LGP Political Discussion Thread - Latest news at top

[Tico Rick]

If he were walking away, I think that would be considered assault with a deadly weapon.

[KennyTheKangaroo]

you know, just drawing back to earlier this year and the trayvon martin thing, there were a lot of people upset that zimmerman was a neighborhood watchman walking around packing heat. fast forward to the current time and now there seems to be some momentum behind having more armed every day people. its interesting.

[Sarcastic]

I remember a guy winning a lawsuit against a homeowner who's house he broke into. The man shot him. The burglar said the man didn't have to shoot him. Let's wait for Shyster.

[Sarcastic]

If he were walking away, I think that would be considered assault with a deadly weapon.

That's what I'm thinking.

[ExPatriatePen]

If he were walking away, I think that would be considered assault with a deadly weapon.

That's what I'm thinking.

This

[Sarcastic]

In the meantime...

Western plot to sterilize Muslims? Polio vaccine rumors spark killings in Pakistan

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16039942-western-plot-to-sterilize-muslims-polio-vaccine-rumors-spark-killings-in-pakistan

Updated at 9:09 a.m. ET: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan may be one of the world's three remaining polio-stricken countries but Sartaj Khan has decided that the government-sponsored vaccination campaign is much more sinister than it appears.

“These vaccines are meant to destroy our nation,” said Khan, a 42-year-old lawyer in the city of Peshawar. “The [polio] drops make men less manly, and make women more excited and less bashful. Our enemies want to wipe us out.”

Khan is not alone in the belief, propagated by extremist groups, that is gaining currency in the Pashtun belt of northwestern Pakistan: The government’s anti-polio campaign is a ruse by the Americans to sterilize or spy on Muslims.

[Shyster]

I remember a guy winning a lawsuit against a homeowner who's house he broke into. The man shot him. The burglar said the man didn't have to shoot him. Let's wait for Shyster.

I am aware of stupid lawsuits like that. For that reason, under Pennsylvania’s relatively new Castle Doctrine law (as well as the Castle Doctrines in most states that have passed them) homeowners are immune from being sued in that way. Specifically, under 42 Pa.C.S. 8340.2, an actor who uses force in self-defense as authorized by the Castle Doctrine “shall be immune from civil liability for personal injuries sustained by a perpetrator which were caused by the acts or omissions of the actor as a result of the use of force.” That is specifically designed to foreclose those burglar-sues-owner-who-shot-him suits.

[Shyster]

If he were walking away, I think that would be considered assault with a deadly weapon.

That's what I'm thinking.

It would also depend on what the local prosecutor would think, but if the robber is walking away and withdrawing from the encounter, I would agree that the use of deadly force (i.e., shooting him) could be a crime.

[Shyster]

what would you do if you got held up at gun point for your wallet? what about knife point?

this is where i wouldn't necessarily want to carry a gun. i imagine i would be tempted to try to pull it out instead of simply handing over my money.

It would depend on the circumstances. Obviously, if someone has a gun barrel in my ear or a knife to my throat, doing anything other than complying would likely be suicide. We can certainly spin scenarios where a person carrying a gun would have no chance to use it.

[shmenguin]

what would you do if you got held up at gun point for your wallet? what about knife point?

this is where i wouldn't necessarily want to carry a gun. i imagine i would be tempted to try to pull it out instead of simply handing over my money.

It would depend on the circumstances. Obviously, if someone has a gun barrel in my ear or a knife to my throat, doing anything other than complying would likely be suicide. We can certainly spin scenarios where a person carrying a gun would have no chance to use it.

i'm just wondering at what point in a confrontation would someone pull a gun out

[Tico Rick]

“These vaccines are meant to destroy our nation,” said Khan, a 42-year-old lawyer in the city of Peshawar. “The [polio] drops make men less manly, and make women more excited and less bashful. Our enemies want to wipe us out.”

Stupid is as stupid does.

[MWB]

That's kind of the point though. A burglar isn't going to waste time on a house that has loud dogs. Too much risk. Just go to a place that's quiet. When we had alarm companies to our house for estimates each one said the best deterrents, in order, were an alarm sign (shocker), a barking dog, and good outside lighting. It doesn't matter if the burglar can shut the dog up once he's inside because he doesn't want to deal with it. Almost all burglars are about the quick and easy take.

It's all about the risk-reward.

If your house has been targeted for a specific reason - something the burglar knows you have in your house and wants to get - a noisy dog is no better than a 50-50 thing, at best.

Chances of a burglar targeting a house for a specific thing are incredibly remote. Or maybe they'd be casing your house in search of a rare cooking instrument. :wink:

[Gaucho]

Some people will do anything for a good ricer.

[Alejandro Rojas]

[Alejandro Rojas]

Spoiler:

[Shyster]

If any of you would like to see or use the text of letters I am sending to my state and federal legislators, I posted it over in the Gun Owners thread.

[shafnutz05]

Interesting

http://consumerist.com/2010/05/26/poor-people-spend-9-of-income-on-lottery-tickets/

A recent study found that poor folks – households earning under $13,000 per year – spend about 9% of all their income on lottery tickets

This isn't TOO surprising, because when I go to the convenience store or gas station, I almost always see people that are clearly in poverty dumping their money on scratch-offs, often scratching them on the counter and re-buying as they go.

[Rylan]

They are trying to change their lives in one quick way. That doesn't surprise me at all.

[columbia]

Fifty-three percent of Americans called GOP policies “too extreme,” according to the survey, while 43 percent called them “generally mainstream.” By contrast, 37 percent called the Democratic party “too extreme.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/pos ... o-extreme/

My guess is that is even worse than it would have been on 11/6/12.
(The 37% for the Democrats is interesting, because that's probably less than the number of people who never vote for someone from that party.)

If the GOP wants to see another Clinton in the White House (and I'm not talking about George ), then...well, I guess they should just keep on keeping on.

[Factorial]

In the meantime...

Western plot to sterilize Muslims? Polio vaccine rumors spark killings in Pakistan

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/20/16039942-western-plot-to-sterilize-muslims-polio-vaccine-rumors-spark-killings-in-pakistan

Updated at 9:09 a.m. ET: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan may be one of the world's three remaining polio-stricken countries but Sartaj Khan has decided that the government-sponsored vaccination campaign is much more sinister than it appears.

“These vaccines are meant to destroy our nation,” said Khan, a 42-year-old lawyer in the city of Peshawar. “The [polio] drops make men less manly, and make women more excited and less bashful. Our enemies want to wipe us out.”

Khan is not alone in the belief, propagated by extremist groups, that is gaining currency in the Pashtun belt of northwestern Pakistan: The government’s anti-polio campaign is a ruse by the Americans to sterilize or spy on Muslims.

The idea of this seems silly on the surface but there is a history of Pakistani woman being "tricked" into being sterilized. In the 1960's, international aid groups in an attempt at population control were giving away transistor radios in exchange for a "simple procedure".

[Alejandro Rojas]

This NRA presser is amazing.

This Tweet summarizes my Twitter feed right now:

@AlexPappasDC
One thing is clear from my Twitter feed. Reporters really do not like the NRA.

[tifosi77]

Chances of a burglar targeting a house for a specific thing are incredibly remote. Or maybe they'd be casing your house in search of a rare cooking instrument.

Several pages back I mentioned the story of my father-in-law's condo being broken into and a bunch of pistols were stolen. The police believe that the handguns were actually the target of the theft. The next time you have appliances delivered to your house and installed, pay attention to the crew. It's not that someone is going to come in and see your 55" flat screen and return in a few days to steal it. It's that if they see you have a 55" flat screen, high-end appliances in your kitchen, nice furniture, well.... then you probably have a lot of smaller valuables that might be worth lifting.

It's not a majority of cases, but a significant percentage of burglars have been inside the house before the robbery, or have at least seen the inside. (That's anecdotal; there used to be a show on Discovery called "To Catch a Thief", hosted by two ex-burglars who are now in the business of home security. They used to stage break-ins on people's homes to show them how vulnerable they were, then install these super tricked out security systems. Anyhoo, I remember an episode where they were spouting off statistics about burglaries and mentioned something along these lines, and many of the scenarios they acted out on the show involved one of the burglars posing as a utility worker, or delivery man, and it was amazing how easy it was for them to gain access to the interior of the home for a quick reconnoiter, right there in the presence of the homeowner.)

A final note about the dog angle...... one of our dogs has severe separation anxiety (she's a rescue who spent the better part of the two years before we got her boarded at a vet hospital and 75% of her day was in a cage), so we can't leave them home when go out together. That means if we are both out, the dogs aren't home. I know the specifics of our situation are probably not common, but I don't have a hard time believing that the broad strokes (people and dogs gone at the same time) are fairly representative of many dog owners.

[AlexPKeaton]

NRA coming out swinging in full troll mode. I was waiting for this presser to determine if I am going to resub or not. The answer: YES!

[Sarcastic]

The idea of this seems silly on the surface but there is a history of Pakistani woman being "tricked" into being sterilized. In the 1960's, international aid groups in an attempt at population control were giving away transistor radios in exchange for a "simple procedure".

I understand that. Forced or tricked sterilization has been done on people in the past. We did that here in the US on our own people. Other nations did similar acts. Can't also forget medical experiments that were done in Africa. Just saying. I'm sure Pakistanis are just paranoid now.

[Sarcastic]

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-national/20121221/US.Printable.Guns/

Click, print, shoot: Downloadable guns possible

SAN FRANCISCO — Downloading a gun's design plans to your computer, building it on a three-dimensional printer and firing it minutes later. No background checks, no questions asked.

Sound far-fetched? It's not. And that is disquieting for gun control advocates.

At least one group, called Defense Distributed, is claiming to have created downloadable weapon parts that can be built using the increasingly popular new-generation of printer that utilizes plastics and other materials to create 3-D objects with moving parts. University of Texas law student Cody Wilson, the 24-year-old "Wiki Weapons" project leader, says the group last month test fired a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle — one of the weapon types used in the Connecticut elementary school massacre — which was built with some key parts created on a 3-D printer. The gun was fired six times before it broke.