Drizzt
Member
What is the deal with the gun-hating Brits?
By LOWELL BRANHAM
March 29, 2003
I've nothing against British soldiers, but British civilians are a different cup of tea. The British civilian has to be one of the most perverse and thoroughly unappreciative examples of humanity in existence.
British civilians have lately been protesting the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the participation of their own soldiers, who are shoulder to shoulder with U.S. troops. It's a partnership of arms that's nearly a century old.
Sad to say, except for World War II, which they only survived by the skin of their teeth, the stalwart British civilians have stayed safely at home and hooted their derision not only at the American G.I. but at their own troops as well.
Lest you take me for a bigoted Anglophobe, no less a literary light than Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem a good many years before I was born that decries the callousness and ingratitude the typical British civilian displays toward British troops. The poem is titled "Tommy," Tommy being slang for a British soldier. Following are a couple of lines from Kipling's poem: For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country when the guns begin to shoot."
The Brits' ingratitude isn't reserved for soldiers. One of the most monumental examples of thanklessness ever exhibited was directed at Winston Churchill, arguably the greatest political leader and statesman of the 20th century.
After the debacle between Neville Chamberlain and Munich, Churchill's leadership restored England's collective backbone and brought forth the resolve that enabled the beleaguered island nation to survive Hitler's Blitz and the nearly five years of war that followed.
And how did the British citizens show their appreciation? Relieved of the threat of war and beguiled by the Labour Party's promises of a socialist Utopia, they unceremoniously dumped Churchill from office just a few weeks after the Germans surrendered.
Ingratitude and socialist sentiments aren't the only taints that afflict British civilians. They are also vehemently antigun. When it appeared it would only be a matter of time before the Nazis came across the channel, the Brits were begging the United States for arms of any description, and private American citizens contributed thousands of firearms to their English brethren.
You'd think there would've been some degree of reverence and appreciation of the fact that Americans were big-hearted and generous enough to contribute their privately owned guns. But after the war was over, the guns were collected and destroyed.
Since World War II gun laws in Britain have steadily become more stringent.
It's my understanding that about the only thing left that a British citizen can legally own is a shotgun, and it appears that may not last much longer.
Britain is also a hotbed of animal-rights activism. PETA's activities in this country are nothing compared to what goes on in Britain. There have been several attempts in Parliament to outlaw the time-honored British tradition of fox hunting, and sooner or later the effort will likely succeed.
Once all hunting is outlawed in England, there'll no longer be any justification for a citizen to even own a shotgun.
But what goes around comes around. As extreme anti-hunting and antigun sentiments have gained ground in England, so has the nation's deer herd. In fact, England is up to its eyeballs in deer.
The animals have become so overpopulated that they're doing serious environmental damage and causing an estimated 40,000 traffic accidents a year, including a dozen deaths.
So guess what's going to happen? Those ungrateful, left-leaning, gun-hating, animal-loving British citizens are going to have to foot the bill to have their out-of-control deer herd commercially culled.
All I've got to say is it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of folks.
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/outdoors_fishing/article/0,1651,TCP_1062_1851015,00.html
By LOWELL BRANHAM
March 29, 2003
I've nothing against British soldiers, but British civilians are a different cup of tea. The British civilian has to be one of the most perverse and thoroughly unappreciative examples of humanity in existence.
British civilians have lately been protesting the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the participation of their own soldiers, who are shoulder to shoulder with U.S. troops. It's a partnership of arms that's nearly a century old.
Sad to say, except for World War II, which they only survived by the skin of their teeth, the stalwart British civilians have stayed safely at home and hooted their derision not only at the American G.I. but at their own troops as well.
Lest you take me for a bigoted Anglophobe, no less a literary light than Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem a good many years before I was born that decries the callousness and ingratitude the typical British civilian displays toward British troops. The poem is titled "Tommy," Tommy being slang for a British soldier. Following are a couple of lines from Kipling's poem: For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!" But it's "Saviour of 'is country when the guns begin to shoot."
The Brits' ingratitude isn't reserved for soldiers. One of the most monumental examples of thanklessness ever exhibited was directed at Winston Churchill, arguably the greatest political leader and statesman of the 20th century.
After the debacle between Neville Chamberlain and Munich, Churchill's leadership restored England's collective backbone and brought forth the resolve that enabled the beleaguered island nation to survive Hitler's Blitz and the nearly five years of war that followed.
And how did the British citizens show their appreciation? Relieved of the threat of war and beguiled by the Labour Party's promises of a socialist Utopia, they unceremoniously dumped Churchill from office just a few weeks after the Germans surrendered.
Ingratitude and socialist sentiments aren't the only taints that afflict British civilians. They are also vehemently antigun. When it appeared it would only be a matter of time before the Nazis came across the channel, the Brits were begging the United States for arms of any description, and private American citizens contributed thousands of firearms to their English brethren.
You'd think there would've been some degree of reverence and appreciation of the fact that Americans were big-hearted and generous enough to contribute their privately owned guns. But after the war was over, the guns were collected and destroyed.
Since World War II gun laws in Britain have steadily become more stringent.
It's my understanding that about the only thing left that a British citizen can legally own is a shotgun, and it appears that may not last much longer.
Britain is also a hotbed of animal-rights activism. PETA's activities in this country are nothing compared to what goes on in Britain. There have been several attempts in Parliament to outlaw the time-honored British tradition of fox hunting, and sooner or later the effort will likely succeed.
Once all hunting is outlawed in England, there'll no longer be any justification for a citizen to even own a shotgun.
But what goes around comes around. As extreme anti-hunting and antigun sentiments have gained ground in England, so has the nation's deer herd. In fact, England is up to its eyeballs in deer.
The animals have become so overpopulated that they're doing serious environmental damage and causing an estimated 40,000 traffic accidents a year, including a dozen deaths.
So guess what's going to happen? Those ungrateful, left-leaning, gun-hating, animal-loving British citizens are going to have to foot the bill to have their out-of-control deer herd commercially culled.
All I've got to say is it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of folks.
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/outdoors_fishing/article/0,1651,TCP_1062_1851015,00.html