I dont care, I got the answers I was looking for.

And as for the current discussion, I agree with my candle like friend, Waxy. And one goes with the other. Both our economy and military are getting streached thin.

 

First I'm naive (this from a guy who doesn't realize that he would be speaking German as his native language right now if I were wrong), then I can't see the "big picture." Well, I'm just a poor cynic, cursed with the vision to see things as they are, and not as I'd like them to be. Dream on, Waxy. One part of the Big Picture is that you wouldn't be able to afford to drive whatever you drive right now, and your precious economy WOULD be gone had not G.H.W. Bush drawn a line in the sand. And the guys who were at the sharp end of the stick making sure you could get "petrol" to run your economy were carrying projectile weapons of various sorts, not Mont Blancs.

Since you're starting to repeat yourself, and don't seem to mind doing it, I'll give you the last word (after this quote from an old cowboy.)

"A gun is a tool, Marion, no better or no worse than any other tool, an axe, a shovel or anything. A gun is as good or as bad as the man using it. Remember that."

- Alan Ladd, Shane

The world's a better place because we, and not our adversaries, carry the biggest gun on the block at this point in history. If you decide to beat YOUR guns into plowshares, (Oh, wait...you Canadians have already done that, haven't you?) it's fine with me, but don't be too surprised when, after you've done that, you end up plowing someone else's field at the point of HIS gun.)

 

Well Mike, rather letting this escalate into further personal attacks, we'll have to agree to disagree.

My closing point -

Had a look at the former USSR lately?

Waxy

 

Conscientious Objector: Just a fancy word for COWARD.

 

If I were drafted, I would do whatever my country needed.

 

Awww, comeon Joe. Tell us how you really feel and quit beating around the bush

 

Sorry, I'll try not to hold back anymore!

 

Waxy, don't go getting thin skinned on me. I'm sorry if you took anything I said as a personal attack. I didn't when you called me naive...I took it as your view, and that's OK with me. I was also just having a little fun with something that isn't very funny at all, and that is that Canada has effectively disarmed its citizens. Once again, I apologize.

But please tell me how the former USSR bears on our discussion...I don't get it.

 

Joe
Was your time in Germany spent primarily in the stockade? At your age, I would have thought you would have learned how to recognize and make a good argument.

It is guys like you that give "doggies" (ask your Marine friends) their reputation.

 

I can tell you have no backbone and would be one of the first to hightail it into Canada...cowards die a million deaths...brave men die only once...you are sad.............

 

Joe
Pretty low shot. Maybe I deserved that. But, to set the record straight, I was in platoon 2077 in 1973 at MCRD San Diego learnin' how to do it while you were in ?

The word I was lookin' for earlier was IRRATIONAL, your arguments are irrational. They are so because you haven't presented any specific instances of you or the boys protectin' my rights about anything.

I am open to discussion on the subject of our various rights and how to preserve them. The other guys on the board present their points as do I. What we have seen from you is unbased insults. So, I repeat my question. Did you spend your time Germany in the stockade? And do you have an honorable discharge? I do.

On second thought Joe, you stay away from my rights, you are by far a greater threat than any other. Thinking people are likely to associate your brand of rhetoric with mine and immediately dismiss me as a crackpot too.

 

Yawn....you are boring me with your apathy....you remind me of a Democrat...if it ain't your way, its wrong and so am I...you still don't deserve your guns pal...give them to a good home please.

 

The pissing match stops.

 

Gun control laws are written and changed like every other law in this country; by Congress and the House of Representatives. If you want laws that reflect your views, you have to elect politicians that share your beliefs.

 

Not thin skinned Mike, self preservation.

I used to let theses things get me real worked up, I even "served some time" for it. I try to keep all of this at arms length, when it starts getting personal I've had to train myself to walk away, or I tend to cross the line in a hurry.

A couple days or a week later, I can come back to it.

The USSR was once one of two superpowers, every bit as capable as the US. Agreed? Why is that not so anymore? Money. They didn't have the economic might to maintain their military might. The US enjoys being the only superpower in the world right now because for the last 50 years they have been the world's only economic superpower.

I would respectfully disagree about your "correctness" and my native language as well. The Germans did not have the economic or industrial might to maintain their war machine. They were a far superior military at the beginning of the war. Problem is, they were one country against the world (the Italians were of little use and they were isolated from the Japanese). WWII was a war of attrition on many levels.

I'm not denying your point about ultimate force. My point is that ultimate force must come from somewhere, it has to be bought or earned. The invention of guns equalized men. It made the smallest man and the largest man equal in conflict. So the question then became, who could amass the most and best guns? It's very difficult to amass guns at the point of a gun, you amass them at the point of a pen.

I refuse to get into any discussion of GWB's policies and their "benefit" to the economy.

Waxy

P.S. I've still got my guns.