|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 18, 2012 13:16:09 GMT -5
When I used to teach high school, one of the first lessons I taught students about online research was to always consider the source, and how that shaped the argument, choice of selective statistics, etc. The Wall street journal article above is written by Dave Kopel, from wiki: "Kopel opposes gun control and is a benefactor member of the National Rifle Association. ..In 2003, Kopel wrote in National Review "Simply put, if not for gun control, Hitler would not have been able to murder 21 million people." He is also a research director of a conservative think tank, the Independence Institute, and a policy analyst at a libertarian think tank, Cato (I'm mostly familiar with their active denials of climate change and global warming). Grandduchesses extensive quote about assault weapons comes from guncite.com which while presenting lots of articles and information, seems to be primarily concerned with defense of the second Amendment and seems to do a lot of quoting of Dave Kopel above -- such as the section about assault weapons quoted here (although they also reference Reason, ) Just food for thought and something to keep in mind when reading about these issues. ETA: just as a footnote, here's a short vid of Piers Morgan on CNN getting into it with Dave Kopel after the Aurora shooting about 'when the best time to debate gun control is' www.youtube.com/watch?v=XumMF-_2kIgIncidentally I agree with Piers here that the best time was 'yesterday'.
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 16, 2012 15:13:13 GMT -5
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 15, 2012 19:10:40 GMT -5
thank you for your post midwivespalGrandduchess, your point is taken about someone else's shoes. But here's the thing, perception of danger can vary widely from actually statistical reality. And I can't help but think when people are making decisions based on information that is incomplete or distorted, that doesn't keep anyone safe. A report this year by the FBI says the US is experiencing the lowest violent crime levels since WWII : usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/06/11/12170947-fbi-violent-crime-rates-in-the-us-drop-approach-historic-lows?liteAs an aside they also mention this among the many factors leading to this decline which I found interesting: "“We also have a record number of immigrants, and contrary to popular belief,” LaFree said, “immigrants have lower crime rates than the rest of society." "The overall violent crime index has tumbled by one-third since the early 1990s. The worst crimes -- murder and rape -- have declined even more. American citizens are safer today from crime than at almost any time since record-keeping began, very likely safer than at any time in the history of the country." from CNN: www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/opinion/frum-guns/index.html---------------------- Let's look more closely at the specific areas where the US borders with Mexico: content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2011/07/usa-today-analysis-border-crime-rates-dont-match-rhetoric/1#.UM0I62_AfVE"The USA TODAY team's analysis of a decade of crime data, plus interviews with local and federal authorities, finds that violent crime along the U.S. side of the border has been falling for years -- even before the security buildup in recent years by thousands of law enforcement officers. A key finding: U.S. border cities were statistically safer on average than other cities in their states. Those border cities, big and small, have maintained lower crime rates than the national average, which itself has been falling."Here's a breakdown of the study with interactive maps: usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2011/07/us-mexico-border-violence/49399232/1Also a followup story from last month, same pattern still holds: www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/04/violent-crimes-drop-overall-in-us-border-cities/1681821/************** My shoes, for full disclosure: I live in a mid-sized American city which I love and is considered a bit of a progressive haven. I take reasonable precautions, am not naive, and have unfortunately had random gun violence occur very near my house (I came home to find the police checking our siding for stray shots once), and yet I feel safe here and my neighborhood is cooperative, friendly and diverse. I compared violent and property crime rates from my neighborhood to Nogales since it was mentioned, and some Texas border towns using www.neighborhoodscout.com . Not surprisingly the violent and overall crime rates per capita were much higher in my city. I have shot clay pigeons, have veterans in my family, my father in law is a hunter and game keeper, and my husband has had pre-airforce military training on firearms in the UK, and yet I would never have a weapon in my home, and neither would he. The statistics clearly outline the risks this would pose to my family, and it's not just a risk I'm taking on, but we might be endangering complete strangers should a weapon be stolen or taken or an accident occur. The idea of buying an assault weapon possibly in addition to other firearms for home defense? I can't make the mental leap. I also don't watch television news, and in particular know that the Fox network while good for all your 'if it bleeds it leads' coverage, and remarkable effective at building network ratings based on fear doesn't have a financial incentive to provide a complete or accurate picture. **** The CNN article I linked above draws some conclusions about this which while open to debate are worth considering: "TV news -- and especially local TV news -- is dominated by news of violent crime, the more spectacular and murderous the better. TV news creates a false picture of a country under attack by rampaging criminals, and especially nonwhite criminals. The people who watch the most TV news, Americans older than 50, also happen to be the group most likely to own a gun. Only one-fifth of young Americans own a gun; one-third of over-50 Americans do. Republicans are twice as likely to own a gun as Democrats. Maybe not so coincidentally, Republicans are more likely to watch the scariest news channel of them all: Fox. Whites are twice as likely to own a gun as nonwhites -- and it may also not be a coincidence that gun purchases have suddenly spiked since November 2008." www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/opinion/frum-guns/index.html***** One other thing. The Fox article that Grandduchess linked to, makes an important point perhaps unintentionally. There are a lot of vulnerable people dying during the crossing in the border areas, and these death rates are rising even while migration across the border has dropped to historic lows. That is a serious humanitarian concern to me, the fact that they aren't US citizens in no way diminishes that. openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/09/14300178-deadly-crossing-death-toll-rises-among-those-desperate-for-the-american-dream?lite
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 15, 2012 14:47:29 GMT -5
midwifespal - please post your response, or if you really feel uncomfortable, please PM it to me.
I also was unable to sleep last night reading that post and am still upset this morning, and have been wondering whether it's worth bringing actual statistical facts about dropping crime rates, cross-border immigration/refugees (rates dropping, deaths rising), guns in altercations and the problem of vigilantism into this discussion.
I'll be honest, tip-toeing around people's feelings and quiet discourse don't in my mind take precedence over issues this important and timely.
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 3, 2012 22:32:00 GMT -5
I think I was called bigotry for my comment about Johnny. However, I just want to say people cannot judge someone bigotry from one or few comment or from some post in fansite. Ohh well! Maybe I should just shut up. No need to "shut up". My comment was just meant to reinforce ATop rules -- we do not categorize people or call them homophobes here.
The only reason this site exists is for a respectful but mostly free discussion.
If we can't talk honestly about how we feel, we can never never never grow as people. We will all just continue to conform and be politically correct.1. relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. 2. political correctness - avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against www.thefreedictionary.com/political+correctnessactually, a more accurate and less loaded term IMO is politically aware. ------------------ Words are important because we can't know or assume intent. I can only speak for myself but if I use words that are unintentionally sexist or racist or homophobic, please feel free to tell me. It might not be fun, but best case scenario, I learn something. great article rihannsu and really worth a read today from page 4: "Why can't men have strong feminine sides?" agrees Adam Lambert in Rolling Stone. "Does that make them less of a man? I don't know why our society has such an emphasis on masculinity and femininity — it's really gross. I don't think you're truly sexy until you don't care about that."
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 3, 2012 17:51:18 GMT -5
mika you win the internets <3333
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Dec 3, 2012 13:44:46 GMT -5
I think it's self-aware and requires some courage when posters acknowledge and examine their own feelings and and ask 'why am I personally uncomfortable with this, am I willing to acknowledge perhaps hard truths about myself and my cultural background and can I/ do I want to change?' Because that's harder but ultimately probably more rewarding than worrying about the reactions of people in a culture one isn't personally familiar with.
From my cultural background which includes my age, political views, where I live, my education, etc., words like 'a farce', 'simpering', 'dances like a girl and makes me cringe', 'explicit' (when nothing overtly sexual is happening) all have negative connotations and historically have associations with homophobic language. I am just talking about the words here, I'm not referring to individuals or their beliefs.
As junie pointed out, 'camp' is something different and has a positive connotation. Adam actually gave a bit a speech on it once which was pretty great if I remember. Does anyone have that bookmarked?
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Nov 15, 2012 2:00:09 GMT -5
What an unexpected treat! I had avoided listening to Shady earlier as Adam and the VJJs had a very hard time hearing pitches at the beginning on the earlier video posted. But, I decided to play this, as I figured they would work it out... which they did. Then, for the band intros Adam goes all funky jazz with delightful scat improvs and almost Charleston-like dance moves. The sound and the movement just make me grin ear to ear. lol I love this band intro, in part because Adam is covering this song around 5:58 and onwards: :4OMG:
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Oct 29, 2012 14:43:38 GMT -5
Wait. Who was implying that the album wasn't great merely because of sales? Sales is never an indicator of quality, else we would have to believe that McDonald's is the height of cuisine. But at the same time, just because vendors (in this case, radio PD's) refuse to pick up the product, doesn't mean it's the company's fault. Merely that the vendor, for whatever personal reason, isn't buying, or applying the product enough. Makes sense to me. What RCA has or hasn't done behind the scenes is something that a) we have no knowledge of, b) we have no control over. Even with single choices we have no way of knowing if another choice in another order might have gotten more or less radio play.
|
|
|
Post by rabbitrabbit on Oct 29, 2012 14:10:00 GMT -5
By the way, I love BTIKM. Had to say it. I love NCOE and like BTIKM quite a lot. Nica I think it would be a huge leap however to assume that Adam shares your opinions. Also while some fans do, some fans definitely don't.
|
|