Re: With Cheney, rules simply don't apply

"Chris Morton" <cmorton@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:dtaj5g02780@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Indeed, my life is under control.  I attribute that largely to the
absence
of
> drugs in my life.  Most of the people whom I've know whose lives were
NOT
under
> control were drug users.  A smaller percentage were alcoholics or
toxically
> religious.

Carefully avoiding the question of whether or not your life in really that
perfectly under control ... I think you are onto something here. It makes
sense that out of control behavior would be a nature reaction for people
who
suffer from the aforementioned personality disorders. I would add to your
list of disorders the fear of people of other races, or fear of young
people, or fear of gay people, or envy of rich people, or fear of poor
people, etc., etc., etc.

> Do you believe that you have not defended yourself from an attacker
using
a gun
> unless someone dies?  If someone attacks you, sees your gun, and runs
away
with
> no shots being fired, much less someone being shot, are you saying that
that
> doesn't count as a defense with a firearm?

I do question how often what you describe actually happens. All my gun
toting friends chant the same mantra .. don't aim your weapon unless you
intend to use it. So, I am thinking to myself, if that rule is really
being
followed, why is it that none of them have ever actually shot anyone?
Common
sense tells me there can't be that high a percentage of unarmed
cowardly-lion assailants in the world. What seems more likely, to me, is
that my friends are drawing weapons on people who don't necessarily pose a
serious threat to them.

I think of all the times in my life when white people have given me that
look of fear in their eyes, for no other reason than I happened to be a
black man, approaching them at night, with no other white people around. I
can easily see how some of my gun toting white friends might decode such
situations as life threatening.

> My being a helpless victim only benefits those who would be victimizers.
> Assuming the accuracy of your prediction of a "Max Max" future, one of
us
will
> be reduced to begging for his own life (and those of his loved ones),
while the
> other will have significantly broader options.  I'm thinking we'll both
see...
> but that in the end, only one of us will be able to tell what he saw...

In our "Mad Max"  future, most citizens will live in a constant state of
fear, will own weapons, and will choose to use them in situations which
can
be handled with less volatile methods. If you think back to the all three
Max Max movies, Mel Gibson's character was one bad-ass, take-no-crap, dude
from the last few minutes of the first movie through all two other movies.
But, he was also a man alone. Isolated from society. Trusting no one. Not
daring to love or befriend anyone. I would prefer death to such a life.
You
would cherish it as a welcome alternative to the possibility of otherwise
being physically abused.

Istlota