GobbleDog

Obviously somewhere around the average rate of wealthy democratic 1st world countries.... UK, Australia, Spain, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, etc. all of which have fairly low rates. Gee, I wonder what all those countries have in common?

All countries have some people wanting to shoot others. The difference is Americans have easy access to an arsenal of weapons and ammunition. That's the problem. "If only we could get people to not want to shoot others..." kumbaya

Ya only say that because America's gun violence rate (and mass shooting rate) is ridiculously higher than every other first world country. So your answer is "well, then let's not compare them. We should be higher because we have more rights/protections..." What does that mean? That's insane. No we shouldn't. Here's the thing that drives me insane with gun-right nuts. At least I'm unbiased and realistic. If you asked me "hypothetically, if the U.S. gun violence rate was consistent with other first world countries, then would you still favor gun control?" to which I'd say no. But if you ask gun-right nuts... "hypothetically, if the U.S. gun violence rate was five times higher than it is now, then would you favor gun control?" - no. 10x's higher? - no. 100x's higher? - no. Is there any point or situation in which you'd favor gun control? - no. How can you have an intelligent debate with people that have no critical thinking?

We can have gun rights and high gun violence rates, or no gun rights and low gun violence rates. We can't have both. It sucks I know. ".. but what if we just spent more on the ATF, or had more police, or better background checks, or longer waiting periods, or banned assault rifles, or gave harsher sentences to gun offenders, or outlawed violent video games, etc... then perhaps we could keep our guns and have low gun violence rates.?." Nope. Seems America already made it's choice. They want gun rights and have learned to stomach an unbelievable amount of carnage.

2023 MLB payrolls 1 NYM $357M 2 NYY $272M 3 SDP $249M 4 PHI $243M 5 LAD $228M 6 LAA $212M 7 TOR $212M 8 ATL $199M 9 TEX $198M 10 BOS $195M 11 HOU $193M 12 SFG $192M 13 CHW $189M 14 CHC $188M 15 STL $183M 16 COL $173M 17 MIN $157M 18 SEA $140M 19 MIL $122M 20 DET $121M 21 ARI $120M 22 WSN $106M 23 MIA $103M 24 CLE $91M 25 KCR $91M 26 CIN $81M 27 TBR $77M 28 PIT $75M 29 BAL $63M 30 OAK $59M

Existing laws and regulations are inadequate. That's the problem. Nothing to do but send flowers to funerals. What would you suggest?

Yep. Certain posters I refuse to interact. Impossible to have intelligent discussions with people who use the word liberal in every sentence. They side with whatever mainstream GOP says without critical thought. And I'm republican. Be interesting if hypothetically people had no idea where their party stood on issues and had to decide for themselves. They certainly wouldn't match up.

I despised the "every team gets a chance to score a field goal in OT rule... and every team gets a chance to score a TD in playoffs." So stupid and seems to cater to today's "everything should be equal at all times" crowd... Sudden death was pure excitement. But backing up the receiving team a measly 5 yards to get the on-side recovery percentage a little closer to 10%.?. Seems harmless and adds excitement. I agree the 4th & 20 rule is ridiculous.

In 2022, only 3 out of 56 on-side attempts were successful - dismal 5.3%. I love the idea of giving teams a better chance of a comeback and adding excitement, so the NFL should simply move the receiving team 5 yards back. That should improve the percentage without resorting to such a drastic rule change. What say ye Geeks?

I'd heard the Dolphins. Meh... Most likely he gets a cheap offer after some team's starter goes down mid-season.

Option 3: Ban commercial firearm sales (exception for bolt action hunting rifles after they jump through hoops to get permit). Government buy-backs, gun collectors, and time itself will slowly evaporate guns in circulation. The first group to sell their guns as they become increasingly valuable - the poor. Same demographic committing most gun crime. 30+ years later... gun crime rates in America will become consistent with every other first world country. Don't have to "confiscate guns" or amend the Constitution.

Ah great plan. Nobody arrested has ever given a false admission, cameras always show exactly who did it, and witnesses are never mistaken. And of course, there's never extenuating circumstances. Although without appeals, a few innocents will inevitably get executed. How many can you stomach? Is it worth it a few innocents die to ensure the guilty get killed? Of course the whole "deterrent" reasoning is ridiculous because nobody in the history of murder has ever thought "I'd murder that guy if it were only life in prison, but that death penalty is just too much. Oh well." Which is why there's no difference in murder rates between states with and without capital punishment. Back to the drawing board Cletus.

I wondered the same thing, and even if they are... what the hell does that have anything to do with the story? I swear, as much as nut-job republicans complain about "liberals" twisting stories, they're equally as bad. And take politics wayyy too personally - much more than the liberals they hate so much. Look at the threads on this forum... nothing but trannies, gays, Biden and democrat hate. They make being republican embarrassing.

The ruble is doing fine? Compared to what? It's impossible to value currency that isn't being traded. It's purely fiat - decreed to have value by Russia. I don't know the details of China's recent financial agreement with Russia, but I don't see it bailing them out. 70% of Russia's gdp was from oil-gas and most of that was to Europe, who's permanently gone. Now all oil sales are to India and China at a fraction of market value. And gas sales... virtually none. They don't have the pipelines to move it to anywhere other than Europe. What little they do sell to India has to be liquefied and shipped, which is costly. Russia has quickly become the junior partner in a previously equal relationship with China. I'm sure China is going to take full advantage of that.

That's Russia's big "pay off" ? A destroyed Ukraine at the cost of an economic avalanche, humiliated military, and internationally labeled a pariah state? That's not a pay off, that's a complete disaster for Russia.