tvashtarkatena

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Bizarre implies a pattern. Randomness is relatively common.

Sounds like we're in violent agreement. No worries, I don't get off on being right nearly all the time. It's just something I've learned to live with. All just part of rolling my little dung ball down the Milky Way until a bat comes along and picks me off.

Folks don't know each other? Not gang related? Prove it. The cops I've talked to, and that has been a few at this point, indicate domestic violence seems to be the bane of their existence. My bro, formerly head of the public defenders office of Humbolt Cty, indicates that cases between folks who have no previous association (random) are a very low percentage. National studies indicate the same. It makes sense, if you think about it for a nanosecond or so. But it's the 'random violence' fear, mostly a myth, that keeps the paranoids packin'.

Know any cops, prosecutors, or public defenders?

Depends on how you define rare. In certain areas of Seattle and surrounding King County "random" violent assaults are not rare at all. I could indeed understand why law-abiding citizens who frequents such areas may want to protect themselves with a firearm. Prove it.

I see all kinds of folks around town, gangstas and wannabe ganstas being well represented but not really pervasive. Given how popular gansta wear is, there's no reason to be afraid of what really amounts to a bunch of harmless teenagers. I'd say angry white trash is a far bigger threat as far as random violence is concerned, and they usually self identify pretty quickly. Plus - you'll get far more of that action in small towns in WA than downtown, where you might get a response to your 911 call about a day later, rather than 2 or 3 minutes. There are certainly things that make me pucker - big heavy falling things being close to top of the list, but people who look different from me aren't one of them. I understand this primal fear of other tribes, but with sufficient exposure its pretty easily overcome. There isn't a single neighborhood in this town I wouldn't walk around any time I wanted. Like Feck said, it's more about situation awareness than blanket fear. That's one lesson living in a city teaches you, I guess.

The farther away you live from Seattle, the more opinions you've got on the place. I buddy of mine used to rant and rave about Seattle. He lived in Goldbar LOL. Got meth?

The only reason Seatteites avoid alleys is because they tend to smell like a urinal. Actually, a huge percentage of shootings are domestic violence, suicide, and accident. It is true that random shootings, where the folks don't know each other, are rare. The naivete and arrogance of 'responsible gun owners' is a bit of a laugh. Really? Think your kids can't outsmart or disobey you behind your back when it comes to getting at and playing with your guns? "Oh, no, not MY kids." The most active miscreant in my high school was the Sheriff's son LOL A whole of 'responsible gun owners' occasionally wave a firearm around the house during arguments with their spouses, too. Alcohol tends to bring out this kind of tough love. Life is tough, but its a lot tougher when your tiny penis doesn't get the respect and attention it feels that it deserves. Tougher for the other person, anyway - right up until the day they (hopefully) get the fuck out of a bad situation.

FWIW, I've had a 1 man tent but never used it, so I sold it. There always seemed to be lighter/better solutions on just about every trip. Here's what I carry these days for the odd man out trips: Marginal wetter: Tarptent (2 man, but only 2 lbs). Winter: A megamid (don't own one) can fit 3 for not much weight I think. Midwinter I usually stay at a lookout or in a snow shelter or something - or just sleep out if its gonna be clear skies and lows in the mid teens or above. Below that I either have to pack The Gigantor 0 degree bag or bring a shelter. Pretty good wetter: sleep out w/ 1 lb bivvy sack as backup or silnylon tarp. Good wetter: sleep out w Emergency Medical Systems bivvy sack - 3 oz. Good for extended solo trips where it something might come in towards the end.

Dung beetles navigate using the Milky Way

Both sides lie, but, with the GOP, its ALL lies. When you're agenda is Kristian government, subjugation of women, bigotry against immigrants, blacks, and gays, and anti-democratic concentration of wealth and power, that's what you gotta do to stay in the game. Baitnswitchbaitnswitchbaitnswitchbaitnswitch. Oh, and don't forget to target the dumb and angry.

Hilleberg, Tarptent, bivvy sack, silnylon tarp. I just sleep out and plan on crashing the homo huddle if it all goes wrong.

Let the kids play, too

Thanks, NRA! The 17 year moratorium on studying gun violence

When you're done in Mali beating back the religious whackjobs in Mali, please invade America. TIA, Tvash

There'a a guy selling a complete Dynafit Manaslu setup for 700 on the yard sale - I ski the same gear and love it for pure BC.

Anyone who hasn't realized the true nature of fundamentalist Kristianity by now, ignorance and cruelty, is in a coma. But selling imaginary love backed by the threat of damnation is good business; very low cost of goods, so here we are after 2,000 years, still beating back the same old whackjobs, grifters, and just plain assholes.

The majority of Americans support equal LGBT rights now. Only the Kristian Kooks are holding out on that one. That clusterfuck is drawing to the close. 2 SCOTUS cases should seal the deal by this summer. Goodbye DOMA. SCOTUS may force Congress to pass legislation that forces the states to recognize all marriages, regardless of where performed. That doesnt' mean every state will immediately pass a gay marriage law - but they'll have to recognize marriage performed elsewhere or risk suite. So, America's attitudes towards gay rights is pretty similar to Europe's. Yes, we're the only first world country that is particularly religious, and that religiosity is unusually fundamentalist, but even that's on the decline. Knowledge is power. Religion relies on ignorance. Hard to maintain these days. Kristian rhetoric on the radio is full of circling the wagons paranoia. It should be. Their days are numbers, and their legislative agenda to transform America into a totalitarian state for God has largely been an expensive failure.

Gun sales have a lot to do with marketing - pretty much everything to do with marketing, and noone employs marketing's most powerful tool - paranoia (buy em before they ban em) like the NRA. In addition - wars tend to be great adverts for military style gear - witness the explosion of 'tac gear' - for hunting, for the range, but mostly for circle jerking. There are far fewer hunters than there were 20 years ago, yet sales in that industry have exploded to a 2.6 billion industry, thanks to 'I need to look badass' marketing. TV has been a great marketer, as well. How many blood sport shows are there now? In the early 90s, there were practically none. FOX news has certainly been a factor in all this. Super popular - until now. Like the Teabagger idiocy, even that seems to have shot its wad. Being a redneck also came into fashion, particularly when Bush was elected and it was deemed OK, even desireable, to be aggressive and stupid like the Prez. "Finally, someone to tell me that it was OK to be drunk all through high school" Fortunately, this embarrassing cultural canker that is the new conservative movement seems to be healing up, albeit slowly, and good old fashion stewardship, creative rather than destructive energy, and the value of education over proud, willful ignorance seem to be returning. Welcome to the new world of the innernutz, where a great percentage of the population can sniff out bullshit more quickly and thoroughly than ever before.

The causes that correlate with crime rates are very complicated not entirely understood. It's just not that simple. No one policy is going to make the 'shoot up' or 'shoot down' all of a sudden. Ask an experienced cop about the burglary thing. I just did last week, actually. Now cops themselves do tend to have guns at home, of course. Nobody in their right mind breaks into a cop's house - and usually everybody knows which house that is. As a non-cop, you don't get that extra special aura of protection unless you, too, enjoy a personal army of highly trained revenge seekers backing you up.

Yellowlabia, your testosterone emissions are giving me a semi. You need to take matters into your own hands sooner than later or your balls are going to explode.

Crime's gone down for a number of reasons: Community policing, neighborhood watch, increased police funding and equipment, vastly improved 911, and, most of all, changes in demographics - America is aging. Gun ownership has fuck all to do with it, of course. If bad people know you've got a lot of guns, they're more likely to TARGET your house to get 'em - it's simply a matter of waiting until you're not home. Pretty easy. The myth of 'deterrence' has made your life more dangerous. The first thing cops ask when you file a burglary report is "did you have any guns?" Besides cash and drugs, they are probably the most fungible item to steal. If everyone had guns, there would likely be a hell of a lot more burglaries to get at them. Can't shoot em when you're not home, and that's when burglaries happen in nearly all cases. But guns nutz love to tell themselves that they're making us all safer. Just the opposite. They are magnets for crime, and a potential perp for an accidental shooting. Its surprising to me that so many gun nuts, who seem so focused on protecting their home, seem unaware of this glaring and obvious hole in their logic. They focus more on the one in a million chance of a violent home invasion when you are home - the stuff of national headlines, but not the stuff of reality, really.

Dear Old Dad gave me a Cold Commander after the Rodney King riots. They were 800 miles away from him, but he somehow convinced himself that the Great Unwashed were about to invade our small, peaceful little wine town and grab all our Garlic Jack and White Zinfandel without paying. He was pushing Home Protection on all his sons. My little bro simply said 'fuck that', my big bro already had a bunch of rusty guns he never used, and so it fell to me. I shot the 100 rounds that came with it with some buddies, got pretty boring by the end of the box, then sold it through Butch's cuz my young nephews were due for a visit from Japan and I knew the stats about shooting accidents and kids. I couldn't see myself going through a whole bunch of hassle and expense securing a weapon I had no use for and really never wanted in the first place. For me, one use for a gun would be to make through holes through mild steel. A 9mm will penetrate up to 3/8" steel plate quite nicely, although the splaying requires a bit of boring and grinding afterwards to bring up to 3/8" dia - a size I use a lot. May be able to I'm thinking of a shooting booth lined with thicker steel plate which might double as a sand blasting booth. My neighbors may not think much of the idea, however. Maybe I can blackmail them into buying me a new drill press and some new carbide bits.

Any comprehensive legislation typically has a several year timeline for implementation and more for the effect to show up in a big way. Gotta give all the stakeholders involved time to become education and comply. America needs a cultural change in its mentality towards guns (and religion, and...) and that's probably going to take a generation or more. A lot of Americans understand that, particularly in our state. Pretty standard. It'll happen.