It's national "Ridicule a Mayan" day

I think I've figured out where the Mayan's astrology went wrong.

I'm thinking House Speaker John Boner needs to invite all of his Tea Party Republican colleagues over to his place for some Christmas cheer and then spike their punch with some of this stuff.  They seem to be waaaaay too tightly wound.

Looks to me like 'ol John is going to be demoted come next month when they vote on a new Speaker.  "Speaker Cantor" just scares the hell outta me.  It'll be like watching a slow-motion train wreck when he and his buds take over.

That's a shame really as we need a solid, responsible Republican party.  Somebody pass me that bottle.

S

The End is Near-ish

So how is this "End of the World" thing gonna happen?  If I understand it correctly, the Mayans in their infinite wisdom have it figured tomorrow is "the day".  "Turn out the lights, the party's over".  It sounds rather silly to me, but then again, who knows?

If it turns out to be true I'd hate for my last meal to be a grilled cheese sandwich.  And I wouldn't want to spend my last day on earth rotating the tires on my car.  And why ruin my last day by balancing my checkbook or going grocery shopping?  To the contrary, I'm thinking about blowing all I have and then some on something really decadent.  Maybe I could drive my new Maserati to III Forks for a juicy, medium rare steak.

Do I dare chance it?  What if the Mayans were wrong?  I can't afford a new freakin' Maserati!

OK....OK....I'VE GOT IT!  We should be able to see this end of the world thing coming, right?  Wouldn't it start over in the western Pacific at the International Date Line?  Then it would work it's way around the world one time zone at a time.  Yeah, that's it.  By the time "the end" made it to Hawaii I would be behind the wheel of my new dream car.  By the time the lights went out in LA I'd be savoring my last bite of steak.  

As things got quiet in Denver I'd be assembling the kids and grand kidlettes in order to watch them open their Christmas presents.  Then we'd be off to the airport (no need for luggage....security should be a breeze!) where my private (rented) jet would be waiting to take us to maybe Paris....no....MONACO!  Wonder if we'd have time for a stopover in Switzerland?  I've never been there and it sounds pretty cool.

Hmmm....maybe I should have been accepting all those credit card offers I get every day in the mail that I've been pre-approved for.  We could've had one epic "Going Out With a Bang!" party.  Oh well, too late to worry about it now.

We could wind down the day in Singapore.  (Is that east or west of the IDL?  I'd better research it.)  Then we could sit and rest a while and thank God for all He's done for us and tell Him again what a great Boss he's been to us all.

Yep, I think I'll take today off work.  I have some shopping to do.  (But I'll keep the receipts just in case.)  *wink*

S

Emma Belle....definitely THIS man's best friend

It was one year ago today that my dog, Emma Belle, gave me sole custody of our chair.

Emma Belle entered my life at the same time K did.  That's because she came with K as a sort of two-fer deal.  We never were sure exactly how old Emma was, but I'm guessing she was around 8 when she came to live with me.  I must say I've never bonded as quickly or as completely with a dog as I did with Emma.  K said more than once, "You've stolen my dog!"

Emma was smarter than one of those road skollers, too.  Together we were almost telepathic.  And unless I was away from home, she never left my side.  Not that I enticed her to follow me....she just enjoyed my company.  (Imagine that!)  If I got up from my desk in the study to go to the den or the kitchen, she would sense I was on the move and jump up from a sound sleep and follow.

She was a little too wide to sit beside me in our big leather chair (or maybe it was me who was a little too wide), so we worked out a deal....I would sit in the chair, but the ottoman was hers.  When I was away she would sit in my seat to keep it warm, but relinquish it as soon as I returned.

She had a temper, and a sense of remorse, too.  If I went somewhere and she wasn't ready for me to leave, she would go in the bathroom and turn over the trash can.  I suppose at some point it would dawn on her she had messed in her mess kit because when I returned she would greet me, not jumping up and down wagging her tail, but with her head down, ears back, and her big brown eyes barely making contact with mine.  I'd say her name like I was upset....Emmmmaaaaaaaa!  Come here!....and she would belly-crawl over to me.  I would ask if she was sorry and she would jump up on me and give me a "hug".  Then all was well, no grudges.

You can't imagine how scared I was when I took her to the vet on her last day.  She had pancreatitis, a common ailment for her breed, and I knew something was seriously wrong and we would soon be parting.  I left her as requested for them to do some tests, and was told to come back in a few hours.  I called K and told her to meet me back there, already having made the decision in my mind to put her down rather than make her suffer a few more days just so I could have a bit more time with my best friend.  She spared me from having to make that decision.  That's how considerate Emma Belle Park was.

Emma with her Christmas present.

Her position on "our" chair, never far away.

I always saved the last drop for her.

I loved her so.  Still do.  Always will.

S

Symbolism vs. Reality

Bureaucrats and politicians and much of civilized society, too, believe in rules and laws.  If there's a problem, you pass a law or amend a rule and the problem is fixed.  Sometimes that works, often times not.  It looks like our leaders will soon be writing new laws to deal with gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings.  So will these new laws represent a paradigm shift in public safety or just be a symbolic gesture?

I expect to see new gun laws that will prohibit the purchase of some types of high-powered firearms and expand the databases that decide who can buy a gun and who can't.  It's a noble gesture, something the public will welcome as it will make them feel they're doing something to relieve the pain we all feel when we think of those innocent children lost at Sandy Hook.

I expect to see school districts everywhere amend their school visitor rules, requiring more identification and explanation of intent before doors will be unlocked for them.

Good people will comply with these new gun purchase rules and will always knock politely and ask for permission to enter.  Evil people will still buy their guns on the streets or just steal them and kick in whatever door is in their way.  This is reality.  

Keeping some types of guns off the streets isn't a bad thing at all, but with between 250M and 350M privately owned firearms out there right now it would be like assessing every adult another $1.50 in taxes and expecting that to balance our budget.  This is little more than symbolism.

Let's get real.  We have many mentally disturbed people living among us.  Some slowly go over the edge or just eventually snap and do terrible things.  These are the people we need to reach out to.  We need to identify them and do something....really DO something....to help them.  Right now any programs to help them are being increasingly starved for money.  They're just pushed to the side by society.

In exchange for help they would have to give up their right to own weapons, and would be subject to frequent random inspection of their residences and belongings to confirm they remain unarmed.  Anything we could do to assist them would no doubt be appreciated by them and even more so by their families who are desperate for help, and would make us all safer, too.  Not just feel safer, but actually be safer.  Win / win. 

If we won't even honor "Thou shall not kill", what chance does another photo-op bill signing in Washington DC have?

S

Payback is HELL!

Are any of you familiar with the internet "hacktivist" group Anonymous?  It's a loose-knit group of computer geniuses who hack into all kinds of sites and just scramble things beyond belief.  They seem to have an anarchist's agenda.  Several of their "members" (you can't actually join Anonymous) are spending time in jail these days as "the establishment" apparently has no sense of humor.   For once, however, they've done something that would prompt most of us....me for sure....to say KUDOS!

Some background:  Westboro Baptist Church (I don't know how they could possibly qualify as a "church") is the one based in Topeka, KS who sends it's members to picket and protest at the funerals of our servicemen and women and others who they say are dead because it's God's way of getting even with us for not lynching persecuting homosexuals, or some such nonsense.  IMO they are a full-blown hate group of the worst order.

Westboro Baptist Church....meet Anonymous.  According to news reports, "After the haters from the infamous church posted their intentions to picket the funerals of the twenty children killed in the shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, Anonymous responded [after hacking into their files] by re-posting the personal and professional information (names, addresses, phone numbers) of the members of the church on the internet."

Anonymous has publically put them on notice...."We will destroy you.  We are coming."

Thanks Anonymous.  I'll leave some cookies and milk out for you.  :)

S

Now THAT'S going to put a crimp in Christmas!

Our local news just reported the Irving, TX fire department is responding to a 2-alarm fire at a FedEx shipping facility there.  Ouch!  So much for that whiz-bang new toy, the last one on the shelf, that Grandma was sending her favorite grandson.
  

Do you think maybe....could it be possible....?

S

"Meaningful action"

Pure evil has raised it's ugly head again and this time taken from us 27 people, 20 of them innocent little children.  We're all in shock.  We're mad.  We feel helpless to do anything, but at the same time we're determined to do something.  The President says we must take "meaningful action".  I concur.  Here's where it gets tricky.  Do what?  

The logical first suggestion is "gun control".  I don't understand what that means.  What exactly constitutes "gun control"?  Does it mean everyone who owns a gun must register it, listing themselves the owner of 1 or 2 or more guns, make X and model Y?  How will that prevent any more massacres?  Have you noticed that in many of these horrible shootings the shooter takes his own life, too?  A person could somehow lose his mind and then use his legal firearm to kill many others plus himself. And of course there is a HUGE black market in stolen guns.  This seems like it would be a huge exercise in futility.

What about just outlawing guns, with a very few exceptions?  Everyone just turn in their guns, where they would be permanently destroyed?  How would that be enforced?  After the turn-in date would the police go door-to-door looking for guns?  The obvious problem....we don't have enough police now, much less enough to take on this additional role.

In this scenario you'd probably get good response from law abiding citizens, but certainly not from the criminal element.  By definition they don't obey laws.  Why should they obey this one?  I think it fair to say you will NEVER be able to get all guns, or even most guns, off the street.  Again, a huge exercise in futility.

Why not try this:  Instead of trying to scrutinize all 300,000,000+ Americans, why not concentrate on the few million who have done something to indicate they are troubled or have already committed a crime?  Every time a restraining order is issued against someone for cause, their name should INSTANTLY go on the FBI list that precludes them from buying a gun (legally).  Any time a person is committed to a hospital for serious, dangerous mental issues, their name would INSTANTLY go on that same list.  And in both cases, a search warrant would be issued INSTANTLY requiring police to search that person's residence/belongings and confiscate any firearms found. 

And for anyone found selling guns on the black market, they would be sent to the most horrible of all prisons....an old fashioned rock-busting, brutal, hellish prison.  And if it could be proven that a gun they sold illegally was used to take a life, then they would be held as complicit as the shooter, and subject to the same penalties.  (Life in prison/ no parole or even capital punishment.)

This would take an extreme effort to pull off, and it would be expensive.  But it would be "meaningful action", and it just might work.  Meanwhile, since it has become evident that law abiding people are to a large extent responsible for their own safety, they could still possess the means to protect themselves.

There honestly aren't any easy answers, but as the President has said, we must do something.

S