tomlaverty.net - Latest Comments

Re: Tyranny, Patriots, Plots, Lobby, Corporatocracy

Tomas Laverty — Thu, 30 May 2013 01:54:26 -0000

Capitalism in the US does indeed suggest a free market, since a majority of Americans believe that's what we have, and all they can attribute it to is the term "capitalism."

I'm not interested in semantics, at this point.

Re: Tyranny, Patriots, Plots, Lobby, Corporatocracy

Moe Badderman — Mon, 27 May 2013 15:05:16 -0000

# "Capitalism suggests a free market"
Capitalism suggests no such thing. Capitalism is ownership of capital, which suggests a captive market, which is what the corporations enjoy now.

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

Tomas Laverty — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:50:38 -0000

Right, but again, per capita statistics are the relevant ones.

Comparing per capita stats is the only reasonable evaluation.

The 10k number isn't mindblowing

According to this, Australia, even with their strict laws, are only better than the US by approximately 2.7 deaths per 100k.

Another thing: these are recent statistics. Countries change hands; people evolve/devolve. A study detailing deaths by firearms (per capita) in the 1940s, for example, might have interesting results.

Also, "gun control" laws do not take into account civilians killed by their own police/military.

http://www.nationmaster.com...

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:38:17 -0000

found another stat: US has about 10,000 handgun homicides per year. Australia has about a dozen and Britain has about 2 dozen. Canada has 100. (Myers, 2010)

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

Tomas Laverty — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:30:05 -0000

Nope. The foods all out. All gone! No more food for Mr. Crusher :(

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:27:30 -0000

also, can you feed the cat later?

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:19:34 -0000

i do not believe that is the sole reason as to why their murder rates
are so low, as "murder" can involve any kind of weapon, or none at all. I plucked the quote because i find the statistic to be noteworthy, i do not care for the surrounding claims - as i said before, i agree with your perspective. i just think the number is significance enough to take into consideration

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:16:43 -0000

i do not believe that is the sole reason as to why their murder rates
are less. as "murder" can involve any kind of weapon, or none at all.

i plucked the quote because of the statistic, not the surrounding claims. i do think the statistic is noteworthy.

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

Tomas Laverty — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:14:55 -0000

Can you show me the study? In particular, I'd like to see the part where it deduces that the lower murder rate is a direct result of the scarcity of guns.

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:12:14 -0000

"U.S. & Australia are similar in
many ways. Both are multi-cultural. Yet the murder rates differ by
100:1. Violence there is less deadly because guns are scarce."

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:09:37 -0000

im sorry my math is not strong.... allow me to verify the statistic...

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

Tomas Laverty — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:08:04 -0000

Thanks for reading.

Is that Australian statistic based on per capita? If you combine the per capita statistics of most of the industrialized world, the United States doesn't stand out.

Re: Talk to me About Gun Control

bananacakes — Sat, 15 Dec 2012 21:04:20 -0000

passionate debate, although the death from gun related injuries in Australia is nearly 1/10 of what they are here, and that is likely do to their strong gun control laws.

but i agree with you, it is unreasonable to change the country's constitution solely because of one such tragedy, but people often seek to explain tragedies as quickly as possible, it provides a sense of false comfort; a way to make sense of it all. Finding a solution, however, is not going to prove so simple.

Re: HuffPo, Bleacher Report: ‘News’ Websites Only in it For the Money

Tom Fitzgerald — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:27:35 -0000

B/R, HuffPo. pieces of garbage.

Re: Corporatocracy is Trying to Talk, Please Be Quiet

Justin Weisenbach — Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:00:37 -0000

It's weird that Obama has no Goldman Sachs support since I hear so much about how they are both the Goldman Sachs candidates and so many of their officials are in Obama's cabinet.
It is definitely scary how much money is being spent on misleading advertisement this election. We are seeing the effects of Citizens United. If we can't turn that around we can expect to never hear the truth from a politician again, seeing as how there is a positive correlation between the candidate that spends the most money and the one that wins. Good article Tom.

Re: Corporatocracy is Trying to Talk, Please Be Quiet

Anthony Kubiak — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 18:20:40 -0000

I'd rather see Harvard and U of California with more political influence than Credit Suisse, D and T, Citicorps and the rest of those goons.