But Criminals Don't Follow Laws!

[Nekojin]

However, even if the link was proven, people likely wouldn't support increasing education...

There are a lot of reasons why certain classes of people are anti-education (they're not actually against education per se, they're against school teaching). First and foremost is the idea that the schools will "indoctrinate" and/or "brainwash" their kids - the truth is exactly the reverse, that if kids learn how to think logically, learn how to think for themselves, they'll shake off the indoctrination that their community has fostered. They want their kids to think and act the same way they do, and resent the idea that their way of behavior could somehow be viewed as wrong; they are fiercely defensive of their ideals, and often, if they're shown categorically to be wrong, they just double down on it, and assert that the facts you're using are wrong or irrelevant in some way.

Note, for example, the Romney Campaign's flat-out assertion that they weren't going to let facts get in their way. For them, what you feel to be true is more important than what can be proven.

[siead_lietrathua]

.... Re-enacting it would be the equivalent of banning red paint on cars to stop the deaths caused by drag racing.

but.. red make it go fasta
/ork

[Duelist925]

but.. red make it go fasta
/ork

why puny grots not like red! red da best.
/ork

[bara]

people likely wouldn't support increasing education, because many people think treating the visible symptoms of a problem is better than actually treating the underlying problem,

Right, its really nice to take some pain meds to get your back to stop hurting but the same people wont exercise or even attempt to correct the poor posture that is causing the problem to begin with.

And, god forbid teachers assign more homework or we have more demanding classrooms because that might require their parents to actually give a damn.

It wont do a lot of good to increase education until we can figure out how to get people to care enough to make sure the kids are doing homework. I am however a huge supporter of education. Just pointing out another underlying problem.

[Andara Bledin]

We'd probably have less resistance to education in general if the fucktards in one ring of our political circus would stop pushing anti-intellectualism as an ideal. >_<

^-.-^

[Gravekeeper]

I think the main thing that annoys me about the argument is the assumption that there's this massive legion of quad dicked gang rapist pirates out there that are just barely being held at bay by armed civilians. Just waiting for their moment to strike.

Like the US would turn into Somalia inside of a week after any new gun control law because suddenly there would be no "good guys" with guns around to turn back the tides of darkness.

[BlaqueKatt]

Like the US would turn into Somalia inside of a week after any new gun control law because suddenly there would be no "good guys" with guns around to turn back the tides of darkness.

the mexican drug cartels would like a word.

[crashhelmet]

the mexican drug cartels would like a word.

That would require years of government corruption allowing the said piracy to grow to large levels.

The cartels didn't just spring up overnight and become the powerhouses that they are. They were much like the mafia, using money, fear, and power to control elected officials.

The biggest problem with Mexico is the country is too spread out. It isn't like here where we have major metropoliseseseseses (What is the plural for metropolis?) within a short distance from each other, filled with suburbs in between. They have their large cities separated by hundreds of miles of desert. To throw numbers into this, the United States has 366 metropolitan areas. Mexico has 55.

When the cartels started making their move, the country was too big and too poor to police/protect itself. Drug money easily bought the poor and corruptible.

[Nekojin]

(What is the plural for metropolis?)

Metroplexes.

More seriously, it's Metropolises.

The biggest problem with Mexico is the country is too spread out. It isn't like here where we have major metropoliseseseseses (What is the plural for metropolis?) within a short distance from each other, filled with suburbs in between. They have their large cities separated by hundreds of miles of desert. To throw numbers into this, the United States has 366 metropolitan areas. Mexico has 55.

Spoken like a Nor'Easter. There's vast stretches of lightly-inhabited or uninhabited desert in the Southwest states. Death Valley and the Mojave Desert are two notable such wastelands in just California, to say nothing of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

[Andara Bledin]

Spoken like a Nor'Easter. There's vast stretches of lightly-inhabited or uninhabited desert in the Southwest states. Death Valley and the Mojave Desert are two notable such wastelands in just California, to say nothing of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

Spoken like a Sou'Wester.

Don't forget the large swathes of mostly-uninhabited terrain in the mid-west, too.

Here's an awesome image of night-time lights in North America (minus some of northwest Canada and southern Mexico) showing that the eastern half of the US is very heavily populated, while the western half is concentrated almost entirely on the coasts. (the image is huge, so it will take a while to load) Here's one of the entire world.

^-.-^

[AdminAssistant]

Don't forget the large swathes of mostly-uninhabited terrain in the mid-west, too.

There's nothing I hate more than driving through Missouri. Especially southwestern Missouri. It's amazing how much nothing can be in one state. That said, I've never driven the length of Kansas, and it's also very unpopulated west of Topeka.

[crashhelmet]

Metroplexes.

More seriously, it's Metropolises.


Spoken like a Nor'Easter. There's vast stretches of lightly-inhabited or uninhabited desert in the Southwest states. Death Valley and the Mojave Desert are two notable such wastelands in just California, to say nothing of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

Metroplexes.

More seriously, it's Metropolises.


Spoken like a Nor'Easter. There's vast stretches of lightly-inhabited or uninhabited desert in the Southwest states. Death Valley and the Mojave Desert are two notable such wastelands in just California, to say nothing of Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas.

I'm actually a Sou'Wester. While i was raised all over the world, I was born in Orange, CA and spent a considerable amount of time in LA and Orange counties. I've lived here in Vegas for the last 11 years.

Spoken like a Sou'Wester.

Don't forget the large swathes of mostly-uninhabited terrain in the mid-west, too.

Here's an awesome image of night-time lights in North America (minus some of northwest Canada and southern Mexico) showing that the eastern half of the US is very heavily populated, while the western half is concentrated almost entirely on the coasts. (the image is huge, so it will take a while to load) Here's one of the entire world.

^-.-^

How much of that "unenlightened" terrain in the Midwest is mountain ranges and/or farm land?

Look at the northern half of Mexico in either picture you posted. That is all empty desert. The occasional podunk town here and there. To give you better perspective, I took this screen cap from the world picture of the more populated parts of Mexico. It is an 8 hour drive between Guadalajara and Mexico City. It is very similar to the 8 hour drive between Las Vegas and Reno. You leave one major metropolis and have nothing but desert and hit the occasional gas station town every few hours before you reach your destination.

That northern, empty half of Mexico is where the Cartels reside. Sure, they have power in the major cities like Mexico City and Guadalajara, but their armies are in the northern half where they can go virtually unnoticed.

[Andara Bledin]

Honestly, the topography and population density of the western US is very similar to northern Mexico, only bigger.

^-.-^

[Nekojin]

I'm actually a Sou'Wester. While i was raised all over the world, I was born in Orange, CA and spent a considerable amount of time in LA and Orange counties. I've lived here in Vegas for the last 11 years.

The "Nor'Easter" comment was mostly a joke - the eastern seaboard (and particularly the New England states) are the only place in the US where it's a nearly unbroken string of city-suburb-city-suburb (and Los Angeles and its sprawl as well). There's a ton of desolate, uninhabited space in the US, particularly west of the Mississippi. Even in Las Vegas, you don't have to go more than 10 miles out of town (if that) before you run into actual desert. I worked at the Poker Palace in North Vegas, and I could have thrown a rock from the parking lot and hit a cactus. (I'm sure it's a little more built up now than it was then, but not by much)

The biggest difference between Mexico and the US is the degree to which the government is in cahoots with the criminals, and the difference shrinks yearly. We've still got a long way to go to be in Mexico's boots, but we're headed that way.

[Nyoibo]

Pfft, you think there's vast tracts of nothing over there? Try driving around Australia.