The rulers in Nazi Germany, Kosovo, all those places -- they were not accountable every two or four years to an electorate.

I have often thought about the possibility of a Christian totalitarian regime coming to power in America. Bush speaks like he has a personal pipeline to God, he calls all dissenters traitors, he grabs (or tries to grab) enormous powers in violation of the constitution. He scares me sometimes.

But he still has to answer to elections, something all those other dictators did not thave. It is true that Hitler came topower in an election, but he quickly got dictatorial powers. I do not believe that could happen here. We have too much history of courts ruling laws unconstituional. Not even Bush's hand picked justices have backed him on some of his extreme power grabs, and they would not back him on anything so drastic as, say, martial law.

I believe that is enough to save us, that it did save us in the 1930s and the 1960s/70s. It is the stress relief that society has here and did not have in Nazi Germany, the broken up pieces of Yugoslavia, the Middle East, and all those other places.

I have heard of other report on stock spamming where they short the, where the assumption is that they are NOT the first or even close to it, and that the price will drop pretty quickly. That would be a more obvious choice.

Do this again, but short the stocks.

Well,I know nothing about the over the counter penny stock market. Maybe they have rules against shorting.

I gather what Snow and Bush are saying is that since these new devices came from al-Quds, which is a government army, that means the government itself directed it at "the highest levels".

Then because various soldiers tortured prisoners, and those soldiers were part of the government Army, that means our government directed said torture at "the highest levels".

Congratulations, Mr George "Highest Level" Bush! You have just signed a confession for a war crimes court, if we should ever be so lucky as to see you in the dock before it.

Hell yes GO! Speaking as someone who flunked out and has no real need for a degree and didn't particularly like college, it's obvious you should GO and start the next stage of your dream.

GO!

I wonder what the Argentinean equivalent of "Tommy" is.

Yehudi is, pardon my language, an idiot, and not just because he posted twice. Guns have many uses, and killing people is far down the list. My own experience has been that people like guns for two reasons: as machinery, the mechanics and design -- and the skills needed to shoot accurately.

There are shooters who spends many thousands of dollars on very specialized guns which are useless for anything except long distance target shooting. These shooters would make lousy snipers. They do it for the intense skill required. It takes patience and almost zen-like calm to shoot accurately. Even Sunday plinkers like myself enjoy the skills required, we just don't aspire to national championships.

There are collectors who admire the incredible variety, the ingenuity required to overcome manufacturing limitations, to find ways around patents, to make better guns. I am one of them too, and enjoy modern weapons and old black powder muzzle loaders.

Most of the shooters I know who claim to be worried about Katrina situations, known in the biz as SHTF, are only rationalizing because they think it somewhat silly to admit they like guns for other reason. But if you listen to them talk about guns, it is the mechanical and historical aspects which brightens their eyes and quickens their pulses. I have no doubt that breaking into their house would be a bad idea, and more power to them. But the prospect of killing an intruder is not something they look forward to.

To anyone who has never shot a gun, I suggest you might be surprised at what it means. You ought to consider going shooting some day with a shooter friend, or talk to a collector friend about the differences among guns. It won't contaminate you, any more than taking an airplane ride will bankrupt from buying your own airplane. I have never been interested in skydiving or rock climbing or scuba diving, but I understand why it interests people. There are other activities whose appeal I don't understand, but that doesn't make them worthless.

Yehudi, guns are no more intended to kill than cars are intended to smuggle. You need to broaden your horizons.

Does anyone actually believe that outlawing guns will actually get rid of guns?

The only people who obey laws to turn in their guns are nice guys. Crooks laugh. No nut bent on killing or with a trunk full of heroin gives a rat's behind that his gun is also illegal.

If even 1% of those students, or half the teachers, had guns, whether open carry or concealed carry, the killer would have been confronted at the least, and might not have even tried to carry out his mission in the first place.

If someone could come up with an invention that would bathe the earth in gun dissolving rays, and actually truly once and for all get rid of guns, and prevent their future manufacture, whether in factories or from plumbing pipes, then maybe outlawing guns might actually work, and might actually save lives. But until then, gun control laws only make life easier for the crooks who don't turn in their guns. They do NOTHING to reduce crime. Ask the residents of Washington DC how much crime has been reduced.