smokey LOVE YOU BROTHER!!!
I don't get to talk to anybody about stuff like this in California because I am right of Attila the Hun and everyone else in California is left of Lenin.
So, I want to be free to update this post but for purposes of intelligent discussion and so I can understand different points of view, here goes:
Judges. A 3-justice panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals just upheld the trial court's overturn of California's 10 round magazine limitation as violating the Second Amendment.
The Ninth Circuit is still predominantly filled with Democrat appointees, but it is getting better, meaning more likely to uphold the Constitution. (How about if the courts said you have a Constitutional right of free speech under the First Amendment, but you can only use 10 anti-government words in a single conversation. Would that be upholding the First Amendment to you?)
Right to Life. I am a Christian. I believe abortion is wrong. At least I shouldn't have to pay for it through my taxes. Trump has refused to spend tax dollars supporting research with aborted people body parts. Hopefully we can defund Planned Parenthood which merely takes tax money and recycles it to the Democrat Party. (Also, the fact that I am adopted but could have been aborted makes this issue personal for me.)
Deregulation. Tax cuts. Bringing jobs back to America.
The Wall. I believe that only a certain number of people can comfortably fit in the U.S. I don't want the RINO/Demo open borders. And I want our immigration system to select the best and the brightest applicants to emigrate here. Not the current uneducated class which depresses the wages of our uneducated class and makes us taxpayers subsidize them with welfare because the immigrants work harder because they appreciate the precious gift that living in America is.
Fight Evil in our Time = CHINA. After the 1960's free love hippy movement, the Church had to compete for members, so it went all lovey-dovey, over- emphasizing the love aspects of Jesus. But Jesus did not come here to unite us but to divide us by challenging us to stand up to evil -- or no -- your freedom of choice:
BTW, on your current build on pwdtoday, what CAD program did you use to draw your electrical base plate template?
I used Autodesk Inventor, fusion 360 is the free net based version iirc.
Open and civil discourse is the foundation for building relationships and making the world a better place, we could all use a reminder of that from time to time. Everyone has different life experiences which inform our opinions, that's life. Context is critical to understanding why a person believes what they believe.
That being said, lets stirr up a can of worms...
Most of this is from memory so I may be off on some specifics of it;
Statistically the assault weapons ban and high capacity mag ban during the Clinton administration didn't do much for crime rates, when they expired there was not a significant change in gun deaths. I don't have any issue with firearms. I do have an issue with mass shootings (as we all should) but there isn't really a good way to prevent them without taking steps to address the underlying issue which is a person wanting to do harm to others. If someone is willing to dehumanize a person to the point where they are willing to take another person's life, they are also not going to care about breaking a law to get what they need to do it. If someone wants a gun, they can get one (legally or illegally) plain and simple. I don't have an answer for the problem.
The 2A question had been addressed by the supreme court previously so it shouldn't be surprising that it was overturned. The supreme court relies on the founders documents and past precedent to rule. For the most part, they should not be overturning prior decisions.
As far as Planned parenthood goes, I fully respect your perspective on it. That being said, the US is not a morally/religiously/culturally homogeneous country, (hence the separation of church and state being baked into the govt) given this, I consider certain things to be purely civil (legal) matters. In my wife and I's case, neither of us have ever considered abortion to be an option for us in the 11 years we have been together. We are trying for a kiddo now and have been through 2 miscarriages in the process which is rough in its own right. I personally can't imagine intentionally terminating a pregnancy in my situation. In the case of rape, I think its a more complex question. In the end, allowing for choice does not FORCE anyone to have an abortion.
That being said, I don't hold my beliefs/feelings on the matter above another person's right to make that choice for themselves. I intend to raise my children to value life. A part of that is accepting responsibility for your actions, I.E. if you knock someone up, you need to take ownership of the consequences and take care of the life you created. My step-dad adopted and is rasing his grandchild since his daughter was not able/willing to. My views on abortion are purely a legal argument against imposing my will on someone else.
We also have evidence that supports the idea of making something illegal just forces it underground, prohibition for instance. Pre Roe-V-Wade, people were still getting illegal abortions. Making it illegal doesn't address the root of the problem. In this case, the piss poor state of sex-ed, poor access to contraceptives, and probably parent's not having difficult conversations with their kids. Yes, morally this may not be in line with what individuals believe is correct but there are numbers to back that up.
Abortion aside, Planned parenthood also offers access to reduced cost/free health screenings in low income areas, cutting funding hurts them since its a blanket funding cut rather than cutting the part that people have issue with.
Regarding immigration;
I am biased on this subject (In favor of) Immigration reform. My wife moved to the US from Mexico when she was a kid. Her parents at the time were not considered skilled labor. Since moving here, her mom became a elementary school bilingual teacher and her dad has started his own business. My wife is currently a special education teacher and works with low income/at risk kids. They effectively brought nothing with themselves and in the time they have been here, they raised themselves out of poverty and lived out the American dream. All 3 of their kids are college graduates and have made a life for themselves in the US.
The legal immigration process they went though took more than 15 years and cost thousands of dollars before they were granted permanent residence. After we got married, its taken another almost 6 years for the paperwork for my wife to be approved for her citizenship.
One thing that I think is not common knowledge, is that entering the United States without permission is a misdemeanor offense. Roughly on par with a speeding ticket... If it is as big of a threat to the US as it is made out to be, don't you think it should be treated as one?
Do I think that the US needs to let everyone in no questions asked? No, that's idiotic.
Should we be reforming the immigration system? Yes, 100%.
Should we turn away people who are less fortunate than we are or are fleeing danger, persecution, famine, war, or are just looking to a better life? Nope.
As far as immigrants hurting the job market or causing social issues due to taking jobs away. That is pretty much the opposite of my experience. I work in a competitive engineering field and my company has taken on the additional expense of paying for visas for non-us employees because there is a shortage of qualified applicants. It costs more for us to hire them so why would we spend excess money without reason?
In the case of legal immigration, (h1b or other visas) immigrants are given a tax id or ss number so they end up paying taxes into the US. Even in the case of undocumented immigration (which I am not arguing in favor of) they are still spending money in the US which means local businesses are getting revenue, sales tax is being paid, and work is getting done. All that is a net plus for the economy.
As far as the California stuff, I can't comment because I am not informed about it (you know, living in Texas does that lol)
I live a pretty good life, I have my needs met, I live in a safe neighborhood with people from all walks of life, and I get to enjoy my hobbies with people I like. Not everyone else has that opportunity but everyone should be able to get there one day.
None of that is to say I am RIGHT about this stuff, just how/why I have the opinion I do.
Sean
