The conversations that pop up as a dayshift bartender can be pretty varied.  Sophia Loren's ****, the new Sierra Nevada Imperial IPA and the new hop they developed for it, the best brewery, the best shotguns, the Seattle Mariners, cooked marijuana, Edgefield or Hood river for wife's birthday, is True Grit a must see at the theatre or could be waited on for renting, where is Creighton college, and the super bowl were all topics touched on yesterday. 


 

Posted by The Taint on 1/28/2011 10:45:00 AM (view original):
Oh, and I'm thinking about going to see True Grit tonight, but I really would rather see Harry Potter.  Is True Grit a must see at the movies?

Again, I think I'm dealing with a bunch of "tough guys" who think they're capable of murder and the only thing holding them back from killing their boss is the threat of jail time.   That's not the reason your boss is still yelling at you.  It's because you can't kill him.

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/28/2011 10:58:00 AM (view original):
There's no reason to bow out.    You, and the rest, are continuing to insist that laws are the only thing preventing "regular" people from murder.  My contention is that is complete bullshit.    It's human nature.    Whether it's nature or nurture, we're not wired to do it. 

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/24/2011 9:04:00 PM (view original):
You do realize that the vast majority of murders are not pre-meditated, right?    And, those who commit pre-meditated murders do know that it's illegal, right?

So, if you agree with these two simple facts, how many murders do you think aren't committed because it's illegal?

For your reading pleasure.

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/28/2011 10:58:00 AM (view original):
There's no reason to bow out.    You, and the rest, are continuing to insist that laws are the only thing preventing "regular" people from murder.  My contention is that is complete bullshit.    It's human nature.    Whether it's nature or nurture, we're not wired to do it. 

Posted by rlahann on 1/24/2011 8:34:00 PM (view original):

Posted by swamphawk22 on 1/24/2011 6:29:00 PM (view original):
My point is that gun control doesnt work.

Making guns illegal is no more effective than making murder illegal.

Only law abiding citizens follow the laws.

Wait, what? So you don't think murder being illegal has reduced homicides?

Posted by creilmann on 1/25/2011 2:49:00 PM (view original):

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/25/2011 2:29:00 PM (view original):
If 5% of the population is capable of murder, a law isn't going to stop them from doing it.   Again, all crimes aren't created equally.

Yep.  I've had guns pointed at me before, by convicted criminals, and no one has had the balls to pull the trigger.   You know why?  Killing someone isn't as simple as point and squeeze.  

But, of course, none of us would have to pull the trigger.  If murder were legal, the assassin/hitman industry would flourish.  Most of congress would be shot by now, making a run for political office akin to suicide.  Divorce rates would drop to virtually nil, because why pay her half or let her have custody when you can hire Vinnie to off her?  Don't wanna deal with the competing business across the street?  That can be fixed.  IRS stopping by for an audit?  Not any more.  There are millions of situations where hiring an assassin would make one's life much easier if murder were legal.  It would be open season on homosexuals for the religious right as they, of course, would find permission to do so in the Bible.  

The very notion that murder rates would not go up if it were legal is so absurd, that I have to believe that MikeT23 is an alias of Swamphawk22.

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/26/2011 5:45:00 PM (view original):

Posted by creilmann on 1/26/2011 5:14:00 PM (view original):
Still, nowhere did I say that most Americans would choose to kill someone.  You're whole argument is based on the notion that most people do not have it in them to kill another human, which I agree with.  But you do realize that someone can kill more than one person don't you?  Congress for example, I'm not suggesting that 500 separate people would go and kill of 500 separate congresspeople.  One oil baron with millions of dollars at his disposal could simply have the democrats wiped out because their policies might take away profits from him.  These people commit immoral acts that harm people all the time.  Do you honestly think they wouldn't have a group of politicians that might increase taxes on their business, or set stricter environmental policies that would cost them millions, killed?  I can't believe this needs to be explained for you.  What is the word for "beyond naive"?

OK, I'll give you that one person will murder "most" of the politicians, "competing" business owners, IRS agents and even the homosexuals.   But will this one person murder the "bad" spouse?   Or will these murders be generated by the other spouse?   Because, if that's the case, that's still a hell of a lot of people who have no courage for murder now who'll just do it because it's legal.

Posted by MikeT23 on 1/28/2011 11:14:00 AM (view original):

Posted by rlahann on 1/24/2011 8:34:00 PM (view original):

Posted by swamphawk22 on 1/24/2011 6:29:00 PM (view original):
My point is that gun control doesnt work.

Making guns illegal is no more effective than making murder illegal.

Only law abiding citizens follow the laws.

Wait, what? So you don't think murder being illegal has reduced homicides?

My initial response was to the above.

If "reduced" doesn't mean "less", I guess I misunderstood his assertation.

Unless, of course, you're implying that those who already commit murder will commit more murders simply because they'd be legal.   At that point, I'd have to argue that the law hasn't stopped them before.   But, even assuming they would commit more murders, that's not what you and I have been arguing.  I believe it evolved to people who can't commit murder now that will start doing so if it was legal.