Another nutter with a gun goes on the rampage. This time in Wisconsin.

Think they have serious issues over there. Surely something needs to be done?

Nothing will ever be done. The pro-gun lobby is far too powerful. You could have one of these incidents every week and it wouldn't make a scrap of difference.

Guns don't kill people...

But it's in the constitution!

Idiots.

Which is true, but they don't half make it easier.

It's not confined to the States. There's a nut running round Liverpool with a shotgun.

That's somehow news?

Most Americans that I have spoken to consider it an absolute right to have certain things and to not have certain other things - to carry guns is absolute, to have minimum government interference in their "rights" is also absolute.

Guns don't kill people is the brick wall you come up against every time, its true, guns don't kill people, but you don't legislate against the guns. you're legislating against the person having the right to own the gun, and that is an almost communist (the most feared word in the American language) step too far for most Americans.

Half of my family are American and the only one who carried a gun is my late Uncle (through marriage). He had an old Civil War rifle that I held and was interested in the history, but he asked me if I would like to see his gun that he kept for defence in his coat pocket and I refused.

My cousins hunt (they live in rural Pennsylvania) and own rifles but never hand guns for defence. I hate that too

I can understand the reasoning behind owning shotguns and rifles for hunting but handguns were developed for one reason only: to kill people at close quarters. Unless that is your stated intention, then there's absolutely no need to carry one.

Countries full of cowboys.

Yup. You have a right to own as many guns as you want – but not to free healthcare.

Thats not quite the argument that the liberal right (who tend to dominate American politics) use though - they have the absolute right to carry arms and the absolute right to not have government provided healthcare added to their tax bills.

Government intervention into anything is akin to communism, it really is, even to liberals with a small "l", to which end they allow hugely powerful lobby groups to dictate policy to the policy makers and no-one sees the irony that all you've done is replace an elected government with a non-elected opinion group.

Yep. The Americans do my head in. They can be so wonderful, innovative, clever and almost insanely kind at times and yet can be so monumentally introverted, backward and stupid almost in the same breath.

On a slightly related note, I occasionally watch Fox News whenever I need a good laugh, their latest bizarre point is that LGBT people (or anyone for that matter) who either boycott or criticise Chick-fil-a for what their President said is somehow a violation of right to free speech.
In between bouts of damage control for Mitt Romney of course.

It is quite extraordinary.

What I find worrying, though, is that they're managing to export that: you increasingly see, cropping up on British forums etc, the suggestion that this country – and everywhere else in Europe, for that matter – are socialist countries.

It's a culture of 'anything that doesn't tally, utterly and completely, with our belief in laissez faire, fundamentalist economic ideology is obviously socialist or communist'.

It's such a damning illustration of the utter idiocy of these cretins.

I do think that Jon Stewart was good on that on the [iDaily Show[/i the other day, though.

[url=http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/08/06/watch-cnn-reporter-says-targeting-sikhs-unfair/Sikhs are unfairly targeted because they "look" like muslims[/url

A 1.2billion record war chest provided by his donors to fight the next presidential election according to yesterdays Times.

Heaven help us!

Plus Clint Eastwood. I vow never to like any more of his films, no matter how much I like them, except for the "Outlaw Josie Wales" which is really about socialism.

Yep. Although I seem to remember something similar happening here just after the 7/7 bombings. Every country has its weirdos and idiots, it's just America appears to have a larger proportion than most.

The majority of his acting, and films, have been wooden and cack, along with his other republican conservative buddies Bruce Willis, Arnie and Sly.

Nope, he's made some great films - in my opinion, and that of many millions around the globe. You don't like him, or them, presumably because you despise populist cinema, or actors like these hitting on a winning formula that strikes a chord with the paying public, and that is your right, but you're not the judge.

Speaking of judges, I suppose one way of measuring the status of someone in the movies is to look at awards given by their peers, specialist festivals etc. Here's a list of Eastwood's:
[urlhttp://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000142/awards[/url
This actually confirms his status as a giant of the cinema, and some might say your dismissing of his body of work as mostly "cack" is, er, cack.

The films he has directed are far superior to the films he has acted in, imho.
Wooden actor for me, but your viewpoint is allowed to differ.

Clint for President!

A better actor and President would have been Paul Newman. I suspect Clint would have got into character and blown half the world to bits, whereas Newman would have been too cool to start shooting off nuclear weapons.