O/T CAM, I know it's a big country but

[Zilzal]

how come you've not been shot at yet?

Of course if you were, we'd lose what some people would call a good moderator and the site would be all the worse for it (I'd say you were merely so-so and no more) but life would go on, yours excluded natch.

Nobody would dare take a gun to Sota and CT Miller otherwise there really would be trouble but Dallas today where five cops were shot dead and three wounded and all the other assorted mayhem in Orlando, Wisconsin and colleges up and down the land...well my point is, how come when the bullets are flying, you always seem to be elsewhere?

All best wishes

Zil

[CAMiller]

I live in a rural area, keep my head down and being white and law abiding it helps me stay out of the police's firing line. Until yesterday, Seattle was in fact the location of the most recent police massacre when 4 officers were assassinated in a coffee shop a few years back. I believe Sota will be OK if he stays away from gun ranges as a 14 year old was accidentally shot and killed by his father at one in his neighbourhood at the weekend. I think CT should be OK as long as any upcoming race riots in the Oakland area don't over spill to his East Bay locale. Having a daughter at University is a constant worry as nutters seem to gravitate towards campuses so I try to steer away from jokes on that front. In fact talking about University, we haven't seen our resident US professor and other Rawmarsh ex-pat Clar on here for quite a while. Maybe he'll resurface when the season gets into full swing?

[CTMilller]

It is always a worry, Zilzal. You never know whether you might get caught in the crossfire in the wrong place at the wrong time. In my first week in America in 1975, I saw a shooting in a multi storey car-park in Ann Arbor where I'd moved, a quiet mid-Western university campus town. The wounded man, shot by a pursuing policeman, was lying in the parking space one down from where my car was situated. It's ever been thus in the US and not just in the sketchier areas.

As CAM, says, our closest hot-spot is Oakland about four miles from where I live. My son was at college near one of the most dangerous parts of town for a couple of years and he heard gun shots at night fairly regularly. The fact is there are parts of Oakland that are perfectly safe and I go there regularly and then there are areas that are absolutely off-limits especially after dark if you're white.

For all that, it's a great country. It's too easy to focus on the negatives in any place. If you just listen to the news about another country (which, understandably, tends not to put a lot of focus on what is going right) you can easily get the impression that everything is going down the tubes - which is not the case.

As for Clar, he and I were supposed to meet when he was visiting California a year or two back for a conference in San Diego but I never heard from him again. I did hear that he visited Wentworth not so long ago so I don't think he's been blown away by Cincinnati's finest!

[monty_rhodes]

I'm obviously at fault here but to post a thread like this about such a subject at such a time just to appear "clever" beggars belief.

[monty_rhodes]

Cam and CT, I'm surprised at you both. I'm not surprised at Zilzal who is clearly a sad case. Here's the point. As we all sit at our computer screens safe behind our anonimity are we losing our humanity? You think I'm being silly? here's the test. Let me take you three cavaliers to Dallas, to the bars and homes frequented by the victims and their friends and families. Then each of you can read out your posts. You should all be ashamed of yourselves for posting and contributing to a quite disgraceful thread.

[great_fire]

I'd move to Canada.

[CAMiller]

Cam and CT, I'm surprised at you both. I'm not surprised at Zilzal who is clearly a sad case. Here's the point. As we all sit at our computer screens safe behind our anonimity are we losing our humanity? You think I'm being silly? here's the test. Let me take you three cavaliers to Dallas, to the bars and homes frequented by the victims and their friends and families. Then each of you can read out your posts. You should all be ashamed of yourselves for posting and contributing to a quite disgraceful thread.

My apologies if my tongue in cheek reply to the OP has offended anyone, it certainly wasn't meant to. The problem is Monty is living here you become frighteningly blase towards shootings. In the UK you only hear about 0.1% of the incidents, the 'big news' ones, we live with them daily in the news if not in person. Makes returning to our English cottage for retirement look more attractive every day.

[Zilzal]

As a former Buddhist in search of enlightenment I've died many times and in many ways, sometimes too horribly to mention on here. Not once have I died like celebrities die, in bed, peacefully, and surrounded by friends and loved ones. How do they all manage to do this, Monty?

I ask you in particular, Monty, God-like creature that you are and shall ever remain.