I'm gonna say it and I don't care what gun nuts think...

[TeamsterDem]

211. You're exaggerating the analogy to make a point, but exaggeration isn't useful

The fact is that both can be used for good or bad entirely depending upon the intentions of the user. And of course accidents can and do happen with both things. So they are analogous although an analogy is of course just that: an analogy. I didn't say they're exactly the same thing; no one uses an analogy to compare two similar items to argue they're exactly the same thing. Otherwise it wouldn't be an analogy, it would be a statement that "these 2 are exactly the same item."

What I find strange is that some liberals talk about "nation of laws" and such - rightfully berating Bush's pre-Patriot Act warrant-less wiretapping program as unconstitutional, railing against people like Rick Santorum for wanting religion to control the public laws - but then dismissing a major part of our constitutional lawmaking process when it doesn't suit their agenda. I don't like every decision the court makes, but I do recognize that they have the power to do so and that it is the law of the land; e.g. it's not "shit" to me, it's the law. If I don't like a law that is made judicially I as a voter choose people for the office of president who will appoint different types of justices, but I don't walk around saying that they're "full of shit" given that I respect the constitutional process of making and enforcing law - much in the same way that I didn't respect Bush as a decent person, but I did maintain respect for the presidency itself and found myself disgusted when that Iraqi reporter threw a shoe at him.

I'm a proud liberal and proud American. That we have different takes on a given position doesn't mean one or both of us is/are full of shit, rather that we as human beings see an issue differently. I think there are reasonable arguments on both side of the gun control debate, and I don't think gun control advocates are just making it up, nor do I wholly dismiss their position simply because I don't agree. It's sad that some in America have absolutely no regard for an opposing side, instead feeling as though they alone have the license to the truth. It's things like that which create the hyperpartisan problems in Washington; it's literally why things don't get done. Right now that's mostly the teabags doing it, but there's a growing element of recalcitrant liberals seeming to think they should fight that fire with fire, not realizing that fighting with fire causes everything to burn.