How ignorant are you?

That’s a dick way to ask that question. How ignorant are you? Man killing guns were absolutely and still are viewed as tools, especially by the military.

I’ve got plenty of problems with the way I was raised, especially religion and politics. However, my parents and grandparents viewed guns as tools. Most people around me as a kid viewed them as tools. Concealed carry was almost unheard of and, for the most part, paranoid gun nuts were viewed with some distaste.

I was raised in rural Alabama, fwiw. I think the big change in attitude started happening with Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Columbine. There has absolutely been a cultural shift around guns and their fetishization.

As far as genocide and all the horrible things that have been done, duh. The focus was on the killing, not the tools used to do the job. You don’t see people fetishizing Zyclon b, small pox, or famine to this degree.

You’re just looking for something to get offended about.

But whatever, guess I’m just ignorant.

I’ve also seen first-hand why having a gun in the house increases risk of death, specifically for veterans like me.

There’s that whole healthcare, including mental healthcare, thing again. “Here kid, take this gun and go kill people for 'Murica, like protect our freedoms or whatever. What, you want healthcare now that you’re back home and fucked up? Fuck you, go to the VA and take a number.” That shit is fucked and I’ve hung with several fucked up veterans. Poor bastards didn’t sign up for that shit.

I hope I never ever have to shoot at a person.

Gun culture shouldn’t even be a thing like it is. At most, it should be like car culture or something.

I enjoy my guns but I also love a lot of my other tools. I’ve got a 1944 or earlier Atlas lathe I restored, a '98 Ford Ranger that I keep running tight. I’m currently working on a '69 Wheel Horse mini tractor. I’ve got a caliper from 1856. I’ve got an assortment of knives that I use for various things, most of them in carbon steel.

Gun culture should be a subset of tool culture, not this insane identity political religion shit that we have now.

That’s kind of the point I’m trying to make. There’s a healthy way for kids to have and use guns, but it certainly isn’t this.

America has so warped its perception of guns that they’re now some sort of male enhancement device and tied into people’s identity.

This is probably a somewhat idealized view of the past, but I would think most Americans of the past viewed guns primarily as tool instead of as a supplementary cock.

Those people have no business owning a gun. I fully support some sort of gun control. Even more than that, public healthcare including mental healthcare would go a long way towards reducing shootings like this.

If the cops showed up to talk to me about my kid making threats, I would very politely listen to them without saying much or incriminating any of us. I’d check in with his teachers, get their side. Then I’d almost certainly lock up every gun, most of the knives and get him to a shrink. If we could afford it, we’d be looking into inpatient therapy.

A big chunk of this country, for all intents and purposes, has gone permanently insane. They’re a danger to themselves and others. Doesn’t seem to be any fixing it anytime soon.

It pisses me off. I often feel like suburban wannabe tuff guys are trying to ape masculinity and they end up cosplaying as me. Do they feel like real big boys now?

Why? He’s not as big into hunting like me, but will kill varmints when necessary and has done so when I’m not home so his mother didn’t have to.

I used to go hunting alone when I was his age.

He’s mentally stable, well adjusted. He views guns as tools, as do I. He also has a rolling toolbox with $1k of tools in it. He put in so much work this summer that a full toolbox was part of how I rewarded him.

Now, if there was depression, threats, suicidal tendencies, etc.: totally different situation.

Guns aren’t a masculinity fetish for us, they’re just another tool. Guns and other power tools are fun to play with as long as you understand the safety and proper use of them.

I’m in the market for a chainsaw, I’ll be getting chaps to go with it. He’ll also be trained in the use of the chainsaw and have open access to it.

I’ve also been teaching him how to drive and he can’t get a permit until he’s 16.

He uses dangerous tools regularly. More and more, he does so without my direct supervision.

My fourteen year has a few guns. 20 gauge single shot break barrel, .410 single shot break barrel, bolt action .22 rifle and a single action .22 revolver. (Single action revolvers are the really old school kind where you have to cock the hammer each time it shoots. It’s a damn big revolver as well, good luck concealing it.) They are used for varmint control and hunting. The revolver is great for rat shot and he has taken quite a few gophers with it. He understands what guns do and how they cause death.

We hunt, fish, camp, kayak, live on a tiny farm.

I don’t own an AR, don’t have use for one at this time. Giving a kid an AR and uncontrolled access to it in an urban environment is nucking futz. My son has access to his guns because I trust him to safely and respectfully use them. He also has been trained in their proper use since he was 7 or 8.

See, I don’t know how many times I’ve read the Dune series. It’s probably my favorite series and rewards rereading. (Not counting the crap his son and Kevin Anderson put out.)

Different strokes for sure.

Everything after Wizard and Glass doesn’t exist.

Cut my teeth on King, but he ruined his magnum opus in his rush to complete when confronted by his own mortality. It has some good moments, there are interesting bones in the structure, but he ruined it in the last few books.

This opinion formed after reading the entire series twice, and the first 3-4 books many more times.

It makes me happiest to view it as an incomplete series.

Not that I’m doubting you, but do you have more info on the lasting toxicity of napalm? I hadn’t heard of this.

I knew that the defoliant Agent Orange had dioxin contamination that led to all those horrible birth defects and cancers. Also, the contaminating nature of depleted uranium is obvious as a heavy metal but I think we still don’t grasp the magnitude of the problem. Iraq and Afghanistan will likely be seeing awful effects in future generations.

Clove oil. Put a few drops on a cotton ball and put it against the tooth. Your whole mouth will go pretty numb but it will usually kill the pain for a while.

American healthcare sucks.

Dropping that link in the family chat. Should be fun. We can all bond over shared suffering after their anger passes.

Very fair and accurate criticism. There also wasn’t a ton of character development.

The vividness and internal monologues caught me. As did the constant tension. Stress and tension were very well portrayed such that action was a relief.

I did it with a raspberry pi 4 and direct installs. If I had it to do over again, I would have a more powerful small server and use docker inages. There are a lot of docker guides out there but I don’t have experience with it yet.

I had to do a bunch of complicated stuff like mounting my remote storage and such. I’ve been playing with Linux a long time. If you’re not experienced with Linux, I’d do docker.

You start getting setup with Usenet, gimme a holler and I’ll send you a drunken slug invite. It’s the best indexer I’ve found, and I think I’ve let all my other indexers lapse.

Do a bunch of reading before you start, before you purchase anything.

Yo-ho-ho. The wife and kids love the pirate life as well. They just search what they want on Radarr or Sonarr and it pops up on Jellyfin in a few minutes. We were spending around $200/no on services with a lot less choice and lower quality.

For a large chunk of my career, I worked in aerospace and ‘defense’ machining. Made all kinds parts for all kinds of weapons, it was really cool! Murica! As I got older, I lost my religion, I lost the far right brainwashing I was raised with.

My hands were making weapons that the US government was often selling to other countries. My hands were making weapons to kill various groups of brown people all over the world. It really began to bother me.

I no longer make things to kill people.

Yes, you are culpable for the effects of what you produce in your profession. A thinking person should consider the effects of their work.

IDK, my son took the pictures for me. His phone has a better camera than mine. 98 Ranger XLT. It’s my fourth vehicle, lifetime. Throws no codes, I keep it running tight.

Lemmy isn’t letting me upload a better pic of it right now.

Looking into it more, I agree that it’s slate. Didn’t realize it could be this size, only ever heard of it being used for tiles.

It may be slate, now that I read more about it. Don’t have any experience with slate, shale, or phyllite. Not sure.

Someone must have been very bad to you when you were little.

What about the humble French fry? Do you partake of its golden goodness?

Hell yeah. Yesterday, last night, pulled a 20 hour marathon cleaning out the old house and loading the truck with the last load.

Bought a '98 box truck as it was a lot cheaper than renting a Uhaul 5 times. We’ve had three or four breakdowns. I assumed we would be breaking down so I carry a bunch of tooling so I can fix it on the road.

Currently broke down in Kentucky again with a hole in the exhaust. Had to cut the cat out because it got clogged. My bean can and exhaust tape solution has mostly been working. I’ve got a bad gap that keeps blowing out. Super 8 is going to love it when I crank a generator in the parking lot and fab a patch out of a baking pan tomorrow. Ball peen hammer, sawzall, Dremel and dikes.

My arc welder is in Pennsylvania or this already would have been fixed.

Anyhow, I’m sore as hell, the good kind of exhausted and about to get some deep sleep.

I don’t really plan on working out. I plan on just plain working all the time. Seems to work better for me. Cultivate that farmer muscle. Those guys live forever, but if they ever stop working, they die.

My UC is cured cause they took my whole colon out. No small intestine involvement. My immune system still hates me, I get inflammation, allergies, had iritis a few times. I drink Reishi tea and it seems to help. Can’t take steroids anymore, get adrenal crash and it takes me months to taper off. Had way too many steroids over the years.

The new place has a much lower pollen and allergen load and a real winter, I’m hoping it does a lot for my health.

I assume I’m going to get arthritis pretty bad eventually, guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.

What makes you hurt so bad?

Crayon and crown are the same word for me. Kiddie and kitty as well. Crawdad is the correct term for those little lobster things, paper bag is a poke. An RC Cola is the appropriate pairing with a moon pie. All fizzy drinks in a can are a coke. 😁

As for neurodivergency/ADHD - maybe? It’s not really a handicap so I don’t really care to pursue it. My wife is totally ADHD, diagnosed. She is occasionally medicated for it.

I still have pain. Pain everyday. However, I’m lot less sedentary now. My girl and I have bought a play farm and my activity level has massively increased. I quit drinking, other than a recent fall off the wagon, back straight again. Drugs and painkillers don’t fix shit, an occasional muscle relaxer is good when I spring my hernia bad.

I’m not pretty so I get by on tough and smart.

I still hurt, but if I’m moving and doing, it’s a different kind of hurt. More liveable, if that makes sense. If I can stay doing and working with my hands I function better. I have learned that I can’t fly a desk for a living. Need to work hard enough to not worry about the pain. I work hard enough, and I’m exhausted enough to sleep deeply.

I can outwork my fourteen year old son, and he’s tough and strong. I’ve also developed old man strength. Proud of that.

Going to build my own small machine shop so I can keep working with my hands. I take frequent breaks. Hope to get back to wood carving again soon. Long winters in my new home and have the perfect spot for my wood lathe and carving setup.

This activity likely accelerates the need for another surgery for my abdominal hernia and a re-site of my ostomy. So be it.

My best healthy answer to my pain is to work harder.

I’m sorry you hurt. I understand hurting all the time. It fucken sucks. Maybe you can find things that help or a way to live that minimizes it. Feel free to message me anytime and bitch up a storm about the pain. I truly understand and will lend you my ear, advice only if you want it. Otherwise, unload it to me if you just want me to listen and understand.