The bottom line is, unless you're an American and you've been in the American military (post 9/11) you could NOT understand. Sorry, but you won't.

__________________
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: "WOW! WHAT A RIDE!!"

2007 M6
2018 Chevy 2500HD Diesel Alaskan Edition
2011 X5 35d
1972 Chevy K20 4X4
1972 Ford F-600
1959 Chevy Viking 60 Dump Truck
2015 CanAm Outlander XT 1000

Lam, I don't know you and maybe the tone you set in your posts isn't indicative of your personality but you do seem to reinforce the stereotype of American beligerance.

No of course not being concerned for your son is natural and positive but there is a difference between concern and fanaticism. In addition to being taught to be aware of your surroundings does the military not teach you to also respect them? Thinking you will need a firearm on your vacation in Europe seems a little disrespectful to me.



OK now you have gone too far. As a Scot, I find your ignorance on our culture and our contributions to the world offensive, yet not at all unexpected.

Again completely over the top and not at all accurate. Who the hell says that picking up a rifle and killing people is meaningful. And even if it were meaningful , is it the ONLY meaningful thing a person can do for the world.

I didn't mean for my reply to this post to turn into a personal attack. Go back and read my original response it was good natured ribbing, but since you feel the need to start bashing people to defend what was arguably one of the most naive questions ever posted , well...........

We are not going to the UK

__________________
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: "WOW! WHAT A RIDE!!"

2007 M6
2018 Chevy 2500HD Diesel Alaskan Edition
2011 X5 35d
1972 Chevy K20 4X4
1972 Ford F-600
1959 Chevy Viking 60 Dump Truck
2015 CanAm Outlander XT 1000

Here in America thousands of law abiding people carry guns in their cars every day during vacations, trips to the grocery store or even commutes to work. How is it disrespectful to carry a gun in my car? I'm not waving it around! You wouldn't understand, because you don't enjoy the freedoms I do.

You don't have to "pick up a rifle and kill people" to make a difference in the fight against terrorism. There are many very important careers in the military that play a vital role in fighting these animals.

I didn't "start bashing people" until she bashed me. I didn't participate in any personnal attacks until I was attacked. I didn't even "attack" you but now you "attacked" me. I made a comment about your country, you think I don't hear you people "attacking" my country all the time. This country has made more sacrifices in the fight against terrorism than ALL other countries COMBINED. I've missed my sons birthdays, school events and countless holidays because I & thousands made the sacrifices to fight these terrorists to help all countries including yours. I wouldn't expect non-military foreigners to be understanding because "FOR THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR IT, FREEDOM HAS A FLAVOR THE PROTECTED WILL NEVER KNOW"!!!

__________________
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: "WOW! WHAT A RIDE!!"

2007 M6
2018 Chevy 2500HD Diesel Alaskan Edition
2011 X5 35d
1972 Chevy K20 4X4
1972 Ford F-600
1959 Chevy Viking 60 Dump Truck
2015 CanAm Outlander XT 1000

I'm done, not looking at this thread any more. If this was a military site I know the reaction would be much different. i'm leaving this thread with this...

…Dedicated to SSgt James M Ray, who’s no longer MIA…. WELCOME HOME, SON



War is war and war is hell
Clever epithets writers may use
It’s the people of war we shall always dismiss
The ones we will always abuse.

WWI was the battle to end all wars
WWII, the madman who made us fret
Korea, a skirmish that no one remembers
And Nam, that no one can forget.

But there’s always Somolia, Bosnia, Kuwait,
Haiti and of course little Tehran
We’ve had Panama, Lebanon, Sarajevo, Croatia,
Saudi Arabia and annoying Iran.

Leaders of puerile, evil intent
Like Khmer Rouge and Saddam, who are insane
Desert Storm wasn’t enough to settle it down
Hostile situations as these still remain.

WWII ended with celebrations galore
Lavish parties, parades in the street
We patted their backs, welcomed them home
But for Veteran’s this war was no treat.

Vietnam ended, a loud whimper was heard
The political machine had not got its way
No parades for these boys, only spitting and slurs
We figured, Cuz hey, they went, didn’t they?

Somalia a clever trap, Saudi Arabia a brutal rape
Haiti a power hungry need of stakes claimed
Kuwait seemed so short, Sarajevo drags on still
Panama where the wrong humans got blamed.

It matters not which way one may point
The outcome of all this is always the same
For there are never winners and no battle won
When Vets come home, mentally beaten and lame.

It is not the fancy machine that wins the war
Not the uniform of blue, black or tan,
It’s the courage, stamina of our women and men
Which the government usurps when it can.

This is one prevalent issue where my ire gets up
When my need for an Uzi is strong
Brave Veterans were simply doing their jobs
Never EVER tell one what they did there was wrong.

And if you foolishly think for a second
“It’s been years and your war is past!”
You’ve been much too long from a Veteran’s side
Their pain’s a heavy burden, which is vast.

Not only were they once very far from home
Doing a job they were told would win the war
But now they’re abandoned, forgotten as well
Family and friends just don’t give a shit anymore.

It seems to me that it’s been hard enough
To lose your soul just once in your life
But dying again because of a nation’s neglect
No one but Veterans could understand the strife.

Stop pointing fingers, stop placing the blame
Please listen to a Vet when they start to speak
You’ve yet to count up the blessings you have
Of what makes America strong and not weak.

War is war and war is definitely hell
And this saying will always be right
Today stop the ignorance that you possess
And thank God you weren’t required to fight

__________________
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming: "WOW! WHAT A RIDE!!"

2007 M6
2018 Chevy 2500HD Diesel Alaskan Edition
2011 X5 35d
1972 Chevy K20 4X4
1972 Ford F-600
1959 Chevy Viking 60 Dump Truck
2015 CanAm Outlander XT 1000

I know you said you are not looking at this thread anymore, but I also know that human nature will compel you to do so, even if you refrain from responding. That being said here is a few things other than golf the Scots have contributed to the world:

Adhesive postage stamps
These were invented by Scot James Chalmers.
Anaesthetics
James Simpson, an Edinburgh physician, was the first doctor to use anaesthetics to relieve the pain of surgery in the mid 19th Century.
Antisepsis
Joseph Lister, Professor of surgery at Glasgow University, was the first to realize that the high post-operative mortality of his patients was due to the onset of bloodpoisoning (sepsis) caused by micro-organisms.
Agricultural Reaping Machine
Patrick Bell won the prize from the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1790 for a reaping machine - long before the better known machine of Cyrus McCormick patented in 1834.
Latent Heat
Joseph Black (1728 - 1799) Chemist. Professor of Anatomy and Chemistry in Glasgow University (1756) and then Professor of Medicine and Chemistry in Edinburgh (1766). Developed the concept of "Latent Heat" and discovered Carbon Dioxide ("Fixed Air"). Regarded as the Father of Quantitative Chemistry.
Buicks
Buick is the brand name stamped on over 25 million cars in the USA. This car is the named after David Dunbar Buick, a Scot who immigrated to the U.S. in 1856. Buick started out as a plumber at age 15, and is credited with developing a method for bonding enamel to cast iron; a process responsible for our blue bathtubs and pink sinks. But David's passion was the internal combustion engine. In 1899, in the city of Detroit, he formed the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company, manufacturer of gasoline engines. David also patented a carburetor and designed an automobile, but business debts and failed investments prevented him from realizing profits from his inventions. He died, impoverished, in 1929. But General Motors saluted his inventiveness in 1937 when it adopted the Buick name and family crest for its new line of cars.
Colloid Chemistry
Thomas Graham (1805 - 1869) is called the "Father of colloid chemistry" He was born in Glasgow and educated at Glasgow University. He also formulated "Graham's Law" on the diffusion of gases.
Pneumatic Tyres
John Boyd Dunlop patented his pneumatic tyre in 1888. He was a vetinary surgeon, but his interest in inventions led him to develop the tyres for his son's bicycle. He lived long enough to see his invention become the foundation for a huge industry around the world.
Chemical Bonds
Alexander Crum Brown (1838 - 1922) was born in Edinburgh. After studying in London and Leipzig, he returned to the University of Edinburgh in 1863. He held the chair of Chemistry, which now bears his name, until his death. He devised the system of representing chemical compounds in diagrammatic form, with connecting lines representing bonds.
Cure for scurvy
The first person to publish the idea that consuming citrus fruits would prevent scurvy, then a plague on board sailing ships, was an Edinburgh man.
Decimal Point
The notation we use today first appeared in a book called "Descriptio" by the Edinburgh mathematician, John Napier, Laird of Merchiston, in the 1616. He used a decimal point to separate the whole number part from the decimal number part. Known as 'Marvellous Merchiston", he published many other treatises including "Mirifici logarithmorum" (1614) and Rabdologia (1615) on systems of arithmetic using calculation aids known as Napiers Bones. Other achievements include his revolutionary methods for tilling and fertilising soil. Encyclopedia Britannica
Engineering sciences
Just joking! Beam me up, Scotty! Scotland produced a lot of engineers in the last 150 years, though.
Fax Machines
Invented by a blacksmith in Dumfries in the early 19th Century. This was not the same electronic process used today, but was a functional technique. Some years later, Napoleon used a similar process to send messages to his commanders all over France.


Flailing machines
The first successful machine to replace the primitive hand flail for husking grain was invented by millwright Andrew Meikle in 1784. His machine consisted of a drum into which the grain was fed, which rotated inside a curved metal sheet with very small clearance. The husks were rubbed off the grain.
Geosciences
In 1785 the naturalist James Hutton published his theory that the formation of the Earth, its mountains and other geological formations must have taken millions of years.
Halloween
What used to be a quaint and charming way of getting pocket money to buy fireworks for the 5th of November has turned into a mass-marketing of bite-sized snickers bars. But back hundreds of years ago, in Scotland and Northern England, there was no street lighting, and nothing to light your way home in the countryside when it got dark at 4 pm on the cold afternoon of October 31st. People were scared of the ghosts, witches, and evil spirits that rose from their graves, or hell, to wander abroad on the eve of All Hallows (November 1st - you know - Disney showed it in the scary bit near the end of Fantasia). So folk decided it might be possible to escape the notice of these evil beings if they dressed up like a ghost or a witch themselves on Halloween. That's where the tradition came from - wear a disguise so the ghouls will think you're one of them, and you'll get home safely on Halloween.
hypodermic syringes
Iron Bridges
Engineer Thomas Telford is famous for building more than 1200 bridges, many of them using cast iron. Other major achievements of his include the Caledon
Natural ian Canal, the Menai suspension bridge, and the London to Holyhead road. As a road builder he ranked second only to McAdam. Telford founded the Institute of Civil Engineers.
The Kelvin scale of temperature
Named after the scientist, Lord Kelvin (William Thomson), professor at Glasgow University, who was a pioneer in the field of thermodynamics.
Logarithms
logarithms were invented by the Edinburgh mathematician, John Napier, Laird of Merchiston, in the late 1500s. He published many treatises including "Mirifici logarithmorum" (1614) and Rabdologia (1615) on systems of arithmetic using calculation aids known as Napiers Bones.
Maxwell's Equations in Electromagnetism
Nobel prize winning physicist Richard Feynnman said that a thousand years from now the 1860s will be remembered not for the American Civil War which will be a mere footnote in history, but for Maxwell's mathematical description of electromagnetism. James Clerk Maxwell(1831 - 79), who was known as "daftie" Maxwell as a schoolboy at the Edinburgh Academy, became a professor of physics by the age of 21. He created the electromagnetic theory of light, and interpreted Faraday's electromagnetic field mathematically. He correctly predicted the existence of radio waves later confirmed experimentally by Hertz.

Microwave Ovens
Microwave ovens were a direct offshoot of the development of the magnetron in 1940. The magnetron is a device that produces electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength of about 5 inches. Its first application was in radar.
Penicillin
Discovered in 1928 by the bacteriologist . Sir Alexander Fleming. This drug has saved more lives than the number lost in all the wars of history.
Paraffin
James Young was a chemist who made his fortune as the first to market paraffin as a lighting and heating oil.
Hollow-pipe drainage
Sir Hugh Dalrymple (Lord Drummore) (1700 - 1753) Invented hollow-pipe drainage. This innovation allowed the drying of water-logged land, bringing large areas into agricultural production.
Radar Defense System
Physicist, Sir Robert Watson-Watt, was the mind behind the radar network on the coast of England that detected incoming German aircraft in World War II. He had worked on the radio detection of thunderstorms (hazardous to aviators) during World War I. In 1935 he proposed a method for locating aircraft by a radio-pulse technique. The radar system was invaluable to the defense of Britain during the Battle of Britain in 1940. It operated day and night over a range of 40 miles, giving the Royal Air Force information about the height and bearing of German planes.
Refrigerators
James Harrison, who emigrated to Australia from Scotland, invented a cooling system for a brewery in Bendigo, in 1851. He had noticed that ether had a cooling effect on metals, and so he pumped it through pipes. As the ether evaporated it took heat from its surroundings to provide the latent heat of evaporation. His idea was used in the first refrigerated ship, the SS Strathleven, which carried a cargo of meat from Australia to England, a voyage of several months, in 1876. Refrigeration was a major force in the economic development of both Australia and New Zealand.
Planet Neptune
In 1846, the brilliant mathematician, John Adams, calculated where a hitherto undiscovered planet would be based on the anomalous motion of Uranus around the Sun. Unfortunately, his boss would not allow him the use of the university observatory to confirm his prediction, and he was beaten to the post by the French. That planet is Neptune.
Quinine
George Cleghorn (1716 - 1794) was the army surgeon who discovered that quinine bark acted as a cure for Malaria.
The Steam Engine
Invented by James Watt, instrumental in powering the Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century. His engine was not mobile, but was fixed in position. Soon it was being built and used in mining, to pull coal carts up to the pithead. Mine manager, John Blenkinsop, put one of these steam boilers on wheels so that it could carry the coal further. This came to the attention of George Stephenson who was also a mining engineer. Stephenson took the idea a stage further with his invention of the steam locomotive.
The telephone
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh and lived there until his family emigrated to Canada when he was 18. He patented the telephone in 1876 and now there are more than 500 million of them spanning the globe. He revolutionized world communications.
Thermos bottles (Dewars)
Sir James Dewar (1842 - 1923) invented the dewar flask to keep liquids cool in the laboratory. The idea became the domestic thermos flask, which keeps hot liquids hot as well as cold things cold by isolating them from their surroundings, thus reducing the flow of heat. His scientific career was noted for his pioneer work on low temperature physics and vacuum techniques. He was the first to liquify hydrogen.
Television
A photo-mechanical device invented by John Logie Baird in 1922. He set up the first practical television system in the world in 1929, in Britain. In 1935 Baird worked with the German company, Fernseh, to start the world's first 3-day per week television service.
In 1908, another Scot, Alan Campbell-Swinton, outlined the use of the cathode-ray tube for transmission and reception that is used in modern television. This method replaced Baird's in the 1930's.
Tubular steel
Sir William Fairbairn (1789 - 1874) was born in Kelso, in southern Scotland. An engineer, he developed the idea of using tubular steel, which was much stronger than solid steel, as a construction material.
Sociology
Adam Ferguson (1723 - 1816) Born in Logierait, Perthshire, he became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh. He introduced the method of studying humankind in groups and is father of the subject now called "Sociology".
Breech-loading rifle
Patrick Ferguson (1744 - 1780) Born in Pitfour, Aberdeenshire, Ferguson invented the breech-loading rifle, which was capable of firing seven shots per minute. With the help of this weapon, the Americans were defeated at the Battle of Brandywine (1777). He was killed at the Battle of King's Mountain in South Carolina, USA.
Polarization of Light
In 1828, William Nicol discovered polarization of light (the effect that makes polarized sunglasses useful). He stuck two bits of an Iceland spar crystal together and invented the Nicol prism. Iceland spar splits a beam of light into two polarized rays, with the transverse electromagnetic waves vibrating in orthogonal directions in the two beams. If two Nicol prisms were used, when the second one was rotated, one of the polarized light rays coming through would dim and then cut off once it had rotated through 90 degrees.
Whisky
be sure you don't spell this with an 'e' or it's not Scotch.
US Navy
Founded by John Paul Jones, a Scotsman. Read about his exploits in any US history book.
Economics
Adam Smith, author of the book "The Wealth of Nations" was a Scot. This book is the first study and analysis of how commerce and free trade create the wealth of a country.

So there you go not bad for a bunch of skirt wearing golfers eh?

And as for your quote "I wouldn't expect non-military foreigners to be understanding because "FOR THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR IT, FREEDOM HAS A FLAVOR THE PROTECTED WILL NEVER KNOW"!!!" You have used that a few times in the past and to tell you the truth I am getting a little bored with it. It is patronizing, condescending and just your way of getting out of a debate when you find yourself cornered with no inteligent counterpoint to make. It also assumes that the rest of us have no military experience or histories. This is not the case at all, it's just the rest of us are a little better adjusted for life off the battlefield. Anyways I do hope you have a nice vacation with your son, ......peace.

Yeah you'd all be far too busy agreeing with one another and beating your chests to actually stop and think about anything other than the people who are out to get you everywhere you go.

I don't have a military background but I have seen Jurassic Park several times and once planned my escape route from school on the back of a maths book so feel more than qualified to comment !!!

I have also dealt with egotistical idiots and their macho posturing before so i guess I'm over qualified. It's a good job you aren't coming to the UK, there's hell on in London with this group of street terrorists operating in a local cell network run by the Artful Dodger. Police believe that none other than Fagin may be behind this cell, with Bill Sykes operating as his right hand man. Oh the drama !

Disco

Funniest thing I have read all week.

Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus

FYI Allan served in the Gulf first time round when no doubt you were still sucking your thumb.

You know what stay at home.

Infact it must be me I can't get my mind round the way you think. What a big tick you got for yourself.

__________________
http://www.x-trail-uk.co.uk

“Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?”