“…Thursday’s
humiliating denouement fooled no one who has been around Washington for more
than a minute and a half. If the president wanted Rice, her withdrawal never
would have been accepted.
It
never should have been allowed to come to this. On that score, Mr. President,
as you say, I’ve got a problem with you.
It
never should have been allowed to come to this.”
Cassi Creek: Marcus
is right!
This
demonstration of political bullying should never have taken place. The choice of cabinet officials does not
reside in the out of power party. The
long and short is that Rice, by virtue of gender and race, yet another reminder
to the GOP/teavangelists that they lost the election; has become a unwilling
participant in a witch hunt. The
GOP/teavangelists are looking for anything at all that they might be able to
use in trying to impeach Obama. This
seems to be the pattern since the Clinton era.
If you lose, impeach or try to.
It is time for this idiocy to stop.
Connecticut
grade school shooting.
This is the
third high profile shooting within the last 14 days, carried out with assault
style weapons or with high capacity handguns.
Motives remain uncertain. Fatalities
have occurred with each of the three incidents.
The NRA will
go into full defensive mode. “If more people
were armed they might have prevented as many injuries or deaths by taking out
the shooter.” Yet the thought of a bunch
of would-be commandos shooting at who they may think is the initial shooter is
more frightening than the thought of a single shooter such as the 22 year old
in Oregon or the Aurora gunman.
The sale of
guns will mushroom over the holidays. We’ll
watch as self-proclaimed Christians celebrate the mythical birth of the “prince
of peace” by giving guns as gifts. The
local newspaper has been running ads for gun sales all month. My morning hiking partner is a 2nd
amendment voter. He makes his living
selling hand-made handgun holsters. They’re
quite good, very durable, I own two of them.
I’m caught on
the horns of this dilemma. I’m writing
this with two rifles and a shotgun within 3 feet of my desk. I have a concealed carry permit, as does
Gloria. I don’t expect to ever have to
defend us or our home with firearms. I
hate the thought of such an event. Yet,
if it were necessary, I have no doubt I would be capable of doing so.
I’ve been
trained to use a rifle, shotgun, and handgun by military and NRA
instructors. I know about target
identification, and about the need to avoid shooting at anyone who is not a
threat. That means, if I should wind up
in the conventional mythical convenience store/gas station/grocery
store/theater/school, along with a dozen other people carrying a concealed
weapon, I must first determine who is unarmed, who is armed, then which armed
people are actually the initial dangers.
By the time I secure my own
safety, the initial shooters will have had several seconds to keep
shooting. I will have to be concerned
about bullets coming from all directions. The smartest thing I can do is to
wait for a break in the gunfire and further my escape. By that time, the poorly trained or untrained
concealed carriers will likely be adding their contributions to the bullets flying
about.
I disagree
with the NRA on almost everything. No
one needs an assault rifle to hunt game.
No one needs to own a machine gun or fully automatic rifle/machine
pistol. No one needs thirty round
magazines for handguns. No one needs to
be able to buy multiple guns per day.
Gun shows need to close the loopholes that let people buy and sell
firearms with no records and no background checks.
We don’t need
the NRA lobbying for any of those things.
We don’t need the NRA scaring people into buying more guns to “prevent
Obama taking your guns.” We don’t need
vigilantes, middle-aged militias, and people with a pathologic loss of contact
with reality planning to “retake the government and country from “Those people”.”
There is a
place for the NRA. They have excellent
hunter and gun safety classes. One of
those classes should be a requirement for any gun purchase.
We still have
two weeks to go in December. How many
more victims will we ring up before we ring in
2013?
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