Hitchhiker shot while researching 'Kindness of America'
A hitchhiker researching a book on "The Kindness of America" is currently recovering in hospital after a gun-toting truck driver gave him a small donation of some searing hot lead. Ray Dolin, was hitching on Highway 2 in Montana on Saturday as part of a project to produce a memoir on the great things about the open road in the …
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truck driver?
in the US, "truck driver" does not apply to anyone driving a pickup truck. It is assumed when one says "truck driver" that they are refferring to an 18 wheeler driver, otherwise if a dump truck or garbage truck you must preface "truck" with the specific type of truck.
The punchline
"I went looking for Kindness in America
And all I got was this blood-soaked T-shirt"
Here endeth the lesson.
I now look forward to a more accurate, less naive book from our intrepid author.
The irony continues...
Apparently our naive, battle-weary hero owns a photography business in West Virginia, called "OneShot Impressions", the logo for which is the cross hairs of a rifle scope.
Re: Americans
Insert Cameron Murdoch buggery love joke here.
Re: Americans
Hey at least Obama didn't leave his daughter in a pub, ouch ...
Now get back to your wife beater, and while your at it why don't you brush your teeth for a change.
Oh and look out for all those knicker puking lager louts on your way home. Or maybe you just ride past them in your Bentley with the windows rolled up like some pompous member of your 'royal' family. Oh dear. Oh please no, let's drop another couple billion quid on the old lady while the rest of your crumbling empire shrinks down to utter meaningless where you riot for days burning down each other homes.
But, no guns! And very one's just no nice ;-)
Wankers.
Two Thumbs Up!
Whoa... I expected a dozen thumbs down on this (what, me a troll?) because, OK, it is generalisation on a massive scale, and that is not right.
But it's still true about the presidents...
Re: ...Wankers
Isn't there an apt saying?
Something about it being better to be a live wanker?
@ RegisterThisToo
Feel free to post your bigoted idiocy somewhere else.
And frankly I'm unimpressed with the moderators for allowing this level of utterly irrelevant drivel to remain on here.
To all the detractors from Europe
The next time your head is being beaten in by a bunch of hoodie-wearing thugs, the next time you get caught in the crossfire between two groups of yardies, the next time you get stabbed by some drug-crazed loon, write here afterwards and tell us your views on gun ownership.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
yeah too bad the bad guys unfortunately almost always get the drop on you as most of us don't go around assuming we are in a war zone. You are far more likely to have a loved one shot with your gun than it saving one. Still responsible gun ownership is the law of the land and personally I'm fine with that but the personal security argument has always been a load of shit.
Re: To all the gun-obsessed maniacs from America
I can outrun a knife. I can't outrun a bullet.
The fact is that granting a "right to bear arms" only encourages people to use them. Far better to discourage their use, than make paranoid excuses for mutually assured destruction.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
What an idiotic statement. You're not a gun owner are you?
That's quite a frightening world you live in, maybe if guns weren't so easy to come by you'd be safer.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
Of course if the honest folk are likely to be carrying a gun, then the 'hoddies' also will. And they will certainly get their shots in first, just to be sure.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
"You are far more likely to have a loved one shot with your gun than it saving one."
Prove that.
Re: To all the gun-obsessed maniacs from America
"granting a "right to bear arms" only encourages people to use them"
Prove that.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
@ jeebus
A simple, "I disagree with you" would suffice. Like the other bullshit merchants I've responded too, though, you appear to be too much of an idiot to be civil.
Appearances can be deceptive, I'll grant you.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
This article is about as unbiased as I could find and does a good job of showing both sides of the argument but even it is clear:
"When it comes to violence, nearly every figure suggests that increased presence of guns correlates with higher levels of injury and death. Homicide rates among the US population between 15 and 24 years of age are 14 times higher than those in most other industrialized nations. Children from 5 to 14 years old are 11 times more likely to be killed in an accidental shooting. Within the US, areas with high gun ownership have higher rates of these problems"
"Summing matters up, Hemenway notes that a number of surveys have found that a gun kept at home is far more likely to be used in violence, an accident, or a suicide attempt than self defense."
http://arstechnica.com/science/2011/04/guns-in-the-home-lots-of-risk-ambiguity/
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
Again not arguing for gun control as the benefits of things like hunting and target practice can be enjoyable. Like all things a risk vs benefits decision must be made with the understanding especially with owning a handgun you are increasing your risks. This BS guns make people safer is coincidentally usually spouted off by the same people that believe the earth is 5000 years old, that Ronald Reagan was fiscally conservative (blatant lie) , and that global warming is a giant conspiracy by the left.
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
What, like the woman who was killed in crossfire on a London street not so long ago?
There is a world beyond the Atlantic, you know.
I can outrun a knife. I can't outrun a bullet.
"Hold that thief, he has my knife in his back!"
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
John A Blackley:
"The next time your head is being beaten in by a bunch of hoodie-wearing thugs, the next time you get caught in the crossfire between two groups of yardies, the next time you get stabbed by some drug-crazed loon, write here afterwards and tell us your views on gun ownership."
.
The reason the US has more gun crime than most countries isn't because it has more guns, it's because the population generally buys into the above line of reasoning. They'd rather live in an armed camp, than risk going out unarmed. They'd rather live in the stone age than take a chance on civilization.
They fail to see what a wussie, cowardly attitude this is. (And I say this purely as a statement of fact.) There's no courage in carrying a honking great firearm. Not even peace of mind. Only fear. You can see the same attitude playing out to an extreme degree on the world stage. The US has a bigger military than the rest of the world combined, yet still lives in fear.
And of course, that's the reason the US attitude is wrong. It takes real courage to live in a civilized world, to go unarmed even when you know there's always a non-zero risk that some heavily-armed loonie out there will be less civilized than you. It takes guts to go through an airport without police-state security, even if it means that once in a while (a very, very long while, actually) a few of you will inevitably get blown up by some foreign fanatic.
Gandhi knew it. Non-violence is all about courage. The courage to put your weapons down first. Americans lack that courage, and we're all less safe for that reason. They should stop and think: when I carry a gun, maybe I'M somebody else's "heavily-armed loonie"...
Re: To all the detractors from Europe
Trouble with that is that courage (or what some might call blissful ignorance) doesn't protect you when the tonker DOES come along, especially when the tonker can do more than just shoot you. Look at 9/11. Yesterday it was a few airliners. Tomorrow? A contation spreading via an immigrant in JFK perhaps. They say eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, or perhaps more succinctly, "Be Prepared." Some fear is good for the system; helps to keep you alert. And besides, if you outlaw guns, then only outlaws will carry them, and when you have arms plants and military bases all over the map, not to mention various borders where illicit arms can come through (look at it like this--some of the US's notorious crimes occurred with AK-47's, which last I checked, no legit American firm makes or sells), it might be best seen as the stick against the avalanche.
How about this for courage? Having a gun around you but having the restraint and presence of mind NOT to use it unless you have to? Living without the means to defend yourself is one thing, but what about having the means AND having the wisdom to know when it's morally justified?
Remember.
That off chance one in a hundred million THAT WILL DEFINITELY BE USED TO DRAW AN EMOTIONAL RESPONSE.
Imagine if it was your kid.
Imagine if someone had garotted the f*ck out of your wife.
Imagine is someone had beaten your parents with a sack of doorknobs.
Etcetera.
That will be used to justify an utterly moronic statement. John A Blackley wins the award.
Re: Remember.
Not sure you can "imagine is" anything, but you can now. Maybe you should shoot it.
Re: Not sure you can "imagine is"
I'm all for shooting people who make tipos, speling mistakes and puntuation error's
Bang! Bang! Bang!
What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
I'm just saying
And I guess I'd rather be shot then beat over the head to death by a curry maddened gang for holligans
oh and seems you Brits didn't seem to mind our guns when our fathers and grandfathers were dropping their intestines for you ...
rubbish, pure rubbish ...
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
Anti-American? I think not. And we do carry non-IT news from time to time, mostly on Fridays just before Pub O'Clock, admittedly.
C.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
How is it Anti-American exactly?
Are you saying that you feel the gunman is a fair representation of Americans and that this news item reflecting him in a negative light is racist?
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
"... you Brits didn't seem to mind our guns when our fathers and grandfathers were dropping their intestines for YOU ..."
I think you are confusing us with the French - the battle of Britain was over by the time you joined in. Europe certainly owes the US a great deal of thanks for their involvement and sacrifice, but try not to forget exactly who it was that you helped liberate. I do accept that Britain may have succumbed at some point in the future if the Nazis had not been defeated - so you did help prevent that.
As for US war-mongering, etc. If an USAians want to know what most of the rest of the world currently thinks is representative of America (rightly or wrongly) then they should watch 'Iron Sky'. Even though it is tongue-in-cheek It is not a good image to have, and only real Americans can correct this.
From a personal perspective I've liked all Americans I've met (and I worked with hundred) - but none of them were NRA-supporting/bible bashing red-necks.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
>>oh and seems you Brits didn't seem to mind our guns when our fathers and grandfathers were dropping their intestines for you ...
Do you mean WW2? when America only joined in because Japan bombed them, when America charged for every bullet (and we have only just paid back the last $ recently), when Americans were getting fat off the war between the UK and Germany by buying and selling German bonds, goods and machinery (and IBM supplying things like the counting machines for the Jewish hollocaust?) - where did the Bush family get their money? you do know that the US never declared war on Germany? you do know that the American eugenics movement was the inspiration for his cleansing? and what happened when the war ended? where did all the WMD scientists go? the Nazis and war criminals?
No, your grandfathers died to make the US rich and safe, the fact that it involved helping out Europe was merely an inconvienience which we paid for, the US was a self centred hired gun, nothing else.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
Well perhaps if the Brits and especially the butt hurt French hadn't tried so hard to ruin Germany after WW1 there would have been no Hitler and no WW2. The French were sure vengeful when this was one of the rare wars they were on winning side (hardly due to their own efforts). I guess after being owned by everyone including even Mexico they only knew how to be a sore winner.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
>you do know that the US never declared war on Germany?
Wrong. You might mean Germany declared war on the US first but a formal declaration was made.
>On December 11, 1941, the United States Congress declared war upon Germany, in response to that nation's declaration of war following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[1]
> where did all the WMD scientists go? the Nazis and war criminals?
Well perhaps if Winston wasn't a total pussy wimp and let Stalin have half of Europe we could have hung more of the evil f__ks instead of sparing them for the coming cold war. Roosevelt at least has an excuse he was dying rapidly during the negotiations.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
>>Wrong. You might mean Germany declared war on the US first but a formal declaration was made.
You're missing the point - Germany declared war on the USA, then the US got stuck in - they were already at war, declaring war against a country that is at war with you doesn't count!
>>Well perhaps if Winston wasn't a total pussy wimp and let Stalin have half of Europe we could have hung more of the evil f__ks instead of sparing them for the coming cold war. Roosevelt at least has an excuse he was dying rapidly during the negotiations.
No, wrong - the German WMD scientists (ex nuclear and rocket) were mopped up by the USA in project paperclip, brought to the US and worked in places like NASA, this included Nazis and War Criminals, totally illegal of course, but project paperclip made up histories for these people, hell! some of these people were even charged with War Crimes and had to leave the US or be caught. This is of course in opposition to the Russian "brain drain" where all captured scientists were repatriated and were never allowed to directly work on any nuclear or rocket program - which of course is ironic as paperclip was specifically put in place to make sure the Russians didn't get any good scientists.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
lol - you really have no clue of history do you?
WW1 was an invasion of Iraq (started in Basra 1914), ivory, rubber, and most importantly the new gold - oil and of course that had nothing to do with what happened to Germany? Look up the history of the Orient Express, or not - self education is a choice, ignorance is bliss as they say.
Re: What does this Anti-American news item have to do with technology
>WW1 was an invasion of Iraq (started in Basra 1914), ivory, rubber, and most importantly the new gold - oil and of course that had nothing to do with what happened to Germany?
What are babbling about ? I didn't say anything about WW1 itself. I talked about the aftermath of WW1 and the Brits and French war repatriation punishment ultimately crushing the Wiemar Republic and allowing Hitler to gain power in the vacuum. Do try to keep up.
Man goes to research Kindness in America...
Research complete. Now to draw conclusions!
Every country has its morons. Its just that, in the US, they are armed...
Not exactly a 'Man Bites Dog" story.
More like a "Dog Bites Man" story. With a touch of irony, as the man was wearing a 'I Heart Dogs' tee shirt.
Thanks Reg!
"However, it is not known whether his connection to the fossil fuel industry that prompted his alleged ire at a would-be car-pooler."
It's these little gems that keep me coming back. :)
America
What you get when you let a bunch of religious loonies go off and do their own thing for 300 odd years.
Re: America
Yeah thanks UK for seeding America with your castoffs. You did the same thing in Australia and guess what they are the only other developed country almost as right wing as the US.
The Right To Arm Bears?
Just trying to raise the tone of the conversation :)
guns etc
Leaving aside the usual internet troll reponses - nutters will alwys find a way to kill you if they want to. This is obviously true but as a justification for gun ownership it's pretty feeble - let's face if you are carrying a gun you are likely to use it. Gun crime in the UK is still remarkably rare, there are headline grabbing events but these are unusual and are not in any way a reason for the general arming of the populace - can you imagine the Saturday night drunks piling out of bars and clubs with guns?
I'd rather risk the occasional mugger, thanks.
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