I read the news today oh boy! Page 64

Quote: Aaron @ December 29 2009, 5:15 PM GMT

Indeed - and ridiculous. We all know that they mean exactly the same thing.

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There's a story in "Bias" by Bernard Goldberg that goes something like this:

Andy Triay, a producer at the Miami bureau of CBS News, was covering a story of two white men who abducted a black man and later doused him with gasoline and set him ablaze. Triay scripted the victim as a black man in an e-mail to his bosses at CBS Evening News in New York. A senior producer told him to change the description from black to African-American. Triay told the producer that the man was from Jamaica. The producer said, "Change it to African-American or the story doesn't get on the air." Triay made the change.

I'd agree that young offenders institutions have got way to easy. But prisons? Man stay in one for a week, share a locked room the size of your bedroom with 5 others for 20 hours a day. Criminality is an illness which can be cured, right now we're creating a criminal underclass who don't have the ability to be any different.

And harsher punishments make no difference. Birching, hanging, flogging, really shitty prisons didn't lower crime rates. Maybe if we tried all of them at once?

Tazers are getting more widespread most big tube stations have a couple of officers with them. But to deal with armed crims we do need armed officers on constant patrol or maybe soldiers?

N.B. I hope our cops get those kick ass wire free long range multi shot shotgun tazers.

Guess who was off work the other day and watched Future Weapons!

Quote: Aaron @ December 29 2009, 4:34 PM GMT

Nothing we can do about it. We don't employ a Swiss-style system where every tiny decision needs a referendum.

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You're f**ked if you can't count on your elected officials to enact the laws that the public wants. Very few states offered concealed-carry licenses for handguns 20 years ago, but people pressured their representatives with facts (licensed gun owners almost never commit gun crimes) and many (most?) states now allow concealed carry with the proper permit.

With respect to the recent case, there's a big difference between defending yourself in your own home and chasing someone up the length of the street before almost beating them to death with a cricket bat.

As I said, the article I read didn't mention that part of the story. I have a feeling that a U.S. judge/jury would have handed out a much more lenient punishment (or maybe none at all) while ensuring that the burglar's punishment was more severe.

Equip police with tasers, but those who carry them should be shot with one themselves, once every 3 or 4 months, to remind them that it's not just a simple disarming tool.

I don't know if they are required to be re-Tased, but cops in the U.S. are shot as part of their training.

Very similar situation here. 9 times out of 10, the victim of a murder around London is black, and again 9 times of those will have the victim and/or perpetrators involved in gangs in some way. It's a whole section of culture and society that should be eradicated.

I hate to even mention the race thing, but I'm just pointing out that owning guns doesn't turn Americans into murderers. A certain criminal segment of American society (gang members, drug users/dealers and inner-city hustlers) have decided that guns are the way to solve their arguments and the average American who avoids those people and lifestyles is almost completely isolated from gun crime.

I do agree. But what if there's a storm and they all develop strange supernatural abilities?

Quote: DaButt @ December 29 2009, 5:36 PM GMT

You're f**ked if you can't count on your elected officials to enact the laws that the public wants.

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I can't think of any who listen to the public. They pick and choose their own policies, then we have to vote for whoever's got the best of the bunch. There's no - or extremely little, at best - opportunity for meaningful public feedback or suggestion. And under the increasingly big-state system we have at the moment, that's becoming more and more the case. The only opportunities we have are with protests - and you just have to see the hundreds of thousands of people who expressed their will to not go to war, and have that will ignored by Blair, to see how much use that is. Is it really any wonder that voter apathy is so high?

Having said that, half of the country seems to express the desire to bring back hanging for paedophiles and murderers, so it's not all bad.

Governments shouldn't be over concerned with public opinion on a day by day basis. Check out the mess in child protection following BabyP to see what I mean. It just leads to knee jerking. One thing I really respect Thatcher for was she did what needed doing without regard for it's popularity. A brave politician is willing to be right in hindsight.

And despite the million antiwar marchers most people supported the Gulfwar. People like war and My Little Tony was a genius demagogue.

And DaButt 43,000,000 Americans have no meaningful health protection because when you took about people power.
You're really talking about the voice of wealthy lobbying groups.
Democracy may well be unable to compete with our modern lobbying system.

Quote: sootyj @ December 29 2009, 5:56 PM GMT

Governments shouldn't be over concerned with public opinion on a day by day basis. Check out the mess in child protection following BabyP to see what I mean. It just leads to knee jerking.

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Yeah, but there's a big difference between taking up every little cause The Sun carries, and listening to sustained public will and best-interest, and acting accordingly. Like I said, is it any wonder voter apathy is so high? No one feels that they are being listened to.

Quote: sootyj @ December 29 2009, 5:56 PM GMT

One thing I really respect Thatcher for was she did what needed doing without regard for it's popularity. A brave politician is willing to be right in hindsight.

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Quite. We need another PM like that. I fear that David Cameron is not the man, but perhaps his successor will be.

Labor seem to be hapless in the face of big problems. Our foreign policy is completely surrendered to EU and the US. Our budget is owned essentially by masses of PFIs and other dubious institutions. Unions and discontent stop any real further change in the public sector.

If I was to write this as a scifi tale it would be to suggest that they f**ked stuff up so badly. So as to make violent revolution inevitable,

Quote: Kevin Murphy @ December 29 2009, 5:03 PM GMT

Pretty much everybody in America claims some kind of heritage. "Oh, I'm Italian", "Oh, I'm Scottish", etc, when they're clearly not.

Except the English-Americans. Never heard anyone claim that. Ever.

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I've heard plenty of people claim English heritage, myself included. But most of the English immigrated 300-400 years ago and intermarried enough that the years have diluted any sort of ethnic identity. Most Irish and Italian immigrants came here about 100 years ago (or less) and there's still a strong sense of identity that's been maintained by grandparents from "the old country." I'm sure it'll diminish as the years go by, but you'll still find neighborhoods that are mostly Irish, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Mexican, Polish, etc. because the residents have relatively recently arrived in the country.

You only hear "African American" more often because it's a bollocks PC term to avoid using "black".

It'll be replaced by another term somewhere down the line. Every 30 years or so a newer, more sensitive term will come into favor. For now, it's the best term to use if you wish to be seen as sensitive and well-meaning.

Quote: sootyj @ December 29 2009, 6:05 PM GMT

Labor seem to be hapless in the face of big problems. Our foreign policy is completely surrendered to EU

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Our whole, well, everything is completely surrendered to the EU.

Somethings would be better if they were...
It's the UK politicians who want to spy in your bins, put cameras everywhere and all your details on a database.
It's the EU courts that are fighting this.

Quote: DaButt @ December 29 2009, 6:11 PM GMT

For now, it's the best term to use if you wish to be seen as sensitive and well-meaning.

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Or just polite

That's why I use it, anyway.

Quote: sootyj @ December 29 2009, 6:19 PM GMT

Somethings would be better if they were...
It's the UK politicians who want to spy in your bins, put cameras everywhere and all your details on a database.
It's the EU courts that are fighting this.

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Yeah, because they want the right to do it themselves.

Not really the EU is undemocratic and a bit corrupt. They've also done alot to protect us from our own government, which seems a little sad.

I'd sooner have our own Government spying in our bins than the EU. A truly vile institution.

(I mean have the EU at all, not just have them spying in our bins. )

(wonders what the f**ks he's doing argueing this).

The EUs not a bad thing in my opinion, they do a lot of good and as much as you hate to admit it the original treaty did some great things.

Sure it's lost it's way a bit and to say the EU is corrupt is a bit rich ALL and I mean ALL (that I can think of) governments are corrupt to some extent, be it spending £1,000 on a duck house it's still corruption.

Quote: Aaron @ December 29 2009, 6:16 PM GMT

Our whole, well, everything is completely surrendered to the EU.

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a few labour laws that's about it, has it really changed your day to day life dramatically?