[lit-ideas] Re: From New Scientists (Guns and Road Rage)
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 22:13:53 -0500
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul Stone
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: 2/2/2006 5:07:35 PM
Subject: [lit-ideas] From New Scientists (Guns and Road Rage)
How appropriate. Individuals, countries, nothing changes.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18925373.800
Does this really surprise you Andy?
Isn't this "study" rather like saying "a recent study showed that when 1000
people were examined, people demonstrating the propensity to have what would be
commonly referred to as a penis were almost without exception of the male sex."
Of COURSE the possession of a gun makes you feel more able to be a dickhead.
That's what guns are for. Get with the program. The USA has all the nukes and
that's why they are the biggest dickheads. They don't want other countries [who
they don't want to be dickheads] to get nukes, because then their status as
being the biggest heads would wane.
BUT... on the other [more realistic] hand, there is a difference between
willing to use a weapon and WANTING to use one. This is what makes some
country's ambitions of owning nukes so terribly dangerous. They want to develop
nukes for ONE reason -- so they can use them on us. That is a very dangerous
place to be for the world. MAD doesn't work when one side is mad. They don't
care if they take the whole ship down with them. I think most of us do and I
don't think there is any dissonance in carrying a big stick and never swinging
it, all the while being perfectly willing and able to swing it.
Andy: Except our military urged President Kennedy to start a war with the USSR
over the Cuban missiles, and MacArthur wanted to nuke China. That's two
examples of the good guy's military wanting to use weapons. I find it hard to
believe that an entire country wants to be annihilated, which they must know
they face if they did anything. I think an accidental detonation of a missile
is more of a problem.
never shooting the finger at drivers when I'm across the river in Detroit,
Andy: I once worked with a woman who gave the finger to a driver on a nice
suburban road. In return, he rear ended her. Two nice white people they were.
As David Savory pointed out, it's kind of the same mentality that goes into
this Iran thing. They give us the finger, we bomb them. Nine year olds just
don't imagine life any other way.
I remain, gunless,
Paul
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