dusktime (5497) 1 SFW Posts | 17 Space Comments | Favorites | RSS Feed Registered 2008-12-03 13:47:16 Comment Karma: 0 Featured Comments: 0 Member of :

Recent Comments from dusktime

Comment on rude beer drinker (2010-01-10 09:50:13)
"...and sits down the cough with a thud." I had a hacking cough once, but with a thud has to be more painful.
Comment on space car OF THE FUTURE (2009-08-29 22:01:10)
It reminds me of the American-made "Freeway" which I test drove here back in 1980. If you perceive these things as more of an all-weather motorcycle, rather than a car... "it works." The Freeway was produced in Minneapolis for a few years partly as a reaction after the oil crisis of the 1970s and was like the original high-mpg machine driveable in Minnesota year-round. It was a lot of fun to drive and over the years I've regretted I didn't buy one. Page through http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/hmvfreeway/size.htm
Comment on Well protected. (2009-04-11 08:29:32)
The little girl has her finger on the trigger.... ================================================== Self-Defense: The Great Myth of America’s Gun Industry http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/self_defense.pdf. Guns have long been seen as tools of self-defense in the United States. But, contrary to gun industry hype, unintended consequences often happen when people buy guns for self-defense. Studies by public health professionals have repeatedly found that having a gun around for any reason increases the likelihood that a family member—as opposed to a criminal—will be injured or killed with a gun. A 1997 American Journal of Public Health study showed that family members that had a history of buying a handgun from a licensed dealer were twice as likely to die in a suicide or homicide as were persons similarly situated who had no such family history of gun purchase. This increased risk persisted for more than five years after the handgun was purchased. Other studies have looked specifically at the more narrow question of keeping guns in the home for self-defense. One, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that having a gun in the home made it nearly three times more likely that someone in the family will be killed. This risk isparticularly high for women, who are more likely to be killed by a spouse, intimate acquaintance, or close relative. An Archives of Internal Medicine study found that, with one or more guns in the home,the risk of suicide among women increased nearly five times and the risk of homicide increased more than three times. These and other studies have documented repeatedly the enhanced risk that comes from bringing a gun into the home. Even the gun press admits the risk in unguarded moments. Describing the demise of so-called “lintel guns,” firearms hung over the door ready for immediate action in frontier times, Shooting Sports Retailer noted: "Today, guns in a home used for self protection are not hung over the door but are more likely in a desk drawer or beside the bed in a night stand. When a child is hurt in a firearm accident it is often the self defense gun that was found, played with, and ultimately fired by the youngster." But how often do people use guns successfully to protect themselves from criminal acts? Does it justify the deaths and damage that comes with guns? Apparently not. Most studies have found that guns play a relatively minor role in preventing crime but a major role in facilitating it. For example, the US Department of Justice study found that, on the average, between 1987 and 1992 only one percent of actual or attempted victims of violent crime, or about 62,000 people, attempted to defend themselves with a firearm. On the other hand, criminals armed with handguns committed a record 931,000 violent crimes in 1992. Data from the FBI’s Crime in the United States reveals that for every time in 1998 that a civilian used a handgun to kill in self-defense, 50 people lost their lives in handgun homicides alone. One advocate of the value of handguns for self-defense is Gary Kleck, professor of criminology at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Kleck and his colleague Mark Gertz claim their survey research indicates that civilians use guns in self-defense up to 2.5 million times a year. Naturally enough, the NRA and the gun industry have widely cited Kleck’s work as proof of the value of owning a gun. But Dr. David Hemenway, a professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health, dissected the work of Kleck and Gertz in The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, concluding that their survey contained ”a huge overestimation bias” and that their estimate is “highly exaggerated.” Hemenway applied Kleckand Gertz’s methodology to a 1994 ABC News/Washington Post survey in which people were asked if they had ever seen an alien spacecraft or come into direct contact with a space alien. He demonstrated that, by the application of Kleck and Gertz’s methodology, one would conclude that almost 20 million Americans have seen a spacecraft from another planet and more than a million have actually met space aliens. ================================================== My father was killed by a gun purchased for self-defense.
Comment on Nice guns (2009-03-31 17:04:19)
@sumosnipe: I'll see if my father can be killed with a gun again for you...
Comment on Nice guns (2009-03-27 18:41:28)
My father was killed by a gun purchased for self-defence. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Self-Defense: The Great Myth of America’s Gun Industry http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/self_defense.pdf. Guns have long been seen as tools of self-defense in the United States. But, contrary to gun industry hype, unintended consequences often happen when people buy guns for self-defense. Studies by public health professionals have repeatedly found that having a gun around for any reason increases the likelihood that a family member—as opposed to a criminal—will be injured or killed with a gun. A 1997 American Journal of Public Health study showed that family members that had a history of buying a handgun from a licensed dealer were twice as likely to die in a suicide or homicide as were persons similarly situated who had no such family history of gun purchase. This increased risk persisted for more than five years after the handgun was purchased. Other studies have looked specifically at the more narrow question of keeping guns in the home for self-defense. One, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that having a gun in the home made it nearly three times more likely that someone in the family will be killed. This risk isparticularly high for women, who are more likely to be killed by a spouse, intimate acquaintance, or close relative. An Archives of Internal Medicine study found that, with one or more guns in the home,the risk of suicide among women increased nearly five times and the risk of homicide increased more than three times. These and other studies have documented repeatedly the enhanced risk that comes from bringing a gun into the home. Even the gun press admits the risk in unguarded moments. Describing the demise of so-called “lintel guns,” firearms hung over the door ready for immediate action in frontier times, Shooting Sports Retailer noted: "Today, guns in a home used for self protection are not hung over the door but are more likely in a desk drawer or beside the bed in a night stand. When a child is hurt in a firearm accident it is often the self defense gun that was found, played with, and ultimately fired by the youngster." But how often do people use guns successfully to protect themselves from criminal acts? Does it justify the deaths and damage that comes with guns? Apparently not. Most studies have found that guns play a relatively minor role in preventing crime but a major role in facilitating it. For example, the US Department of Justice study found that, on the average, between 1987 and 1992 only one percent of actual or attempted victims of violent crime, or about 62,000 people, attempted to defend themselves with a firearm. On the other hand, criminals armed with handguns committed a record 931,000 violent crimes in 1992. Data from the FBI’s Crime in the United States reveals that for every time in 1998 that a civilian used a handgun to kill in self-defense, 50 people lost their lives in handgun homicides alone. One advocate of the value of handguns for self-defense is Gary Kleck, professor of criminology at Florida State University in Tallahassee. Kleck and his colleague Mark Gertz claim their survey research indicates that civilians use guns in self-defense up to 2.5 million times a year. Naturally enough, the NRA and the gun industry have widely cited Kleck’s work as proof of the value of owning a gun. But Dr. David Hemenway, a professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health, dissected the work of Kleck and Gertz in The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, concluding that their survey contained ”a huge overestimation bias” and that their estimate is “highly exaggerated.” Hemenway applied Kleckand Gertz’s methodology to a 1994 ABC News/Washington Post survey in which people were asked if they had ever seen an alien spacecraft or come into direct contact with a space alien. He demonstrated that, by the application of Kleck and Gertz’s methodology, one would conclude that almost 20 million Americans have seen a spacecraft from another planet and more than a million have actually met space aliens.
Comment on Probability of an Atheist "Believing" in God (2009-01-30 22:53:07)
I suppose many concientious objectors could be pacifists and so atheists as well, but the army makes them serve in non-combattant roles like medics. I saw in "Saving Private Ryan" medics get into foxholes to treat the wounded so that right there proves it could not be a universal law that are no atheists in foxholes. After that movie I heard Tom Hanks became like a God in Hollywood. So there were then fewer atheists in in the movie industry. The logic of it all adds up I guess.
Comment on Probability of an Atheist "Believing" in God (2009-01-30 18:14:03)
@Gouki4u: So your contention is that all atheists are pacifists? You could make a believer out of me!
Comment on Probability of an Atheist "Believing" in God (2009-01-30 17:24:21)
The axiom "there are no atheists in foxholes" has apparently been overlooked. Either that or by absence is suggesting atheists don't ever get drafted. Also it isn't a pie chart. It's a bar graph.
Comment on silver revolver (2008-12-23 21:40:45)
And it *has* to be a mexican. No others would do that and only mexicans are are allowed to be disparaged in this thread.
Comment on When I was Your Age (2008-12-14 09:17:08)
Oh, I forgot. We *did* have shoes but they were made from old barbed wire. You kids don't know how easy you've got it today.
Comment on When I was Your Age (2008-12-13 20:03:14)
And with no shoes...
Comment on solo car (2008-12-13 00:35:03)
I test drove one similar in Minnesota a few years back. If you think of it for the one-man commutes which seems to be the majority, and as a year-round motorcycle in places where there is serious winter, it makes a lot of sense. Wish I'd bought it.
Comment on Karl Marx Quote on Religion (2008-12-07 09:01:26)
The most logical, sound Marxist quotes I've heard were probably Groucho's.
Comment on Karl Marx Quote on Religion (2008-12-06 01:26:04)
I lived in a Communist country for two years before it collapsed and then worked in and around two others for 18 years. A good summary quote seen for sale on the web somewhere: "Communism killed 100 million people and all I got was this t-shirt."
Comment on Why carry a gun? (2008-12-03 20:08:48)
CHILDREN & GUNS: A LETHAL COMBINATION (June 2005) http://www.bradycampaign.org/facts/factsheets/pdf/children.pdf In 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, nearly eight young people aged 19 and under were killed a day by a firearm in the United States[1]. Nearly 36 per day were non-fatally wounded.[2] The scourge of gun violence frequently attacks the most helpless members of our society - our children. Consider these facts... • In 2002, 1,830 children and teenagers were murdered with guns, 828 committed suicide with guns, and 167 died in unintentional shootings. A total of 2,893 young people were killed by firearms in the U.S., one every three hours. [3] • Each year from 1993 to 1997, gun murders were committed by 1,621 killers under the age of 18.[4] • In 2002, 82% of murder victims aged 13 to 19 years old were killed with a firearm.[5] • During 2002, 48% of all murders of those under age 18 in the U.S. involved firearms.[6] • Firearms are the second-leading cause of death (after motor vehicle accidents) for young people 19 and under in the U.S.[7] • The rate of firearm death of under 14-years-old is nearly 12 times higher in the U.S. than in 25 other industrialized countries combined.[8] • In 2002, for every child and teenager killed by a gun, more than four were estimated to be non-fatally wounded.[9] • From 1999 to 2002, firearms were responsible for 18% of injury deaths for Caucasian teens ages 13-19 in the United States, 51% of deaths for African-American teens, 32% of Hispanic teens, 17% of Native American/Alaska Native teens, and 20% of Asian/Pacific Islander teens.[10] • In a study of inner-city 7-year-olds and their exposure to violence, 75% of them reported hearing gun shots.[11] • "The firearm injury epidemic, due largely to handgun injuries, is 10 times larger than the polio epidemic of the first half of this century."[12] June 2005 Endnotes: 1. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control. http://webapp.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_sy.html (hereafter Injury Mortality Reports). 2. WISQARS, Nonfatal Injury Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control. http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/nfirates2001.html (hereafter Nonfatal Injury Reports). 3. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports. 4. Supplemental Homicide Data from the FBI. 5. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports. 6. Ibid. 7. WISQARS, Leading Causes of Death Reports, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control. http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/leadcaus10.html 8. "Firearm-Related Death in 26 Industrialized Countries", Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1997, 46(5): 101-105. 9. WISQARS, Nonfatal Injury Reports. 10. WISQARS, Injury Mortality Reports. 11. Hallam Hurt, MD; Elsa Malmud, PhD; Nancy L. Brodsky, PhD; Joan Giannetta, BA, "Exposure to Violence: Psychological and Academic Correlates in Child Witnesses," Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, December 2001, Vol. 55, No. 12, pp. 1351-1356. 12. Christoffel, Katherine Kaufer, "Handguns and the Environments of Children", Children's Environments, 12(1), 1995, p. 42.