All Sorts Of Evil?

Salerno, Italy-Travel+Leisure, Facebook

Business Week: August 28, 2014

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'Firearms Sure, Give a 9-Year-Old an Uzi: Four Blunt Points'

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'A 9-year-old girl in Arizona being taught to fire an Uzi machine gun lost control of the weapon and killed her shooting instructor. This is the kind of horrible incident that invites overheated debate.'

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'1. Wait, a 9-year-old can get her hands on an Uzi? Yes. In most places, it’s legal for children under adult supervision to fire guns. The operator of the Arizona range permitted kids as young as 8 to shoot. The little girl in this case was brought to the range by her parents. Instructor Charles Vacca can be seen on the video released by police eagerly explaining to the youngster how to hold and point the Uzi, a potent weapon originally made for the Israeli military. After the girl fired a single round in semiautomatic mode, Vacca switched the gun to fully automatic and urged her to let loose. A fully automatic weapon, referred to as a machine gun, spews rounds continuously as long as the trigger is depressed. The Uzi’s recoil apparently proved too much for the girl in Arizona, causing the barrel to drift up and to her left, where Vacca was standing close by.'

This raises the question that if someone nine years old is going to be allowed on a firing range; should it not be a gun that is easier to control and not automatic?

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 '3. So should a little kid be firing an Uzi or any other machine gun? No. Not even with adult supervision.' 

This seems reasonable and correct.

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 '4. Does the Arizona episode mean we live in a whacko gun culture?'

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'Those saying no, guns are as American as apple pie, will point out, accurately, that for years, the number of accidental shootings has been declining, along with overall gun deaths. By those measures, we’re becoming a safer country, even as some parents defy common sense and put machine guns in the hands of little kids.'

I am for allowing, reasonably, weapons for self-defence. But I am in favour of keeping automatic weapons out of the hands of non-adults. As well those with significant criminal records and medically documented significant mental issues when applicable should also be disqualified from being able to legally own certain weapons.

Bloomberg.com: August 26, 2014

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'Burger King to Buy Tim Hortons for About $11 Billion' 'Burger King Worldwide Inc. (BKW) agreed to acquire Tim Hortons Inc. (THI) for about C$12.5 billion ($11.4 billion) in a deal that creates the third-largest fast-food company and moves its headquarters to Canada.'

From Facebook

Senior security officer brings in Tim H box because it was his Grandson's 1st birthday. 

A female Russian trainer, probably in her fifties, signing out asks me who brought the box in sternly and states that the contents are poison...

Tim King's?

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'The purchase brings Burger King the biggest seller of coffee and doughnuts in Canada, which it can use to grow internationally. The deal also lets the burger chain push into the grocery business by selling packaged coffees at supermarkets in North America. The combined business would create a fast-food network with $23 billion in sales, including franchisees, and more than 18,000 restaurants in 100 countries.'

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'The acquisition also moves the merged entity’s global headquarters to Canada, potentially taking advantage of lower corporate taxes. When the companies disclosed the talks on Aug. 24, it heightened debate over American businesses shifting to other countries in search of lower tax bills. President Barack Obama criticized the practice in July, and his aides said that the administration would take action to stop the trend.'

If Canada has lower corporate tax rates than the United States with Canada's reputation for high income taxes, that is quite interesting. 

Perhaps disturbing from a Canadian citizen's perspective?

From the video the idea was given that basically a corporation and its leadership has a obligation to its shareholders in regard to maximizing financial gain. 

I do not deny there is an obligation to shareholders.

But in the context of business in general, not just this deal, I do have very great ethical and moral difficulties with making maximizing gain for shareholders primary over all other ethical and moral obligations. To make this primary risks living for money and financial gain.

1 Timothy 6:10 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

10 For the love of money is a root of all [a]sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The context is those in the Christian faith, not those outside of Christ, but the theological concept would apply in the world system as well, that being that the love of money and financial gain is the root of all sorts of evil. 

This could be so in a corporate context as well when corporations as a bottom line have their shareholders financial gain as primary instead of other considerations, for example, even from a secular perspective; the welfare and safety of employees.

Perhaps child labour in developing countries when abuses are taking place by employers?

This means the Tim King's is becoming a Canadian company. Burger King is going to become a Canadian? Satirically, Burger King is associated (as is McDonalds) with 'fat American culture' and now perhaps it will be associated with 'fat Canadian culture?'

CBC