Mass killings are contagious

[floo]

Johnny Canoe

It shames me that I am obliged to share the same planet as you.

I have lost the last little thread of respect for Obama. Right after the shootings, before the victims were named and buried, he jumped in front of the cameras and used their slaughter to further his political agenda.

President Obama faced America, and with courage, humanity and compassion sought an end to the insanity which cripples America.

He has no political agenda to further. His term of office ends next year, there is nowhere further that he can go. But if he can reduce the slaughter amounting to 30,000 of his countrymen each year because of their infatuation with firearms he will have done more than almost any of his predecessors.

You, on the other hand, condone the slaughter.

Obama is a good man and President. I just hope one of the Republican right-wing, gun toting, religious nutters doesn't win the presidential election next year. If that happens the whole world will be in danger, imo!

[Rhiannon]

Rose, we do have the same freedom of speech as in the States; obviously things can't be said in print media or in the workplace but what people say in pubs and online especially is very different.

My feeling is that because we are such a small place geographically we've long ago learned that tolerance and getting along helps society to function far better than fracturing off from each other. In the States there are some places that are still geographically isolated and that are stuck in the 50s or beyond. They really haven't kept up with the modern world at all. And because of the net, that mindset is now able to reach beyond those closed communities and affect others.

[Rhiannon]

UK free speech.

http://findlaw.co.uk/law/government/constitutional_law/fundamental_rights/500150.html

[Rhiannon]

I'm not convinced its so different. Whatever, the States needs to look at how to bring some of its more, erm, traditional communities into the 21st century.

[Harrowby Hall]

I think that there are limits to free speech in the USA. In 1919, a Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said:

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.

[jakswan]

I think that there are limits to free speech in the USA. In 1919, a Supreme Court justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said:

The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3Hg-Y7MugU

[jeremyp]

He can't even wait for the victims to be named and buried before he makes this tragedy political. Shame on him and shame on you for going along with his self serving agenda.

People are dying from being shot every day in the USA. And all you want to do is shut down the conversation about stopping it by crying "political". Shame on you.

[Hope]

Saying that mass killings are contagious, suggests that the root cause behind many of the mass killings that have occurred - mental ill-health - is contagious.  Does anyone seriously believe that?

[floo]

Saying that mass killings are contagious, suggests that the root cause behind many of the mass killings that have occurred - mental ill-health - is contagious.  Does anyone seriously believe that?

But some of people suffering from a personality defect will latch onto the mass killing agenda, as it will hit the headlines.

[2Corrie]

Where's the outrage over the millions of unborn babies that are killed every year? Now that's mass killing.

[Shaker]

Where's the outrage over the millions of unborn babies that are killed every year?

News to me.

[floo]

Where's the outrage over the millions of unborn babies that are killed every year? Now that's mass killing.

Most abortions take place in the first few weeks well before a foetus is viable. Far better to abort an unwanted pregnancy than give birth to a child who is not welcome in a family. If only that poor child Baby Peter had been aborted he would have been spared a lot of pain.

There are some crazy loons who say that the deity sends babies, if that is the case why doesn't it send them to people who want them, not those that don't?

[floo]

Where's the outrage over the millions of unborn babies that are killed every year? Now that's mass killing.

Most abortions take place in the first few weeks well before a foetus is viable. Far better to abort an unwanted pregnancy than give birth to a child who is not welcome in a family. If only that poor child Baby Peter had been aborted he would have been spared a lot of pain.

There are some crazy loons who say that the deity sends babies, if that is the case why doesn't it send them to people who want them, not those that don't?

Then of course there are the foetuses that get aborted naturally or miscarried.

There are probably more of those than are realised.

I miscarried my second pregnancy at thirteen weeks gestation.

[wigginhall]

Where's the outrage over the millions of unborn babies that are killed every year? Now that's mass killing.

So we should imprison the women who have abortions.  That would be justice, wouldn't it?

[jeremyp]

I suggest, if people want to discuss the rights and wrongs of abortion, we start another thread to avoid derailing this one, which is about born people shooting other born people.

[Udayana]

Gun sales are up after the shooting, so expect more of the same.

[2Corrie]

Where's the outrage over the millions of unborn babies that are killed every year? Now that's mass killing.

Most abortions take place in the first few weeks well before a foetus is viable. Far better to abort an unwanted pregnancy than give birth to a child who is not welcome in a family. If only that poor child Baby Peter had been aborted he would have been spared a lot of pain.

There are some crazy loons who say that the deity sends babies, if that is the case why doesn't it send them to people who want them, not those that don't?

Then of course there are the foetuses that get aborted naturally or miscarried.

There are probably more of those than are realised.

Lots of people get run over by cars too.

[Shaker]

They do indeed. And?

[Harrowby Hall]

Lots of people get run over by cars too.

It's a good time of the year for red herrings, 2Corrie.

[Hope]

They do indeed. And?

I wonder how many people get run over for absolutely no fault of their own?

[Shaker]

They do indeed. And?

I wonder how many people get run over for absolutely no fault of their own?

Lots, I'd imagine.

Still at a loss as to the relevance. Nobody seems equipped to say.

So it goes 

[Hope]

Lots, I'd imagine.

I suspect that it isn't that large a proportion.  Many pedestrians get run down because they try to cross the road at inappropriate places.

Still at a loss as to the relevance. Nobody seems equipped to say.

So it goes 

I suspect that 2C was trying to contrast the fact that no child who is aborted - be that naturally or otherwise - is aborted because of something they have done; they are 100% blameless.  Against this is the fact that the majority of  pedestrian deaths will have at least some degree of blame attached to the pedestrian (see point above)

[Shaker]

I don't give two shiny ones what you suspect; what do you or don't you know?

I don't know of any child who is aborted. Interested to see your evidence of same (which I already know won't be forthcoming).

[Hope]

I don't give two shiny ones what you suspect; what do you or don't you know?

I don't know of any child who is aborted. Interested to see your evidence of same (which I already know won't be forthcoming).

Linguistically, a child is any human being under a given age (often depending on the culture).  In many cultures, ours included, that definition can be applied to any human being from the time of conception.  I appreciate that there are those who prefer the biological terms foetus and embryo - terms that are often used euphemistically - or the biological explanation that a child is an entity than can exist separate to its mother (by which definition we ought probably to refer to human beings up to 2, perhaps even 5, as something other than a child)

[jeremyp]

Linguistically, a child is any human being under a given age (often depending on the culture).  In many cultures, ours included, that definition can be applied to any human being from the time of conception.

It's remarkable how often Christians' arguments descend to dictionary definition wars.

Surely the point is not whether a foetus that may not even have a central nervous system yet can be defined as a child under some circumstances, but whether it is an autonomous human being with a conscious.

Anyway, what bout the guns.