fauxlaw

is support for domestic weaponry directly comparable with party political support

I'm going to guess that the majority of registered gun owners are also politically interested enough to donate to their registered political party, so I suppose there is a correlation. However, I haven't a clue whether that affiliation is Demo or Repub by majority. Among my friends, there are both Ds and Rs, but more Rs own guns. I don't think my personal experience is indicative of the trend, but I'll admit I don't know. By the noise, it would seem more Ds favor the abolition of the 2A, but I do not then gravitate to say more Rs are gun fanatics. I favor keeping the 2A, but then, I don't own nor need a gun. In a forest at 7500 feet elevation, it's difficult to even see a neighbor's house, so I use distance rather than a gun for protection. I did not say I do not own weapons, just not a gun. Maybe it's a spoon.

Your generation raised taxes on the middle class while lowering them for the upper class. How is that fair?

And you are ignoring that Donald Trump is one of my generation. [a boomer, he's only three years older than I am], and it was his campaign to lower taxes for everybody, not just the rich, or the middle class. Get it? It's not a generational thing now.

If you want a mega military and mega healthcare instead of national health care that costs half as much like the rest of the world you have to fund it. 

When did I say that's what I want? Never. And we're the 3rd largest population in the world, behind only India and China. India does not have a healthcare for all program. Some claim China has healthcare for all, but they really claim 95% have it. Same for basic infrastructure, settled primarily along the eastern seaboard and river basins. But it's not free total healthcare coverage for all, either. The fact is that 43% of China's total landmass, along the east coast of China. All the people in the other 47% of China only have basic coverage. Patients there still pay a significant share of medical bills using their own money for advanced treatments or specific drugs, and only if they can.

In the US, most residents live within 4-6 miles of a hospital. Average rural live within 10 miles of a hospital. No one is turned away from at least basic medical care. Neither China nor India can say that for all of their populations

Sidewalker:

ICE committing murder is a current event too.

The indictment of murder, both 1 & 2, requires that part of the prosecution's case demonstrate the charge's necessity to demonstrate malice aforethought. At best, ICE is likely to be indicted for manslaughter, unless it can also be demonstrated that ICE fired in self-defense. A vehicle is, potentially, a weapon. I'm not saying that's always the case, so don't go there.

And if you're going to continue to shoot posts at me, take me off your block or pipe down.

At the root, my post was satire, because a majority of Democrats seem convinced that banning guns will fix the problem of murder by gun, as if the gun itself fires the shot without the benefit of behavioral man using it. Thus, my argument is that by that thinking, we should also ban forks, knives, and spoons, because those are murder tools, as well. It is convenient to assume banning anything will prevent murder. After we have banned everything, Democrats will finally concede that bans didn't work. Some already think banning the behavior by banning man, himself, will do the job.

You're probably thinking this subject belongs in either sports or politics, but, honestly, I'm not sure many of you know the difference. Some others may insist it belongs in culture, but I'd make the same accusation. I put it in science & tech because at the root, that's where the definition of "W" [woman, in case you've been asleep since Eden, and in fact, since before Eden.] belongs.

The organization, WNBA, has slipped on schooling. Curious, because the commissioner is a woman. Well, Justice Jackson, on her confirmation hearing in the Senate four years ago, and I'm not sure she has yet to figure it out. okay, she's a legal freak, not scientific, so...

The L.A. Times https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-08-18/former-nba-players-troll-wnba-by-demanding-draft-eligibility a few days ago said that the announcement by two retired NBA players to register for the draft in the WNBA is just a bad-faith political/publicity stunt. The WNBA walked right into this argumen ty by their own stunt, and theirs was first.

The US, as well, has statutes against rape and sexual assault. Forbidding kissing noises seems to be excessive against our 1A, which allows freedom of speech to the limit of not causing harm to others. Not sure if making the noise is harmful, nor the act; only that the act may be objectionable to the receiver. However, even the 1A implies that we have the right to object to another's speech, but we cannot censor as a consequence, because that would deny the offender's free speech.

The true Christian perspective would take the Bible at its word: Eternity has meaning as it does in mathematics: no beginning and no end. "Eternity" is taught as having no beginning nor end in Psalms, Habakkuk, Malachi, John, and Revelation. Go find them. How many times have I suggested the Bible deserves to be read cover-to-cover?

There may, indeed, have been a Big Bang, but that does not mean it was the origin of the universe. "Bangs" may be cyclical. Tell me why not?

Science does not define eternity since it has no reference other than in mathematics.

In mathematics, the line has no beginning and no end, as is the symbol ∞. The ray has a starting point and goes to infinity in the opposing direction, but that is not eternity. The segment has a definitive beginning point and end point.

Debby:

Prison data demonstrates that "rehab" isn't. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5029176

28% of released prisoners after doing time return to prison within 3 years [re-arrested for a new crime, tried, convicted, imprisoned.

67% are re-arrested within 3 years.

82% are re-arrested within 10 years.

You are correct, if the prisoner does not want to improve, the rehab effort fails.

So economy grew while debt stayed same.

There is no debt that does not collect interest, unless the debt owner chooses to delete it for a short period, like a short-term promotional credit card offer.

The simplest solution is to just print money, like USA was doing so far.

I hope you're not serious.

In fact, healthcare alone is literally the budget gap.

It's probably more than that, but I agree with everything you said

Debby,

Printing money with nothing to back it up, and there isn't, that's just increases the national debt more than it should be. We went off the gold standard under Nixon; one reason why I didn't vote for the guy, but he didn't replace it with anything but depending on "the full faith and credit of the United States." What's that worth compared to Gold? In 1972, it was $35/oz.

And the top 5% of earners are paying about 62% share of that interest. That includes me. If it does not also include you, I'd just as soon you pay more of your "fair share." That's what "fair" really means, isn't it?

Two things. Maybe more, because both expansion and strawmen may be motivated by multiple perspectives. Still, an open forum. Unless you disagree. That was my #12 argument, yet ignored. Easy to do when fixated on limitation.

Two things. Maybe more, because both expansion and strawmen may be motivated by multiple perspectives. Still, an open forum. Unless you disagree. That was my #12 argument, yet ignored. Easy to do when fixated on limitation.

Illegals committing murder is a current event. Tell you what. You put your posts where you want, and I'm doing the same. It is an "open" forum, yeah?

Funny thing about memories. The word itself does not imply the collectible item itself, but a mental image of it. That is, typically, indestructible and, if it's truly a cherished memory, unforgettable. The rest of the collectables ought to be committed to memory, because in our age of relative affluence, we end up just stuffing the collectables into a box, and many of them stay in the box in a garage, an attic, a spare room, or a rented storage space, just to move when we uproot. Why haul baggage around that remains perennial baggage instead of real memories which cost nothing for their storage and moving?

Democrats may have inadvertently handed Republicans an argument they [the Democrats] hardly needed at this juncture in their evolution. Democrats have owned the "murder by gun" argument as a justification since raising their 2A ban effort since almost forever, politically and socially. Now, mostly due to DSA inclusion in the D- bigtent, the Dems have painted themselves into a border crisis corner. It's a boogeyman issue, but by media standards, murder-by-illegal-immigrant is becoming that boogeyman in the closet, and the door is bulging outward. That door is not made of rubber.

Sage... is like water which benefits all.

I did not say that all gains are righteous gains, just as not all water is beneficial to all. Some water's filth poisons, thus beneficial to no one.

But I was not talking about righteous and unrighteous gain, nor comparing communism to any other philosophy. I was talking about the aim of communism, specifically to limit gain. What other philosophies say about interest earned on investment is what they say.

If you read it, you would know.

Like I said: "Show me." That does not mean "tell me." You're "telling me" until you're purple in the face. Simple; show me. Cite the verse. But, remember that I said I expect a "[definitive quote]". That means the verse must say "anti trans, anti gay." There is no such Bible verse.

You claim Matthew 5:29 regarding cutting out eyes is literal, not metaphoric, that my statement in my # has no proof. WRong. Recall, I have a linguistics BA. One of the courses I took in the degree program was "The Bible as Literature," which considered the Bible as not "The Word of God," but strictly as a literary vehicle. One of the sections of that course dealt with metaphor as a common vehicle used by its many writers and their use of metaphor, as is and was common with many other writers of the Eastern and Western world cultures, used exaggeration as a metaphoric vehicle to support an idea. It meets the same criteria as proof of scientific evidence: dependable, measurable data reaching common results.

I guess you didn't read the Bible.

You are allowed to believe your own shyte doesn't stink.

Hmmmm, I'm guessing that Mary got impregnated by a Priest when she was 14 and then told her son that God was the father.

At least you acknowledge Mary was impregnated, but by Whom and by what biological act, we are not appropriately advised. Some things are best left private for proper decorum if nothing else.

It was absolutely not a virgin birth [known scientifically as parthenogenesis; i.e., a female creature [or plant] producing offspring without the benefit of male impregnation, and which a variety of animals and plants habitually exhibit. However, parthenogenesis is not possible for any mammal, including humans. Further, no example of parthenogenesis of any plant or animal has ever been observed that is male; offspring are female only. That says Mary could not give birth without conception by a male contributor, and a virgin birth, ignoring the former restriction, could have given birth to Julie, but not Jesus.

So, Mary's story to Jesus would not have been as you propose.

Sidewalker: [to your #76]

You said: "Not true, they were named after the disciples, but the disciples were not the authors. The Gospels aren't straight-forward historical records nor are they eyewitness accounts; and they were put into their current form slowly, over a period of about three hundred years."

Not a confirmed fact, either, but conjecture.

The best that can be said for the Gospels [and the balance of the N.T.] is that it represents not even the best attempt at translation of documents that, at best, are copies of who knows how many generations from originals, said to have been written in Koine Greek, but at present, non-extant documents written by who-knows, but named for 4 men who were disciples of Jesus, but that little else can be scholastically determined now, and that this translation effort began coincident with, or shortly thereafter, the collected Nicean Council at the behest of Emperor Constantine, who may or may not have been, himself, a Christian convert, but who desired at least religious peace in his Empire, on about 325 CE. That timing is related by scholar/Saint Jerome, one of the original translators of that era. I trust he was knowledgeable of at least the date.

Whether or not they were "straight-forward historical records... [and/or] eyewitness accounts" they contain verifiable good advice on our proper, peaceful, cooperative engagement with one another, allowing our mutual amelioration. Nothing bad about that, even if a fae-tale. [I sincerely believe it is not that]

Debby: [to your #86]

Anciently, it was more than Jews who "feared their neighbours, Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia." It was the entirety of the House of Israel; all 12 tribes,

I suggest the same is true today.

So, you're admitting people can change. Why leave anyone out of that effort?

Debby:

It’s paradise for the poor.

No, Heaven is better than mere paradise. Paradise is an Eden-like existence. Temporary, with the elements of sin still present, only advantaged because we will not have its direct influence/suggestion. And the folk/rock phrase from the 60s - "We've got to get ourselves back to the Garden..." from the song, "Woodstock" [Joni Mitchell, 1969] is myopic and backward. We do not need to return to Eden, but should progress forward toward Heaven. Both rich and poor will be there, except no one is poor anymore beneath their need, and no one is wealthy beyond their need.

be a poor virgin who never looks at women, and you go to heaven!!!

For alleging to have read from the Bible [not in agreement with the advice to read cover-to-cover], this conclusion is absurd, but expected. Here's why:

 it's mostly a boring anti trans anti gay book which advices you to poke out your eyes and cut off your arms so you dont sin.

Show me the verse that says the Holy Bible is "anti-trans anti-gay." [definitive quote] Nope, not there. Apparently, you also never read that we are to "multiply and replenish the earth." [definitive quote] That means bearing children. No gay/lesbian will, honest with one's behavioral choice, engage in childbearing, a process that both a man and a woman participate in by separate biological and cooperative roles.

The passage in Matthew 5:29 regarding cutting out eyes is not literal, but metaphoric. This is well within the Sermon on the Mount, which draws many examples of metaphor to describe our proper attitudes and actions about various challenges we face. The parable, a particular style of writing/speech that is not limited to biblical text, but is used throughout the world as exemplary advice to follow a proper path, uses metaphor to describe a wide range of serious spiritual infractions we are advised to avoid. Exaggeration is a meaningful element of metaphor to explain a point of advice.

Thus, the advice in a few verses earlier that a man who sees a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart. This is because the sin is not conceived by the physical act, but by the initial thought of its commission. Sins originate in the heart and mind, not in the act by any bodily part.

Also, the book seems to advice people to live in poverty.

This is a common fallacy to read this passage that way. Matthew 19 records an actual encounter by a young, wealthy man who asks Jesus how to get to heaven. Many interpret that all who would go to heaven must give all they have to the poor. No, if they give all they have, assuming they are charitable, they do it once, and it's all over for them. They have nothing left for next week, next month, next year, unless they can make another fortune and have the same charitable heart.

No, this advice was for that man, and any others who are like him. By reading his heart, Jesus knew the man was jealous of his wealth, and knew the man was incapable of giving a farthing, let alone all. Again, Jesus used exaggeration to drive home the point that each person should be charitable according to their ability rather than expect that they give all, or that Caesar do it for them. Government is too often too far distant from the needs and the hour of need of the poor to be better at charity than individuals with whom we traffic daily, which is why Pres. Johnson's "War on Poverty" was a failure. Government does not function 24/7. We, individually, can, on necessity.

Conditions in heaven are a perfect application of the Sermon on the Mount, which is why it is the best socio-political, and not just religious, platform ever conceived.

The quote is by Gustavo Gordillo, co-Chair of the NYC-DSA. It is a throwback to Barry Oba'a, who said in 2010, "I do think at a certain point you've made enough money." It is a communist anthem to limit personal profit, which would be signal that anyone ought to consider the sky as the only personal limit to which a good communist should aspire. A limit, because communism cannot thrive in an environment of personal wealth.

That last is a joke, because communism does not know how to thrive, period. Where it has been imposed, it has never exceeded one human life expectancy. Never.

One does not ever see an imposed limitation on a free-market economy.

Why do communists think limited potential is such a preferred existence?

Tell me how a sellout to Israel would tell them they need to stop bombing Gaza? And show me where Trump is a convicted felon of rape. Don't make the accusation when it has not been demonstrated in any criminal trial. Civil is not criminal, or did you forget that? Rape is only a felony in all 50 states, which means it is always a criminal charge. A federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, but not liable for rape under New York's narrow penal code definition at the time which required proof of forcible penile penetration. Get it right, okay?

First, have you read c-tro-c.

Second, you have to understand that not all who consider themselves Israelites are Jews. The House of Israel, the man, not the modern country, consists of twelve tribes, including the House of Judah [Jews]. So, to whom, really, is your claim that "the Jews must do better?" And, in fact, does not every person need to do better? So, why single out the Jews?

Read, then re-word your charge, and then I'll answer your question.

Sidewalker

MAGA can't accept election results

How does an acronym do anything, let alone "accept election results?" Just wondering how an object displays that kind of intelligence. What are individuals to you? Grouptrhink? And, is questi0oning election results illegal, accordoing to you? You have obviously not accepted Trump's election. Either one of them.