peacefuljeffrey

You should have told him that cops like him are the reason no one has respect for the law anymore and thinks they're all assholes, and that he should try to be a better representative for his "kind." What an asshole. That must have been really disturbing/distressing. But on the plus side, you can go into court, mention that to the judge (but do not admit guilt) and ask that he either dismiss the charge on account of you were psychologically abused by the cop whether he had reason to stop you or not, or at least withhold adjudication so that you can pay the fine but not get points on your license. I would make sure to testify to the judge exactly what the cop said, and mention that your reaction to it is an overall diminishing of your view of cops and their treatment of civilians. I doubt that the judge would be pleased to hear the cop made a smartass comment like that, and he probably wouldn't like some no-college-education cop to be fucking up the public's view of the justice system further. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Who you calling a liberal?! I'm saying EXECUTE anyone you really feel is that great a threat to society. But your own twisted "logic" works against you in this example. You suggest that we should free Charles Manson because he did not murder, he only put others up to murder. Isn't that what you're hoping to do by encouraging inmates to murder molesters in jail? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

That is not the same, Bill. Are you gonna discuss this in good faith? I'm talking about something that automatically issues you a ticket as soon as you commit an infraction. Speed. Change lanes without signaling (where that's illegal). And I'm talking about biometric stuff (think "smart-gun") that links you to the vehicle being driven because you can't start it without your little card or ring or whatever. If it's good enough for gun owners, who as I said cause far less carnage than car drivers... Plus, if the chip or whatever failed, a car you can't start is hardly as big a problem for you as a gun that won't fire when you need it most, in a life-or-death conflict. Again, Bill, those aren't used by municipalities to ticket people as soon as they commit an infraction. They come into play, as yet, only when there's been an accident, yes? Hardly, Bill. That stuff is not used, as yet, in the Big-Brotherly fashion I explained. The rental car thing is, in my view, deplorable, because it acts as though every instance of speeding is a horrible, must-be-punished crime. They're full of shit when they argue that a car rental patron driving 75 down I-95 in Florida when the limit might be 65 is a danger, and increases their liability to some appreciable degree. They are doing this to make money -- and possibly to earn dubiously justified insurance rate breaks. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

That's an absurd, mindlessly dogmatic statement. It's hard to respect someone's "opinion," when it's that frozen in illogic. If a rapist were on top of a man's wife with a knife to her throat, about to finish his act and slit her open, and the man arrives home to see this, it's wrong for him to kill the rapist in order to stop his wife's murder? Can you see that it's ridiculous to state absolutes like you just did in all-caps? This, too, absurd. The only person responsible for a murder is the murderer, and/or anyone who ordered the murder. When a criminal is executed, it's because laws that were written long before you and I were born call for it to happen. Neither you nor I made those laws come to be. If I support the idea and like it, and you don't support the idea and don't like it, is that all that makes the difference between me being a "murderer" and you getting off scot-free? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Um, yeah. And I find it odd that of the two groups to kill, you'd sooner allow unborn children to be killed (who have done nothing to ever harm anyone) than you would allow vicious murderers to be humanely executed after an open and public trial in which they are allowed to mount a defense, and also to appeal a guilty verdict. That's truly fucked up. Can you see how it ends up looking like you want to be the protector of criminals? I have to ask, do you not also then support increasing the severity of the maximum sentences (I would have thought minimum sentences, to make sure they don't get the bottom end and have it be inadequate) for crimes like aggravated battery, and murder? And if not, why do you feel that MURDER does not rise to the level of deserving death, but a crime like molestation, which leaves a living victim who can be counseled to recovery, does? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Although I can understand the usefulness of doing this I'd still be against it. What right does the government have keeping track of what guns I own and where they are? Before I ever go within a thousand miles of accepting this kind of infringement on the rights of gun owners, I would expect the government to have already installed tracking devices that automatically give a driver a speeding ticket as soon as GPS detects that he or she has exceeded the speed limit. Of course, that would necessitate some device that keys exactly who is driving a given car at the time -- perhaps some biometric key assigned to the authorized (and listed and registered-with-the-government) drivers of that car. Cars are responsible for FAR more carnage annually than guns are -- that is beyond dispute. So why not put our money where our mouths are and address the largest problems first, since solving them will save more lives than solving the smaller problems? Let's see drivers accept this, and then we can talk about whether gun owners should accept needless regulation that won't stop crime. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Don't feel bad -- I can't make up my mind on abortion! (Used to be staunchly "pro-choice"; now I find myself inexplicably feeling that no, it IS killing what amounts to a human life, and I feel opposed to it. At the same time, I see futility and danger in trying to ban it. But I read a statistic in the paper the other day -- a whole story about abortion -- that last year there were 1.2 MILLION abortions in the U.S., and that was a DECREASE from prior years! That's a lot of dead babies, dude.) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Good point, Mike. I've been saying that all along. A kid who gets spanked is not going to sit there and try to figure out the paradox of, "I was hit to show me that hitting is wrong." That just doesn't happen. The negative feedback is a lesson-giver. That's about all I think there is to it. The kid says, "Damn, what I did got me an unpleasant spanking. I face that again if I do the same thing again." At that point the kid must decide one thing: is the behavior rewarding enough to overcome the unpleasantness of the spanking? The answer to that will determine whether the spanking has the desired effect. If what the others have been saying were true, then kids who get the stern talking to, or the punitive treatment, will grow up to want to torment others with harsh language and/or giving them unpleasant things to do -- since that's what they've been shown is the "right" thing to do. So they'll take pleasure in forcing others to do leg-lifts, perhaps, or to clean toilets with toothbrushes? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

MrRick, thanks for linking to those excellent knot sites!

Those are two that I've actually never been fond of. I find that neither of them -- particularly the Clove Hitch, really hold that securely. I have yet to personally find an application where the Clove Hitch did a job I needed it for. I also am reminded of the Timber Hitch, Constrictor Knot, and various Turk's Heads that I am very fond of. Oh, and the Lapp knot is a very good substitute for the Sheet Bend, but unlike the S.B., when tied slipped it can be easily undone and released under load! A few months ago, I was sitting with a sticky-note pad and started jotting down the names of knots I can tie from memory, and I got up to about 45, without itemizing each type of Turk's Head to pad the list...

I borrowed it from my girlfriend (god knows why she has it in her collection) and watched it tonight after work. (And after shopping at Walmart -- there's something unholy about this mix...) MAN that is one fucked-up flick! Talk about showing you how rough it is to be an addict! I had heard that it was gritty and disturbing, but when something like that is done right, it is downright powerful! I think I have never seen another movie that was as poignant and stirring as this one. I'm not crazy about the subject matter -- drug abuse is not my thing -- but still, the people who made Requiem for a Dream really know how to make a movie emotionally jarring. You kind of even come to care about the characters -- they're not bad people, just unfortunate, and it seems that they deserve your sympathy in their hapless predicaments. Anyway, I just had to share that. It's not a movie that you want to just keep to yourself after you've seen it, apparently. It's kind of like seeing a bad car wreck, and you just have to talk about it. There's about one redeeming thing in the movie, though -- Jennifer Connolly riding a double-ender! Hubba-hubba! (sorry) - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Not even necessary. I went down to where I used to pay to register my car, and they've changed the office; there's a big sign warning about what is not allowed in, and I could see that inside the glass doors was a metal-detector station like at an airport. So I didn't go in. I'll mail the fucker to them. Even absent a gun, I have too much other knife-y material on me to get through, too. But they're making everybody saaaaaaferrrrrrr, so it must be okay. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Well, well, well, Bill! Something we have in common?! I don't know if I ever would have suspected it if I hadn't stumbled onto it!

Thanks for the comments. I kind of enjoy that kind of movie, yeah. It's a guilty pleasure. It's a vicarious thing: it's not like I have any desire to do anything "tortury" to anyone on my own. But for some reason, watching a movie like that gets the curiousity about it out of the system, I guess. I just like macabre themes. The subject of what can happen or be done to a human being is a fascinating one. Did you see the movie "High Tension"? It had a bad ending, but the gory action was pretty top-notch. I read somewhere recently that the movie "Wolf Creek" was disturbing in the way you're saying that "Hostel" is. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I view my gear as an intimate partner in my skydives, and as such it deserves my respect and, well, love. I feel that knowing how to pack it, and packing it every time is an intrinsic part of skydiving. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

----------------------------------------------------------- Or how to torch Paris, and how far away the cops are. Are you implying that the riots in Paris started out of boredom? You have no idea what's going on there, get a good read about the immigration history and politics of France in the last 40 years and then let's talk again. I'm gonna chalk your confusion up to a language barrier or something. I was continuing the sentence, "only use communication to send short messages on their cell phones to their buddies to make up a plan of how to kill boredom..." with "or to plan riots," essentially. What that means is, "They only use communication to send short messages on their cell phones to make a plan to kill boredom OR to plan riots." Duh. As in, planning riots is one of the other uses to which they put their cell phones. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

If certain bondage knots are tied by someone who knows how to do them for that express purpose (), desire won't get you free of them until they are untied for you. I know you don't like me, but you should trust me on this. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I'm a gun owner. They won't let me join that club. But then... I haven't yet tried the "I'm-a-gun-owner-and-you're-not-ya-fag-hippie-so-I-say-I-AM-in-the-club" strategy... I'm sure it'll work, because what can they do to stop me? They're not gun owners!! - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I'm a gun owner. They won't let me join that club. I'm not lazy, it's just that I'm slow as shit when I pack, and I get distracted, and it makes me miss load opportunities. I used to get needled at SoBe because it would take me three loads to get packed, after about four or five attempts to get my main into the d-bag. I'm a lot better about that now, though, but I still pack in a languorous way... - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The sense I got from his post was that he believes sociopaths become that way because they were because they were spanked, and that an abundance of evidence backs that theory up. I really do not believe that psychological study data bears out that people who are spanked as children grow up to be sociopathic, hyper-aggressive monsters who take and take and take whatever they want from others, and abuse others -- simply because they were spanked and that's what it taught them to do. The idea of that is laughable. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

This is true. We could always try little nip-bites on the face, like momma dogs do to their puppies when they get outta line. For what it's worth, I do not believe that being spanked teaches kids to hit people all through their lives. I think that it corrects the behavior in an instant, leaves an impression that lasts on the psyche (regarding not misbehaving, and the costs if you decide to), and also teaches that this is one way in which we discipline our young. The young grow up to understand that we spank the young, for their own betterment and learning, but we don't continue to spank other adults on into adulthood. Those who don't learn this lesson, and who continue to hit people as adults, probably do that because of unrelated imperfections in their makeup; or because their own spankings amounted to something more akin to being terrorized by an abusive parent, beaten for little or no cause, frequently and with little or no restraint or self-control on the parent's part. Pinning psychologicaldamage in a kid on the parent who occasionally spanks in the "this-will-hurt-me-more-than-it-does-you" classic sense when appropriate is unjustified. I suspect that those who were "spanked" into becoming violent people as adults were probably ABUSED, not spanked. - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I'm surprised you can feel so strongly this is the case when the available data suggests otherwise. What is your opinion based on? Um, you think that convenience store robbers and other such people are that way because they were spanked, and exclusively because they were spanked? - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Yeah-bob!

Sorry to hear that. What kind of truck is it, anyway? I hear of that kind of thing with Fords and Chevys, but generally not with Toyotas and Nissans. Sadly, the American trucks have a lot of "Friday the 13ths." - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The best was the T.V. SERIES. It had nothing to do with the inane "Jason" storyline, though. It was much more intelligent than that. Anyone know if it's available on DVD yet? I'd pay top dollar for that one... - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"