[Rory Waterman]

It's easy to hit a six in the Colosseum, providing you can negotiate the conduits and the security bods.

[Rory Waterman]

Originally Posted by Ed Shacklee

For what it's worth, there are some of us here who are all for following Australia's example. Maybe in a couple of decades the tone of our national conversation will change.

Ed

Yes, including the overwhelming majority of the many Americans I know.

Editing in. I've just seen that they are starting a gun buy back scheme in Los Angeles, in return for food vouchers; though it is voluntary (obviously), and I can't see it catching on in most places, this is a promising start. Another statistic I've seen, though, shows that more guns were sold in the US in 2012 than in any other year.

[Donna English]

Originally Posted by Rory Waterman

Editing in.
Another statistic I've seen, though, shows that more guns were sold in the US in 2012 than in any other year.

...which means the NRA is doing its most important job as PR for the gun manufacturers. Fear mongering is an effective way of promoting gun sales. Some of those big profits the gun manufactures have made will undoubtedly go to the NRA executives in the form of bigger saleries or bonuses, and also more bullshit blah, blah, blah that leads stupid, yes, stupid, and or racist people to believe all their guns will somehow be taken away by the President and that selling more guns to school rent- a- cops and math teachers is a good idea. If one more person tells me that the NRA advocates gun safety, I'm going to puke.

The gun manufacturers are happy as pigs in shit right now.

[Ed Shacklee]

Originally Posted by Donna English

The gun manufacturers are happy as pigs in shit right now.

I'm sorry to say it, but the election and then re-election of our first black president is about the best thing that ever happened to businesses that sell or make guns. Dog whistles abound.

It's strange, but the people here who fear a government takeover are the most likely to reflexively support the troops and law enforcement. Who do they think will be doing the grunt work of taking over? Not that the powers that be need guns, usually -- they've stripped away the pensions and earning power of millions while fanning our fears and bigotry to provide a smoke screen for the heist. Or so it seems from the left side of the peanut gallery.

Ed

[W.F. Lantry]

For those abroad or in-country, who may not be able to appreciate just how, um, unusual, things have become, you may derive some insight from this rather tame video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=O0PF-j-8NdE

It's worth two minutes and thirty seconds of your time...

Thanks,

Bill

[John Whitworth]

Yes, very amusing, Bill. But over here we have people who think that by erecting thousands of five hundred foot windmills just about everywhere, we will be able to give up the wicked petrol and the wicked oil Otherwise - apocalypse pretty soon folks! These hideous bird mincing machines at present generate .04% of our electricity, -00% when the wind is not blowing or when the wind is blowing too hard. But hey, apocalypse is going to happen soon, soon, soon.

When all the lights go out I think a gun might be a good thing to have.

And have you looked around Greece lately?

[Jan Iwaszkiewicz]

There are so many guns in circulation in the USA that it sadly becomes almost understandable that a person would not feel safe without owning one.

[Rory Waterman]

Originally Posted by John Whitworth

But over here we have people who think that by erecting thousands of five hundred foot windmills just about everywhere, we will be able to give up the wicked petrol and the wicked oil Otherwise - apocalypse pretty soon folks!

Thousands of 500-ft windmills? Everywhere? Will allow us to be petrol-free? Will single-handedly avert 'apocalypse'? Nobody thinks any of this - not unless they are as grossly uninformed as you appear to be, John. I suggest you stop getting your 'facts' from the Daily Mail. You don't support your argument by talking utter nonsense. Perhaps facts aren't what you're interested in.

[Nigel Mace]

When your only detectable object is to rile-up residents this side of the pond, John, it's not worth rising to your bait - but, given the serious levels of paranoid unreality evident in the States and their currently ghastly consequences, you really mustn't be allowed to add to their pool of misinformation about us here in Europe.

By 2025 Germany is going to be 50% supplied by renewable electricity and we could easilymatch or better that if only the investment of capital and political will were committed to the same goals. I live near one giant wind farm in the Moorfoot Hills and another is coming a little further west - and a very good thing too. In Italy the northern Marche has seen a huge increase in sun farms, not always felicitously sited, but also a thoroughly good thing too. The current Scottish Government is leading the way in political support for wave power technology which only the supine inability of Westminster to stand up to the fossil fuel and nuclear lobby is styming. There is a truly good future for these things.

Your final -I take it 'flip' - comment about owning a gun is in the worst possible taste - and nonsense to boot.

[Rory Waterman]

The RSPB are fully in favour of wind farms, so your sudden ornithological concern is misplaced. Of course, they do interfere with the sonar of bats and kill some birds, but what effects do the harvesting of other power sources have on wildlife?

Wind farms repay the energy they cost to build in a year, whereas nuclear power stations currently take on average more than seven years to reach that goal - and that is without considering the problem of containing the material when they shut down. Which they all do one day.

Without wind farms we have no chance of meeting EU renewable energy targets and stand to be fined. Now, you may hate the EU, but whatever your feelings about that it remains true that we'll face huge fines if we don't increase our renewable energy use.

I don't know what Greece has to do with your banal argument (it is), but it seems you already have a metaphorical scatter gun to go with the real gun you claim to want when the 'lights go out'.

Of course, these are all facts and might not be very interesting to you.