has our world changed, after snowden?

And that's true in many countries. Many years ago, my uncle taught Me how to shoot a rifle and a pistol.
I will -never- forget what He said.

"A gun is the same as an Automobile; they're both deadly weapons if used incorrectly or misused."

That's true. I have a friend who is a retired NYC ESU detective. He carries a Walther PPK. He says that He feels naked without His ankle holster. And He's very level headed. But, He carries Himself with a level of confidence which could easily be mistaken for arrogance.

I'm an American. And You've been a good friend to Me, Yen. In my mind, there's -NO- way that you could be considered to be anti-American.

It's worse than that. It's degraded to "The more I have, the more I want."

When do you have enough?

I heard a saying from brokers on the stock exchange many years ago.

"He who dies with the most toys wins."

Needless to say, I was looked at like I had 3 eyes when I said "Wins what?"

So I changed the saying to something that makes more sense to me.

"He who dies with the most love wins".

Both of our respective countries' leaders have done and are doing some horrific things in the name of "the people."

Hunting with a Bazooka? Or a Rocket launcher? An AK-47? or a 20mm Gatling gun?

Most people I know hunt deer or boar with a crossbow. Maybe, they'll carry a .357 mag and a Marlin in case something wounded and pissed off tries to gore them.

But they don't think it's safe or right to have military hardware. Neither do I. Why do you need full-auto assault weapons to hunt?


As far as your statement goes with regards to McDonalds, GMOs and organic, I think you're right. And so does the entire country of Hatii. Monsanto sent them 2 tons of GMO grain, which they promptly refused and burned.

Seeds are sacred to them. And, sorry to say, American farmers are seriously addicted to GMO grains. If they don't use the glyphosphate resistant seed, they do not produce enough of a harvest to pay the notes on the farm and equipment.

The result: They lose farms that have been in their family for as many as 4 generations.

The executives at Monsanto should be tried for crimes against the American people; instead, they're heralded as brilliant people who now have patents on life itself.

Corporate America has systematically destroyed America for the sake of profit.

And that's the root of the problem.

:MJ

 

This is also true here. There is a federal background check, and for handguns you need a training course.

Just FYI the idiot kid in SC that just shot up the church did go through a background check, but the feds were slacking off and didn't respond in a timely manner so he was allowed to get the gun that he wanted.

Not everyone is the same, you cannot lump responsible people in with some that may have complex issues, or those on medication (like the kid in SC recently).

Come on, you really think that the Chinese government doesn't spy on everyone, including their own citizens? Or is it that you can't say it?

Unfortunately, the lawyers that work on behalf of MS, or any other company that requests DMCA take-downs, have a legal and legit claim if their software is closed source and trademarked/patented/copyrighted, according to US law which they are protected by. Do I agree with this? Yes, but not completely. That is however how they make their money so it should be protected. I do not agree with how business drives, pays off and profits from working with politicians and the government agencies.

I also do not trust any software that is developed in China, not that I have anything against the Chinese people or their software, I don't trust the Chinese government to the point that I believe that they can compromise anything that they want. And they are not the only ones that I do not trust. Apparently there is an Italian company that cannot be trusted, along with a Russian one. Again, I have nothing against the people (for the most part, there are bad seeds obviously), it's the governments that can't be trusted.

You should have noticed by now that I never use IE, FF, Chrome or any insecure browser, and I am behind at least 3 proxies at any given time. I don't believe that it makes me 100% secure, but I'm 99% more secure than any person that uses an insecure browser. And that is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to security on my computer. Do I need to be so secure? Not at all. But I'm not giving up anything without a fight.

Lets get back to reality for a second.....

No civilian owns military hardware like bazookas, rocket launchers or Gatling guns. If they do they are breaking the law. Fully auto "assault weapons" are also illegal. I have a AR-15 that is 100% legal and is semi-auto. That means it will only fire 1 bullet for 1 pull of the trigger. While I have hunted with it, I mostly use it at the range for practice. When I hunt I mostly use a Browning .223 semi-auto, a Browning .223 bolt action or a 12 gauge shotgun. All of them are more difficult to handle than my AR.

In reality my AR shoots 5.56 Nato rounds, but it also shoots .223 rounds without modification, my Brownings are the same way, just backwards, In reality they shoot .223 but can also fire 5.56. So the argument that the AR is a assault rifle is based purely on "it looks threatening" or "it looks like a government issued assault rifle". And please don't go to the "they can be modified to fully automatic" because ANY semi-auto firearm, be it rifle or handgun, can be modified to full-auto.

 

Okay...

To say that nobody owns the weapons that I mentioned is untrue, and shows a lack of respect for what the criminal element is capable of. In this place, all it takes is a little savvy and it's very easy to get just about anything that you want.

Brighton Beach: The Russians.

Most of Brooklyn and Staten Island: The mafia crime families.
The rest of NYC: The Hells Angels, as well as various other biker/street gangs.

I'm not saying that I know anything for sure, nor am I offering for hire, soliciting or eliciting any sales.

In not so legal terms: I know nothing.

And that's pretty much true for -every- port city. We'll leave it at that.

Let me say this: If you have a half-brain, -ANY- device that fires a high-velocity projectile should be feared and respected.

I know the difference between semi-auto and full auto. Yeah, I know that you can pick up conversion kits, but not every firearm is made to be made full auto. From the heat alone, barrels lose rifling and could even explode.

In other words, it's not worth it, and it's illegal to own a full auto firearm. In other words: The Status Quo.

Just about -EVERY- legitimate gun owner -hates- the fact that the City tries to gouge them to discourage anyone from getting a full / concealed carry permit. (I know a few LEOs )

But that's taxes / fees / and misguided controls.

In defense of Gun control, -Every- legal gun owner that I know / knew was trained in safety courses and has regularly been to a range. They're meticulous and highly conscious of safety.

But we -need- to do a better job of psych screening. We -must- prevent incidents where the mentally unstable kill under delusion.

With that said.

Personally, I believe that gun control should be based on your demographic.

In large Cities, IMHO people just can't be trusted with firearms of any kind. Road rage, an accident, argument escalates. Guns get drawn....You get my drift.

In rural areas, carry what you need to carry. There are -many- areas where predatory animals have infringed on human space. Bears, Racoons, even Coy Wolves. So, you have to carry. In those places, it should be mandatory to train and certify for a firearm. Like Jury Duty, except you're being tested to see if you're still stable enough to continue to own a gun.

And if you're not fit, you should go in a federal database. And if you manage to become fit again, your status on that list could be modified to reflect that. And if you sell guns, a means of checking needs to be applied.

At this point, you're probably snickering because I'm describing the system that's already in place.
With the exception of being able to check to see if a mental patient is buying a gun.

So back to reality...

:MJ

 

The whole silly idea behind firearms is that it gives a sense of security. What it actually does is make you a bigger target for any armed bandit, since you are viewed as a greater threat than the unarmed guy. Also guns don't kill people, people kill people, as well as angry walruses.

 

In many rural areas, a gun is necessary for survival. Like I said, some places have mountain lions, bears and other nasties.

And yes. The moment you're caught in a crime scenario, You become a target because you pose the most threat.
That's why not everyone is qualified to have a firearm; drawing it might cause an innocent to get killed.

:MJ

 

Here is some EU spying for you courtesy of GCHQ:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...cised-spy-cam-tweet-comedian-michael-mcintyre

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/opinion/britains-surveillance-state.html?_r=0

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...ry-11-people-in-Britain-says-CCTV-survey.html

And that's just the UK. There is the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) in Germany, 3PLA in China, SVR & FSB in Russia........... I can go on.........

So don't think that the US is the only one doing it. We are just the ones that got caught because a brave person decided to stand up and "blow the whistle" on the NSA.

 

And in NYC, just about -everybody- has a cell phone with a camera, ready to take video footage of something bad happening. They will gladly hand that footage over to Law Enforcement. And if it doesn't show The Police in a good light, it gets handed over to the media. My point is, there is public and private. There is no expectation of privacy in public places.

To Me, it's amazing that the Chinese do not hate us. America has done some horrific things to them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

So, what did the Chinese do? They became our Allies during WWII, and won over our hearts with their amazing culinary skills and their exotic culture.

My point: We need to compartmentalize our anger and apply our judgement on an individual basis. It's -always- governments that taint the water. Not the individuals.

You'd be surprised at how many people from both "sides" are appalled by what's going on, as our respective nations jockey for power and position.

@ xXBlackWidowXx: I still think that you're "preaching to the choir" so to speak.

:MJ

 

Putting all of my computers into a rock crusher. Going back to my Etch-A-Sketch. Let's see them hack that.

 

It's easier to reset than an Android tablet or an iPad...

Just turn it upside-down and shake it.

:MJ

 

True, but how much does it really matter now? The damage has been done, trust is gone and everyones lives are played out right in front of everyone elses eyes thanks to facebook and such, and tracked through the phone in your pocket.

 

Most people fail to appreciate the purpose of the worldwide surveillance infrastructure. We'd like to think it's all about "just in case" and "only a handful of truly dangerous people are of concern", but what Snowden really demonstrates is that there are people on the other end of these keyboards and microphones. Snowden was a libertarian, and it was only because he was a libertarian that he did what he did. What do the thousands, tens of thousands of intelligence operatives (people) do, who are Democrats and Republicans. When Senator "A" sends a picture of his sex organ to a minor, does the NSA get involved?

But a Democratic Operative "person" knows about it, don't they?

What happens when an NSA employee discovers that a high-ranking judge is downloading child porn? Do they call the Police, and betray the fact that the judge (along with everyone else) has been under surveillance? No, they don't. But when that judge comes up for re-election, SOMEHOW the "accidentally" discover what the judge has been up to.

Etc...

This surveillance infrastructure may have an overt purpose to avert a terrorist attack, but I'd be willing to bet that 95% of the actions taken as a result of the existence of this intelligence data is "unofficial", and it is the people working for the NSA that are using this information, not for the mandated and regulated purposes the government has determined, but for their own, personal purposes. Snowden was the only one that blew the whistle. People should keep THAT fact firmly in mind. It's not what Snowden did or did not do that is the issue. THAT is just a distraction, a shiny object to keep you retarded monkeys occupied while the real issues continues to go unaddressed. Thousands and thousands of democrats and republicans are gathering the most personal, most intimate details of everyone's lives and they are doing whatever they want with it.

Where's the latest scandal from the NSA where some NSA employee was charged, tried and convicted for misusing government information. Oh that's right, there HAVEN'T BEEN ANY. Because the people that HAVE the information have the power. And they sure as hell aren't going to use that information against themselves, or each other, or anyone else that can do the same thing back in retaliation. Those thousands of democratic and republican NSA employees are going to take that information home, share it with their wives and their husbands and collectively they are going to use that information against you. Against us.

Please note the absence of any hysteric and histrionic bleatings about those "oh so scary" terrorists. I'm more worried about the NSA agent monitoring these alphanumeric characters that I'm typing right here, right now. THAT person is the real enemy. Let's get real clear on that one. Constitution requires defense against enemies DOMESTIC, and an unconstitutional employee working for an unconstitutional NSA doing unconstitutional surveillance on a free american is an ENEMY. (The NSA is about 2 miles away from me, btw. That's why I refer to them in such a personal manner. They're just right... over.... there. Sometimes when I write about them, I actually talk TO them. The NSA is like my invisible friend. Always with me, always paying attention to me. Sort of like Jesus, in a way. Like that footprints in the sand photo, only there's two set's of footprints and no Jesus.)

 

So tell me in light of recent events in Chattanooga, TN & Garland, TX where radical Islamists have opened fire on police AND military personnel, AND the NSA had been aware of those radical Islamists and watching them for YEARS, yet the NSA was unable to prevent those incidents from happening.

The NSA needs to be defunded and shut down since they have NEVER prevented anything from happening. All that they have achieved is that they spy on everyone in the world, recording and collecting data on innocent civilians. The real criminals are left alone to go about their business and shoot at our citizens, police and military. If there were any other president right now they would be taking these threats seriously and see them for what they are, ACTS OF WAR against the US.

It is time to stand up against the radical militant islamists and the tyrannical government including the NSA.

I don't think people are aware of how serious and dire the situation is becoming. There will be a civil war again in the US, and it is going to happen soon. True Americans are getting fed up.

 

You have to realize that many in the world view the US as criminals, which they are in many cases, simply for their war mongering behavior. The US has war plans for most countries on Earth. The problem with being war mongering and then having all your spying exposed means that you then become an even bigger target for the angry world.

 

@xXBlackWidowXx: What happened in Chattanooga was horrible. And it is being treated as an act of domestic terrorism. That lunatic was killed,
which, IMHO is what you get when you go up against overwhelming forces with nothing but your demented ideals and an assault weapon.

And that sword cuts both ways. If another US civil war were to take place, the collateral damage and the loss of life would be staggering.
And, I suspect, it would turn out to be an abysmal failure, just like the first Civil War.

The people who started and promulgated it would not be heralded as Patriots; the would be tried as domestic terrorists.

Violence is -never- a good solution.

About the NSA. What scares me is that the NSA might not be as good at surveillance as we give them credit for

:MJ

 

How many innocent people need to be killed by these "terrorists" before we do something about it? Not only here but in the Middle East, Africa (Boko Haram), France (Charlie Hebdo) etc, etc.....

'Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez' who murdered 4 Marines and 1 Navy Officer in Chattanooga, was born in Kuwait, and was in Yemen and Jordan as recently as last year. He was in the "Middle East" from April to November last year. Even his father had been investigated several years ago for “possible ties to a foreign terrorist organization”, and was on the US terrorist watch list.

Hours before the attack, the suspect, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, sent a text message to the friend, seen by Reuters, which links to a Koranic verse that includes the text: "Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him." -Reuters

This was not a act of domestic terrorism. It was a planned attack on 2 US Military recruiting centers. If it was planned by this creep alone or if it was planned in the Middle East is a different story that we might never know, but it seems that ISIS had claimed responsibility even before the government media knew who he was and his religious affiliation.

But what is the US military doing? They're sending warships to the coast of China where no Chinese person has threatened us. The radical militant islamists that are killing people in the middle east and here in the US are not a threat, we'll just let them be.

No, violence is not a good solution, but it appears that the politicians and their followers wont listen to anything else.

But I disagree with you that they will be tried as domestic terrorists, I think that they will be heralded as heroes, for freeing us of these tyrants.

The situation today is exactly what the first civil war was trying to stop. Overtaxed people and a runaway corrupt government. "The South will Rise Again" was/is not a concept that the southern states will fight again, but the ideals that they stood for will be fought for again. And please don't misunderstand me, I am talking nothing about slavery. If you know history then you will know that the civil war had nothing to do with slavery until Lincoln made it so. In actuality 25,000 black, Asian, and other "races" fought with the southern states, and less than 2% of southerners actually owned slaves, and they were being released before the civil war came to be. The northerners had slaves as well, but didn't release them until LONG after the civil war ended.

Oh, they're good, good at spying on innocent US citizens and non-threats like Christians, not to mention every other innocent person around the world. The fact that they have not stopped a single "terrorist act" since 1952 when it was created just goes to show that they are a waste of billions of taxpayer dollars.

And how about all the hype that the NSA and other agencies were spreading about the 4th of July? Oh, there is a great risk of acts of terrorism over the 4th of July weekend, stay home, etc, etc.. Nothing happened. The NSA is a complete joke.

 

Agree. However I don't go along with the politically correct notion that we are supposed to fail to notice that 99% of all terror attacks are done by muslims. If it were 10%, 20%, 40%, well then maybe it might be reasonable to expect people to remain respectful of someone else's belief system, but when virtually all the terrorist attacks are being committed by the adherents of one particular religion, it is stupid to the point of idiocy to pretend to ignore that fact.

This isn't like race, or gender, where you wake up one morning and you are something whether you want to be or not, religion is a choice. Every single morning, Baptists wake up and decide to be Baptists, Catholics decide to be Catholics and Muslims decide to be part of a religion that is responsible for 99% of all terror attacks. To ignore that single fact is stupid, to expect others to ignore that fact is stupid AND arrogant.

Post WWII, there were "good" nazis and "bad" nazis. Some nazis goose-stepped around, loaded jews into railroad cars and ran concentration camps, while others "went along to get along". Maybe they voted nazi when they had the ability to do so, but at some point if you weren't a nazi, you didn't work, you didn't get paid, and you didn't eat. And, at the end of the war, there was no movement in Germany demanding that people differentiate between the people that woke up in the morning and decided to be "bad" nazis, and people that woke up in the morning and decided to be "good", peaceful, law-abiding, respectful, hard-working and productive nazis.

Hell no. They painted every single person with the broadest brush possible. ALL nazis, good, bad and indifferent were outlawed, vilified, castigated, ostrasized, prosecuted where possible and convicted and incarcerated to the greatest extent possible. Symbols of nazism were (and still are) banned and no one on the entire planet dares to stand up and make the retarded argument that there are "good" nazis and "bad" nazis. The world saw the natural consequences of that belief system and made the necessary steps to ban it for all eternity.

But, here today, despite the decades-long history of human rights abuses, torture, beheadings, murders, genocide, repression, oppression and the single-most glaringly obvious manifestation of pure human evil the world has ever seen SINCE the 3rd Reich, we're all supposed to stand around, politely, respectfully and bleat out retarded and meaningless phrases like "tolerance" and "diversity". It's a load of crap. I reject it, anyone (particularly any American) with half a brain rejects it, the only people that do not reject it are the congenitally retarded, and the evil, and civil war IS coming.

 

A singularly stupid thing to say. Was violence not a solution when the south seceded, with the intention of continuing to allow one race of people to own another? Was violence not a solution when Hitler invaded Poland, shipped millions of jews, slaves, gays, gypsys and the retarded off to concentration camps to be killed in a wholesale manner? Was violence not a solution when patriotic americans gave King George (the tax and spend tyrant) the option of allowing americans to be represented in parliament or allow them to become a sovereign nation?

Has violence not been a solution in all the hundreds, thousands of cases where armed citizens have defended themselves against attack, muggings, assaults, car jackings, home invasions, rapes, etc... Should someone attempt to rape you, would you use "violence"? Would you like a bystander witnessing the attack to stand there and watch, as a better alternative to using "violence".

What about the Garland, Texas situation? Two Muslims came to kill people for asserting that it is an inherently AMERICAN right to draw pictures and make statements about anyone's God they want. They can draw "Allah" and "Jehova" and write things like "Yahweh stinks" and "Allah is evil" and because God Himself has given us the right to do this, there's not a thing anyone can do about it to stop us. But these Muslims thought otherwise, and decided that they had the "right" to kill any American that violated their notions of how their god was supposed to be treated. (Which, given history, and in my opinion, makes "Allah" and it's adherents quite stupid. What better way to make people fear and hate you, than be trying to kill them over some words and some pictures.)

What about Lubbock, Texas, where a mass-murderer killed a restaurant full of unarmed people, and not one person in the restaurant had the ability to use "violence" to save anyone else's life? How many children do you think, "Michaelina" should have to die, should be sacrificed, so that you and your notions of morality remain "pure" and intact? Huh? How many? 5? If 5 children are killed by a madman, and I have a gun, should I wait for him to kill the 6th? the 7th? Should I, maybe, CALL you, on the phone, and ask you if it's okay that I shoot the madmen, and save some people's lives?

<Brrrr-i-i-i-ii-nnngg~>
<Hello?>
<BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!) Hello? Is this Michaelina? (BANG! BANG! BANG!)
<Yes.>
<Hello, this is Vladimar (BANG!), and there's this guy killing people. Can I use violence, pretty please?>
<BANG!, BANG! BANG! BANG!>
<Well, I don't know. How many people have been killed so far? (BANG!)>
<Only one, but... (BANG!) okay two. But there's a lot more that... (BANG!) make that three. Well, I don't know about three. They're shot in the head, but they are still moving around, so they might not die. (BANG!) Oops. Well that did it. Their head has three holes in it now, and the eye has popped out of it's socket, so that person is dead too. That makes three (BANG!) -er, I mean four. Four people dead, now. Can I use "violence" now?>
<Umm...>

Stupid right? Yep, that's stupid. Real stupid in fact. REAL stupid. But you see, the thing is, those aren't imaginary people. I happen to know a guy that was actually in the administrative office at Fort Hood. He remembers the laser beam of Hasan's weapon passing right over his face. Hasan didn't kill him because he was wearing civilian clothes. Every single person in his office section was killed, right in front of him. I know this person personally.

So, when you saw something stupid like "violence is never a solution", I think about him, and how many of the people that he worked with today might still be alive, but for the fact that none of them had any weapons on hand. People like you, Michaelina, kill people, by your stupid thinking, your stupid opinions which ultimately result in stupid policies that prevent people from having the ability to defend themselves against violent animals that are in desperate need of being killed. That's you, Michaelina, the madman's best friend, and ally, advocating that his victims go about in the world unarmed (since violence is "never" a solution) making them into defensless sheep to be slaughtered, any time some psychotic jacked-up on drugs and/or religion decides he wants to kill someone. That's YOUR friend, right there, Michaelina, the murderer, and you are the murderer's best friend back. You help provide victims to him.