[links]

[wispfox]

On plaidder's journal, Maximum Pain is Aim of U.S. Weapon. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr...

From conuly, "I don't want my daughter exposed to Foreign Culture!". Some people are disturbing... (Ok, lots of people, but still!)

From conuly, again, on felons and voting.

From both ladytabitha and moominmolly, "Our challenge is to teach others that every animal we intend to eat or use is a complex individual, and to adjust our farming culture accordingly." Mmm... tasty complex individuals. (which, incidentally, is more or less what ladytabitha's response was, except that she phrased it better) Also, yay for gay nymphomaniac cows!

Pretty picture by moominmolly.


Sunny out. But cold! And major wind chill!

Comments

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

Maximum Pain is Aim of U.S. Weapon

-On one level, yah, grr.

-On another level . . . if, as a soldier, I had a choice between causing someone pain until they surrendered, or shooting them until they surrendered, I'd go with the pain. Shooting someone can kill them, cripple them for life, etc., and is also painful. Whereas with a pain-gun, their body is still intact.

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Yah. Napalm, .50 cal bullets, and fragmentation grenades don't eaxctly provide a comfy experience for people on the receiving end either. More to the point, in the kind of wars the US increasingly finds itself in, the distance between enemy soldiers and random civilians is meaured in inches. To the extent that weapons like this one can reduce the number of innocent civilians killed or maimed as a result of combat in places like Falluja or Bagdhad, it's a positive addition to our arsenal.

Can an object like this be misused? You betcha. But I think Abu Grahib points out that the Pentagon doesn't really need any new toys to go a-torturing when it wants to.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

To the extent that weapons like this one can reduce the number of innocent civilians killed or maimed as a result of combat in places like Falluja or Bagdhad, it's a positive addition to our arsenal.

Point. Presuming, of course, that they can _tell_ who the innocent civilians are, though - since it's often people who are pretending to be just that who can get the closest to the people they want to hurt.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

On another level . . . if, as a soldier, I had a choice between causing someone pain until they surrendered, or shooting them until they surrendered, I'd go with the pain. Shooting someone can kill them, cripple them for life, etc., and is also painful. Whereas with a pain-gun, their body is still intact.

True. Presuming, of course, that they do manage to find a point where the pain levels won't be causing extra problems on most people (I'm discounting things like triggering heart attacks because bullets can do that, too).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oddly, I am seized with the irrational hope that the next step has the military researching how to counter this. Doctors can't cure my pain -- maybe the Army can. At least they have the budget.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Huh. You know, that's even a plausible next step. Wouldn't _that_ be an interesting - and useful - result of such a thing.

I mean, we've gotten such interesting things out of so many unrelated areas that why not get stuff out of related ones, too?

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

The piece about felons and voting is sadly, sadly misinformed. I pointed her over to The Sentencing Project (http://www.sentencingproject.org/) for some better information. For example, she seems to think that anyone ever convicted of a felony gets their voting rights permanently stripped, and it's just not true -- there are even states that allow currently incarcerated felons to vote, and the vast majority of states restore voting rights on completion of your sentence. Some states do have other rules (waiting periods of two or three years after you get out, or no voting for people who commit two violent felonies, for example), but it's getting better than it once was, and many states are improving their procedures for restoring voting rights.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

it's getting better than it once was, and many states are improving their procedures for restoring voting rights.

Yay! Good. I didn't know this. If I'd tried to write about it (which I wouldn't, not having had sufficient info, and not being at _all_ politically savy), I'd have said pretty much the same thing.