And for those who are asking 'what's a tar baby?', refer to Joel Chandler Harris' 'Uncle Remus' and 'Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby'

Trying to get back to a discussion of political correctness, jeb? Last July, ex-Governor of Massachusetts and Presidential aspirant Mitt Romney had to apologize for referring to the ''Big Dig'' tunnel project in Boston as a ''tar baby.''

see: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/31/politics/main18511 99.shtml

...and do we really need a spell-checker here?

Well, it seems that the nanny crowd on Easy has decided that guns are bad. They're probably in favor of anger management classes for psychopaths.

Spell checkers be damned! Any plonker can use a spell checker. Where would the excitement of random happenstance be found? The joy of discovery would be lost as witnessed by the appearance of 'yarnks'. Without it, life would be bereft of the serendipitous encounter. No more would we hear the More...

jeb, I agree wholeheartedly with whatever it is that you just said...

The incredible irony of nannification is the backfire. There was a time when an abused woman's brothers would beat the hell out of their brother-in-law...end of abuse. Now, thanks to nannification, they are the ones in trouble.

Ian, I am what you deem part of the 'nanny crowd on easy' who agrees that there should be gun control. I feel guns have a place in life. Hunters surely have a right to enjoy their hubby and as Nancy/Pa. points out, hunters help keep herds thinned out to a reasonable number. My problem with guns More...

There's a lot to be said for gun conrol. Here, if you have a valid reason for owning a gun, ie. hunter, farmer, hobby shooter etc. you need to be licenced and the guns need to be locked away safely (this is checked from time to time by police). No, it doesn't stop criminals from getting hold of More...

Nannification or nannidity? Regardless, gun control or not: If gun control, then a major concern hereabouts is who's doing the controlling and what is their agenda. An unarmed populace - a populace that is easily disarmed - is an easy target for despotism. On the other hand, a large population More...

Spell checker, chequeur, chequar..(plum user maybe)
I remain acluistic at this point. Adjectize away. As a caffeinatic I will continue to calbliterate and dallywaddle, I'm in a bit of a pajangle at the moment and need to palpicake my toast.. it must be my sapiosexuality kicking in. Spell checkers sounds like a wizards tablecloth...

“We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Perhaps we are not looking at the right solution with regard to gun control...

The same conversation by the same people as when 3 Amish schoolgirls were shot on 3/10/06. I have an extraordinary feeling of déjà gnu!

jebbles - I agree too - about the spoll chocker that is.

andré i don't know how you got 'sapisexuality' thru and I have no idea what it means.

As for gun control...it would 'help' perhaps, but will not stop those that want to do harm to others. It will take years for the mindset to change when it is such an integral part of the psyche - the right to bear arms.

sapiosexuality (sā-pē-ō-sĕk-shü-ăl'ĭ-tē)
a. (n.) A behaviour of becoming attracted to or aroused by intelligence and its use.

Example: Me? I don't care too much about the looks. I want an incisive, inquisitive, insightful, irreverent mind. I want someone for whom philosophical discussion More...

'ygawd André, I think you've got it!
Who was it who, while climbing down from his Sopwith Camel, said; 'Pilut? I'm not sure how to spell it but I think I are one.'?
Unless there is objection from the panel, you have just been elivated to research pundit extraordinaire.

...how does one incorporate it in a pick-up line if the need should arise??

As for the right solution for gun control: The same could be said for people who have no business whelping children. My daughter in law is a teacher in Head Start, a federally funded pre-school for disadvantaged, at risk children. The laissez faire attitude of some people (can't call them More...

...I'm a sapiosexual, what's your sign?

There was an interesting paper written in 2000 arguing Criminal Justice, Gun control, Public Health, University of Sydney. I agree with the arguments posed and because they are too long to post here I refer you to that paper ...
http://www.australianreview.net/journal/v1/n2/peters_brown e.pdf

ROTFL, Jeb

From, You have shown that at least three people remain consistent in their viewpoints, and not that the points were good or bad...so what was your point? We will never have perfection in this world, but we can do much to improve on current conditions starting with our attitudes. Jeb, Billy and Andrè, thanks for the smiles!

Mamacita: Good catch on the from post. I missed that. Maybe the anonymity influenced my decision to disparage its credability and ignore the comment. An organization I have been affiliated with for many years occasionally reminds us that the affect we, as individuals, can have on just one person, has the potential of creating a positive ripple effect within a society.

I had turned the computer off early last night after making my statements about firearms control. Will leave a message to From on Easy today. We in Canada have a firearms registry now. There was (and still is) a large hue and cry about the cost of this registry and the overall effectiveness of it, More...

CG, The Canadian Gun Registration sounds like something I would be overjoyed to have here in the states. I think it would go far in bringing about a decrease in the rampart gun violence that currently goes unchecked in these United States. The constanly quoted 2nd amendment of our Constitution was More...

Jaz: In the US, the Center for Disease Control, a federal agency, is becoming a monstrous government organization. The vehicle they are using in this bureaucratic empire-building is to reduce everything to a disease....spousal abuse, teenage runaways, terrorism, gun violence, industrial accidents, More...

The authors of that paper were both Chairs of the National Coalition for Gun Control, hardly objective commentators, as their manipulation of statistics demonstrates.

And the most telling excerpt from their manifesto is indicative of their attitude toward the citizen versus government: More...

Where are the Aldous Huxleys of yesteryear?

Ian: You are mired in politics and red tape, especially with the division of powers between the federal government and the states. Logic never seems to play out in the US when it comes to the issue of firearms control. Maybe over time, but till then..... who knows?

Where are the Snowdens of yesteryear?

Stereotyping and generalizing about the US, are we?

Yossarian and jeb.....get your own goddam material.

My post on gun control is on page 4 on april 17
Susan/Ingram -I never said that registering guns would make people do the right thing and the mass shooting in Virginia Tech was a troubled person and had bought that one handgun a month ago so he had plans ,there will be much more to this story More...

To CG: It is customary, in a civilized exchange of views, to address the points that the other speaker has made. Simply saying that someone is 'mired' in something or other, and accusing your opponent of being illogical, just means that you are incapable of defending your own position.

I'm interested to know why it was considered necessary to enshrine the right to bear arms in the American constitution. It seems to me that there are many healthy democracies in the world where this hasn't been deemed necessary. Moreover, there doesn't seem to be in other democracies the same level More...

Ian, my apologies. I guess I misunderstood what you said, but I was defending your comments, not accusing you of being illogical. The US is mired in a political debate that will be endless, and the inability to legislate a national solution (based on your division of powers) is one of the deterents to a quick solution. Did not mean my comments to be interpreted as an attack.

And by the YOU to start my comment, I meant the US, not you as an individual.

Quite apart from the fact that I am awaiting the delivery of two splendid wine goblets from the Bendigo pottery....

We have a great suspicion and distrust of government in the US, and we share that with a number of countries, especially those which have broken from Mother England by force More...

I guess the lamps that once burned brightly in the old North Church Tower, to many, have lost some of their glimmer from the whitewash of revisionist thinking. 'Let it never be forgot'.

Thank you, Ian. I'd never heard that story about the Tricky One. I don't think the USA is alone in its distrust of government. It's interesting that, even though we elect our governments, we don't trust them.

I'm a tad bemused by your comment that some places value 'order and personal, More...

Yes, Judy, but the distinction is between looking to someone else to provide that security or demanding the ability to provide it for oneself.