Category Archives: Gun control

January 8, 2013 · 0:00

The Voice of the Problem

When I wrote a post on the night of the shootings about the fact that members my family grew up in Newtown and went to Sandy Hook Elementary School, I was touched by the comments of most of you.

One commenter I’d never heard from before, took the opportunity to make my comments section into her platform for how very safe she feels because she packs a gun.  I tolerated her for as long as I could, mostly trying not to vomit at the comments.  She berated me for my opinions, telling me in bad grammar that I was ignorant.

I am not ignorant.  I have done the research.  I even put some of it into the comments that she found so ignorant.  Here’s the post, although the comments, which were mostly answered in those damn Word Press bubbles, do not appear in the order they were received.  And since some of them required me to breathe deeply into a paper bag filled with Xanax, they were answered fairly randomly.

*****

As a news junky I am constantly reading about the incredibly stupid things normal people do with guns.  People who mean no harm, who only mean to keep themselves and their families safe.

There was the man I wrote about in my first piece on gun control, Gunsmoke.  He shot himself in the femoral artery while unbuckling his seat belt in a grocery store parking lot.  His wife was inside shopping, and their four kids watched their father die stupidly.

There was the guy who was hanging out with his friends and demonstrated the infallibility of his gun’s safety by putting the safety on, pointing the gun at his temple, and pulling the trigger.  His friends were quite impressed, I’m quite sure.  He will never know.

And then along comes this guy, who gives a face and a voice to everything stupid about the crazy gun crowd.

In case you are on the fence on whether or not assault weapons should be banned, take a listen to someone who thinks they should not.

And then see if you can believe badly enough of George W. Bush, that you will go along with Alex Jones’ depiction of what happened on September 11, 2001, and therefore, why, really, we all need assault weapons.

*****

I’ve begun to believe that it is not necessarily mental health that needs to be evaluated before a person can purchase a gun.

We need to test their intelligence.  Because there are way too many stupid fuckers out there with weapons.

Related Posts:

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2011/07/11/dont-tread-on-me/

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/12/14/newtown/

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/08/05/one-more-time/

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/07/20/unexpected/

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/07/30/run-hide-fight/

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2012/06/11/birthday-party-blasts/

https://fiftyfourandahalf.com/2011/11/14/gunsmoke/

78 Comments

Filed under Childhood Traumas, Criminal Activity, Elections, Family, Gun control, Health and Medicine, Hypocrisy, Law, Mental Health, Politics, Stupidity

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December 14, 2012 · 0:00

Newtown

I know this town.  My late sister Judy lived here for over 20 years.  She raised her three kids there.  They went to Sandy Hook Elementary School.

I know this town.  Its stores, the way the roads twist and turn.

I know this town.  The way the waitresses at the Blue Colony Diner know your order, even when you only come to town a couple of time a year.

I know this town.  It is America.  And America’s children shouldn’t die.  Not because somebody snapped and needed to kill.

I have written numerous posts on guns, gun control and the fact that guns are designed only to kill.  When those guns point at and kill children, well, perhaps it is time that we all took note.  That perhaps, just perhaps, folks should not be allowed to have guns that can do more than simply protect them and their homes.  That people should not be allowed to have guns that can do more than shoot Bambi.  That people should not fucking be able to shoot and kill six year olds.

We do all we can do to protect our children:  bicycle helmets, seat belts, safety restraints on everything they touch.  Screens around trampolines.  The list is endless.

But we don’t stop the possibity of them being blown away in their fucking kindergarten classrooms.

What is wrong with this picture.

130 Comments

Filed under Childhood Traumas, Criminal Activity, Gun control, Health and Medicine, Mental Health

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November 4, 2012 · 0:00

Don’t Take It Just From Me

I’ll be busy for the next few days.  So I will let one of my idols remind you of what you’re sick of hearing me say:

Elections matter. 

VOTE on November 6 if you haven’t already!  If Obama wins, which I hope he will, I will be able to get off my soapbox and re-establish myself as a humor blogger instead of a political one.  You can thank me later!

VOTE!

46 Comments

Filed under Campaigning, Childhood Traumas, Elections, Global Warming, Gun control, Health and Medicine, History, Politics, Sandy, Voting

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September 9, 2012 · 0:00

First Amendment Rights

Adlai Stevenson is one of my heroes.  I’m sure you remember him (well, probably if you are an American).  He was the Democratic nominee for president in 1952 and 1956 and ran against Ike.  Now, that was a tall order — running against the guy who led the Allied Troops in World War II.  So really, Adlai was a bit of a sacrificial lamb.

But he had a heart and a spirit and he didn’t take bull from anyone.  And he repelled bull with finesse.

Stevenson was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Cuban Missile Crisis and famously asked the Soviet Ambassador to explain why missiles were being put into Cuba.  When the Soviet Ambassador, Valerian Zorin, didn’t respond, Stevenson famously responded:

“I am prepared to wait for my answer until Hell freezes over.”

Stevenson was the sort of man who made up the Pre-Reagan government, actually.  The Best.  The Brightest.  The Most Articulate.  Smart folks who made the government work.  Who made our government the envy of the world.

Now, I’m not in Adlai’s class.  Nope, I’m not even close.  But as a concerned citizen, I feel compelled to watch what is happening and call out injustice when I see it.  I call a lie, “a lie.”  And shout to the rooftops when I see the bullshit that passes for public discourse coming from the GOP and its evil twin, the Tea Party.

You see, I really love my country.  I am a liberal Democrat and proud to be one.  And you know what?  I am angry.  And vocal.  I also take full advantage of my First Amendment right to Free Speech.  Now remember, I live near Washington, DC.  And I pay attention.  That’s important.

I see a lot of folks in and around government who believe it is their duty to make sure that President Obama fails.

Now think about that.  There truly are powerful people in the GOP who believe that the GOP is more important than the country.  That what they believe is more important than what the voters (YOU AND ME!) chose.  That the country can go to hell as long as the result is that they will get more power.  More money.  More, well who cares what else they’re looking for.

Yes, it’s true.  On January 20, 2009, the night Barack Obama was inaugurated, a group of Republicans meet and decided that, rather than giving the new president their backing to help the country, that — nope.  They weren’t going to go along with the mandate of the people of the United States.  Nope.  They would impede Obama in every way they could.  Invalidate him.  That way the GOP would retake the House of Representatives in 2010 (they did) and maybe the Senate too in 2012.  Paul Ryan was there at that dinner.  Yup.  A fine group of patriotic Americans.

Now think about that.

They didn’t give Obama a chance to succeed or to heal the country.  More importantly, though, they didn’t give the American people a chance.  Because by electing Obama, people chose his ideas, his plans, his hopes.  The People rejected those of the GOP.

Nevertheless, the power brokers of the GOP banded together to  stamp their feet and say:  “I don’t care if the American People decided that your way is what we should try.  WE SAY NO.”

And you know what?  They’re doing it again!  Yup it’s true.

Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has already stated publicly that even if Obama wins a second term, the GOP will not cooperate with him.

Can you say “gridlock”?  Sure, I knew you could.

So, when things like this happen, well, I get mad.  I get angry.  And I make my feelings known.  I have a platform.  I have a soap box.  I have a blog.  And while I will try to write about politics with humor, sometimes, dammit, it will be in anger.  Like tonight.

Because there is a hell of a lot to be angry about.

Take for example the latest example.

Saturday in Virginia, Myth Romney implied that President Obama, should he be re-elected, was planning to take the word “God” off our currency.  Off our money.

Huh?

Romney made it up.  Completely out of that whole cloth his underwear is made of.

Yes, this is the same guy who chose Paul “Sure, Vouchers for Senior Citizens is the best idea since sliced bread” Ryan as his running mate.

The same Myth Romney who went Birther on us all a week or so ago when he commented that he was in Michigan and nobody was asking for his birth certificate.  Ho ho ho, Mitt.  Good try at a joke.  Try another next year.  Maybe that joke will work.  Maybe that joke will be funny.

[Now I’m going to digress here a bit.  Because the whole Birther issue just makes me want to scream.  It points out the complete and total ignorance of those who insist that Obama was born in Kenya and that his Hawaiian birth certificate is a hoax.

Do these folks even realize that in order to be an American Citizen by birth and therefore qualify to be president, you have to be born to an American Citizen.  Yup.  It’s true.  The fact that Barack Hussein Obama’s mother was an American entitles him automatically to American Citizenship.  And she could have given birth on the moon; her son, Barack Obama would still be an American Citizen.  By birth.  The same as John McCain, who was born in Panama.  The same as George Romney, Mitt’s Dad, who was born in Mexico and who also ran for President.]

There has been much ballyhoo on the nets, in the press, on the TV about folks wanting us all to play nice and just get along.

No.  Sorry.  I am not going to play nice with the folks I think have damaged my country.  I would not play nice with folks who tried/succeeded in burning down my house; who killed a friend or family member.  So I am not going to play nice and polite with folks who have destroyed our economy, undermined our willingness to work together to solve problems, and the pride that made the American Dream a reality.

Nope.  Not gonna do it.

The folks who ask for that often tend to be folks who don’t want their opinions questioned or challenged, or folks who don’t want to pay enough attention.

I have a voice.  I have a First Amendment Right to voice it.  And I plan to us it.

So, as my hero Adlai Stevenson would have said:

If the Republicans will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.

*     *     *

Other wonderful quotes from Adlai:

  • Freedom rings where opinions clash.
  • A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.
  • A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
  • A hungry man is not a free man.
  • I don’t want to send them to jail. I want to send them to school.
  • Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than the freedom to stagnate.
  • We have confused the free with the free and easy.
  • I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread.
  • Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse.
  • Saskatchewan is much like Texas- except it’s more friendly to the United States.
  • As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers and the ruled, the law-givers and the law-abiding, the beginning and the end.

51 Comments

Filed under Campaigning, Criminal Activity, Elections, Global Warming, Gun control, Health and Medicine, History, Humor, Hypocrisy, Politics, Stupidity

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August 14, 2012 · 0:00

Forward, Crush!

One idiom that I’ve always found, well, odd, is this:  “That’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!”

Huh?

To me, going back to unsliced bread after years of Wonder Bread was a revelation.  It has taste!  It doesn’t dissolve in water!  It is something on which I could actually subsist.  Well, with a little water thrown in.

Sliced bread?  Mostly I think of that white spongy crap, although nowadays the mega-bakeries are trying to actually make bread that tastes good.  But there is a ways to go.

Me, I don’t bake bread; my husband did back in the day when we had time and smaller waistlines.  Me, I bake other stuff.  My carrot cake recipe is to die for (with so much butter that is literally true) but I don’t make it very often because, well, when we celebrate birthdays we would prefer not to expire before the next.

But I do like to cook, and mostly it is from scratch when I have the time and energy.  And while those are often in short supply those days, well, I do enjoy whipping up a meal without opening a box, without opening a can, and without pulling something pre-made out of the freezer.

Someday when I retire, I expect to do more cooking, more experimenting with world cuisines, the way I used to when I was home with my son when he was a child.  We had a blast, made messes and cleaned them up.  Discovered delicious and not so delicious dishes.

But sometimes a girl must draw the line.  And I found the exact location for that line today in the Williams-Sonoma catalog.  Because today Williams-Sonoma has gone too far.  Or it wants me to go too far.  Or maybe they just think that I have unlimited counter-space.

Today, they not only want me to make absolutely everything from scratch, but they want me to grind my own grain with which to make it.  And there are different types of grain grinders to choose from!

There’s your conventional hand-crank grain grinder for those looking for a workout. (Williams-Sonoma Catolog)

Or for the ones who want full convenience while grinding their own grain, there is this one:

The fully-electrified version so that you don’t have to do anything yourself, which, of course, kind of defeats the purpose if you ask me.

Why not choose them all!

But you know, still I wonder.

My ancestors were farmers, and even they didn’t grind their own grain.  They took the grain they grew to a mill where it was ground for them by the miller.  That was considered progress from the days where my ancestors’ ancestors had to pulverize the grain on rocks, scrape it up and figure out how to get it into the crock pot.

I’m just worried that the next step in being the perfect chef will force me back in time even further.

I fear I will have to revert into a hunter-gatherer.  Otherwise I will not be able to keep up with the neighbors.  Sigh.

Good thing there is a magazine that’ll help me get there.

Yup, it’s back to the land. I just need my glossy mag and my loaded mag.

58 Comments

Filed under Conspicuous consumption, Family, Fashion, Gizmos, Gun control, History, Technology

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