What's new Pussycat too?

I get what you mean regarding mental health. But the main stream media never mentioned the fact that out of the last 5 mass/school shootings where the guns were legally obtained, that 4 out of 5 of the shooters were on prescription drugs with mind-altering side effects. They would not have been sold those guns if medical records are flagged for not just mental illness, but what medications people take that might be mind altering to otherwise stable people were required along with criminal records in a background check. The rest of them over the past decade or so were illegally obtained by theft from a family member (rare) or purchased on the black market (common).

What you definitely don't hear from the media at all are all the instances in the U.S. where law-abiding, gun carrying citizen pedestrians are heroes in using their guns in stopping/preventing crime and violence or rescue victims/potential victims from a violent shooting, stopping or killing the criminal. That happens far more often with legally obtained guns than crimes committed with legally obtained guns. But the truth is out there if you dig for it a bit.

 

With the last point, I can see a firm reason, not wanting to create a trend for vigilantes. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it NEEDS a person to step over the line to defend the innocent, but they can't promote it as an active good thing for obvious reasons. As for the initial thing, we need to shut down the loop holes that allow people with problems that can affect their mental state, be in an already known medical condition or an effect of medication.

All of this seems to stem from a country's standpoint on gun control / it's constitution on the right to bear arms. Here in the UK we can have weapons for limited capacities and under quite strict control, whereas the States has a more open system depending on the state where it's your right to possess a weapon. So when the Brits see video of a child on a shooting range firing an MP3 or any weapon, there's a natural WTF because we have a different viewpoint on arms. That does not make it wrong for a US child to be taught the correct use of a gun, but at the same time we ALL should be thinking why a child of 5 or 6 is allowed to hold and shoot a gun but yet we don't trust the same child to use a sharp knife or boil water etc etc.

Obviously, I'm not advocating any of those things for young kids, we do have to remember that a child of that age isn't totally responsible.

The whole gun argument is riddled with issues that need fixed, everywhere.

It should never be used to target a whole country, purely the wrong individuals within. Should I ever want a gun (no thanks, it's not what I can do with a gun, it's what others can do if they got their hands on it) I could go down the many back channels out there and get a weapon used in Eastern Europe without any real problems as long as I had the cash. That same problem is worldwide, there's always someone who can supply if the cash is right. This is almost impossible to stop.

The only real thing we can do is tighten the reigns on just who can legally get hold of a gun. It won't stop some random killings as a person can just suddenly turn if the situation forces them that way. Our biggest issue isn't those that legally can get guns, but rather those who DO illegally get guns deliberately for criminal use.

 

Believe me, the vast majority of American parents teaching their 5 or 6 year old how to use a firearm, has most definitely also been taught the correct usage of knives, boiling water, starting fires, etc. Just like the Pioneers 200 years ago. It's an entire life philosophy of learning to take care of one's self and being self or family defending and reliant and independent and survivalists. Strong family values, ethics and morals are also instilled in the children with these types of parents.
As you said, it's a completely different mentality and philosophy of life.

 

As long as those values and ethics are decent, then it can work. Sometimes the same practices almost form cult like status, we as humans must avoid that.

Mind you, I'm commenting on things in the USA and over here we have just seen the introduction of Draconian laws to suppress any people that resent the new King. Banning items being carried that could bind you to tables etc like super glue and straps that wrap around things. Utter madness.

They arrested loads of people before and during the coronation simply because they verbally expressed and / or wore signs that simply said they didn't support the King. So much for democracy in the UK. I'm not a monarchist, before we really got to know the royal family they had a sheen of being proper nice people, but with freedom of information now much swifter we got to see the dark side of these folk. Now we see what really goes on, consorting with perverts, financial scandals, affairs galore, possible deadly intent and numerous other stuff. That glossy sheen has gone.

 

That's the same all over as far as Royalty/Other Elites goes. Proper upstanding people on the surface and in public, but now we get to see the dark side, as you say. And most are also connected to Illuminati or Free Masons or some other occult-like or even satanic secret societies who do not have the best interests for common man and his freedoms and liberties but are actively working to end democratic freedoms, and over time, just under the surface, have been successful in turning us all into banana republics that are bastions of despotism.

Just compare our democratic societies today with this 1946 film that was shown to kids at school to teach them how to spot a despot country and propaganda. To warn against allowing to happen what we have allowed to happen! All the while using the media to tell us they are making everything more fair, democratic and with equal opportunity, including passing laws that seem on the surface to be for this very purpose, while in fact doing the exact opposite in practice. Like the "equal opportunity" job act here in the states where people are hired to fill check marks for race or creed instead of the most qualified candidates, regardless of race or creed. In most cases this leads to under or unqualified people in the positions that can fail upward and eventually are in control and the entire company or organization itself declines into despotism.

 

Yes, it's horrendous designed mess controlled by not so secret societies. The whole royal pyramid of power, ruled by free masons, a group that as you say follows the devil, but puts up a puppet monarch who claims to be a member of the church. I wish more people would do a little research in to this huge lie. It's not a conspiracy theory, it's a simple fact, in parliament we have the Black Rod, just look at the attire, the symbols etc and then go to a Masonic shop like the one opposite their temple in Holborn in London, you will see all the same 'regalia'.

I'm not a Mason, I was approached by 2 people to join the ranks, one a bank manager and the other an engineer, fitting titles for them. I declined, as I don't adhere myself to anything that is directly religion based.

As for the ticking the diversity boxes, I was on the other side of that, when I ran my shop at Maplin I was pressured not to employ black staff because the owners didn't trust them. I on the other hand wanted the right folk for the job, so when I did interviews I judged on ability and personality. The ability to sell relies on those qualities. I ended up with a mixed set of staff who were excellent at their job. I detest this notion of putting people in positions based on colour, it HAS to be based on ability. We all have the chance to improve ourselves in most places, sure, we have area's that stagnate into criminality and poor education, but some part of that had to be laid at the feet of the people in these places. In a world where a Black man and woman can become the most powerful people in the world, that show's it's all possible. Sure, there's some politics involved in this, but if you had said to me in the 70's that there would be a black POTUS, I'd have laughed at you, racism was the norm then.

We can't have an infrastructure based on people put in jobs to tick boxes, if they are not up to the job then things collapse, it's totally against the rules of business.

 

By the way, just as another example of the gun culture indicative to the U.S., a bit of trivia:

Civilians in the U.S. own close to 400 million firearms, according to a new survey released this week*, and the total number of firearms owned by private citizens vastly exceeds the police and military's 4.5 million. This is of course the same U.S. military who's spending of ~800 billion per year. Any Chinese or Russian military invasions need to worry about our civilian population even more than our military!





* https://americanmilitarynews.com/20...mpared-to-militarys-4-5-million-survey-shows/

Do we have a bigger problem than other nations in regards to criminal mass-shootings and murders? Of course! But not if you take into account citizen gun ownership per capita vs. other nations that allow citizens to own guns and their ownership per capita vs. murders and shootings. Going by that yardstick that the liberal media ignores and even attempts to hide, U.S. shootings have a smaller percentage. it's growing, everyday, but It's not about gun ownership, it's about the falling morals and ethics of those gun owners directly related to lack of family stability and values, morals and ethics running rampant in our society. You can bet your bottom British pound that the per-capita percent of U.S. citizen gun ownership was the same 50 or 100 years ago, but such things as mass-shootings and other violent crimes were almost non-existent and it was due to high family values, morals and ethics that we once had and once reinforced in school teaching that have been thrown away and there is far more depravity and debased minds in these days than then because of it.

Guns don't kill, people kill and if some how guns can be eliminated from society, due to the same depravity and debasement of society, these criminals will just use other instruments of death for their mass murdering and moral, ethical and law abiding citizens are the ones left without a way to defend themselves because they obey the laws criminals ignore, and still obtain guns on the black market.

 

It's not a perfect world and never will be...That might even be a good thing...

 

And now for something completely different...

I just thought I'd share one of my many misadventures with puppies experiences and their determination to destroy all I own. This one is the most expensive yet...

I'm having to rebuild my loud speakers again as my puppies, after months of leaving well enough alone, decided to make a meal out of one of my 3-way loud speakers, destroying the speaker's cloth cover I remade for it, as well as the woofer and mid-range speakers. Only the new tweeter I replaced last year survived. But I'm replacing woofers and mid-range on both speakers as I couldn't find an exact power match to my other woofer and mid range speakers.

But the puppies really did a number on the old speakers:



The new speaker replacements, about $200 for all four. So still cheaper than complete loudspeaker replacement. And I moved up in power from 200 watt to 260 watt speakers with more advanced non-paper cones for the woofers(forget offhand what the material is called).

 

Are you going to make little furry mats out of the pups?

 

I would, but I might need them for protection or food soon...

 

Guess your woofers didn't like your woofers Matt...

 

There was barely any remanence left beyond the speaker chassis I photo'd above, so they ate it all. They also destroyed one of the covers as I mentioned, but didn't eat it. But also they ruined the trim of the speaker cabinet, so I'm going ahead and repainting and trimming the speaker cabinets before I install the new speakers. I thought about metal guards for the speakers, but I think these pups are old enough, with summer upon us, to stay outdoors all the time now, with dog houses of course. Only let in for severe weather.

By the way, those are 12" woofers and 3.5" mid-range speakers (they are more powerful than they look) and the tweeters (not shown) I think are 3". The 12" woofers are wired for both bass and lower mid-range frequencies, and now I have an 8" powered subwoofer that pumps out only low bass frequencies. I'll post pictures once I have them repaired, along with my surround speakers.

 

My cats ripped my records to shreds and I had no clue they were getting in the box, but then again, me and my LP's never had a good times I'm lucky Felix isn't a scratcher as my big speakers have no guards on (when I say big, I mean,compared to shelf speakers)

 

My mate Tony has 4 of these bad boys in his front room, all on a big ass old amp and eq driven.. Truly makers of thunder...

 

Speakers like those are beyond my budget. I can dream, but really I don't have the space anyway, atm. Once upon a time I had much nicer speakers, with big woofers with semi-transparent plastic cones, and two adjustment dials like those above, but still only 3-way speakers. I was going to add another set of tweeters to them, making them 4-way, but of course one of my puppies managed to get one of them!

Mine are completely home-made now, the old woofers were the last of the original speakers (I still have one I may add to my sub-woofer...I just finished installing the new speakers in the boxes, and repaired the one speaker cover. I just need to repair the trim and I'll take pictures of my now completely DIY speakers, since I also repaired the boxes themselves last year and repainted them. They still look a bit more plain than those fancy ones you pictured @Paul "Mclaneinc" Irvine .

I also need to finish off the exterior of my subwoofer so it looks professional instead of DIY like it still does atm.

new pictures soon. I've just about finished the restoration of each individual component of my stereo system now too, installing LED back lighting on all components too now, except for the receiver and the second tape deck. So most of it lights up now, but looks a bit odd with two components out of place with no LED lights.

 

I love my music (especially country) but don't have the audio equipment knowledge of you guys. Been after a record player for a while though for a couple of albums only available on vinyl and picked this up today from an old friend who was selling it on Gumtree.
While it's nowhere close to the gear you all have, it sounds good enough for me and I get to watch the VU needle's go up and down lol. Also, it fits in quite well with my 70's type living room corner. Including 40 odd lp's it was £60 all in. Not bad considering it's less than a year old and still retails for £300 on Amazon!

 

Simple and sleek. And if your turntable isn't on a par with mine, it would only be down to the quality of the needle. The needle is the key ingredient for great sound from a turn table, and a $300 turn table can be made essentially as good as a $1000 turntable with a needle in the $200-300 range. But even a $100 needle would most likely be an improvement to a stock quality needle for a $300 range kit, which most likely has a needle in the $25-50 range as stock.

 

Those speakers I posted go for around 2500.00 a pair (UK money) second hand, way beyond what I'd pay for a pair of any speakers.

I have speakers that make enough noise for me in those rare times I turn them on. As I've said many a time, my dream is a detached house and a home cinema room with massive screen and sound system, and a UK Pool table. I'd probably never leave the house and become very deaf...

 

Are you referring to a traditional billiards table? We have bar/pub and pool-hall tables that are the most common, but you can go to higher class locals and clubs that have the true billiards tables that are larger than pool tables. If I ever have the space and money, I'd probably get one of the smaller pool-hall tables because they are about half the cost of a true billiards table (which I prefer, but I don't know if I'd want to pay what they cost even if I could afford one).

Do you play a lottery or anything similar Paul? Here is wishing you a winning ticket if you do, enough to get you a single family home.

 

UK pool tables are usually the smaller kind and only have red and yellow balls plus a black ball, not the numbered balls of American pool.

I've listened to some records on the turntable and they sound decent but I get annoyed having to get up and either turn the record over or put on the second one in a longer album. Think I'm going to be sticking with CD's and probably just by the mp3 downloads of the couple of albums I want that aren't available on disc. Probably take the turntable to my local cash generator tomorrow and see what they offer me for it.

 

Aw, Al, what a shame - I'd persevere, mate.
I mean you've only just picked it up, fella.
You can't beat putting a vinyl disc on a turntable and listen to that wonderful intro and slight crackle as the stylus starts its way into the groove and then belts out your fave artists and tracks - it beats tapes and CDs hands down for me, buddy.
Am enjoying this thread as I can feel the joy that folks like Matt and Paul and your good self feel when it's just you sat there quietly contemplating, with your music remembering the great times together with others and for me, music lifts us and takes us on journeys like no other media can do... ok, a good book maybe...but you get the gist, guys.
The speakers that Paul flagged up and the gear that Matt puts together is all such a blast - great kit / conversations, fellas.

 

Music and books Andy. Two great distractions from the modern world right enough
Just finished a cracking read about a Glasgow club that went bust in the late 60's through alleged mismanagement. They played just a couple of miles from me and if you visit the park now some of the old terracing has been left standing as a reminder, very eerie but nice to imagine crowds of 40'000 gathered to cheer on and support Third Lanark as they were called.

 

Now then, Third Lanark rings a bell from maybe old footie programmes collected or old episodes of Grandstand / Midweek Sports Special / Sportnight that Tony Gubba, Frank Bough and Archie Macpherson used to introduce. I'll have to delve some more into that particular rabbit hole, Al!

 

Matt, yeah, I mean the smaller pool tables, as Al says, different balls and rules. Also the USA Pool tables use bigger ie Snooker / Billiards sized balls iirc. I did player snooker as well but I was more a pool player, and if I may pat myself on my back, a darned talented one back then. Once played a pool mega star, Maltese Joe Barbera, beat him. left him with 6 of his balls on the table. He was PISSED, refused to shake my hand. So a pool table would be nice..

Yeah, I do the lottery, won 13.50 UK and a free lucky dip on our various games last week. Normally I only play Lotto, like your Powerball but MUCH less money. Thank you for the kind words, I also hope we win (and of course all that play these games on here)

As I've said before, not much of a reader, normally only manuals if I can't work it out myself, never was a bookworm tbh, comics were my tickle. Had a treat purchase, the blu ray of Ghost in the Shell with Scarlet Johansson, a whole 3 quid brand new. It's not a brilliant film, but a nice bit of popcorn..

Lovely day outside, shame I'm trapped in here, along with ADHD kid upstairs who was fed sweets galore to keep him quiet, now everyone is getting his sugar rush at 100db, he's shrieking at the mum because he knows she hates the high noise (she aint the only one) and stomping around while poking the baby. You have heard of AI, artificial intelligence, well that family is AUL, Actual Un Intelligence..Had hoped they would clear orf for the weekend..No such luck, so far...

LOL, Frank Bough or Mr S&M as he was known...Was fond of being gimped up and thrashed by dominatrix types..(really)