US gun-shop owners still grapple with morality

 

Why are those gun-shop owners so skittish about talking about whether the Buffalo serial killer got his weapons from them? If they believe in the US gun laws and the 2nd amendment right to own a firearm, and more importantly, their ability to arm the populace with said weapons, why are they unwilling to talk about their possible involvement? Shouldn't they have long since justified their part in the whole cesspool that is America gun ownership? 32,000 Americans die from firearms per year. Do they not see their personal connection to all of this, and produced a logic in their head which allows them to sleep at night?

I find that one gun-shop owner so interesting. Here he is... making his money on the sale of guns, which constitutes 90% of his business, yet says “If he had bought the gun from me and mowed down those poor people,” he said, “I would not be able to go to work.”. What did he think a 18yo man would be doing buying a multi-round assault rifle? Squirrel hunting?

So it seems these gun-shop owners are fine with the legality of buying/owning guns, but still haven't come to grips with the morality of it.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-local-correspondents/the-buffalo-shooter-shopped-at-their-gun-stores

Oh well. There goes our right for privacy once again.

 

This shows you how convoluted the laws are in terms of privacy. So the ABF is getting into trouble because they went into people's phone without a warrant. That's a good thing. They should get into trouble. The government has no right to invade your private spaces without legal authorisation. Your phone is just as private as your house.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/08/australian-border-force-searched-822-phones-in-2021-despite-having-no-power-to-demand-passcodes

However, on the exact same day, another article came out (and I will post that link separately below) outlining that Telstra, and all major AU telcos, now scans all SMS messages. The excuse is to reduce scam messages, which to me is a pretty flaccid excuse.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/apr/07/telstra-to-scan-all-text-messages-for-malicious-content-in-anti-scam-program

But what is the difference between physical going into my phone or reading all my SMS messages? Nothing. Should I now be careful about what content I add to my SMSs? The technology on scanning SMSs for scam content could just as easily be used for any other content. My SMSs are just as personal as my phone. It is illegal for the businesses/government to listen in on your calls, why are SMSs now fair game? And as usual, these exemptions to the privacy laws and the chipping away of our human rights, start out as benign intrusions advertised as beneficial, until the governments realise the power of the information that can be gained.

Here's to the cowards at military command

 

So I've been waiting for evidence like this to come out. It follows such a familiar corrupt path with the military: military creates a killer, turns a blind eye to atrocities on the battlefield, rewards him with promotions and Victoria Cross, journalists dig up some dirt on some misdeeds, military command doesn't want the heat and sacrifices this soldier to uphold whatever honour and ethics the killing of other humans has, news leaks out that the real issue is the military command.

But they can't have that, can they? The military command can't be seen as complicit in these acts, the entire ethos of the military which trains these men to kill and allows these atrocities cannot be put on trial. So they throw these PTSD-ridden soldiers under the bus, to persuade us that there is somehow a code of honour and ethics in the system of invading another country and killing their people. Disgusting.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/apr/04/ben-roberts-smith-and-patrol-let-down-by-weak-leadership-in-sas-court-hears

Into the minds of the Russian soldiers right now

 

I find it difficult to comprehend that there are thousands of young Russian men right now that are stationed on the Ukraine border who are waiting for the order to risk their lives, their limbs, their health, their futures solely for the ambitions of some psychotic dictator. And not only that, but to go out with the desire to kill other humans, who they have no qualms against and would probably share a beer with if they met them at a pub.

What drives these young men to give the control of their lives to some megalomaniac who suffers from short-man syndrome who has $50 Billion stashed offshore yet wants more? Do these men feel they are worthless and deserving of such horrible fates? That they are only pawns to be used?

But to go out with the express intent to kill others is what really confuses me. Do they (or we all) have this inner self that is capable of such action, or are they groomed to accept the fate of sticking a bayonet into the guts of another person who they do not know and whose only 'crime' is an allegiance to some other piece of land on the planet. And 99.9999% of these thousands of men have never killed before. What allegiance to a leader is worth the nightmarish psychological leap of actually killing another person?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/20/russia-invasion-ukraine-biden-blinken-us-national-security-council

Tax cuts. Tax cuts.

 

Tax cuts. Tax cuts. Tax cuts. The goto strategy for a government that can't govern. The quick fix which fixes nothing, in fact makes everything worse.

Tax cuts are always regressive and favour the rich. For this tax cut, the bottom 40% of wage earners get just 2% of the benefits.

Tax cuts is like getting a pay-raise at work. For the 1st month after a raise, you think the company is the greatest thing on the planet, and you come in early/leave late, then the raise becomes normal and life becomes exactly the same as it was and your hatred of the company and your job returns.

Tax cuts are done so you can consume more. Simple as that. You might upgrade your phone, or replace that 10yo microwave but life becomes the same. What isn't the same is that $184 Billion is removed from the government's coffers, and this is where life becomes worse for all of us other than the rich. You need new medical facilities in your area? Sorry, it's not in the budget. Your kid needs additional NDIS funding for further treatments. Sorry, we can't afford it. Your school teacher/student ratio has increased to 30-to-1 and needs new computers. Sorry, no new funds for education.

What we all want, and what we need in society to increase our overall well-being is a government that has the resources to supply the aggregate services that we need. And the rich, who will get the bulk of these tax-cuts, don't really care about aggregation because they can afford private schools, and pay for any required services they need anyway. So the person who gets a whopping $15 per week tax-cut suffers, and since this is the bulk of the people in society we all suffer.

The government, and any government that cuts taxes, have it all ass-backwards. Society prospers when the tax-rates for profitable companies and rich people is high. Then the divide between the rich and the poor is lower, the middle class has access to the necessary government services, and resources such as medical care, education, disability services can be fully funded.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/17/men-on-high-incomes-to-take-lions-share-of-coalitions-184bn-tax-cuts-analyses-find

Those pesky little religious people are at it again. Those wily rascals.

 

It's beyond me how a modern society can still condone and participate in the medieval practices of a group which has had a privilege for so long that equality now seems like oppression. To petition the government to give them the ability to discriminate against 5% of the people solely based on thoughts in their heads and the excuse of "Well, we've always discriminated against them so we want to continue" is laughable if it wasn't so evil.

So they are in an uproar because they can't expel kids based on sexuality. They want to damage kids as collateral damage to protect the very institutions that promote this discrimination. It is to protect an ethos formed from a single sentence in a 3,000yo book, and if they damage these kids or people lose their jobs, well, so be it.

And the reasoning is childish. “simply wanting to uphold scientific truth and the Christian worldview of human sexuality”. I assume when they talk of 'truth', they are talking about our physical bits which is a red herring. Who cares about the physical bits. People have the right to be who they are. But they mention 'truth' yet still feel that being gay is a choice or lifestyle. Where's the truth there? And this talk of their worldview makes me want to puke. Who cares about your worldview when you want to force your dogma onto society adversely affecting people who just want to live their lives in peace.

And... “This is a sad day for all Australians and particularly faith schools as it has put religious freedom and free speech at risk”. As I said, they believe equality is oppression. And people don't understand this concept of free speech. Free speech allows you to publicly voice your opinion on anything, but it does not mean that there are no consequences that others may levy on you for that opinion. These people feel that free speech is some get-out-of-jail card which has never been the case.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/03/christian-lobby-groups-attack-morrison-for-vowing-students-wont-be-expelled-due-to-their-sexuality-or-gender

The human species has done bloody well

 

I think the human species has done bloody well. Our roots is a messy violent evolutionary path. We were little scurrying fearful animals like merkats back whenever. Now we have laws, and morality, and care. Got to think of the good that we have. 2,000 years ago we lived until 40.