Glen Falting

Isn't the "Right to have a gun" in the consititution.....? - now that is a loaded question! There was a long thread about this stuff a while back. Pretty much thrashed the issue. How about guns in Japan? How difficult/easy are they to get here? I've seen a couple of stores that sell imitation guns (at least I assumed they were) and all sorts of BB guns, but not much else. Can your average mullet wearin', pick-up drivin', inaka livin' good ol' boy get his hands on a gun to protect his dog'n'stuff?

"rhetorical eyewash." - I'm sorry, but I don't actually know what this is. Is it a good thing? As hard as they are, here are a couple of facts; Iraq is better off without Saddam, the middle east is better off without Saddam and so are the Iraqi people. It is a pity we had to be fed a whole lot of crap from the US/UK and even Aust before the US felt it could justify an attack on Iraq and despite its cynical self serving motives, Iraq and its people are better for it. It is very unfortunate that civilians died, but that is reality, nothing else was going to remove Saddam. I suppos

"colonial" invaders, that's a bit harsh, tyranical imperialists maybe, but "colonial? never! But seriously, none of the occupants had to fight back, they did and they died. They paid their money and they took their chances. To pick up an earlier theme on this thread, when does the use of force become justified? Or to put it another way, how many people have to die before those who are able, are morally forced to act and yes, if need be, risk the lives of innocents in removing a greater threat?

Hey Weegeoff, if the kid was shooting at the soldiers (which he apparantly was and I appreciate we may only have one side of the story), then he was a combatant and deserved the consquences.

AET - how about, this for a time line - they are told saddam is at a house, they jump in their cars and race to the house, arrive at the house, jump out and shoot everybody except one person, they ask the sole survivor where saddam is, he tells them saddam left yesterday morning.

Australia's very own tree sloth - 20 hours a day a sleep. Still nothing like your average salaryman on public transport!

How about Al Jazeera?

Agreed, if the UN worked, it would be the best option. Unfortunately it doesn't seem that any member is willinging to allow such a body to over ride its own sovereinty even for the greater global good. All countries use whatever power they have for their own interests, look at Japan and its willingness to buy the votes of the smaller members of the International Whaling Commission (is that its name?) or the way the PRC has acted to ensure that Taiwan will eventually lose the substancial international contacts and recognition it once enjoyed and thereby undermining its ability to claim inder

Ocean, unless you're suggesting that the use of force can never be justified, all we are disagreeing on are the circumstances in which it can be employed. Jared, the fall of an empire is generally a pretty messy event, not to mention the power vaccuum that it creates. Who would you prefer to be calling the shots, an ineffective UN perhaps, the PRC, the French, the Japanese?

Jared, the removal of saddam's regime is a good thing, how it was brought about by the US is probably not a good thing. It is hard to credit the degree of misinformation and cynical manipulation that was involved. Remember that movie "wag the dog"? It would be funny if it wasn't so serious. I reckon the world would probably be a better place if the global community was a little more willing to step in and remove corrupt and criminal regimes. most of Africa would be on the list and a couple of places in Asia as well.

I agree, it is very easy to say that the price paid in peoples' lives is worth when you're not the one being killed. I wasn't suggesting otherwise. But does that mean, no action should be taken? Does it mean that for the sake of our sensitivities, we should let more peope be killed and tortured? Not taking any action would have simply perpetuated further tragic deaths. There are all sorts of issues surrounding the US invasion of Iraq and this isn't the place to discuss them. I'm only saying that sometimes, the cost of innocent lives are worth it and on balance, Iraq and the destruction of

I wonder if the fear of retaliation in kind discourages them. Otherwise it would be a perfect solution to a couple of problems in our part of the world as well.

...and another thing, the extra-judicial actiivities of the US Gov (which is actually more of a concern) is a different matter altogether from the killing, in a firefight of those two animals.

Kamo - you're spot on. Evil does exist and sometimes it takes the shape of a human. Isn't there a saying, that "for evil to prosper, good people need to nothing"? How many people died removing Saddam? How many poeple died in the weeks, months or years before he was removed? The world is full of examples of people losing their lives for a greater good, even where they don't have a choice and maybe quite innocent. Yes it is tragic that innocent people died in the destruction of Saddam's regime, but it was a small price to pay.

sounds a bit like the star wars saga. is the ringu 2 movie the second part or a re-hash of part 1 in an effort to cash in on its success?

Quote: . I suspect that these considerations may even result in slower investigations before the arrest is made. How is that Ocean?

...and before the mini-series it was a musical on Broadway. But it had to close after a couple of weeks. Nobody wanted to see it because it was too scary. Barok, seriously, you honestly didn't find The Ring scary? All those freaky images on the video and that spooky bitch doing her TV trick - that didn't freak you out?

Kamo, I don't reckon there really is an answer on how society deals with this kind of crime committed by young kids. Its nothing short of tragic, but ultimately there has to be some sort of leniency for children. That's not to say they should be absolved of all responsibility, but a 12 yr old can never rightly be held accountable to the same degree as an adult. At the risk of being a little dramatic, the full weight of society's anger and vengence shouldn't ever be directed against a child and even against adults it should only be applied in the most serious of cases.

On behalf of the lurking members here - congratulations everyone for such a great thread. Things were getting a little boring around here.

better yet, arrange to meet your gf at the station and then follow her from a discrete distance. you get to make sure she stays safe, and if you're lucky, the guy might try something again in which case you will be on hand to demonstrate to him in a culturally sensitive way why sickos like him have such a short life expectancy.

maybe it depends on which one you see first as the two are in many places word for word the same, so if you've seen one, you pretty much know what is going to happen in the other - although there are a couple of differences. i reckon the actual video in the english version is a little more disturbing than the japanese one - so its marginally more unsettling than the japanese version. still, both freaked me out. anything ghosty gives me the heebie geebies. a japanese friend of mine read the book. after she had finished it she threw is a way. she was so frightend by it that she couldn't

Thanks Ender - there's nothing quite like a bit of snow porn to help pass the time.

mogski, its all part of the service when you fly first class with qantas. didn't you know?

Malaysia or Singapore (mmm, those uniforms...) when flying any great distance and Northwest when its a short hop and we're trying to save money. Although the Singapore girl angle is all very pleasent, if things start going wrong, maybe someone who at least has the strength to open the cabin door in a hurry might be prefereable. Last year I booked a flight on China Air coz it was very cheap. My wife was very unimpressed because of their bad safety record. I explained to her that it was no big deal and that its not as if their planes fall out of the sky every day. We then turned o

Is it any better sitting at a computer lurking and posting on an internet forum! But seriously, what on earth did these people do before ketais? Did they just sit staring at the wall?