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florduh

Well-Known Member
Vaper gets Tased and more get arrested for vaping outside a designated area. Remember that with each and every law passed--no matter how tiny or insignificant. At the end of the day, there'll be a cop who will use force to enforce it.

Viral videos show police in Ocean City, Maryland tasering a Black teen over a ‘vaping incident’

Made the totally unforced error of clicking on the comments button. I guess I hoped I'd see Lovers of Liberty decrying this abuse of power by the State. Nope! Went from authoritarian bootlicking, to FBI crime statistics, to racial differences in IQ, to declaring certain races "subhuman" all within a single turn of my mouse wheel. For my own sanity's sake, I'll go ahead and assume this was mostly trolls trying to be edgy on the internet.

Looking at the video, it seems to me we need a few more physical fitness standards for cops. Maybe a few jiu-jitsu classes as well. There are more sane ways to subdue an unruly teenager than injecting them with 50,000 volts of electricity.
 

strech

Well-Known Member
Looking at the video, it seems to me we need a few more physical fitness standards for cops. Maybe a few jiu-jitsu classes as well. There are more sane ways to subdue an unruly teenager than injecting them with 50,000 volts of electricity
But but but... The cops just want to go home to their families.....:\
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
But but but... The cops just want to go home to their families.....:\

Right. And we all know vaping is deadly.


1623695983717.jpeg

The cops probably saw these stupid commercials, thought the kid was reaching for a Juul that fires high velocity metal shards, and took action to defend themselves.

Ruling: Justified use of force
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
complete submission

Well, this video seems to suggest complete submission also gives them permission to zap you with 50,000 volts. But maybe submission prevented them from "mistakenly" firing their pistol, rather than the taser. So it's still good advice.

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macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member

What tree rings reveal about America's megadrought

Scientists can compare this drought to historical droughts by looking at old trees ...and matching them up the rings with older trees.

... we can see that the American south-west is currently experiencing a drought almost as bad as the legendary 1500s megadrought.

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Texans can carry handguns without a license or training starting Sept. 1

Texans can carry handguns without a license or training starting Sept. 1, after Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday signed the permitless carry bill into law.
 
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macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member

What Could Go Wrong?

Mass-produced floating nuclear reactors use super-safe molten salt fuel

Copenhagen startup Seaborg Technologies has raised an eight-figure sum of Euros to start building a fascinating new type of cheap, portable, flexible and super-safe nuclear reactor. The size of a shipping container, these Compact Molten Salt Reactors will be rapidly mass-manufactured in their thousands, then placed on floating barges to be deployed worldwide – on timelines that will smash paradigms in the energy industry.

Like other molten salt reactors, which have been around since the 1950s, they're designed to minimize the consequences of accidents, with a pair of very neat passive safety measures the company claims can greatly change the safety equation at the heart of any nuclear power investment.
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member

Since 9/11, military suicides dwarf the number of soldiers killed in combat

Since 9/11, four times as many U.S. service members and veterans have died by suicide than have been killed in combat, according to a new report.

The research, compiled by the Costs of War Project at Brown University, found an estimated 30,177 active duty personnel and veterans who have served in the military since 9/11 have died by suicide, compared with 7,057 killed in post 9/11 military operations. The figures include all service members, not just those who served in combat during that time.
 
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florduh

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There's gonna be a lot of 9/11 talk over the next few months. I think it's time to admit that if after the attack we simply added locks to cockpit doors, maybe some air marshals..... and then did literally nothing else, the country and the world would be in a better, safer place.
 
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BrianTL

Westchester, NY
There's gonna be a lot of 9/11 talk over the next few months. I think it's time to admit that if after the attack we simply added locks to cockpit doors, maybe some air marshals..... and then did literally nothing else, the country and the world would be in a better, safer place.

Idk, who knows what would have happened if all we did was lock some doors and put some Air Marshalls on a few planes. All we know is we could have encouraged those fucks by doing nothing and had more attacks.

They deserve every bit of what we gave them
 
BrianTL,

florduh

Well-Known Member
Idk, who knows what would have happened if all we did was lock some doors and put some Air Marshalls on a few planes. All we know is we could have encouraged those fucks by doing nothing and had more attacks.

They deserve every bit of what we gave them

Yeah, there's no way to know for sure what would've happened if we took a more conservative approach to terrorism. But the only reason I spoke up is seeing macbill's post that we lost 7,000+ Americans in combat. Plus another 30,000+ after we broke their brains over there. There's probably an even higher number who will deal with life deranging injuries for the rest of their lives. Then there's the multi-trillion price tag. No way to know for sure. I just doubt that us doing absolutely nothing after 9/11 (except for securing cockpits/air marshals) would've lead to a terror attack that killed 37,000+ Americans and caused trillions in damage.
 
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BrianTL

Westchester, NY
Yeah, there's no way to know for sure what would've happened if we took a more conservative approach to terrorism. But the only reason I spoke up is seeing macbill's post that we lost 7,000+ Americans in combat. Plus another 30,000+ after we broke their brains over there. There's probably an even higher number who will deal with life deranging injuries for the rest of their lives. Then there's the multi-trillion price tag. No way to know for sure. I just doubt that us doing absolutely nothing after 9/11 (except for securing cockpits/air marshals) would've lead to a terror attack that killed 37,000+ Americans and caused trillions in damage.

Listen I get it, and when it comes to how we handled things, I know we could have handled it better and more effectively. Not going to pretend that we did everything perfectly.

Unfortunately I know way too many men and women who had given their lives, or taken their own years after coming home and, while I can't speak for all of them, I don't think that any of them would have been okay just "doing nothing." Same goes for those who were injured.

War is a nasty business and people will get injured, killed, and it brings along an ever-growing laundry list of awful things. Our servicemen and women sign a contract fully knowing there is a chance that they don't survive the next 4 four (or more) years. Historically we've had some rough wars and it would be foolish to believe it can't happen again. Sure they could think they're getting into an administrative job, or a chow hall cook, but there has been times where people in those jobs have been called on or caught in a situation and had to start slinging lead at some bad guys. Not remotely as often as somebody in a combat position, but it does happen. That is the thing about a 100% voluntary force right now, everybody made their own decision and signed up knowing the risks. War is never a "good" thing, but evil does exist in this world and it does, occasionally, have to be extinguished.

The type of person making that decision, imo, would never be ok without an actionable response. Personally I can't even fathom not responding to a terror attack with anything less than overwhelming direct action. It's more than just, "some people did something," and the way I see it, you attack the United States, you should expect to have your world turned upside down
 
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florduh

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and the way I see it, you attack the United States, you should expect to have your world turned upside down

I'd be more apt to agree with this if the country where most of the hijackers were from, Saudi Arabia, had their world turned upside down. Instead, every President since 9/11 continues to publicly blow them.
 

kel

FuckMisogynists!
the way I see it, you attack the United States, you should expect to have your world turned upside down
This holds true in business too... I am very reluctant to engage with any Americans on a business footing after having been burned a couple of times, so easy to upset them and the consequences are massively disproportionate escalating at an horrifying rate with very little possibility for humane rational reconciliation and mutually beneficial outcomes. Terrifying. As a British person, my word is my honour and my bond - at least that is how it always has been until the neo-liberals took over and deceit and lies became common parlance - not sure what British people are, generally speaking, any more - nothing good that's for certain.

Apologies to rational Americans and British people everywhere, this is just my personal experience and obviously massive generalisations.
 
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Duba

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Accessory Maker
Political history is more complex and more twisted than a simplistic vision with bad guys being punished by good guys, no?
In the case of the US imperialism, we can also think that even if you don't attack them, your world can be turned upside down...
but we also see that their world is turned upside down with more deaths in the army by suicides than in combat since 20 years...
 

florduh

Well-Known Member
Political history is more complex and more twisted than a simplistic vision with bad guys being punished by good guys, no?
In the case of the US imperialism, we can also think that even if you don't attack them, your world can be turned upside down...
but we also see that their world is turned upside down with more deaths in the army by suicides than in combat since 20 years...

Also, the concept of "blowback" is a thing. I get wanting revenge. It's a very human reaction. But when we kill a few hundred thousand civilians in a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11... you don't think a percentage of the survivors are gonna want revenge? Some Iraqi kid who sees his whole family burn alive after their home is hit with a Raytheon bomb? You really think he'd say "oh well, some rich Saudis bombed the US, so fair-is-fair!" Maybe. But I bet we also created a bunch of new future terrorists.
 
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