Draginol

Draginol

Joined Member # 30
341 Posts 251 Replies 2,995 Reputation
Reply to Some thoughts on "gun control" in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]I won't deny minorities are overrepresented in that crimes, but even if you exclude them it is way above those of other industrialized countries, so taking that as explanation is a bit cheap (and won't solve the problem either) as it doesn't explain why the murder rate of non-hispanic whites (3 per 100.000) is two to three times higher than in other industrialized countries. I am not saying that would go down with stricter gun control, the world would be a better place if it was so eas

94 Replies 52,651 Views
Reply to Some thoughts on "gun control" in Politics Stardock Forums

[quote]I noticed you conveniently didn't include the US minority population. After checking the CIA factbook (which seems like the same resource you used), I find that it's Asian 4.43%, Amerindian and Alaska native 0.97%, native Hawaiian and other Pacific islander 0.18%. Which kicks it up to about 5.5% ( link ). So, a little more than the UK, and a lit

94 Replies 52,651 Views
As days go, today was a good day in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Today was a good day. A major book publisher wants to publish my book. That makes me happy. Then, IGN gave our PC game, Sins of a Solar Empire its Best PC Game of 2008 award and Twilight of the Arnor got best expansion pack. And that came on the heels of GameSpy giving those two games its best of the year awards too. We also closed a major new deal with a major PC manufacturer today too on MyColors which is pretty exciting and Dell let us know they're very happy with the way thi

9 Replies 3,834 Views
Reply to Some thoughts on "gun control" in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]When you're talking about guns, calling gun crimes "cherry-picking" is frankly ridiculous. Also, while petty crimes may be lower in the US, murders and other high-violence crimes are lower in the UK or Canada. I don't know about you, but I'd rather have my home broken into and have some guy steal my possessions than be shot at. Canada and the UK also have minorities, and the minority rate is often higher in many places in Canada than the States, so that argument doesn't really

94 Replies 52,651 Views
Reply to Some thoughts on "gun control" in Politics JoeUser Forums

[quote]If we break it down to a per-100,000 rating for regions, which removes the population from the equation, the UK has 1.4 murders per 100,000 people. For comparison, the US has 5.5. Canada has a rate of 1.7. If guns make society safer, why is the USA's murder rate so relatively high? [/quote] My blog was fairly short and yet some people lack the reading comprehension of even that. Which part of: Societies in which citizens have few guns also tend to have more cri

94 Replies 52,651 Views
Reply to Not Yours to Give in Politics Stardock Forums

Actually I think the issue is a little tougher than you imply Maudlin. If a strict constructionist were viewing it, I would say that the federal government had no such power and whether the state had the power or not would depend on its constitution. From the 10th amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Thus, either states can

3 Replies 3,645 Views
Some thoughts on "gun control" in Politics JoeUser Forums

I'm not personally into guns but I am a strong believer in the right for citizens to legally purchase pretty much any type of precision target weapon (i.e. guns). One of the strawman arguments I hear often is "Why not let people have nukes then?" and the reason is that the constitution intended citizens to bear arms -- specifically weapons that have a relatively high degree of precision. Explosives, canons, etc. are not precision weapons. Now before someone gets hung up

94 Replies 52,651 Views
Newsweek sees its circulation dwindle in Politics JoeUser Forums

Newsweek has seen its readership drop dramatically over the past few years. This doesn't surprise me as I used to be a subscriber to Newsweek but it increasingly drifted further and further left to the point where it wasn't just biased but started to feel like reading propaganda. I had been a subscriber for 10 years at the time. Here's an article discussing it. http://www.foliomag.com/2008/ne

11 Replies 5,374 Views
Reply to GUI Championships 2008: Icon Packages in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

[quote]Do you feel a 20% mark down would still gives entrants a fighting chance in this contest with 84 very high level entries?[/quote] Yes as there will be finalists that are XP only I suspect. Quality in other ways clearly matters more in the big picture.

107 Replies 206,651 Views
Reply to GUI Championships 2008: WindowBlinds in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

[quote]If I were judging these skins, my criteria would be totally different from what is presented here, because the way I interact with my computer is way different than those who have judged here. What is being described as "functionality" here, to me, is sterility, boredom, and pointless (why skin at all if making the grade is just a narrow black line where the window frame used to be?) Don't get me wrong, I CAN appreciate a minimalist skin, but my idea of minimalist is just n

90 Replies 179,215 Views
Reply to GUI Championships 2008: WindowBlinds in Personal Computing Stardock Forums

[quote]Brad, posting a screenshot of a bug when all the skins have bugs and no others were pointed out and posted (screenshot) and deducting 2 points from the overall score seems a little harsh to me, however, Your a judge and I'm not going to argue the point.[/quote] There is no bug that I would deduct 2 points for unless it was like black on black on all windows or something. At most, something like that might result in a tiny fragment of a point. The overall score I gav

90 Replies 179,215 Views