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Jon Erik Kingstad

Afton, MN
Commenter for
2 years 49 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 01/06/13 at 12:11 pm in response to Regulating guns like cars: Perspective on the gun debate after Sandy Hook

Your point being?

Posted on 01/06/13 at 12:21 pm in response to Regulating guns like cars: Perspective on the gun debate after Sandy Hook

Gun rights advocates know that guns are already regulated at federal and state level. They can argue that point either way: a) no point in further regulations because regulations don't work; or b) you can't improve the crappy, loophole ridden laws and regulations because that would infringe on my/our /"the people's" right to keep and bear arms and besides "people kill people, guns don't kill people", etc. etc. And round and round we go. At some point, one has to realize that some people...

Posted on 01/06/13 at 11:55 pm in response to Regulating guns like cars: Perspective on the gun debate after Sandy Hook

You cite a single example of homicide by use of a vehicle where the auto manufacturer is not the defendant. And that's supposed to prove that the courts side with your point that the auto industry is "free of responsibility" for all deaths in which a vehicle is involved?

Posted on 01/07/13 at 11:38 pm in response to Regulating guns like cars: Perspective on the gun debate after Sandy Hook

Cars are for our society what I would call a "necessary evil." I would personally rather not own a car and I know of many who feel the same way. Cars are a necessity in our culture. So it's not quite right to simply say, "care-good, guns-bad." Both are bad I'd say but the difference is that, as a society, we've "socialized" the evil, but necessary costs of owning and operating an automobile through a system of laws and contracts to spread the costs of owning and operating motor vehicles...

Posted on 01/03/13 at 09:34 am in response to Peterson burned by final farm bill policy and process

Brian Lambert quotes John Boehner that the Farm Bill Peterson was working on couldn't have passed the House anyway because cuts to Food Stamps were inadequate. Can't wait to see what the new Congress comes up with in ways of starving people.

Posted on 01/03/13 at 09:23 am in response to Minnesota lawmakers' reactions to the fiscal cliff deal

Kline is among that group of citizens who believe in the false analogy between the US budget and a family budget. He apparently is also among the GOP who think it is "reasonable" to hold the budget hostage to manufacture various crises to protect the wealthiest. That's what I take from his comment about being "reasonable in August" and "reasonable in December." It's great he voted for this bill but where's he going to be in about a month when we're back facing the "debt ceiling" again....

Posted on 12/21/12 at 04:00 pm in response to For better or worse, an old, flawed and hard-to-amend Constitution binds us

Great wrap up to a great and insightful series, Eric. I think you're series has made a good case for a something like a Constitutional convention. It might have to start with something like those peace conferences where about a year was taken to decide about the shape of the table, but if we could get Congress to appoint a group of respected and trusted people, I'd say why not give it a go. As you say, it would take 3/4 of the states to approve anything. Why not get some ideas at least...

Posted on 12/20/12 at 03:04 pm in response to Economic theory gives us two 'weapons' to combat gun violence

If I understand your point it is that the Second Amendment prohibits "we, the people" from adopting a a law that would make gun sales, or for that matter, possession, illegal, without resorting to sophistry. I beg to differ. The full text of the Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The terms of the Second Amendment speaks to a "Militia" and not just any...

Posted on 12/20/12 at 08:58 pm in response to Economic theory gives us two 'weapons' to combat gun violence

Stan,

You'll get no argument from on the political difficulty of banning all weapons. Nobody I know, including me, has ever made such a proposal anyway. That's part of the problem: hearing that someone says there is no constitutional right to own a gun is interpreted by many hearers as "They want to take away our guns!" Not true! Saying that one has no "right" to possess a gun is not the same thing as saying one can't possess a gun lawfully.

I don't deny that you can...

Posted on 12/14/12 at 10:39 pm in response to Silent march remembers the homeless who died in Minnesota

it's hard to acknowledge that not all homeless people are mentally ill or homeless by any voluntary choice. People become homeless because of poor choices, decisions or planning to be sure. Homelessness is a hard reality to inflict upon someone who has made a poor decision though. Our country and society needs to do better and strive better to make homelessness a part of something we only talk about as part of history, not as something we confront as part of our reality in 2012. We ought to...