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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (42312)	6/27/1999 11:16:00 PM
From: greenspirit	Respond to of 108807

Christopher, I wonder why when people remember "Jack the Ripper" they don't think about banning knives?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (42312)	6/27/1999 11:27:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

I am not sure we are the most economically advanced society in the world. How are you measuring that? Certainly, a few of the European democracies have higher standards of living overall, for example. The most educationally advanced society in the world? Really? Can you cite any statistics showing that? If you measure student achievement, we don't even come close to the top. This would also seem to be at odds with the argument that I believe you make on occasion that all public schools should be dissolved, partly because they are doing such a horrible job of educating American children. Or perhaps it is Michael who makes that argument. Several Japanese people with whom I have discussed this issue make the argument that they feel freer in their society than in ours, because they feel free to walk the streets. Violent crime is quite a bit rarer there than it is here. I guess I would argue that freedom is relative; the freedom to survive unaccosted is a very important one. As far as general freedoms, several of the European democracies certainly have citizens living as freely as we do, again with much lower rates of violent crime and injuries and deaths by handguns, accidental, homicides and suicides. We have extremely loose immigration laws compared to other countries where it is desirable to live. For example, if you are born in Germany of foreign parents, you do not get German citizenship automatically, although all babies born here are citizens. We also have the longest border in the world between a first world and third world nation, the very porous one with Mexico. So there are reasons much more complex than you seem to consider in why our immigration rates are so high. <If you want to blame our gun laws for our being violent, credit the philosophy behind them (that individuals, not government, know what is best for the people) with the other benefits of our society.> That last statement doesn't make sense to me as it is written. Can you say it in another way?