What would you do?

[Van Canna]

..about letting the beast loose....

[Jason Rees]

There's nothing noble or ignoble about dying. It just is. What you do with your last moments, whether they be spent in bed, surrounded by family, or on the street, bleeding out, is what counts. This man meant well, but he died needlessly.

[Stryke]

Cry HAVOC and let slip the dogs of war !!!!

[Van Canna]

First... you need to fine-tune your emotional intelligence. You need to be able to read people. With time, your instincts will tell you the difference between the common punk and the really scary sociopath.

But you really don't want to be pinging every Tom, Dick, and Harry to learn those lessons. Sometimes it's best to keep the mouth shut.

True.

Yet _ we may mean well...we may have a sheepdog instinct...we 'lose it' or whatever...but if we cause other innocent people to die or get hurt because of our well intentioned course of action...we'll never live it down.

The stories that I have from my investigations of the many casualties...would feel a thick book...

Like the one when in a nightclub...some hero went to the defense of a 'damsel in distress' being groped on the dance floor...punching and tossing the guy out.

30 minutes later...the 'groper' comes back 'groping' a .45 pistol...and starts shooting at people dancing on the floor.

3 dead.

Now just imagine what that 'hero' bought into.

[Van Canna]

Or the one down Marshfield way...when some crazy bikers entered a family restaurant demanding to be served liquor...

The bartender 'smart mouthed' them and told them to leave.

Sure enough they came back 20 minutes later with baseball bats and started to attack the dining patrons, families out for a Sunday meal...

One poor guy was killed by a bat to the head.

After we paid the policy limit on the wrongful death suit...the place went out of business.

[Bill Glasheen]

The stories that I have from my investigations of the many casualties...would feel a thick book...

Like the one when in a nightclub...some hero went to the defense of a 'damsel in distress' being groped on the dance floor...punching and tossing the guy out.

30 minutes later...the 'groper' comes back 'groping' a .45 pistol...

Van

This is why I don't go to nightclubs any more.

I know myself. When I see a man grope a woman in one of these places, I experience temporary insanity.

As a 145-pound, just-turned-17-year-old, 6 foot, cross country running kid who went to college a year early, I brought a date into a small college dance. I walked in the door, and a line of jocks were there drinking beer and inspecting the females going in and out. As we walked by, the captain of the basketball team grabbed my date's behind in a way that made her shriek and jump a foot. Next thing I know - before my conscious brain entered the picture - I had grabbed this tall jock and slammed him against the wall. It had to have been the bravest - and the most stupid - thing I've done in my life. But the thing is, "I" didn't do that - if that makes sense.

FWIW the entire line of jocks froze, except for a few who were laughing at their friend who had just been punked.

It's happened too many times, and my instantaneous rage from within is too predictable. My solution? I don't go there any more. I don't go where alcohol and mating rituals are going on.

That is smart self-defense - for me.

- Bill

P.S. I accomplished the above feat without a single day of martial arts training. It's not about the technique. And it's not something I'm particularly proud of.

[Van Canna]

I don't blame you at all, Bill. There is an instinctive 'beast' there...dormant...that can devour others...and... THE SELF...this is what scares me as it does you and for good reasons as you point out.