Allow Me to Introduce Maria...

[enterprikayak]

hey, it's your board...if someone's an asshat, i say sing it out!

[Buurman]

And not to sound too cranky, but if some of you are so anti-gun, could you please refrain from posting in threads like this and giving the rest of us grief? It's just ever so slightly trolling and it gets under my skin something fierce.

I know they're just teasing me because I'm the weird liberal gun nut... try not to let it bother you. It's just a matter of where and how you grow up. Some people just don't grow up in the gun culture, so they don't get it. But I understand what you're saying. Just try for me

I actually did just that ^^ Growing up in the Netherlands there are some laws you probably find crazy but I'm quite happy with the 'no-gun-toting'-law. Yay! Then I read threads like these and I'm: "One more reason to scratch the USA off my list" *scratchscratch*

But hey, that's just me. And you, but everyone knows USAians are all kinda weird

[Aquarius]

I guess I'm one of those weird people who's more than comfortable with the notion that just because gun ownership isn't for me personally, that doesn't mean I think nobody else should have them either. I'm more than happy to just play with someone else's while carefully supervised in controlled conditions. If people want to hunt or shoot recreationally, that's cool, they're not hurting anybody, and I've even enjoyed the latter on occasion. I grew up out in the sticks so I'm used to guns being around--you've got to protect your farm animals from predators somehow.

Then, later as a young adult, living in that crack den of an apartment complex through my 20s, it gave me a bit of comfort that the gang-bangers and crackheads had to worry about whether or not *we* had a gun, too. I noticed that attitudes changed quite a bit amongst our hinky neighbors when Michigan passed its shall-issue CCW law.

There's pros and cons both ways. I think the main thing is for people on both sides of the issue to not judge if someone else makes a choice that's different from their own, especially when that choice doesn't hurt anyone. So far it's been good-natured teasing in this discussion and that's cool.

[Elessar]

I guess I'm one of those weird people who's more than comfortable with the notion that just because gun ownership isn't for me personally, that doesn't mean I think nobody else should have them either. I'm more than happy to just play with someone else's while carefully supervised in controlled conditions. If people want to hunt or shoot recreationally, that's cool, they're not hurting anybody, and I've even enjoyed the latter on occasion. I grew up out in the sticks so I'm used to guns being around--you've got to protect your farm animals from predators somehow.

Then, later as a young adult, living in that crack den of an apartment complex through my 20s, it gave me a bit of comfort that the gang-bangers and crackheads had to worry about whether or not *we* had a gun, too. I noticed that attitudes changed quite a bit amongst our hinky neighbors when Michigan passed its shall-issue CCW law.

There's pros and cons both ways. I think the main thing is for people on both sides of the issue to not judge if someone else makes a choice that's different from their own, especially when that choice doesn't hurt anyone. So far it's been good-natured teasing in this discussion and that's cool.

I just noticed your "Sex, Lies, and Soundproofing Material" in production. Hurry that s*** up! Sounds good!

[Aquarius]

I guess I'm one of those weird people who's more than comfortable with the notion that just because gun ownership isn't for me personally, that doesn't mean I think nobody else should have them either. I'm more than happy to just play with someone else's while carefully supervised in controlled conditions. If people want to hunt or shoot recreationally, that's cool, they're not hurting anybody, and I've even enjoyed the latter on occasion. I grew up out in the sticks so I'm used to guns being around--you've got to protect your farm animals from predators somehow.

Then, later as a young adult, living in that crack den of an apartment complex through my 20s, it gave me a bit of comfort that the gang-bangers and crackheads had to worry about whether or not *we* had a gun, too. I noticed that attitudes changed quite a bit amongst our hinky neighbors when Michigan passed its shall-issue CCW law.

There's pros and cons both ways. I think the main thing is for people on both sides of the issue to not judge if someone else makes a choice that's different from their own, especially when that choice doesn't hurt anyone. So far it's been good-natured teasing in this discussion and that's cool.

I just noticed your "Sex, Lies, and Soundproofing Material" in production. Hurry that s*** up! Sounds good!

You quoted that whole mess just to tell me that? Just kidding--but I thought it was funny!

I would've had it mostly done yesterday, except my day fell apart with cable man drama, so I'll see what I can do.

Guess what story it's a sequel to???

[CX]

I actually did just that ^^ Growing up in the Netherlands there are some laws you probably find crazy but I'm quite happy with the 'no-gun-toting'-law. Yay! Then I read threads like these and I'm: "One more reason to scratch the USA off my list" *scratchscratch*

But hey, that's just me. And you, but everyone knows USAians are all kinda weird

And you have all kinds of free speech issues, a government that lets terrorists in other countries dictate its policies, bends over backwards when it comes to Muslims living within your borders, etc. And to me there is nothing weird about having the ability to defend myself, but I'm kind of guessing that you don't want to go there.

[Elessar]

If the next post even contains the word "Netherlands", "United States", "gun laws", or anything else that has even the vaguest thing to do with gun politics, I'm locking this thread and sticking my "ASSHOLE" button on for the next week. Don't **** with me on this.

[Buurman]

What can I say to that but ... actually I don't know what I could say. Sorry? Maybe. I wasn't trying to start up a flame war, merely acknowledging that there are different cultural backgrounds and all that. And the fact that I find some people weird. But then again, I am weird as well so that levels out.

Hey, whaddaya got against my b-ootifool country?

[Aquarius]

^ Good-natured teasing is one thing, and acknowledging diversity is great. When you make a remark about "scratching (fill in name of country here) off your list," though, it makes a generalization about the people who live in that country, and opens the door for a whole bunch of volatile governmental and political stuff, no matter how innocently it was meant. Some people will take it the way you meant; others, sadly, will not, and will feel the need to retaliate against such a remark, citing perceived flaws and making generalizations about (fill in name of another country here). And then it becomes a Whole Big Thing. Neither side is "wrong"; each has just made different life-choices based on how they were raised, personal preference, and what's permitted where they live. Where it all goes bad is when either side starts implying (or even directly saying) that the other is wrong.

It would be one thing if everyone could adopt an attitude of "just because it's right/wrong for me doesn't mean it has to be right/wrong for everybody else," but unfortunately human nature is such that there are certain hot-button issues that people feel very passionately about, to the exclusion of accepting other people's life-choices, and the temptation to impose one's own "morality" onto everyone else becomes irresistible. Then rather being a civilized debate, it becomes a "you can agree with me, or you can be wrong!" situation. It's happened before, and I think Elessar is just asking for a little cooperation in preventing it from happening again. Nobody wants to deal with that kind of headache on a regular basis.

[Escriba]

You know, this could have been prevented if Elessar had showed us an actual girlfriend

Shame on you, Elessar

[Elessar]

^ Good-natured teasing is one thing, and acknowledging diversity is great. When you make a remark about "scratching (fill in name of country here) off your list," though, it makes a generalization about the people who live in that country, and opens the door for a whole bunch of volatile governmental and political stuff, no matter how innocently it was meant. Some people will take it the way you meant; others, sadly, will not, and will feel the need to retaliate against such a remark, citing perceived flaws and making generalizations about (fill in name of another country here). And then it becomes a Whole Big Thing. Neither side is "wrong"; each has just made different life-choices based on how they were raised, personal preference, and what's permitted where they live. Where it all goes bad is when either side starts implying (or even directly saying) that the other is wrong.

It would be one thing if everyone could adopt an attitude of "just because it's right/wrong for me doesn't mean it has to be right/wrong for everybody else," but unfortunately human nature is such that there are certain hot-button issues that people feel very passionately about, to the exclusion of accepting other people's life-choices, and the temptation to impose one's own "morality" onto everyone else becomes irresistible. Then rather being a civilized debate, it becomes a "you can agree with me, or you can be wrong!" situation. It's happened before, and I think Elessar is just asking for a little cooperation in preventing it from happening again. Nobody wants to deal with that kind of headache on a regular basis.

Thank you for the gift of diplomacy in my time of lacking . People just don't need to get so worked up and defensive. No, I don't want anyone impugning anyone else's society, but once someone does, you don't need to respond, either. "He threw food at me first" only works in elementary school. The next time this happens, I'm puttin' the thunder down on somebody and I don't care who it is - Left or Right. This is your fair warning.

By the way, I had a dream about Maria last night. I dreamt I was in some kind of antique book store and someone was trying to get me to buy a religious book. It was in the "fantasy" section , no offense, just relating my dreams. It was funny because Magic: The Gathering cards were on the wall next to a bible. I remember thinking to myself (which is funny that you can have internal monologue within a dream) that I should start collecting Magic cards again then stopping and saying to myself that with my fixed income I didn't have the money to start collecting cards again. Anyway, this place was also like a used/trade/pawn shop, yet somehow it was connected to my house, because I went to get Maria to show it to the store owner, just to talk shop, and I just had to leave the room and go into another room to get it. But when I laid it up on the counter to show it to him, the scope was broken off and like moved further up the stock and glued in place. Like someone had broken it and then tried to "fix it" and make it look fixed. It was totally destroyed, but it wasn't quite right because my scope mounts on a rail and this was like, the original mount that was broken, was just directly attached to the top of the rifle somehow. Anyway, I remember trying to put it back on where it went as I woke up. And I woke up to my dog barking up a storm and footsteps in the hallway... in shoes. It was 6:30 AM, and my sister is never awake at 6:30 AM, so initially I was worried. So I snuck out of my room when I heard the steps get further away, I tiptoed into the kitchen and found my sister pouring a bowl of cereal. "Morning", I say, "HOLY SHIT!" she screams, scared shitless. I was kind of happy b/c dammit she scared the bejeesus outta me, I nearly got my pistol out.

[CX]

Grrrrr.....

[Aquarius]

That's one crazy-assed dream, Boss!

[evcake]

You know, this could have been prevented if Elessar had showed us an actual girlfriend

Shame on you, Elessar

I don't know any Marias, but I know a very nice girl named Marie...