Green swords

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My ambitions at becoming a dictator match my ambition to command all grasshoppers. Humanity is not only less controllable, it is less sane.

Aha! I knew there was a market for my recovered metal, organically thickened biodiesel flamethrower, all the crispy carnage with none of the guilt or carbon footprint... I've also got some Polish Makarovs with 30 lb triggers in them, they called it a "safety feature", I call it a workout for your trigger finger, or my favorite firearms workout, offhand shooting with a full auto 12 gauge, that really works the upper body. True, shooting doesn't require quite the physical shape that earlier weapons demanded, but that should be considered a good thing, now someone doesn't have to be a full time soldier in order to be able to defend themselves.

I also actually do know how to use a sword or swords, having taken both fencing and Filipino martial arts (which FYI also have a lot of clubbing and knifing involved), but people tend to look at you funny if you walk around with a blade, and I'm not quite old enough to get away with a cane. I'm actually a little unusual among gun people in bothering to learn stick and knife related arts, but I have a healthy respect for the tools that got us through the last few thousand years and am not so quick to abandon them simply because something better has come along. Truthfully, I love just about all weapons, I didn't even get into guns until my late teens, and then only because I had to face the fact that medieval weaponry wasn't about to make a comeback and that a crossbow was never going to be acceptable to carry in public.

Incidentally, I'm just a small arms guy, things like bombs and artillery just don't do it for me, probably because they aren't things you can stick in your back pocket or keep in the closet, though I will express a certain interest in those 7 barreled cannons that spew the 30mm DU all over Iraq. Anything that can put out better than 100 rounds per second and punch through a tank is at least of interest to me, even if it does fall into that impractical for civilian use category. Boy, it would send a message though...

There is a strange fascination with people who are totally captivated by the mechanisms with which humanity commits horrors upon each other while totally ignoring the results. I imagine there must be a cult of people who have basements full of extensible beds, iron maidens, ropes strung from ceilings, water boarding tools, finger nail pullers, malevolent dental drills, testicle shockers, etc who would be taken aback if actually accused of applying the tools to living humans. It is somewhat the psychology of the crew of humanistic scientists who engineered and produced the first atomic bombs but were appalled when Truman, in his enthusiasm for demonstrating US military powers, instantly incinerated hundreds of thousands of civilians in Japan.

^

Though torture devices aren't really my thing, I could see why others might be fascinated by them and driven to collect them despite never having any interest in torturing someone. I have to laugh when I see overly elaborate torture machines, especially ones that are old enough that considerable time and expense had to go into producing them, aside from the initial ingenuity of thinking it up. It's not like torture is an exact task requiring specialized tools and exotic machinery, yet someone wasn't satisfied with simple and thought to themselves "you know what would really hurt?", and cooked up all the diabolical contraptions that one sees in European museums. I wonder if judicial bodies such as the inquisition solicited these devices, or was it more like crazed inventors would just show up on their doorstep with the latest revolution in torture technology? Ironically, it seems that modern torturers have gone back to simple, blades burning and beating, with the occasional hand cranked telephone set for variety. Perhaps MacGuyver was very popular in the Third World, who knows?

I appreciate your technical fascination. I am sure that Monty Python could have had a lot of fun with it

^

I can buy that, though I tend to see it as more of a Seinfeld type routine, you know like "what's the deal with these crazy torture devices...?". That, or an SNL style sketch with Billy Mays shouting about how much more painful chemical burns from Oxy-clean are than normal burns, and if you call within the next 10 minutes he'll throw in a free thumbscrews, a $50 value...

I know several people with a weaponry fascination. I actually do have a mild interest in swords, but more for their macabre poetic value (Polished to show my reflection, but sharpened to slit my throat) than anything. It seems that among the people I know with an interest in antique weapons, it's more of an ironic postmodernist fascination with human cruelty and history than anything else.
The more modern weapon enthusiasts though, with machine guns, artillery, and nuclear weapons, I'm leery of, as they really do seem to have a bit more of a genuine bloodlust, at least the ones I've met. When you babble to me for ten minutes about how many people could be killed in under a minute with "this baby" I'm going to question your sanity no matter what.

^- at the above, if you ever get old and want a cane, you can also try to get yourself a Zatoichi( or whatever the name is) which is a blade hidden in the cane. (I reckon the blade is named after the samurai who used such technique, of which there is a movie... Might need correction <.< )

Also Sand, my 2 cents about what you said, i totally agree that bombs and the like are devastating our beautiful planet. But here is what i've noticed, the farther people are, the less empathy they feel for the one they attack (ever tried dropping a bomb? It sure as heck sounds easier than stabbing someone in the back o.o ) and you do not see them suffer. Guns were the first step (there's still obviously a limit to the range of a gun, but heh, i'm no specialist), now missiles are what gets people going. =/ It seems very easy to kill someone when you don't have to do it yourself. =/

On the other hand, i will admit that for self protection, a gun is usually enough. Even though it is often overpowering your opponent if he is barehanded or using a close range weapon. =/

Honestly, I thought when you posted this thread, you were talking about the Green Destiny.

Bizarrely enough, sword canes are often specifically banned in most US states, and I've never heard of a permit being available for one, while gun permits are often readily available for qualified applicants(which I am). If I was going to carry a cane as a weapon, I'd probably drill it out to fill part of it with lead, my Filipino martial arts experience includes a lot of stick work, some of it actually using a crooked cane for hooking and trapping an armed opponent. People often underestimate a good blunt instrument for defensive purposes, aside from being quiet they often have a much greater "range" of lethality, where as even a superficial cut or gunshot wound will at the least send someone to the hospital. Currently, I'm rather fond of both the lead shot sap and the telescoping nightstick since both are compact and effective, though the sap isn't legal in most places.




Also surprisingly to most, a handgun is far from ideal as a weapon, the energy transfer is often inefficient and the range of force available is limited to lethal or nothing. However, what a handgun is is convenient, I can carry one all day everyday without inconvenience, and it doesn't rely on the physical strength of the user, making it very useful for the traditional victim classes such as women or the disabled. If I knew that no one else had a gun, I'd rather have a long bludgeon for defense, but I work with what I'm given, and I do consider the police in that "everyone else" category that I have to keep up with. Another significant reason that I favor the gun is the intimidation factor that it carries, if I have to pull one out I'm ready to pull the trigger, but I'd rather that the draw be enough, and it often is. One of my ex's had that exact experience with a would-be carjacker turning tail in the case of a drawn pistol, were something like a club just doesn't scare people the way a gun does, especially (in this case) in the hands of a woman that might be 5'2 and 110 lbs soaking wet. But I digress, this thread was (I think) about the environmental impact of warfare, and I'm turning it into a street fighting seminar...