Dan - your last post is maybe just a little hypocritical?
<snip>
Where did I say it was safe in any post? I didn't. Its not. But its stupid to get lathered up because it requires protective clothing. People SHOULD have protective clothing to handle gasoline but it would PO too large a segment of the electorate so they have not gotten that far...yet....
So far as commenting on people still killing themselves despite of warnings. Once working as a professional in the field I told a customer "do not use this powder in the cartridges for your rifle". Guess what he did? He did EXACTLY as I told him not to and blew a Sharps reproduction to FRAGMENTS he broke every major part in front of the hammer but the breechblock. This takes some doing since 30-06 level pressures cause no problem. He survived uninjured since he was shooting off the bench.
This and other witnessed stupidities that convince me that a segment of the population is simply too dumb to live. So they need to be protected and to protect them we all suffer.
I just get tired of hearing how dangerous everything is.
Every thing anyone does seems to be bad for them, their neighbors, some toad that only lives on 2 square yards in some remote spot and in order to prevent it from being endangered life as we know it must stop in a 50 mile radius or it promotes global warming, the current "lets worry and live in a mud hut to protect the world" craze. In the 1970s it was global COOLING, a new ice age we were supposed to worry about.
I was trying to point out that life is dangerous.
Danger is relative. You might damage or kill yourself with nitric acid, you could be incinerated putting fuel in your lawn mower, you could slip on the ice breaking a leg or your head.
I would a $#*! of a lot rather make nitric acid stain than uncover and destroy enemy anti-tank mines and yes I have done both. Its relative. Getting caught away from home and having the roads glaze over with ice is another thing I don't like much. But I driven on ice for hundreds of miles at a time and I am still here.
So if you never do anything more dangerous than drink a chocolate soda then handling a container of acid might be worrisome. Irrational fear (as opposed to respect) promotes accidents I don't worry about it but I take precautions. I probably should have mentioned the ferric nitrate as an alternative but he wanted to
do it the old way.There is no warranty that when you are born that you will not have some accident or contract some ailment that kills you before the average life span of your generation. Life is not fair or safe.
I guess I am just fed up with big brother looking over my shoulder so as to make me "safe".
One result of this loathsome intrusion into my life is that I cannot now buy BP within 90 miles of my house or easily buy even potassium nitrate for heat treating or coloring parts I don't even know where to look now, used to buy it at the Drug Store. A few years ago I could buy either within a 5-10 minute walk of my house, funny I don't feel a !@*%&@ bit safer now than then. If anything I am less safe.
A passage from a well known document from our past:
"He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."
Now think IRS, BATF, OSHA, EPA, etc, etc. The primary goal of these is to make sure they have work to do. So the taxes will never be properly paid, blackpowder, firearms etc must be clamped down on, warehouses must change the height of safety chains every few months (depending on the inspector) and the planet/water/air will NEVER be clean enough.
This is part of why I get a testy about worry about things that really are only dangerous when handled carelessly.
If I have offended anyone I apologise, it is not my intent.
My wife wants ice cream. Yes, its dangerous too just check with the AMA or the Heart Assoc. But relatively its pretty safe.
Dan
