Yep. I really pissed off my relatives years ago when my daughter and I went to Christmas at their house. I brought every kid two things, a flashlight for reading in bed and a box of clay. The kids and I sat around for hours playing with the clay while the sparkly toys just sat there.

The car packing came after the Legos would be my bet.

It's both. When I ran the stunt show I was consuming around 3K calories a day. Now that I don't, I don't. Even if you're consuming 2K a day, if you don't leave you're chair, you will put on weight. If you reduce your intake, you may not be overweight, but you'll certainly be weak. Just as bad.

The bricks alone are very easy to find.

That was humor, not a serious statement.

None of these are mutually exclusive. We should be doing all. Physical safety without physical defense is an oxymoron.

Actually, I would have used the murder of that poor woman in DC by the police, et al. Over a hundred shots and she was unarmed and helpless in a car. Only one instance of police killing people for no reason and then hiding behind the badge of authority - and getting away with it.

Mobs are raised by words. Mobs do not utilize the judicial system. Words can kill with some immediacy.

The second amendment is not there to allow you to protect yourself from another person, it is there to allow you to protect yourself from that government with it's standing army and militarized police force.

"owning a gun is more of a threat to the gun owner and his family" - This is patently false.

As someone who has spent a lot of time with swords, knives and staves, no. I would much rather have a pistol.

Harmless, round shaft? Not on an epee. It has a V cross-section and I can split your flesh with a fast dragging slash which will arrive a lot sooner than the sword will. As for your example of epee vs sword, there's a rather famous duel fought over that exact claim. The fencer slashed the hell out of the sabre bearer. It's the man, not the particular weapon.

There's no safe place to stab someone either.

As for range and projectile lethality, you are correct. The grenade however, has no place in this discussion. It's not defensive at all.

Remember, Reno said she couldn't remember who made the claims. The person in charge of that horrid fiasco couldn't even recall who made the claims. Zero credibility.

One ton of feathers, regardless if dropped one at a time, will smother and crush you. If it doesn't fall in a pile? Wonderful. Now you have forty-thousand square miles of fiber to clean up.

It is incumbent upon those who propose a technology to downplay the dangers. It is incumbent upon everyone else to point our their flawed logic.

What's needed is a technology to blur the camera's picture.

Anyone answering a question of this nature online is being foolish. AC, moniker or not.

IRS tax policy has nothing to do with computer usefulness. It's office equipment, not simply PCs.