Fitting or poetic death?

[PeterRS]

6 hours ago, a-447 said:

And to say that the death of innocent people, including school children, is the price to pay for the amendment is strange indeed, coming from a so-called Christian. I would have thought 'Thou shalt not kill' would take precedence.

To suggest it is "strange indeed" is putting it far too mildly. In this day and age to suggest that a law passed centuries ago by a new country should remain unchanged given massive changes in society is an outright abomination.

[KeepItReal]

I keep thinking of that old expression: live by the sword, die by the sword. 🤷‍♂️

[Mavica]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

To suggest it is "strange indeed" is putting it far too mildly. In this day and age to suggest that a law passed centuries ago by a new country should remain unchanged given massive changes in society is an outright abomination.

The law didn't change.  The interpretation by the U.S. Supreme Court has.  

[Travelingguy]

2 hours ago, Mavica said:

The law didn't change.  The interpretation by the U.S. Supreme Court has.  

For more than 200 years the US Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment applied to State Militias.  They literally scoffed at the idea that it applied to individuals.  Then Scalia and his pals completely changed the interpretation in line with decades of lobbying by the NRA.

I find it strange that the amendment calls for a well regulated militia, but Scalia and Co think that no such regulations should be applied to any individual who wants to go around using a weapon of war.

[unicorn]

6 hours ago, KeepItReal said:

I keep thinking of that old expression: live by the sword, die by the sword. 🤷‍♂️

It gets even more poignant. Charlie Kirk believed not only that executions should be public, but that children should watch them. One certainly cannot in any way condone assassinations (they're more likely to be counter-productive in any case, since they make martyrs out of the victims). However, at least he had his final wish.

https://www.newsweek.com/charlie-kirk-death-penalty-public-executions-1873073

"Charlie Kirk, founder and president of the conservative organization Turning Point USA, suggested in a recent episode of The Charlie Kirk Show that children should watch public executions... 

On his weekly panel discussion, "ThoughtCrime," Kirk was discussing death penalties of those convicted of crimes, adding that not only does he believe there should be public executions, but that children should watch them. "Death penalties should be public, should be quick, it should be televised. I think at a certain age, its an initiation...What age should you start to see public executions?" Kirk asked. Kirk, along with his co-hosts Jack Posobiec, Tyler Bowyer and Blake Neff, continued to discuss at what age should children watch the public executions, with one co-host pointing out as young as 12 years old...".

[joizy]

On 9/11/2025 at 8:11 AM, floridarob said:

You want me to “be specific and substantiate my claims”? Cute. It’s almost like you slept through the last 4 years.... or are you trying to play, and be like @Olddaddy?

Undermining elections: Trump pressured Georgia’s Secretary of State to “find 11,780 votes”, pushed fake electors, and tried to strong-arm Pence into tossing out certified results. That’s not democracy — that’s an attempted coup.

Stripping rights: He rolled back LGBTQ protections (trans military ban, healthcare), chipped away at voting rights through DOJ positions and gerrymander-friendly courts, and stacked the deck against reproductive rights.

Packing courts: Sure, presidents nominate judges — but Trump and McConnell rammed through lifetime appointments at record speed, including judges rated unqualified by the ABA, after stonewalling Obama’s nominees (remember Garland?). That’s not normal, it’s stacking the judiciary for minority rule.

 the 2nd Amendment as a “firewall against tyranny,”??

When Trump literally tried to overthrow an election, all those “patriots” with their arsenals didn’t fight tyranny — they enabled it.

Such a joke when they ask you to be specific. As if they are unaware of January 6, the “perfect phone call” to Zelenzky, the call to Raffensburger, sending troops into US cities to round up and intimidate American citizens. I don’t even bother responding to them because they are so unserious.

[floridarob]

7 hours ago, Travelingguy said:

For more than 200 years the US Supreme Court has held that the Second Amendment applied to State Militias.  They literally scoffed at the idea that it applied to individuals.  Then Scalia and his pals completely changed the interpretation in line with decades of lobbying by the NRA.

 

 

[PeterRS]

I happened to notice this 6-month old vdo when I played the two excellent vdos posted above by @floridarob. It is I believe equally fitting and equally relevant - perhaps even more so. I especially like the line which gains the first major round of applause. The conservative commentator and journalist David Brooks' thought-provoking speech refers to a 1950s belief in the USA that "it's up to you to find your own truth, find your own values". In 1955 the journalist Walter Lipmann understood this was going to be a great problem. He said if what is right and wrong depends on what each individual feels, then we are outsde the bounds of civilisation.

Brooks than adds, "without a moral order it's hard to have trust, it's hard to find your meaning in life, and so America - and I think Britain too - has become a sadder society. Rising mental health, rising suicide, 45% of high school students say that are persistently hopeless and despondent, since 2000 the number of Americans without close personal friends is up four-fold, since 2000 the number of Americans who say they are in the lowest happiness category is up by 50%. We've just become sadder."

He then points the finger at Trump and his coven of educated elite. The key factor of the educated elite, he suggests, is that are not pro-conservative, they are anti-left. "They don't have a positive conservative vision of society. They just want to destroy the institutions that the left now dominates. And this means, in the first place, they are astoundingly incompetent . . . Pete Hegseth gave away our bargaining chips with Putin before we even had negotiations. Elon Musk has 25-year olds firing people who were controlling our nuclear codes . . . 

". . . The educational elite destroyed the social fabric through inequality, we destroyed the moral fabric through privatising morality. and we destroyed the institutional fabric - what's happening right now."

He then goes on to give his ideas on how to right the wrongs. It is an excellent really thought-provoking speech and I hope others will watch it.

[PeterRS]

So the gunman's father turned him in knowing that his son is liable to get the death penalty. I wonder why - and how many fathers would do the same rather then help their sons flee?

[unicorn]

5 hours ago, PeterRS said:

So the gunman's father turned him in knowing that his son is liable to get the death penalty. I wonder why - and how many fathers would do the same rather then help their sons flee?

Where do you think that murderer learned his warped values?

[Keithambrose]

6 hours ago, PeterRS said:

So the gunman's father turned him in knowing that his son is liable to get the death penalty. I wonder why - and how many fathers would do the same rather then help their sons flee?

Helping his son flee is a serious criminal offence, so that has to be considered