Flintlocks and Muskets

Is it reasonable to impose regulations on hand guns while not completely banning them? The right of the people to keep and bear arms is an individual right granted in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Second Amendment was not crafted to protect deer hunters, it was crafted to give Americans the blessing of a free State. Our for fathers foremost concerns were the events of the American Revolution and the British troops in Massachusetts collecting muskets and flintlocks from the citizens. In todays world, entrusting the nations sovereignty to the people is a scary thought. The original reason for the Second Amendment was to break the government's military monopoly, guaranteeing the people such fire arms as would be necessary to defend against government's abuse of their inalienable rights, not the right of a deer hunter to hang his trophy over the mantel.
In the next few months the United States Supreme Court will rule on the governments ability to regulate what sort of arms a citizen can keep and bear. This issue is not about gun ownership, it's about too much firepower in the wrong hands, too easy access to guns by criminals and loopholes such as gun shows and background checks.
I am not anti-gun but I've owned very few of them and even then my ownership was limited to my teen years! I even had a Dick Cheney moment as a teenager. While setting in a 1957 Ford Victoria, one of the passengers pointed a 410 shotgun out the rear side window and pulled the trigger, blowing out the glass in the window along with part of the window frame. Making matters even worse, we were in the middle of town setting in the parking lot of the Hardware store where we had stopped to buy more 410 shotgun shells when the Cheney moments occurred. I think I knew there and then that the only gun I was ever meant to own was the Daisy BB gun I got when I was 8 years old.
The Justices of the United States Supreme Court have a rare chance to establish a sensible middle ground on this very hot button issue. The court shouldn't take guns away from people who use them responsibly for sport or self defense nor should it handcuff government's ability to keep the most dangerous weapons out of the hands of the most dangerous people.

Zip It Up

It's time for sex education for politicians. They need a refresher course on the basics rules for sexually healthy adults. They have forgotten that you must honor commitments to your partner and that a relationship is based on honesty and trust. The last thing anyone needs is to have their partner stand next to them at a microphone while they confess all their sexual escapades to the whole world. They should remember that one can have sexual feelings with out acting on them. Somethings are best explored in the confines of one's mind. If a sexual relationship is not moral, consensual, honest, mutually pleasurable and protected then just say no. If the sexual behavior is not consistent with your values, expressed and internal then keep it ZIPPED UP. Of course this ethic applies to us all not just politicians. We must be careful about throwing the first stone and remember that the sword of righteousness has a double edge.
I'll be the first to admit that my sex drive has sometimes done my thinking but that does not excuse my behavior any more that it does when a politician lets his little head tell his big head what to do! The only difference in the two is the betrayal of the public trust. Political sex is an old story. Politicians at all levels keep staring in familiar scandals and somehow think they will get away with it but many of them don't. Their reckless, shameless and cavalier attitude catches up to them sooner or later and poisons their political career.
There have been many publicized escapades in political lore but my favorite involved the Chairman of the House Ways and Means committee, one of the most powerful positions in Washington DC. Senator Wilbure Mills was having an extramarital affair with a stripper named Fannie Fox when one night the two of them were riding through the DC Mall when Fannie jumped out of the Senator's car and into the DC Tidal Basin dragging the Senator along for the swim. The two of them were arrested by the DC Park Police. Senator Mills was disgraced and lost his Chairmanship while Ms Fox changed her name from the Argentine Firecracker to the Tidal Basin Bombshell and made millions from book sells.
We are all human and sometimes do self destructive things that are not rational . It's not that politicians are behaving more badly, we're just learning about it more often. Sex and power are extremely connected no matter who you are but politicians often vigorously attack bad sexual behavior while exhibiting the catch me if you can attitude when it comes to their sexual behavior. When are politicians going to wake up and smell the bed sheets? Juicy indiscretions coupled with sexy hypocrisy and dazzling double talk will never be excepted. The only thing that kind of behavior behavior will get you is a name that will forever be Mud or maybe just plain Client # 9.

Bring Back The Darkness

Once again the country has made the switch to daylight saving time, trading a hour of sleep for an extra hour of evening sunlight. For the second year daylight saving time has been extended by four weeks starting three weeks earlier in March and ending one week later in November. This change is just one more reason for me to hate daylight saving time.
What is the point of daylight saving time anyway? I know the official line, it's to save energy. Well it's not 1784 and we don't use candles for light. Saving candles was Benjamin Franklin's reason behind his creation of daylight saving time. Maybe just maybe old Ben knew that oil would be $200 a barrel some day and we all would have to start making candles just so we could afford to see where we were going.
I've always been a so called morning person so I wished it would get light at 6 AM and get dark at 6 PM every day. The people who like daylight saving time are the same people who hit the snooze button on their alarm clock every morning because their life has become a drag. Those same people also like the ideal that their kids get an extra hour to collect candy on Halloween. I've never used an alarm clock in my life and it's been 50 years since I last trick or treated but some day I my have to use "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy and wise" as a candle wick for all the candles I'll be making.
If you look deep into the meaning of daylight saving time it's not about saving energy, it's about adults who don't want to get out of bed in the morning and kids getting hopped up on more sugar. If there was ever two things the world need less of it's lazy adults and hyper kids so bring back the Darkness so I can get all my stuff done before the lazy heads get up and all the kids start running wild in the streets.

All about me----1000 Postings

This week I passed the 1000 count of Blog postings, 1005 to be exact. When I posted my first Blog on August 20, 2004 I never expected to reach the 1000 mark. I have added several other Blogs and changed the names and formats several times but by the time I had posted 100 of them I knew I had found something I really enjoyed. I will never win a Pulitzer for writing and that's OK with me because writing is really a confession. The idea that written sentences and published opinions are revelations of personality is true. Lots of times I write about life experiences even though they are unsolicited. Does a reader feel a writer's life is uniquely special? I do not think so! Usually they read about such lives because the writer is so eager to write about his or her experiences.
I don't know where my ideas come from, they just come. I keep thinking I'll catch a case of writers block but my problem so far has been trying to close the gate to my mind. That beaten old leather chair or that perfect view from the window in front of my desk has never been needed when trying to find the right words. It's hard to know what to make of such writer judgment and self exposure. Maybe my collections of writings are perhaps best thought of as travel guides offering a glimpse of a special country. All of my word driver self consciousness and literary obsessions are utterly dismissible but writers writing about themselves make a reader want to know more about other people the next time around.