[TheForge] OT politics religion and opinions

[Ries Niemi]

Opinions are like- well we all know how that ends. But everybody on 
this list feels their own opinion is right, and everybody else is wrong.
Personally, I am no liberal- more like a capitalist anarchist 
freemarket social democrat sh*t disturber.
My ancestors were not christians- I am descended from Sami's in the 
north of Finland- drunken reindeer rustlers, pagan barbarians who 
believed the world was made by a Blacksmith. I tend to go with that 
theory as being as likely as any.
So my religious beliefs are about as on topic as you can get on a 
blacksmithing forum.

But whatever my beliefs or opinions, a lot of you arent gonna agree 
with me. And vice versa. So I am gonna continue to say whatsoever I 
feel like, and if it offends you, tough luck.
I am not gonna intentionally slander anyone, or try to offend, but I 
aint gonna hold back either.
If you dont wanna read a post, delete it.
Are your beliefs are so fragile you are afraid of them being polluted 
by my rants?
I am bombarded by right wing christian viewpoints all the time on the 
radio, tv, newspapers, internet and in person. Somehow they havent 
changed my mind, or made me have a temper tantrum. I just accept that 
not everyone agrees with me, and learn what I can from them anyway.

Some of the guys on this list I have learned a lot from are probably 
not in agreement with me on who to vote for for president. (My choice 
was Hunter S. Thompson)
But I can still learn from them, both on and off topic.

As far as the Rumsfield thing- what interests me about that topic is 
precisely the metalworking aspect of it- as a metalworker, I know 
exactly what is required to armor a vehicle, how to do it, and roughly 
what it would cost. So the political reasons it isnt getting done are 
pretty obvious to me. I know that improvisation on the battlefield has 
occurred since the beginning of time. In fact, it is a subject I often 
study- I just read an interesting book written by a WW2 tank repairman, 
who followed the tanks from Normandy to Berlin, fixing them as they 
went, with almost no tools. Great stuff.

ries