The Official Religious/Political Debate Thread (tickets, country, house, Europe)

[hookers with machineguns]

Are we talking about the same country here?
I think in most states, you are allowed to have a concealed weapon, assuming you pass the state's background check (refer to Conceal- Carry laws in your state). And yes, they do sell hunting rifles and shotguns at Wal mart. Go to the nearest one to verify (please don't buy anything however, cause Walmart needs to go to hell). And yes, it is illegal to have unregistered guns. From what I'm reading, both of you are right, but where's the disagreeing point again? But yeah, the original statement "guns are illegal" is not true, because it is too broad.

[Peter B]

Originally Posted by franscar

Ignoring the cricket, which after the third test is a wise, wise idea, a Limey is a term given to British sailors in ye olde days, when before setting sail for the green, green grass of home, part of the ships crew would be sent out to find as much lime as possible for the journey, for the vitamin C helped them to avoid scurvy. They became "affectionately" known as limeys.

This is true. But in those days Lemons were called Limes (I dont know what they called Limes, maybe they hadn't come across them yet).

So really the English should now be known as Lemonys.

PS some people never eat an orange, lemon lime etc (or their juice) and wonder why they get colds, flu and even cancer in later life.
Take a tip from Captain Cook of the British Navy. Eat or juice a citrus fruit today !

[Sweet Jane]

Originally Posted by IamAlejo

You are an idiot if you think you can't get a gun at wal-mart.

Jeez.. exactly what I said, Americans can be so ignorant of the rest of the world.

You're the idiot if you think I can walk into my local wal-mart and get a gun. If I went down there right now and started talking about guns, I'm pretty damn sure the police would be called and I'd probably be searched and/or taken away for questioning. And no, the police officers wouldn't have guns either.

There's a whole world exists outside America you know.

[Sweet Jane]

Originally Posted by hookers with machineguns

And yes, they do sell hunting rifles and shotguns at Wal mart. Go to the nearest one to verify (please don't buy anything however, cause Walmart needs to go to hell). And yes, it is illegal to have unregistered guns. From what I'm reading, both of you are right, but where's the disagreeing point again? But yeah, the original statement "guns are illegal" is not true, because it is too broad.

Trust me, my nearest one doesn't... because it would not be legal to sell them like that. I know that's not the case in most of America. My point was simply that an American guy I met was completely unaware of the very tightly controlled gun laws, making them virtually illegal to carry or have around your home, outside America and in most countries worldwide, illustrating my point that America is somewhat ignorant to the rest of the world.

And please don't take my statement too literally.. I'm quite confident Americans are all familiar with maps.

[IamAlejo]

Originally Posted by Sweet Jane

Trust me, my nearest one doesn't... because it would not be legal to sell them like that. I know that's now the case in America. My point was simply that an American guy I met was completely unaware of the very tightly controlled gun laws, making them virtually illegal to carry or have around your home, outside America and in most countries worldwide, illustrating my point that America is somewhat ignorant to the rest of the world.

And please don't take my statement too literally.. I'm quite confident Americans are all familiar with maps.

So if I said marijuana was illegal...then I am being an ignorant American, just because I'm not taking in mind the fact that Amsterdam and other countries have it legalized. That is an idiotic argument. But if you'd like, maybe I can give you a good ole test on American laws, and we'll see how well you do. I'm sure few are aware of specific laws outside of their countries.

[anti_poptart_chik]

Originally Posted by IamAlejo

So if I said marijuana was illegal...then I am being an ignorant American, just because I'm not taking in mind the fact that Amsterdam and other countries have it legalized. That is an idiotic argument. But if you'd like, maybe I can give you a good ole test on American laws, and we'll see how well you do. I'm sure few are aware of specific laws outside of their countries.

I dont know about the rest of the world but Australian news shows so many images and stories about America that we couldn't be too far wrong.But for your example- "Amsterdam n their drug laws" its easy to be recognised as ignorant but you could easily show you are not by being specific if you had the knowledge. if not you are fairly ignorant.

[Sweet Jane]

^ Yeah I can totally see what you mean. Almost everyone is well aware of what goes on in America, its always on tv. Mind you I heard when that Tsnunami disaster occurred, CNN spent an hour, (It was at least that, i forget) at the start talking about all the American casualties, whereas every other European channel concentrated on the full story, and the destruction and loss caused to all nations. Anyway, thats another way to illustrate my initial broad statement, but to continue with the original...

Originally Posted by IamAlejo

So if I said marijuana was illegal...then I am being an ignorant American, just because I'm not taking in mind the fact that Amsterdam and other countries have it legalized. That is an idiotic argument. But if you'd like, maybe I can give you a good ole test on American laws, and we'll see how well you do. I'm sure few are aware of specific laws outside of their countries.

Like anti poptark chik said, not many people would get much wrong in regards to main laws in other countries, capital punishement, drugs, weaponry, war, immigrant laws etc. Kids from 4 or 5 years of age recognise that America and many communist countries are different. We learn about this stuff. From a very young age, when we study politics, we learn about American politics, as we do a little about other large or neighbouring countries, not just our own. We learn about the American consitution. The majority of people are aware of laws outside their own countries, my point being many Americans seem to be the exception, again obviously not all of them. I live in Scotland, where we are allowed to smoke freely in bars etc, subject to non smoking sections and the occasional non smoking pub. This does not mean I am not aware that this is not the case in Ireland, just because we are allowed to do it.
Did you really not know that Wal-mart doesn't sell guns in most other countries?

And your point about marijuiana is unfair, because Amsterdam is in a very small minority in having it legalised, whereas it is illegal in most other parts of the world. That's what I'm trying to say, I think Americans should be aware of the bigger picture, about the state of affairs throughout the world. Not everyone can know every niche law in every other country, but to be a fully grown adult living in Amsterdam and not to realise marijuana is illegal pretty much everywhere else in the world would actually be pretty ignorant in my opinion. There's more to see than what goes on in your own back garden.

[hookers with machineguns]

I love it how if someone doesn't know one thing then all of a sudden he/she is ignorant. To me, admitting that you are wrong is something more powerful than intelligence.
Anywho, if I had known Sweet Jane was not from the US, that woulda initially made more sense. So I have to ask, what was your point in arguing about the Wal Mart thing again? Why would you disagree with Alejo, considering he lives in the US. We were on the subject of American Wal Marts btw, I thought that was obvious.
On the issue of marijuana, you might want to be careful how you address its status as "illegal" in certain places, because in fact, many places it is "decriminalized"- you should look into that.
I simply don't agree that Americans are any more "ignorant" (there's that word again) than the rest of the world. The average person knows just as much about his country's laws as he does any other country's laws. In real life situations, most people are not even fully aware of their rights. But, let's say that Americans don't know about other country's laws. Does it matter? If anything, we should focus on America's lack of understanding for other country's cultural, political, and historical backgrounds. Even then, does it matter? Without living here, do you think a foreigner can fully grasp the nature of America's culture through what they see through media? In other words, aren't we all just as bad, regardless of what country we happen to inhabit?

[Molasses]

Originally Posted by IamAlejo

Amsterdam and other countries have it legalized.

Amsterdam is not a country! Wow you can really spot the American.

[Sweet Jane]

Originally Posted by hookers with machineguns

I love it how if someone doesn't know one thing then all of a sudden he/she is ignorant. To me, admitting that you are wrong is something more powerful than intelligence.
So I have to ask, what was your point in arguing about the Wal Mart thing again? Why would you disagree with Alejo, considering he lives in the US. We were on the subject of American Wal Marts btw, I thought that was obvious.

On the issue of marijuana, you might want to be careful how you address its status as "illegal" in certain places, because in fact, many places it is "decriminalized"- you should look into that.

I simply don't agree that Americans are any more "ignorant" (there's that word again) than the rest of the world. The average person knows just as much about his country's laws as he does any other country's laws. In real life situations, most people are not even fully aware of their rights. But, let's say that Americans don't know about other country's laws. Does it matter? If anything, we should focus on America's lack of understanding for other country's cultural, political, and historical backgrounds. Even then, does it matter? Without living here, do you think a foreigner can fully grasp the nature of America's culture through what they see through media? In other words, aren't we all just as bad, regardless of what country we happen to inhabit?

I think it matters, if I only cared and learned about what was around me, I'd be pretty ignorant to other religions and cultures and many other things. But yeah, maybe it doesn't matter. I'm voicing my personal opinion here and no-one has to agree with it, but it matters to me. All the Americans I know feel the same way, I met many when I was travelling so I know I'm not completely alone here, and those guys all lived over there, so they must be able to grasp it fully, and they didn't have too much to say to defend much of what I agreed with. Something interesting I noticed was they only started to think this way when they moved to various European countries. And I'm not trying to attack americans, I think its the culture's fault, not anyone's own actings. I'd admit I was wrong if I thought I was I still think American culture can be, in comparison with the rest of the world. I'm not trying to look clever or anything, I could look up random laws and talk about them if I wanted to look intelligent just to prove a point, my point is, laws in other countries are widely taught and the main ones are general knowledge in most of Europe anyway.
And its not just one thing that makes a nation ignorant.. my orginal point about ignorance still stands wether about guns or not, I was using that as an example to illustrate my point as one of you asked me to, because my original statement was too broad to discuss.

No-one specifed that Alejo was talking about American wal-marts... he/she (sorry!) said 'if you think you can't get a gun from wal-mart you are an idiot.' Nothing about America was mentioned, and seeing as my orginal sentence was about meeting an American guy that didn't know guns were pretty much illegal in most of the world, I thought we were talking about the rest of the world.

And nothing wrong with using the term 'illegal' because 'decriminalised' does not mean it is legal, and you can still be fined and given a custodial sentence and a criminal record for having even small amounts of cannabis most places.
Adding 'de' to the world criminal doesn't mean its not criminal, anymore than 'demoted' means you've lost your job... it just means the positioning isn't as high up.

Okay I'll be quiet now unless someone has anything else to add to my points... I don't think we're going to agree on it, and I've said all I originally wanted to say, I don't want to argue with specific people over it.