The German pronunciation sounds like a bad word in English, minor detail, which radio talk show hosts goof on:
Apparently, Cincinnati celebrates Schützenfest to commemorate the actions of a marksman who saved village children from the attack of wild animals:
The festival is hosted by the Kolping Society. In case you are like myself and have no idea who or what a Kolping is/was, he is the patron saint of families:
Saint of Day- Blessed Adolph Kolping(1813-1865)-Supporter and Minister of workers and sanctification of family. Founded Kolping Society.
— St Paul Catholic (@StPaulTampa) December 10, 2014
Festivities run all weekend and culminate on Sunday with the grand marksmanship competition:
Such firearm competition go back at least to 1427 from Lee, Kay, Marshall Lee, Kate Greenaway, and Eugène Grasset. The Illuminated Book of Days. New York: Putnam, 1979. Print. asserts that the first gun shooting competition was in Germany with an award of fifteen pairs of trousers.
As snopes confirms, gun ownership is mandatory in Switzerland: Claim: Switzerland issues firearms to adult men and provides training in their use. TRUE
Helena Bachmann "Time" Dec. 20, 2012 article "The Swiss Difference: A Gun Culture That Works: The country had one mass shooting in 2001, but a resulting anti-gun referendum failed to pass. The Swiss will not give up the gun. Can their system work in the U.S.?
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| Swiss marksmen shoot at targets over 300 m away during an annual shooting-skills exercise near Bern |
points out the Swiss version of the NRA is named in honor of William Tell:
"'We will never change our attitude about the responsible use of weapons by law-abiding citizens,' says Hermann Suter, vice president of Pro-Tell, the country’s gun lobby, named after legendary apple shooter William Tell, who used a crossbow to target enemies long before firearms were invented."William Tell is the guy for whom Rossini composed the famous cartoon accompaniment, from "The President's Own" U.S. Marine Band:
From edgelee84 upload: Mickey Mouse and Friends - The Band Concert (1935): "The orchestra is performing the William Tell overture, but then Donald Duck (in his third appearance in a Mickey cartoon) appears selling ice-cream. Uninvited, Donald takes out his flute and distracts the band into playing Turkey in the Straw."
Ms. Helena Bachmann, presumably no relation to patriotic former Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann, seems to passive aggressively slam the USA by stating citizens of Switzerland are patriotic:
"Unlike some other heavily armed nations, Switzerland’s gun ownership is deeply rooted in a sense of patriotic duty and national identity. "
After pointing out that Switzerland only trails the US, Yemen, and Serbia in guns per capita:
"Switzerland trails behind only the U.S, Yemen and Serbia in the number of guns per capita; between 2.3 million and 4.5 million military and private firearms are estimated to be in circulation in a country of only 8 million people. Yet, despite the prevalence of guns, the violent-crime rate is low: government figures show about 0.5 gun homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010. By comparison, the U.S rate in the same year was about 5 firearm killings per 100,000 people, according to a 2011 U.N. report."
Ms. Helena seems to imply that patriotic European Swiss can be trusted to own guns vs their evil redneck American counterparts. Of course, I could be inferring more than she was implying, but I suspect she's an evil big government progressive leftist statist who doesn't respect individual civil liberties.
Of course, the BBC echoes leftist American sentiments, from Emma Jane Kirby 11 February 2013 BBC article Switzerland guns: Living with firearms the Swiss way point out how USA has twice per capita number of firearms as second leading country:
Mixing metaphors, citing the Swiss example might be a double edged sword for US advocates of gun rights because gun ownership is only only tolerated under the aegis of citizens supporting a state militia versus protecting each citizen's individual liberty:
"All healthy Swiss men aged between 18 and 34 are obliged to do military service and all are issued with assault rifles or pistols which they are supposed to keep at home.
Twenty years ago the Swiss militia was a sizeable force of around 600,000 soldiers. Today it is only a third of that size but until recently most former soldiers used to keep their guns after they had completed their military duties, leading to lots of weapons being stored in the attics or cupboards of private Swiss households."
I was aware there was a statue, but was unaware there was an entire Minute Man National Park:
"The decade-long political feud between the British government and the American colonists, determined to retain their rights as British subjects, came to a devastating climax as British regulars clashed with colonial militia and minute men on April 19, 1775 at Lexington, Concord's North Bridge and on the long, bloody road back to Boston. The fighting that began that day soon grew into a war for independence that lasted more than eight years."
So, if Americans only did what our national government told us to do, we'd all be speaking English instead of American today. Hugh Laurie: the British slang vs the American on Ellen
The most amusing youtube comment that may or may not be real was a person pointing out Ellen sounds like Dory in Finding Nemo:
Of course, as the NRA reminds us, Obama hates the 2nd Amendment and pretty much the rest of the US Constitution, and all uppity citizens who wish to protect their God given rights enshrined therein:
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