tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post7292887197652158059..comments2024-03-01T00:32:54.623-08:00Comments on McGahey's McMusings: "I'm as Mad as Hell and I'm Not Going to Take This Anymore"James McGaheyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-55545854777892762952017-07-05T21:36:46.135-07:002017-07-05T21:36:46.135-07:00Are you looking for free Google+ Circles?
Did you ...Are you looking for <b>free Google+ Circles</b>?<br />Did you know that you can get them <b>AUTOMATICALLY & TOTALLY FREE</b> by using <b><a href="http://socialexch.syntaxlinks.com/r/Like4Like" rel="nofollow">Like 4 Like</a></b>?Bloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07287821785570247118noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-31357314510186691112012-12-24T00:56:44.087-08:002012-12-24T00:56:44.087-08:00Ok, ban them, you can start by convincing mayor Bl...Ok, ban them, you can start by convincing mayor Bloomburg, President Obama, Pelosi, Shummer, and on down the list to have their bodyguards give up their firearms. I'm sure they would be happy to do that, to get more firearms off of the streets, since they are more dangerous to own than not, right? oh, and Merry Christmas :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-23157038574692546252012-12-22T06:35:16.746-08:002012-12-22T06:35:16.746-08:00You make my point. The UK has, as the Daily Mail a...You make my point. The UK has, as the Daily Mail article states, a higher per capita incidence of "violent crime." But the use of such an expression obfuscates the issue. Their murder rate--and not just gun homicide rate--is far lower than ours. And that's the point (the only way it isn't is if one is a moral relativist who imagines that assaults are as bad as murder). It is guns that provide the most deadly means to harm others, and military-style weaponry and high capacity, rapid fire magazines that increase the deadliness. What defies logic is the notion that means of control must eliminate all gun crime to be considered "effective." <br /><br />As for "self-defense," every study has demonstrated that possessing firearms only INCREASES the chance that one will be harmed by one's own weapon (as former Bush speechwriter David Frum has written: "At the same time, people hesitate to own guns themselves because they recognize that keeping a gun in the house is a dangerous thing to do. A gun in the house minimally doubles the risk that a household member will kill himself or herself. (Some studies put the increase in suicide risk as high as 10 times.) An American is 50% more likely to be shot dead by his or her own hand than to be shot dead by a criminal assailant. More than 30,000 Americans injure themselves with guns every year" (http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/opinion/frum-guns/index.html). What defies rational analysis is the fascination with, and defense of guns, objects that have only one function: to kill. Being angry certainly does not entail the forfeiture of one's reasoning capabilities. And that does not even take into consideration my theological reasons for disdaining guns. My major target audience, after all, is evangelical Christians who, after all, have proven themselves far more committed to American conservative ideology than they are to countercultural biblical principles.James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-8940132493862988242012-12-21T02:37:33.967-08:002012-12-21T02:37:33.967-08:00Oh boy, so much to write and so little time. Gun ...Oh boy, so much to write and so little time. Gun crime in the UK is lower than gun crime in the US, in other news, water is wet. They are banned! How about we talk about CRIME prevention, after all, that is the purpose of using a firearm for self defense. Here is a link showing crime statistics and not editorial content: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196941/The-violent-country-Europe-Britain-worse-South-Africa-U-S.html The UK is number one on violent crime in the EU, with the US being out of the top ten. And from a British news outlet no less, hmmm. I am not going to say that I want to arm teachers and principles, what I will say though, is that if we are going to have a meaningful debate on gun control, we must move forward with actions that WORK. The so called "gun free zones" laws have been an abysmal failure, to ignore that defies logic. The statistics showing that gun control is counter productive to reducing crime are all over the place, including studies from Harvard. I wont bother to take the time to link to them. I leave it up to you to take an honest look at what works and what doesn't. Don't worry, I will wait till you aren't "Mad as Hell". Cooler heads need to prevail in order to enact meaningful change.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-45953367197269022582012-12-20T21:22:35.933-08:002012-12-20T21:22:35.933-08:00I apologize. Knife attacks in Chinese schools are ...I apologize. Knife attacks in Chinese schools are apparently so common I was reading a report about one from August. Your tally was correct. I was out of line, and should have been far more attentive to dates and bylines.<br /><br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_attacks_in_China_%282010%E2%80%932012%29Coraliehttp://lifemoreabundant.menoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-27622694858826387902012-12-19T21:42:30.077-08:002012-12-19T21:42:30.077-08:00lollolJames McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-73307143329939026712012-12-19T13:30:23.186-08:002012-12-19T13:30:23.186-08:00Hahahahahahahahhahahahaha, were you a swimmer in y...Hahahahahahahahhahahahaha, were you a swimmer in your younger days?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-75985404723075623682012-12-19T13:16:50.001-08:002012-12-19T13:16:50.001-08:00I used "malarkey" because of my Scots-Ir...I used "malarkey" because of my Scots-Irish heritage. I thought it more appropriate than other words I have seen written. :) Thanks for the encouragement.<br />James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-19915563961360367232012-12-19T12:41:52.948-08:002012-12-19T12:41:52.948-08:00Just so you know, I am enthous of what you are say...Just so you know, I am enthous of what you are saying....... I appretiat your fervor and the fact you are cognoscente of Christian writings. When you were younger, or let me reiterate, you must have been an awesome Professor in your day but I never had the opportunus to study in any of your lecturas......... I would have enjoyed learning a plethora of ways to say the same things as you do.....<br /><br />Autocannons are not needed to be sold to the public. Just ban asaut-weapons from being sold to civitas folk......<br /><br />But please, stop quoting that plagiaristic ass wipe Joe Biden. The man only speaks malarkey and it only makes you look bad to quote someone with no comparison to your intellect...... Choose wiser.......Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-38273168497141248152012-12-19T08:19:27.781-08:002012-12-19T08:19:27.781-08:00After more searching this morning, the latest news...After more searching this morning, the latest news available (from just a few hours ago) has the toll in the China stabbing at 24 injured, 23 of them children; no deaths reported: http://www.itn.co.uk/World/64413/cctv-of-china-school-knife-attack; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-20765528.<br />James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-79624475428545734112012-12-19T08:17:26.601-08:002012-12-19T08:17:26.601-08:00Number Five: The "rights" we have as Ame...Number Five: The "rights" we have as Americans are not "granted" by the military. at most the military can protect our exercise of these rights, as, e.g., in the Second World War. [Note that my argument depends on the restriction of high capacity magazines, assault weapons, and such TO the military and (perhaps)municipal police departments. What I wrote has no negative bearing on our military] According to the worldview of our nation's founders, our "rights" are "natural" rights given by the "Creator"--which, in their worldview, was not the God of Christian orthodoxy but the distant watchmaker god of Deism.<br />James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-51573412427885567892012-12-19T07:55:57.749-08:002012-12-19T07:55:57.749-08:00Here is the link to the article I read. I had it o...Here is the link to the article I read. I had it open but inadvertently clicked the wrong one when writing my post: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199310073291506.James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-21807799299573920132012-12-19T07:52:05.764-08:002012-12-19T07:52:05.764-08:00I am sincerely sorry about misreporting the toll i...I am sincerely sorry about misreporting the toll in China, though when I wrote it the latest reports gave the statistics I referenced. And I surely didn't intend to "degrade" the tragedy or "cheapen" any death. My entire point was that guns take a far greater toll in human lives than attacks with knives, etc. (by the same token bombs are worse than guns), and that point still stands fairly clearly. With regard to the NEJM link, the link comes directly from the journal and references earlier articles that I have read and are common knowledge (that's why the NRA and other gun supporters have tried, unsuccessfully IMO, to mitigate their force). I will look for a link to them on the internet.<br /><br />I agree that discussions of this sort are emotionally difficult. That is what impelled me to write more forcefully than is my custom. But the course of action is not a difficult decision to make. The ones who are "muddying the waters" are the gun advocates who are fighting tooth and nail to stop any potential restrictions on firearms with regard to type, magazine capacity, and location of carrying. They do this by means of invalid, slippery-slope argumentation ("restrictions on guns will inevitably lead to banishing of all guns, in which case all our freedoms are in jeopardy;" that is, as Joe Biden would say, "malarkey," and I believe the intelligent people in the gun lobby know it)and transforming the issue into a philosophical case-study regarding "freedom." Freedom, as they like to point out in other contexts, always carries responsibilities with it, and they have dropped the ball on this one.James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-89892337241647515362012-12-18T22:15:35.691-08:002012-12-18T22:15:35.691-08:00Sir, I would like to respectfully call you to some...Sir, I would like to respectfully call you to some intellectual honesty. Citing "The New England Journal of Medicine" and then linking to an opinion piece is misleading to your readership. As a scholar, you would understand the difference between their opinion pieces and a legitimate study, but many do not. Discussions like this are emotionally difficult without that sort of manipulation to muddy the water. <br /><br />Additionally, your statement of " . . . Newtown, 26 dead; China: 23 injured." is both untrue and degrading to the tragedy in China. There are four dead, and local media reports, ". . .parents as saying that their children's injuries were so bad they could barely recognize them." The toll of both tragedies cannot be counted. It is unbecoming a believer to cheapen the death or mutilation of any image bearer. Coraliehttp://lifemoreabundant.menoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-19684643673220380272012-12-18T21:24:01.015-08:002012-12-18T21:24:01.015-08:00Number One: I would absolutely take the same stanc...Number One: I would absolutely take the same stance no matter what government I was living under.<br />Number Two: I don't think "living under English rule" is that different from what we live under in this country. It is different in degree (and a small one at that), not in kind.<br />Number Three: I believe that the "right" to bear arms has been deliberately misapplied by conservative jurists and the gun lobby. There is no necessary contradiction between gun rights and gun regulations.<br />Number Four: Christian liberties in the Middle East are a concern, but I am not a member of any of those societies. My aim is to get so-called Christians to take their talking points from the Bible rather than their assumed "conservative world view.James McGaheyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10989740777303666667noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1781025358855188363.post-75741215356128151572012-12-18T14:56:08.588-08:002012-12-18T14:56:08.588-08:00A quote from your insightful yet boorish rambling,...A quote from your insightful yet boorish rambling, "Once again, I find it highly ironic that so many "Christians" cite the second argument in light of St. Paul's clear teaching about submission to government authorities (Rom 13; see my post here) and Jesus' rejection of the "zealotic" impulse in his day to resist Rome with the force of arms on the "patriotic" ground that they, as Jews, had no king but Yahweh. Simply put, the argument of the right to armed resistance is not an option for a Christian." <br /><br />WE THE PEOPLE find it very easy for you to quote these things here in America where your rights to ramble are so protected, but, I doubt you would take any such stance if they were lobbying to take away your freedom of speech Christian.<br /><br />Don't forget I know you, and I know you would want to live under English Rule......<br /><br />Simply put, that young boy in Newtown, CT. should never had access to weapons of that nature. <br /><br />I am not for people having automatic weapons. <br /> <br />But , don't mess the rights that the men and women of our military have granted YOU through out the past two centuries.... <br /><br />Try speaking your mind about christian liberties in the Middle East........Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com