[Info-vax] Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[John Wallace]

On Aug 8, 4:18 pm, Doug Phillips <dphil... at netscape.net> wrote:
> Consider this a reply to Bob, Chris & David.
>
> On Aug 8, 8:20 am, koeh... at eisner.nospam.encompasserve.org (Bob
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> Koehler) wrote:
> > In article <23960c5f-ea63-4d4f-a07a-30bc67d68... at m13g2000vbd.googlegroups.com>, Doug Phillips <dphil... at netscape.net> writes:
>
> > > By that do you mean the US world-police? I think if you look a little
> > > closer, you'll find that the US does *not* want to be the world-
> > > police. Most of us would be happy if other countries dealt with their
> > > own outlaw neighbors.
>
> >    Like the current situation in Syria?  Some of the anti-government
> >    forces want to put balme on the US for not establishing a no-fly
> >    zone.
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> > > Credibility? Look at the crime statistics of some of the countries
> > > with the most restrictive gun control laws. Go ahead, I'll wait.
>
> >    That's a clearly loaded question.  Russia has restrcitive gun control
> >    laws.  So does Britain.  I'd be happy if we had crime statistics
> >    similar to most of the western nations that have tight gun control
> >    laws, but not with the goverments some of the others have.
>
> Right. We don't have the restrictions on our freedom found in most
> other countries (yet) and we have a larger and more diverse population
> mix than other countries.
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> >    So you're statement doens't make any point, it depends on which
> >    countries you pick.
>
> Since we're discussing gun control, look at countries that have
> enacted strict gun control. In the US, gun control is a State
> decision, so just looking at US statistics doesn't tell the story.
> Even in the US, different states and different areas within each state
> have different ethnic - economic - social - religious makeups and
> therefore different problems.
>
> Compare per-capita crime rates (not just firearm related) before and
> after gun control was enacted. Comparing different countries raw crime
> rates introduces too many variables and it's hard to find unbiased
> analysis.www.unodc.orgis a good place to start. The pro-gun side has
> the most statistic laden sites, and verifying those numbers can be a
> challenge. News channels like BBC often publish crime statistics and
> here's one from 2001 (4 years after the ban):
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> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1440764.stm
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> The UK's incident of gun related crime *increased* after the gun laws
> were passed. Since then, by some reports, gun related deaths decreased
> but knife related deaths increased. I've read conflicting statistics,
> but the crime increase in England since the laws were enacted seems to
> be around 89%. Even in the UK, there is a difference in statistics
> between England, Wales, Ireland & Scotland, so just looking at the UK
> doesn't tell the story any more than just looking at the US or
> Chicago.
>
> Chicago, which has one of if not the highest crime rate in the world,
> has a huge gang problem and that problem significantly impacts the
> statistics. Non-gang related crime in Chicago is not so much different
> than other major cities. There are areas in every major city that are
> not safe.
>
> Mass-killings with legal guns are anomalies. The guns most often used
> in crime are not legally obtained. Gang-related crimes are a huge
> problem and gangs (and other criminals) have easy access to illegal
> guns. Those problems are hard to solve anywhere in the world.
>
> Even though the recent incidents in Colorado & Wisconsin are fresh in
> our minds, I still remember Cumbria and others.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rampage_killers
>
> It isn't an easy question, and I'm not strong on either side, but a
> look at the numbers seems to support the statement that "Gun control
> is not crime control."

The BBC does still do a few decent programmes. One of them is a BBC
Radio 4/Open Universtity half hour a week called "More Or Less" which
covers a variety of topics where being numerate can make you better
informed. They had a brief item on the inter-state variability of US
gun control laws on a recent programme:

"Last week's mass-shooting at a cinema in Colorado has - not
surprisingly - intensified America's bitter and long-running argument
with itself about gun control. The argument is political and highly
partisan. But it is also practical: would tighter gun laws actually
lead to fewer gun deaths? You might think it's obvious that they
would. But it seems the evidence isn't quite that clear."

>From http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l1g64 (includes link to
programme recording, not sure if available outside the UK)

More Or Less also did a rather interesting half hour a while back on
how Goldman Sachs helped break the Greek economy and thereafter other
Eurozone economies:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/09/more_or_less_debt_-_a_european.html
- this is a full transcript(?) posted as a blog item, not something to
listen to.

Just occasionally the BBC is still worth paying for.