The Good Banter Thread

[callingcolleen1]

Duh me!!! I double post again!!!

 

[callingcolleen1]

Darn! I always miss out on the naughty stuff!

 

[Sheetmetalman]

I take your points Mogsie but I'm afraid you answered some of your questions already with your statement of 2 different countries and 2 different Cultures, so we will just have to agree to disagree. In the U.K. I understand you have a handgun ban and hunting rifles and shotguns as well as ammo is tightly regulated. Were your population may have limited contact with firearms (like some of our large population centers, Chicago, New York, etc)I live in the country were the gun culture has always been a way of life. I had a BB gun at 8 a Pellet Gun at 12 a shotgun and 22 rifle at 14 and a pistol at 18 and I was trained in their safe use by my Father, Grandfathers, and uncles from an early age. I hunted birds then sqirrels, rabbits and on to Deer and was trained in good sportsmanship and never killed anything unless I was going to eat it. If this seems strange to you, understand I'm not the exception to the rule--I am the rule--meaning the vast majority of kids growing up in the Country of modern day America still start out exactly like I did 40 years ago and wind up hunting Deer by the time him or her are in High School--in fact a lot of Country Schools let students be excused during Deer Season because it such a big thing out here. In my opinion simply having access to guns in a stressfull situation does not make a killer but I take your point that easy access to guns for a stressed person who is primed to Murder makes it easier for that to happen, however when someone is predisposed to Murder someone they WILL find away, Cain killed Abel without a gun, and as I said Hitler killed millions without a gun and 25 plus years ago a man killed another in my hometown by bashing his head in--but a gun does make it easier. We are the land of the wild west, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Rambo movies but our gun culture is not the problem, instead I believe its much deeper than that. That wild west type have culture has always been with us but we didn't have these mass killings of innocents in the 40s or 50s thru the 70s only the past 30 years. I'm a Maintenance man by profession and when working on machinery I was always taught to look for what's changed when something goes wrong--same thing here--what's changed, the gun culture has always been here--but so much else has changed. First, we closed most of the state run mental institutions and turned those people out to live on the street or be taken in by family members that love them but have no idea how to help them with their mental illness. Second, to try to help these people the cheapest, quickest way we feed them pills, pills for attention deficits, pills for Depression, pills for anxiety, for sadness, for bi-polar syndrome, you name it we got a pill for it, and who prescribes them-- usually a family doctor not a mental health professional--unfortunately the side affects of most of these pills is suicidal tendencies. Third, many of our impressionable youth now grow up without a father figure who could rein in violent tendencies and hopefully would provide moral guidance that they are NOT getting from a steady diet of T.V. and violent video games and movies that cheapen life to nothing. Having a child play a video game who's objective is to kill as many people as possible in order to get a winning score is crazy and just plain wrong. Our Schools have let these kids down too--because of political correctness most schools no longer do any sort of punishment--when I was a kid there was discipline in school, everybody was afraid of getting swats by the principal--the Principal and the teachers were feared and respected--today the kids run wild and the teachers fear the students. I understand that in many schools with this hands off policy they call the police to deal with any discipline problem. We have stripped God completely out of our Schools and then we wonder how they have gone to hell. Anyway Mogsie that's kind of a long and drawn out explanation but in a nutshell I don't think its so much a gun problem as a Mental Health Issue and Moral Rot in our Society Issue.

 

[sissy]

Makes no sense learning or killing a deer .I guess sense i am not a meat eater it does no matter to me ,but learning does matter .The kids run wild not because of school but the poor raising they got from there parents .They buy them everything and the children expect it because there parents make up for neglect .Parents are not there for there children and to many young people having children .Then there are the people who just go around making babies and having babies because they are stupid .Tv and video games and cell phones should not be the most important things in there lives .I belong to face book and said to say the only friends I have are family .I would rather have friends I can see and talk too and enjoy my time with them .I belong here because learning about ponds is fun and relaxing .I have meant a few of the ponders around here and enjoy learning and teaching them what I know and fun to learn what they know .

 

[callingcolleen1]

If I may rant one more time please...
In the UK the crime rate has risen and the police are now arming themselves period.
In Germany, they have some of the strictest gun laws in all the world period.
In Germany they also had the WORST school shooting in all the world until last week! This is a well know FACT! Period.
Need I say more?

 

[Sheetmetalman]

I agree with most of that Sissy (except the deer part--I do eat meat and was just thinking of slow cooking a Deer Roast to take to work tommorow, LOL ) My wife calls it " Babies having Babies" and like she says they know nothing of the world and then their expected to raise a child. Also we are a society of instant gratification--we want what we want and we want it NOW. I remember what a friend of mine's dad said when he bought an expensive sportscar, He asked Steve how he bought it and Steve said I went to the bank and borrowed the money just like everybody else--his dad shook his head and said Steve I thought I taught you better than that--Banks pay me interest I dont pay them interest. Sadly until I started listening to Dave Ramsey on the Radio I lived just like that--After Dave I cut up my credit cards we paid off our House and Cars and only buy used cars now--still live pay check to pay check but some day we will finally have both our kids thru College, our last farm loan paid off and My wife is talking about going back to work. I breathe a lot easier now without all that debt hanging over my head and have found that peace of mind feels so much better than instant gratification and the debt that comes with it ever felt. Anyway I'm growing tired of defending my belief of guns on here and want to say only that banning guns isnt the answer in my opinion and what I believe is what I believe and I'm too hardheaded to change. Now to your point on Ponds and Ponding I agree, I love it, so lets talk Ponds. I tried something the other day on a whim and it looks good so I'm gonna expand on it. The IT is Moss, and while me and Anne was out in our timber hunting for a couple christmas trees to decorate for our front porch I dug up some clumps of Moss and took it home and put it on a bare patch of dirt near the pond. I liked the look of it so well that it got me thinking about how much I spend on mulching all my rock gardens around the pond every year and how it never lasts and costs me time and effort every year to replace it. So I researched moss on the internet and found that people like me with lots of heavily shaded yards can buy moss on the internet by the square foot for their yards and/or rock gardens. I love the look of moss and once its established its there without any real work and you dont have to replace it like regular mulch--all the benifits of mulch, holds in moisture, chokes out weeds and looks great with none of the liabilities. Also I like my pond area to look as natural as possible and you cant get anymore natural than moss. I plan on doing large areas in moss but I'm too tight to buy it when I have a whole timber full of it so thats my new plan to work on this spring--I will post pictures on my: pond in southern illinois: area in the photography area when I get some bigger areas covered--Ready for spring already.

 

[callingcolleen1]

That sound real nice sheetmetalman, I too have stuffed moss in the cracks of the rocks around my pond and it looks so good. I am also very tired of putting mulch down around the pond but it is easy to pick the doggy logs off the mulch than the grass for sure! I was thinking I may go for a low ground cover between the stepping rocks around the pond next year,

 

[Sheetmetalman]

Something I read but neglected to say Colleen is if you have some moss but want to cover a large area or fix it so moss is growing on rocks or even planters or statues and don't mind waiting a little longer (theres that instant gratification deal again, LOL) they say you can put mulch into a blender with buttermilk or flat beer plus white surger and water--blend it together then sprinkle, pour or even paint it on with a paintbrush and it will stick and start to grow then just mist it with water till its established good.

 

[CountryEscape]

Sheetmetalman, you made some outstanding comments there. I totally agree. Someone previously said that our country was improving up until about was it 40 or 50 years ago, and now the clothing is sloppy, people don't respect others, everyone is working with no parent staying home to raise their own children. Yes, I agree with this, times have changed, and it's not for the good. Everyone wants more, children especially. It's a sad State when they have to advertise to get your children to go outside to play. That's what we did as kids, that was our "fun". Now, kids sit behind computers, video games, they don't even know HOW to play with other kids. They are pressured and pushed to do all the sports if they are sports minded, but others just sit on the couch and watch tv or play with electronics. And, as SMM pointed out, what type of movies and games do they watch/play? Kill-em-up games!
I totally agree, too, that this rural area we are living in (SMM and myself) is all about hunting and guns, and their safety. My son, too, was raised around guns, he grew up just like you SMM with small to larger guns. He taught all the neighborhood kids to be safe with their guns. Those other kids' parents would get them a gun, then more or less turn them loose with them, not even the basics of gun safety. My son taught them, and watched them like a hawk. If they shot their gun, didn't put the safety on, and wheeled around to see what he thought of their shot, he would take the gun, and they would not be allowed to shoot their own gun the rest of that day. That's how he showed them he was boss, and you do NOT get careless with a gun. Those kids all respected my son, and he wasn't a big guy either, he's only 5'5", and most of those kids were bigger than him, but they respected him, because he was firm with them, and his way was the right way, and you abided by his rules or you didn't come shoot at his targets. That's the way parents need to raise kids. Firm rules, and when kids break them, there has to be punishment. I get so sick and tired of hearing about "time out" chairs. Good grief, give them a swat on their butt, send them to their room to think about what they did. It doesn't kill them, it gets their attention. I was never beat, in fact I seldom ever got a spanking, but I sure remembered them when I DID! Parents only think about how much money they are making, if their bills will be paid, and then splurge still on their kids, because they don't take the time to do things with them. Yeah, it's all wrong. I just hope that someone figures out a way to turn this society back around soon.

 

[Sheetmetalman]

I hope they turn it around soon too, Patty otherwise we may not have a Country we recognize anymore. We were turned out as kids in the morning and you didnt come back into the house till evening, you found something to do even if that ment walking or riding your bike to the nearest creek, or pond to fish or catch crawdads, swim or whatever or you went to the timber with your pellet gun and hunted birds or squirrels, or you got all the neighborhood kids together to play football, baseball, whatever, but you didnt set in a house and watch T.V. all day or now like you say its computers or video games or texting on a phone. Parents disaplined you at home, Teachers at school, and the police you either didnt pay much attention to--because you wer'nt doing anything wrong or you at the very least respected them-you didnt think of them as the enemy. Anne left work after her mother got to old and sick to watched our kids and although we know everyone cant afford to lose one salary, we felt it was worth living a little poorer to have someone (a Parent) with a vested interest in that childs future be the one directly responsible for them. I have friends and relatives that are extremly proud of the house or car or bank account they have but for us we are extremly proud of our 22 year old son and 21 year old daughter.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Yes society is crumbling for sure. I work in a grocery store and people complain about the food prices, but what they don't realize is that we pay more because people steal all the time, or they take expensive roast and then decide they don't want it, instead of putting it back, or saying they changed their mind at the till, they shove the expensive roast down one of the isles and no body see it and then it is wasted. Sometimes they take things out of the freezer, decide they don't want it, and shove that inbetween the racks of of bread till it defrosts and not discovered until it is defrosted and more waste! It is getting worse every year! Last week I found a half eaten chicken from the deli department then they shoved the half ate hot chicken under the rack of fresh bread. I find boxes of pregnancy test, kit inside missing... I could go on and on forever!

Then the kids these days really don't know how to work. I am going to be 50 in three years and I get much more done than some of these teenage kids they hire, they do a little work and then they are "tired"!

Why is it that during the wild wild west, when everybody had a gun, nobody ever heard of a "shoot up" at the school?

 

[Sheetmetalman]

If you want to hear something both prophetic and chilling type in the deceased radio commentator Paul Harvey's " If I were the Devil " it was recorded in 1965 and its got everthing thats happened up till today nailed exactly.

 

[mogsie]

If I may rant one more time please...
In the UK the crime rate has risen and the police are now arming themselves period.
In Germany, they have some of the strictest gun laws in all the world period.
In Germany they also had the WORST school shooting in all the world until last week! This is a well know FACT! Period.
Need I say more?

it is late now and i need to go to bed so i will read all the long replies tomorow, but in regard of this colleen, i live in uk and yes crime levels did rise for a while but they are now falling again but that is NOT gun crime ! and the only armed police in this country are armed response units ! as for the remark "worst school shooting until last week ! ??? eh have you never heard of the beslan school hostage crisis !

 

[capewind]

as for the remark "worst school shooting until last week ! ??? eh have you never heard of the beslan school hostage crisis !

I realize that you are tired, but Beslan was basically a terrorist attack, and totally apples and oranges from what is being discussed.

 

[CountryEscape]

SMM, when I was growing up, I ran in the fields of clover (really!) and caught butterflies. I loved to see their pretty wings, and usually let them go, and then my mom bought me a mounting kit, so I kept the prettier ones for a while and mounted them. Then I preferred to let them go. I still am interested in bugs and birds and snakes and all those things. I walked the creeks, caught fish with my hands in the shallow pools, then let them go in the deeper pools. When I got older, I begged and finally was allowed to take care of the neighbor's renter's horses. I rode my bike the 2 miles every day, fed the horses, then would sit and pet them, brush them, anything to be around them. Yep, I played in the hayloft, too, and would climb the ladder and watch pigeon eggs hatch. The adults were not concerned about me, they knew I would not harm their babies, and I even held them every now and then, and the parents still came to feed them.
And you're also right about going outside in the morning, maybe take a sack lunch along, not be home until supper time, but if I wasn't home for supper at 6 (every night, same time), I missed out! Then, back outside until the street lights went on. But, back then, we didn't have to worry about pediphiles roaming the streets either, I guess. Life has changed. I also worked until my son was born, then stayed home with them until they were in 1st and 2nd grade. I am extremely proud of the morals and values instilled in my kids. They also played in the woods, rode horses, built forts out of left over wood, got exercise because they wanted to, not because they had to. We didn't have cable tv, only antenna, and I was fine with that, made the kids want to be outside. My kids never got into playing board games like I did with my brothers and sisters when I was young. Maybe someday someone will figure out how to encourage people to go back to basics, one parent home raising the kids, less "needs" within the family, and more together time. We always ate supper together as a family when I was a child, and it was important that my kids did the same. It wasn't always easy, especially when I went back to work so we would have insurance, but we made it work. I'm also very proud of my kids, 28 year old son is a computer maintenance tech at Sony Blue Ray Division, daughter is a Jr. High Science teacher. Very proud! I'm sure many of you are as well! Let's teach our kids to teach their kids to go back to the basics, play games, get outside and play ball, enjoy time together as a family.