DUUDE I was checking my bank account, seeing I still don't have a deposit, read a news story about HnR Block customers being affected by some kind of mismanagement. It's probably nothing but we'll never know because ppl in charge of oversight have all been removed from their post.

BUT THEN I REMEMBERED!!! I know someone who HATES SOCIALISM and would absolutely despise the idea of everyone getting money for free. Dude, just message me and you can give me YOUR check.


That is...assuming you actually believe all the things you spout off about socialism, big government, and people getting money for free, and personal responsibility. LOOK MAN, i know you're a principled person, so you're looking to get rid of that money and want to return that check. Instead of that, get in touch with me, I'll eagerly await your reply because I could use the cash right now.

I really hope that you haven't been just shoveling piles of bullshit and are just saying things that you don't actually believe in. WHAT AM I SAYING, OF COURSE YOU WOULDNT JUST SAY ALL THOSE THINGS!!! I know you're a man of action and not just words. You say you hate socialism and people getting free money from big gov, so you'll happily hand it over.

Thanks man, I look forward to your contact about the money that you got that you don't want because you're not A FUCKING HYPOCRITE LYING PIECE OF SHIT WHO WILL TAKE IT WHEN IT'S COMING HIS WAY BUT DOESN'T WANT THE SAME HELP TO GO TO ANYONE ELSE.

Who is this? Bob has never once replied with such decent English or well researched arguments. Makes me think this is a cut and paste except the last line. What's your source? OAN? Breitbart?

$100?! Try millions in donations to his campaign that he's consistently treated like a private piggy bank. Despite his promise to fund his own campaign, he does the opposite and funds himself with his campaign. Pharmaceutical companies stand to make billions if everyone takes it, he knows who butters his bread, and so do we.
Before you say it's not enough money for him to sell out, remember he sold out a career ambassador for $300000 from Russian backed Ukrainians.

Exactly what anti Trump media am I believing? You don't know where my information comes from, do you? It must drive you crazy to not know which reputable source to discount, deride, and denigrate.

97% of all media is ANTI TRUMP? You're not that dumb and must realize this can't be true. Could it be that 97% of all fact is anti Trump because his actions are indefensible? Seems more reasonable and likely.

Trump is pushing it like a cure, and Giuliani was thrown off Twitter for saying it was one that's 100% effective, a pure dangerous lie. Check his portfolio, I bet he's got stocks in it too.
Talk to ex or current military, the biggest customers, they'll tell you they would rather have malaria than take it again. In the private medical world, it's a drug of last resort because of the life altering bad effects (and which are you implying aren't bad with the quotes?). When you're going to die without it, it can't hurt. When you're thinking it's a cure and taking it when you aren't even sick, like many are based on Trump's sales pitch, it definitely will hurt many that might otherwise be fine.

Con man bad.

So, any idea why Putin controlled VTB, a Russian bank, would offer to pay off the massive loans Deutsche bank made to Trump if (when) he defaulted on payments? It seems clear they wouldn't have loaned him a dime without that Russian payment guarantee, no other bank would even consider loaning him anything.

Awaiting your reply with bells on.

I'd laugh if the guy replied, "Why'd you leave Ireland?"

Hey, you know what I think you may have convinced me, I think I might actually vote for a Republican in the upcoming election. I would like you to do us a favor though. I would like you to show the server whether or not you're a Russian. So anything you can do to post a picture of yourself along with your home address in a reply to this comment, it's very important that you do it if that's possible.

Funny you completely ignored the question AND (apparently) tried to reply in a manner that you hoped I wouldn't notice.
To repeat- What makes you think you know what party Mr Rankin is affiliated with?

Exactly what lies am I to keep believing?

When you publicly embrace the (reptile) "man" you blame for your own brother's death, the racist politician who personally blocked your loved one's access to healthcare he earned by valiantly serving his country, at another friends funeral, a friend that same man had disparaged and disrespected on numerous occasions, come back and show me and we'll discuss it. Until then, nice try, but nope....you're clearly just bitterly blaming others for actions you would find insufficiently rude and escalate.

Keep believing your own ridiculous partisan insanity, I'll keep pointing it out.

He was perfectly decent, didn't say a word or make a big deal about it like the whining republicans have. He just quietly moved past him. If Republicans hadn't made a big deal out of it, few would have noticed.

I say McConnell couldn't generate a modicum of decency and was incapable of maintaining his composure over not getting his hand shaken and had to visibly show his displeasure on national television, otherwise no one else would ever have known it happened.

McConnell is undeniably a douche and an architect and example of the problem.

.

Thank you for your reply Harlequinn.

I beg to differ: The rate of gun deaths in the USA is only low when compared to countries that are either active (civil-) war zones or basically run by drug cartels. When compared to other, similar developed countries, it is at least 4 times as high (when excluding suicides/accidents) .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate
I would call that a significant deviation from the norm and stand by my use of "staggering".

You compare gun deaths to deaths from car crashes. Others have already pointed out that one of the main differences is that cars are not tools for killing that are put into public hands and furthermore, since I asked you the question (that you did not answer): "Is the reason for the Second Amendment worth the amount of gun violence in the USA?", my follow up question would be: I can show you the (financial, societal, etc.) benefits of cars (i.e. individual travel by car) for the society, what exactly are the benefits of private gun ownership?
(Whether cars are really worth it, is a whole other discussion.)

Regarding suicide rates, this seems to be a compelling argument until you notice that suicide rates in some, equally developed countries and some lesser developed countries are higher than in the USA and that the number of gun killings that are not suicide is still way higher than in comparable countries (see above).

I do not think that gun violence in the USA can be blamed on mental health issues though <irony>unless you count gun/power fetishism among mental illnesses </irony>.
Edit: Saying that whoever commits an act of gun violence must be mentally ill is tantamount of saying that any criminal must be mentally ill and thus not responsible for his/her actions.

<aside>
One nice observation about this gun fetish (not by me, I think it was Bill Burr): Another common argument pro guns is that people are in it only for home security, if that were the case you would have tons of photos of people with their new door locks or magazine-covers with girls in bikinis in front of security doors.
</aside>

I applaud your stand on public (mental-) health policies though.

Now to your main question:
Have I ever encountered interpersonal violence against me or others?
Yes, but not on a level that bringing lethal force to the situation ever seemed warranted. Thankfully. One obvious reason for that is that I live in a country where I don't need to expect everyone else to carry a gun.
Would it be possible that I would think otherwise, if it would have been the case? Yes.
Would I be correct in thinking that way? No.

To explain: I am not a friend of passive aggressive "stand you ground" thinking. The sane response chain is: 1. Try not to let yourself be provoked, 2. try to de-escalate, 3. try to evade/flee, 4. try to defend yourself.....And of course: CALL THE COPS!

Does that harm my male ego? Yes.
Does that matter enough to me for me to risk killing another human being? No.

The word "militia" comes up time and time again in those founding documents. That the citizens should have access to arms as party of "a well regulated militia."

The modern interpretation of the second amendment has done away with the idea that a citizen ought to be a part of an organized militia to bear arms.

The founders of the US said other things too:

“A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

I imagine that Franklin thought the republic would need defending against other monarchies, not from large corporations who, after centuries of wealth concentration would, with a few lobby organizations like the NRA, become the de-facto unelected rulers of the land.

I can't imagine that Franklin would have expected that children should go to elementary school in fear of being murdered by their classmates either.

But all the Trumpanzee's & Trump still yell at the top of their lungs NO COLLUSION NO OBSTRUCTION.... Did no one hear in the hearing when that Republican Rep or Senator asked "Could the President be charged with obstruction after he leaves office" and Muller replied "Yes" (twice as the GOP guy repeated the question). We have a criminal in the WH and its time the slack jawed Republicans stand up to this POS POTUS...

Within the last year or so, I've noticed more and more that people refer to me as "Boss." Store clerks, waiters, etc. It seems it's happening more and more and it really annoys me.

So now when someone refers to me as "Boss" I reply, "Oh! Spent some time in the joint I hear.

I'll also say the same thing if I hear someone fart.

When Jesus was with His disciples, He healed a blind man and they asked Jesus whether he was blind because of his own sin or his parents sin. Jesus replied that he wasn't blind for his sin or his parents sin, but that the glory of God would be shown through him. This and other examples in scripture show that we don't always know the reason that bad things happen to good people. Job is a classic example of that. Also, if you read the psalms you will see many where the psalmist cries out to God because of wicked people prospering while the righteous were trodden under.

The conclusion of the matter is this: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. God has made a way for every human being to find forgiveness and eternal life through Jesus Christ. We will never know all of the reasons why God does what He does but we will see the final result when God brings every work into judgment, including every secret thing, for good or for evil.

Were you raised in a Christian home? The solution to this problem is that no one is ignorant. That’s what I showed you when I quoted Romans 1:18-21. It teaches that it’s not that you are ignorant of Gods existence, its that you suppress the truth in unrighteousness and thus deceive yourself. You made the comment about the stupidity of the generation of Noahs day rejecting their own mercy, but that is exactly the same thing you are doing by rejecting Jesus Christ.

It’s not about being good enough to come to God. My heart was wretched when God found me but I did respond when He reached out to me. I didn’t respond perfectly but He used it and led me to faith in His Son. If you began to reach out to God He would respond to you in a way you will be able to perceive.

When the bible says God is good, it means He is morally perfect. That is Gods definition of good. No man except one has ever met that definition and therefore is unable to qualify for salvation without an atonement for their sins. The one who met that requirement is the man who never sinned, Jesus Christ.

Well, it’s a fallacy to say that the origin of the message dictates the truth of the message. A good message can be spoken by a bad messenger.

Secondly, it hasn’t been debunked. I know the atheist websites you visit tell you it has been, but it hasn’t. There are good reasons to believe in God that a reasonable person can and should believe .

When I say too difficult, I don’t mean by sheer human effort. Human effort is completely useless in achieving a good result as a Christian. That is why it is found to be too difficult because to come to Christ means taking up your cross and following Him. Yet properly understood it isn’t difficult in the sense that it can’t be done. We can get into a discussion about that in another reply.

You are also using fallacious reasoning to compare Jesus, a historical person, to Xenu, a fever dream of scientology or the flying spaghetti monster. All possibilities are not equal, neither are all Messiahs equally credible. The life of Jesus is a matter of history and not our imaginations. I gave you lines of evidence which you dismiss without even investigating them. Jesus is the prophesied Messiah of the Old Testament. Indeed He is the only possible person who could be the Messiah since He is the only one who fulfilled the 70 weeks of Daniel prophecy which predicted the year of the Messiahs death. Are you interested in talking about that?

When you say you’re a good person, what do you mean by that?

If you honestly believed that, you should be committed and your children put in protective custody because you have no grasp on reality. One of the dumbest things you've claimed, that is, and that's an astronomically high bar.

You believe Alex Jones nonsense ramblings and a consummate fraud and liar over video proof. You're assessment of "fact" is not just suspect, it's nearly always dead wrong.

$15 million MADE so far on investigating Trump's administration' s criminal activities (on top of paying for itself), dozens of guilty pleas and convictions on high crimes against the United States, and 14 more prosecutions ongoing based on the information found.....or to you a cost of $30 million and nada.

The criminal act of collusion? Jesus, Bob, you just wallow in sycophantic ignorance with glee, don't you? You know there's no such thing, it's only been pointed out a few hundred times. You really have to try hard to be this dumb.

You are clinically delusional.

Again, stop private messaging me. I'm not equipped to deal with serious mental disorders, and there's no question you suffer from severe delusions. Cult members always do, and you are a high ranking member of Trumpianity.

-Replying publicly, as I told you I would when I asked you to stop private messaging me.