Subject:
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Re: Sticking my gun where it doesn't belong...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 23 Sep 2003 16:21:13 GMT
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Viewed:
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715 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Richard Marchetti wrote:
snip
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But now let’s get back to matters of degrees...
We previously shrugged off the argument that the number of travelling
fatalities might be a bigger worry than are the incidents of gun-related
deaths; but I was reminded this weekand how it actually *IS* a bigger worry,
and after all the numbers are something like 4 times as high for
travel-related deaths than for gun-related deaths. It’s not as if volition
were not a part of the equation. Travel-deaths are not truly accidental after
all...not at all.
So, there I was on the freeway making for the Ren Faire. I can’t tell you how
many people tried to unsafely pass me because I was going only 80 mph down
the highway. I stopped counting the number of lunatics that were riding my
rear bumper because I and the twenty people ahead of me were just in the way
of the tailgating ******* getting to where ever the hell he was going in such
a hurry. I lost all track of the same number of ninnies passing me up to the
right so that they could then take the extremely important position of the
place just ahead of me in the endless line of freeway traffic. I bet all of
that radically unsafe driving netted them an enormously important 1-2 minutes
savings on their driving time per hour -- so risking dozens of lives on the
foolish jockeying for position was almost surely worth it ON A SUNDAY!
The argument for gun control is pretty much the same as claiming that
automobiles kill when, in fact, you know that it’s really the person behind
the wheel. Guns and automobiles are just inanimate objects -- they both need
a “triggerman” for things to go wrong. For my part, I see the upside to the
presence of these tools at the same time that I see the downside in terms of
the fact that lots of idiots wield both guns and autos. But that’s just an
acknowledgement that there are lots of idiots running around, which I think
we already knew.
Those same idiots even have the right to vote. Some of these selfish,
short-sighted idiots even become presidents or mass-murderers.
What you don’t do is create a body of laws just because of whatever the heck
the idiots are doing or may do. To me it’s a letter opener, to someone else
it might be a killing tool -- it all depends on the idiot holding it.
I can still see a perfectly reasonable use for the letter opener.
-- Hop-Frog
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Well if ya wanna talk traffic, then that’s a different kettle of fish.
I was once driving to Toronto every weekend from work. On a good day it would
be a 30 minute drive. On a bad day, it’s 3 hours. The problem was, rarely was
it a ‘good day’.
I drive an old rusty ‘88 Dodge Dakota pickup that doesn’t much like going above
110 km/h (all speeds in this story will be km/h so don’t get frightened at the
speeds).
Since my pickup doesn’t like fast speeds, I’m pretty much hiding in the right
lane. In Ontario, it is an actual bona-fide traffic regulation that ‘slower
traffic keeps right’ on our major highways. Does anyone pay attention to that
white sign along the freeways? Absolutely not. Not even the ones with Ontario
plates. I can understand the Yanks driving thru our beautiful province and not
adhering to our traffic laws--I mean, they might not know the law of the road
(even though there are posted signs every few kilometers). But Ontarians not
obeying the law? Idiots.
Beyond that small tangent, the much larger one is that, in the time I’ve had my
license to drive an auto, drivers have gone from bad to worse. When I was 18, I
never saw the stunts on the highway that I see today. Beyond the ‘zig-zag’ of
the souped up civics doing 160ish thru traffic, there seems to be a new
past-time--using on and off ramps as passing lanes. This lunacy is the worst.
Wanna know the reason why traffic is slow? Because people are trying to merge
up ahead when the right lane is ending. “Hey, let’s contibute to the problem by
zipping past these cars by using the on/off ramp and scoot in at the very last
possible second--right before that concrete embankment, causing the slowness in
traffic in the first place.” Idiots.
It gotten to the point where I stay at work until 6-7 p.m. most nights just to
let the traffic die down so I can drive home in relative safety.
A while back Ontario had ‘photo radar’ but was dumped due to a campaign promise.
I dunno if it’s a great thing, but any type of improvement over the current
situation would be great. Taking pictures of cars grossly exceeding the speed
limit and attaching hefty fines couldn’t hurt. I wouldn’t want an OPP officer
to sit in a car holding a radar gun, though. I’d say start putting these
cameras on overhead signs and overpasses. As soon as payments from tickets
start coming in, expand--more cameras at other locations.
But that won’t happen because then we have ‘big brother’ watching.
Eh, whatrya gonna do?
Dave K
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Sticking my gun where it doesn't belong...
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| (...) What exactly are you looking for here? Anecdotal evidence that a gun and self-reliance are political necessaries? If you don't believe that then nothing I say will change your mind. I guess I could tell you a story, but then you'd just tell me (...) (21 years ago, 22-Sep-03, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)
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