Conversations with my Dad

I am still mulling over a very recent conversation with my 84 year old father about guns. He is NRA, a long time member. I am not a supporter, which should be abundantly clear to anyone who reads this blog.  My father on the other hand, is a classic example of the successful marketing done by the National Rifle Association. Dad is just a guy who likes to hunt. He also has guns for home protection. He taught his daughters how to shoot. My mother is a better shot than my dad, if truth be told. He keeps them in a locked safe, which he didn't do when I was a kid, but chose to do when he started having grandchildren. He innately realized that today's kids are different from the kids of yesterday. Yesterday, if we were told not to touch the gun, we didn't, even if we knew where it was, and we did. We just left it there. My first memory of guns in the house dates back to when I was six. It was a handgun that I would come to know later was a 38.  But Dad also tends to believe everything the NRA tells him in the magazine and mass mailings to which he is subjected on a weekly basis.

The message  since  January 2009: Obama is coming to take away all of your guns.

Now my father is an intelligent man. He reads absolutely everything that finds its way into his mailbox along with the books that he buys or articles that he comes across in the newspaper, which he reads daily. My parents are still subscribers. He is skeptical about much of it. He questions a lot of what he reads. In fact our conversation began with him calling me and asking me for the definition of the word “heretic.” The word was used in an article, to refer to Chuck Hagel by republicans during the confirmation hearings last week.

From that jumping off point, we got onto gun control.

We talked about the NRA position. I told him about the NRA lies to its membership. I talked about what the President has really said. My father admitted reading about Obama's positions. I told him about how the NRA stood with Ronald Reagan against blacks and specifically the Black Panther Party carrying guns according to the Second Amendment, back in the day. How it's apparently okay for white people to own guns but not blacks. I explained the assault weapons ban that Bush allowed to expire, while Obama refused to put it back in place. Because in fact, Obama is as big a hindrance on gun control as the GOP and the NRA, regardless of how many tears he sheds in public.

I talked about how and why the NRA buys congressmen in order to get their laws passed instead of laws that would better the people and society. My Dad admitted reading articles on the subject, and recently, too.

We talked for a long time, but in the end, all my father could or would say despite all that I told him was:

“But Obama is coming to take my guns and make me register the ones he lets me keep!”

NRA, mission accomplished...

Nigga with a Gun! Duck! Oh, It's Just Obama...

Considering all the crap that's gone on since Obama was elected to the White House, one would think his apparent discomfort with firearms would bring peace to white America.

But no. As soon as he admits to skeet shooting once in a while at Camp David, to demonstrate his regular guy-ness, everybody wants to see the pictures. White women line up to challenge him, betting they are better shots than the brown man who leads.

White men haven't challenged, apparently self checking into the Dick Cheney “I shot my friend in the face” column, assuming they are more manly than our current mocha prez. It's the same, tired old shit. Any white man is better than the best black one, at anything. Really?

Because that's all this crap is, another way of implying that President Obama is soft. That he is not ever up to the task of being the President of the United States again. For a second landslide term, another four years as voted by “we the people” of the United States.

And who gives a damn, anyway? The gun control debate is not about how well, or even if Obama can shoot. It's about all the fools running around with weapons of war in an alleged civilized society. That's all it's ever been. Except when it turns racial, like now, when the focus is on Obama's “manliness” or when Black Panthers were legally carrying weapons in public, back in the day. Talk about about faces, the NRA nearly gave itself whiplash back peddling on guns in public when black men took to the streets peacefully inside their own neighborhoods. The panthers didn't kill anybody, but the government declared open season and killed them.

Today, the Tea Party has been doing the same thing within the past four or five years and nobody bats an eye. GOP legislators can't change the laws quick enough to allow this blatant guns in public, anti social/racist behavior, yet all anyone can talk about is whether or not our president can shoot a gun.

Any fool can shoot a gun, just ask Dick Cheney's buddy with the shot off face.

Let's get serious. The United States Constitution allows citizens to own a gun. Second Amendment. Fine. This law also means that no one is a criminal until they pull the trigger and or kill someone. Therefore, in order to protect society from criminals, all citizens have to be regulated, because criminals will only reveal themselves through their illegal actions.

You can't just say “keep the guns away from the crazy and the criminal,” because there is no way to know them before the fact, unless there is a screening procedure and or background checks for past behavior.

And considering what happened at Sandy Hook and Columbine and all the other schools and workplace shootings, these shooters, most of them, would have passed the background checks as well as the screenings, because they are to the manor born, white guys with access to money.

Face it, the masters of the universe do not want to deal with the fact that they are raising crazy violent children. But they must if we are to survive as a civilized society.

Then again, maybe that is the issue, shrink the US until it's small enough to be drowned in a bathtub.

Is that the game being played right now? We can't have it so we're going to make sure that you don't? Really?

And don't for one minute, one second, think that I am letting Black America off the hook. There is no fucking reason on the face of this earth that justifies all the Black kids dying in Chicago, in my neighborhood and all the other urban neighborhoods in the US.

This is not a white man's problem...this is US, period. White people aren't killing US. WE are killing each other and it's got to stop.

When will the so called leaders, so called civil rights groups, so called Black religious organizations, churches wake the fuck up?

Black on black violence is not about the number of guns. It's facilitated by the abundance of weaponry, but not precipitated by it.

Our kids have been dying for a long time. Do we need a Black Sandy Hook before WE wake up, too?

Inquiring minds want to know....

Hey America, You Can Have My Guns When You Pry Them from My Cold Dead Hands

Was anyone really surprised by what came out of the National Rifle Association's news conference yesterday? After a week of silence about the deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary, Wayne La Pierre, the NRA's head honcho stepped to the mic and basically told America to go fuck itself.

His right to own guns trumps any right we the people have to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, period.

His right to own weapons of mass murder trumps any desire that we the people may have for living in a world with no guns.

As La Pierre said, “guns don't kill people. People kill people.”

In Wayne's world it's the violent video games and violent action movies coming out of Hollywood that are responsible for the proliferation of violence in America. Cowboy movies made us kill off all the Indians, apparently.

His solution is to put armed men trained by the NRA in every single school in America and he demanded that Congress pay for them. “you know how to stop a bad guy with a gun, a good guy with a gun, shooting back at him.” That was Wacko Wayne's big solution to ending American gun violence.

Not fewer guns or better background checks or waiting periods or better mental health care for Americans, or studies as to why it seems white guys want to kill everyone in sight before they off themselves or die by cop. No Wayne wants to add more possibilities of violence to the mix.

What next shooting 101 for K-4, to be taught immediately after recess?

“The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters — people so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can possibly ever comprehend them. They walk among us every day....”

Sounds like good ole insane Wayne was describing himself in that last quote, doesn't it. The monsters among us have already been profiled and it's funny how they all look like Wayne, talk like Wayne and walk like Wayne.

Maybe we should let law enforcement work the profile, backed up by the improved mental health offered by Affordable Health Care, along with a reinstatement of the ban on assault weapons, better background checks and waiting periods, for starters.

Then let's work on limiting bullets and mass-kill magazines. 

Guns, Gun Control and American Family Life

Let me say up front, this is not a rant about the need for gun control in America. There is a need for gun control, however, I long ago came to the conclusion that gun addiction is like any other addiction, you can't cure it until those addicted ask for help.

The first step is for those addicted to realize that they have a sickness in the first place, and since the vast majority of gun owners in America are law abiding citizens, they don't think they are sick or are doing anything wrong by amassing arsenals of destruction. Which means there is no problem and therefore no need for gun control.

When you ask, the arsenals are for personal protection or hunting and just in case.

Just in case what, I ask.

Well, just in case....there is no answer that they want to give to that question. Not really, because then they would have to admit that they live in fear...in fear of their neighbors....in fear of a black planet....in fear of a white planet...in  fear of nameless, faceless criminals bent on taking their stuff away from them.

They live in fear of the coming anarchy and revelation, the end of times. They live in fear of the return of Jesus, when they will have to give up their stuff and move to heaven, which is supposed to be a good thing.

However, if they were really honest, they would tell you, they don't really want to go there, either, until they have to, and only after they figure out a way to hitch a u-haul up to the hearse to carry their stuff with them.

So in the meantime, they buy guns and wait, for whatever.

And as they wait, they infect the next a generation with their sickness, primarily today, via video games and a lax attitude about violence and the agents of violence.

The first two words out of my youngest nephew's mouth when he first started forming thoughts and words on his own were, Walmart, Jo, and weapons. He wanted weapons to play games on the computer. Never used the word guns...He wanted and still wants weapons, which is a computer word...only now at the age of 11, he wants real weapons. I know because we've talked about it. Walmart was the place where you go buy stuff...Jo is my name...He had no concept of “aunt”. I was just Jo, at the time.

Owning guns are okay in his mind, because his parents own them. His grandparents own them, too. His Granddad, my father, is a hunter, a sportsman. He has what I can only describe as an arsenal of weapons, many of which were handed down from other men in my family. Men who never figured out how to take their guns with them when they died.

My uncle was a police officer, one of the first Black officers in Cincinnati. My dad has his collection of guns. My grandfather was a country boy who used to be a hootch and moonshine runner back during prohibition. Granddad needed guns for protection against the feds and others who might have tried to jack his illegal cargo. My grandmother used to talk about the bullet holes in the side of the car. My dad now has my grandfather's guns.

My father hunts rabbits, pheasant, shoots groundhogs and moles to keep them from tearing up his perfectly mowed lawn. My father just likes to buy guns. He never shoots them anymore. Just likes owning them, cleaning them and showing them off to his equally enamored grandsons.

I remember walking down into the family room, when our latest marine was visiting recently. A serious boy thing was going on. Nearly the whole floor of the family room was covered in guns, rifles, handguns. Old guns, new guns. I had no idea. The guns are never shown off when the women are home. The marine is a marksman and actually taught shooting on Paris Island. He was very at home amidst the guns and my dad's enthusiasm. And, it goes without saying that he is a man, all man..a grandson. Guns are something for men to talk about.

My dad is a member of the National Rifle Association. Law abiding. Keeps his guns in a vault-a locked vault to protect the young ones. When I was a kid, the gun was simply left on the shelf in the closet in my parent's room and we knew not to even think about touching it.

Kids today, are a different story. They have to touch and handle, regardless of what they are told to do or not to do. So dad locks them up, now. Progress of a kind, I guess.

My father and I are on different sides of the gun control argument. In order for gun control to happen, I would have to convince my father that he has a real illness with his need to own so many guns. But he, and others like him, nearly all the members of the NRA, don't believe they are sick, in any way shape or form.

They won't admit to being fearful either.

They are comfortable in hiding behind the rationale that people who use guns to kill people are either criminals or crazy, not like them, the law abiding citizens of the NRA. The law abiding need their guns to protect themselves and their families from the criminals and the crazies and to go hunting once in a great while.They don't distinguish between owning a 30 ought six or 12 gauge from owning an AR 15 assault rifle. They are all just guns, or weapons as my nephews say.

Guns don't kill people...people kill people. Fear the people, not the guns.

And that is why the shooters in Aurora, or Columbine, or the beltway snipers will have easy access to weapons, because guns are part of the American lifestyle of everyday American citizens.

Everybody has em, nobody uses em.....like any other tool in the garage... just there when you need it.

Friday Rap

Whut I did fer Sumer Vakation
by
John G. Bigott

Now I no whut it means when folks say “dawg daise of sumer.” Jeez itz hott!. Maid the tics on my dawg Bull Conor jump right offin his back n go unnergroun to keep cool. I got my bes sunburn this sumer when I got to go to my furst protest rally in R-rizona whur I waz away vistin fambly. Ya see ma unkle is the shuriff and he don' cotton to no Mexcans in his town. Hiz town is only for good pipple and good imigrants, u no, the onez hoo look like us n got papers n don spek Mexcan n not so dark complekted. I no that dark thing is hard cause they do work in the sun a lot, but mebbe they could use some tan oil and not git so dark, then mebbe the good pipple would like em beter n my unkle n his deputiees would not have to rrest em.

After the protest rally me and my momma went to Walmart. We had Mike Savage on the radeo talkin bout imigration az we wuz drivin to the stor. I like whut he said n u said use at leest one quote from somone real, so here goes..

“The scourge of illegal immigrants… are running rampant across America, killing our police for sport, raping, murdering like a scythe across America. The Statue of Liberty is crying, she’s been raped and disheveled. Raped and disheveled by illegal aliens!”-Mike Savage.

That Mike Savage sure nose how to talk even if he is a jew and gay, too. But thas his bizness.

Me n Momma had ta git some writin paper n som pens so we cud writ leters to tha socilist gubmit in Washton DC. Thatz why we wen to Walmart. Long wit raizin our taxes they playin favritz wit them black panther party pipple. U'd think that Husane Obama wud no beter than to play favritz wit his own kine. Dem to black panther people wuz scarring pipple tryin ta exerciz their constitutional rite ta vote. We gud pipple don do it n neether shud he.. He sposz to represen all a us, equally. Glen Beck, gawd bless im is right, he iz a racist agin white pipple. Me n momma waz goin to go to DC to help Mr. Beck reestorr th honor of our country, but we had to go home cuz we run out a money, ain't worked in a cupla years, thanks ta them dam socilists in Washnton. 'Sides, we cudn't take our guns to the rally, som kine of stoopid commie law in DC. Jus proovs how twisted Washton is, when gud pipple caint carry their weapons in public.

On the way home me n momma wuz listnin to tha radeo n Dr. Laura talkn to that nigra woman hoo maried to that race traitor huzband of herz. She mad cuz his friens keep callin her the N word...Leest hiz friens git it rite. Don't see no problem with that. Just cuz her huzband wants to step outside his race don means his friens got to go long wit it. Like Dr. Laura said, “gro som Nigger!” or somthin like that. Not xactly tha same words, but clos. U no whut i'm sayin'.

It wuz a mitey gud thing gubnor Sarah Palin spoke out in deefens uf tha gud Dr. Laura. Sarah tellz it like it is. She don minc no words. Sarah gon be prezident come 2012 n then tha country will git rite, jus like Alaska. Sarah n Dr. Laura, they ain't rasists. They gud pipple, both of em! These gud wimmin tell it like it is, that Obama n his kine r the real rasists in Amurica, dam rite! Always tryin ta make us pay for slavery when we ain't got nothin to do wit it. That wuz a long time ago. Itz over! So git over it! Git a job n stop whinin, for gawd's sake!.

Momma tole me we wuz gonna campain for tha tee partie candidates at home. Well, we ain't got one of those on the ballot, but we got a guy who wans to emprove the Constitution n make it beter for the gud pipple of Amurica. He wans to take out some amenments like the 14th n tha 17th . N then he wans to put som teeth nto tha 2nd n 10th. Momma sez hez the rite man for Washton. He will go there and tell Barak Husane Obama a thing or too. Yessir, he will n we will take bak r country and make it honorable agin. Jus like Glen Beck said.

Me n momma innded our sumer protestn aginst that groun zero mosque in NY. Now that's an abomination. Itz aginst gawd n a insult to the pipple who died on 9/11. the pipple who wan to build this mosque ain't real Amuricans. No real Amurican is muzlim. All real Amuricans is Christians jus like the founding fathers. They wan to build a mosque, then go home an build one.

Thatz how I spent my sumer vakation. The end n Gawd Bless Amurica.

-0-

"This is going to be a moment that you'll never be able to paint people as haters, racists, none of it. This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. It has been so distorted and so turned upside down. It is an abomination."-Glen Beck
The only abomination in this whole charade is Glen Beck, FOX's Bozo the Clown...We're all being played by this fool!
And you know what...he's winning....he's winning because we keep reacting to the stupid shit that is coming out of his mouth.....
It goes like this......Mormon Boy or his partner in crime..the newly married, still closeted Limpwrist says something they feel is provocative....notice they never move their lips in the same week...so as not to step on each other's thunder...
The feckless mainstream media picks it up.....loops it thru the 24/7 news cycle til somebody responds..then it's on for another day or two or three....
We are being punk'd ….Beck ain't in it because he believes what he says...He is a radio host....a shock jock on the grandest scale....this high school drop out has stumbled upon the biggest audience of his career...did he ever get his GED?
And he is getting paid to say shit....not stuff....not anything that makes sense...but shit...to stir the pot and to piss people off...and right now....it's working...
Same with the Snowbilly from Alaska.....that's going to be some love fest on Saturday. She thinks she's a provocateur ( oops! did I use another big word she won't understand, again?)....maybe...but a clueless one...
Bozo the Clown meets the Snowbilly under the watchful eyes of the National Rifle Association...
“Beck to the NRA...leave your guns at home”....as if the fat boys with big bellies and automatic rifles on their shoulders can really react fast enough to be a threat...
MLK never had to tell anybody not to hurt people..even as the civil rights marchers were getting their heads bashed in by self proclaimed god fearing Christians with guns and dogs and fire hoses, whose descendants will undoubtedly be standing at Bozo's feet come Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial
Somebody please hip these fools to the truth...which is that you really have to say dangerous.....status quo busting stuff to get killed in America...
kind of like the stuff that comes out of Obama's mouth...
Nobody is gonna shoot Bozo...unless he pays them....because the truth is....his shit is not worth listening to....much less dying for...
-0-
I am so over Laura Schlessinger.....I've got her right up there on the shelf next to Anita Bryant and Phyllis Schlafly....
By the way....Has Schlafly let her son come out of the closet yet?
Got to figure the GOP queens will now all come marching down main street now that Ken Melman is officially out and kinda proud....
He's rich, white and male....gay doesn't change his world...ever....
-0-
Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars...
The end times may not be upon us...but the death of reality TV is just around the corner...
Bristol Palin on Dancing with the Stars...BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
And no....I'm not gonna watch just to see if she falls on her ass....

NRA Backs Terrorists' Right to Buy Guns

So , let me get this straight, it's not okay to let so called terrorists board airplanes because they might possibly beat up the flight crew, take the plane and fly into a building, killing everyone on board.

But it is okay to allow them to buy guns, explosives and any other weapons of mass destruction that they choose to purchase in order to kill Americans when they decide the time is right, as long as they do it on the ground and not on a plane.

Make sense? Well, here's what's going on. New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, have asked Congress to close a loophole in existing law. The gaping loophole allows anyone on the government's terrorist no fly-watch list to buy guns.

In other words, your name is on the list you can't get on an airplane, but you can still buy an AK-47 or enough exploding fertilizer and propane to bring down a federal building anywhere in America.

And the National Rifle Association says this is alright. Further, their Congressional sycophants, led by Congressman Lindsey Graham, are going along, refusing to toughen the law to protect citizens.

The NRA maintains closing the loophole is an attack on the Second Amendment.

The gun nuts went after the Bush Administration when it tried to close the loophole. Now the NRA is going after the Obama Administration for the same thing.

Attempts to shut down the terror gap are bipartisan. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are calling for the fix. They're not asking to prevent citizens from owning guns. They are asking that terrorists not be allowed to buy guns, once they've been identified as a threat, meaning after their name is put on the terror list.

In other words, when someone's name is on the terror watch list, that means they are a threat to national security and a danger to us all. Yet the NRA maintains that putting a gun ban in place for suspected terrorists will somehow limit gun ownership in America.

Crazy...

A couple of months ago in opposition to closing the gap, the NRA said, “ said it is all part of a conspiracy by "politicians who hate the Second Amendment" and who "think that more gun owners can be placed on the list over time."

Other conservatives have jumped on the bandwagon to declare, "The bill should be titled the Gun Owners Are Probably All Terrorists Act." -This from a member of the Liberty Coalition during a hearing on Capitol Hill.

Statistics show that people on the terror list have bought more than 1100 firearms, and the Feds can't do a darn thing about it because of the loophole in federal law.

As usual, citizens are caught between mad men....an extremist lobby masquerading under the guise of patriotism, their bought and paid for politicians on Capitol Hill and the terrorists who want to kill us all.

Ain't it great being an American.

Friday Rap

Michele Bachmann, that self described “lovable little fuzzball” is coming to Cincinnati tonight. She is headlining the Hamilton County Republican Dinner, which is being held at Paul Brown Stadium. I guess they are expecting a lot of people to show up tonight.

The whole Tea Bagger party has been invited, I understand. Tea Baggers live mostly outside of the Nati city limits, but they do drive in via the interstates to attend football games. They do know where the stadium is, even if they don't the support the city, itself.

I used to see suburbanites in my neighborhood all the time, driving through the hood looking for drugs. But not so much anymore since the police have dispatched the meth pushers and weed dealers to the burbs. But I digress.

Bachmann, in case you don't know who she is, is the GOP rep from Minnesota who is presently calling for cancellation of both Medicare and Social Security programs. That should make all those white haired old Republicans happy.

She's against health care reform, too, despite using taxpayer money as a Congressman and to raise a bunch of foster kids. She's been on the dole for years. But I guess we can't call her a welfare queen, can we, since we all know that welfare queens live in the ghetto. Yeah, right.

-0-

Rep Steve King-Michele Bachmann in drag

Steve King takes the House floor to defend lobbyists. Says they never, ever, ever lie to him. Says he would cut them off if he found one lying or giving him false information.

Wonder if that includes giving back all the money they've given him over the years.

Check out his statment here.


-0-

Jim Bunning

A walking, talking argument for term limits. This senile old coot has been dumped by the GOP in Kentucky, so I guess he is taking it out on everybody else, by blocking the bill that would extend unemployment benefits for 1.4 million Americans.

So much for Republican compassionate conservatism. Bunning says he is worried about the deficit. But like every other GOP member in the House and Senate, deficit spending didn't matter until Obama took office. Now they're worried.

Please!

-0-

Palin Watch

Dear Sarah is the next big headliner at the NRA dinner. They like her because she likes guns and shooting things. I know something that Sarah and the NRA could team up for...

The State of Florida has declared open season on big snakes, where anyone with a weapon and a hunting license can go down and shoot and kill any python over 10 feet long. The State estimates there are about 30,000 that need to be killed.

The NRA could do us all a service and go shoot some snakes before they multiply and start migrating cross country.

Sarah could lead the hunt for them. Of course if she's as tough as she pretends to be, she'll fore go the automatic rifle and hunt the big snakes like a pro using a machete to cut their heads off.

That means she'd have to get up close and personal, rather than snipe from a distance.

-0-

Obama-lite

That GOP chocolate peril, otherwise known as Michael Steele says reconciliation is a low down, underhanded parliamentary trick that the Democrats want to use to pass health care reform..

Hey Mikey....the GOP uses that trick more often than Democrats....Why is it okay for the Republicans to use it....but not Democrats? Hmmm?

-0-

Palin redux

Bill O'Reilly says Lady Sarah needs to go college...I thought she already did that...Several times in fact...

What makes him think it's gonna be any better this time around?

Denying Guns to Terrorists

Overshadowed by the all of the info-tainment that passed as news yesterday was a little nugget about guns that had me doing a double take. Seems that it’s perfectly legal, as we speak, for people who are on this government’s terrorist watch list to buy guns in this country.

In fact, according to the GAO, gun permits were issued to 47 of 58 people who were listed on the watch list in a nine month period in 2005.

This insane action is coming to light because of a proposal introduced by New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, yesterday, who wants to make it legal for the Attorney General to block these types of gun sales, http://www.nytimes.com.

Dubya’s just-us department has also jumped on the bandwagon with a similar proposal. I guess the White House doesn’t want to be caught looking bad again in light of the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Law enforcement officials have apparently been trying to get this loop hole closed since 9/11.
But former AG John Ashcroft blocked all FBI efforts to compare the watch list with gun applications citing the Brady Gun Law.

Lautenberg’s measure was apparently introduced some time ago, but has been stalled by the gun crazy GOP controlled congress. The Senator, his aides and the Justice Dept, now think a Democrat controlled congress might prove more receptive to change. I’m not so sure. The National Rifle Association also has most democrats on a leash as well as the GOP. Getting loop holes closed in gun laws is an uphill climb no matter who is in charge of congress.

So far, the NRA has not weighed in on this issue.

I would think denying guns to terrorists is a “no brainer.” To paraphrase Dubya, why fight them here when we’re already fighting them over there.

********

And speaking of “over there” seems the shaky Iraqi government is taking a page out of this administration’s play book and is going on vacation in July and August. They’re just going to shut the doors and walk away for a while.

Well, why can’t we do that? Walk away? Their walking away seems to be an indication that they think it’s our mess and that we are the ones who should handle it.

I don’t think we can walk away, but I do think we can ease on down the road and out ASAP.

Ya listening Dubya?

Hiding in Plain Sight...32...3311

We mourn those who died at Virginia Tech, as the killing escalates in Iraq. 157 die today, victims of a series of car bombs, reportedly orchestrated as an attack on the latest plan to make the country safer. At least 94 wounded in these same attacks.

3311 Americans dead since this farce of a war began. Bush is still playing politics by holding up funding, blaming Democrats for his mess.

Cho Seung-Hui was apparently identified as “troubled” and possibly dangerous and still nothing could be done to stop the rampage. In this country, this open society, you have to make a direct threat, or actually commit a crime in order to get arrested, or it seems to even get help.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone, really. Women victimized by their mates go through this all the time. Nothing can be done against stalkers or abusive husbands and boyfriends unless the abuser takes direct action against his intended victim. More often than not, the victim is killed.

Just thinking or writing about violence or violent behavior will not get you incarcerated. If that were the case, then the guys who write horror movies like SAW or HOSTEL would be locked in padded cells with the keys lost forever.

One talking head on FOX, today speculated that maybe this society should treat everyone like in the movie “Minority Report,” where people were arrested before they committed crimes. These people were identified through their thoughts which were monitored by way of some amazing contraption operated by the government.

But our society cannot force citizens to see a shrink. We, as Americans are allowed to be crazy, as long as we don’t hurt anyone, even when it is obvious that we might, and eventually will. By law, we have to wait until the gun goes off, so to speak.

I would much rather see us as a society tighten up gun laws. I am troubled by the unwillingness of the NRA to compromise on the issue. If you want to own a gun for protection, I’m okay with that. I have a problem with assault weapons. I have a problem with automatic and semi automatic pistols in the hands of everyday citizens.

It’s not that I’m afraid of guns. I know how to shoot. I know how to handle guns. I don’t own a gun because I know that I CAN and will use it if necessary. If I were attacked and had a gun in reach, it would be used, make no mistake about it. So I choose not to have them available. I prefer to rely on my brain and survivor instincts for getting into and out of situations should they arrive. That may sound stupid to gun owners, but there are always other options.

Why not allow single shot for home protection, or rifles for hunting. Again, I’m okay with that. I have a problem with overwhelming useless firepower.

The argument for having guns to protect against crime are weak. The face of crime in America is still the young black male. But young black males are killing other young black males. There is no rampage going on against society in general.

Burglars usually attack a house when the owner is not home.

Home invasions happen to drug dealers, usually staged by other drug dealers or some thug looking to make a quick score.

Campus/school shootings are perpetrated by angry young white men against their peers and their own families.

Gangs rarely venture out of their neighborhoods.

So maybe as a society we need to address our approach to identify and to act against mental health issues exhibited by obviously troubled people before they explode against the rest of us.

How, I don’t know, because any answer that I can come up with makes us less of an open society. I don’t want anything put into place that hinders my American-ness.