arely staircase
arely staircase's JournalI believe the 2nd Amendment gives individuals the right to own guns
but, like all of our rights, i do not believe that right is absolute. laws against child pornography, terroristic threats, and many others restrict our 1st Amendment right to free speech, and I support those laws. I also have no problem, in fact I strongly support, closing the gun show loophole on background checks and limiting the magazine capacity of guns available to the general public.
One can support the 2nd Amendment and be for reasonable gun control laws.
I saw Zero Dark Thirty Today
First let me get this out of the way - the torture. The movie (like real life) portrays the courier's name as coming from a detainee. No information came from torture in the movie. It was only after the torture stopped that they trick the detainee into giving up info.
Now, the raid at the end was (even though we all know what happens) is one of the most intense edge of your seat 20 minutes or so you will ever see. This movie is definitely Oscar worthy. I haven't seen Lincoln or Argo so I can't say it should win best picture. But it is damn good.
edited to clarify that NO scene in the movie portrays important info coming from torture.
The Moral Case for Drones
AVERY PLAW, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts, put the C.I.A. drone record in Pakistan up against the ratio of combatant deaths to civilian deaths in other settings. Mr. Plaw considered four studies of drone deaths in Pakistan that estimated the proportion of civilian victims at 4 percent, 6 percent, 17 percent and 20 percent respectively.
But even the high-end count of 20 percent was considerably lower than the rate in other settings, he found. When the Pakistani Army went after militants in the tribal area on the ground, civilians were 46 percent of those killed. In Israels targeted killings of militants from Hamas and other groups, using a range of weapons from bombs to missile strikes, the collateral death rate was 41 percent, according to an Israeli human rights group.
In conventional military conflicts over the last two decades, he found that estimates of civilian deaths ranged from about 33 percent to more than 80 percent of all deaths.
Look at the firebombing of Dresden, and compare what were doing today, Mr. Crumpton said. The publics expectations have been raised dramatically around the world, and thats good news.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/the-moral-case-for-drones.html?_r=0
I could not have taken a100 dollar monthly tax hike
Thanks to my president hanging tough I don't have to
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayMember since: Sun Dec 11, 2011, 06:54 PM
Number of posts: 12,482