This is the same difference as a broadsword trying to slice through a pillow and a sabre trying to cut through wood.

I'd like to see how Aksel would do on the racetrack.

Darn animator drawing a sabre instead of a broadsword!

PS: Awesome story! Definitely needs a movie!

*promote custom broadswords on public transport

I agree with you most of the way. I have nothing against gun owners or people having guns in a responsible way. It seems there's a definition question about what is "a responsible way" though -- I don't think being able to carry weapons in public is a responsible way. Sure, taking them to a gun range in a secure case or firing on your private property (as long as the projectiles don't leave your property when you shoot) is just fine by me. Even in certain areas you should be able to carry it for protection from wild life (this does not mean the bronx..). I'm cool with you having a rifle with you in a place where you could reasonably run into a bear or mountain lion.

If you have a proper permit, you can even be allowed to hunt for deer or some stuff like that.

These are all reasonable to me.

Carrying a pistol concealed or otherwise in a city seems reckless and dangerous to me. If nothing else, you can scare other people into doing things they should not do - since they may not have proper gun training. It's the same reason you don't run around with a broadsword in public - a gun is basically, point, click, dead. That tend to make people antsy.

I have a fantasy where political battles fought are between a group of compassionate, well informed people with reasoned arguments that they actually understand. But also with broadswords.....

fixed!
In reply to this comment by lavoll:
*dead

The army is a broadsword, not a scalpel.

Thank you KP! I love both those songs!

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
*promote

I will take power, carve out the cancerous elements with a broadsword and use Videosift to invade other videosites, and in the end create a grand Video Empire the likes of which the world has never seen!

This is the new katana vs. broadsword or pirates vs. ninja debate! I love it! Fascinating stuff!

Broadsword was far cheaper and easier to make with the same cutting power and therefore far more effective as a military weapon.

Katana, finest sword ever made. Broadswords and their ilk are too brutal, and thought the curve helps in slicing a scimitar just doesn't have the same... grace when it cuts through the air.

I remember the last competition I was in, just holding my combat steel broadswords and looking at any and all wushu blades. Those things are practically made of aluminum foil; they're so light, most divisions didn't allow weapons forms with wushu weapons, and a good thing too. Swinging around twin 5 pound swords, then stopping on a dime better not be compared to wiggling a sword lighter than a cardboard cutout. I guess they do serve their purpose of being light and weak, for fancy stuff, though. But the worst wound you would get if fighting against that would be a deep papercut, maybe; it would probably just slap you a bit.

The legendary accounting pirates of The Crimson Permanent Assurance, directed by Terry Gilliam from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (costing £1 million, most of its budget!):

'In the bleak days of 1983, the Crimson Permanent Assurance, an accountancy staffed by elderly workers much like a slave ship, has been taken over by efficiency-minded corporate types. When they sack an employee, there's an uprising, and the building is unleashed from its moorings to sail across the (dry) ocean and take on the financial centers of the world, starting with an all-out attack on the large skyscraper housing The Very Big Corporation of America, complete with filing-cabinet cannons, ceiling-fan broadswords, and paper-spindle short-swords.'

There can be only one, James.

*looks fierce, swings broadsword, falls over*

It *sucks* being the short chick ...