I thought I'd found a life to fit my style.

 As we all know by now, there's been another mass shooting. I reported yesterday that it took place in Boulder, Colorado, and at the time we only knew of six victims. Four more have been reported, bringing the total up to ten, including a cop. The rest were people at a grocery store, either trying to make their paycheck or shopping or just getting lunch. Just folks being folks when some dickhead decided he had the right to chose who lived and who died.

 I'll go into more detail in tomorrow's news about the particulars. In a nutshell, we know all the names of the victims as well as the shooter, who was taken into custody. He was injured in the leg and has been charged with ten counts of first-degree murder. The shooter in question has an Arab-sounding name but was born and raised in Colorado. Either way, it doesn't appear to be a matter of race or even political ideology that was at the root of this shooting. According to his siblings, he had "mental problems" and suffered from delusions of persecution, so this is the first time in a long time that particular well-worn excuse might fit.

 In any event, the facts need a little more time to marinate and I'll most likely look into it for tomorrow's News. One thing that struck me was the flag outside the White House had been lowered for last week's mass shooting up until early Monday. It was raised back up and stayed up for 10 whole hours. Ain't that a helluva note.

 Another interesting aspect of this case is the paucity of news-worthy mass shootings - and we all know there's a difference between what happened in Colorado and what happens between friends and families all the time - during the last year. That's been, rightly or wrongly, attributed to the COVID pandemic making people spend more time indoors and away from each other. Another helluva note there, if that's what "getting back to normal" means.

 Naturally, this has reignited the whole "do we have too many guns, not enough, too much access, not enough freedom, etc." argument we have every time this happens. It's almost as predictable as, well, senseless mass shootings. I know I've said it here before, but I don't see how that argument wasn't lost when that kid shot up 20 toddlers with a high-powered rifle while they were at school. We spent more time arguing whether or not it was a "false flag" designed to confiscate guns. People who are considered worth paying attention to by a sizable portion of the population actually claimed that.

 Of course, the gun nuts are wetting themselves and are sure this is the excuse Comrade Biden will use to confiscate every white person's guns and give them all to minorities, or whatever the hell they fret over. Personally, I doubt anything will happen, though, nothing significant. Maybe a tightening of background check laws, as this guy had enough black marks on his books to at least make the Powers That Be wary of letting him have a high-powered semi-automatic killing device. Still, I wouldn't hold my breath.

 This is the "new normal" and kids today will never know what it's like to have a school shooting be something that stops a country in its tracks. They'll never know what it's like to go to the grocery store or a movie or a country music festival and not wonder, even if in the back of their mind, if some jackass won't decide it's their time to die because he's not getting laid, doesn't like Mexicans, or just feels like doing it.

 Look, for what it's worth, I don't give a shit about the Second Amendment. It's defined these days - and only since the early Aughts - as an individual right to bear arms rather than a group right, and I think we've all seen just how useless that whole "well-regulated militia" is as a concept. There's an argument going on in conservative circles that it's a strong right than voting because they're pretty down with authoritarianism and think way too many of the wrong sort are allowed to vote, anyway.

 Fact is, your rights last only as long and go as far as the Powers That Be let them. If they wanted to take away our guns or our votes, the fight wouldn't last long and plenty of us would be fine with it, regardless. As a whole, I don't give a damn about gun ownership. I own guns, maybe a dozen shotguns and rifles used for hunting in a gun safe in my basement plus a loaded 12-gauge over my front door.

 I grew up around guns, for hunting and enjoyment. My cousin's oldest boy puts guns together from kits and wants to run some sort of business geared to that. I got family who often goes out with a sidearm, for whatever reason, and "family" includes the folks who make up my little rural community. I trust them, mainly because I know they know what they're doing with guns. They know how to store them and maintain them and, most importantly, how dangerous they and what they're made for. Killing stuff. Everything a gun has a use for revolves around how well it ends a life, and that is it.

 I know people in other towns I've lived, from Athens to New Orleans, who dig on guns and I know they know what they're doing just as well. So, them I trust, too. The rest of y'all? Hell, no. That ship has sailed, son, and the benefit of the doubt is non-existent. I see someone packing, I am moving the other way as quickly as possible, especially those goobers who must have a rifle slung across their backs to make a Wal-Mart run.

 And if this hurts your feelings, tough. If you're going to fight any and all gun legislation, clean up your own backyard first and quit expecting me to just assume you're a "good guy with a gun." Most of these mass shootings were committed by people who didn't break a single law until they made their first kill, and I see no point in running the risk just to keep your delusions of security.

 That's just how it is.

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

 Gonna knock out a quick one today because last's nights piece wore me slap out. Putting that much effort and research into a piece raises my blood pressure and gives a mess of a headache. I thought it was just hardcore political writing that was whipping me like a mean dog, but no, it's just that much work wears me down, whether it's intensely political or not. Don't know quite how to take that.

 And since someone finally poked the Blind Idiot God this morning, Trump gave a speech this evening after spending the morning blaming the Democrats and the media for stirring everyone else in order to "get him" somehow. Undoubtedly, he got this from Medal Of Freedom winner Rush Limbaugh, who spent all day yesterday railing on this and all day today claiming that Trump proved him right. You'd think instead of staying a professional butthole he'd be trying to stay healthy himself - most of the deaths from CORVID-19 have occurred in people with weakened immune systems and he has lung cancer, mind - and spend his more time with his loved ones while he can, but there you go.

 Of course, this has trickled down to the lesser wingnut goons, blaming the Democrats while simultaneously moaning that everyone was blaming Lord Trump. Congress got in on the fun, too, with Marco Rubio, The Man With The Liquid Spine And Cushioned Kneecaps, bemoaning China's influence on our medical supply, despite that being the result of conservative policies and Rubio's dumb as a stump. Health And Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, in answering questions, couldn't guarantee that when discovered, affordable vaccine would be available because free market and fuck you. Hey, if nothing else, the masks are being ripped off in the Trump era.

 Perhaps the single dumbest thing being taken as gospel by the drooling millions in the Trump cult is that the Center For Disease Control can't be trusted because the doctor in charge of figuring this all out is related to someone who made the fanbase mad. No, really. Dr. Nancy Messonnier is the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases is very well respected in her field, award winning with an impressive bio.

 She's also Rod Rosenstein's sister. Remember him? He was the Deputy Attorney General who was a faith assistant lackey of Trump's consigliere Bill "The Pope" Barr until Fox News decided he was responsible for the Mueller Report and the mean ol' Democrats not taking Barr's Cliff Notes version as enough. So, of course, all this is "Deep State" trying to bring down the Chosen One because the world actually works like a third-rate political thriller. Apparently this developed from one of those Q weirdos fever-dream threads and metastasized by Limbaugh and Fox's pet racist pee-paw Lou Dobbs, among others. If Trump isn't tweeting this out by Friday, I for one will be shocked.

 In any event, budget hearings to tackle CORVID-19 are being planned by Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi, and Trump's mulling appointing a "coronavirus czar". I seem to remember czars being a bad thing when Obama was in office, but what the hell, nothing matters anymore. In the meantime, he's put Vice-President Mike "Remember Me? Anyone?" Pence "in charge" of the CORVID-19 response, though you're guess is as good as mine what that means or what that weird bastard will do with that mandate.

 So, there's that there, then. If you're less than confident and that the dippy bastard in the White House and his coterie of criminal, thugs and outright morons will handle this potentially hellacious event with anything coming close to competency, intelligence or compassion, take heart the rest of the world is on the case. Sometime this morning, more new cases of CORVID-19 were reported outside China than there were in country. Something like 10 cases in China but 2,790 in the rest of the world. Interestingly, the vast majority of cases were reported in South Korea with 1,261.

 That fills me with a little more confidence, I don't know about you. South Korea doesn't screw around when it comes to technological advancement. If nothing else, the future of the human race isn't as shaky as all that. Some comfort, I suppose.

EDIT: After I finished this and while I was eating supper, the CDC confirmed the first case of CORVID-19 in the United States that has a "community spread" unknown origin. That is, the first case where the infected hadn't traveled to China recently. Buckle up, it's going to get bumpier.

 Lastly, there was another mass shooting today, this time in Milwaukee. Six people just trying to make a living were killed at the Molson Coors plant. So far, not much is known about who or why except the gunman died of a self-inflicted head shot. This was the 51st mass shooting this year.

 I have nothing at all flip or clever to say about that.

Monday, November 18, 2019

 Don't let middle age blindside you, kids. It can be a booger and knock you out before you know.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

 Another lazy Sunday has come and gone. The sun kept behind the clouds, rains misted the ground and I stayed in bed and read about Socrates while listening to country blues. Recommended.

Sunday, October 6, 2019

 I'll probably get a chance to commune with the front yard in a little bit, but let's see what I can get down right now.