“Father Goose, that article was a link that someone else set up in this thread.

About the British crime stuff: I know how the news media can report with it's own twist or agenda. Never mind the special interest publications. I was asking for any one who lives (ed) over there for a personal report. My friends who went over there, for the better part of a month-several years ago, gave quite a different report than the world news you hear so often.

Just for perspective, I worked with a fellow who absolutely believed everything the news media ever reported. "It can't be a lie if they report it, they have too good a reputation." I asked about the retractions on page 37 at the bottom. It went right over his head.

Also I asked him about how things were reported. If say, in one year there is one murder in a country, and the next year there are 6, it will be readily reported that the country's murder rate is skyrocketing, up 600%. ABSOLUTELY the truth, but very very alarming. Any country with only 6 murders would be very happy it was so few, but none would brag about a 600% increase. The headlines would more than likely say the murder rate was up 600%, not up 5 from last year. Which would sell more papers?

I also asked him if I should report the truth on todays' daily work report. I could report that he had come in sober today. Absolutely the truth. But, of course, there is an insinuation there that he has come in drunk before, when he never came in drunk.

I could go on and on how statistics are used to over dramatize situations, I suspect I would bore every one. Just listen with a bit of skepticism to any report you hear, and it really is pretty interesting if you research for yourself and see how they came up with their reports.

I have no doubt that you have "heard" the crime rates in Australia and Britain are way up and all that, I've "heard" it too. I was asking for some one who has been there, presumably without any agenda to fulfil, or spectacular statistics, to tell it like it is.

I kinda hesitate to ask this, but just what do you suppose happened to New York city's murder rate? It is conceivable that 40 years from now, a child, who may never had heard of the twin towers, is researching murder rates, and sees 2001 as a marked increase, and doesn't correlate the terrorist murders.....

So any ways, that's why I am asking for some one who has been there.....”

“Hello, Uphill. You mean to say that the media has an agenda and may distort the truth? Say it ain't so! Seriously, I agree with what you have said and I, too, would like to hear from a resident of the country. Things have changed drastically over there in the last year or two. My info does come from both Scotland Yard and Interpol, however.
Keep the faith, Baby!”

“Thanks for the "heads up" Father Goose.”

“Good idea?

Psychological tests for gun-owners. Do you think Father Goose would submit himself to one? Unlikely. In fact, no NRA member would because they know thy wouldn't pass. If you own a gun, what's your rationalization for not going down to your local psychiatrist and proving your sane enough to own/operate a deadly weapon? CHICKEN?”

“sniffing gun cleaner solvent, year in year out,keeps your mind from binding toward the less violent side.making bullits and having powder all over your glasses makes you see things in a little different way.logic becomes a smooth,but tight squezzzzzzzz......”

“Psychological tests for car owners? Motocycles? Knives? Small planes? Internet access?”

“I think I've figured out who GDE is: it's Algore! He's still pi$$ed off about losing the election! Maybe he should take a psyche-eval to determine if he's intelligent enough to communicate on the internet which, of course, we all know he invented.”

“G. D. Evildoer, why wouldn't NRA members pass a psychological test? A rational answer please.”

“there are so many guns in the United States that even people for whom the Second Amendment was never intended--unstable children, ex-mental patients--have no trouble getting and bearing arms. The high U.S. murder rate--which, at 7.4 per 100,000 people, is more than double that of Finland, the next most murderous of the industrial countries--is directly attributable to this phenomenon. The presence of guns in our society can make the commonplace deadly.
Two years ago, the Secret Service talked to Rusty Weston after he had called his local sheriff and complained that President Clinton had ordered a Navy Seal to kill him. At the time, the agents concluded that he was merely a "low-level threat." If Rusty Weston hadn't found it so easy to get his hands on a gun, that might have been right. But, in a country that has as many guns floating around as the United States does, any "low-level threat" can turn deadly.

Face it, gun-owners have the same desire as the mentally ill... to posess a gun. They're both "scared" of some "something". Is it the boogy man? Father Goose just joined the NRA because of something GDE said? Talk about your paranoia. You boys have the same penchant for guns as the insane and little boys do. Get a test, and prove you are ok.”

“"Face it, gun-owners have the same desire as the mentally ill... to posess a gun. They're both 'scared' of some 'something'. Is it the boogy man?"
boogyman: n : an imaginary monster used to frighten children

I'm 23 and bought my first handgun after a killer on the campus I lived in was breaking into houses and shooting the inhabitants. I dare you to tell the parents of those kids who were killed that he was just a boogyman. Wake up. This isn't a perfect world. Why does it bother you that I would want to possess a firearm for my protection or the protection of my loved ones? I have yet to shoot anything that breathes, and I hope I never have to. (That was NOT an anti-hunting statement). If you don't want to own a gun, fine, don't. No one is calling you names for it. But don't bash those that do and please don't make light of the real killers and hardcore criminals out there by referring to them as boogymen. It's not fair to their victims.”

“Sighhhhhh. Will this friggin' thread never die?”

“
"Sighhhhhh. Will this friggin' thread never die?"
Father Goose
11:17:04 PM
04/17/02


Not unless you shoot it.

BAM”

“Awww, he!!. That'd give Georgie Girl somethin' else to rant about!”

“American irony...kill your unborn baby, OK. Kill a guy climbing through your window, not OK. Go figure.”

“But as I understand it Nigal, you're from a country where it is illegal to defend yourself from anything, period? BTW, if someone climbs through my window, I may use whatever means available to defend myself, assuming my response is apropos to the perceived threat (perceived being the operative word, here).”

“OK, so it changes each time. It was a 'please lock up your gun or your whole family will die' ad.”

“Nigal with the cheap shot.”

“It amazes me how many grown adults don't have a clue. If you dislike the second amendment to our constitution so much please feel free to move to a country without it. Nevermind that backyard pools or five gallon buckets for that matter kill more or that only 0.2% of firearms are ever involved in crime you seem to fear them with irrational zest. Hey its a free country, largely because of the aforementioned amendment, you can be ignorant if you wish.”

“"Nigal with the cheap shot."

Hey hey! With all the idiot lib statements here I thought it was time for a conservative to step up to the plate and take one for the team and say something stupid. I gave ya all a freebie.”

“American irony:

Houston homeowner shoots through his door to kill a lost Japanese student knocking outside on the door. American jury approves actions of gunowner and aquits of the crime.

Same Americans disapprove of killing unborn fetuses knocking at the "door".”

“LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Prosecutors won't seek the death penalty against actor Robert Blake if he is found guilty of murdering his wife, the district attorney's office said Thursday.

Instead, prosecutors will seek a sentence of life in prison, the office said.

Blake, 68, and his bodyguard have been charged in the shooting death of Bonny Lee Bakley, 44, outside a Studio City restaurant on May 4, 2001.”

“About twenty years ago I spent two days on set with Mr.Blake.He wins an award in my book.I'll let you fill in the blanks on Blake.”

“His career has been dead for 20 years. It would be like double indemnity.”

“I thought G.D Evildoer or thebackpacker would've wrote something on this, and blamed it on the NRA.

For those who didn't hear: An expelled student dressed all in black (like a Ninja), shot and killed 14 teachers, 2 students, 1 police officer and himself in an East German school. He used a handgun and a pump action shotgun. The police found another 500 rounds of ammo near his dead body. Crazy shiit.”

“Germany had some of THE STRICTEST gun regulations on the planet. Bad guys do bad things. If someone is willing to murder, they are willing to break gun control laws. Get a freekin clue.”

“The NRA makes access to guns easy. Even in countries outside the USA.”

“While I am not an NRA member, I find it hard to believe that there is a way to make guns completely "unavailable" anywhere.”

“Since Florida has enacted their concealed carry law, the Florida murder rate has dropped by 29%. Nationwide, the murder rate rose 11% over the same period...
     ABC News
    Citing 1994 FBI crime data , March 12, 1995”

“"This Year Will Go Down In History. For The First Time, A Civilized Nation Has Full Gun Registration! Our Streets Will Be Safer, Our Police More Efficient, And The World Will Follow Our Lead Into The Future!"
— Adolph Hitler 1935 'Berlin Daily' (Loose English Translation) April 15th, 1935 Page 3 Article 2 by Einleitung Von Eberhard Beckmann "Abschied vom Hessenland!"”

“"Foolish liberals who are trying to read the Second Amendment out of the Constitution by claiming it's not an individual right or that it's too much of a public safety hazard don't see the danger in the big picture. They're courting disaster by encouraging others to use the same means to eliminate portions of the constitution they don't like." ~~ Alan Dershowitz”

“"The Brady Bill's only effect will be to desensitize the public to regulation of weapons in preparation for their ultimate confiscation." ~~ Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, April 5, 1996”

“We're here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true! ... We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy. We're going to beat guns into submission!
    Charles Schumer, United States Congressman
    On NBC Nightly News, November 30, 1993”

“"When did ignorance become a point of view?"
Dilbert by Scott Adams, Dilbert.com & United Feature Syndicate, Inc.”

“The data from the 1990 Harvard Medical Practice Study suggest that 150,000 Americans die every year from doctors' negligence -- compared with 38,000 gun deaths annually. Why are doctors not declared a public health menace? Because they save more lives than they take. And so it is with guns. Every year, good Americans use guns about 2.5 million times to protect themselves and their families, which means 65 lives are protected by guns for every life lost to a gun.
    Edgar A. Suter, MD
    San Francisco Chronicle, Opinion, Page A17, July 12, 1994”

“"The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that is good."
— George Washington”

“"The fact is that liberty, in any true sense, is a concept that lies quite beyond the reach of the inferior man's mind. He can imagine and even esteem, in his way, certain false forms of liberty--for example, the right to choose between two political mountebanks...--but the reality is incomprehensible to him. And no wonder, for genuine liberty demands of its votaries a quality he lacks completely, and that is courage. the man who loves it must be willing to fight for it.... More, he must be able to endure it --an even more arduous business."
-- H. L. Mencken - "Notes on Democracy" (1926)”

“"The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government, one more safeguard against the tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which historically has proved to be always possible."
— Senator Hubert H. Humprey (D-Minnesota)”

“The usual road to slavery is that first they take away your guns, then they take away your property, then last of all they tell you to shut up and say you are enjoying it.
    James A. Donald”

“"It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny."
-- James Fenimore Cooper - "The American Democrat" (1838)”

“"Gun owners are the new niggers... of society. ~~ John Aquilino”

“"I have named the destroyers of nations: comfort, plenty, and security--out of which grow a bored and slothful cynicism, in which rebellion against the world as it is, and myself as I am, are submerged in listless self-satisfaction."
-- John Steinbeck - "America and Americans" (1966)”

“"By a very conservative estimate, a hundred million people have died at the hands of their own governments in this century. Given that record, how bad could anarchy be?" ~~ Joseph Sobran”

“"Every 13 seconds in America someone uses a gun to stop a crime." ~~ Sen. Larry Craig”

“Liberty is not a means to a political end. It is itself the highest political end. – Lord Acton”

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
— Mao Zedong, Nov. 6, 1938, Selected Works, Vol. 2”

“Our ultimate goal--total control of handguns in the United States--is going to take time ... The first problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered, and the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns, and all handgun ammunition totally illegal.
    Nelson T Shields, Founding Chair of HCI Lucius Annaeus Seneca
     Founding Chair of HCI”

“By the delusions of seeming good the people are often misled to desire their own ruin; and they are frequently influenced by great hopes and brave promises.
    Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher, statesman”

“I didn't see any NRA officials killing babies in Waco.
    P.J. O'Rourke”