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Post by shadowhowler on Sept 17, 2009 23:24:20 GMT
This is all hilarious to me... Talking about training, and abilities, and being aggressive. How many times have threads like this turned into macho chest-pounding testosterone fests. "Yeah, i'd blow the guys head off man!" Everybody is an internet hero huh? A few people here i am sure have the balls to back up the actions they claim they would take, (and you can usually tell who is full of semprini). But this is real life, not a video game, not a movie, and there is no reset button. You run into people all your life that are "certified bad asses" (at least they think they are) and they always make ridiculous claims of their "super abilities" like they are friggin Navy Seals or something. Always talking a tough game, "i'd kick his ass", "i'd kick that other guys ass", "i'd blow that guy away", "i'd mess that dude up", ect. ect. ect. Then when the semprini gets REAL, and fists start flying, or bullets start flying, or whatever... They freeze up... or, run... And the guy who has been trying to convince everyone how much of a "bad ass" he was, suddenly gets a dose of reality... Your right, of course... this is the iNtErWeBz... and behind a computer, EVERYONE is a bad ass. However, I have found, like you, that it is normally not very hard to figure out who is full of s&*t and who is just telling it like it is. I'm not particularly worried if people I have never met believe me or not... we are having a discussion/debate on the only medium we have available for our community. I'm speaking my mind and explaining WHY I feel the way I do, just as you are. Chose to think I'm BS or just being honest, thats your call. If it means anything, my experience with you so far has made me tend to give you the benefit of the doubt and to assume you are a straight shooter... but I'm open to the fact that I don't REALLY know you and my impression is based on a text-history of your statements. However... if we approach EVERY conversation we have with other in our community with the mindset that they are all Keyboard Cowboys just thumping their chests and inflating their egos... well, it makes that communication pointless in the first place, and then... why HAVE it?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 0:38:19 GMT
James, What's going on? It sounds like you are taking the chest pounding rather personally.
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Post by randomnobody on Sept 18, 2009 0:49:31 GMT
James, What's going on? It sounds like you are taking the chest pounding rather personally. His ribs are starting to hurt. I can understand his frustration...it gets tiring listening to people carry on about "what [they'd] do if ..." and so forth, despite all of us knowing that we really cannot possibly predict our reactions in such a case, nor can we expect any plan to be a complete success, either. Some here have been around, in rough spots; have seen and known many similar incidents, probably few of which played out as anybody planned or boasted they'd do "if"...and I can't blame anybody who gets frustrated over these things. That said, I'd surely...make every effort to keep the bastard outside, myself inside, and a good distance between us, while I call the cops and raise a general ruckus to piss off the neighbors enough to get their attention. That is, if I'm lucky enough to wake up in time.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 1:11:46 GMT
But I think one of the underlying tones here is that we are all feeling like that right is being stripped away by the sheep. I know in Australia and Britain it has already happened, tho I admit I have not kept abreast of any details other than what I've read here. Read my previous post. Like the US, laws in Australia vary from State to State. The more restrictive States are no worse than many US States, and the most liberal (my State) may not be as permissive as Texas, but is pretty lenient. If this is a thinly veiled reference to firearms laws (and Australia and Britain are often cited by opponents of firearms restrictions for that purpose) then I won't get into a long debate to avoid treading on the dreaded 'political' landmine, but will say this. Yes, it is possible to acquire illegal firearms, although I think anyone living in the US can't really comprehend the difference in difficulty in doing so. But. The penalty for simply owning an illegal firearm is 10 years (up to 15 for more restricted weapons). Actually use one in a crime, and you're looking at not only increased sentences, but long mandatory minimum times (i.e. no parole for you). I know the massive new penalties were the reason a ‘friend’ of mine stopped carrying one. This means that they are not something you tend to use on simple robberies and the like, as the cost/benefit ratio is skewed too far in the wrong direction. It also means that the second someone is involved in a crime and has a gun, STAR (SWAT) is all over it. Would you use a pistol for a mugging or robbery if you knew that SWAT would be on your ass and you'd face 15 years..? The upshot is that guns are primarily used for criminal-criminal altercations where the intent is death. So apply that to the house defence scenario. Chances are therefore extremely good that a knife is the most lethal thing an intruder will be armed with, making a sword a serious trump card. Combine that with "whatever force they deem necessary" and a sword owner is not someone whose house you want to break into. [As always, I can only speak for my State.] A few people here i am sure have the balls to back up the actions they claim they would take, (and you can usually tell who is full of semprini). But this is real life, not a video game, not a movie, and there is no reset button. But having said that, James’ point really is the relevant one. My personal stance happens to be similar to Marc’s (if not quite as extreme). If I don’t know the person knocking on my door, there’s a machete in the hand behind the door, I quickly react in a somewhat ‘paranoid’ manner to unidentified noises by sweeping the house, and do so well armed, etc. I also know how I tend to react in conflict situations and am probably too far in the other direction when it comes to the ‘fight or flight’ reaction, being somewhat too willing to solve problems with violence. But as the man said, there is no reset button and I have to live with my actions. I would neither want to kill someone breaking into my house, nor can I make a credible argument that I would be particularly justified in doing so (assuming that as noted I would have him massively ‘outgunned’).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 1:34:41 GMT
However... if we approach EVERY conversation we have with other in our community with the mindset that they are all Keyboard Cowboys just thumping their chests and inflating their egos... well, it makes that communication pointless in the first place, and then... why HAVE it? Your absolutely correct... And i apologize if i am coming off as an ass... But, when people start talking about their super night vision, and super stealth abilities, or cat like reflexes or whatever. It starts to sound less & less like logical thinking, and more & more like they are living in a fantasy land. That's all,... its not that i'm mad about it. Its just that most people who go around making claims of their super abilities, are usually posers. In most cases, the most dangerous/talented people (in regards to violence) are the ones that don't talk about it. Again, sorry if i came off like i was angry... Its all good, we're sharing opinions is all.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 1:43:40 GMT
I can see the boasting would get tiresome. Especially as a moderator that has to read every word where we get to skip to what we want to read. But he is the moderator.
Personally, I think the big talk is normal. I've been burgled and I can assure you I've had quite a few pleasant little day dreams about what I woulda done if... Every man wants to be the hero of his own story and its places like this that we come to share our thoughts and stories.
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Post by shadowhowler on Sept 18, 2009 1:47:18 GMT
Your absolutely correct... And i apologize if i am coming off as an ass... But, when people start talking about their super night vision, and super stealth abilities, or cat like reflexes or whatever. It starts to sound less & less like logical thinking, and more & more like they are living in a fantasy land. That's all,... its not that i'm mad about it. Its just that most people who go around making claims of their super abilities, are usually posers. In most cases, the most dangerous/talented people (in regards to violence) are the ones that don't talk about it. Again, sorry if i came off like i was angry... Its all good, we're sharing opinions is all. You know, I've always shared that same opinion... that the most dangerous people are not the ones talking about how awesome they are, but they are the ones that don't feel a need to talk at all. I guess I don't feel that the few skills I do think I have are all that super... I have good night vision, I'm very sensitive to light and can't STAND really bright lights... I've always been a night person. I'm pretty sneaky... but I'm no ninja. I've just spent a lot of time sneaking around. I don't really see those as 'super' abilities at all... just a couple things about myself that I feel confident in. I'm the first to admit my swords skills are WOE-fully lacking. If you look threw threads people were paying me compliments on some cutting I did at Tom's cutting party, and I was the first to say my cutting was ass, and I have no formal training in swords. I'm fat, outa shape, and have a lot of old injuries that trouble me even more as I get older. I am NO superman, by any means. FAR from it. I didn't mean to come off that way at ALL... I think most people I know would say I'm even somewhat self deprecating. However... like Marc, I had some rough experiences growing up, and have seen and been threw some stuff that maybe most people have not... and that has prepared me somewhat mentally for situations that might involve violence. I also believe in the old adage "Someone running for their life runs faster then someone running for their dinner"... meaning I am willing to do what it takes to protect myself, my home and my family... and hopefully that will is stronger then someone else's will to do me and mine harm. At any rate, its all good, I share your same frustrations on-line all the time... I guess I just didn't see anything in my own words that would put me in that category.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 4:04:56 GMT
My point: Get a dog (or 2 or 3 or 4...). Best home defense tool out there. I agree 100%. My father raises Wolf Hybrid dogs... they hear something going on LONG before we do... and they are VERY capable of dealing with it as well. Chows are SO pretty... but they have a temper, and are very territorial... which makes em near perfect as home defenders, I imagine. My wife wants a dog... and I would love to have one of my Fathers Wolf Hybrids... but we need a bigger place with more space, and we currently have two cats. Why I like chows: Reputation: It's deserved but not accurate. But it Scares people. Like a shotgun being pumped. Size: They are small enough to fit in your lap (kinda) but big enough to make a mess of people even without the power in their jaws. Jaws: 2k psi. Strongest Mammal jaw on Earth. If they mean it, you just lost a limb. If you just need stitches, then it's just a warning because you did something stupid. Temperament: They really are quite nice dogs. They hold themselves a little aloof and require you to approach them with the appropriate level of respect. Fail to show that respect and they let you know, with stitches. Show that respect and they'll let you pick them up and cuddle them, even if they don't know you. But mess with their people or come in their territory without their people being present and welcoming and you're done for. If you can handle chows, you can handle any animal. IOW: Overgrown teddy bears that can and Will eat people if given a reason. Oh, and they like to rough-house, too. Roughly. Other dogs are bigger. Others are meaner. A handful are smarter. Most are louder. None have the ability to do the same amount of damage AND the brains to know when to do it.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 4:09:48 GMT
That is, if I'm lucky enough to wake up in time. DOG. Dog, dog, dog, dogdogdogdogdog. I can not stress it enough, nor can any security specialist, whether they sell/install systems or provide personal security. You have the dogs, Inside with you, mind, and you're guaranteed to wake up in time. And for this one, it doesn't really matter what breed. If they bark, that's good. If they don't, they have Other ways to get your attention, no matter how asleep you are.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 6:54:21 GMT
A dog is a good deterrent to a thief. Last year, someone sneaked through my house which has three levels with one exit on each one. The trespasser was already in the house before I started grooming one of my dogs near the bottom exit. My other dog , a hundred pound rottweiller/doberman started doing something he never done before, like jumping and running up and down the stairs of the upper two levels, and as strange as it seemed, I ignored him. After several minutes of this, I went up to see what was up and found the door to the top level wide open to the road. This door is always locked . I wish my dog could have talked, but I figured he kept the intruder from taking my wallet and valuables from the living room table with his antics. Since he didn't bark, I assume the intruder was either a child or a woman that wasn't too threatening to him. This was a lucky incident come to think of it. It would have really upset me if my dog was hurt in any way by the intruder.
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Post by randomnobody on Sept 18, 2009 15:20:05 GMT
My family's dog is stupid. Of course, he was raised that way. He spends his nights in my mother's bed, behind closed doors, blissfully ignorant to his surroundings. He's a half German shepherd, half-probably-black-lab. He sleeps harder than I do. He's about two years old. I don't like this dog. My sister's dog, on the other hand, is a nine-year-old rottweiler/dalmation/golden retriever with a terrible attitude. He'll go after anything and everything, barking like mad and just waiting for an excuse to rip something off. I love this dog. I once knew a girl whose house was broken into, and the first thing the guy did was kill the dog, which had been trained against barking. I used to have a german shepherd/chow mix. That was a great dog. Later we picked up an akita/dalmation, they got along great, except with people they didn't recognize. Dogs don't always know what's happening, either.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 15:46:32 GMT
A chow has a stronger bite than a pitbull I had always heard that pits had the strongest bite. My favorite dog is an Irish Wolfhound. The tallest dog breed in the world, I hear they are too laid back and friendly to make a guard dog. I guess as long as they barked, plus someone who didn't know dogs saw one that huge coming toward them might assume they were about to be a chew toy and run away Irish Wolfhounds hate coyotes though, and will stalk and kill them, so they have some ferocity
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 15:50:05 GMT
Oops, forgot to include the Irish Wolfhound pic in my last post, the man in the pic is not me Attachments:
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 16:31:27 GMT
We've got two dogs one boxer/beagle/grey hound mix and a german shepherd/border collie (whos kind of lacking in the intelligence department). Neither of em would put up that much of a fight, they're only medium size dogs but they'll start barking just at the leaves falling in the backyard... they know nothing in the yard shoudl be moving and they will actually recognize which cars should and shoudln't be pulling in the driveway. One of our cars comes in they won't make a sound just run to the window to see... if they don't recognize the sound of the engine i guess they run barking, they'll bark at it day or night until we come tell them its ok.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 17:24:22 GMT
A chow has a stronger bite than a pitbull I had always heard that pits had the strongest bite. My favorite dog is an Irish Wolfhound. The tallest dog breed in the world, I hear they are too laid back and friendly to make a guard dog. I guess as long as they barked, plus someone who didn't know dogs saw one that huge coming toward them might assume they were about to be a chew toy and run away Irish Wolfhounds hate coyotes though, and will stalk and kill them, so they have some ferocity YOU have a stronger bite than a pitbull. The Pit's power, as is the case with all "locking jaw" breeds is in the neck, not the jaw. The muscles are just sufficient to pierce the skin and move the jaw bone into its locking position (like lockjaw pliers). Then it uses its massively powerful neck to rip and shake. It's actually pretty much the same for Most breeds. Though most have stronger muscles in their jaws to hold onto their prey, rather than a jaw of that kind. They are designed for small prey or pack tactics. Very few are bred for going one on one with large prey, like people. Chows, Rotts, and Wolfhounds are the 3 that pop most immediately into my head that are designed for single takedowns of large prey. The wolfhound is as big as it is because that's the size the wolves were. They can be very easily trained for guard. It's just a matter of controlling them afterward. That's not easy to do with their size and speed and strength. The Chow, the Chinese bred for, well, everything. But it developed its massively powerful jaw from the breeding program to make it a War Dog. The Chinese fielded entire battalions of them and they had to be able to defeat the armour of the common warrior. The Rott has a similar history as a war dog, but under the Romans. And it was not designed for defeating armour because the Romans sent them after poorly armoured barbarians and, more specifically, their horses. Mounted man vs Roman plus dog became man versus Roman and dog. Then became Roman and maybe dog.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 17:44:33 GMT
Taran, thanks for that cool info about dogs I learned something new
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Post by Deleted on Sept 18, 2009 20:19:48 GMT
Dogs are something that I do, indeed, know a great deal about. And what I don't know, I know where to find.
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Post by sparky on Sept 18, 2009 22:09:58 GMT
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Post by Dave(utilityslave) on Sept 18, 2009 22:25:09 GMT
LMAO Sparky!!!
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Post by Deleted on Sept 20, 2009 4:57:26 GMT
Thanks for watching our halftime show about dogs, now back to the original topic. A point that I thought I had mentioned earlier (apparently I never hit the 'submit' button when I edited one of my posts) is that a lot of people here seem to think that the kid was proactive in his actions by not waiting for a weapon to be brandished and to eliminate the threat before the threat has time to react. The only problem is that the intruder DID have time to react. So here we have a kid with a sword, he hears a noise and grabs "the best he could", a katana, and goes to investigate. Well as long as a lot of the posters here have gone into the land of "What if..." I think I'll visit for a while. So what if the intruder did have a gun? Well, all of us know the old expression "brought a knife to a gunfight" and we all know how that usually turns out- unless the knife wielder is a ninja and the gunman is a pirate. (Then the fight is 50/50) the guy heard a noise, grabbed what protection he had, and when he was attacked, reacted... he could not have known if the thief was going to pull a gun or a knife out of his pocket and by no means he should have waited to find out. If there were 100 people in that house and the guy found the man in his garage he should have reacted the same way, saying he should have risked his life because there were other people who could have taken over in case he was "injured" (given the fact the thief did push the guy into the wall) is simply illogical. So as we see he grabbed what protection he had and was "attacked" (I'm still not convinced of the attacked part) And if the intruder pulled a gun out, the student would be dead. And I'm not saying that he was protecting his 3 friends, I'm saying he woke up his 3 friends and they went intruder hunting. (Or so it says from the last report I read, which is probably inaccurate as well) SO...Let this be a lesson to everyone. Criminals use guns more then swords. To make sure that you have the upper hand in a home invasion conflict, get a gun. I know that when the media reports your story it won't sound as heroic or noble with a gun rather then a sword, but big deal. It gets the job done. Now for the people that live in Australia and the like, yeah, a sword (if you know how to use it) would be the perfect home defense weapon, especially if there are huge taxes, waiting periods or background checks to own a firearm. Whatever weapon you decide to use to defend your home with, just make sure that you are properly trained, or at least familiar with all the options that it offers to you. The reason I say get a gun is because they give you more options, especially if you live in a constant state of paranoia.
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