My good pal, Marc Cooper, has had the excellent idea of weaving the war stories of his younger years as a reporter into a chapter by chapter series of blog posts.
The site where these stories live is called, logically enough, Reporter War Stories.
And the tales contained make for intriguing reading.
The first is a tale of Chile in 1971: The Day Fidel Arrived. But you should begin here at the prologue.
I particularly like the next entry Chile 1973 My .22 And Me Parts I & II It opens like this:
Lest you think ill of me, I had some legit reasons to carry. After all I worked for a Socialist president at a time of great social unrest. And there were literally armed fascist gangs running in the streets. And being a good citizen and all, I had legally registered the gun with the Ministry of Defense as required. I did not, however, have a permit to carry. And I can’t imagine I would have ever used the gun except to maybe throw it at somebody.
On a night in late May, the evening before Allende was to deliver that year’s equivalent of the State of the Union speech, the fascists had blown up a major oil pipeline. Allende declared a state of emergency, putting more militarized carabinero police and some army units out on the street.
It really wasn’t that big of a deal. I had finished translating an advance copy of the speech that afternoon and I spent the evening with friends at a very good French restaurant called La Cascade. On the way home, around midnight, our taxi driver spotted a police roadblock and check point. No sweat he said. No sweat, as ling as nobody in the car had a gun.
My girlfriend at that time told me not be stupid and give her the gun. She would put it in her panty stockings crotch and the polite Chilean cops would never check there.
I did my on-the-spot risk assessment and decided against the crotch option. I figured there was little chance the police would pat down a car full of happy gringos. And if they did, it would be easier to talk my way out of it all rather than tick them off by hiding it on a girl.
That didn’t work out quite so well.
Very interesting topic considering the trends in the U.S. concerning concealed carry laws. More states are allowing it and they are loosening their laws about who can carry. Of course there are exceptions but overall there has been more concealed carry permits issued in the U.S. in the last decade.
Nothing says common sense like a bunch of angry tea bag right wingers, geniuses who think that medicare is a private company that the government is threatening to take control of, walking around with loaded guns.
Nothing says common sense like a bunch of supid young gang members who have no clue what medicare is, walking around with loaded guns.
How do you know gang members don’t know what medicare is? And spreading the message that gang members are stupid doesn’t help law enforcement agencies who are trying to classify them as terrorist organizations.
And, I know it’s just a typo, but for crying out loud, if you’re going to call someone stupid, try to actually spell stupid right. You have to at least nail that.
Tea bag right wingers. Niiiice. LOL. What a bunch of losers they are.
I know I would rather have a bunch of 30-40 year old right wingers carrying around guns over a bunch of gangbanging teeenagers with anger management issues.
And for me it’s not about politics and gangs but more about who is going to be more responsible with their fire arm. Who would be more likely to pull it out if they are disrepected or see a rival?
Who would be more likely to have the fire arm registered and less likely to pull it out at the drop of a hat.
Nocturnal what is wrong with you? You should fear old right-wingers with guns !!!!!!!!
Just ask R.T. who is more dangerous, republicans or drug cartels. R.T knows drug cartels are more compassionate than republicans.
Yeh, 30-40 year old right wingers have no anger management issues…
Rob, I’m not saying a 30-40 year old doesn’t have anger management problems. BTW I love how you pick apart little tiny pieces of ones comments to argue.
But anyway a 30-40 year old right winger most likely has a family to take care of, alot more responsibility, bills, mortgage, a job etc… and is not going to throw all that away by pulling out a gun and asking somebody “where you from?” or blasting somebody because they dogged him or they don’t like the color of somebody’s shirt.
Nocturnal, the tea baggers I’ve seen on t.v.? Having responsibilities? I don’t think so. I doubt most of them even have jobs. The prospect of them walking around with loaded guns is as scary as the prospect of any other demographic doing so.
Well Rob it doesn’t surprise me that you would be scared. You seem a little on the paranoid side but if you read my first comment I said the issue wasn’t about politics or gangbanging but more about who would be more responsible. Lets leave the politics and gangbanging completely out of this. Who would be more responsible with a fire arm a 30-40 year old or a 17-21 year old?
Rob, I also said ” I would rather…” that means that’s my opinion which I am completley entiteled to. If you would rather go hang around a bunch of meth head gangsters with guns by all means you are absolutley entiteled to do what you like. I have my opinions just as you have yours, no matter how whacked out they might be.
The below post proves Robbie does not have the ability to think clearly. He should be required to take a urine test prior to posting.
Not trying to be nasty Celeste, just saying. The last two lines are too goofy to not demand one.
RobThomas Says:
February 20th, 2010 at 2:05 am
Nocturnal, the tea baggers I’ve seen on t.v.? Having responsibilities? I don’t think so. I doubt most of them even have jobs. The prospect of them walking around with loaded guns is as scary as the prospect of any other demographic doing so.
Nocturnal, paranoid about a bunch of angry right wingers, who think Obama’s an undercover muslim terrorist, walking around with guns? Yes. Some things are worth being paranoid about. Extreme right wingers scare the shit out of me. I won’t lie. They’ve got issues.
Fight crime, shoot first!