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Get you head out of you back side. The religion of peace did this and you look away. Shameful.


IS claims Sri Lanka blasts, as government says probe making progress

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sri-lanka-blasts/sri-lanka-blasts-were-revenge-for-new-zealand-mosque-killings-minister-idUSKCN1RZ06M

The truth about the Sri Lanka attacks are investigations have revealed they were a retaliation for the right wing terrorist attack on the Mosques in New Zealand, and the Sri Lankan Islamic terrorists gave warnings the police ignored.

Freedom of religion is independent of civilian armament.
History shows that religious persecution is normal for humanity, and in most cases it's perpetrated by the government. Sometimes to consolidate power (with government tie-ins to the main religion), and sometimes to pander to the grimace of a majority.

Ironically, in this country, freedom of religion only exists due to armed conflict, albeit merely as a side effect of independence from a religiously homogeneous ruling power.



It's true that Catalonians would likely have been shot at if they were armed.
However, likewise, the Spanish government will never grant the Catalans democracy so long as the Catalans are not armed - simply because it doesn't have to.
(*Barring self suicidal/sacrificial behavior on part of the Catalans that eventually [after much suffering] embarrasses the government into compliance - often under risk that 3rd parties will intervene if things continue)

When the government manufactures consent, it will be first in line to claim that people have democratic freedom. When the government fails to manufacture consent, it will crack down with force.

At the end of the day, in government, might makes right. Laws are only words on paper, the government's arms are what make the laws matter.

Likewise, democracy is no more than an idea. The people's force of arms (or threat thereof) is what assert's the people's dominance over the government.



You can say the police/military are stronger and it would never matter, however, the size of an [armed] population is orders of magnitude larger than the size of an army. Factor in the fact that the people need to cooperate with the government in order to support and supply the government's military. No government can withstand armed resistance of the population at large. This is one of the main lessons from The Prince.

Civilian armament is a bulwark against potentially colossal ills (albeit ills that come once every few generations).

Look at NK. The people get TV, radio, cell, from SK. They can look across the river and see massive cities on the Chinese side. They know they have to play along with the charade that their government demands. At the end of the day, without guns, things won't change.

Look at what happened during the Arab Spring. All these unarmed nations turned to external armed groups to fight for them to change their governments. All it accomplished was them becoming serfs to the invited 3rd parties. This is another lesson from The Prince : always take power by your own means, never rely on auxiliaries, because your auxiliaries will become your new rulers.






Below is general pontification. No longer a reply.
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Civilian armament does come with periodic tragedies. Those tragedies suck. But they're also much less significant than the risks of disarmament.
(Eg. School shootings, 7-11 robberies, etc -versus- Tamils vs Sri Lankan government, Rohingya vs Burmese government. etc.)

Regarding rifles specifically (all varieties combined), there is no point in arguing magnitudes (Around 400 lives per year - albeit taken in newsworthy large chunks). 'Falling out of bed' kills more people, same is true for 'Slip and fall'. No one fears their bed or a wet floor.

Pistols could go away and not matter much.
They have minimal militia utility, and they represent almost the entirety of firearms used in violent crime. (Albeit used to take lives in a non newsworthy 1 at a time manner)

(In the U.S.) If tragedy was the only way to die (otherwise infinite lifespan), you would live on average 9000 years. Guns, car crashes, drownings, etc. ~All tragedies included. (http://service.prerender.io/http://polstats.com/?_escaped_fragment_=/life#!/life)






A computer learning example I was taught:

Boy walking with his mom&dad down a path.
Lion #1 jumps out, eats his dad.
(Data : Specifically lion #1 eats his father.)
The boy and mom keep walking
Lion #2 jumps out, eats his mother.
(Data : Specifically lion #2 eats his mother)
The boy keeps walking
He comes across Lion #3.

Question : Should he be worried?

If you are going to generalize [the first two] lions and people, then yes, he should be worried.

In reality, lions may be very unlikely to eat people (versus say, a gazelle). But if you generalized from the prior two events, you will think they are dangerous.

(The relevance to computer learning is that : Computers learn racism, too. If you include racial data along with other data in a learning algorithm, that algorithm can and will be able to make decisions based on race. Not because the software cares - but because it can analyze and correlate.)

(Note : This is also why arguing religion is likely futile. If a child is raised being told that everything is as it is because God did it, then that becomes their basis for reality. Telling them that their belief in god is wrong, is like telling the boy in the example that lions are statistically quite safe to people. It challenges what they've learned.)



I mentioned this example, because it illustrates learning and perception. And it segways into my following analogy.



Here's a weird analogy, but it goes like this :

(I'm sure SJW minded people will shit themselves over it, but whatever)

"Gun ownership in today's urban society" is like "Black people in 80's white bred society".

2/3 of the population today has no contact with firearms (mostly urban folk)
They only see them on movies used to shoot people, and on the news used to shoot people.
If you are part of that 2/3, you see guns as murder tools.
If you are part of the remaining 1/3, you see guns like shoes or telephones - absolutely mundane daily items that harm nobody.

In the 80's, if you were in a white bred community, your only understanding of black people would be from movies where they are gangsters and shoot people, and from the nightly news where you heard about some black person who shot people.
If you were part of an 80's white bred community, you saw black people as dangerous likely killers.
If you were part of an 80's black/mixed community, you saw black people as regular people living the same mundane lives as anyone else.

In either case, you can analytically know better. But your gut feelings come from your experience.



Basically, I know guns look bad to 2/3 of the population. That won't change. People's beliefs are what they are.
I also know that the likelihood of being in a shooting is essentially zero.
I also know that history repeats itself, and -just in case- I'd rather live in an armed society than an unarmed society. Even if I don't carry a gun.

-scheherazade

The window panes are political quadrants. The lower right corner is punched out, indicating the man is anarcho-capitalist. The lamp is tilted toward the newspaper to bring light upon the Sri Lankan Civil War, which was set off by an ambush the day after this comic was published. (That's why the newspaper is blank. Nothing newsworthy compared to the following days/week.) The meat on the table symbolizes the impending carnage, as thousands would die, and 150,000 made homeless.

The thumbnail image for this video has been updated - thumbnail added by eric3579.

The "integration" of foreign cultures into Danish society should not be blamed for the current political or economic state of the country. Particularly when it is the very xenophobia (to put it generously) expressed in that sentiment which is more likely at the root of those difficulties. The historical success of the economic model in Denmark was not dependant upon the monoethnic values that existed in the country before the current influx of immigrants. Although it's fair to say that the collectivism inherent in the tribal attitude of Nordic countries was key in smoothly implementing and maintaining successful socialism in the region, it is not fair to blame new immigrants if it falters. Perhaps true integration would have been beneficial to the system, rather than segregation and blame.

Puting all that aside, the US would never, could never, implement Nordic socialism. It is true that we are a different culture with a very different set of goals and challeneges. If socialistic policies were implemented it would be a distinctly American Socialism. In speaking of political or economic systems we often err by contextualizing them in absolute terms. As if "socialism" means only one thing. But the fact is that the democracy we practice in the US shares little with the democracy practiced by the ancient Romans. When speaking of socialism, we need to put it in context. Is it post WW2 Swedish socialism? Modern Sri Lankan socialism? These are necessarily different things. Similarly, it is possible to implement modern US Socialism as a system that is uniquely reflective of our culture. In theory anyway. In reality, the challenge of employing socialism in, arguably, the most individualistic culture in the world, may be insurmountable.

We had a cloudless sky yesterday, so I managed to grab a book and get a few hours in the sun.

People were vehemently opposed to these policies in the past. But now they are starving in the camps, and they are just thinking about how to survive the next day – they don't have a place to sleep, they don't have a place to be, they have lost their source of income, they have no idea how they will feed themselves in the future. So it's in that situation that the government pushes ahead with this plan. When people recover, they will find out what had been decided, but by then the damage will already be done.

Sounds just like parts of Greece, but it's from Herman Kumara, head of Sri Lanka's National Fisheries Solidarity Movement. Their government eagerly seized the moment when a tsunami layed waste to significant parts of the coastland, pressing the local plebs into a situation where they can no longer provide resistance against plans to turn their land into a Mekka for the rich.

Basic shock therapy, as seen in numerous other countries before and after. Nothing new. But it's worth remembering these cases when looking at the financial waterboarding of Greece.

Notice the engine on the turntable has the name "Montreal?" These are engines in Sri Lanka given by Canada in the 50's as part of the Colombo plan exchanges. They've kept them going strong for quite a while! The one named after my home province was involved in the boxing day tsunami.


They got that one running again.

http://www.kodikara.net/blog/2011/07/24/m2-%E2%80%93-the-legendary-workhorse-of-the-sri-lankan-railway/

This wow's me as to how much time/money for a temporary thing. Can't see this ever happening on this scale again.

(for those keeping score, Burma is now Myanmar, Ceylon is Sri Lanka )

Sry, how is that a bad thing?

Doom/Wolfenstein/Serious Sam etc, all guns, no depth, tonnes of fucking fun...

Depth can be vastly overrated, particularly when you're trying to stitch it on to something that glories in you getting your bad on and crushing the Nazi scourge in to paste. It doesn't need depth.

*isdupe

sry chiggs

Sry...missed that ;-) Plus...from all those videos, that comment could actually be made without the sarcasm!>> ^A10anis:

>> ^Tokoki:
Sounded (from the impact) like a huge truck being driven...don't think you'd be able to stop that no matter what.
>> ^A10anis:
Russian brake pads must be very expensive because, in nearly all of these videos, even in an emergency, they try not to use them!


Yep, hence the sarcasm button...

>> ^Yogi:

"...was handed a note on Valentine's Day by a random young male..."
In other news I was dumped by an Indian girl last week who I was going to marry. Instead her parents leaned on her and because of her upbringing in a sexist and oppressive culture she went back to her arranged marriage instead breaking my heart. I am now particularly sensitive to cultures who treat women like second class citizens and I say that BYU either addresses this or looses it's accreditation.

Ouch. Don't have any words.


I knew a Sri Lankan girl who kept her boyfriend secret from her family for 4yrs. I don't know what happened to them in the end, but i was under the impression that if they found out it would be him or them. Sucked for her, sucks for you. I'm sorry to hear that.