue to feed at the trough and let industry lobbyists write policy.

3 minutes ago, tonray said:

This is a result of Congress being in the pocket of the pharma industry and the drug distributors. Shameful what happened but almost impossible to deal with now....the only question is will the efforts focus solely on after treatment and ending addiction or will Trump actually have the balls to go after the distributors who are pushing so much of this poison on the streets.

By declaring a health emergency I sincerely doubt that 50ish million will dent an industry lobby which spends 250ish million per election cycle.

3 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

UK citizens are free to move out of the country and back. NK citizens aren't. Apples and oranges.

The point was not a direct comparison but an illustration of the minuscule numbers of PDRK defections and the conclusion(s) drawn from that.

So 45 promised in August to declare the opioid issue a “national emergency” which unlocks a battle fund of 50ish billion dollars to fight the good fight.

In October he declares it a “health emergency” which unlocks a war fund of 50ish million to fight the battle.

Hmmmmmmm...

1 hour ago, ilostmypassword said:

Really, the UN had observers including North Americans? You got some citation to prove that? Because according to the what's linked to believe, only a self appointed commission consisting of Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Uganda, and Brazil said the elections were fair. Not only not UN appointed, but, as far as my familiarity with geography goes. not actually located in North America. This election took place during a civil war where many parts of the country didn't even vote.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_presidential_election,_2014

 

It's not necessary to defend the character and popularity of Assad to condemn US intervention there any more than it was necessary to defend the good name of Saddam Hussein to condemn the US invasion of Iraq.

Yes really. The wiki article does nothing to clarify. Here is what you were looking for:

An official United Nations press conference featuring five U.S. observers of the June 3 Syrian presidential elections was held on June 18. The briefing, held at the U.N. headquarters here, featured Joe Iosbaker of the Anti-war Committee — Chicago; Paul Larudee of the Syria Solidarity Movement; blogger Jane Stillwater; Judy Bello, founder of the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars; and Scott Williams of Fight Imperialism, Stand Together and the International Action Center. These activists joined a distinguished group of observers from 32 countries who visited polling places across Syria.

Source: https://www.workers.org/2014/06/24/syria-election-observers-un-elections-big-defeat-u-s/