Arizona is a blasted hellscape

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Mazian
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mazian » Wed Aug 06, 2014 6:03 pm

There's precedent. It's not all that long ago that Missouri elected a dead man to the Senate rather than John Ashcroft, after all.

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Thad
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Fri Aug 08, 2014 1:05 pm

Brewer has endorsed Smith.

On the one hand, I always get nervous when she and I are on the same page.

On the other -- the other frontrunners are Jones and Ducey. I really can't see voting for anyone BUT Smith in the primary.

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:03 pm


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Mothra
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mothra » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:08 pm

STOP

LETTING

KIDS

FIRE

UZIS

"I have regret we let this child shoot, and I have regret that Charlie was killed in the incident," Scarmardo said.

Why does this sound like the shittiest, least remorseful apology anyone has ever made for indirectly subjugating a kid to the trauma of first-hand murder?

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Grath
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Grath » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:43 pm

Mothra wrote:STOP

LETTING

KIDS

FIRE

UZIS

"I have regret we let this child shoot, and I have regret that Charlie was killed in the incident," Scarmardo said.

Why does this sound like the shittiest, least remorseful apology anyone has ever made for indirectly subjugating a kid to the trauma of first-hand murder?

As someone who started shooting guns as a kid: It was somewhat frustrating when the instructors were all "You only get 5 shots and you can only load one at a time" (also: .22LR, bolt-action rifles unless your family brought a semi-auto) but nobody got hurt.

Apparently the place where this happened is like, massively a tourist trap and the whole concept is "Come rent machineguns (for exorbitant prices)"

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mongrel » Wed Aug 27, 2014 5:35 pm


A fellow I know commented "That's not an accident. That's an expected outcome of the series of preceding events."

He's something of a troll, but I find it hard to disagree.

An uzi is a fairly heavy, stockless gun capable of fully automatic fire. Even fully grown and hardened people who shoot guns at other people for a living think it's a hard-to-control weapon. Putting one in the hands of a nine years is blithering idiocy.
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Grath
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Grath » Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:35 pm

Mongrel wrote:

A fellow I know commented "That's not an accident. That's an expected outcome of the series of preceding events."

He's something of a troll, but I find it hard to disagree.

An uzi is a fairly heavy, stockless gun capable of fully automatic fire. Even fully grown and hardened people who shoot guns at other people for a living think it's a hard-to-control weapon. Putting one in the hands of a nine years is blithering idiocy.


1) Heavy is good for control. Decreased recoil because you have the same equal and opposite force from the explosion that launches the bullet, being applied to more mass.
2) The Uzi has a stock, it's just a folding stock that's not as solid as a fixed stock would be. That being said, I don't know that they had the stock extended in this incident.
3) It has a relatively low rate of fire - for example, the M4 Carbine that the US currently issues will shoot up to 950 rounds per minute where a full-size Uzi will only fire 600 rounds per minute. [Also known as an M4 Carbine will empty a standard-capacity 30-round magazine in 2 seconds, and an Uzi will empty a standard-capacity 32-round magazine in 3 seconds; keep this in mind next time you see an action movie.]

That being said, especially with the comparison M4 vs Uzi, an Uzi is essentially a large handgun. Now you add full-auto. Now you add A FREAKING 9 YEAR OLD.

Edit to add:
/r/guns wrote:"This is akin to handing the brand new shooter your featherweight 12 ga because you think it's hilarious. It's not."
"That's what I thought. My question is, why the hell would you switch in to fully automatic if all she's shot is one round? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but the recoil climb of an Uzi is already ridiculous if you're an adult, I can't imagine what it'd be for a nine-year old."
"I'm a grown ass adult who's been around guns their whole life, and an Uzi was almost too much for me to even keep on paper at all from 15-20 yards on auto"

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Mothra
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mothra » Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:08 pm

Why the fuck did you feel the need to compare the uzi to the m4 at length before concluding that it was still remarkably stupid to give one to a kid?

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Grath » Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:19 pm

Mothra wrote:Why the pineapple did you feel the need to compare the uzi to the m4 at length before concluding that it was still remarkably stupid to give one to a kid?

Because Mongrel was like "It's a heavy stockless gun so it's hard to control!" and while the "it's hard to control" part is true, the logic that heavy => hard to control is the exact opposite of the truth, and "it doesn't have a stock" is false. So I was supplying more accurate information while confirming that I didn't disagree with the conclusion.
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Wed Aug 27, 2014 7:30 pm

Mongrel wrote:A fellow I know commented "That's not an accident. That's an expected outcome of the series of preceding events."


Point him at fucking dictionary.com and call it a day. Being "the expected outcome of the series of preceding events" doesn't preclude it being an accident; saying "That's not an accident" implies the nine-year-old did it on purpose.

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mongrel » Wed Aug 27, 2014 9:32 pm

:thad:
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Lyrai
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Lyrai » Wed Aug 27, 2014 10:25 pm

You've just been THADDED.

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Büge » Sat Aug 30, 2014 12:49 pm

:tilt:
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Mongrel
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mongrel » Fri Sep 12, 2014 3:35 pm

Oh look, another talk-radio host slash blatantly corrupt failed politician.
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Fri Sep 12, 2014 3:49 pm

Yeah, Pearce doesn't deserve the attention.

He's the architect of SB1070 who was recalled and removed from office by his own party.

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Mon Sep 15, 2014 5:32 pm

But apparently he WAS still First Vice Chair of the Arizona Republican Party.

Was.

So now we know how crazy you have to be to (1) get recalled in Mesa and (2) get removed from a leadership position in the Arizona Republican Party: be Russell Pearce.

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Thad
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Fri Feb 20, 2015 3:07 pm

So I don't know how much of this has made national news, but.

Okay. So in November, Arizona elected Diane Douglas as its new Superintendent of Public Instruction.

She has no qualifications, ran on a single issue, and won by a very narrow margin entirely on the basis of having "(REP)" next to her name.

(Disclosure: I voted for her in the primary, to get rid of the incumbent, John Huppenthal, who had recently been in the news for getting caught saying crazy right-wing shit using sock puppet accounts in online comments sections. I did not expect her to win in the general. However low my opinion of Arizona voters, it consistently turns out to be too high.)

A recall is pretty much inevitable; in fact, people started calling for one before she even took office. But you can't actually have a recall election until somebody's been in office for 9 months.

Anyway. The "single issue" I was referring to is getting rid of the Common Core. Never mind that the Common Core is the result of the last twenty years of Republicans pushing for Standards and Accountability; it's one of those things that, like government-mandated private health insurance, Republicans thought was a great idea until January 20, 2009.

I've got my issues with the Common Core. I'm not opposed to having a set of goals for what students should learn, but I AM opposed to what it means in practice, which is a rigid adherence to standardized tests, American education being built entirely around the goal of passing those tests, and students and teachers being evaluated solely around the results of those tests.

I totally support having a robust debate around the Common Core standards and seeking to reform them so that they're treated the way they should be: as a couple of data points among many, that have some utility in determining what students know but which do not in and of themselves present a complete picture of all the factors that go into a well-rounded and balanced education.

Or you could just do what Diane Douglas did and fire two people from the Board of Education for disagreeing with you.

That provoked a standoff with the Board and Governor Ducey (who endorsed her; hope he's feeling a little bit of buyer's remorse for that now -- hey Doug, it's okay to endorse a Democrat if he's the only competent person running). Ducey says the Superintendent doesn't have the authority to fire Board members; Douglas says Ducey favors charter schools over traditional public schools and has cut money from education to benefit big business. I think they're both right, and they're both terrible.

Ducey overturned the firing and the Board members are back at work.

Meanwhile, a state House committee has voted to overturn the Common Core standards.

Incidentally, the tests are supposed to be in just a few weeks. So every public school teacher in the state is waiting to find out if they're actually going to give them or not.

(More disclosure: my wife is a public school teacher.)

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Mothra
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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Mothra » Fri Feb 20, 2015 5:23 pm

Hoooooooooooooo boy~

My company has been following this one rather closely, giving us email updates every day on what's relevant in the news. Since Pearson is usually the one writing the tests to which schools teach, the growing ruckus over Common Core has their interest.

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Re: Arizona is a blasted hellscape

Postby Thad » Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:00 pm

You know, after watching last night's John Oliver segment on elected judges, I'll say one thing for Arizona: our system seems really, really good. Judges are appointed but can be removed by voters. It combines the accountability of an elected judge with the independence of an appointed one.

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