Nah, Buckylila, you will just have to join the thousands and thousands of those I have have listened to as they try to come up with the perfect scenario which will allow them to shoot a man with perfect equanimity and complete justification. Your's is almost perfect in every repect, but there's one little thing: where did the loaded, cocked gun come from when you were attacked, completely at random, by a homocidal base-ball bat wielding madman? Do you always carry a loaded weapon? If you do, I feel sorry for the guy who comes after you with a bat. When you wake up, he's gonna be sorry!

But Buckyl, in one thing we are in complete agreement. The gun must always be there! The gun is far, far more important than any piddling human considerations. After all, what real man would mind living in a society in which he might be killed by a ricochet, or a misguided bullet, when there are base-ball bat wielding maniacs afoot?

Here you have trained police officers that shoot each other in a panic..

I'm sure every move these men made was well thought out in advance. How dare you insinuate otherwise!

This, my tubiferous friend, is a true story. Like all the others, Celery, every one.

So this Mary calls me up in about 2004-5. Last time she talks to me was 13 yrs. ago, right before I got married for the last time. But that's another story. Anyway, she just dialed the same number I had 13 yrs. ago, and there I am! Her first question: "Hi ----, are you still shooting herion?"

It never occurred to her that my being at the same phone number, and the same address for so long, might indicate at least a bare minimum of stability, which precludes long standing drug habits. For those not real rich, anyway.

And she couldn't understand in the least why I considered the question just a mite insulting. She thought she was being "nice" you know, conversing about what she thought would interest me.

Can I pick 'em, or what? It's been many years, tho, since she went to find her Gunga Din- a better man than I.

Not to mention that most people can't shoot for beans, particularly when rattled..

When my wife shot her first husband, even tho he told her the truck was coming back for the can, she was so upset she missed his femoral artery, and wounded him. When she's rattled or upset, or has had more than 1 pint of vodka, her aim goes to shit.

In fact, why don't you post as lwm

You would know right away it was me, I'm not half as smart as LWM. But thanks, anyway.

And if I could avoid blows to the head, marriage would be much easier. Never sell your wife's R60. She'll never let it go.

Worst of all, I found out about her first husbands unfortunate collision with a few grams of lead only after I sold the bike.

She's good with a bat, too. Softball starts today at four.

I bet every one of the words in your post is just like getting hit with a baseball bat to LWM! He is a very, very sensitive guy (albeit a man's man withal) and besides, what did he ever do to you. And if that makes me a sockpuppet, just remember the old adage: if the shoe fits, wear it!

I know we are talking about socks, not shoes.

The only thing wrong with scooters, really, is those small wheels. Every bump is that much bigger in proportion to your wheels. But you can't argue with 100mpg. And don't mess with LWM. I've seen what he can do at Orcinus. It's like a fight between a guy with a baseball bat and a guy with a gun.

I'm really interested in the 500 cc Honda Shadow.

Should get an easy 50-60 mpg. It's a narrow Vee, isn't it? Or was that Shadow a four?

I must go, LWM needs me at another blog. After that, gotta go earn a living, such as it is. How I have enjoyed everyone's company!

Remember LWM rules!

The reason why the War on Iraq will end the day Obama is elected, and I'll wager the troops will be out by Inaugurate Day.

It's like this: As soon as you posit a world in which the United States must be a responsible world actor according to its principles, the entire reason for, and the tactics of the War on Iraq fall to pieces. Once those two things, the war crimes and the economic crimes, are taken out of the war, there is no longer a reason to fight it, and a way to fight it.

Now, would you be happy to do the things American Armed Forces and their contracters are doing if you had to depend on an Obama administration, instead of a Bush neo-con administration, to see there was no accountability for your actions? Hell no, you would stop and get out while the getting's good. And lawyer the hell up.

Shit, Obama won't need to stop the war, I doubt they would stay if he begged them.

Whether Hilary could strike an accomodation I do not know, but I don't think Obama can, for which I am truly thankful.

See how you guys bring up the phalluses of the Greek comedies, (like "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum") but neglect to mention the penis-gourds or sheaths of Papua, New Guinea and South America.

Typical Euro-centrism! Some of those sheaths are three feet long and supported by a string around the chest. Aristophanes got anything like that? I doubt it!