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From: jdnicoll@panix.com (James Nicoll)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: "NASA to study "city-killer" asteroid as odds of hitting Earth go up"
Date: Sun, 16 Feb 2025 14:10:10 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: Public Access Networks Corp.
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In article <sfh1rj17bhcuv2epvjnu9tr6fflui7oifm@4ax.com>,
Paul S Person  <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:
>On Fri, 14 Feb 2025 22:55:18 +0100, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>On Fri, 14 Feb 2025, Paul S Person wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 13 Feb 2025 22:23:34 +0100, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, 13 Feb 2025, Paul S Person wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:59:49 -0600, Lynn McGuire
>>>>> <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2/12/2025 3:59 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>>>>> On 2/12/2025 11:00 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 15:38:13 +0100, "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 08:52:00 -0000 (UTC), Charles Packer wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Between now and May at least it won't match bird flu, Chinese
>>>>>>>>>> AI or constitutional upheaval at generating scary headlines.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> You forgot about the American AI.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> That's old hat. Chinese AI has rendered it ... superfluous.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Kind of like Trump has Congress. And soon will the Courts.[1]
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> And, being an old fan of horror films, I /enjoy/ scary headlines. And
>>>>>>>> the various reactions to them, the more hysterical the better. For
>>>>>>>> each atrocity brings us closer to the inevitable denoument, whatever
>>>>>>>> that may be.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> [1] As the judge in Watergate pointed out, the Federal Marshalls are
>>>>>>>> what the Court uses to enforce it edicts, and they are Federal
>>>>>>>> Employees. Which means the President can escape arrest by them by
>>>>>>>> simply telling them they are fired.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lincoln would have put the rogue judges in jail.� At one point, Lincoln
>>>>>>> had 2,300 ??? political people (newspaper editors, etc) in jail that
>>>>>>> were actively fighting against the Civil War.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Lynn
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Trump may have to put these rogue judges in jail.  He has my ok.
>>>>>
>>>>> That would certainly speed things up ... to the inevitable denoument.
>>>>>
>>>>> Whatever it may be.
>>>>>
>>>>> Buckle up! Rough ride ahead!
>>>>
>>>> Be safe Paul! I do not like your ideology, but I sometimes respect you as
>>>> a spiritual being!
>>>>
>>>> Maybe buying a gun would be able to make you defend yourself better
>>>> against crazy republicans? ;)
>>>
>>> More likely, it would allow me to shoot myself in the foot. Literally.
>>>
>>> Same reason I don't own a chainsaw.
>>
>>But surely in the US you must be able to find the very best education when 
>>it comes to how to handle a gun? It's an invaluable life skill! =)
>
>The Army taught me.
>
>But no amount of training can make up for basic klutziness.
>
>>On a sad note, I think about how many lives could have been saved in the 
>>recent swedish school shooting if only the students and/or teachers had 
>>guns of their own. Then probably only 1 or 2 students would have died. =(
>
>I'm not familiar with the specific situation, but two things occur:
>1) If everybody is shooting, how are the Police supposed to take out
>only the bad guys? It's a lot easier when there is a clear difference
>between shooters and victims.
>2) If that much lead is flying around, I would expect the death toll
>to be /much/ higher.

Americans, who are armed to the teeth, routinely send their little 
darling off to heaven in batch lots, whereas I think the total
number of school shooting fatalities in Canada, where we're not
fucking deranged, is sixteen. Total. Not 'in the last five minutes',
but even.

On the plus side, death is probably a mercy for Americans kids. 

-- 
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