Peter Hendra wrote:

bunch of snipped stuff

Thus
"Never try to teach a pig to sing; It wastes your time and annoys the
pig." -- Mark Twain - one of my favourite authors and philosophers

Ever so kindest regards
Peter

Peter,

You thus dismiss all arguments in response to your
original post eh? Usually you are more thoughtful
and at least try to communicate and understand the
other posters points.

If pressed you will find that others here are also
well read and can find historically popular
figures to quote as well. You don't even have to
read the entire reference works as there are books
full of quotes from notable figures to be taken
easily by those wishing to make speeches.

As it happens, my family lost blood in both the
parlimentarian upheaval in England, and (later)
the American revolutionary war. Our countries
founders had specific reasons for including the
1st amendment (freedom of speech), and 2nd
amendment (right to keep and bear arms) as well as
other rights in our constitution.

It may well be that the American political
experiment will end in tyranny and disaster like
so many political experiments before it, but I
doubt that you can safely conclude so or predict
the date of its demise. History will be the
ulitmate judge.

In the meantime, I wonder what other governments
are safe, and how long their citizens will
appreciate their general disarmament when the next
world upheaval bursts upon the scene. History
indicates it is just a matter of time.

Regards,

Don W.

On Tue, 17 Apr 2007 18:58:47 -0400, Peter Hendra
wrote:

Peter, you made many good points, but unfortunately
also early on made the typical "generalization" mistake of those who
may find your points debatable. I am sympathetic to much of what you
said, but find the following highly offensive:

"A friendly policeman with whom I was having coffee - real
coffee - Cuban, not that brown dishwater that poses as coffee that
Americans seem to prefer..."

Of course, that set the tone
The nerve. The cajones. The impudence to suggest I don't
know my coffee! If you were to visit me you would find a choice
of about 15 different coffees, though none Cuban.
Of course I drink more coffee than Frenchmen drink wine or Germans
beer, and if it were all Cuban my blood pressure would be seriously
elevated at all times.
When they were drafting men into the fight in Viet Nam a young fellow
in Miami asked around for a way out. He found that others had been
washed out of the induction physical by merely drinking a quart of
Cuban coffee just prior to the exam, thusly elevating their blood
pressure. He did as suggested, with no success.
He faced death in combat many times in 'Nam, and it turned his
hair prematurely gray. He also suffered beri beri and other ailments,
but it was his good fortune to make it alive to his release after 2
years of hell, whereupon he had his discharge physical.
The doc checked his blood pressure three separate times, shaking his
head at each result.
The vet said, "What's wrong, doc?"
And the doc said, with some exasperation,
"How in the HELL did they let you in the Army with such low blood
pressure!?
Sometimes wrong solutions are applied to the wrong problem.

--Vic