gdp's Comments

Daily Camera.com: : Jack Rudd: School shooting -- The answer is to arm more people - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 14:36:08 +0000

And if you meet a gun-toter who unilaterally decides you've threatened his life but you haven't, ...

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 16:43:56 +0000

If a dictator is intent on "rounding up and exterminating" people, of course he's going to attempt disarming the victims first. However, that does not imply that gun control leads to round-ups and extermination.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:45:50 +0000

Most criminal behavior has a strong streak of rationality to it, unfortunately combined with stupidity and greed. Mentally unstable people are a whole different story.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 15:38:44 +0000

From the above URL essay: A study in the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery found that the gun murder rate in the U.S. is almost 20 times higher than the next 22 richest and most populous nations combined. Every one of those nations has stricter gun control laws.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:22:25 +0000

It's not "getting out of hand." It is out of hand, and has been for some time.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:18:14 +0000

No, on maniac gunmen who non-irrationally choose to wear them before going on a rampage.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 01:15:18 +0000

Apparently, we're all hanging out with a troll.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:27:50 +0000

This is getting out of hand. Your sense of newfound urgency won't console the parents of the students killed ... by Charles Whitman in 1966. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Whitman It's been out of hand for nearly 50 years, if not more.

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:13:45 +0000

You have proved nothing, other than that you don't know the difference between "different in scale" and "different in kind".

Daily Camera.com: : Connecticut school shooting: 27 people dead, including 18 children: reports - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 14 Dec 2012 19:12:38 +0000

Perhaps regulating ammo production more stringently would help. Or bullet-proof vests.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Israel has the right to defend herself - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 20:11:54 +0000

True. But "itself" would work just fine and is less confusing.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Israel has the right to defend herself - Boulder Daily Camera

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 16:13:51 +0000

"Israel has the right to defend herself." When did Israel become a woman?

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 02:33:08 +0000

Yup. Prepare yourself. You're gonna lose.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:58:16 +0000

In answer to my own question about what the ACLU might think about the ACA-is-trodding-on-my-Catholic-religious-rights issue, I should have done a little searching before posing it: See http://www.aclu.org/blog/reproductive-freedom-wom...

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 01:48:52 +0000

You're grasping at straws. And perhaps you should read the court's own words: http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-cou... Notice the following: The ACLU filed a brief in the case in favor of ... the government, not the for-profit Catholic mining company. Indeed, the mining company and its Catholic owner argued that Citizens United means that a for-profit corporation is a person that has religious rights under the First Amendment that can be violated. The court then said, Assuming, arguendo, that [the for-profit mining company] can exercise a religion within the meaning of RFRA, the burden on that exercise is too attenuated to state a claim for relief. In other words, the court's analysis of whether a substantial burden on religion has occurred has no dependence on whether the burdenee is a non-profit company, or a for-profit company, or any religious institution that doesn't fall into the enumerated exceptions. Hence, my use of the word precisely. As the court rightly states, "the RFRA is a shield, not a sword." You are trying to use it as a sword, in essence towards Catholic theocracy. Such efforts as yours are a time-honored practice of religionists. And our secular system of government is designed to thwart the impulse. Because it invariably turns into something that smells to high-heaven. Just ask Savita Halappanava. Ooops, sorry, she's dead. And it is certain irrational, absolutist Catholic religious tenets, after being ensconced in Irish law, that killed her.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 23:29:24 +0000

We're not talking about churches. We're talking about church-run organizations that cater to and employ members of the public who don't necessarily adhere to the same religious tenets. Which is precisely the same situation as the mining company in the court case, regardless of profit-status.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:25:14 +0000

Your confidence is misplaced, because you can't pass the initial "substantial burden" test. At least one federal court last month has ruled as much. Here is the best essay I've read so far (discussing the above court case) that explains what's wrong with your argument. Please read it (although the author is Protestant, her husband and kids are Catholic). http://verdict.justia.com/2012/10/04/a-federal-ju...

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:59:59 +0000

And yet, should your civil liberties be harmed by the government, the ACLU will be the first ones you turn to.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:53:37 +0000

The Sherbert Test (via the federal RFRA or state equivalents) is one the primary ways the Catholic Church tries to avoid liability in its sexual abuse scandal.

Daily Camera.com: : Guest opinion: Archbishop\'s letter and the First Amendment - Boulder Daily Camera

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:57:18 +0000

We're all complicit in killing human beings, simply by paying federal income taxes that support paying for drones that fly over foreign countries and drop bombs on both good and bad people. Good luck arguing in court that you should get a free pass on taxes or some portion thereof. See, e.g., the concluding paragraph 39 of this court decision: https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F3/170/170... Also, the fundamental constitutionality of RFRA-type laws (which re-instituted the Sherbert Test, though now only applicable to federal law) has not yet been tested. There are strong arguments that RFRA-style interpretation requirements are a violation of the separation of powers. Should that happen, your vaunted Sherbert Test will be history, and every RFRA-based decision in the past will become bad law. The sooner the better.