But this weekend was special because I got to meet and get to know his wife of almost 3 years, Megan. Along with Gavin, their 3-month-old son. I think Megan and Gavin were pretty worn out from all the holiday travel (they just got back from a week in Texas on Wednesday), so I tried to be as low key and low maintenance as a guest can possibly be. Craig and I talked for hours on end, Megan got a word in edgewise every now and then, and Gavin definitely got his 2 cents worth in, though I sure wouldn't describe him as a fussy baby at all. We drove around the VT campus which I hadn't really seen in at least 5 years, since all my friends have graduated, so I have no reason to go out there any more, then Craig and I stole away for a while so I could see the house my mother was born and raised in, and to make a quick stop at the liquor store since the night before, Craig and I did kill off the bottle of bourbon I brought with me. All in all, it was more than worth the 7+ hours of driving (round trip).
Craig, by the way, was in the middle of stint as a company commander when DADT was repealed. His only observation was all the money that was wasted on "training" could have been used more constructively. As everyone should feel, who you sleep with isn't anyone else's business. He knows I'm gay, couldn't care less. I guess all those afternoons and evenings with me at my house and riding around all over the place (his parents were gone a lot, I filled in for a lot of transportation) proved what most of us already know: gay != child molester.
Now for my political rant du jour. Everyone in the world is aware of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. It breaks my heart to even think about it. Well, of course the liberals now want to ban all "assault weapons" and the 2nd Amendment wonks want to prove that guns don't kill people, people kill people. What kills me is the latter's STUPID STUPID comparisons and statistics that they post. I honestly thought that most of my friends on Facebook (whom, with very few exceptions have been or are friends in real life) had more brains than this. I'm not going to argue either point here, but I am going to rant about the chosen statistics.
I thought most of my friends would be smart enough to realize that the majority of murders are "crimes of passion" - a husband catches the wife cheating or vice-versa, or some a drunk playing poker catches another drunk cheating. An awful lot of murders are committed under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or rage. They grab the first thing handy (which is seldom an assault weapon since they are in such a small percentage of peoples' homes versus baseball bats, knives and rolling pins which are probably found in 90% of peoples' homes. Most of these murderers are "one timers", they're not hit men, they're not mad men (well, they're mad in the sense of incensed as opposed to mentally ill), they've killed, they've gotten it out of their system, they are usually remorseful as hell, and they wind up in prison even though there's a good chance they'd never kill again even given the same set of circumstances. Now I know there are drug-related deaths, and gang-related murders, but again, they are a small subset of the murders, and they are almost always carried out with small handguns (they used to be called Saturday night specials).
So, am I arguing that it won't do any good to ban assault weapons? No, I'm arguing that smart people ought to use smart arguments to try to influence others to come over to their side, or at least see their side of an issue like gun control. Stop posting disingenuous crap that means nothing, doesn't contribute a damn thing to the "conversation" and for Pete's sake (whoever poor old Pete is), you better be ready to have a conversation because it's coming, and trying to dig in your heels and not be willing to compromise usually means you won't get what you want, or even a small portion of it.
Here's one final comment:
the rhetoric from both sides is unbelievably ridiculous. armed school teachers, really? ban types of guns, clips, etc? ok lets break it down, the guns were all bought legally, they werent his guns, so back ground checks wouldnt have changed the out come one iota. there are a slew of gun control laws in our country, and they don't do much except to keep guns from the hands of a very few of us. a back ground check wont show that you hate your job, your boss, and the entire company and plan to kill them all.
ReplyDeleteand on the other hand..... i sick to death of all the gun deaths in our country. im not talking the single murders, but the shooting sprees that occur.
if you look at the past massacres that have occurred, every single one of the shooters was mentally unbalanced. thats what we need to work on in this country, our mental health coverage. and to remove the stigmatism that seeing a therapist still carries throughout most of the country.
we need to change the way we look at violence in our movies and video games. why is a sex scene a sure way to get an R rating on a movie, but violent movies can be labeled PG 13? Ive seen some PG 13 movies that the amount of violence upset me. yes, i know im way gentle that way, but still. id much rather have my kids see people in love, than people torturing, killing and maiming others.
our country is steeped in tales of violence and mayhem, and yet when we reap what we sow, we are shocked.
Hey Jay,
ReplyDelete........ I would say treat all guns like cars [ with the added item of a background check]. Cars are periodically registered [owners' addresses are kept current]. Unsecured property taxes are assessed. Vehicle safety inspections are required. Drivers are required to pass a knowledge test and a practical test, and when they do, they are issued a license by the government to operate said vehicles. And said vehicles are mandated to carry a minimum amount of liability insurance.
Now - just substitute the word "gun" for "car", and "gunslinger" for "NASCAR wannabe", and you'll probably wind up with one pissed-off "gunslinger", who will claim the "Socialists" are fleecing him for every dime he has so he can enjoy his hobby, AND argue over the semantics of "rights" and "privileges". OK, so driving a car [NASCAR Style] isn't in the Constitution; but, as much of a necessity as it is today, maybe it should be..... Just saying :/
And so it came to pass, that many years after the new regulations went into effect, the statisticians polled and researched throughout the land; and behold, the "numbers' were "looking good". The legislators and bureaucrats were pleased, and there was much hand shaking and butt slapping; when, from the dome of the Capital Rotunda, there appeared before them an advisor of the POTUS.
And she said unto them, "Verily verily I say unto you, unless you are psychic and can predict when a perfectly sane person with a "clean record" will go ape, barmy, bats in the belfry, berserk, bonkers,cracked, crazed,cuckoo, daft, delirious, demented, deranged, dingy, dippy, erratic, flaky,flipped, flipped out, freaked out, fruity, idiotic, insane, kooky, lunatic, mad, mad as a March hare, mad as a hatter, maniacal, mental, moonstruck,nuts, nutty, nutty as a fruitcake, of unsound mind, out of one's mind, out of one's tree, out to lunch, potty, psycho, round the bend, schizo, screw loose, screwy, screwball, silly, touched, unbalanced, unglued, unhinged, unzipped, or wacky; then all of these many job enhancing, revenue producing regulations will be for naught; for, in spite of everything, it will take only one 'Mr. Clean' to become 'Dirty Laundry', and awaken the nation of America with much anger and gnashing of teeth"[Dirty Harry Style].
"BZ"............... "FOGGY"
Hello Jay
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a fun weekend - getting back together with old friends is often a great experience. I know where you're coming from on the subject of others' assumptions, when an adult befriends a boy, as well - the amount of sniping, and of people adding two and two and coming up with a number far greater than four, my cousin and I had to contend with when he was in his early teens, with me being ten years older than him, riles me to this day.
I said quite a lot, as you know, on the subject of gun control in the immediate aftermath of Sandy Hook, and I stand by what I said then - there is, in my opinion, no justification for a private individual owning a weapon of the power and lethality used in that massacre. As for the 'statistics' employed by the gun advocates, well, the 'lies, damn lies and statistics' adage immediately springs to mind. You can cherry pick statistics to 'prove' more or less anything, but, as you rightly say, no-one has, to my knowledge, or even could, I strongly suspect, used a household implement to kill the number of people involved in a 'spree killing' incident like Sandy Hook. For gun advocates to suggest that hammers are more dangerous than their 'toys' is as inane as it is dishonest.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
I happen to agree with each of you, Biki, Foggy, and Sammy. We need some reasonable gun control in this country. But the other side simply won't discuss it. They counter with shit like the above. Therefore we never get anywhere. The whole mental health issue is also met with crap like the Obamacare reference. I just don't know what kind of KoolAid they are drinking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great comments!
Jay