07-07-2016, 01:33 PM
(07-07-2016, 11:57 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: Gun control is not prohibition, and gun control advocates are not advocating prohibition of civilian guns.
Well, I don't think you are Noah Webster, nor an official representative of the Dictionary Police. If you are advocating that possession and use of something be prohibited by the government, you are by definition advocating a prohibition. The root word is the same. More important, there are practical implementation problems with prohibitions. These shouldn't be ignored or glossed over. In general, the prohibition of mind altering substances has resulted in massive and often violent criminal behavior that the government struggles to keep in check. I have no reason to expect anything different if other things are prohibited.
(07-07-2016, 11:57 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I admit I made a typo and at first wrote gin control (u is next to i on the qwerty keyboard). You can chuckle at that and think what you want about it
The sort of gin control that implies one shouldn't have more than a few glasses I can sympathize with. The sort of gin control attempted in the 1930s? Not so much.
(07-07-2016, 11:57 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: It often seems like you talk from both sides. I may seem uncivil and partisan to some like you and Taramarie because I am clear about things in my own mind, and say so, but I prefer it that way for myself. I just try to explain the truth as I see it the best I can, and learn from others who know things that I don't know, even if I don't agree to their worldview or ideology. And my passions come through too at times, because there's lots to be passionate about (to paraphrase Mrs. Thatcher).
I see reviewing and respecting both sides of a question to be a feature rather than a bug. I guess if I followed up on that, I'd have to review and respect partisan thinking as well. There are times when it is appropriate to go partisan, when the other guy is wrong and dangerously wrong. My father's generation was quite partisan in their attitudes about Hitler, for example. Even then, it doesn't hurt to understand how and why he managed to gather a following. Even if one can in no way tolerate a particular set of values, it is prudent to understand them.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.