Whats up with these redneck taxi drivers?

OK I know that I shouldn't be judging the US on the basis of the places in the States that I've visited (mostly just California and Nevada) but its really fun to be judgmental without looking at other people's perspectives. On that note....

Seriously where do these rednecks come from? Chris and I were in a cab from McCarran Airport into Las Vegas last week and I really don't know how the subject of assault rifles came up but it did. Chris has been known to dabble in the odd bit of gunplay so he did manage to join in somewhat in this conversation, but it turned out our cabbie was a fully paid up member of the Las Vegas Militia.

Oh. My. God.

This guy started ranting about his latest acquisitions: an M-52-blah-16-Super-Bang-Bang-Whatever. Apparently this thing can fire a bullet a mile and a half (is that a good thing?) and this fellow was preparing for when the 'race wars' started (again, WTF??) so he could sit on the roof of his house and shoot people that approached. And this guy was totally deadpan.

Was probably a good time to pay my fare and jump out of the cab.

And *then* catching a cab back to the airport at the end of the week I had a nice fellow who started telling me about the coronary bypass he had booked for the following week. I was beginning to feel sorry for the guy when he told me that when he found out the surgeon that was assigned to do the procedure on him was a 'foreigner', he subsequently refused to let this doctor perform this life saving operation on him. Apparently 'the Indians' have no value on human life (according to a History Channel programme he once saw). Until this man had an 'Merican willing to perform this operation on him, the cabbie would rather die.

Again, wow.

Suffice to say I'm pretty glad to be back in little ol' Wellington.