Guns stay, NRA go away!

I just finished reading the book "Glock" by Paul M. Barrett.  The book is fairly recent (2012), the controversy is not.  Wayyyyy back in the late 80s and early 90s, the very same brouhaha was going around about the new pistol, called the Glock, that everyone wanted banned for various reasons.  Just yesterday I saw one go through an estate auction, for about $600+ dollars (more on this later.)  There was also talk of limiting assault weapons, size of clips, background checks, etc, etc.  Who knew this would all be front page news 20 years later, with pretty much the same arguments?

And you know who's making out the best during all this...the gun manufacturers and dealers!  Back during the time period mentioned above, they couldn't make guns fast enough.  Think that's the case today?  According to a statement in the book, there's probably a gun in private hands for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.  I know there are plenty of people I would rather not see EVER own a gun.  And too many of those people now have conceal/carry permits too!  Doesn't that make you feel safe?

We do have guns in our house.  I'm not a righteous person saying that you shouldn't, or can't.  I'm just saying we need a few safeguards.  The biggest one, in my mind, is background checks.  If you're not a criminal, and have never been a criminal, then why should you worry?  Okay, if you were a criminal, but have proven to society that you're "rehabilitated" (and there are people out there who have done something wrong, but now are totally responsible, yet cannot own a gun) perhaps we can adjust this issue, reasonably.

Getting back to the auction mentioned above, I was talking to another auction goer, and made mention of all the guns available at auction these days, and that the prices tended to be more than retail many times.  He said that was because there are "No background checks!"   Could we have a big enough loophole in our system? 

In defense of background checks, rather recently, there was an incident where a man rammed his car into the wall of a pawn shop because they would not sell him a gun.  Reason being he didn't pass a background check.  Is that the type of person we want owning a gun?  Not me!!! 

Then we have the NRA who now want to arm school teachers?   As if teaching weren't stressful enough, you're gonna have some smart-aleck kid backtalk a teacher, and the teacher is going to crack and...   They'd probably talk about the mental health of the teacher, and how we should now arm the children! 

Why don't they put their millions towards talking about any mental health issues; poor parenting that allows kids to have access to guns; the lack of training with guns?  They used to be a pro-hunting organization, now they're more like a private militia organization.  Their messages don't come across as sympathetic, but more a form of bullying.  Essentially,  if you don't own a gun, you're a dope.

Just shooting my mouth off on Day 229!







 

Gay Marriage makes me laugh!

I stopped writing due to the elections because I was so fed up with politicians, etc, etc.  They're still making the news (those Republicans just can't seem to GET OVER IT!)  But now I have a new cause, so to speak..gay marriage! 

This past week, the supreme court justices are hearing arguments for and against gay marriage.  Since there was audio available, one of my more favored radio programs on NPR, was airing excerpts.   To hear the justices comment on the arguments made by the Anti-gay marriage attorneys was totally laughable.  Those attorneys were so tongue-tied when questioned, I wondered how they got hired in the first place!  I was driving down the road laughing out loud myself!

Then the following day I heard another correspondent talking about how even Justice Scolia was not his usual boisterous self, but more subdued.  It would seem he too was in awe of such ridiculous controversy over a case that probably shouldn't even be looked at by the court in the first place.

Let me say that I am FOR gay marriage.  I was for civil unions too, but if the "spouse" or "partner" or whomever you want to call the second person in a committed relationship cannot get benefits, that would normally be available to heterosexual couples, that's wrong, that's not equality. 

If you're not familiar with the constitution (and I admit, it's not an easy document to digest) Article IV, section 2 of the constitution says:  The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.  The first line of the Equal Rights Amendment says:  Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.

Do we need any more argument on Day 228?

 

I wonder about Sandy Hook too...

Unfortunately just a few days before Christmas we had that awful school shooting known simply as Sandy Hook.  Too many children, and adults dead from a single gunman, who then took his own life, and we'll never know the motivation, although a few family friends have speculated.

The carnage was caused by an assault rifle, a legal assault rifle.  That is to say the owner of said gun purchased it legally.  But it wasn't the shooter.  It was his mother who bought the gun.  Which brings the first question.  Why did a mother, who admitted her son had mental health issues, buy an assault rifle?  Second question... why was it not put in such a secure place that he could not get his hands on it?  Same question for the other guns she had in her possession.

I'm not anti-gun, but I am anti-assault rifle.   I know the constitution gives us the right to "bear arms" but I believe the founding fathers meant to take up arms against those who would depose us from our homeland.  We use arms to protect our homes; to hunt; in war.  But only in war would an assault rifle be advised.   Are we now at war with future generations?

Therefore, a third question...why are we allowing the sale of assault rifles?  In my mind, they're hardly "sporting" rifles.  Hardly gives the game a "fair" chance.

As for Wayne LaPierre, from the NRA, saying that authorities had "blood on their hands" by not taking better care to secure schools, my blood boils at the assumption.  Does anybody really give him credence, with such amazingly thoughtless, heartless statements?

Too many questions, not enough answers on Day 227!

Goodby books!

Not so fast!  Oh sure, the new electronic readers are all interesting and handy, but I'm not sure they're going to take the place of a book, with real pages that you turn, any time soon.  Here's my argument.

If you go on a vacation, you can carry your little reader because it's easier to carry than a tote bag of books.   You can read in the dark and not bother to turn the light on and annoy others who prefer the dark (think bedtime, car drive, etc.)  You can look "up-to-date with modern technology!"

Unlike a book, the electronic instrument has to be recharged from time to time. The book you can set down, with just a bookmark in it.    Unlike a book, if you lose your place, you have to manipulate it a bit more to find where you left off.  You can trade your books on your reader with others, but if they don't have a device, then you can't give them a copy of that favorite book, unless you buy it in hard form.  If you take your books out in the environment, if they get wet, or otherwise damaged, you can get another.  If the reader gets wet, well, replacement cost would be quite a bit more, plus you've lost all the "books" and information you have stored on it.  With a book, you just lose the one item.

Lets face it, books have been around for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.  Before that we had stone tablets we wrote on.  Some of those are still around, although not practical.  But we still have the Rosetta stone. We'd like to find the 10 Commandments and they were presumably stone.   Just watch Antiques Road Show to see how much an autographed copy of an old tome, or even a newer publication, can sell for.    You're not gonna get that out of your reader.

The computer has made our lives easier, there's no question about that.  But if we didn't make "hard copies" of much of what we read or write, and someone erased those important papers from the computers, then how would we confirm what we did?   If the Declaration of Independence were on a computer, and that computer was erased, we'd never know exactly what was said. We'd be guessing.These readers are just another, less involved form, of that computer.  And if you've got a really important "book" on one, then there's probably a "hard copy" somewhere.

You can still find me, braving the crowds, at Barnes & Noble, on Day 226!
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Men behaving badly...again...

I admit I wasn't up in arms when Bill Clinton committed his faux pas with Monica.   Although my best Republican friend was.  But he wasn't up in arms when Valerie Plame was outed by Vice President Cheney (okay, he wasn't blamed, but he's extremely suspect.)   Although Cheney's goof was not sexual in nature, it still bugs me, but that's another story.    But this latest goof by a man, namely General Petraeus, has me astonished, and scratching my head.

I would have thought, after all the indiscretions that have become public knowledge, and with the  media hype that goes along with it, someone in Petraeus' position would know better.  Especially when he's head of national security for the biggest country in the world!  Guess all that power went to the wrong head!

Then I have to question his sanity when the object of his affections is so immature  as to get angry with another woman, [NOT his wife, yes I said wife,] who she assumed to be vying for his affections also.  Can you get any more teenager than that?   And what about his wife!  Was she just a simple annoyance?

I'm not that fond of social media shouting everything and anything at all times of the day.  Information overload most of the time.  Like the tabloids, only quicker, and probably just as suspect in their assumptions.  But when they're right, everyone knows about it, all over the world, in the blink of a second, or at the speed of sound?  Light?  Whatever the satellites use.    What is that saying...the powerful fall harder, faster?  In this day and age, you're NOT "too big to fail," unless you're a bank.

Waiting for the next shoe to drop...on Day 225!



 

It's over!

Yesterday was the presidential election, and the Republicans are licking their wounds.  To tell you the truth, I almost thought they'd pull it off, and get Romney elected.  I was so disgusted with the whole political brouhaha, I couldn't even write about anything else, so I decided not to write at all!

Four years ago I (wrongly) predicted that Obama would not be reelected, or if he was, it would be extremely tight, because you cannot turn around an economy as bad as our was, in four years, when it took far longer than that to get so screwed up.  That and the fact that he's "black" was surely a total recipe for a one-term presidency.  I figured the Republicans would get in, and as the economy got better (because I thought it might take 6-8 years) they'd get all the credit, even though the recovery had started under Obama. 

I heard one political pundit say today that the Republicans have been working for four straight years to get Obama out of the house.  I too have thought that from Day One of Barack's presidency, politics was mentioned on an almost daily basis, as to how bad Barack was going to be.  Personally I think that the Republicans, although they would never admit it, were totally pissed that a black man got in office!

If the Republicans want to get back in, I think they need to start working with the Democrats, and not waste the next 4 years by attempting to stop all Obama's policies.  Sure, he'll make mistakes, and if they're egregious enough, then the GOP can take a firm stand.  BUT, if they work with him, AND get a more viable, charismatic candidate that the middle class can relate to, then they'll have a much better chance.   They can say "we worked with him, and we tried", but we have our own ideas.  Rather than coming out saying "he's wrong, always has been wrong, always will be wrong, and we're the ONLY way to go." 

I'm just glad it's quiet again, on Day 223!

45, 78, 33-1/3

Mean anything to you?  Might not if you're under 25 years old, and not too worldly!  Or your parents got rid of all those numbers before you were old enough to appreciate them!

They're the sizes or speeds that phonograph records were known by, when you were purchasing them.  The 45 record usually only had one song per side.  The 78 was an older record, with several songs per side, but a slow playing speed.  The 33-1/3 was the biggest, fastest record going, with multiple songs per side, again.

A record is a plastic disc that goes around on a turntable, with a needle "reading" the grooves on the record, and transforming this to something we can hear and understand. 

I describe all this because I was talking to a friend of mine, who found some of her parents' old records, and her teenage (at the time) son had no idea what they were.  He is of the CD and DVD generation.  And even some of that technology is going by the wayside.

Our worldly possessions seem to be going out of style so fast, they're becoming "antiques" way before their time.  An antique was once defined as any article over 100 years old.  Now things seem to becoming antique within a decade.   They may not be old, but they're obsolete and more of a curiosity that a useful item.  Would you, could you, say the same thing about a human who turned 100?

Watching and wondering what's next, on Day 222!