Merv's Politically Incorrect Audio Blog

Discussion in 'SBAF Blogs' started by purr1n, Dec 26, 2018.

  1. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    There's another huge hole in my knowledge of the world: I had some vague idea that the point of Taiwan was to escape Chinese oppression.

    But I didn't know much about Asia at all until I came to live here. And my knowledges is slowly extending from the Southern tip of India upwards. Painfully slowly.

    And, by the way, my standpoint on my previous post is that, from the Southern end of this country of 1.6 billion people, and considering that China has even more, "Europe," even though I'm a born-and-bred Brit, has lost a lot of its significance for me.
     
  2. mitochondrium

    mitochondrium Friend

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    I have lived in four different European countries, I think I have an inkling about how Europeans feel about certain things.
    I have no clue how people from other corners of the world feel about certain things gun ownership in particular.
    Having lived in four different European countries and pretty much enjoyed the different cultures I feel more European than anything else.
     
  3. E_Schaaf

    E_Schaaf MOT: E.T.A Headphones

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    To piggyback on what @GTABeancounter was saying -

    Legislation only ever has and only ever will follow profit motives for the owning class. What the masses want (or how they feel) is completely irrelevant. Voting doesn't work in a thinly-veiled one-party system. Even most of the so-called "left" is closer to center-right.

    Gun control is less profitable than gun sales (especially considering we provide arms to a large portion of overseas military and militia operations - we are in fact the world's largest exporter of firearms). Prohibition of drugs and the halting of novel treatments is profitable to pharmaceutical and insurance companies, big tobacco, and manufacturers of alcoholic beverages. Mass incarceration is very profitable for privately owned prisons. Alternative energy sources are less profitable than oil given the frameworks, technologies, and consumer markets that already exist. Those who hold power and influence will do everything they possibly can (even at the expense of the masses) to continue to do so. Patent laws have extended well beyond their original reach and directly stifle progress from being made in a wide array of industries.

    The free market only exists to those who have the privilege of owning massive amounts of capital. Profit over human lives is the American way. The prison-industrial and military-industrial complexes are real and extend from the same basic economic principles. Maybe those principles worked for the class of elites in the 1800s but they sure as shit aren't working now.

    The only solace is through the organization of the masses on a national or global scale, who can leverage their collective resources against the corporate entities that hold them hostage. This is literally the only way positive changes have been made (think labor laws, constitutional amendments, etc). Bootlickers have stockholm syndrome and are hurdles to progress.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2019
  4. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    Taiwanese history is complex and different depending upon your point of view. Both sides of my family came from the rural south. I associate my more aggressive and warlike tendencies to either the indigenous headhunters (the Christian missionaries taught us shrinking heads of enemies and wearing them around our necks was bad) and dutch colonizers.

    I have cousins that look more like the Boba Fett actor than Chinese; and I have red, blond, and salt and pepper hair, particularly if I grow it out. My kids started to notice this and they were freaked out at first. My family is considered ethnically Han Chinese, despite having mixed blood. Both my grandfathers didn't quite look totally Asian. My father looks very Chinese though with light skin. You know how genetics go.

    The KMT Nationalist Party (lead by CKS - Chaing Kai-Shek) retreated to Taiwan after they lost to the Commies shortly after WWII. At first, they were welcomed since Taiwan had been a Japanese colony for 50 years and these KMT guys, at least they were ethnically Chinese. And before that Dutch and Portuguese colonies with periods of independence. Nominally, Taiwan was part of China, but China under the Qing dynasty was weak and useless, therefore Taiwan was mostly self-governed. A lot of Taiwanese folks songs are said to be sad because we were under the shackles of someone else.

    Well, it turned out that CKS was a piece of shit mobster dictator along the lines of Mussolini. There was a local uprising against the KMT, but it was harshly put down. This was known as the 2-28 incident, a rallying cry of the democracy activists of my parent's generation. The locals didn't have enough guns or any guns for that matter. And oh here is a photo of CKS. A real piece of shit huh? With the 6-star generalississmo thing and big ass medals. Even the US Congress thought he was a piece of shit despite him sending his wife on a charm offensive to get more money from the USA. Congress wasn't dumb and figured he would just embezzle the money rather than use it to actually fight Commies.

    [​IMG]

    So from '49 to '87, the KMT instituted martial law. It was a minority rule, CKS, and his KMT goons, secret police. They even spoke a different dialect Mandarin. The ethnic Han Chinese who had been on Taiwan before them came from Fujian province and spoke a Min dialect, or what should really be termed the Taiwanese dialect. As with minority rule, you can only hold on to rule so long, especially if you are a corrupt gangster and rule unjustly. Over time, the KMT's power waned, and thus martial law was lifted in 1987. Of course, this was advertised as a benevolent action by the KMT.

    That was ancient history and times have changed. It's not like in the 80s where I knew Taiwanese dads who forbade their daughters from dating sons of KMT families. I think in one case, the dad threatened to shoot the dude's dick off. Today there are two major political parties. The KMT which has a stronghold in the north, and the DPP in the south. Southern Taiwanese still speak Taiwanese at home or in informal situations. The Taiwanese language seems all but gone up north in Taipei.

    Despite the colonization by Japan, Taiwanese admire Japanese people and culture. I think it's because the KMT was so bad, so corrupt, that in contrast, the Japanese looked awesome. The Japanese developed a lot of infrastructure in Taiwan starting from the 30s. I think they decided at some point that Taiwanese were suitable for Japanization. My grandmother called the KMT lice-infested dogs. She also said the Japanese were harsh motherfuckers, but fair and not corrupt. To this day mainlanders cannot understand why many Taiwanese like Japan more than Red China, and often use the retort of "Japanese sympathizer" to refer to Taiwanese who advocate formal independence from China.

    The United Nations is a piece of shit organization for not recognizing Taiwan for what it effectively is, an independent country. It's should be a huge embarrassment to the UN that Taiwan needs to compete under "Chinese Taipei" at the Olympics.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2019
  5. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    BTW, I figured that I should mention Taiwanese attitudes about guns. While guns are legal, few people (at least in the cities) actually own them. There's a huge big big big stigma about killing people. The attitude is like if a robber comes into your house, just let him take all the shit instead of killing him. Just minimize trouble. Only take someone else's life as an absolute last resort. The ideas of consequences, karma, an action begetting another action, minimizing trouble, "it's not worth it" is deeply embedded in the Taiwanese mindset.

    The funny thing is that I totally understand both the Taiwanese and American mindsets!
     
  6. winders

    winders boomer

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    Step away from the Marxist propaganda....
     
  7. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    @purr1n

    Wow, truly great history lesson. Many thanks for taking the time to tell. That certainly is quite some uniform!

    I only knowingly know one Taiwanese person in the flesh. A woman who came on holiday here from UK, with her British husband. We still keep in touch, but, apart from her protestations that Taiwan has a much better climate than Britain (doesn't everywhere?), we mostly talk about cats.
     
  8. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    My question was facetious. I expect the government to do nothing. Pharma will do nothing because maintenance therapy works and R&D to find a cure would be unprofitable. Still not enough people seriously affected. We are only talking about a few hundred a year.

    I am hardly sore as I expect life to have at least some level of suffering and I'm too stubborn and proud to ask others to solve my incurable disease.

    I prefer to label climate change as overpopulation. Climate change implies that silly solutions like solar panels, electric cars, locally grown veggies, and no nookyoolar power will actually fix the problem. What the term climate change does is market the problem into easily digestable packages, like those ads on TV selling lap bands or workout gear. All LED lights in my house ever did was ensure that we would be lazier and not turn off lights.

    Overpopulation stresses how we are totally fucked unless we take radical measures to lower the human footprint on the planet. Logan's Run is the only solution to combatting climate change. But that is too scary. Why work out by running hard around the block when buying a gym membership and not going to the gym is easier.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2019
  9. Syzygy

    Syzygy Friend

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    The "dislike of governments" from the original emigrants was mostly because of religious persecution by the government. They were seeking freedom to worship as they desired without interference from the state.

    I don't think that's right; most estimates I've heard is ~70 million guns in the US, with a population of ~330 million. According to the FBI, there have been ~320 million NICS checks since the late 90's, but that doesn't equate to gun sales.

    From 2 days ago: a reporter attempted to buy a gun in a Walmart, having never tried before. She didn't anything about the requirements beforehand.

    ---

    Thanks for the lesson on Taiwanese history; that's an area of the world where I'm lacking in knowledge, and sadly won't have time anytime soon to fix that.

    There was/is a law (perhaps still "on the books") in some original colony (Virginia or North Carolina I think), requiring all able-bodied men of 15 years old to own and be proficient with a rifle, in order to defend in case of incursion after the revolutionary war with Britain.

    I'd think with a fear of Chinese incursion that they'd at least do what Switzerland does, and ensure everyone able is trained with firearms at the very least (perhaps even mandatory military service). Maybe the culture wouldn't stand for that, and they're doomed to suffer when China decides they want that island. I sincerely hope not.

    ---

    Edit: I'm not saying the 70 million guns figure is correct; but I've heard that from a few different sources, and never the "more than the US population" assertion. Nobody can know the real number for sure.
     
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2019
  10. dmckean44

    dmckean44 In a Sherwood S6040CP relationship

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    I'm sure it's pretty close, for every person that gets denied there's another person that bought two or three guns on the same transaction. I
     
  11. GTABeancounter

    GTABeancounter Friend

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  12. Syzygy

    Syzygy Friend

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    The problem with Wikipedia is, well, it's wikipedia. Anybody can change anything anytime, and it's not exactly known for being accurate, at least when it comes to politicised matters.

    Another complication in estimating is that the NICS check isn't required for CHL holders (at least in Texas, I dunno about other states), although the completed paperwork has to be kept on file by the dealer. So it's really impossible to tell. It could be a lot more or a lot less. And I don't know if some reports are trying to estimate handguns vs. all guns.

    However, thinking about the fact that there are that many guns around in America, you'd actually think there'd be more violent firearm incidents. With that abundance of firearms, the number of attacks is really small (excepting gang-style violence). According to FBI data, there were about 11k firearm-related deaths in the US in 2017 (latest available, 7k+ handguns); according to the NSC there were about 40k vehicle-related deaths in the US, with about 272 million registered vehicles.

    The single shooter attacking a bunch of folks gets all the news these days; news organisations choose not to talk about the 15-30 murders each weekend in Chicago alone…an American city with some of the strictest gun-control laws.

    Ten or so years ago we'd hear about "a {insert vehicle name} struck and killed a person…" on the news; now we don't hear those as much. The media are focussed on what they want to report and framing the story in the way they want people to perceive it. (how does it make sense that an inanimate object struck and killed anything?)
     
  13. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    I was traveling through Taipei last year. One day there was a mandatory air raid drill mid day from 1PM - 2PM. Everyone had to get underground or go inside for an hour. I happened to be underground in the main train/metro/subway station in Taipei in a mall area there. Power was intentionally cut as far as I could see.

    Either right before or right after this happened (can't remember), I was in Singapore when Trump and Kim Jong Un first met to discuss nuclear matters (or whatever). Security was heightened during this time (obviously).

    I was then in Hong Kong about 2 weeks after Taipei. One of the stops was a local history museum / display. It talked about how quickly it was overrun by Japan during WW2 (British administration before/after).

    All of this made me realize something - Small countries are by nature kind of screwed during an invasion. Especially by a larger country with either more people or a lot more firepower. China could just fly planes over Taiwan and bomb all the cities into smithereens if it chose to do so one day. Or overrun the small island of <25M with a small fraction of it's 1.5B+ people. For reference, just Shanghai is 25M+ (biggest city). That doesn't include surrounding/outsides areas.... and China has a lot of big cities. Some terrorist could probably smuggle a nuke or dirty bomb into Singapore in one of the one bajillion shipping containers that go through the city (they aren't as hard to make for educated physicists / scientists as the general populace imagines). The city is small enough from end to end that it'd be all gone. Same for Hong Kong. It also made me question what the right means of self defense, if even possible, would be in cases like this? If we really believe in liberty and freedom from tyranny, what need tools need to be invented to defend against this - unfortunately I can't think of any right now.

    I won't share more of my personal opinions, conclusions, etc. from the above, but let's just say it was pretty good food for thought exercise that with America being so big and populated by default, I had never really thought of.

    Disclaimer: I do not want to see China invade any of the above and I'm not implying that China will. [[Rest redacted given how often I do have to travel to China. Was not bashing of any kind though.]]
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2019
  14. elmoe

    elmoe Friend

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    The problem with this Fox and Friends argument is twofold:

    1) Chicago is surrounded by states where getting a gun is easy which is going to make the strict gun control laws moot.

    2) Chicago is FAR from being the worst in terms of gun deaths. If you look at government/FBI numbers and not Fox News statistics, the southern states have a far higher firearm related deaths rate than states where the laws are more strict. It's too easy to use Chicago or Baltimore as an example to prove a pro-gun point without mentioning that Louisiana has about triple the gun deaths rate than the national average, sort the table on the CDC website by death rate and you'll see that the states with the most gun deaths are coincidentally also the ones with the most pro-gun views and least restrictive laws, with a few rare exceptions:

    https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/firearm_mortality/firearm.htm
     
  15. Syzygy

    Syzygy Friend

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    Haha, I don't watch any television news. So whether or not Fox & Friends says something similar, I wouldn't know. (Aside: who still pays the exorbitant prices for cable/satellite TV in CONUS?)

    Keeping with the FBI data it seems pretty even in the south & midwest, with slightly lower rates in the east & west regions. Here's the main FBI crime stats page for jumping into the mound of data.

    ---

    I'm just trying to provide some information that others may not have had access to. In forming an opinion on a matter, I think it's best to have multiple viewpoints to consider; the media have really only reported from a single viewpoint, and choose to omit or ignore facts that don't align with it.

    Figure out your own opinion…it's not my job to convince anyone to have a particular point of view. But please get informed as much as possible as you do, be willing to change your mind if new information comes to light, and don't let your heart eat your brain.

    Senseless death is always tragic, regardless of the mechanisms used to carry it out. Sadly, since Cain killed his brother there have always been people that choose to do bad things.
     
  16. elmoe

    elmoe Friend

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    I don't think you're reading the FBI data correctly here. What it's showing you is the % of which type of weapon is used, not the % of deaths by firearm in comparison with other regions. All the above link shows you is that firearms deaths make up roughly the same % of that weapon type deaths across all regions, not that the number of deaths are roughly the same across all regions. It's basically saying "Across all murders for that region, guns make up X% of the weapon used", in this case, guns roughly make up 73% of the type of weapon used across all murders nationwide.

    I agree with you that having multiple viewpoints is important, but so is looking at the big picture and interpreting the data you find correctly.

    Here is the gun murders table by state and type of weapon for 2015 which is the latest year the FBI has compiled the data for, it correlates the CDC data I previously shared pretty closely:

    https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2015/crime-in-the-u.s.-2015/tables/table-20
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2019
  17. purr1n

    purr1n Desire for betterer is endless.

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    I have plans drawn out for a BiB for the small Fostexes. It's another variation of the BLH type approach. Except much easier construction. Just not enough time. Downside is height. Upside is little real estate.
     
  18. penguins

    penguins Friend, formerly known as fp627

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    If there is interest from SBAF and purrin thinks it appropriate, could I offer my own viewpoints on all this? I don't agree or disagree with purrin necessarily (just have different perspectives), I don't care for either the KMT or DPP, and I have been to Taiwan less than 5 times in my life. However, I have asked family, friends, and others on both sides about the topic before and have found the topic quite insightful, especially in what the US or other nations could actually learn from the history (as IMO what is happening in Taiwan is almost a perfect microcosm of whats going on in the US).

    Also @elmoe to answer your previous question - I wasn't quoting a particular incident but all of the points mentioned in my posts here were more rhetorical questions. But I generally go by FBI statistics as they compile for crime that happens across the US. Also not directed at you alone elmoe, but I also see that no one has addressed the rhetorical issues I or others have brought up saying why we don't think gun control is practical or will solve anything and that it will probably have worse unintended consequences than no control (ex trucks used for terrorism in Europe... and killing more people than guns did for that matter ... or I'll say that NZ shooter even said truck is better but let's use guns to cause political controversy).
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2019
  19. JustAnotherRando

    JustAnotherRando My other bike is a Ferrari

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    This is only a reply to a very small part of your post, and kind of a digression, but it's worth pointing out that a primary reason for why HK was overrun so quickly was because the British had decided not to defend the territory, and pulled back (I believe to Singapore). Only a token and very much sacrificial Allied force was left behind.

    WWII reminders are surprisingly common here. If you go hiking, you can very easily stumble across old war tunnels and outdoor kitchen areas (built with the assumption that the population would be fleeing into the hillsides, I don't think they were ever used).
     
  20. Thad E Ginathom

    Thad E Ginathom Friend

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    The defence of which, apparently, they not only did half-heartedly, but totally screwed up. Like The Japanese will never come in through the front door, so we won't bother to lock it. Oh look: the Japanese are coming in through the front door.

    I'm lousy at history, and read this in a novel, so I'm trusting the author's research.

    OK, so they did have a lot to think about at the time, but throwing away their Asian commercial hubs? Crazy.
     

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