OT: Wayne's Hellish World

It is completely possible that we will see "all of the above", except, perhaps, not all at the same time.

i

MITRE did too, and the incoherently babbling janitor compensated for dozens of Ph.Ds. Unfortunately the people who selected and ran the e-mail system seem to have been hired for the same reason.

I watched an air show once from the top turret of a B-17. Those guns feel terribly inadequate when the sky is full of F-16s.

Maybe YOU'LL see all of the above. But I walked down 9th Avenue in NYC every night, mostly after dark, for years, back when murder rates were near their peak. I never even saw a fistfight. I figure I'm luckier than you are. d8-)

Many thousands of meteorites hit the Earth each day. A woman in Sylacauga, Alabama was hit on the leg by one, and injured, after it crashed through her roof. A dog was killed by one in Nakhla, Egypt in

1911. Is it just a coincidence that it was the same year that the Colt Model 1911 was introduced? Only a fool in deep denial would think so. Bell-approved helmets are a minimum, an absolute minimum, for self-defense against meteorites. Hard hats are too low-caliber in terms of reliable meteorite stopping power. We should all wear one every day, eh?

It's a question of whether you believe we're living in a paranoid's dystopia, or whether you actually observe your life as it really occurs (this does not count watching Fox News, which would make anyone paranoid) and have a sense of reality.

You can gin up a case for perpetual fear if you want to, but it's not healthy. Wayne doesn't even look very healthy. He's looking stressed and sounds a bit frantic. Life is going to be too short, anyway. However, paranoid fantasies ARE useful for encouraging gun sales, and for increasing membership in the NRA.

That's what's going on. If you feel you need an extra dose of disproportionate fear, by all means, watch Wayne's talk today. I'm going to enjoy an old western or something.

That depends on where it happens.

"What's happened is the predictable civil deterioration of a city whose fragile civil infrastructure can't control or contain its core criminal class in peacetime."

I believe that anybody that has a fire extinguisher in their house is paranoid, that's what we have a fire department for!

I remember when you said that Christians are never going to be rounded up and murdered in the Middle East...or something to that effect. Next you will say that Christians won't be persecuted in the USA.

Well, your perspective is skewed somewhat because you work in Cleveland, which *is* a paranoid's dystopia. d8-)

Really? You remember that, huh? I don't.

Let's hope, for Uncle Ed's sake, they all come true at once in his town.

I was present at two mini revolutions and also at two unrelated gunfights. All in Russia.

One was a revolution in 1991 in which I participated.

Another was a mini civil war between the Russian parliament and the Russian president in 1994. I was not a participant, but I remember that me and my friends went to watch what was happening. We were walking around, looking, eating ice cream, all the while tanks were moving about, shooting at the Russian parliament, and some heavily armed military personnel was searching for snipers on roofs. The people who watched it were completely nonchalant. It did seem weird even at the time, and even so now, after living in the US.

The two gunfights did not involve me personally, I just happened to be there, walked past them and nothing happened. One was in darkness and I could not figure out who was shooting at whom.

I was young and stupid.

I actually mostly agree with that and I am optimistic about, say, our economic future.

What I also know is that the future is not always like the past and that is something to be remembered. Things change abruptly and radically.

For example, the currently manageable US debt would become unmanageable if, say, interest rates go to 8% per year. And your "debt riots" will easily become a reality.

i

No. Unlike Greece, or any country whose debt in designated in foreign currencies, we'd just inflate our way out of it (devaluing the dollar). Greece can't do that. Russia can't do that. Britain can't do that. China can't. Japan can't. We can.

As I've suggested, we live our lives in expectation of what is going to happen. You can base your expectations on history and present reality, or on paranoid fantasies based on inappropriate examples from different countries with different histories and circumstances.

I'll stick with reality. It's served me well, and my stress levels are very low. Even my blood pressure is perfect. d8-)

He forgot to mention zombie apocalypse...

And all of the ordinary ones, like the Ten Plagues of Egypt.

OTOH, shooting frogs could turn out to be a lot of fun. And frogs' legs are delicious!

Between the eyes with a .22....they turn upside down, white under bellies glowing brightly in the dark, very easy to find and net.

I can remember walking from Grand Central Station toward a hotel on

5th Ave and seeing a man fleeing from the police. As I remember it was early in the evening.

Dan

We can right up to the time that we can not.

Remember that the housing market always went up, until it did not.

Dan

The really good runners and jumpers were the subway scofflaws. Man, they could run the high hurdles at the Olympics! And they were doing it to save (at the time) $1.00.

The only "can nots" are that our economy goes in the tank, or China sends in Nunzio the leg-breaker.

I understand your point, and I'm sure you recognize mine. We are not going to be bankrupted by our creditors. We could be bankrupted by ourselves.

Like the Real Estate jerk in the '80s who insisted home mortgage rates would never drop below 14% again, and were expected to hit 23% before the end of the decade?

LaPierre and the NRA are the enemy of anyone who supports the 2nd amendment.

You'd swear that nutball was planted by the nanny-staters to discredit gun ownership.

I think it was a matter where I said "Black" and you just automatically said "White".