March 14, 201213 yr When I was 16 I was in the Royal Navy. I was getting bullied by this 25 year old guy who one day took it too far and gave me quite a severe beating. Yes, I was a lippy young lad but didn't deserve that. Cos I was much smaller than he, I waited till he went to sleep and beat the cr4p out of him with my steel toecapped boot. I had totally lost it and had I had a gun, I honestly think I would have used it. Thankfully I didn't have one. However, the result was the same. He never touched me again. He thought I was a phsyco and thought I would kill him the next time he laid a finger on me. We agreed never to talk to each other again. It's the "heat of the moment" incidents like these, that has me worried about civilians having guns. Are you less dead if somebody kills you in the heat of the moment with a kitchen knife?
March 15, 201213 yr When I was 16 I was in the Royal Navy. I was getting bullied by this 25 year old guy who one day took it too far and gave me quite a severe beating. Yes, I was a lippy young lad but didn't deserve that. Cos I was much smaller than he, I waited till he went to sleep and beat the cr4p out of him with my steel toecapped boot. I had totally lost it and had I had a gun, I honestly think I would have used it. Thankfully I didn't have one. However, the result was the same. He never touched me again. He thought I was a phsyco and thought I would kill him the next time he laid a finger on me. We agreed never to talk to each other again. It's the "heat of the moment" incidents like these, that has me worried about civilians having guns. Are you less dead if somebody kills you in the heat of the moment with a kitchen knife? No, Chuck, but if you were unarmed, and had to face somebody who wanted to kill you "in the heat of the moment", would you rather he had a kitchen knife or a gun? At least if he had a knife, you might stand a chance of fighting back. Possession of a gun gives many people a sense of superior strength... and if they are thuggishly inclined, they are more likely to use a gun than any other weapon.
March 15, 201213 yr When I was 16 I was in the Royal Navy. I was getting bullied by this 25 year old guy who one day took it too far and gave me quite a severe beating. Yes, I was a lippy young lad but didn't deserve that. Cos I was much smaller than he, I waited till he went to sleep and beat the cr4p out of him with my steel toecapped boot. I had totally lost it and had I had a gun, I honestly think I would have used it. Thankfully I didn't have one. However, the result was the same. He never touched me again. He thought I was a phsyco and thought I would kill him the next time he laid a finger on me. We agreed never to talk to each other again. It's the "heat of the moment" incidents like these, that has me worried about civilians having guns. Are you less dead if somebody kills you in the heat of the moment with a kitchen knife? We weren't in the kitchen. But there was some left over toast that I could have slapped him with. Rock hard Toast can cause severe grazing you know.
March 15, 201213 yr When I was 16 I was in the Royal Navy. I was getting bullied by this 25 year old guy who one day took it too far and gave me quite a severe beating. Yes, I was a lippy young lad but didn't deserve that. Cos I was much smaller than he, I waited till he went to sleep and beat the cr4p out of him with my steel toecapped boot. I had totally lost it and had I had a gun, I honestly think I would have used it. Thankfully I didn't have one. However, the result was the same. He never touched me again. He thought I was a phsyco and thought I would kill him the next time he laid a finger on me. We agreed never to talk to each other again. It's the "heat of the moment" incidents like these, that has me worried about civilians having guns. Are you less dead if somebody kills you in the heat of the moment with a kitchen knife? No, Chuck, but if you were unarmed, and had to face somebody who wanted to kill you "in the heat of the moment", would you rather he had a kitchen knife or a gun? At least if he had a knife, you might stand a chance of fighting back. Possession of a gun gives many people a sense of superior strength... and if they are thuggishly inclined, they are more likely to use a gun than any other weapon. In the UK, one would hope to have at least a baseball bat if a semi-thug came at you with a knife. If I was in Texas I would have a gun, thuggish or not, and simply shoot the fool for bringing a knife to a gun fight. Mr. Jangles: Yeah, that toast is a killer all right. Have you ever had Texas Toast? It's the MOAT (Monster of all toasts). How's things in the sand box?
March 15, 201213 yr Mr. Jangles: Yeah, that toast is a killer all right. Have you ever had Texas Toast? It's the MOAT (Monster of all toasts). How's things in the sand box? Never had Texas Toast chuck. How thick is it? As for Saudi. Very dusty drive through the desert yesterday but still enjoying it it thanks. Gotta go back to the UK on business in a few weeks but I don't want to go.
March 15, 201213 yr Mr. Jangles: Yeah, that toast is a killer all right. Have you ever had Texas Toast? It's the MOAT (Monster of all toasts). How's things in the sand box? Never had Texas Toast chuck. How thick is it? As for Saudi. Very dusty drive through the desert yesterday but still enjoying it it thanks. Gotta go back to the UK on business in a few weeks but I don't want to go. At least twice as thick. Drive carefully through those sand storms. I drove through one a few years ago and had to have my car repainted as it was sand blasted on the front and one side.
March 15, 201213 yr Mr. Jangles: Yeah, that toast is a killer all right. Have you ever had Texas Toast? It's the MOAT (Monster of all toasts). How's things in the sand box? Never had Texas Toast chuck. How thick is it? As for Saudi. Very dusty drive through the desert yesterday but still enjoying it it thanks. Gotta go back to the UK on business in a few weeks but I don't want to go. At least twice as thick. Drive carefully through those sand storms. I drove through one a few years ago and had to have my car repainted as it was sand blasted on the front and one side. I use the Company car. The number plates, headlights and under the bumper (fender) are already sandblasted. My Yukon stays on my driveway when I drive that way.
March 15, 201213 yr Drive carefully through those sand storms. I drove through one a few years ago and had to have my car repainted as it was sand blasted on the front and one side. That is amazing! Scary but amazing
March 15, 201213 yr When I was 16 I was in the Royal Navy. I was getting bullied by this 25 year old guy who one day took it too far and gave me quite a severe beating. Yes, I was a lippy young lad but didn't deserve that. Cos I was much smaller than he, I waited till he went to sleep and beat the cr4p out of him with my steel toecapped boot. I had totally lost it and had I had a gun, I honestly think I would have used it. Thankfully I didn't have one. However, the result was the same. He never touched me again. He thought I was a phsyco and thought I would kill him the next time he laid a finger on me. We agreed never to talk to each other again. It's the "heat of the moment" incidents like these, that has me worried about civilians having guns. Are you less dead if somebody kills you in the heat of the moment with a kitchen knife? We weren't in the kitchen. But there was some left over toast that I could have slapped him with. Rock hard Toast can cause severe grazing you know. No wonder he was pissed off if you kept burning his toast! Kids eh?
March 15, 201213 yr Never had Texas Toast chuck. How thick is it? As thick as the average Texan rigger As for Saudi. Very dusty drive through the desert yesterday but still enjoying it it thanks. Gotta go back to the UK on business in a few weeks but I don't want to go. There's Boddingtons back in Blighty. Washes the taste of sand away very quickly.
March 15, 201213 yr Never had Texas Toast chuck. How thick is it? As thick as the average Texan rigger Truer words were never spoken.
March 15, 201213 yr A lot of highly penetrating remarks.... except those on the use of arms, which were relevant to his age, but not to ours. That what suits one age may well not suit another is one of the lessons of history... which in this case the American people have not learnt. Actually the arms comments are as important today if not more than when he said them.....IMO of course This is of course the reason........ "The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." Thomas Jefferson I'm aware that feelings for and against the gun laws run high in the US; my reasoning was that the US is no longer a frontier state, and the normal forces of law and order should be sufficient to protect the people. I am astonished that you could even suggest that the tyranny of the US Government could reach a level where the citizens would need to take up arms to defend themselves against it. Is the US government really as bad as that? arms are to protect me from the states protectors
March 15, 201213 yr arms are to protect me from the states protectors What do you mean by the "states protectors" (your punctuation)?
March 15, 201213 yr This is where there are loud voices raised against various 'extremists', 'fanatics', 'the religious right' and 'militants' - as well as a host of other descriptions - who look at one small facet of overall living (which includes having a job, having a family, paying a mortgage, paying or a car, going to the pub, taking the kids to the zoo, supervising the little horrors' homework and so on) which most people worry about more than the way the state and it's minions - police, army, civil service and so on - are controlling a large part of the limits on one's life. These days there is no aspect of one's life where the state is not intruding more and more, controlling what one can and cannot do, tking more of one's income in order to extend that control - espeially into areas where most citizens do not want, expect or undertand such control. Jefferson set out a guide for a democratic society, governance of the people by the people, which is turning into governance of the people by an unwanted, irresponsible, greedy, unfeeling group of people called politicians. Leaving no choice for the balance of the population as we cannot get rid of this system without civil war (see Syria). We are all living in a Syria-like society, but most governments are better at hiding their fascistic control over their p3ople than Bashir Assad. They are parasites living off the body of the citizen corpus, gradually devouring it. We must prevent the parasite from killing the host.
March 15, 201213 yr Agreed, HB... but we won't do it with guns. I'm afraid I started all the fuss about the gun law on this thread (mea culpa, mea maxima culpa)... and we've allowed it to distract us from all the more intelligent things which Jefferson said. We have indeed allowed politicians to take control... as every society before us has done (Athens, Rome, the Papacy at various times, England in the 16th and 17th centuries, France under Louis XIV, France after Napoleon, and so on). Unfortunately the end-game of this sort of society is usually rather nasty.
March 15, 201213 yr We are all living in a Syria-like society, but most governments are better at hiding their fascistic control over their people than Bashir Assad. They are parasites living off the body of the citizen corpus, gradually devouring it. We must prevent the parasite from killing the host. Your whole post was excellent but this I really liked.... Some hide it so well they still have a large population of sheeple......until it is too late 12 warning signs of fascism
March 16, 201213 yr We are all living in a Syria-like society, but most governments are better at hiding their fascistic control over their people than Bashir Assad. They are parasites living off the body of the citizen corpus, gradually devouring it. We must prevent the parasite from killing the host. Your whole post was excellent but this I really liked.... Some hide it so well they still have a large population of sheeple......until it is too late 12 warning signs of fascism Thank you. I have been rushing from project to project, country to country, for the past forty years, not really looking around me. I came back to the UK in January to slow down a little (not retire) and started to look more closely at the world. I am now starting to philosophise a little, but it will be years before my thoughts are in any sort of coherent order.
March 16, 201213 yr We are all living in a Syria-like society, but most governments are better at hiding their fascistic control over their people than Bashir Assad. They are parasites living off the body of the citizen corpus, gradually devouring it. We must prevent the parasite from killing the host. Your whole post was excellent but this I really liked.... Some hide it so well they still have a large population of sheeple......until it is too late 12 warning signs of fascism Thank you. I have been rushing from project to project, country to country, for the past forty years, not really looking around me. I came back to the UK in January to slow down a little (not retire) and started to look more closely at the world. I am now starting to philosophise a little, but it will be years before my thoughts are in any sort of coherent order. Join the club, HB. I'm three months younger than you... and still making up my mind about all sorts of things. The day I stop learning, and stop thinking, is the day I start dying.
March 16, 201213 yr arms are to protect me from the states protectors What do you mean by the "states protectors" (your punctuation)? I think he means he wants to shoot coppers. I don't really see how politicians and the state are a separate thing from the rest of us. As Mrs Thatcher said, "there is no society" - there is only 'us'. It worries me when seemingly rational people join the chorus of complaints against the branches of governance set up to help us, without taking an active role in improving those arms of governance, lending credibility to the anarchists whose aim is to destroy the governance of our society. I see this not only on this forum, but in the facebook postings of my friends that live in the West as well... SC
March 17, 201213 yr arms are to protect me from the states protectors What do you mean by the "states protectors" (your punctuation)? I think he means he wants to shoot coppers. I don't really see how politicians and the state are a separate thing from the rest of us. As Mrs Thatcher said, "there is no society" - there is only 'us'. It worries me when seemingly rational people join the chorus of complaints against the branches of governance set up to help us, without taking an active role in improving those arms of governance, lending credibility to the anarchists whose aim is to destroy the governance of our society. I see this not only on this forum, but in the facebook postings of my friends that live in the West as well... SC Fair comment, SC. However, those of us who live overseas, and have done so for most of our lives, are not in a position to do much to improve things. You could say, with some justification, that we should shut up, then, but I would take issue with you on that. We still owe a loyalty to the country where we were brought up, and perhaps the very fact that we are living away from it gives us a different (perhaps more balanced) viewpoint than those who are living in the midst of it. On the other hand, some of us, who get our view of modern Britain from the Daily Mail and other so-called newspapers, might have a very distorted view of what Britain is really like.
March 17, 201213 yr We still owe a loyalty to the country where we were brought up, and perhaps the very fact that we are living away from it gives us a different (perhaps more balanced) viewpoint than those who are living in the midst of it. Yes & no...........Of course we are Patriots to stand behind our country ....OUR country But like all governments there is the chance they will fall into corruption of some sort or another. In a country like the US where lobbyist can get favors for their cause or big business it is even more so. So yes loyalty but the loyalty should be in our case ( US citizens ) To The Republic For which It Stands Not to the wrongful actions perpetrated in our names by a government gone wild. Otherwise it is blind faith & we deserve what we become as out government acts in our name & on our dollars to do harm in the world. Remember the Government has no power except that which we give them The Government has no money except that which we give them through our labor The government may be the jockey but we OWN the horse
March 17, 201213 yr arms are to protect me from the states protectors What do you mean by the "states protectors" (your punctuation)? I think he means he wants to shoot coppers. I don't really see how politicians and the state are a separate thing from the rest of us. As Mrs Thatcher said, "there is no society" - there is only 'us'. It worries me when seemingly rational people join the chorus of complaints against the branches of governance set up to help us, without taking an active role in improving those arms of governance, lending credibility to the anarchists whose aim is to destroy the governance of our society. I see this not only on this forum, but in the facebook postings of my friends that live in the West as well... SC Fair comment, SC. However, those of us who live overseas, and have done so for most of our lives, are not in a position to do much to improve things. You could say, with some justification, that we should shut up, then, but I would take issue with you on that. We still owe a loyalty to the country where we were brought up, and perhaps the very fact that we are living away from it gives us a different (perhaps more balanced) viewpoint than those who are living in the midst of it. On the other hand, some of us, who get our view of modern Britain from the Daily Mail and other so-called newspapers, might have a very distorted view of what Britain is really like. I have been surprised at my friends and acquaintances who still live in Farangland lending credence to the anarchists, though. Perhaps they do not appreciate the benefits of civic society as we do, nor do they see their opportunities to inluence it or move within it; their constructive contribution seems to focus on belating on about one cause or complaint or another. I have not seen any of them say "I am disgruntled with our justice system, and have volunteered to be a lay magistrate" SC
March 17, 201213 yr We still owe a loyalty to the country where we were brought up, and perhaps the very fact that we are living away from it gives us a different (perhaps more balanced) viewpoint than those who are living in the midst of it. Yes & no...........Of course we are Patriots to stand behind our country ....OUR country But like all governments there is the chance they will fall into corruption of some sort or another. In a country like the US where lobbyist can get favors for their cause or big business it is even more so. So yes loyalty but the loyalty should be in our case ( US citizens ) To The Republic For which It Stands Not to the wrongful actions perpetrated in our names by a government gone wild. Otherwise it is blind faith & we deserve what we become as out government acts in our name & on our dollars to do harm in the world. Remember the Government has no power except that which we give them The Government has no money except that which we give them through our labor The government may be the jockey but we OWN the horse Fine words, flying, but how realistic are they? Taking away the power US citizens (or UK citizens) have given their government means a revolution. Not paying your taxes will land you in jail. How do you go about saying, "This is MY horse"? and presumably riding away on it? You as an individual can do nothing.... unless you can collect together a large number of like-minded individuals and, I suppose, form a political party. Then you have become part of the system you're opposing.
March 17, 201213 yr Fine words, flying, but how realistic are they? Taking away the power US citizens (or UK citizens) have given their government means a revolution. Not paying your taxes will land you in jail. How do you go about saying, "This is MY horse"? and presumably riding away on it? You as an individual can do nothing.... unless you can collect together a large number of like-minded individuals and, I suppose, form a political party. Then you have become part of the system you're opposing. Yes it does not come easy IB Funny you mention taxes because in some ways a tax revolt not by one but by a majority is a bullet-less revolution Not a bad start? Yes taking away total power is a Revolution & at some point that may be what is required & decisions will have to be made. But more importantly it is why vigilance is important early on...BEFORE a government has completely bad. Or at least while it is still manageable But instead if allowed a government may rule by instilling fear or Fascism in a round about way Hence watching for the signs is an important duty of citizens. Signs such as these 12 warning signs of fascism I am sad to say many have been breeched already here in the USA At some point the citizens will get fed up & feel abused enough to act... We see it all over the world & think it is not possible in "civilized" nations? We soon forget from where we sprang? There is one reason that it will linger this time & that reason is all the useless folks that live off the government never knowing they have chained themselves to mediocrity These folks will not bite the hand that feeds them. They live off the labors of others & have no horse in the race. They are happy with their food stamps, free govt medical, welfare checks etc. But I think it is coming to a boil & it will not end nicely if change ...real change is not started now. Personally I think it is already too late & the fight needed to institute repairs will take too long to start. I am not willing to wait so I am leaving. This is not an easy decision I have come to.
March 17, 201213 yr Leaving what, flying? the States? For where? Make sure the change you make is not for the worse.
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