Originally Posted by
W.R.Buchanan
Guys: may I interject some of my thoughts on BS here? And these thoughts are not directed any one specific person or group of people.
Brian Williams committed career suicide recently by telling tall tales that were easily debunked. He violated the first rule of public life,,," They always find out!" with todays internet, they usually find out faster!
I learned early on from the likes of Cassius Clay that if you open your mouth you should be able to back it up, surprisingly he always did back up his mouth, much to the chagrin of many people who didn't like him. After all it was the 60's and he was a mouthy black guy?
Everybody embellishes to some degree, however if you go more than about 10% you open yourself to undo scrutiny. I have found it is easier to just try to keep exaggeration to a minimum and used for entertainment purposes at most. You don't ever exaggerate anything that can easily be called out as BS! That is just plain stupid as it calls into question your Personal Credibility.
Credibility is one of your most valuable commodities at a site like this and in life in general. Once that goes you will have problems getting anyone to believe anything you say.
See; Brian Williams! He's done, and the smart money is saying that he is going to lose about $7.5 million of his $10 million dollar contract as a result of, "Believing his own BS!" ,,, and that's in addition to losing his "credibility" which is the most valuable tool in his business. He will never be able to make a living as a journalist again.
Yes, Brian's main crime was that he started believing his own BS! Normally Psych's call this "Delusional," but in reality it is the classic example of "Liberal Insanity." He actually thought that he was in those situations that he had dubbed into his memory. He was no longer able to separate Fact from Fiction, and/or,, he thought that no one would ever call BS. Maybe he thought they were "lies that were told so many times they become the truth?"
I have stories I can tell from the Viet Nam era that are pretty entertaining and in part are completely factual, but in some cases they are actually composites of multiple stories from multiple sources that I have ran across over my lifetime and my time there. I can tell a good story!
I can easily install myself into those stories in the "first person" and depending on the level of intoxication have told some very tall tales all of which directly happened to me at one time or another. Some were actually true to some degree,,, but none could be disputed or dismissed as Pure BS simply because nobody could actually trace the story any further back than my mouth. Simply put,,, "If you weren't there you can't call BS!"
However in my own defense ,,, I know which are which! and I can separate fiction from reality!
Another point:
If you have hard evidence of your assertions then your word should stand as fact.
For this reason I post a lot of pictures of what I am talking about, trying to make clear exactly what I am talking about so others can understand fully and use what I talk about.
One last point: If I say something, and it is proven to be wrong,,, I admit that I was wrong! Immediately!
I've done it many times here.
I have also found,,, that if you really think you know what is going on,,, You're probably FOS!
Once again this post is not directed at anyone personally but more a reminder that we all have to do our best to relate our knowledge in the most accurate manner possible.
Some of you might remember I started a thread on the Rimfire forum about Dave Scovill of Handloader Magazine purporting a 3/8" 100 yard 5 shot group from a Winchester M69 .22LR. We all pretty much called BS,,,
Well,,, I asked his wife about it at the SHOT Show, and she said it is on display on the wall of his office.
Just sayin',,, ya never know when someone really can back it up.
Another installment of my .02.
Randy