Uruguay are at War with Australia!!

quote:

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Originally posted by Silver Cheetah:



That's a bit rich, coming from a bloke who lives in the good old US of A, where it's LEGAL to walk around toting a big weapon with which to retaliate should an innocent passerby happen to fart in your general direction

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Yorick lives in the U.S?

[Davros]

Yorick sounds like a global traveller - he has spent time in the US, but I believe he is in OZ at present. Sounds like he will be returning sometime son though.

Looking forward to Cheetah's next response on this thread - looks like a few other people (ie not Hugh) have nibbled on her bait.

[Silver Cheetah]

quote:

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Originally posted by Lord of Alcohol:


Maybe you should actually visit the US before you proclaim us all murderers eh?

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Hehe, bin to New York (love it! some dead sexy guys... ) Las Vegas, Miami, Florida Keys..... it's a good start... Next trip hopefully will get to spend some time in California. Also hoping to visit Pumpkintown and Snohomish, catch up with Dio and Absynthe. New Orleans also high on my list of places to go in search of excitement, adventure and really wild things...

BTW, oh lordy one, your reply seems a tad overreacting. Called you all murderers - hmm... have searched my post with fine tooth comb, and find no evidence of same.

The point I was making (in a relatively light hearted way) is that there are plenty of pychos in the US. Due to your 'easy' gun laws, it's dead easy for said psychos to get hold of weapons to kill people with. It's been said that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Yeah, but guns don't half help.....

As far as I know, in 1998 a computerised national instant check system came in around the whole gun buying thing (NICS) which takes just minutes to okay a person for gun possession. I don't know what the criteria are for being allowed to possess a gun...

...however, before you all start jumping down my throat - please note that there are a LOT of loopholes in gun buying and selling... So-called 'Private collectors' can buy and sell guns without background checks at gun shows, flea markets etc. These dubious dealers are a big source of guns for illegal users, including kids.

Private gun owners do not have to keep records with respect to whom they sell their guns, nor do they have to inform the police. Anyone can purchase handguns or assault pistols in 'private' transactions from 'private' individuals, including 'private collectors'.

Privately owned firearms in the US:

192 million, 65 million of which are handguns. 10,744 were murdered with firearms in 1996. Handguns were used in 54 per cent of all murders.

Believe Clinton tried to tighten gun laws, but Congress wouldn't play. He wanted to raise the legal age for handgun possession to 21, and tried to close the loopholes I've described above.

But the powerful gun lobby, (including the National Rifle Association) managed to foil these attempts, spending over $1 million dollars to get the proposed legislation watered down.

Personally, I'm glad I live in a country where possession of a gun is somewhat harder to achieve. I don't know anyone who owns a gun, and personally, I'm glad of it.

[Memnoch]

quote:

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Originally posted by Davros:

I saw the reception that Australia gave Uruguay at the airport (flag waving, cheering fans, extremely friendly) and contrast it with the jostling and spitting. Sure their team got booed during the match by a capacity crowd, but I think the garauntee was always there that it would be a two way street in the return leg.

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Fellas, to be fair, those people waving flags at Melbourne airport were Uruguayan Australians, of course they would be waving flags. And those louts at the airport appeared to be paid activists hired by some shady gamblers who had bet big money on Uruguay qualifying. It was disgraceful, yes, but I think that the media hyped it up to the extreme. I think that everytime an Aussie team gets mistreated overseas (the Austin Healey thing, the Lleyton Hewitt US Open comment thing, the Uruguay thing, etc) the media here are all up in arms. Let the Aussies get their revenge on the field is what I say.

Nevertheless, never let it be said that people in that part of the world don't take their soccer seriously. In his book The Soccer War (Granta Books), Polish foreign correspondent Ryszard Kapuscinski detailed the war that broke out between the tiny neighbouring countries of El Salvador and Honduras over a qualifying game for, wouldn't you know it, the World Cup! [img]graemlins/wow.gif[/img]

The first in the three-match series took place in Honduras in 1969. After what was apparently the usual form in these things, the visitors had a wretched time the night before the game when it seemed half of Honduras circled their hotel from dusk to dawn, blowing horns, whistles and setting off fireworks. Sure enough, the visitors lined up the next day red-eyed and edgy, and lost the game 1-0. (Is this sounding familiar?)

Back home in El Salvador, an 18-year-old girl by the name of Amelia Bolanios went straight from the TV set to her father's study, got his gun, and shot herself in the heart. The El Nacional newspaper reported the next day that "the young girl could not bear to see her fatherland brought to its knees". The girl was instantly all but deified, accorded a nationally televised funeral with army honour guard and El Salvador's flag draped over her coffin.

For the return game, the visiting Hondurans had to be escorted to the ground in armoured cars. The route to the stadium was apparently lined with screaming people holding up portraits of their national heroine and the only way the Hondurans could actually get out onto the ground was behind a shield of the Salvadoran Guardia Nacional holding sub-machine guns.

Under such conditions, the Honduran players did not, understandably, have their minds on the game. They had their minds on getting out alive! Perhaps what saved them was a 3-0 loss.

Some of their supporters who had made the journey from Honduras were not so lucky and while many were kicked and beaten, two of them died. One hundred-and-fifty cars were burnt and those survivors who could, scurried back to the border in whatever wheels they could get. The border was closed only hours after the final whistle. On dusk the next day, a plane flew over the Honduran capital and dropped a bomb.

And it was on!! For the next 100 hours it raged, with the air forces of both countries bombing strategic targets, while their land forces skirmished across each others' borders and 6,000 people were killed in the process, until at last they came to an extremely uneasy truce. The deciding game of the series was held on neutral ground, in Mexico (El Salvador won, 3-2). The Honduran fans were placed on one side of the stadium, the Salvadoran fans on the other, and down the middle sat 5,000 police.

In short, whatever treatment our blokes received when they arrived in Montevideo, it could have been a lot worse!

[Yorick]

Great post Memnoch. Fantastic bro. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Davros, well the same continent is nearer than us eh?

Cheetah, I'd have thought the extreme generalisation, the "shouting" (bold type) and the grinning smilie would have indicated the jocularly exadurated nature of the last sentance. It appears it was lost on you however.

Oh and I'm in Singapore at the moment. I haven't been in America for about three weeks and won't be back till after Christmas at least.
Besides, I don't remember saying I was pro-gun. I am Australian and we have banned gun ownership remember?

However I have two very good friends in Tennasee who own guns responsibly (are you reading guys????) and only heard of about two shootings in the U.S. in the five months I was there. (One in Nashville, one in New York)


Regarding Escobar, I remember the goal and his look of utter dismay.
He wasn't the goalie, he was defending the goal and it shot in off his boot.

He went flat on his back distraught. This picture was in my mind when I later heard he'd been shot on his return home. The world cup (in the USA) was still going!

[Davros]

The dream is shattered for another 4 years - Uruguay win 3-0 .
Last goal scored with everyone thrown forward - and oh the agony of a Kewell cross in the 88th minute with the goal keeper stranded and 3 strikers in the box. In all, I think their keeper was man of the match - some things it seems are just not meant to be.

Time to fashion the black armbands and face the empty day - a bit of respect please, for we are in national mourning.

[Yorick]

I'm seriously upset Davros.

Another four years.

Give me a break. We win Oceania every time, and.. ah what the hell.

[Davros]

You're seriously upset Yorick - where the hell am I gunna buy a beer at 05:00 am on a Monday morning!!!!!

[Yorick]

Hey..... we're on the same timezone! Singapore an Perth! Wow. It's 5:08 as I'm typing, according to this computer clock. The one on the wall says 5:15.

Well there you go.

Now, where am I going to buy a beer at 5am? At the service station. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

One good thing about not being in Oz, is the accessibility of alcohol. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Still, I haven't been to bed I'm going to go in a tic. Waaaaay past when I should've hit the sack

[Davros]

Yup Yorick - same time zone - no need to change the watch when flying into Changi. Better get some shut-eye dude, or don't you work for a living??