[OT] [Coco] Packin' heat

[Ward Griffiths]

On 12/08/2005 02:24 pm, Glen VanDenBiggelaar wrote:
> Wow, up here in Canada, the only guns we see are on the belts of police and
> the few American tourists :) I believe the discount ONLY works at the
> dounut shops though :)
> -Glen

The standard cop discount (at least in the diners, coffee shops and such) in 
the States is 50%, or at least it was when I was with the Laconia, NH police 
department in 1972.  I will offer them only the same 10% I give anybody else 
with a firearm.  Here in New Jersey, of course, since it's almost impossible 
for an unconnected civilian to get permission to carry, anybody with a gun 
generally gets a 100% discount plus the contents of the cash register.  
(Folks out to commit crimes don't seem to worry that having the gun is _also_ 
a crime).  In NH it's legal for a shopkeeper or homeowner to have a piece and 
to use it in self defense, but not down here.  Use of lethal force in self 
defense in New Jersey will get you tried for premeditated murder unless 
you're a cop or politician or well-connected civilian.

To bring things (sort of) on topic, I've long wondered how many folks who 
played Leo Christopherson's Coco game "Klendathu" ever got around to actually 
reading the excellent novel that inspired it (_Starship Troopers_ by Robert 
Heinlein, and don't be misled by the crappy movie of the same name) or more 
of Heinlein's work.  I liked the game (it was one I could actually _win_) but 
I'd been a Heinlein reader for decades previous.  Always wondered what 
documentation came with the classroom version, but it was a special order and 
none ever came through my RSCC.
-- 
Ward Griffiths    wdg3rd at comcast.net

Madison said that tyranny would come to this land only under the guise of
fighting a foreign enemy. One hundred ninety-three years after his
unnecessary war with Britain, I must say he was right. -- Anthony Gregory