McChrystal Weighs in on Gun Control

[Boomhauer]

Um since when have we ever stayed on topic? Thread drift is something we are known for.

Besides I want to hear De Selby articulate how libertarianism is nearly identical to communism.

[lupinus]

And a direction the thread took based on the comments of two mods.

I'd like to here De Selbys responses as well.

[De Selby]

New thread started - no need for drift

[Boomhauer]

DRIFT! DRIFT! DRIFT!

[roo_ster]

DRIFT! DRIFT! DRIFT!

[Doggy Daddy]

DRIFT!

[wacki]

No, Communism is stupid, even in theory. It's akin to a theory of aviation that assumes gravity causes apples to float above the Earth's surface.

It's rare but I agree with fistful.   People think economics is about money but it's not.   Money has no intrinsic value.   You could take half the dollars in America and burn them and, as long as the burning was evenly distributed, it really wouldn't change much. 

Money is simply a mode of communication.  It's a way of speaking credibly about how badly you want something.   In the communism model you have a committee deciding how much everything costs.  In communist Russia they literally had a dozen people deciding 100 million prices.  The conduit of communication that is called "price signaling" was broken.

People demonize money, but in all reality it is the greatest form of communication devised by man.

[birdman]

It's rare but I agree with fistful.   People think economics is about money but it's not.   Money has no intrinsic value.   You could take half the dollars in America and burn them and, as long as the burning was evenly distributed, it really wouldn't change much. 

Money is simply a mode of communication.  It's a way of speaking credibly about how badly you want something.   In the communism model you have a committee deciding how much everything costs.  In communist Russia they literally had a dozen people deciding 100 million prices.  The conduit of communication that is called "price signaling" was broken.

People demonize money, but in all reality it is the greatest most efficient form of communication devised by man.

[Chuck Dye]

Only the right people should really have rights.  Isn't that what he's saying?  A common enough attitude these days.

For some reason, it's an attitude commonly held by upper brass in the military.

My Dad, a 31 year Navy Captain (O-6,) the same man who brought home a target rifle, accessories, and memberships in the NRA and a junior rifle club rather than see me buy a BB gun, floored me one day with a tirade about only the right guns for the right people.  (He said that, had I declined his 1903 Colt Pocket Hammerless, he would have borrowed an oxy-acetylene torch and burned it down to slag.)  I never decided whether he had changed with age, or simply felt less need to maintain the facade as I aged.  McChrystal, too, is getting old.

[zahc]

Communism reminds me of a scene in "The Bicycle Theif" where the main characters decide to raise some cash by selling their bedsheets. Which is kind of odd, because how much can bedsheets cost? And why does such a poor family have them? So anyway, they take their bedsheets down to what appears to be some kind of commissary and the officer looks up the price in a big price book, quotes them a price, and gives them their cash. The clerk then takes the sheets to the back where there is a colossal pile of bedsheets in inventory.