"1.) So you're saying that "knowing how to swim" makes you immune from the risk of ever drowning and your raincoat (gun) protects you from water no matter what form the peril it's causing you takes, even if you were to find yourself trapped under it with no air?" N #224
No.
That's your assertion, not mine.
My point was substantially more sophisticated than that, and thus obviously above your head.
The challenge to which I responded was:
"Do you not fear drowning?" N #214
The answer is no. I prefer to continue to live in confident competence rather than to grovel my life away in fear and cowardice; you know, the way you do.
I was never there in the first place cupcake. I don't cower.
"Your allusion to the protection from water offered by a raincoat being comparable to the protection from harm offered by a gun, is as I said, a false equivalency. Oversimplification at best." N #224
To the simple-minded it might surely seem so.
But to those of us with intellectual means, it's simply a practical reminder that rather than "fear" (your exact word), I take precautions.
It doesn't mean I quiver in terror in a deep puddle of my own urine and vomit, under my bed, driven mad by self-concocted horrors about shoulda woulda coulda.
I live life to the full.
- I'm a licensed hunter.
- I'm a licensed car driver.
- I'm a licensed motorcyclist.
- I'm a licensed hang glider pilot.
- I bicycled over 1,500 miles last year, and hope the season will last long enough in 2018 for a repeat.
- I rappel (mountaineering)
- I swim
- I snorkel
- I water ski
- I sail
- I camp
- and if all that's not daring enough, I eat my own cooking.
Fear is for children sir or m'am.
I have no time, and no patience for it. I'm not immortal. My time will come. It's not here yet. So I live life to the full, already have outdoor activities planned for tomorrow.
"2.) More absurdity. The vast majority of US citizens live in developed cities and towns where dangerous wild animals are virtually non-existent and on the rare occasions when they do appear, it's not necessary to shoot them to protect yourself."
Yes.
P.T. Barnum explained it quite ably.
I don't answer for them.
I live on my own estate, hundreds of acres inside the Adirondack Park, the largest nature preserve in the lower 48 East of the Mississippi.
Here's the view from my kitchen window:
My nearest neighbors are deer friends of mine.
"4.) Police officers and military personnel are paid ..."
Oh.
So that's it.
I knew there was a trick to it. They're paid!
Thanks for the tip.
Problem is, I could probably get a hot pizza delivered faster than I could get a COP up here.
I've been here for decades. We take care of ourselves up here.