An experience I had tonight at work

[Occulus]

Very short:

A longtime co-worker and I exchanged pleasantries tonight. Here's the conversation. I can even repeat it almost word-for-word, since it's so short:

ME: Hi, Bob (not his real name), how ya dion' tonight?

BOB: I'm here. (emphasis his.)

ME: Bet ya wish you weren't...

BOB: Trust me, a machine gun (something sarcastic along the lines of 'would be useful' or some such.)

ME: How about, oh, a mini-gun? (setting it up to refer to *'s cadre wanting a mini-gun in the upcoming state visit's escort this week.)

BOB: OOoh YEAH!

at this point, I'd like to mention that this guy is a Gulf War I vet.

ME: I mean, what idiot decided to do that, anyway? "Oh, hmm, let's see, how can we make a machine gun even deadlier? Oh, yeah... add five barrels, and make 'em spin. That's it." I mean, come ON...

BOB: Hahahah! Yeah!

ME: What do they shoot, like sixty rounds a second?

BOB: Well, if ya ask ME... sixty ain't enough.

ME: You know.... our fearless leader wanted to take one of those on his trip next week. I dunno, maybe for the protesters?

BOB: <laughter>

ME: Between you and me... I think he just may be one of the most hated men on the planet right now. And I'm including bin Laden and the leader of North Korea in that equation, by the way.

BOB: Well, I think people don't like him because he's a man of faith and he's up-front about it.

ME: Hmmm. Well, I think the answer is much simpler than that. I think it's because of all the lies. (slight emphasis on the word 'lies'.)

He shut up. No response. No comeback. End of discussion.

The conversation diverted to nonpolitical topics after that :evilgrin:

[La_Serpiente]

1. At least you got it out into the open

now he can dwell on what you said and actually think about it.

[TexasMexican]

2. Gatling Gun

Gatling guns were the first machine guns. So its not like someone wanted to make a machine gun deadlier they just went back to the original principle.

Althought Dr. Gatling, who invented the Gatling Gun, did want to make guns so deadly that war would be so horrible that people wouldnt no longer start wars.

We saw how well that worked, I wonder what he would say if about that if he were around today.

[BloodyWilliam]

4. Gatling and Nobel were probably kindred spirits, but

On a technical note, the multiple barrels aren't EXACTLY so it fires faster (or at least, they weren't originally there for that). With the early designs, barrels would heat up rapidly and more or less melt if you put too much bullets through too fast. The rotating barrel system lets a different barrel take each bullet and then cycle, giving it a moment to cool down again so it doesn't overheat.

[DoNotRefill]

12. It also...

makes the gun more reliable. The way gatling guns operate, if there's a malfunction, that one barrel just doesn't fire, and the unfired round is ejected. Compare this with a standard machinegun, which if one round jams, the gun is out of action until the jam is manually cleared.

[rooboy]

3. Yeah, that lies thing really ruins the whole illusion, doesn't it? n/t

[Kinkistyle]

5. Well I dislike him for the lies AND the up-front faith thing.

Among manyother things.

[brava]

6. Hmm... there're something to think about...

BOB: Well, I think people don't like him because he's a man of faith and he's up-front about it.


So,what I'm hearing is that this man, like so many other Bush supporters of the fundamentalist Christian ilk, thinks of Bush as a man of faith being persecuted by the godless liberals.

He sees Bush as doing the will of God -- fighting those "evil" Arabs.

He sees Bush as fighting the war of Armageddon (i.e. God's war).

I think we have to listen for things like this and have counter arguments ready. We can quote the Bible. Remind them that Jesus was not an advocate of killing the innocent, etc. (pick your scripture).

If we want to defeat them we have to meet them on the same battle ground.

[DivinBreuvage]

7. Nice Work!

And that's something substantive to hit them on. Lying is bad. Lying, they said, rather than the sex, was the reason Clinton deserved impeachment.

I've heard one or two try to argue that the situation is different for Bush because he didn't "lie under oath", and maybe one tried to excuse it because the lies were supposedly told for the sake of "national security". But my distinct impression from most of the people I know (almost all of whom are political moderates) is that they're not buying into it and that the lies have come to disturb them. I think it might be a little different if the economy were humming along and the war in Iraq were going well, but since neither of them are there's much less reason for people to want to gloss over or tune out the unpleasant reality about this "president".

A few people in my husband's family thought Bush was just swell when he first took office (they're neither big on religion nor dittoheads, but they've completely bought into the "it's my money and democrats are hell-bent on stealing it from me" meme). Well, a few weeks ago we had a family gathering and the subject of Iraq came up, and the conversation turned to how the war was trumped up for the benefit of Halliburton, Bechtel and the like and that Iraq had next to nothing to do with 9/11 and so forth. The pro-Bush people sat there silently (they're sensible and intelligent people and they usually have no qualms about speaking up when they have something to say) and I got the distinct impression that they were uncomfortable with the conversation because deep down they knew that the whole thing was a lie and a sham but were having a very hard time dealing with the fact that any president would lie us into an unjust war for the sake of his friends in the corporations.

Sometimes I think that Bush could lie from now till the impending doomsday and the people who buy into the "man of faith" thing will continue to support him and excuse the lies away, but as you've proven, kgfnally, calling them on the fact might at least persuade them to keep their mouths shut, and the less people we have running around talking up what a noble and upstanding man of morality and faith he is, the easier it will be for people to realize that it's not true.

Françoise

[bitchkitty]

8. Uh oh - he sounds disgruntled.

Watch your back around this guy. A fool who thinks 60 rounds isn't enough - don't piss him off!

[Occulus]

13. We're both postal employees.

:evilgrin:

[neebob]

9. Um, doesn't the original comment about the machine gun

worry you just a tiny bit? If someone at my office said that, I imagine it would take about 5 minutes for the HR Manager to get involved, and the person who made the comment would be sitting in a psychiatrist's office within an hour, looking at a nice long vacation.

This is normal conversation at your place of work?

[JackRiddler]

10. this was a normal conversation at every...

place of work I ever had.

One reason I quit day jobs and went freelance!

[Occulus]

14. I've known this guy for over six years.

As I said in the original post, he's a Gulf I vet. Also, he was being sarcastic when he said the part about the rounds. I do know him that well.

I don't have a problem about someone being enthusiastic over a weapon- I only have a problem when that weapon is used against innocent people. The guy I was talking to is totally against killing innocent people.

Besides, to handle situations in daily life, he doesn't need a gun; his brain and his mouth are enough and he knows it. I'm not worried.

[DoNotRefill]

11. Expect a visit from the SS soon...

if this guy reported you.... :scared: