What's wrong with arms dealing?

I won't be reading NewsWeek anymore.
 
Is anybody still reading it? I thought they stopped their print edition few years ago because their circulation tanked and even online they are nowhere in the top 100 news sites. Going tabloid, like CNN, may be a desperate attempt to pull out of the death spiral.

The case will revolve around whether a "reasonable person" in his place would be in fear for their life. That's the only thing that matters. To me, the evidence I heard (bigger and stronger guy was very close to him and threw a bag of popcorn in his face) is at best inconclusive. It will also depend on what words were said etc. I didn't say that this wasn't a murder, I said that it is not at all clear cut as some people seem to think.

  If there was a reasonable fear of being attacked, then the only way he could defend himself is with a gun. "Disproportionate force" is not an issue. How else would a 71 year old prevent a much stronger guy from beating him? Or perhaps "in your home country" a grandpa is legally required to take a beating rather than defend himself?

It's more complicated than that. In states without stand your ground law, yes, you are expected to leave the area if you can, before you get to the point of using lethal force. However, he could make a case that he didn't expect a minor argument over texting to escalate to that point. It is not reasonable to expect a person to avoid all interaction with other people just because they have a gun in their pocket.

Furthermore, since Florida does have stand your ground law, he is NOT required to leave a place where he is engaging in a lawful activity, such as watching a movie (that btw he paid for). I don't know if the fact that he left and came back complicates things but I doubt it.

The real jerk is someone who jumps to conclusions without having any clue as to what actually happened. Based on the same article, here is a reasonable alternative story:

The guy is repeatedly asked to turn off his cellphone and he refuses. The old guy leaves the theater to report him, but he either can't find a manager (I know in my local theater good luck finding an employee during a movie), or they refuse to do anything about it. He comes back and the texting guy turns (as reported) and accuses the old man of trying to get him ejected from the theater. We don't know exactly the way he put it but I can imagine. He gets up and turns around. Since they are one row apart, that';s probably less than a yard from the old guys face, and then he throws popcorn in his face. From the pictures, this guy seems pretty tall and strong and it's not unreasonable that one punch from him could kill a 71 year old.

Was shooting definitely warranted? Idk, probably not but I'll let the courts decide. A premeditated murder? Seems unlikely.

I read that he left the theater to report the guy who was texting, not necessarily to get his gun.

The shooter will spend the rest of his life in jail, how's that preferable to someone annoyingly texting in a movie?
 
We don't know if this was self defense or not. We know that the other guy (you know, the jerk who was texting and making noise and refused to stop after being asked politely multiple times) threw popcorn at the old man's face and for all I know might have taken a swing at him.

Not only that, but who responds to "We have accidentally destroyed your priceless collection of flutes. Write a letter." with "OMG, I have to write a letter!?"

How many societies can you name that were created by militant atheists?
 
I think 20th century Communist countries come pretty close. They may not have succeeded perfectly in their goal to erase any remains of the traditional order, usually based on religion, and to create a new socialist man, but they sure tried hard enough to kill tens of millions in the process.

I wonder how much the order in which you read books makes a difference in your world view. If you read Ayn Rand first, will Communist Manifesto seem completely hateful and ridiculous and vice versa. Maybe an interesting experiment.

You cannot understand a lot of the modern Western society's norms, customs and even laws, never mind art, music, architecture and so much more without being familiar with the stories of the Bible. It is a matter of basic education about the society you live in which, thank God, was not created by militant atheists like some others I could mention.

Most wars in history were not religious. Early 20th sentury with WWI and WWII which together probably killed more people than all previous wars put together, not to mention Red Terror in China and Russia, Stalin's purges and pogroms, Russian civil war etc had nothing to do with religion (though they did have a LOT to do with Mein Kampf and Das Kapital). The point is, people will fight and kill each other regardless, mostly over power and resources. They sometimes use a particular book, ideology or religion as an excuse and rallying point for their side, sometimes not. It doesn't make any sense to say Bible caused more deaths than another book.

I also think that the fact that the Bible served as a foundation for the most successful civilization in the history of mankind much more than offsets the cases when it was used for evil.

Sorry to spoil your crazy rant but actually these books are banned not because they are too PC (can you even imagine that ever happening? really?) but because they contain depictions of racism, sex, violence etc. It actually is the case of PC going too far yet again.

What part of commercial drones do you not understand? It is not about testing drones as much as developing infrastructure and procedures for widespread civilian drone use.

In more general terms, what they are saying is that successful businesses should be taxed to pay for their unsuccessful competition to catch up.