It’s just so military-brain to immediately assume they’d be here to nuke us. Says so much about us.

I’ll bet good money not one of the guys behind this has the stones to teleport a genetically-modified giant squid version of a psychic’s brain into New York to create a perceived threat against all of mankind, therefore uniting humanity at last.  Not one of ‘em.

I feel required to point out that we are commenting on an article about Italy, not the US. This is a MUCH broader discussion than just America, despite the general tendency to think that everything is about America.

I know we laugh about “economic anxiety”, but the fact is that as inequality continues to skyrocket, more people feel insecure and fearful. And the easy target always has been, and always will be, anyone who looks or behaves differently.

The problem is that these policies, though awful, are also awfully popular. Maybe not in our liberal bubbles but with the rest of the ignorant masses and the right wing assholes for sure. Foreigners and migrants are a very convenient scapegoat for politicians, even more so in the current climate where you’re seeing a…

I have absolutely no problem with his public shaming, because fuck this guy.

However, shame is honestly one of the worst motivators i can think of. Not necessarily because it doesn’t change people’s behavior, but rather because of the way it changes people’s behavior. Just about no one has ever been shamed into…

I think you’re right!

You mean Weapon of Choice, Fatboy Slim? :D

Hands down my favorite part of any RPG campaign, computer or table-top, is at the very beginning when you get to trade 1d4 blows with iron weapons against goblins, kobolds, and other assorted creatures. #Goblins4Life!

dekotora doe

I meant “it can’t be done” from a gun-control opponent’s POV in terms of implementation of policy—that no country exists where gun ownership has been curtailed, which simply isn’t true. I recognize (having lived in the US for 3 decades) that it’s ap olitical impossibility in the US.

Guns are not banned in Japan, merely extremely strictly controlled. There are plenty of people who make a living hunting for food in Japan, or hunt recreationally. My grandfather had a gun license and would go duck hunting.

As a Japanese immigrant to the US, I’m baffled by American opposition to gun control. Or even the very idea that there is a significant number of people that could possibly think that an armed society with easy access to guns could be safer than an unarmed one.

Coming from a country (Japan) where the good guys (the police) have .22s which they almost never use, the bad guys have knives or clubs at most, where the murder rate is 1/10th that of the US, where mass murders are incredibly rare and mass shooting literally never happen, where a single police shooting is noteworthy…

Which is another fine argument for better gun control. Another aspect of America that seems pretty crazy from Japanese eyes. Speaking as a Japanese person.

The prevalence of this attitude is what makes the American police terrifying. The US is virtually unique among developed countries in it’s willingness to allow the police to gun down their own citizens. 

As someone who lived in Rome for a few months, this is one of the most Roman stories I’ve heard in a while and it’s cracking me up.

So, I am off-the-boat Italian, and we used to go to the Trentino to get trees to sell at Christmas for a fundraiser for our orchestra. I’ve seen some manky trees in my time, but wow, that is really something else.