Memorial Day is NOT Veteran's Day.
Just wanted to get that off my chest. Also, FYI, it's not the Fourth of July, so I would really appreciate the firework crazies taking a step back, please.
And as Americans, we have, I believe, collectively LOST any vestiges of common sense we ever had.
Don't know if you've seen this on the news, but on Friday, May 23, a crazy kid killed people in Isla Vista, CA - 3 people in his apartment (he stabbed them) and then gunned down another 3 near the University of California at Santa Barbara. Why?
Because he said the women he killed "rejected" him. Oh, and they were whores, too... Of course. So, let's blame the women. Again. And let's blame the folks who choose not to carry weapons, because, you know, "good guys with guns stop bad guys with guns."
Except they don't. This kid had actually obtained his guns LEGALLY. He was able to get them because he didn't have a record. So much for screening, right? He had some pretty awful Facebook and YouTube screeds out there, moments before he went on his rampage.
Oh, and the big man -- killed himself. Because every killer channels Jimmy Cagney in "White Heat" - going out in a blaze of glory. (Apologies to James Cagney, by the way.)
The father of one of the victims asks a very pertinent question: "...what kind of message does it send to the world when we have such a rudderless bunch of idiots in government?" Mr. Martinez, do you mean the dolts who blocked the legislation set forth after Sandy Hook, which would have extended background checks for gun sales and banned assault weapons - AND limited magazine capacities? --- Yep, all blocked by our intractable Senate in April of last year. Intractable because the NRA told them to block the legislation. Because they were afraid of losing their upcoming elections. Afraid that their corporate slave-masters ('cause let's be serious - it's out there already) wouldn't be pleased that they didn't obey...
And then... Here's the kicker. Not-Joe, the Not-Plumber -- yep, that guy. He says, in a stunning moment of absolute idiocy: "Your dead kids don't trump my Constitutional right to have guns." Yep. He did it. Here.
Go ahead. Take a deep breath. Try not to whack your head against a brick wall.
This is total and complete: the collective insanity in this country in regard to gun laws. We cannot ever have a sane conversation about anything to do with guns. Because the legislators have been bought and paid for by the NRA and because the folks on the side of reasonable regulation are unable to be heard by the "oh-my-God-grab-your-panties-'cause-the-Black-Guy-in-the-White-House-is-gonna-take-your-guns" mantra.
And that has happened -- exactly NOT. But like Henny Penny, the good little NRA chickies run around with that song and dance and get to change the whole tenor of the conversation.
A conversation that grown-ups need to have. Now. Before another shooting. Before the memory of this fades as fast as it usually does, particularly since in about a nanosecond, we'll all be concerned (greatly concerned, I might add) with the pics of Kim & Kanye...
We as a nation used to be great. We're not great anymore. We're a commodity. Bought and paid for by special interest groups and rich white folks. (For the record, I'm white, but I'm not rich.) (And also for the record, my brother, whom I would do anything for, is a gun owner and we disagree mightily on this topic, yet somehow, WE are able to have a sane conversation. Maybe we should be running for office... except we're not rich.)
As a friend in England said to me this morning, "What is wrong with you people?" The only answer I can give her is that we've been purchased. And that 90% of us don't have a clue that we've been purchased. We've bought the party line and we're lined up like lemmings about to go off the cliff. Because we're told to.
I'm all about activism. I'm hoping that I can educate people. And what I'm educating you on is your right at the ballot box and your right in the arena of free speech. Get out and learn about even ONE SINGLE ISSUE that's dear to you. And then go preach it. I honestly don't care if your issues are completely opposite mine.
All I want is a decent, logical discussion without rhetoric, hype or talking points. I want YOU to make your point to ME. And then I want you to allow me the same courtesy. Maybe, that way, we can become great again; when we start caring about what others have to say and how our actions impact others.
It's not "all about me and my rights." Are you listening, Not-Joe, the Not-Plumber?? No, actually, YOUR right to wave your metal penis around does NOT trump the right of my kids to live.
Sure. You can have your guns. And you can stay home if you're that "a-skeered" of the boogeyman, protecting what's yours. And letting the rest of us, the sane ones, live in safety from you and your guns.
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