At the moment, there is not a gun and ammunition just inside the doorway. Tuesday night, watching the Occupy Oakland footage, gridlore was having to work HARD not to blow our rent money on changing that.

About the Republican hypocrisy about helping the poor. The way I usually frame my anti-Republican-qua-poor-helpers argument is to point out that they only want to help people who, starting from the "level playing field," suffered from some inequality (war wounds or legal torts) that kept them from succeeding. Burden of proving that you started on the level playing field (rather than dropping yourself below it, which you're assumed to have done until proven otherwise) and that what happened to you was really wrong rests on you. Problem: if something wrong was done to you, you have avenues of legal recourse, such as pressing charges or suing in equity court. Problem 2: if your problem was that Republican policy or some nebulous thing like sexism, racism, homophobia, neglect by parents or teachers, insufficient education, or other "unprovable" disadvantage, you don't qualify as someone who started from the level. So Republican charity only helps those who had already been helped - by schools, good parents, socioeconomic infrastructure, lack of prejudice, etc.

WWJND: that.

And ditto kshandra to some extent. I was mad when the first canister hit. Throwing a second canister at people rushing to help him, however, blew my shit out of the water. That's got to be some kind of war crime.