OT: Two parties

[Han]

Dave Balderstone wrote in news:310120102232234211%dave@N_O_T_T_H_I_Sbalderstone.ca:

I take umbrage at your suggestion that the Dutch denigrate the Canadian contributions to their liberation. That is not a true reflection of how the Dutch feel. ANd I can go on about that.

I grew up in Wageningen where the Allies under the command of the Canadian General Foulkes accepted the surrender of the Germans on 5 May

1945. My high school was on the "Generaal Foulkes weg". I am very grateful to the Canadians (and other Allies) who liberated Holland. I have expressed this more than once.

I don't know anything about the Dutch prosecuting free speech. As far as I am aware of they very painstakingly protect free speech, to rather extreme extents. As for kowtowing to islamists, the Dutch have always let people do their own thing, and sometimes that has gone to far, yes. But do read "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. It gives (IMHO) a good idea of what we are all up against. Ms. Ali is now working for a conservative think tank in Washington DC, I believe.

This is a link to the memorial for WWII with in the background the Hotel De Wereld where the surrender took place. I believe that usually there is more activity in this "square" than shown here.

"blote" means naked, unclothed. "bestand" means file

Off my soapbox.

[Han]

I appreciate all your comments. Indeed!

Maybe I'm brainwashed by the urban liberals, but I do fear unlicensed arms in the hands of people who shouldn't have them. Until everyone who has acquired firearms can prove they can handle them as the arms should be handled, I am in favor of laws controlling possession and sale of firearms. I do realize that there are other arms around. And I am very happy that I have not been victimized in any way other than the 2 robberies our home experienced - in our absence, once in Cambridge, Mass, and once in Queens, New York. ANd I do walk across midtown Manhattan every day on my way to work.

[Han]

Swingman wrote in news:9vidnTAK4uElo_vWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I agree, good for you, CW! But I hesitate to think what would have happened if the slimebag had had a gun.

[Han]

"HeyBub" wrote in news:C8udneJL3ZIPUvvWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Then the fact that not more "accidents" happen supports the observation that most people are "good" people. I am heartened by that. Since I have to go through a metal detector every time I enter my place of work (VA Hospital), I am reminded daily of the enormous quantity of potentially bad stuff people are carrying. Such as the brass knuckles some guy carefully put aside before going through the metal detector. He was advised that he would have to leave or surrender the instrument to the VA police. And he was indeed surprised.

[Swingman]

In a word: "training" ... the single most important factor.

It is a sure bet that CW was well trained to deal with many situations as part of his qualification for a concealed handgun license, the slimebag, most likely not.

Training won't guarantee a good outcome, but it increases the likelihood.

[Larry Jaques]

On 01 Feb 2010 01:04:29 GMT, the infamous Han scrawled the following:

Han, if you had more training and got a concealed weapons license, you'd know that most people don't _want_ to shoot, to take someone's life. That doesn't change just because you're armed. The legal ramifications of a shooting are extremely costly. Nobody in their right mind is going to get gun-happy. I got licensed when I moved to Oregon because I like to hike and take photographs in uninhabited areas. (5 years and no shootings yet) When you're licensed, you use the weapon as a last resort and you think 3 times before using it, even then.

Go to a gun range and tell them that you have never fired a weapon before. Ask for some tips and rent a gun for an hour. Get to know what you're afraid of. It's just another tool and you don't have to buy every tool you've ever used.

Once you've done that, you'll be a better part of the citizenry here. If you're afraid to save yourself, how could you ever save anyone else (wife/girlfriend, family member, neighbor) if it came down to that? Just one hour of weapons training could save your life. Knowledge is power, and in this case, safety. I urge everyone who doesn't have current pistol experience to go get it. When (not if) the shit hits the fan, you may well need it.

There's another reason people don't brandish weapons freely: They might be confused with a criminal. (Poor guy!)

And there's that, too. As long as there are gangs (especially in large cities) and preachers (Wright, Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson, KKK) there will be extreme racism and profiling. Why can't everyone just forget skin color? We're all one race: human.

-- Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. -- George Bernard Shaw

[Han]

Swingman wrote in news:R5mdnUln0IOzpfvWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Thank you, Karl! Purchased that album. Now listening ...

[Han]

Swingman wrote in news:foKdnS-

2terGfPvWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

Frightening for this coward ...

[Han]

Thanks, Larry. Good words!

I live in urban Bergen County New Jersey. Other than beggars in NY City and a single black bear in Harriman State Park, I've never seen anything/one frightening.

[Swingman]

Thank you! ... the band appreciates your purchase. :)

I hope you enjoy the genre (Western Swing) as much we do in keeping it alive.

[Han]

Swingman wrote in news:cY- dnTUvs7mMePvWnZ2dnUVZ [e-mail]:

I haven't been exposed to it too much, but now I'll be thinking of you, my friend!!

[J. Clarke]

Define "people who shouldn't have them". At one time blacks were considered to be "people who shouldn't have them". At another it was the Irish. Under current law people who have been convicted of a felony or who have been adjudicated mentally defective or committed to a mental institution are prohibited from possessing firearms. There is a background check system in place that is intended to prevent sales to such persons--if it does not work the reason is that police and the courts are not diligent in entering the information into the database.

We have such laws. The question is whether there should be more such laws or whether the existing laws are excessive. How does one "prove they can handle them as arms should be handled" and what does that accomplish? If someone deliberately sets out to commit murder then being able to "handle them as arms should be handled" increases the probability of success in that endeavor, it doesn't decrease it. If your concern is that such "proof" will reduce accidents, the number of accidental shootings in the US is small and decreasing--one is more likely to die in a bicycle accident than an accidental shooting--so why do we suddenly need new laws to prevent those accidents? If you think that some licensing system will prevent a person who wants to commit murder from doing so, you really aren't thinking things through.

In the worst mass murder in US history the weapon was commercial airliners. In the second worst it was fertilizer. In the third worst the weapon was a can of gasoline. "Arms" is a matter of attitude, not a matter of gadgets.

[Doug Miller]

I'm drawing a blank on #3...

[Morris Dovey]

Rejected. I'll buy that it might be frightening, but not "coward".

Everyone experiences fear, so you've got a lot of company in that area. As far as I've been able to tell, fear is the unprocessed recognition of possible danger. Fear is the trigger for the instinctive fight-or-flight response, which is sometimes useful and sometimes not.

Cowardice is a pre-decision to always go with the flight instinct, to flee danger, and to always avoid predictable risk. You've revealed enough to this group to have disqualified yourself from the "coward" category. (I cannot even imagine any real coward choosing a pattern of daily life that involved a metro pedestrian commute to a laboratory environment to work with even just sometimes hazardous radiological and biological materials!)

As someone once told me: It is not our fear that distinguished us, but how we respond to it.

So, my violence-abhorring non-coward friend, I'd like to invite you to spend a bit of your commute time re-thinking that "coward" bit and considering some more accurate categorization. :)

[Han]

Morris Dovey wrote in news:hk7aeg$mgk$ [e-mail]:

You bring tears to my eyes, Morris! Fear to me is the realization of the possibility of unknown (unknowable) things happening at some point in time and (now) not knowing how you should/would/might react.

As far as the chemical, biological and radiological hazards I deal with

- those are well-known to me (I think, which is the dangerous part). I do protect myself in appropriate clothing and environment when I take umbilical cords from unknown mothers and attempt to isolate the cells lining the umbilical vein from all the blood and gore and virses that might be lurking in that container. It is really rather simple, though bloody. I also know how to dispose of the waste afterwards. Same thing for less spectacular dangers ...

[Morris Dovey]

Not knowing is generally a remediable condition. :)

Identifying what you don't know is a powerful start.

[Markem]

The loop hole in Illinois is by joining your county Sheriffs reserve and meeting training requirements you can conceal carry. Except for Evanston which does not allow anyone except on duty law enforcement officers to carry.

Mark

[krw]

The recent decision doesn't do anything of the kind. You better read it again.

[Larry Jaques]

On 01 Feb 2010 13:53:11 GMT, the infamous Han scrawled the following:

Do you realize that by enacting laws which remove the legal arms, only the illegal arms are left on the streets, in the hands of exactly the people you DON'T want to have them? Yes, you've been heavily brainsoiled by the urban libtards, Han.

Don't just feel happy, feel lucky. I hope you'll tell us when get mugged by an ex-con with an illegal gun in the city which takes guns away from law-abiding citizens. It shouldn't be long now. And I want to hear you cuss out Bloomberg. OK? ;)

-- Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. -- George Bernard Shaw

[Larry Jaques]

On 01 Feb 2010 14:18:41 GMT, the infamous Han scrawled the following:

Han, would you rather not have -any- chance at saving your own (or someone else's) life? Which is truly scarier? Bad guys kill and rape people (both men and women) all the time. Wouldn't you rather have a fighting chance when you meet one of them?

When I lived in California, 80 miles from HelL.A., I was very much anti-handgun. Then a friend urged me to do the research on it. To my extreme surprise, I found that the stats were all fudged up. The Powers That Be include _suicides_ in handgun deaths and don't exclude gang killings, which is probably the highest percentage (though I've never seen the stats on that.) I ended up enjoying time at the range and later got licensed. They have machine gun shoots twice a year and I got to feel, hear, and shoot both M-16s and AK-47s on full auto and single/burst modes. That's a real hoot. The AK had a 90-round drum on it.

CDC FACTS: (not that they'd state it this way ;)

Alzheimers kills more people in the USA every year than guns do. (74k vs 12k homicides)

Cars kill more people in the USA every year than guns do. (45k)

Nephritis kills more people in the USA every year than guns do. (45k)

Handgun training, maybe $100, gives you that knowledge for life. Think about that, not the fear of guns.

-- Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. -- George Bernard Shaw