Moontanman

God has granted us choice? If that is Can you give some evidence of this?

Can you supply some evidence of what you are asserting?

Since no creature has ever used fire in this manner (that we know of) and this is fiction you can say it comes from where ever you want but the hollow teeth parallels the way a spitting cobra sprays it's venom. It's not outside the laws of physics or biology for a creature to exist that sprays two chemicals that ignite on contact. Some beatles use a similar method but it comes out of their rectum... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle There is some speculation that spitting cobras were the origin of the fire breathing dragon myths....

Two hollow teeth that are connected to glands that excrete two substances that upon being sprayed into the air they mix and spontaneously ignite a few centimeters outside her mouth...

This brings concealed carry to a whole new level...

John, I did provide those figures, 11,101 homicides by guns, 6220 homicides by handguns, 679 homicides by long guns... BTW John, your source is from an anti gun control group...

Let's take guns out of it and substitute swords and then claim because I have a pocket knife I am more likely to run amok and kill people because people with swords do this... Your statistics limp all guns into one category "a gun" I would be more comfortable if the claim was handguns but to say "a gun" is far too broad a term to accurately describe anything. Your statistics are not as meaningful as you claim due to this lumping... If you want to commit suicide you would almost certainly use the easiest method available to you, if you have a gun then a gun would be what you use. A more accurate way to measure or compare this is to look at suicide rates and see how much more likely suicide is in populations that have guns vs populations that do not. I know guns can be used to protect one's self or others, i have done so, guns can be used and held in private ownership safely, I have done so for almost 50 years while raising two sons, the vast majority are held legally and safely. That is why i am so sure, much like a car, most people mind the laws, drive safely, and rarely if ever have an accident much less kill someone yet some people who own cars use them like toys, showing off as though the car is a toy and guess what, automobile deaths are about the same as gun deaths in the US. While some auto deaths are due to other factors a great many can be traced back to people who drive but don't know how or who don't obey the rules, in some cases even suicide... Could we eliminate death by auto by banning autos? Of course, public transport could be used to make cars unnecessary just like "big brother" could be used to make guns unnecessary but the police force that would be required is just as unreasonable as the public transportation that would be required to eliminate cars. I can see reasonable gun reform, background checks, licenses and training before you can own them possibly even having to have liability insurance much like owning a car but the idea that I personally would be safer without a gun is not supportable. Gun deaths in the US Homicide by gun 2011... 11,101 Handgun Homicide 2011... 6,220 Long gun Homicide 2011... 679 Gun homicides (other) 2011... 1,684 Suicide 2011... 19,776 Accidental 2011... 851 Unknown 2011... 222 source http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/united-states

You missed my point, it says "a" gun is 22 times more likely to be used in a crime.... you cannot use statistics to predict the actions of individuals. That is not a prediction for guns it's prediction for criminal who own guns, everyone who owns a gun is not a criminal, does not commit suicide or shoot anyone accidentally. To imply that owning a gun makes any particular individual more likely to do these things is not true nor can you say that gun owners in general are part of this fantasy. That is the strawman... In fact I know it is not a fantasy since I used a gun to stop a crime once in my life i know it happens and is not a fantasy...

I guess I need to clarify what I saying since I got neg rep for my last post. I understand that "they want to take away all our guns" is a strawman but it's a very effective one. It's a strawman the NRA touts at every one of it's meetings both national and local. this claim of they will have to remove my gun from cold dead hands is their rallying cry, I think the leaders know this but are simply inflaming the masses to make sure the sale of guns continue... This gun cause is truly analogous to a fundamentalist religion and to understand the mindset of these people you have to think of it that way. As in most religions the majority are reasonable people who don't know or don't want to know what the fringes of their religion are doing or how it affects them. the reality is like any religion it's the fringe fundamentalists who are the driving force of that religion, they make sure the main body of the religion toes the line as closely as possible and uses fear to keep them from leaving the fold. In religion that fear is hell fire in gun theism it's fear of crime. I think it's useful to think of it this way...

Laws are already in place that restrict the ownership of military grade weapons, I cannot go to a gun store and legally buy a full automatic weapon much less nukes or attack aircraft no matter how much money i have. The precedent of limiting guns has already been established...

Since she is an alien I see no reason why she shouldn't be able to lactate, I withdraw my criticism... An alien could very well be a combination of widely different traits compared to Earth life or share none at all... Love the wide hips BTW...

I can contest a little of this i think. #1 #2 #3 #4 I can see a connection, possibly, between #1 and #2 but the others do not follow... A gun... so my gun will leave the house under it's own free will and commit crimes? A gun, all guns are not the same thing any more than pocket knife is a sword... A handgun is not a shotgun and they are not similarly dangerous. Let go with these few first then I'll dissect the others but statistics can be used to show just about anything from earthquakes getting more prevalent in years with odd numbers that line up with jupiter to astrological signs... A bit of relevant humor... http://www.theonion.com/articles/jenny-sanford-im-loving-these-lax-gun-purchasing-l,32353/ Agreed... but it didn't make him kill his wife... We understand it is a strawman, I've had a couple of discussions on facebook about this with people who are evidently either nutters or so stupid they believe anything as long as it's reported on fox noise... Pretty much my point exactly, in fact the religious are at the heart of this, it's their god given right... http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nra-gop-leaders-vow-back-gun-rights-annual/story?id=19104892#.UYrH6qLP2Fw

Thanks John, for some reason I can't read that link from any other source and I've been trying to acces it. Can we get a copy online to dissect it a little? I would like to talk about use of handguns vs shotguns vs rifles in this debate. Some problems I saw had to do with the guy in south Africa who shot his girlfriend olympic champion or something, how is that relevant to a study in the US? Or are olympic champions pillars of virtue? I am against handguns, I got rid of mine years ago, even trained law enforcement has had their problems with handguns. Rifles have no place in home defense, especially the high powered ones like the military style rifles, the fact they are not full auto is irrelevant. A deer rifle, not a "macho" military style rifle, is potentially capable of firing many rounds as fast as the macho military style, semi auto is semi auto... but no one with two brain cells to rub together would seriously consider shooting a deer rifle inside their home or even in a city or suburban setting outside. The results could be devastating for anyone within miles, simply unacceptable... Shotguns are a different matter, to make these statistics relevant the type of gun used should be broken down into categories I'm betting that use of shotguns in crime is rare as well as accidental shootings. I will concede semi auto shotguns into the semi auto rifle category for this comparison. Local law enforcement, about 40 years ago, bought a bunch of semi auto 12 gauge shotguns to put in their squad cars. Somehow someone got the idea that maybe they should be tested at the range to make sure they worked correctly... you guessed it, the factory had made a mistake and the guns were full auto, the first officer who loaded one up with a full magazine of 12 gauge magnum rounds was treated to all of the rounds firing off within one second... broke his shoulder, knocked him down, and sprayed 12 gauge rounds all over the indoor range... I just don't think that all guns are comparable, to a great extent it is apples and oranges and bananas, with hand apples being the main culprit, semi auto oranges coming in second, and shot bananas not even in the running... As long as anyone is trying to eliminate all guns in the USA all you will get is polarization and appeals to emotions and manhood if not directly then indirectly for sure... The "pro gun" people are fanning the flames of emotions to the point that even people who are afraid of guns are buying them. I suspect the pro gun leaders are nothing but corporate lobbyists trying to maximize profits for their owners... WOW! That would be surprising ...

Why does she have boobs? If she hatched from an egg why does she have a belly button?

Well considering how large a percentage of the people who believe Holy Scripture is... well... the 100% inviolate word of God also believe in the 2nd Amendment is inviolate word of God fearing fathers of our country think you have just committed a new logical fallacy... oxymoron... at least you're expecting logic where none exists... You guys can't imagine how much I wish this was a joke...

Sometimes it helps to split it up into time periods, the last 15 years or so is just nuts with photoshop and the world wide context to fake UFO films and pics. But go back further and stuff starts to show up that is not part of that crazy crowd like this one. http://www.nicap.org/coyne.htm

Where I'm from MD 20/20 is something completely different... then again it might help you see spiders too...

Mrs Moontanman liked that one...

I am beginning to think this is just another issue to polarize our society, we have so many polar issues I am beginning to wonder if it will ever be possible to have any productive talks on any issue. Religion, guns, conservative, liberal, where does it end? If liberals ever manage to grow a spine... From where I sit, in the "South" it's not really funny at all...

I agree, you run amok with a sword and someone will shoot your ass...

Horse feathers, what we have are corporate welfare advocates who cringe at the thought of someone other than a wealthy corporation getting anything. The big banks and corporations own the legislators, everything else is smoke and mirrors... I tend to agree with this except some degree of control is needed, if you can go to a gun show and buy a gun no questions asked there is something wrong with the system..

I doubt many here are more pro UFO investigation than me, it's a difficult subject to quantify much less discuss rationally. There are some sighting that are simply inexplicable and only some very strange phenomena seem to fit. Everytime we try to discuss it we get people who wouldn't accept a landing on the white house lawn to people who think every light in the sky is an alien spacecraft. Everytime we try to discuss it rationally the silly season opens up and it goes nuts quite soon...

What, no takers on the spotting sharks with sonar idea? Well to be precise sonar can indeed show fish, in fact even quite small ones, my neighbor has a quite moderately priced boat and he can see individual fish less than the size of my hand in impressive detail. Is this thread about that one sighting or can we post info about others here?

An uniquely American as well as reasoned take on gun control, it's well worth watching... Gun control in the US is an odd thing, someone here said something about pocket knives, I carry a Buck knife 5.5" blade, very sharp and heavy, I've carried a pocket knife since I was a young boy, I never even considered threatening anyone with it, never even thought of it as a weapon. We live in a society that has for whatever reasons, justified or not, decided we will allow guns in the general populace. Personally I do not believe in a nanny state, I don't want my government to protect me from everything, I don't expect it, police never show up in time to prevent a crime, only investigate it after the fact. On the street I rarely think of a robber as threat, if he accosts me i will give him my wallet and go about canceling my cards and such, only rarely would a real criminal want to really harm you, he wants to get away and easy as possible... But, anyone who breaks into my house is playing a more deadly game, he is taking a big risk, I can avoid places of high crime when I am out and about and to be honest I have always gotten along rather well in bad neighborhoods, I guess I feel comfortable around regular people like me and I do avoid really high crime areas, no point in testing your luck... but, break into my house and you have passed a line, in my yard, I'll call the police, screw with my parked car and I will call the police, come into my home and you have shown me you have no respect whatsoever for your life or mine... i'll kill you, I will call the police but they will find a body if it is necessary I have to admit that if the intruder surrendered when confronted i wouldn't just kill him outright but make an aggressive move and the slide on my 12 gauge will chamber a round, if he is armed then it's no quarter given. If that makes me bad person then so be it, in my part of the US I have the right to defend myself from bodily harm inside my home and i will do so... I do take precautions, I use #5 shot so i won't kill the neighbors down the street if I miss and hit a wall, I would never even consider shooting anyone that I wasn't absolutely sure was an intruder, no shooting anyone hiding or through walls shit you see in the movies. I was raised with guns, i know you never shoot at shadows or noises, killing someone is serious business, not some macho bullshit, it would no doubt haunt me the rest of my life. In fact the one time i held someone at gunpoint haunts me to this day, my stomach churns at the thought, but I saved my mother's life, to me that worth a little bit of gut wrenching reflection from time to time... My real worry is people who buy guns and don't have a damn clue as to how to use them, what their limitations are, or what conditions to use them, it's very worrisome... And the 5 yo with the gun... I'd horse whip his dad, every day for the rest of his dumbass life... a 5 yo, a rifle, the kids isn't even old enough to carry a pocket knife, you can't cure stupid, sometimes bad shit happens but usually it's because of someone who thinks he is immune to the consequences, there are always consequences...

I'm not sure why you would be arguing this, I am not suggesting bringing materials back from another solar system body to the Earth and certainly not bringing back anything from another Star System. I was suggesting a nomadic existence starting out with colonies built in orbit around the home star using materials already in orbit around that star. As technology advances and people become accustomed to living in space, and such colonies could be made to mimic a planet quite a bit, like rolling up a valley, an endless suspension bridge, rotating to form artificial gravity inside, some might be megacities others more park like but the end result is a people who live in space. Once you already live in space taking slow orbits to resources that take many years is just a way of life and as you move out following those resources moving to the next star wouldn't be due to all the resources being used up any more than colonizing the new world was due to the Europeans using up all the resources of the Old World. Oort clouds extend so far away from their stars that travel to the next star wouldn't be much further than travel to the last oort cloud object. Such a nomadic existence could spread far and wide but not leave a "scorched earth" behind it.