Dude, you show me evidence that Bin Laden is in AZ, I'll let any crazy Mexican with a machete roam the country, as long as I get Laden's head on a plate.
He hasn't been deported yet. According to family, representatives of the American embassy in Pakistan has met with him, though, and had a doctor examine him (he apparently suffers from kidney disease and will require dialysis presently); it is expected that Pakistan will release him "soon."
Gun I have little difficulty imagining. But there are actually very few styles of sword with blades that long, and none I would expect to find readily available in Pakistan.
I'm wagering the report is including the length of the hilt in its estimate.
#1: You're not going to get bin Laden that way. #2: Your machete-wielding psycho is demonstrably *batshit insane*, and pretty much guaranteed to only kill innocent people, if he kills anyone at all, while on his demonstrably batshit quest.
See, i get it. He's not after Bin Laden. he's after that sweet dialysis equipment. Any dialysis machine that can keep that guy alive or years in dirty caves with intermittent electricity has bling you NEED.
...Are you kidding me? One, a sword isn't illegal to bring on a plane as long as you have it secured, announce that you have it at check-in, and then check it as part of luggage. There are stores in malls selling cheap, pot metal bullshit swords that long or longer. Hell, the rapier I use for Renaissance period fighting practices is 44". I find it entirely likely that he could find a sword of that length, blade length or blade-length + hilt, in that country.
My sword (well, my main one, Letter Opener, the one I've had to use twice in self-defense) is, IIRC, 48" -- and yes, that's overall length, so roughly 40" of blade (it's a hand-and-a-half sword, so the hilt is long-ish, just enough to get two gauntleted hands on if one hand is wrapped around the pommel). Me, I like the range of a bastard sword wielded one-handed, especially since I don't use a shield and hate to close. (I occasionally go Florentine, using bastard-and-long instead of long-and-short or long-and-long, but I'm not especially good at it beyond being better at parrying with a sword than with a shield.)
Anyhow, 40" is not a "damn big sword", though anything longer than a gladius probably looks like a "damn big sword" when you're looking at the pointy end. (The guy who attacked me with a baseball bat later described my sword as "four to six feet long"; if he thought it could maybe be 72" then I guess it made an impression.[*]) 40" is a "reasonably large sword" -- assuming it's overall length, it sounds about right for the longswords I see. I also see a whole lot in the 36" range, which always look okay in the rack but feel way too short when I pick them up. Shorter than 36" and it starts looking wrong to me. A gladius looks right hanging from the belt of a Roman re-enactor, but as soon as it's in someone's hand, I start wondering where the rest of it went.
The largest sword I've swung was an eighty inch greatsword, copied very precisely from a museum piece (and shockingly well-balanced -- when used two-handed, as designed, it was surprisingly maneuverable; one-handed, I could hold it steady and swing it (and I'm not especially strong), but would need both hands (and time to learn a two-handed-sword fighting style) to fight effectively with it). That is a "damn big sword". Designed for defense of battlements, I'm told: sweeping besieging forces from their ladders. Significantly smaller than that and still noticeably longer than mine would be most of the other two-handers I've seen, including most of the Claymores, any of which I could reasonably see calling "damn big swords".
Admittedly, I don't know as much about sword sizes and shapes popular in Pakistan in particular, so maybe it's big for the region ... but I still wouldn't call it a "damn big sword".
[*] Enough of an impression that he stopped when he saw it and I didn't have to swing it that time. The time I did have to do more than show it, I was indoors, where the length was a hindrance, but it still enabled me to chase a larger-than-me attacker out of my house. (Whereupon he called me mean and stingy for not offering him a Band-Aid for the cut he got during our scuffle. I still wonder what drug he was on.)
No, bbc world reported the facts of the case, which made me suppect that he was mentally ill, but left open the possibly that he some American survivalist gone rouge(er)
What about "some American survivalist gone rogue" suggests anything other than "batshit crazy" to you?
(Seriously, even the original reports included that he was carrying a book of magic spells and thought God was going to guide him. What *more* do you need to call "crazy person"?)
by menally ill,I am refering to the subsets of disablity such as mood disorders, psychosis and so on. (while it has major problems I take the dsm VI) for now.)
Batshit often doesn't in my view only to these disablites.
Look I am crazy, I think people are following me, and plotting against me.
I wouldn't for example call Eugene Terre’Blanche crazy, but batshi, yes.
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Date: 2010-06-17 02:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-06-17 03:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-17 03:16 pm (UTC)I'm wagering the report is including the length of the hilt in its estimate.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-17 03:17 pm (UTC)#1: You're not going to get bin Laden that way.
#2: Your machete-wielding psycho is demonstrably *batshit insane*, and pretty much guaranteed to only kill innocent people, if he kills anyone at all, while on his demonstrably batshit quest.
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Date: 2010-06-17 04:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-17 05:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-17 07:56 pm (UTC)Then I realised that they're probably trying to show how evil his by demonstrating that he's a reader, not a burner.
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Date: 2010-06-17 08:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-18 01:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-18 03:19 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-18 03:24 am (UTC)On Swords and Sizes
Date: 2010-06-18 08:52 am (UTC)Anyhow, 40" is not a "damn big sword", though anything longer than a gladius probably looks like a "damn big sword" when you're looking at the pointy end. (The guy who attacked me with a baseball bat later described my sword as "four to six feet long"; if he thought it could maybe be 72" then I guess it made an impression.[*]) 40" is a "reasonably large sword" -- assuming it's overall length, it sounds about right for the longswords I see. I also see a whole lot in the 36" range, which always look okay in the rack but feel way too short when I pick them up. Shorter than 36" and it starts looking wrong to me. A gladius looks right hanging from the belt of a Roman re-enactor, but as soon as it's in someone's hand, I start wondering where the rest of it went.
The largest sword I've swung was an eighty inch greatsword, copied very precisely from a museum piece (and shockingly well-balanced -- when used two-handed, as designed, it was surprisingly maneuverable; one-handed, I could hold it steady and swing it (and I'm not especially strong), but would need both hands (and time to learn a two-handed-sword fighting style) to fight effectively with it). That is a "damn big sword". Designed for defense of battlements, I'm told: sweeping besieging forces from their ladders. Significantly smaller than that and still noticeably longer than mine would be most of the other two-handers I've seen, including most of the Claymores, any of which I could reasonably see calling "damn big swords".
Admittedly, I don't know as much about sword sizes and shapes popular in Pakistan in particular, so maybe it's big for the region ... but I still wouldn't call it a "damn big sword".
[*] Enough of an impression that he stopped when he saw it and I didn't have to swing it that time. The time I did have to do more than show it, I was indoors, where the length was a hindrance, but it still enabled me to chase a larger-than-me attacker out of my house. (Whereupon he called me mean and stingy for not offering him a Band-Aid for the cut he got during our scuffle. I still wonder what drug he was on.)
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Date: 2010-06-18 02:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2010-06-19 01:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-19 01:28 am (UTC)(Seriously, even the original reports included that he was carrying a book of magic spells and thought God was going to guide him. What *more* do you need to call "crazy person"?)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-19 01:42 am (UTC)Batshit often doesn't in my view only to these disablites.
Look I am crazy, I think people are following me, and plotting against me.
I wouldn't for example call Eugene Terre’Blanche crazy, but batshi, yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-19 01:43 am (UTC)