Posts by Dan Mika

Brits 'a bunch of yellow bastards', says irate Yank

Thanks, John Murgatroyd

Nice and classy. You like to keep life simple, huh; don't let facts or reality complicate things. And, people talk about the "Ugly American"; ignorant, arrogant and provincial. There are all kinds in every part of the world, as you so ably demonstrate. Just like not everyone over there is like you, not everyone over here is like the ignorant b@5t@rd that wrote the post that started this line of comments.

Go ahead and flame; I won't be reading it. This has turned into an exercise that is close enough to wanking that I've lost interest.

Stereotypes??

I am from South Dakota; albeit from the eastern part of the state (Rapid City, where that photo was taken, is a good 250 miles away). I have spent time in Europe, though not in the UK proper. Before things REALLY get crazy, here's a few things that people who have never been in this part of the world might not realize.

Owning firearms and carrying them in plain sight is still legal here (so far).

In this part of the country, it is not at all unusual to live 50 miles or more from the nearest law enforcement personnel. The state of South Dakota is over 400 miles east to west, and over 200 miles north to south, with a total population of around 800,000. And over 200,000 of those people live in two "cities", Rapid City being one of them. Doesn't leave a lot of people for the rest of those "wide open spaces".

We use firearms for hunting (we usually eat the meat from what we hunt), and for getting rid of predators (mostly coyotes in this part of the country; they have a taste for livestock; in particular young cattle (calves) and lambs). The livestock is our living; losing a calf or a lamb means you paid for feeding and caring of the mother for a year with no financial return. The idea of using guns for self defense, while romantic and "cool" in many ways, is not an over-riding motivation for most people; more of an afterthought.

When I looked at the picture, my impression was "Must have been picking up his gun from the retailer or repair shop on his way home from work; that looks like a thermos (vacuum bottle) he's carrying in the other hand."

We consider a firearm a tool, no better or worse than the person in control of it.

Anyone with access to land with wildlife on it will normally hunt some sort of wild game at some time during the year. It is a very informal arrangement compared to our impression (which may or may not be accurate) of the situation in your part of the world.

If you think the media is an accurate portrayal of our society; would you like us to think that "Faulty Towers", "Are You Being Served", or "Waiting for God" are accurate portrayals of your society? I consider them as probably based reality, with the stereotypes greatly exaggerated (Or am I wrong?)

Anyway, I like your web site, and I did get the humor in the original article; it was funny. I like to get information from sites outside our country (Your site, BBC, etc.) to act as a counterweight to the nationalistic bias that is inherent in any nation's media.