Self Defense Isn't Such a Bad Thing

In George Washington’s blog now they lead off with an impressive 20/20 ABC video that makes a strong case that guns are the great equalizer and give the law abiding citizen a fighting chance against crime.  It is pointed out that there are no statistics on the crime that was NOT committed because the potential crime target was carrying a piece.  Often the mere sight of a gun is enough to get the intruder running.  In Washington DC the murder rate skyrocketed AFTER they issued a thirty year ban on all firearms within the District of Columbia.  The 20/20 piece goes on to say that there is NO documented evidence of Any gun legislation ever accounting for a drop in crime statistics.  It is pointed out that Britain is the most violent country in what used to be called the EEC.  (I’m old school)  There is a city in Georgia that actually mandated that every citizen own a firearm and the crime rate actually went DOWN.  Of course felons would much prefer a total gun ban because the scariest part of robbing someone is not being caught by law enforcement, but rather the possibility that the victim might be armed and shoot back.  Of course you see evidence in history of this fact.  The Nazis made the Jews turn in their weapons and a few years later they were easy pickings to be carted off to concentration camps, knowing the Nazis would face no resistance.  Passivity is not the way to deal with an aggressor.  This is one of the all time greatest lies in the Sermon on the Mount, among so MANY lies Christianity routinely tells all the time.  This bit about “not knowing” is itself an important weapon in fighting or preventing aggression against you.  The worst thing that can happen is (A) for you to declaire a uilatteral peace and B for the enemy to know all of your weaknesses in advance.  BOTH of these things were the case with Pastor Bill Halliday, which is why that relation with him turned out to be so very injurious to me.  The idea that anybody not suitable for employment because of whatever “disability” and this alone barring them from owning a gun - - is an insult to vast segments of society.  I recommend that everybody watch this 20/20 segment in George Washington’s blog.  It will really turn your head around on this issue.  Of course I think even Rush Limbaugh pointed out that this idea propounded about “Ape not killing Ape” in the movie Planet of the Apes, is the biggest crock of Bull to come down the pike.  If gorillas had the dexterity to fire weapons, you can your Aunt Jenny that they would be firing on humans, if those humans themselves were not armed.  As to the idea of the “gun free zone”, I guess this is a new term we will all have to get used to.  The idea is that sometimes in these mass shooting cases, at least according to ABC, there ARE armed people who take down the shooter before he can kill that many people.  And again- - these mass killers don’t care if they themselves are killed.  That isn’t the issue.  The issue is - - they want to get in the guiness book of world records to be the number one taker of human life of all time and gain their perverse sense of fame and immortality that way.  It’s pointed out- - the question is raised “If a burgler were breaking into your home, which would you rather have- - a gun or a telephone?  You can use the telephone to call the cops and they will get over there just in time to photograph your dead body.  Think about it.  There is one more aspect of this gun issue I have to bring up that has ticked me off for decades.  Michal Jackson the long time KABC talk show host, used to repeat this adage we've heard endlessly lately about how "Most likely a gun in the home will kill a family member before it will ever be used to stop an intruder".  The only thing is I've heard that host Michael Jackson himself had a conceiled weapons permit.  I think all those rich liberal Hollywood types have conceiled weapons permits issued by the city.  But only the hoy palloy elite people of the city get to have them.  If there is one thing I can't stand it's a person making claims about "The way things ought to Be" that he doesn't for a minute actually believe, himself.  It's also kind of an economic class issue.  It could be argued that the tea party people are actually arguing that the lower classes of - - the rest of us - - have the same inherent rights that elite liberals have always had.

Randy Rhodes now has issued a flat out “fatwah” or whatever that nobody on SSI who is there because they are “unable to work” should have the right to own a gun.  She says if you are fatigued or under “mental stress” or PTSD or these people in the South with their “mad money checks once a month- - should be out of hand barred for life, apparently, from ever owning a gun.  I would never own a gun.  But I have never been on conservatorship and have never been ajuticated by any court to be “mentally incompetent’ and how I ever got on SSI is a mystery to this day.  It’s just some mysterious strings that Mom knew how to pull.  But since I am now 62 aren’t I about entitled to “begin drawing retirement” anyhow soon?  There are a lot of professions where you are really considered too old to work by age 62.  One guy suggested that the national guard have some “auxiliary adjunct” where ordinary citizens could own guns and be technically part of a “well regulated militia”.  Randy Rhodes came out against this.  She questioned whether people, even the military, should be able to take their gun home at night for private use.  And she also said something about how all the ammunition should be in a locked box and nobody given access to it without “it being part of a specific mission”.  I think of these old Andy Griffith films where Don Knotts alias Barney Fithe was allowed one bullet and that one bullet was kept in a special place.  I’ve heard people say that they own a gun but it’s kept in a locked safe and it’s not loaded anyhow and the amo for it is somewhere else.  How the hell is that going to work out for you in a real home invasion crisis where the lives of your wife and kids is in jeopardy.  “Excuse me while I work the combination to my safe where I keep my gun”.  Oh excuse me again- I have to look for the bullets.  I can’t remember where I stashed them?  And the criminal will say “Oh then, I’ll help you look.  And I’ll just help myself to this jewelry as my commission”.  Randy was maybe just a little over the top today referring to guns that haven’t been purchased as “potential human life’ and “snow flake babies”.  And those guns in police impoundment compounds are all saying “Don’t destroy us.  We’re valuable.  We still have something to give”.  I don’t know what kind of a “non destroy” policy Tuscon has for it’s impounded firearms.  (Maybe the impounded guns have to go before a gov "death panel" to give final approval on melting the guns down, and turning them into something that's actually useful.) What is clear is that nobody is ready to come to any real decisions on this issue.  I had Mike Huckibee on earlier on a San Francisco radio station.  They claimed they were the only conservative radio station in town but minutes later I came across a Rush Limbaugh station in Oakland, and Rush Limbaugh was also on in liberal Santa Cruz.  My point is that if conservatives can make such powerful inroads here in the heart of liberalism- - - there is precious little hope of ever getting anything done on the whole gun issue.  The American people are just not ready for it.  Rush Limbaugh is outraged over an Executive Order that President Obama has not even issued yet, but they are all sure it will a be vast and wide-sweeping denial of everyone’s gun rights.  Joe Byden is meeting with the National Rifle Association today so apparently even Joe isn’t convinced as to exactly what we should do on the gun issue but is welcoming more input from the far right.  And now there is this new concept that has been introduced called “The gun free zone’.  They now claim that since “gun free zones” have been set up in Europe, that gun attacks on civilians has skyrocketed, and the saying is alive and well that “The only way to stop a bad person with a gun, is a good person with a gun”.  I’m saying this now.  Maybe we on the left should just drop this issue for now because from my vantage point, the issue is unwinnable.  There is just too much entrenched anti gun regulation paranoia out there to even discuss this subject rationally.  And we don’t want to add “mass hysteria” to all our other crises.

"And now, a break for Local Affairs".  When they got done cleaning in here over the lunch break it smelled of mildewed dust with kind of a burnt smell like a heater going on for the first time, which isn’t the case.  I think they just use dirty mops and dust cloths so that the room is dirtier than when they began.  We had grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and potato salad.  I had a second helping of potato salad and another half sandwich.  They had finally refilled the pepper for my noodle soup.  We had an apple for desert.  We had meat balls and rice and gravy and brocolli for dinner.  Our side got vanilla ice cream.  The other side got raspberry.  We've been doing a little photo encores in our lead-off images, because (A) I haven't done new photos in a while and (B) most of you probably haven't seen them anyhow.

 OF COURSE it takes little imagination to invision what would happen if the black slaves of the South had firearms.  There would be no "Yes, massa" and "No, massa".  They would merely have to pull their conceiled piece from their coat and point it at the Lord of the Mansion.  Then they could invoke the John Kovel doctrine (of KFI) and blow the guy's head off without even giving him an oppertunity to speak for himself on the grounds that "Well, you know he's guilty of SOMETHING - - even if I can't prove it.  And if he isn't, his ancestors sure are!  On the live and local program they said that Fredrick Douglas is not mentioned at all in the “Lincoln” movie, though he was perhaps the individual most instrumental in ending slavery.  I guess they are imputing to Abraham Lincoln some far reaching vision of a new America like Obama and Health Care- - - that in fact Abraham Lincoln didn’t have.  It’s very understandable that Black people would be upset by this distortion of history.  Of course the idea that these tea party people think they could take on the entire US Government is rather silly.  They don't really believe that.  Besides, their side already fought the Civil War once- - and they didn't fare so well.  I don't for the life of me see why they'd want to try it again.

I watched the soap opera at one.  I can well see why Clowie would want to give Kate Roberts the finger and then send her on her way empty handed.  I wouldn’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about someone who tried to murder me, either.  Particularly if husband Philip “kicked her to the curb” when he found out he wasn’t the father of Parker, which I am coming to suspect is what happened.  Rather than bother Clowie and Victor- - perhaps Kate Roberts should have a real sit down chat with her own son, and have him tell her exactly what happened.  Samantha is still doing the yo-yo thing between two lovers.  I think she needs to be honest with both men and make it clear to each that neither one owns her, and that it might be a long time before she comes to any long-term life changing decisions.  Whichever one walks away from here upon hearing that news- she can just go with the other one.  Makes sense to me.  I went to the store after two for cigarettes and found myself three cents short of being able to afford a snack without having to break a whole dollar, so I held off.  I haven’t blogged in two days and frankly I’ve been too lazy to do the research necessary to do a good blog.  It’s as I say - -  that the media’s promotion of any story is inverse to its actual potential importance or magnitude.