“What do you expect from a nation of psychopaths, spree killers, serial killers that love to go to war against anyone who questions their morality or system?” asks commentator Frooq over at aljazeera.com. And that’s how much of the world views America’s Second Amendment. Go figure.
Mr. Frooq confounds American citizens with power-drunk politicians.
You say that as though the majority of American citizens haven’t been blindly supporting our various foreign conquests in addition to the Empire’s vast military industrial complex.
[rolls eyes]
Does the average American even have a say (much less any interest) in those sorts of things? Frooq seems to think the government speaks for its citizens. I do not believe that has been the case for quite some time.
I totally agree with you that we no longer have a say in what the government does. However, the average citizen has been so brainwashed into supporting whatever hair-brained idea the government comes up with, that it’s easy to see how a foreigner could think our Empire expansion is done with public support from the citizenry.
Not that it has anything to do with the Second Amendment though.
“that it’s easy to see how a foreigner could think our Empire expansion is done with public support from the citizenry.”
—–
Okay, now I see where you were going with your first post.
[/rolls eyes] 😉
Well said.
What empire? Seriously, where’s the goddamn empire? We just cleared out of Iraq, and they still seem to have all that oil we supposedly shed blood for. It looks like clearing out of Afghanistan is in our near future as well, and there natural resources seem to be staying there. Where’s this American empire of which you speak, because I’d really like to see it?
So you support the idea of seizing the worlds resources at the point of a gun, but you’d like to see more competence?
Seriously, we did not “clear out” of Iraq. There are tons of mercenaries (I mean to say contractors) still there, and some huge military bases, not to mention the largest “embassy” on the planet.
We have, I think, twelve carrier groups (each of which could outmatch the airforce of most nations), all over the world. Bases all over the world, some dating back to the end of WW-II.
If China had this kind of international presence, I’m pretty sure you’d call it an empire.
And I’m pretty sure they’d just pump all the oil into Chinese tankers.
Isn’t “seizing resources at the point of a gun” the whole rational for having an empire? Otherwise, why bother? And, no, I don’t support “seizing resources at the point of a gun”, but I do support correct usage of words and when people use the term “American” or “US” and “empire” together”, I know that they don’t.
here’s your “empire”, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2012/03/26/empires-then-and-now/ hope this clears things up…
Frooq is simply bush league. All the smart Tyrant Party guys know to say “The US government is psychopathic and blood-thirsty, although the American people are very decent.” That’s protocol. Don’t know why he screwed it up.
“vast military industrial complex”
Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. That always makes me laugh when people say that. It’s not the 50’s anymore, there is no such thing.
hahaha, how does the sand taste? you know what im talking about, the sand that covers your buried head…
That’s how some folks WANT the rest of the world to view our second amendment and our culture, because it fits with their agenda.
That’s awesome coming from a culture of tribal genocide.
Ha, most insightful comment of the day.
Frooq can get back to me when his home region of religious psychopaths, spree killers, serial killers, and mass murderers pulls itself out of the dark ages.
and how do you know Frooq comes from such a place?
How do we know he doesn’t? Not all Islamic countries support that kind of behavior, but I can’t think of too many suicide bombings in the last 5 years stateside.
we don’t know anything about Frooq. we don’t know Frooq’s name, gender, ethnicity, nationality, religious affiliation, political persuasion, etc. all we know of frooq is that he at least on one occasion visited al jazeera.com, something that could be said of the author of this entry as well.
I know that frooq is the stupidest name I’ve ever heard. beyond that I really don’t care about him.
We don’t. In all likelihood his name is actually Farooq, and there are millions of such. It is statistically likely that he comes from the Arab or Pakastani world, though. The COMMENTS on the corresponding web site were interesting. Surprising. One commentator said “well, the US must be like Somalia, then” and another replied, “knowing Somalia well it is the opposite of Somalia.” He went on to explained that US guns are not to cause tyranny, but to overthrow it if it appears.
Guess we could always just start kidnapping and cutting people’s heads off…Hypocrite.
who is a hypocrite?
I’ll at least give them a little credit for picking 3 people with fairly distinct points of view on the subject.
Aside from that anything else I say on this site is going to be preaching to the choir.
As long as Mr. Froot is afraid of us, we’re doing something right.
Better to be feared than loved. Best to be feared AND loved.
+1.
Mr. Frooq, what a funny guy! This coming from a culture where beheadings, stonings, factional violence of all grisly manner, is rather commonplace and often heartily sanctioned by the authorities and laymen alike.
and just where do you think frooq comes from? and why?
I have no idea where Frooq is from. Do you? But considering he/she asked the question in an Aljazeera forum, I suspect, and it’s only a suspicion, that Frooq is of middle eastern, north or northeast African or southern/southwest Asian descent. The name is sometimes spelled Farooq, or any of a number of different Anglicized spellings (see Moammar Kadafi, Kaddafi Gaddafi, Qaddafi, etc). He/she could be some white Irish post-grad in comparative religions sitting in the student lounge at
Columbia or Berkeley for all I know…but that’s not the way I’d bet.
Further, Frooq’s tone of righteous indignation and tarring an entire nation with such a very broad brush is quite often indicative of a simpleton with the charming personality of a blind ideologue and an apologist/hypocrite too boot. No proof, just opinion. What do you think of them apples?
Now that is how you shut down a troll. Very well said.
That was awesome.
Greg in Allston FTW.
I am really trying to hold back on making a vest bomb crack that will likely get me banned.
If they don’t like our country’s laws, they don’t have to come here or even visit. I don’t give a shit what the laws are in Farooq’s country, why are the laws in mine so important to him? Unless he’s also an American, in which case he just called himself a psychopath…
…And if people want to visit the country with the lowest number of guns per capita, I’m sure Nigeria would be happy to take their tourism.
Pretty much described a number of “countries” where islam is ascendant.
Based on the overwhelming “boo” directed at Ron Paul when he advocated a “Golden Rule of Foreign Affairs”, I’d say he’s right.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sNI5UEmCvY
Not that our bloodthirsty warmongering has anything to do with the Second Amendment.
I’m rather sad that Paul couldn’t get a fair shake as a candidate. The fact that the extremes of both parties didn’t like him was a big plus in my book.
Ron Paul has a lot more delegates than the media gives him credit for. (assuming the corrupt GOP doesn’t pull something at the state delegate election level.) If the national convention goes to a second round, all delegates become unbound, and a lot of people might be in for a big surprise. It ain’t over till it’s over.
Btw, when I say corrupt GOP, I mean it. If you haven’t heard about what happened at the caucuses in Athens, GA and St. Charles, MO, go watch the videos. One good news segment is Ben Swann’s Reality Check.
Three of the committee people from the St. Charles caucus have admitted to trying to thwart the will of the people. How this stuff isn’t front-page news, I don’t know.
Who is Frooq?
I loved the video. I’m sure you’ll find it no surprise that I thought Mr. Fineman made the best of it.
Frooq is the handle of a commenter (not a commentator) on a story on al jazeera. Frooq is otherwise anonymous. For all anyone knows Frooq might be Robert Farago himself. Yes Robert Farago, the publisher and owner of TTAG, has published an entire entry on merely an anonymous comment on a story on al jazeera and used it to exemplify the opinion of god knows who. Go figure.
Hard to come up a lower point in internet journalism.
ಠ_ಠ
Not true.
what is not true?
It’s easy to come up with lower points, he means. Go to MikeB’s site. Sorry to make it so easy.
Beer just shot out my nose
I hate to agree with you, but I agree with you. Fruit doesn’t represent al jazeera any more than I represent TTAG.
It might make for some interesting discussion if it came from a more representative source.
.
Fineman’s conception of human psychology and impulse control is bizarre. There is a likelihood that some small number of people will commit crimes against friends or family. It doesn’t matter what they use for weapons. They’ll use what they have. For example in England, Switzerland, and Italy, a knife is the popular choice. When it comes to street muggings, burglaries, home invasions, and car-jackings, Fineman’s psychological model silly. People empirically do not become repeat violent criminals and professional burglars from sudden impulse, nor do they “just happen to get caught.” They typically are not caught the first time, and they do it for several different motivations, including both profit and character disorders. Carrying a pistol is a tool against crime. Carried legally, it is statistically an extremely rare source of accident or malicious behavior. Do either of you, MikeB or Gabba, have any concrete knowledge of gang and criminal circle behavior? Well, sorry, I know MikeB does, because he revealed it on web sites in the past. But you Gabba?
Fineman ought tyo move to the socialist state of his choice with total government control.he might not like what he wiswhed for.
“America has the highest ownership of guns in the developed world”
The developed world as opposed to what? Do some non-developed countries have a higher civilian ownership of guns by percentage or in absolute numbers? Maybe he just means the world. I guess we can take away civilian ownership of guns so then we can have a country as safe to the average citizen as the Sudan, Mexico, and North Korea. Thankfully we have Mexico on our southern border which is a poster-child nation for what happens when most guns are banned and there is heavy gun control. The American people may not be politically savvy yet the can see what is going on down on Main Street.
When a person uses the term “developed world” they can divorce themselves from the ugly realities of all Third World decades-long warzones that cause all sorts of problems when trying to bash America’s love of guns.
Exactly. But for MikeB and Gabba, parse your statistics just a bit finer. You leave out the detail (which Swiss journalists often gets right) that minus the black and hispanic ghettos in the US, our crime rates are low, our murder rates are low, in all comparable to western europe. There is no correlation with guns per capita per zip code. Many are loaded with guns and very very safe. Some are loaded with guns and they kill or shoot 20 people a week. The same goes for income statistics vis a vis Switzerland. These numbers are true on a national basis, regional basis, and by major cities. I don’t know why they are true. Haven’t got a clue. The black neighborhoods have much higher per capita murder rates than the Hispanic, I should note. I think this is a question for the black leadership to solve, since they are perennially elected to lead those wards, congressional districts, and mayoralties. I think the solutions cannot be imposed from outside. The solutions have to come from within. It would be patronizing to force them from without.
Good post and I always thought it would be interesting to see a comparison of Swiss and German communities in America versus Europe.
Or German communities in Paraguay and Bolivia.
Astute. That would let us re-factor the Hispanic and German components of the prior request. Or determine if not all overseas German communities are, uh, culturally similar.
The pro-gun advocate used some bad facts to justify his argument… The UK does NOT have a higher homicide rate than the US.. that was absolutely wrong, and I hate it when pro-2a folks use bad arguments that can be easily discredited.
It depends highly on how you count, as Dan Rather found out long ago. The US homicide figures are much more inclusive, including suicides and deaths which occur within two days in hospitals from attempted homicide wounds. Britain uses no serious delay, for example.
The UK has also been investigating its own reporting as being false and misleading. There are mounds of evidence that show that UK crime reports are significantly under reported intentionally.
UK crime reports are significantly under reported intentionally
Hey, the UK does that but the New York City PD owns it.
“I don’t believe in people carrying guns unless there are appropriate regulations, of which there are none at this point…..the reasons given for people to carry guns make no sense, the idea that law abiding citizens should have the right to protect themselves sounds good but the concept of a law abiding citizen as a constant is not rational. People lose control, people don’t remain law abiding citizens. Criminals were once law abiding citizens themselves, and the element of surprise will always overcome them…..you cannot defend yourself with a gun, the element of surprise will always get you. ”
-Elliot Fineman, Representative from National Gun Victims Council
Sometimes if one listens carefully enough the thoughts and motivations of the adversaries can be heard with the clarity of a singing bird. The anti-gun coalition considers an armed citizen a criminal by virtue of owning a gun. To people of this idea a gang banger walking down Martin Luther King road with a stolen Ruger is on the same level as a homeowner cleaning his Marlin 336. We consider a criminal someone who breaks the law. They consider a criminal to be someone who is capable of evil.Both infamous shooters at Virginia Tech and in Tucson had handguns, thus anyone who owns a handgun is capable of murder and in so following is a criminal. We therefore see the “strengthen the laws!!” byline because as far as they-including Mikeb302000-are concerned all who own guns are criminals,but the law in America doesn’t mandate our collective arrest……as it would in Japan, the UK, or Austrailia.As such the anti’s goal is to criminalize gun ownership to realize in fact what they perceive in mentality, and I must take perhaps too much satisfaction in seeing such people stew in their frustration.
Gabba (Above) may have a point. I think Farago’s intro is meant to stimulate or even inflame the discussion. That may be his job on his forum to promote visitors and his numbers. We may agree or disagree with his methods. It is up to us if we want to participate or not. However, it is important that we realize that this kind of stuff may HARM our intelligent approach to our inherent gun rights.
I still enjoy this forum.
I may get kicked out for this, lets see!
Put Hubert Williams on the cover and you’re bound to inflame things. He’s made a career of being a professional joiner of police organizations of various kinds, saying what the funders of those non-profits want to hear. He might as well be the Joyce Foundation LEO of the year, every year.
Wait, are you telling me that Robert posted a qoute on the Internet with the intention to provoke and ENFLAME discussion on a subject?!
HOW DEVILISHLY DIABOLICAL OF HIM! HE MUST HAVE LEARNED THAT TRICK AT EVIL BLOGGING SCHOOL.
It’s an assault blog, pure and simple.
Robert knows what draws people and sells advertising spots. Who could blame him? ‘Fanning the flames’ and ‘trolling’ are such harsh words.
“I don’t believe in people carrying guns unless there are appropriate regulations, of which there are none at this point..”
What the H E double-hockey sticks??? NYS makes you go through a LOT of paperwork, character references, mandatory NRA class, and VERY thorough background checking to get a permit to own a pistol (although it does allow some degree of concealed carry). If the crap that I went through isn’t considered “appropriate” I can’t imagine what would make him happy.
I can’t imagine what would make him happy.
Oh yes you can.
Forgive me but… I really can’t take seriously any criticism of my country or it’s constitution by a news agency that has gone on record praising the murder of Jews and Israelis.
Yeah, I consider these people to be a really credible source of information. Terrorists R Us.
“What do you expect from a nation of psychopaths, spree killers, serial killers that love to go to war against anyone who questions their morality or system?” asks commentator Frooq over at aljazeera.com
Maybe the Jihadists will stay away from us if they think we are a bunch of armed psychopaths.
What’s funny is they are debating our laws when I see middle easterners on the news brandishing AK’s daily. At least we have laws for weapons. Guess the pot just wanted to see what color the kettle is.
Yes, it really is idiotic. Anyway, the beheading competition is once again really down to Mexico and Pakistan in the finals. We don’t have a chance.
Yeah, that statement doesn’t sound like Middle-Eastern nations at all…
I have no idea who this joker is, but Al Jazeera has a lot of deadbeats who were formerly with the BBC, and who now find even that left-wing news that outfit too far to their right. Qatar, where Al Jazeera is located (and all of the Gulf Co-operation Council nations, for that matter) have gun laws that Americans would love to have. Citizens of Qatar can own any number of firearms without restriction, including full auto firearms, after they get an ID from the Ministry of Defense. There is a very active shooting sports federation in Qatar and citizens are encouraged to take the shooting sports up. Farooq either needs an education in the gun laws of the country where Al Jazeera is based, or, he needs to be exposed for the liar that he undoubtedly is. America bashing comes easily for these anti gun propagandists. Fortunately, Qatar is a strong US ally, and it has gun laws that are very similar to ours in the freedoms that Qatari citizens enjoy as far as owning guns is concerned.