oslooskar

You've obviously led a very sheltered life and never experienced any serious danger firsthand. But learning a martial art isn’t just about expecting violence — it’s about building confidence, and being prepared for situations we all hope will never happen. It’s like learning first aid: you may never need it, but if you do, you’ll be glad you took the time to learn about it.

That's an interesting perspective, given that far more innocent people were murdered in Europe in the last century than in the United States. Are you not familiar with the Holocaust, Stalin's purges and forced famines, the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans in the 1990s, and the Armenian genocide?

I also hitchhiked all over Europe in my youth and all over Lappland and hitchhiked most of the way from Europe to Calcutta. From there I flew to Bangkok and then hitched from there down to Singapore where I stayed in the Sikh Temple for several weeks until I could board a ship to Australia. When I arrived in Australia in late December 1964 I hitchhiked from Perth to Adelaide, Melbourn, Sydney, Brisbane, Mount Isa, Camooweal, Darwin. In those years I was also able to avoid fights. However, after returning to the USA to my hometown of San Francisco it wasn't long before I was getting into fights on the street. They could not be avoided. In fact, after I started driving a taxi I hired an old time boxer to train me at Newman's boxing gym on Leavenworth Street. I learned a lot from him and was able to knock two suits on their asses in front of the Buena Vista Cafe. My point being that only a fool would be so idealistic as to go through life without learning how to defend himself. Would you board a passenger ship and cross the Atlantic on it if it had no lifeboats?

Julius Caesar mentions somewhere in his war commentaries that the fiercest warriors to fight against him were those with the least exposure to civilization. Additionally, according to population biologist Elmer Pendell, civilizations are the creations of the highest type of men but also their undoing. The theory suggests that civilization shelters the weak and unfit, preventing nature from weeding them out. These unfit individuals have a higher birthrate than the fit, and soon outnumber them, leading to the civilization's decline.

I'm 82 and I don't run any days. However, I swim one kilometer every other day and walk on the non swim days.

And the British-American puppet, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, otherwise known as the Shah of Iran, was equally brutal. He allowed the British and Americans to exploit Iran's oil while holding his fellow Iranians at gunpoint. My point being that uncletiger is not wrong.

1. Overthrew Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 2. Tried to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in 2011. 3. The U.S. supported pro-Western opposition groups during the Euromaidan protests contributing to Yanukovych's ouster in 2014. Do you need more?

On the contrary, what's sad is your refusal to accept the the evidence you asked for. After all, it should be quite obvious to any objective observer that Operation Ajax was a criminal takeover of Iran.

Hello bradiston! This is Houston, come in! Do you read us? Earth calling bradiston, come in! Bradiston do you read Operation Ajax and Operation PBsuccess? uncletiger, I fear bradiston is lost in a black hole.

Surely you must be familiar with "operation Ajax"?

I'm not a lawyer, but it might be a requirement to shorten a post to the part you are replying to because the last sentence of number seven of the Standards of conduct says, "Only quote the person you are replying to, and only quote the relevant section that you are discussing."

I only make changes in the posts of others by shortening them. So, that does not appear to be a violation of rule 28. 28. You will not make changes to messages quoted from other members posts, except for purposes of shortening the quoted post. Do not shorten any post in a way that alters the context of the original post. Do not change the formatting of the post you are quoting.

Why not?

So, if you don't mind my asking, were you born and raised in Australia? I only ask because in my youth, I hitchhiked across Australia from Perth to Coolgardie, across the Nullarbor to Adelaide, then on to Melbourne, Sydney, Surfers Paradise (where I slept on the beach), Brisbane, Mount Isa, Camooweal (where I was almost killed), Tennant Creek, and finally Darwin. And I must say, I don't ever recall meeting an Australian with an inferiority complex as bad as yours. I also worked in construction in Darwin for almost 5 months.

Thanks! The second link you provided allowed me to read the article.

One has to subscribe to the New York Times in order to read the article. That being said, are we allowed to post links on this website?

No, I did not cut and paste your comment. I've used that line before, but it is entirely my own. So, you can stop indulging in self-flattery.

They probably could have. Were they psychiatrists?

That's a good question. Maybe if you find the answer, you'll come to terms with your feelings of inferiority.

Well, I'm glad you got that off your chest. You're probably good for another ten minutes until your inferiority complex kicks in. 😄

Nothing like a good rant to make oneself feel better. That being said, you need to accept the fact that you hold Americans to a much higher standard of behavior than other nationalities who have also killed innocent people. You seem to ignore their homicidal wrongdoings because you believe they don't know any better, whereas you think Americans do.

Yeah! Bloody Yanks think the won the war all by themselves!

Do you see the contradiction in your comment? It lies in the fact that you are simultaneously dismissing the fears of others as irrational while expressing your own fear of a potential future tyranny. You're calling others paranoid and then making a dire prediction and thus engaging in the same behavior you criticize. This undermines your credibility because you're guilty of the same kind of fearful thinking you are accusing others of having.

The Second Amendment is deeply rooted in American history and culture, it served and continues to serve as a safeguard for individual liberty and a check against potential governmental overreach, like we see in Britain today. That means its core purpose is to protect the citizens' right to self-defense and to maintain a balance of power between the government and the people.

Because the United States, unlike Australia, was founded on a deep skepticism of centralized power, stemming from colonial experiences with British rule. The Declaration of Independence, the Revolutionary War, and the Bill of Rights all reflect a wariness of governmental overreach. This distrust is deeply ingrained in American political culture and has shaped the development of checks and balances designed to prevent the concentration of power. Hence, emulating Australian trust in government could risk undermining these foundational principles that guard against potential tyranny. In fact, one need only look at the crackdown on free speech in the United Kingdom that is presently taking place to know your recipe is wrong for Americans.