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Trying to take care of my little piece of the planet

A Duel With Myself

Rants are easy. Because when you’re absolutely certain that your solution is the right one, finding the words to make your point borders on fun.

This is not fun. This is hard. Because I’m genuinely conflicted. Not just between the rational me and the emotional me, but within each camp there are arguments and counter-arguments over what (if anything) to do about guns. I have been out of town, on the road since Friday’s tragedy, and while I realize that many well thought out arguments have been penned and publicly shared, I have yet to try and absorb any of them. So far, I have simply been having a difficult conversation with myself.

On December 11th, in an incredible stroke of poor timing, I commented on Facebook that I’m not your typical liberal, stating: ‘I own firearms. Get over it.’ On December 14th, a twenty year-old with no criminal record murdered twenty children who were less than eight years old, and their teachers.

The murderer committed this crime with a gun not terribly different from one that I own.

If headlines and social media are any indication, that act last Friday sounded an alarm to this nation. But cynically, so have similar massacres in high schools and colleges and places of worship and work across this nation. Year after year. Tragedy after tragedy, with dozens of innocent victims. And each time it happens, we wake to the alarm, but then hit the snooze button and drift back down into slumber. Until it blares again, announcing more gun-related funerals.

I yearn for a solution, knowing that as a gun owner, I am in large measure, the problem.

The liberal in me accepts that gun ownership should be regulated and monitored, and believes that more guns in the public sphere does not make us safer. I also agree that certain semi-auto weapons (banned until 2004) should have stayed banned, along with high capacity ammo clips and armor-piercing cartridges. But the ‘other’ me absolutely balks at the thought of making private possession of handguns illegal, or similar attempts to disarm law abiding citizens. In my conflicted opinion, there are practical, legal and cultural hurdles to such draconian measures, making them simply untenable. And frankly, if such bans were imposed tomorrow, I would ignore them.

As I said: ‘I’m part of the problem.’ Or am I?

I believe that an upstanding citizen has the right to protect themselves. In my case, as a rural resident, I am the first responder, with the nearest 911-dispatched law officer a minimum of twenty minutes away. Thus, I own a gun and am proficient in its use. It’s my job. That said, I don’t need a thirty-round magazine for personal defense. Neither does any other law-abiding citizen. Do criminals have them already? Hell yes. So give law enforcement the best tools possible, but get as many of the high capacity non-hunting weapons used in Columbine and Virginia Tech, and now Sandy Hook, off the street as possible beginning with their manufacture and importation. Despite the fact that you’ll never make them disappear, this alone will help. Because, this is not about criminals (who will have them). This is about crazy.

So, in addition to banning hi-cap magazines (again) and assault weapons (again), and beefing up gun registration and background checks, and all the other ‘assaults on the Second Amendment’ that conservatives scream about, there is one other infringement on civil liberties that absolutely needs to happen, and this one will infuriate the liberals. We need to take a serious look at dismantling the statutes that protect the privacy of batshit crazy people. And of the mental health professionals and families that shield them with good intent, like the mother of Friday’s monster. Because none of these horrific crimes were committed by hardened criminals. No, these crimes were committed by people with long histories of serious mental illness, who should never have been within a mile of a gun of any kind. And who used completely legal means to acquire them. That is a travesty. And if addressing it tramples on their civil rights. Tough shit.

So, yes, we need to make changes. But both sides have to give some ground. Because while this country would be better off if only the police had guns, that genie left the bottle long ago and ain’t coming back. So, yes let’s turn off the spigot, ending the flood of guns not designed for hunting or self-defense, and let’s monitor purchases of weapons and ammo. But let’s also break down privacy barriers that protect the ‘rights’ of psychotics, while endangering the rest of us. And our children.

Yeah. I’m square in the middle on this one.

Best. Politician. Ever. (in my lifetime)

No. That is not an oxymoron. Politicians can be a force for good. But mainly I’m just referring to his mad political skills. With people. With understanding policy. With language. And with other politicians.

Today is the last day of his last campaign.

And he’s going to squeeze every ounce from it that is humanly possible.

Thanks, Mr. President. I shall not see your likes again.

Worst. Campaign. Ever.

The six year presidential campaign of Willard Romney is essentially done. It may or may not be successful in electing him as our next president. That will be hopefully be settled before the 2016 race starts in earnest. Like everyone else, I am not certain who will prevail. What I am certain of is that the campaign conducted by Governor Romney and his staff is the most despicable one I have witnessed, in forty years of actively participating in campaigns. Note, I am not saying that Mitt Romney is the most unsuitable person I’ve ever witnessed running for our nation’s highest office. Rather, I am saying that the campaign he has led is the most shameful one I have ever experienced. I say this for the following reasons:

The Campaign’s attacks on the President were largely based on blatant lies and/or openly twisting Obama’s words again and again, with full knowledge they were doing so. ‘You didn’t build that’ along with mythical Jeeps from China and fictitious ‘death panels’ in Obamacare, all the while savaging the President for failure to accomplish anything. Failure they had worked hard to ensure since Obama’s election in 2008, by a coordinated GOP effort in Congress to deny the president ANY legislative success, all while American workers and families suffered.

The GOP has made suppression of legal voting a mainstay of its victory strategy, with organized state-level efforts in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Wisconsin, etc. This is probably THE clearest distinction between the two major parties: Democrats welcome voters, Republicans purge voter lists, reduce voting resources in low-income neighborhoods making it more difficult to vote. They pass unnecessary ID laws to disenfranchise the poor, and threaten them with prison for voting illegally, while muddling the line on what is legal.

The Romney campaign is the least transparent in memory. No details on any budget proposal. No details on the candidate’s significant personal wealth, tax returns, etc. Just an assumption that we would trust his magic underwear math, which projects fictitious deficits under Obama and bogus surpluses under Romney.

The Republican candidate is on record, hell he’s on film, again and again, embracing both sides of most major issues. Abortion and contraception rights. Tax policy. Gun control. Budget cutting priorities. Foreign policy. A seemingly complete lack of concern for truth, with an equally complete faith that the American voter won’t notice or care.

A campaign that refuses to distance itself from the dog whistle racist politics of the birthers and their spawn – those descendants of the Dixiecrats and the KKK, whose heads are nearing the bursting point at the thought of a two-term black President.

A campaign based on the collusion between the ‘official’ apparatus and literally a billion dollars of private and corporate wealth, much of it anonymous, attempting to buy the White House and as many House and Senate seats as voters will sell. THE most naked attempt to buy power in the last two centuries.

And finally, a candidate who embraces patriotic symbols and words like a drowning man, yet offshores his wealth and our jobs, paying minimal taxes of his own, while avoiding any kind of military service, by himself and his family.

Worst. Campaign. Ever.

And I hope I never see Mitt Romney again after his concession speech later this week.

It’s Who We Are

Thanking all the people who helped make Friday night’s NBC fund/consciousness raiser for Hurricane Sandy victims a success.

Moving ‘Forward’.

Words. Fail. Me.

This is what Citizens United has brought us. Or maybe it’s The Onion.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Here’s an image of our Mason, shortly after he was rescued from NC Highway 87. The photo was taken last Thanksgiving by my brother.

As Thanksgiving 2012 approaches, here’s Mason again playing with a recent NC 87 rescue, who was adopted by our friends Barbara and Steve the next day.

Yellow dogs rule!

An update from his new family. I give you……’Rollo’.

IMG_5909

I Feel Your Pain

Yeah, I’m part of the problem. But I’m also right there with you Abigail.

THE Great Pumpkin

I’ve already pointed out that my wife has her game on for this election like I’ve not seen in thirty-two years together.
Well here is another example of putting her handiwork on display.

Here’s the President with a one minute appeal for your support. He has ours.

Romnesia

I love my President. I don’t agree with everything he does. But I know where he stands.

SO not so for his opponent, who suffers from ‘Romnesia’.

That’s why we put my wife’s big-ass homemade sign in the pasture next to the highway.

Stand Up and Use Your Voice

We’ve all seen too many political ads lately, and we just want it to stop.
But we have to remember that it really isn’t about who spends the most money. It doesn’t matter who has the most impressive endorsements. Or had the best convention. Or whatever.
It’s about us. Each of us, having our say at the ballot box.

So as Jennifer Neville sings: “Stand up and use your voice”.