The Current Events, News, and Politics Thread
#9601
Boost Czar
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Location: Chantilly, VA
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I could easily say: a well equipped trolled, being necessary to the balance of the internet, the rights of the people to have access to and use internet, shall not be infringed.
trolls only.
trolls only.
#9602
By the way, we count suicides by guns as a "crime"...
States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths
States with more guns have more gun deaths
It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths<br/>
Disclaimer: I own guns and don't pretend to have the answer but I also don't think the world is out to get me...
Just making sure the kids're ready...
#9607
This assertion is commonly disputed by legal scholars, and there is a large consensus which agrees that the part before the comma matters. My own personal opinion is that James Madison wasn't a moron, and didn't write the part about the well-regulated militia just because he was bored.
WSJ paywall...
#9609
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Really?
By the way, we count suicides by guns as a "crime"...
States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths
States with more guns have more gun deaths
It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths<br/>
Disclaimer: I own guns and don't pretend to have the answer but I also don't think the world is out to get me...
Just making sure the kids're ready...
By the way, we count suicides by guns as a "crime"...
States with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths
States with more guns have more gun deaths
It’s not just the US: Developed countries with more guns also have more gun deaths<br/>
Disclaimer: I own guns and don't pretend to have the answer but I also don't think the world is out to get me...
Just making sure the kids're ready...
#9610
So while we all seem to agree that we in America can't seem to find a solution to our killing fields, our elected officials continue on with crocodile tears and useless committee hearings in finding what should be an easy fix;
Equifax, it’s worse than you think
Equifax, it’s worse than you think
Richard Smith, who was CEO and chairman at Equifax when the company experienced a data breach that resulted in the theft of comprehensive private identifying information on 145 million Americans last month, appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today to answer questions. The queries included: “Why was there nearly a week before members of the board were alerted of the breach?” “Why was the consumer facing website created on a separate domain?” “Does Equifax require consumers to consent to arbitration?” “If the data that you hold is about me, do I own it?” and “I get that this model is a good deal for Equifax, but can you explain how it is a good deal for consumers?”
Some of Smith’s answers were more satisfying than others.
The hearing confirmed what we all basically knew: Equifax has made a business model out of collecting obscene amounts of data on Americans without their consent — far more data than is really needed to perform its ostensible function of assessing creditworthiness, as multiple members pointed out.
The margin of profit on this business, Smith said in a speech at the University of Georgia last month, is approximately 90 percent. And while Smith and his interrogators repeatedly insisted that protecting consumer data was the company’s “primary goal,” it was not. Equifax’s primary goal was to continue its 118-year tradition of collecting metadata on every individual participating in the modern economy and selling it for ludicrous profits.
From the International Directory of Company Histories, “Equifax was founded in 1898 by two brothers, Cator and Guy Woolford. Cator Woolford got his start in the credit bureau business as a grocer in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There he supervised the compilation of a list of customers, with indications of their creditworthiness, for the local Retail Grocer's Association.”
The Congressional panel made a show of grilling Smith, and multiple members got in some satisfying jabs. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico pointed out that Equifax’s offerings to consumers affected by the breach are all pretty worthless (For one thing, a free credit freeze at Equifax — the lynchpin of the company’s attempt to make things right — is ineffective without a simultaneous freeze at the two other major credit bureaus, Experian and TransUnion). “Will those products make them whole, yes or no?” Luján asked. Smith tried to say he did not know if consumers had been “harmed,” and Luján went in. “If someone’s credit has been stolen and someone went and opened up a bunch of their accounts, bought furniture, bought cell phones, bought a bunch of fuel, and now this consumer can't fix their history, they’ve been harmed. In that case, will Equifax make them whole?”
In another exchange, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas opened by asking how much Equifax is worth — roughly $13 billion — and then suggested that the company simply pay each consumer who was affected. “If you had to pay everybody whose account got hacked a couple thousand bucks or something,” he said, “what would the industry reaction be to that, if we passed a law that did that?”
Despite the bipartisan tough talk, the hearing was a sad reminder of the stunning riches that can be had by exploiting the powerlessness of the average American consumer. Smith, who announced his “retirement” with what will amount to a golden parachute on September 26 and has no impact on what the company will do to fix its sloppiness or reverse its moral depravity, is still positioned to earn many millions in the future from Equifax in addition the many millions he has already made. (Fortune calculated that amount will shake out to $90 million.
Some of Smith’s answers were more satisfying than others.
The hearing confirmed what we all basically knew: Equifax has made a business model out of collecting obscene amounts of data on Americans without their consent — far more data than is really needed to perform its ostensible function of assessing creditworthiness, as multiple members pointed out.
The margin of profit on this business, Smith said in a speech at the University of Georgia last month, is approximately 90 percent. And while Smith and his interrogators repeatedly insisted that protecting consumer data was the company’s “primary goal,” it was not. Equifax’s primary goal was to continue its 118-year tradition of collecting metadata on every individual participating in the modern economy and selling it for ludicrous profits.
From the International Directory of Company Histories, “Equifax was founded in 1898 by two brothers, Cator and Guy Woolford. Cator Woolford got his start in the credit bureau business as a grocer in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There he supervised the compilation of a list of customers, with indications of their creditworthiness, for the local Retail Grocer's Association.”
The Congressional panel made a show of grilling Smith, and multiple members got in some satisfying jabs. Rep. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico pointed out that Equifax’s offerings to consumers affected by the breach are all pretty worthless (For one thing, a free credit freeze at Equifax — the lynchpin of the company’s attempt to make things right — is ineffective without a simultaneous freeze at the two other major credit bureaus, Experian and TransUnion). “Will those products make them whole, yes or no?” Luján asked. Smith tried to say he did not know if consumers had been “harmed,” and Luján went in. “If someone’s credit has been stolen and someone went and opened up a bunch of their accounts, bought furniture, bought cell phones, bought a bunch of fuel, and now this consumer can't fix their history, they’ve been harmed. In that case, will Equifax make them whole?”
In another exchange, Rep. Joe Barton of Texas opened by asking how much Equifax is worth — roughly $13 billion — and then suggested that the company simply pay each consumer who was affected. “If you had to pay everybody whose account got hacked a couple thousand bucks or something,” he said, “what would the industry reaction be to that, if we passed a law that did that?”
Despite the bipartisan tough talk, the hearing was a sad reminder of the stunning riches that can be had by exploiting the powerlessness of the average American consumer. Smith, who announced his “retirement” with what will amount to a golden parachute on September 26 and has no impact on what the company will do to fix its sloppiness or reverse its moral depravity, is still positioned to earn many millions in the future from Equifax in addition the many millions he has already made. (Fortune calculated that amount will shake out to $90 million.
#9615
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Interesting that Bahurd referred to America as "killing fields". The actual "killing fields" were in Cambodia where a left-wing government disarmed the populace and killed two million of its own citizens in only four years. Thank you for bringing up this shining example of why we Americans feel it is a necessary right to be able to resist a tyrannical government if need be. God willing we won't need to do so.
#9616
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Location: El Dorado/Sacramento
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Suicide is the #1 cause of gun deaths.
#2 is young men aged 15 to 34 due to homicide, mostly related to gang violence.
Solution isn't harsher penalties for legal gun owners stop letting criminals out of prison.
Leftist policy saying gang members are victims of society and need to be put back on the streets is the issue when it comes to gun violence.
Mental illness is something that should be addressed.
And evil needs to be recognized as something which can't be regulated.
Also before anyone else wants to throw Australia or the UK's gun buyback programs as a solution. Studies have shown that there is no meaningful data showing a correlation between mass shootings before and after the BuyBacks is present.
#2 is young men aged 15 to 34 due to homicide, mostly related to gang violence.
Solution isn't harsher penalties for legal gun owners stop letting criminals out of prison.
Leftist policy saying gang members are victims of society and need to be put back on the streets is the issue when it comes to gun violence.
Mental illness is something that should be addressed.
And evil needs to be recognized as something which can't be regulated.
Also before anyone else wants to throw Australia or the UK's gun buyback programs as a solution. Studies have shown that there is no meaningful data showing a correlation between mass shootings before and after the BuyBacks is present.
Last edited by mitymazda; 10-04-2017 at 01:40 PM.
#9618
Interesting that Bahurd referred to America as "killing fields". The actual "killing fields" were in Cambodia where a left-wing government disarmed the populace and killed two million of its own citizens in only four years. Thank you for bringing up this shining example of why we Americans feel it is a necessary right to be able to resist a tyrannical government if need be. God willing we won't need to do so.
So, how would you propose to address that?
Who gets to determine who's "mentaly ill"? You? Me? The government?
Up to the mid to late '60s it was common for states to have mental institutions. Society, and our government, deemed it not to be the problem of the state and left it to the families to take care of. Any idea what happened to Medicaid spending after that?
Many family counselers today will tell the patient not to submit reimbursement to the insurance companies [even though it's covered] because it's too easy to be marked as having a "mental health issue" which can cause all sorts of problems for the patient.
#9619
Boost Pope
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Location: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
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A council of six men (five white, one Filipino) who meet on the third Thursday of each month in a lavishly-appointed chamber located deep within the catacombs beneath Gray's Papaya on the west side of Manhattan. 72nd & Broadway; enter from the uptown 1/2/3 subway tracks just past the ramp, then go down three stories. Do not believe anything said to you by the squirrel with a boy's face: it speaks only lies.
Personally, I feel better with them in charge.
Personally, I feel better with them in charge.
#9620
Boost Czar
Thread Starter
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: Chantilly, VA
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words.
if you're not for total outright ban and complete 100% confiscation, you're just words.
We just hit print on a design for a 3D printed bumpfire stock, similar to the ones that liberals want to see banned after the Las Vegas shooting.
This is what gun control advocates don't understand: they can't control the means of production anymore. The technology you need to build your own firearm at home has never been more affordable or easier to use. Now, the word is that they want to ban "bumpfire stocks." Aside from the fact that they basically want to legislate how fa...st someone is allowed to pull the trigger, all it takes is a 3D printer and you can have a bumpfire stock in your hands in about a day and a half.
This is what gun control advocates don't understand: they can't control the means of production anymore. The technology you need to build your own firearm at home has never been more affordable or easier to use. Now, the word is that they want to ban "bumpfire stocks." Aside from the fact that they basically want to legislate how fa...st someone is allowed to pull the trigger, all it takes is a 3D printer and you can have a bumpfire stock in your hands in about a day and a half.
Gun control operates on the basic assumption that if Congress bans it, and the industry is no longer allowed to manufacture or sell it, then the people won't be able to get it. Not the case anymore. Anyone with even a basic level of machining experience could build a rough auto-sear and turn their AR-15 into a machine gun. If a criminal lives in a state that bans large magazines, they can buy a 3D printer and have a functioning magazine in their hands in just hours.
Gun laws work because the vast majority of people look at the prospect of spending years in prison and say it's not worth it. But when it comes to someone like the Las Vegas shooter, who killed himself before Police even breached the door, how do you put the fear of incarceration into someone who plans on dying anyway? Gun control advocates don't seem to understand this, or they simply don't care because time and time again, they present legislation that would have done nothing to stop a tragedy.
Gun laws work because the vast majority of people look at the prospect of spending years in prison and say it's not worth it. But when it comes to someone like the Las Vegas shooter, who killed himself before Police even breached the door, how do you put the fear of incarceration into someone who plans on dying anyway? Gun control advocates don't seem to understand this, or they simply don't care because time and time again, they present legislation that would have done nothing to stop a tragedy.