I think you're wrong about the root cause, but you'll continue to follow the same themes and nothing will get done.
Do you have or need an assault rifle? If not, why do you continue to support what's tragically killing these people. How about more money to mental health. What about the Republicans blocking legislation stopping people on the no fly list being able to get guns just recently. Nothing gets fixed. We just move on to the next tragedy which is a sure sign of stupidity as individuals and as a nation.

Tragic.
I kept thinking that this looked like the view of a 'fire change denier' - sort of like a climate change denier, except for us - it is the whole environment - and we can't move.
I guess we are the fish.
:-(

I'd propose the overall end result isn't so bad. The kid stayed safe, the victim's home wasn't robbed, the bad guy got shot but sounds the injury was non life threatening. Now, the odds of that whole situation ending like it did versus something more tragic is pretty remote and an awful lot of bad things all came together and good fortune somehow still prevailed.

@MilkmanDan I remain unconvinced that it's even 0.00001% anyone's fault but the tailgater. If they smashed into someone after driving unsafely, that's still their fault. I don't know about brake check laws, but i was under the impression that you are allowed to brake if you think there is a need to, and who can say why they felt the need to? Anything can happen - are we assuming here? Perhaps we should not assume things when driving except that people will behave within the law. Any assumption beyond that means you're not driving safely (in my opinion).

@SDGundamX I think it's tragic and dangerous that you have to take into consideration being shot at when you make driving decisions. Does that now mean we have to drive dangerously at certain times in order to avoid being shot?

Especially tragic for ol' Trebeck, eh?

I find cenk and his crew difficult to listen to, but I watched long enough to listen to the actual 'meat' of their discussion (the first 20 seconds of video). They stated that the judge threw it out because the kid was unable to describe in detail what had happened. They then went on to describe how a kid that young might have a hard time testifying, and for the rest of the 12 minutes of video (I assume) added as much knowledge to the matter as any other group of people sitting around drinking beer.

IF cenk and his crew, the judge, the lawyers, or anybody in that courtroom had taken introductory level psychology in college (and I think they must have!), they would know that kids are the most unreliable witnesses possible. Their testimony should absolutely not be used as credible, because they will say whatever nonsense. For whatever deficiency anyone's college had in basic human psychology, if anyone had the computer skills to go to WIKIPEDIA, all of this could have been avoided: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyewitness_memory_(child_testimony).

With all the access people have to knowledge these days, the most tragic part is that nobody involved in this thought to actually verify their laymen ideas. The critical thinking skills displayed here is in high disproportion to the level of education.

John Cleese is hardly new to this. When he and the python troop made Life of Brian, more than 35 years ago, church leaders tried hard , and in many locations succeeded in getting it banned.

Back then he did the circuits talking with religious leaders defending that he had the right to still say something even if they disagreed with it. It's worth noting, much of his support came from within Academia were young students were eager to push back against the religious leaders controlling what people should and shouldn't say in a film.

Fast forward 35 years to today, and now a new batch of young students from Academia are making the exact same fight against what should and should not be said. Professors and administrators who don't get on board are getting fired. Students who don't get on board are being expelled.

Where the religious leaders used to try and shut down criticism of their views on religion, abortion, sexual identity and other subjects, today it is SJWs trying to shut down criticism of their views on religion, abortion, sexual identity and other subjects.

Cleese is at least being even handed with calling actions out on both ends of spectrum regardless were he sits on it. It's tragic that the notion of critical thought and argument is done better by comedians than supposed leaders of thought both 35 years ago and still today.

@Drachen_Jager

thats a pretty piss poor analogy.
while i can agree (and did in my original comment) that the militia is,by definition,engaging in terrorism.

i cannot agree to killing these men.

and to compare them to ISIS is a bit of a stretch.

1.they are american citizens.they are sovereign.ISIS are not.
2.while there has been an occupation of land,there has been no evidence of violence nor brutality.ISIS is notoriously brutal and violent.
3.while violence may be implied.they have consistently called this a protest against government over-reach and do not seek a violent resolution.ISIS not only threatens violence but engages on a daily basis.
4.when we consider incidents such as waco or ruby ridge,where there WAS government over-reach with tragic results.the federal governments tactics of standing down makes sense,and is fairly non-controversial and prudent.these nimrods are about to be run out of town by the very community they are proposing to be standing up for.

so how would YOU propose to deal with the situation in oregon?

I think the world deserves Donal Trump as PotUS. That would be a tough but important lesson. And comedy gold. Tragic, tragic comedy gold. Comedy blood diamonds.

ive never been to the middle east, but for various reasons had friends from several different countries in and around the area. i think the answer is simple: muslims, like christians, jews, mormons are not all alike (ok not sure about the mormons!), and even if you have a st augustine or a ghazali saying thats how it should be there will always be those who disagree, vocally or quiet like. Hes right that the culture changed, and he's right that its tragic that arab scientists are basically the butt of a joke, but i think its difficult to ommit that the peak of arab science also coincided with a peak in their power and resources. How many african nobel prizes are there in that period? or from indigenous peoples? Im not saying they are stupid, just that its difficult to get an award for cutting edge top notch science when you are at a serious deficit in resources.

It's a shame Affleck didn't let the guy speak. This is something that needs to be talked about. That doesn't make anyone racist, and any right thinking Muslim would agree with that because we are ALL at risk.

However. There is currently the largest episode of human migration in history. The west is responsible for this with their destabilising campaigns in the middle east. Those places are breeding grounds for terrorism. Personal loss to the point of numbness towards violence and death, hunger, insecurity, fear, uncertainty... these things play directly into the hands of evil people looking to manipulate people to do their dirty deeds for them.

Our actions have led to this worldwide humanitarian crisis which has made us far more unsafe than before we began our poorly planned excursions into the region based on a knee-jerk, eye-for-an-eye reaction to a small number of individual thugs tragically murdering thousands of people. And haven't we just played into the hands of the extremists...

The indiscriminate bombing has to stop. This only ends diplomatically, but we are already at it again in Syria dropping bombs with no clear long term plan. We are fueling an already out of control humanitarian crisis and doing exactly what the terrorists need us to do for them to thrive.

1. Of course the authorities should investigate, but we also expect media to critically investigate what they report. They don't always do a decent job of it, but neither do the authorities. By reporting publicly, media helps provide transparency on both the events they report on and on what the authorities are doing / not doing. Naturally it's problematic when this becomes a business model, rewarding tragic scoops, but that's hard to avoid without state-run media.

2. Publishing the names of victims and perpetrators is a dicy media concern regardless of whether somebody sees it as a 'reward' or not. At some point you draw the line and set policy, and then it's unethical to go back across the line just because a specific perpetrator gets off on hearing his name mentioned. You set your policy as a means to serve the public as well as possible, not as a means of rewarding or punishing bad guys.

3. Regardless of whether they mention his name or not, the tragedy is that I don't remember his name. Not because he deserves to be remembered or not, but because this happens so frequently that the names blur. There's no way I'll remember his name, or Dylann Roof's, or Vesper Flanagan's, this time next year - it'll just blur into 'all the shootings that happen all the time'.

I hope there is something to help. This situation is incredibly devastating and so very tragic.

Congratulations. You've managed to capture the entire diversity of the US by visiting several times and not get shot or had a gun pointed at you. This is like forming an opinion about whether sharks will bite humans after you've laid on the beach once or twice and have never been bitten. Searching for some relevance here... and ... nope, none.

Agreed, if your gun is in a traditional safe, it's not much good when the burglars or home invasion psychos kick in your front door at 2 a.m. Jim Jeffries is indeed a funny guy, but like many who don't understand what "for protection" means to some homeowners here in the US, you might want to cite a bit more credible source or at least educate yourself.

Thanks to biometric safes and locking devices, it is quite easy to have a secured gun in a safe at arms reach, accessible to only one person, that can be unsecured, ready to fire in about 4 seconds. I know this to be true, because I have such a setup, and we practice what to do when the home alarm goes off just like we practice fire drills.

The distressing part is I absolutely hate having to be in such a situation. I'm no cowboy and this isn't the wild west, but when families around me are having their doors kicked in in the middle of the night by armed thugs, or having one or two fuckheads follow them up the driveway for an easy push-in robbery accompanied by beatings, shootings, molestation and sometimes killing, I decided that there would be no way I could live with myself if something tragic ever happened to my family at the hands of these nut jobs, knowing I might have been able to do something to stop it. And no, one can't relay on the local police to take care of these crimes. Around here, even with a top notch alarm system in the house that goes directly to dispatch, the cops usually arrive to clean up the blood and take statements, and almost never in time to stop the crime or catch the criminals.

Do you have house, car, fire or life insurance? Sure, but you hope you'll never have to use it. So, what's so unbelievable about a gun for protection? What do you suggest? You appear to think it's silly to state it's for protection... so does one simply relying on hope, faith or good luck in never having to witness your wife or child being duct taped to a chair while criminals rummage through your house, or having their head kicked in or bloodied on the end of a baseball bat?

Just a suggestions, but try to spend some time as an actual resident in a country before you pretend to understand it, consider yourself fortunate that you don't live in such a situation, and for fucks sake stop with the snide, morally superior judgement of those who do. If you can muster that, on a guess that you might be from NZ but really don't know, I'll stop telling everyone that Kiwi's really do fuck sheep, especially on National Lamb Day when it's a competition rather than just a hobby.

Have fun.