The Redneck is alive and well in America

[Spijed]

It's very worrying to think that those who live in the woods have so much influence on those who run the country and have access to nuclear weapons!

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... trol-trump" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[dsr]

The author starts out by getting the Texas State motto wrong - it's "Friendship". I wonder if the rest of the article is researched in similar depth?

[Rowls]

Hi Spijed

You may as well read about knife crime in the Daily Mail if you're so determined to find something to fret about.

For an alternative fear-inducing activity I'd recommend watching a horror film for an hour or two. The Shining is my personal favourite but I adore From Beyond the Grave which can be segmented into 4 nice little 'chapters' as it has a portmanteau structure.

Then go outside and enjoy the sunshine. That'll do you even better.

[Vegas Claret]

having lived in Dallas for nearly 7 years I can tell you it's full or red neck racists. It's a horrible City with huge problems, gun crime being a massive one. I couldn't wait to leave

[Imploding Turtle]

The author starts out by getting the Texas State motto wrong - it's "Friendship". I wonder if the rest of the article is researched in similar depth?

Didn't you find anything wrong with the article that actually mattered? Or did you try to find something else wrong, couldn't, and so now are suggesting you didn't bother trying?

[dsr]

Didn't you find anything wrong with the article that actually mattered? Or did you try to find something else wrong, couldn't, and so now are suggesting you didn't bother trying?

I didn't bother trying to find anything else wrong. Why should I? If a football article started out "Burnley, who play at a ground called Oakwell in Yorkshire ..." would I carry on reading to find the gems of truth it contains?

I'm not going to read every news article that comes along. So the poorly researched ones by people who clearly don't have much idea are high on the list of articles not to read.

[Cirrus_Minor]

Put new roofing felt on my shed in the blazing sun this afternoon and I have a red neck now.

[Imploding Turtle]

I didn't bother trying to find anything else wrong. Why should I? If a football article started out "Burnley, who play at a ground called Oakwell in Yorkshire ..." would I carry on reading to find the gems of truth it contains?

I'm not going to read every news article that comes along. So the poorly researched ones by people who clearly don't have much idea are high on the list of articles not to read.

OK. So you're going to prejudge the facts shared based on something that doesn't matter at all, which is perhaps why the author didn't spend time researching that part of it and maybe devoted mroe time to parts of the article that actually did matter. But hey, whatever makes you feel better.

[dsr]

OK. So you're going to prejudge the facts shared based on something that doesn't matter at all, which is perhaps why the author didn't spend time researching that part of it and maybe devoted mroe time to parts of the article that actually did matter. But hey, whatever makes you feel better.

If that's what you want to believe. It's not even your link. Why are you determined that this is the one article I should rely on to form an opinion?

[Imploding Turtle]

If that's what you want to believe. It's not even your link. Why are you determined that this is the one article I should rely on to form an opinion?

Where did i say you should rely on it? I'm saying, quite clearly and in English, that if you're going to judge an article on the facts it presents then at least judge it on the relevent facts the article is presenting, and not on something as irrelevent as what you have judged it on.

You may as well be complaining that he's misspelled a word for all the relevence your complaint has to the meat of the article. But to be honest it doesn't surprise me that you would jump on any excuse to attempt to discredit the article. It's The Guardian. The mail can get people to kill themselves and you'll trust their reporting, but the Guardian mixes up a State motto for what it a very popular saying in that state and that's enough for you to stop reading and claim some kind of superiority.

[dsr]

Where did i say you should rely on it? I'm saying, quite clearly and in English, that if you're going to judge an article on the facts it presents then at least judge it on the relevent facts the article is presenting, and not on something as irrelevent as what you have judged it on.

You may as well be complaining that he's misspelled a word for all the relevence your complaint has to the meat of the article. But to be honest it doesn't surprise me that you would jump on any excuse to attempt to discredit the article. It's The Guardian. The mail can get people to kill themselves and you'll trust their reporting, but the Guardian mixes up a State motto for what it a very popular saying in that state and that's enough for you to stop reading and claim some kind of superiority.

Well, if we're completely going to make things up, you read back copies of the Sun for the pearls of wisdom from the page 3 girls.

The point is, there are hundreds of articles about the NRA. Many of them are written by people who know what they're on about. I do judge this article on the facts - and here's fact 1. The author doesn't know Texas.

[Paul Waine]

I was staying in the hotel opposite the George R Brown Convention Centre in Houston, Texas when NRA had their "gathering" there in 2013. It gave me pause for thought. Did I want to be staying in the same hotel as all those gun owners? The Texan view was that there was no where safer, no one would "step out of line." Mine was focussed on all the "accidental" discharges....

If memory serves, a certain ex-Burnley FC manager was managing the local soccer team at that time.

[dsr]

Did I want to be staying in the same hotel as all those gun owners?

Definitely not! Have you heard Tom Lehrer's take on the American hunter?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQyoSLOlglw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bobinho]

I was staying in the hotel opposite the George R Brown Convention Centre in Houston, Texas when NRA had their "gathering" there in 2013. It gave me pause for thought. Did I want to be staying in the same hotel as all those gun owners? The Texan view was that there was no where safer, no one would "step out of line." Mine was focussed on all the "accidental" discharges....

If memory serves, a certain ex-Burnley FC manager was managing the local soccer team at that time.

Shame there wasn’t an “accidental discharge” then!

(Ok, ok it was just a joke...)

[Chobulous]

Didn't you find anything wrong with the article that actually mattered? Or did you try to find something else wrong, couldn't, and so now are suggesting you didn't bother trying?

I think it does matter in as much as the opening line set the tone for the article.

“Everything is bigger in Texas,” goes the state motto was what was written giving the impression that everything in Texas is about excess. The bigger the better. From this we are supposed to decide that gun owners in Texas will always want greater and greater firepower. That may or may not be the case, but that is where the writer of the article is trying to lead the reader with his opening line. From that point of view he ought to be accurate with his opening statement. It is lazy journalism not to have got that bit correct.
As to the content of the article, we all know that ownership of firearms is entrenched in the American psyche. None of us in this country truly understand it, we can only watch with incredulity as the bodies continue to pile up.

[Maja]

no one will let it go. do not worry guys
there are smart people in the government

[Rowls]

we can only watch with incredulity as the bodies continue to pile up.

The odd thing about the gun debate and America is that deaths by guns continues to go on a downward trajectory.

The country has been awash with guns since its inception.

The outlier is that guns by "mass shootings" by the deranged have shot up in the past generation. A smart discussion has to acknowledge that guns are dangerous but also that these mass shootings are not caused simply by access to guns but other factors too.

[ontario claret]

Oliver North new spokesman for the NRA. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[LoveCurryPies]

I went to a talk by one of American's leading photographers and he had produced a stunning book of portraits taken all across the USA.

He told the story of visiting a strange community appropriately called Odd. A local policeman heard he was going there the day before and said he would escort him. The pair drove into town and were soon surrounded by lots of weird inbred characters (a bit like Blackburn on a tuesday). A pick up with armed red necks pulled up and started making threats to the photographer. The cop fired his gun and said go home boys.

The photographer made a few portraits and left. On the way out of town the cop said "If you had gone alone, they would have eaten you. Strangers never come back from Odd!"

Now, that is an example as to why I might want a gun in some parts of America but I still don't see the need for a semi automatic rifle that can shoot 300 bullets per minute.

[ontario claret]

Sure you weren't watching "The Walking Dead"? My worst experience in the States came in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I was looking for the local minor league baseball stadium. I found a bus driver, and asked him. He saw my Ontario licence plate, and told me that he used to live in Toronto, and that the worst mistake he ever made was moving to North Carolina. Later that night, after the game, I was driving down one of the main streets in town. Suddenly, all of the street lights weren't working, and groups of young men were standing on almost every corner. I put 2 and 2 together, and immediately rolled up my windows and locked my doors. That's how it is down there. You have to know your neighbourhoods and stay away from the bad areas.

[Healeywoodclaret]

"We can only watch with incredulity as the bodies pile up"

Probably need to get our own backyard in order first before we start worrying about the Rednecks.
Plenty of bodies piling up in London due to knife crime.

[Spijed]

"We can only watch with incredulity as the bodies pile up"

Probably need to get our own backyard in order first before we start worrying about the Rednecks.
Plenty of bodies piling up in London due to knife crime.

What a load of rubbish.

For every victim of knife crime in London there are far more being shot dead in the USA. Approx 32,000 each year.

The NRA are a terrorist organisation just like ISIS and anyone who defends them is just as bad.

[claretonthecoast1882]

What a load of rubbish.

For every victim of knife crime in London there are far more being shot dead in the USA. Approx 32,000 each year.

The NRA are a terrorist organisation just like ISIS and anyone who defends them is just as bad.

And anyone who ignores the current knife crime and murders in London as it doesn't suit their own agenda is a dickhead

[Spijed]

And anyone who ignores the current knife crime and murders in London as it doesn't suit their own agenda is a dickhead

Nobody is ignoring it. In fact the police have plenty of stop and search powers. Meanwhile in the USA, the NRA an other gun activists don't want to cut gun crime, hence why they oppose any law which tries to ban those bump stocks, for example.

Anyone who agrees with the right to own a gun really is disturbed.

[Chobulous]

"We can only watch with incredulity as the bodies pile up"

Probably need to get our own backyard in order first before we start worrying about the Rednecks.
Plenty of bodies piling up in London due to knife crime.

This is a discussion on gun crime so if you want to make comparisons they have to be like for like. So go on show us figures on the bodies piling up in London or anywhere else in the UK for that matter as a result of gun crime. Or, if knife crime is the topic, what are the figures on knife crime in the USA?

[Lord Rothbury]

This is a discussion on gun crime so if you want to make comparisons they have to be like for like. So go on show us figures on the bodies piling up in London or anywhere else in the UK for that matter as a result of gun crime. Or, if knife crime is the topic, what are the figures on knife crime in the USA?

You may find London and USA are not like for like .One is a country the other only a city .

[NRC]

Sure you weren't watching "The Walking Dead"? My worst experience in the States came in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I was looking for the local minor league baseball stadium. I found a bus driver, and asked him. He saw my Ontario licence plate, and told me that he used to live in Toronto, and that the worst mistake he ever made was moving to North Carolina. Later that night, after the game, I was driving down one of the main streets in town. Suddenly, all of the street lights weren't working, and groups of young men were standing on almost every corner. I put 2 and 2 together, and immediately rolled up my windows and locked my doors. That's how it is down there. You have to know your neighbourhoods and stay away from the bad areas.

perspective is a funny thing. I would have visiting Old Town Salem on ANY agenda of "100 Things To Do Visiting The USA" - it's as good as Williamsburg for living slice of US history. Some really good restaurants/bars also. One of the best hotels I've ever stayed in is smack downtown Winston too...... I'd go back any day.

[Spijed]

Oliver North new spokesman for the NRA. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

It really sums up America when some see him as a war hero!

[Imploding Turtle]

It really sums up America when some see him as a war hero!

Sold guns to terrorists, but because he's right wing, far, far right wing, the American Taliban love him.