Toonpack

How'd I miss all of this

and Switzerland

Thicko !! Easy that one, there's bazzillions of tiny invisible fairies that flap their wings when the sun is bright which creates friction and thus heat, if it's really bright, their wings are going so fast they sweat profusely which obviously accounts for humidity along with the heat.

I was around at the time, it was the height of the cold war (a real war with all but the shooting), if it had not happened, irrespective of any hair brained theories, the simple fact is that Russians would have exposed it in a MASSIVE propoganda coup. Similarly for the rather deranged Wolfy, if Russia had not put a man in space the Americans would have similarly debunked it with great gusto. Unless of course they were in it together (which in Wolfy world is probably a realistic scenario) but it is absolutely inconceivable in the real world as was. It happened, get over it.

Nah it's definitely flat, I flew from Newcastle to the US on saturday, plane went up, flew straight at a constant 39,000 feet came down 9 hours later to zero feet, if world was round would have been climbing until halfawy and then descending thereafter. Obviously the end of the earth where the water falls over the edge is a bit west of Texas from the UK though. (still 1-0 on the footy shirts btw).

Why's the sun move in the sky ?? and if the earth doesn't move why's winter colder ??? Just curious. P.S. when you look up at the real night sky with no ambient light (in the palces like Renton likes to walk for example) what are them moving stars that you can see (with the naked eye) all over the place, which my iPhone tells me are satellites.

Toon 1 everyone else 0 Dubya International, Houston, Tx. Last neet. Toon shirt spotted no others as yet, t'is only 7 am here like, expect score will change during the day when the Mexican kids come out to play, good start though

you write your posts in word and cut and paste them in doncha Btw, double space in word keeps the spacing on here.

Other than the now crocked Fletcher, has there been a "good" Scots player emerged in the last 25 years (maybe even 30 years)

Guns provide a means but you still really have to be a certain sort of person who can point the thing at another individual and pull the trigger. What in anyone's head, makes that right, except maybe in self defence, but that wouldn't make the stats. If you're that sort of person (irrespective of consequence - e.g. the death penalty) what makes you like that. How do the Swiss manage it ?? I've handled, and fired, a fair variation of guns in my time, always on a range, (as I said earlier I enjoy shooting when I get the chance to do it) but every time I pick a gun up, it is really fucking scary, they really are an intimidating thing and to be treat with the utmost respect. Maybe the familiarity with guns out there breeds contempt/complacency, but I can't take the mental leap from complacency to it being OK to point it at someone and fire. Even with handguns, unless you are really, really good (and that takes lots and lots of practice which equals discipline, weapon only ever points down range etc etc), you've got to be up pretty damn close, inside 20ft at the very least, to hit a person sized target even with a good, well maintained, handgun, and that's just to hit the target. I doubt the people who murder with handguns spend hours on the range so they must be way up close, that's an event madder mindset. It wouldn't be "a detached killing", can't get my head around it tbh.

Switzerland has a lower murder rate than the UK yet as you say is awash with guns. You'll not clean the streets in the US of guns even with legislation it's way too late. Coincidently even since the ban on assault weapons over there lapsed (2006) murder rates have continued to drop. The majority of US murders via firearm are by handguns.

Colorado has 35% households with guns and the same population as Scotland near as makes no difference, and a similar murder rate. (This nutter may have scewed that a bit). Louisianna has similar population (within 500K) to Colorado a marginally higher gun ownership (by 10%) but 5 times the murder rate of Colorado. The solution to murder rates is a socio-economic thing, not simply just a guns or their proliferation thing and murder rates in the US have dropped 15% in the last 5 years. Am off to Houston (we have a problem) on Saturday for 3 weeks, hope my fucking stats don't come back to bite me !!!!!!!

Note the date of the post, and use of the word "possibly"

First one is an old well worn WW2 saying. In the US Normandy breakout they used the USAF/RAF to bomb the crap out of the German lines , using yellow smoke target markers, they provided smoke markers to their front line units to mark their positions to avoid getting hit, sadly they provided yellow markers and caned their own troops. Changed the colour to try again next day, sadly changed both colours the same and did it all over again. Second one is fancifull at best, how bright were 1940's headlights, really!!!, a bigger problem was the eastern seaboard cities didn't black out and Amercan shipping sailed unescorted with lights on in the months before and early months after they joined the war. Doentiz gave the order to attack American shipping before America joined the war btw. First US warship sank by a U boat was about 6 months before Pearl Harbour.

I am a Brit ?!?!?! Just keep your tinfoil hat on Parky eh ?

I only really disagree with the Hiroshima/Nagasaki atrocity notion, the rest is pretty spot on. I also see little need for national shame (outside of slavery/civil rights - which they didn't invent) in the US past (or ours for that matter) different times different standards. I think the OOT patriotism (which isn't a hugely bad thing IMO) is partly because of what's happened in the recent past, it cost a huge amount of blood to forge that country, very very recently, and to not be "proud of it" would be disrespectfull in the extreme within the psyche. It's not even a country by any "normal" measure, it's a HUGE continent. Parky's notions are just bollocks though.

That's nearly all bullshit Not in the same league as the Russians/Chinese and Japanese (in mainland China/Korea) The third world weapon of choice is the AK47, that is Russian btw

The Wild West was a lot more recent than people realise, Wyatt Earp died in 1929, the last Comanche war in Texas ended in 1879, that same year we were playing test cricket in Australia and fighting the Zulu's in Africa. . A mere 150 years ago they had a civil war which claimed 600,000 dead, that's more fatal casualties than they lost in WW1 and WW2 combined, that's a lot of "domestic" violence in the very (in historical terms) recent past.

4 US states have murder rates equitable to, or less, than the UK, 22 US states have murder rates equitable to, or less, than Europe's average (3.5/100K). The top 5 "killer states" are New Mexico (6.9/100K) Missouri and Mississippi (both 7/100K) Maryland (7.4/100K) and Louisiana at a scary 11.2/100K. Of the "better" states (sub 2 murders/100K of population) 6 of the lowest appear in the top twenty for gun ownership % of households, only 3 of the worst also appear in the top 20. Minnesota and Missouri have similar populations (within 700K) and identical gun ownership % (41.7%) yet Minnesota’s homicide rate is 1.8/100K and Missouri’s 7/100K. Minnesota doesn’t have the death penalty, Missouri does. Iowa and South Carolina are within 1 mill of population (3 and 4 Mill respectively) have similar gun ownership % (less than ½ % difference) yet murder rates are 1.3/100K and 6.1/100K respectively. Iowa has no death penalty South Carolina does. 5 of the top 6 states for gun ownership have lower murder rates than Europe (as do 10 of the top 20) 13 States have lower murder rates than London of which 7 are in the top 20 for gun ownership. The state of Washington has 30%-ish gun ownership and similar population to London and has about the same murder rate. Generally the higher rated killer states tend to be in the South, it's Social/Educational/Deprivation thing way more than simply a gun thing.

Also from Wiki: Furthermore, in recent years,[when?] the gap in violent crime rates between the United States and Canada has narrowed due to a precipitous drop in the violent crime rate in the U.S. For example, while the aggravated assault rate declined for most of 1990s in the U.S. and was 324 per 100,000 in 2000, the aggravated assault rate in Canada remained relatively steady throughout and was 143 per 100,000 in 2000. In other areas, the U.S. had a faster decline. For instance, whereas the murder rate in Canada declined by 36% between 1991 and 2004, the U.S. murder rate declined by 44%. [17] Both Saskatoon and Regina consistently have violent crime rates that would place them among the 10 most violent cities in the US, and often individually exceed larger US centres in terms of total numbers for Aggravated Assaults and Robbery.[citation needed] The homicide rate in Canada peaked in 1975 at 3.03 per 100,000 and has dropped since then; it reached lower peaks in 1985 (2.72) and 1991 (2.69). It reached a post-1970 low of 1.73 in 2003. The average murder rate between 1970 and 1976 was 2.52, between 1977 and 1983 it was 2.67, between 1984 and 1990 it was 2.41, between 1991 and 1997 it was 2.23 and between 1998 to 2004 it was 1.82.[18] The attempted homicide rate has fallen at a faster rate than the homicide rate.[19] By comparison, the homicide rate in the U.S. reached 10.1 per 100,000 in 1974, peaked in 1980 at 10.7 and reached a lower peak in 1991 (10.5). The average murder rate between 1970 and 1976 was 9.4, between 1977 and 1983 it was 9.6, between 1984 and 1990 it was 9, between 1991 and 1997 it was 9.2 and between 1998 and 2004 it was 6.3. In 2004, the murder rate in the U.S. dipped below 6 per 100,000, for the first time since 1966, and as of 2010 stood at 4.8 per 100,000 [17]

Is it so we can make them dangerous nutter sportsmen who shoot go abroad to train ???

UK law defines a "pistol" as a firearm with a barrel shorter than 30 cm or a total length of less than 60 cm[16] (this definition encompasses revolvers, revolving pistols). Only muzzle-loading pistols—including muzzle-loading revolvers—are permitted; in practice all such firearms use black powder—a Class 1 explosive—as the propellant. All other pistols are prohibited on the UK mainland, with some exceptions such as pistols used for the humane dispatch of injured animals (such as deer) and some historical firearms. Specific models of blank-firing starting pistol that are "readily convertible" to fire live ammunition can also be banned. The Bruni Olympic .380 BBM blank-firing revolver was banned in 2010 on evidence that it was being illegally converted.[17] [edit]Long-barrelled revolvers and pistols "Long-barrelled revolvers" and "long-barrelled pistols" meeting specified criteria are not classified as prohibited pistols; it is legal, with a Class I Firearms Certificate, to own them. The barrel must be at least 30 cm long, and the firearm at least 60 cm long, which can be achieved by having a permanently attached extension to the grip or butt of the firearm. Single-shot firearms of any calibre, and semi-automatic pistols of .22 rimfire calibres, are permitted. [edit]Target pistols Aside from special temporary exemptions for major events such as the 2012 Olympics, pistol shooting for sporting purposes has been effectively banned since 1997. As a result, the GB pistol squad has to practice abroad.[18] A few models of single-shot .22 calibre free pistol, as used in the 50m Olympic 'Free Pistol' match, have been produced to meet the "long-barrelled pistol" conditions. Some free pistols have removable stabiliser bars extending backwards to improve stability; the UK-legal models have been made with non-removable stabilisers to extend the dimensions, instead of contrived and non-functional grip extensions. An example is the Pardini K22 Longarm.[19]

Don't be fucking stupid

Why isn't it my right to own a firearm should I so choose ?? The bad fuckers have them, why shouldn't I ?? I happen to enjoy shooting, range shooting, was in a rifle club when I was much younger (late teens), I also happened to be pretty good, I like pistol shooting, can't do it though unless I'm awa the water. It's more a of a right than if I was a non UK citizen commiting a crime here, that carried a stiffer penalty "at home", not being deported because something bad might happen to him, he should have thought of that before he committed the crime. If foreign johnny can play the human rights card, why the fuck can't I ???

I think it is an infringement of my basic human rights NOT to be able to legally own a firearm. (I do think sale of assault weapons and the like is daft mind).