John Ings wrote:

On Sun, 16 May 2004 10:12:30 -0400, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:


That rifle hanging on the wall of the working-class flat or labourer's
cottage is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays
there.
- George Orwell

I see the meaning of those two sentences as saying that if the
government continued to act in a democratic fashion and did not become
repressive, there would be no need for the citizenry to rise up and use
those arms "on the wall" to overthrow it.


But that's not how Orwell meant it! The intended purpose of that
GOVERNMENT ISSUE gun was for a Home Guard member to use on German
invaders, not his own government.

You and Gunner are projecting your own paranoia into Orwell's
declaration. If you're going to quote pro-gun advocates, quote ones
that really support your position. Don't use out-of-context quotes
from people who don't!



So, you disagree with the conclusions in the reference below that
getting those already gun owners into the Home Guard was intended to
preclude their joining the British Communist Party and using those
weapons to revolt against the established government?

http://www.orwelltoday.com/readerriflequote.shtml

But, while searching the topic, I came what I found to be a much more
technically interesting web site, one devoted to the German V2 rocket,
replete with lots of engineering details.

A V2 rocket web site! - who woulda thunk it?

http://www.v2rocket.com/

Which brought back to mind one of my favorite Tom Lehrer songs. It was
released during the cold war days in 1965. It's titled "Wernher Von
Braun". Here for the next few days:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/WVB.mp3

Jeff

--

Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"If you can smile when things are going wrong, you've thought of someone
to blame it on."