Don’t cut conservation
Journal readers are aware of the damage inflicted by the outgoing N.C. legislature on big programs such as education. However, funding cuts were proportionately even more severe in areas that may be less visible but just as important.
According to responsible conservation groups, the 2011 legislature diverted 85 percent from land acquisition by four major conservation trust funds, though some funding was temporarily restored by the short session this year. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund accounts for much of this cutting. Yet, other funds have suffered too, and been denied dependability of future funding.
Slighting conservation seems very short-sighted. First, our state’s natural environment is crucial for its very large tourism and agriculture industries. Second, the recent Great Recession has created a rare opportunity to preserve land at bargain prices. A conservation dollar will go much further than before, and, if necessary, can be borrowed at record-low interest rates.
But leave economics aside. Our stewardship of the good place where we live says a lot about our character as people. Apparently most people are of good character: a recent Nature Conservancy poll found a huge majority of American voters “across the political spectrum say that protecting land, air and water is patriotic.” Overall, that majority was about 80 percent. And even tea-party voters agreed by a 74 percent majority.
Perhaps the new legislature will recognize what ought to be obvious to “conservatives” and restore conservation funding to robust levels.
DONALD E. FREY
Winston-Salem
Legalization invites questions
Your Dec. 7 article “States ponder how to handle legal marijuana” raises a most troubling concern. While I doubt this will happen to North Carolina in this century (or the next), here is my point: In those states, since countless more teens (let's face it) and adults will be driving stoned due to legalization, what about traffic safety? How in the world can it scientifically be measured how much smoked THC would impair a driver?
Moreover, there are no THC breathealizers to my knowledge, so how would this be detected at a traffic stop?
Let's add the fact that whatever delays THC causes in the brain to visual tracking, depth perception and rapid motor responses, all is magnified driving stoned at night (akin to driving with one eye closed).
A worse scenario: What about those who are prescribed sedatives, opiates and other drugs having sedating effects — plus a “healthy” dose of THC? What if the individual drinks a beer and smokes a joint?
I am glad I am not planning any driving trips in the states of Washington and Colorado, unless I could rent an armor car.
PETER VENABLE
Winston-Salem
Social Security sense
Social Security and Medicare: Instead of raising the age for Social Security and Medicare from 65 to 67 for all people, especially for people who really need this income to live on, why not have an income limit for people who make a certain amount — the wealthy and rich who do not need this small income to live on? If by any chance they go bankrupt, or lose their money through bad investments, etc., then they can apply for same.
Social Security and Medicare should be used to enable the senior generations who have worked, the disabled, etc., to live in dignity when they are no longer able to earn a decent living. It should not be given to enhance one's wealth, or given unnecessarily to those who do not need it. This way, we can truly have “trickle-down” economics to the middle class and poor.
VELMAR FAISON
Winston-Salem
The ability to write
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Phasing out cursive writing (“A sign of the times,” Dec. 2)? “Common Core State Standards” is driving the last nail in the electronic destruction of the written language. It has been under siege since the introduction of email and further decimated by texting and twitter. Sadly, the very people who should be fighting to preserve teaching our students how to write in cursive have thrown in the towel in favor of electronics.
We definitely need more teachers like Adrienne Duke, who teaches cursive to her students and expects them to use it. North Carolina and the 44 other states using “Common Core” need to re-think phasing out cursive writing; it is cheating our students of a tool necessary when they go to college and graduate into the real world.
All legal documents require a printed name and a written signature. Who will teach them to write their own name? Will the legal authorities discontinue that practice as a means of identification and protection against fraud? I hope not.
It will completely eliminate future treasure troves of diaries and letters that have allowed us to know the personal thoughts and historic events of generations past. Will electronic data banks replace that valuable resource? I doubt it.
I ask the powers that be in North Carolina education to seriously change their thinking that will rob our students of the ability to write, a media that has been the main means of communication since the beginning of mankind.
RICHARD A. BROWN
Winston-Salem
Legalization invites questions. No kidding. Watch auto insurance rates in the mentioned states sky rocket. Probably same for home owners insurance too. Drinking beer and smoking a joint...what we used to call "pissing in the wind".
ReplyDeleteThere will be more children killed by pot heads driving while under the influence of marijuana in those states than by assault weapons.
DeleteI betcha!
One thing that we can be sure of is that when anything happens anywhere, the ignorant, especially those who are out of touch with contemporary society, will jump to conclusions based on their own ignorance-based biases rather than actually examine the facts.
DeleteBefore approving ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana, California, Washington and Colorado asked the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP), the world's leading authority on drug use, to determine, among other things, if legalization would increase use of marijuana in their states.
The answer was an unqualified "NO". Why? Because ever since the war on drugs began during the Great Reagan administration, marijuana users nationwide have simply been ignoring the laws.
One thing the ICSDP report makes clear is that current U.S. drug policy has no effect on marijuana prices or use. While spending on federal drug law enforcement has increased 1,200% and marijuana arrests have risen 150% since 1981, the rate of marijuana use nationwide has bounced around, with no relationship to these efforts.
“No scientific evidence demonstrates an association between the amount of money governments spend on drug law enforcement and rates of drug use,” says Dr. Evan Wood, a professor of medicine at the University of British Columbia, founder of ICSDP and lead author of the report. “And some nations like the U.S., which spend the most have among the highest rates of drug use.”
Meanwhile, according to national surveys, high school students continue to report that marijuana is universally available, purity has increased and prices have fallen.
Certainly, you can apply that locally. You can currently buy marijuana on any high school or middle school campus in Forsyth County with almost zero chance of getting in trouble. And that extends to local college campuses, including Piedmont Baptist College in West Salem.
For those too old to be hanging around school campuses, you can get marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine and a variety of pills delivered to your door with a simple phone call. You have to know the numbers to call, easily obtained, and the vendors will definitely check you out before the first delivery, but after that it is easy sailing…and tips are not necessary.
Of course, this will have no effect on the ignorati…they prefer to believe in fairy tales.
Pot is essentially legal now. Enforcement has micro-minimal effect. Legalization will have the same micro-minimal change. And tax revenues will rise while enforcement costs drop.
DeleteSS sense. No, the wealthy don't need it. Most I'll bet would sign a waiver to opt out. For the short term SS in repairable, but long term it is doomed in its present form. Demographics and dollars...math say so. It is unsustainable in its current form. That which is unsustainable won't be.
ReplyDeleteDid paranoid, gun-crazed mother trigger son's school killing spree? Friends say she believed world was on edge of collapse
ReplyDelete-Nancy Lanza portrayed as 'survivalist' who stockpiled food, water and guns
-She was shot four times in the head, possibly as she slept, by her son
-Collection of guns included handguns, assault rifle and two hunting rifles
-Son Adam was reclusive, spending most of his time in adjoining bedrooms
-Fiercely protective mother insisted he was never left on his own
-Moved to Sandy Hook in around 1998 but Mrs Lanza and husband divorced
-Funerals for the young victims are to begin today
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2249185/Connecticut-school-shooting-Did-paranoid-gun-crazed-mother-trigger-Adam-Lanzas-killing-spree.html#ixzz2FJXCy7W1
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A mentally ill young man went on a killing spree with weapons that his 'mother' bought. Yet liberals are going into their typical irrational mode and blaming guns.
For the record: Connecticut already has restrictions on 'assault' weapons AND high capacity magazines.
DeleteThat won't stop 'loony' liberals from chirping away about new laws though.
Enter Rush.
Correction: Massachusetts has restrictions on 'assault' weapons and magazines. Hard to keep these liberal, knucklehead states straight.
DeleteConnecticut proposed a law that would have made it a felony back in 2011 to possess a 10 magazine, and would have required all people in possession of such magazines to turn them in. The beginning of weapon confiscation. The NRA successfully fought that law.
Newtown tragedy could put mental health in spotlight
Deletehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/16/newtown-mental-health/1773479/
____________
This is where the focus belongs.
Ex-babysitter says Newtown, Conn. school shooter Adam Lanza's mother warned: Don't turn your back on the boy - not even to go to the bathroom.
Deletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57559502/ex-babysitter-says-newtown-conn-school-shooter-adam-lanzas-mother-warned-dont-turn-your-back/
If only Adam Lanza's mother had access to guns that morning, so she could have defended herself and stopped it all before it began.
DeleteOh. Wait...
If Adam had been in a mental hospital where he belonged, none of this would have happened.
DeleteReally? What a brilliant observation!
DeleteWhile you've been swimming in the sewers on the planet Bucktoid, most of the state mental hospitals in the US have been closing faster than a Russian BrahMos cruise missile homing in on your chicken coop.
"If" and "might" are the two biggest words in any language. "If" you had been born with a brain, you "might" actually make an intelligent post now and then. Ah well.
The ability to write. When they enter the "real world"....the real world is being dumbed down enough to accept them even as we speak. When you see employment applications completed with stick figures, and then follow up thank you notes signed with smiley faces... then you realize things have changed.
ReplyDeleteStick figures? Smiley faces? Must be registration forms to run for Congress.
DeleteGood AM, folks! Finally, crawling out from this miserable flu. If you haven't been given a flu shot, go have one ASAP.
ReplyDeleteI attempted to reply to Brother Cam's monthly class envy polemic yesterday, but my reply went into electronic oblivion when I clicked Publish. In his concern over the wealthy, Cam ignores a far greater threat, that of power without accountability. Please note that the greatest slaughters of the last century were done at the behest of those who were not wealthy: Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Hitler. Also interesting is that the first three of those murderers professed an ideology that is hostile to wealth.
On an order of magnitude far below that of the examples above, we see power without accountability here in the US. cite the unelected and unappointed 4th branch of government in CA, manipulating the other three branches by using the wealth of others without any accountability. Other examples abound, but I'll spare you.
The murders in CT. Tragedies are too good to waste in the eyes of ideologues and opportunists. In the wake of that atrocity we hear the usual calls for gun control. Such calls are arguable, to be sure, but to a large extent are like blaming cars for traffic accidents. Some commentators suggest that mental illness is a far greater concern here, but that is not nearly so politically convenient.
ReplyDeleteAlso ignored in favor of political convenience is the suffusion of violence in our culture, particularly that of young males, as noted by WW at some point. Movies, TV shows, and video games are full of desensitizing violence wihout consequence to the protagonists. During NFL games, I see one commercial after another pitching video games where the player hammers away at oponents with an automatic rife, bloodlessly killing scores of the obliging foes.
This is nothing new in kind, of course. Dirty Harry was gunning one baddie after another down in the first reel of his films, only once receiving any sort of administrative duties for his marksmanship. But, the degree of violence and numbing to the real effects in today's entertainment is much greater. Until we as a culture display a tangible and effectual revulsion to this mentality, Senator Feinstein can propose all the legislation she wants, but it will be of no use.
His teachers, his neighbors, even his own mother knew about his mental problems. Yet not enough was done to treat him to keep his illness under control. Same with all of these 'nuts' in Arizona, Colorado, and now Connecticut.
DeleteInstead of thinking of 'trying' to take everybody's guns. Why not think about another more realistic solution; arm some teachers and school administrators.
Senator Feinstein knows about gun violence better than most.
DeleteHer previous law did nothing to curb gun violence in America. It was all political hogwash.
DeleteThere are laws against importing drugs into the U.S. Yet each year, there are tons of it brought in. If guns are outlawed, what do you think is going to happen?
Principal tried to take gunman down:
Delete“My only hope is that the gunman actually had a little bit of fear knowing this 5-foot-2-inch raging bull was coming at him, that he had a little bit of fear in his eyes that knowing that someone like Dawn was going to come after him because he was trying to hurt her students,” she said. “She was so vibrant and so full of life and I want people to know that she was a hero.”
_________
Had she been armed, she would have had a better chance.
What a lethal, false security are the "gun-free zone" laws. Virtually all mass murders in the past 20 years have occurred in gun-free zones.
Deletehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/12/16/gun-free-zones-larry-pratt/1773473/
Yes, Senator Feinstein was tragically more proximate to gun violence than most. In my young adulthood, I had to sidestep some ill-intended rounds sent in my direction. Neither situation dilutes or reinforces my comments.
DeleteYes, I returned the fire: no hits, two runs in opposite directions, two errors.
Thanks to the Southern California Mathematics Society, the top ten movie killers, as of 2008:
Delete10. Jean-Claude Van Damme - 328
9. Charles Bronson - 377
8. Clint Eastwood - 396
7. Stevan Seagal - 420
6. Mel Gibson - 421
5. Sylvester Stallone - 449
4. Chuck Norris - 455
3. Harrison Ford - 508, 387 of those in "Return of the Jedi"
2. Arnold Schwarzenegger - 538
1. Dolph Lundgren - 662, 182 of those in "The Punisher"
Discounting the non-EON Productions films ("Casino Royale" [1954], "Casino Royale" [1967] and "Never Say Never Again" [1983]), 1,299 people were killed in the first 22 James Bond films, 352 of those by Bond himself.
Only 12 people were killed in the first movie, "Dr. No", 4 by Sean Connery. The only movie with fewer kills was the quirky "The Man With The Golden Gun", in which 6 people were killed, only one by Roger Moore.
Connery played Bond in 6 of the first 7 movies, but is only 3rd on the all time Bond killer list, with 72. Roger Moore killed 90, but didn't come close to the bloodthirstiest, Pierce Brosnan, who accounted for 135, an average of 33.8 per movie.
In other fiction, the mighty warrior Achilles, doomed by yet another careless mother, is said to have killed 2,202 enemy soldiers.
But Samson is the all-time champ. Like many serial and mass murderers he had a troubled childhood…born of a barren, unnamed woman, he killed 30 men for their clothing and set 300 foxes on fire to burn Philistine fields. Cruelty to animals is often an early sign of murderous psychoses to come.
Eventually, of course, Samson slew 1,000 Philistines in a single day with the jawbone of an ass. Imagine how his arm felt the next day…A Balm?
But that was just a warmup. He followed up by becoming a suicide terrorist, pulling the temple down upon himself and an estimated 3,000 more Philistines.
David ben Gurion, very much aware of the suicidal aspect, named Israel's nuclear weapons program the "Samson Option".
I wonder how many Orcs and Uruk-Hai Viggo Mortensen and company bagged in the LOTR series. The slaughter on the Pelinnor Fields was epic.
DeleteThanks to the internet, we can find out virtually anything.
DeleteWho has died the most times in movies?
John Wayne, the great tough guy, was also the all-time dead guy. He either died or was dead or seemed to be dead 12 times.
The Shootist - He is killed in a gunfight in at the end of the film.
The Cowboys - He is killed by Bruce Dern's character.
The Alamo - Playing Davy Crockett, he is killed by a Mexican soldier's lance.
Sands of Iwo Jima - He is killed by a sniper's bullet at the end of the film.
Wake of the Red Witch - He dies as the ship sinks.
The Fighting Seabees - He is shot by a sniper.
Reap the Wild Wind - He is killed by a giant squid.
Noah's Ark (1928) - Wayne and Andy Devine are among the hundreds of extras killed in the flood…Wayne also worked in the props department during filming
His character death is not shown in the following:
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - His character is dead at the beginning of the film and the story is told in flashback by James Stewart who is attending his funeral.
The Sea Chase - Lana Turner and Wayne are on a ship when it sinks, but the possibility that the characters survived is left open.
The Deceiver - Ian Keith's character died, but the corpse was played by John Wayne.
Central Airport - John Wayne has a very minor role as the co-pilot of an aircraft that crashes into the ocean.
Easily the best death scene in a movie occurs early in "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World". As Jimmy Durante expires, his leg jerks and his foot kicks a bucket down the hill.
Mental illness, God, video games, media...these are all things to distract us from the main issue which is guns.
DeleteWordly, the problem is with people who pull triggers when they shouldn't, just as the problem with with drunk driving is people who drive when they shouldn't. By your logic, the problem with drunk drivers is cars.
DeleteGuns are designed to kill things. Assault rifles are designed to kill people. Cars are designed as transportation. It's a faulty comparison.
DeleteThe common denominator is that both have human operators.
DeleteThese mass shootings began in the 70's and 80's, about the time that entertainment violence ratcheted up. So-called assault weapons were not so prevalent then, though high-capacity weapons were available, the WW2 M1 carbine and replicas being an example.
I have said gun control measures are at least arguable, with ludicrous ammunition capacities being a point of discussion. Anyone who seeks to purchase a 150-round drum for an M16-type rifle or a 75-round drum for an AK-type gun probably does not need to be indulged for a variety of reasons, including the idiocy of turning a perfectly serviceable rifle into a unwieldly bullet hose.
Same applies to a 31-round mag for a .45 or 9mm, as wielded by the supposedly non-terrorist in AZ.
DeleteInterestingly, the Obama administration has indicated it will not charge into the gun control issue. I suspect it will make measured moves for legislature, or attempt legisltation by executive/bureaucratic fiat, which is its style.
Again, do as you will about guns. If the bloody-minded culture popular among young (mostly white, 'twould seem) males is moderated, this problem isn't going away. My stepsons played at some of these games, requested others as Xmas gifts in past years. They got Madden's football offering, no "Call of Duty" or "GTA" or any other antisocial fantasies.
Overreaction: an MI legislator proposes that holders of CCW licenses should be allowed to carry firearms in schools. I disagree. Schools should be firearms free except for those on the hips of trained and sworn LEO's. Conversely, a couple of teachers' union presidents aver that the CT shootings are an example of why teachers should not have guns in school. Not sure if I follow that logic, but they are correct in their conclusion that guns do not belong on campuses.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete"False analogy" it is called in logic.
DeleteAs repeated ad nauseum, James Madison never intended to write, much less pass, the Second Amendment. The original wording, as presented by Congress on July 28, 1789:
"A well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, being the best security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; but no person religiously scrupulous shall be compelled to bear arms."
In the ensuing debate, it was argued that the amendment was not in keeping with the conciseness of the Constitution itself, so needed editing. The final version, passed by the House on September 21, 1789:
"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
This met the conciseness need and did not change anything in the original, because everyone understood that a militia was "composed of the body of the people" and not individuals (see the Federalist papers and many other contemporary sources) and that other parts of the Constitution, and specifically the 1st Amendment, protected religious freedom.
In 1792, Congress passed a law requiring that all able bodied men between the ages of 18 and 44 be enrolled in local militias and listed a number of items which they must provide for themselves. not a popular law. Compliance ranged from 10-65%, depending upon locality.
So in 1794, when 7,000 Pennsylvania farmers rebelled against federal tax collectors, none of the surrounding states were able to muster a force to oppose them. The Feds had to step in with conscription to raise a reasonable force. Since 2/3 of the conscripts did not own weapons, the Feds had to supply them. The President of the United States himself, assisted by General Harry Lee, led a rag tag army of 13,000 into the field. Outnumbered and outgunned, the farmers backed down.
That same year, Congress passed a law setting up a system of federal arsenals to supply local militias with weapons. That worked no better, and nearly led to defeat at the hands of the British in the War of 1812, when the Brits ransacked Washington and burned the White House and the Library of Congress.
Eventually, locally controlled militias developed under the aegis of county governments. In the latter part of the 19th century, as the mass migration from farm to factory began, the militia members came predominately from city folk, who had no weapons. The local Forsyth Rifles evolved from Benjaming Forsyth's famous rifle regiment which gave the Brits fits along the Canadian border during the War of 1812. By the 1890s, the Rifles' rifles were kept locked in their armory on the top floor of the Winston Town Hall.
Not long thereafter, local militias were absorbed by the State Guards in the respective states, which were in turn absorbed by the National Guard. There is no such thing as a local "well regulated militia" today.
Of course, due to the determined efforts of the National Rifle Association and the most right wing Supreme Court in history, the militia part of the amendment has been cast aside…just as foolish as the Supreme's decision that makes a corporation a person.
There is no hope for any meaningful changes in gun laws anytime soon. the first step will require a saner Suprme Court to overturn the decisions of the Scalia court. That itself will take some time indeed.
As usual, we are awash in a sea of ignorance, ignorance having surpassed lying which originally surpassed baseball as the national pastime.
Amazing about lack of complaints about Constitutional malleability when laws re abortion constitute unreasonable search and seizure, and free speech is extended to bozos setting textiles on fire in public places. But, let corporations be placed on a level field with unions, or individual rights be found in the Second Amendment, and well now, those are distortions of the Constitution.
DeleteMore false analogy...whenever one tries to simplify a complex matter, false analogy is bound to be lurking nearby.
DeleteAs to the flag, there are many ways that it can be used as symbolic speech. On Moratorium day in 1969 in Viet Nam, we hoisted the flag at reveille upside down. The Officer and Petty Officer of the Watch were present and did not notice. In fact, no senior officer noticed until a few minutes before taps.
A few days later I happened to be in the office of the commander of River Task Force 116. He knew me well, so gave me the eye and said out of the blue "Clever lad, Rush." I said "Aye aye, sir." He smiled.
If you want to see disrespect for the flag, just look around you...the display of huge flags held by many people parallel to the ground (aloft and free) at football games and NASCAR events, especially when they are used as receptacles for donations; the millions of tattered and frayed flags displayed on private vehicles for months after 9/11 (should be disposed of in a dignified manner)...there has been a flag on Main Street in Washington Park for many years that is too big for its staff, so is partially draped over shrubbery (should never touch anything beneath it)...I could go on and on...flags flown at night unlit...non-all weather flags flown in the rain...etc,etc,etc.
Abortion's not unreasonable search and seizure. It's really based in the right to privacy, via Griswold v. CT, via Louis Brandeis.
DeleteA lot of very bright people are mentally ill.
Deletehttp://connecticut.cbslocal.com/2012/12/17/newtown-gunman-went-to-conn-university-when-he-was-16/
Stab....you're absolute right. We must follow the Constitution when it fits liberals' needs or agenda, but when it comes to gun rights, oh, that's different according to liberals.
DeleteEqual protection....yes we have to have that to get gay marriage. Equal treatment regardless of one's sex, race etc....no, that only applies when we want it to. After all, certain groups need a leg up.
A liberal's logic is absolutely sick when you think about it.
Well, well, I see that the remora has returned. Those of us who have dived on reefs where sharks hang out have observed that remora do an excellent job of cleaning out the shark's anal cavity...I guess that is their version of foie gras, which certainly has the same look and consistency. At least they don't have to go to Le Bec-fin and pay the high prices there.
DeleteAnd yes, a lot of bright people are mentally ill. Even more dumb people are, as evidenced by the two posts immediately above.
Not quite so false. Setting fires in public is dangerous, not speech. Misusing a flag a la NASCAR guzzlers is rude but not dangerous. Declaring public burning to be speech is taking malleability a bit too far. Likewise, Justice Stephens had to stretch a bit for that right to privacy. Mind you, I'm fine with the stretch: I think the privacy of a secret ballot is a great right. Finding individual rights in Amendment 2 isn't that much of a stretch.
DeleteNow, A2 doesn't mean that laws cannot be passed, so it may be that mag capacities will decrease. Sen. Manchin of WV, has signaled that he may support some modifications. He is a moderate Dem, bless him, and a lifelong NRA member. We centrists are few, must stick together.
I misspelled Justice Stevens' last name. Time to turn in.
DeleteIt isn't merely rude, it is disrespectful and a violation of the US flag code. It reveals the vast ignorance of flag waving patriots. Having served once on a flag burning detail in the Navy, I have zero tolerance for fools who desecrate the flag.
DeleteAs to the danger of flag burning, no doubt, three or four million people have been killed in flag burnings worldwide, so many, in fact, that the UN is expected at any minute to declare flag burning an act of terrorism.
And I heard a rumor once that a building almost caught on fire once upon a time during a flag burning, but that turned out to be a little reactionary hysteria.
Meanwhile, an average of about 115 Americans die every day for the daring and foolish act of driving their cars.
As to the 2nd Amendment, you clearly miss the point.
And burning a flag is free speech and not a violation of the US code? My my, quite an exception. As for danger, let's see how I fare with the law if I start burning union newspapers in front of Solidarity House.
DeleteI am not the only one who misses your point re A2. Not all the pundits and pols at the time of the Framing missed the individual right. Besides, those of you on the left aren't strong on original intent, anyway.
Actually, original intent is crucial. But each step along the way is also crucial. So abortion becomes a part of something never mentioned in the Constitution or the bill of rights, privacy, which was very important to all the founding fathers.
DeleteThe 2nd amendment was clear from day one...if militia (ie "of the people", in this case read "national defense") was not important, that phrase would have been left out.
The whole thing was about national defense, not some yahoo in Idaho with a big gun collection. One would hope, but one would be wrong, that none of the gun nuts actually believe that they could defeat the US government in combat.
If they want to try, they will find out just how deluded they are...not really all that different from the foolish secessionists.
“My only hope is that the gunman actually had a little bit of fear knowing this 5-foot-2-inch raging bull was coming at him, that he had a little bit of fear in his eyes that knowing that someone like Dawn was going to come after him because he was trying to hurt her students,” she said.
ReplyDeleteAs often happens, in the hysteria of the moment, we have created yet another false hero. The person who said the above was not a witness to what happened.
When the first shots were fired (to break through the glass door), the prinicipal, Dawn Hochsprung, several other staff members and one parent were meeting in a conference room in the office area.
The principal, the school psychologist, Mary Sherlach, and the parent stepped out into the hall to see what was going on. Hochsprung and Sherlach were immediately felled by a hail of bullets. There was no "charge" of any kind. The parent was able to scramble back into the room and slam the door. She is the only eyewitness and this is her story.
The rest has been made up by over eager non-witnesses and sensation seeking reporters. Over the centuries, there have been many "made up" heroes.
That reminds me of the story of about the 911 "survivor" who rode the collapsing floor to the ground, and was later dug alive out of the rubble with 2 broken legs. It turned out that story was a fanciful as the faked photo of the guy on the roof of one of the towers, unmindful of the approaching 767 behind him.
DeleteYet we must have our legends.
DeleteAnd sometimes we have to revise them. For decades, Old Salem assiduously avoided mention of slaves on their public tours and in their scholarly literature. And if you take the tour of the magnificent Tryon Palace in New Bern, you will be repeatedly regaled about its occupant's graciousness and kindness. There is no mention of the estimated 100 regulators killed at the Battle of Alamance, nor the seven that Tryon later hanged.
And of course, who could forget Sarah Palin's rewrite of the Paul Revere legend, which is a legend itself.
"Mission Accomplished"
Woodrow Wilson was born in a manse owned by the Presbyterian Church, in Staunton VA, 1856.
DeleteThe church employed slaves, but technically only leased them. Owning them would have been bad form.
Oh yes,examples of hypocrisy abound...like General/President Grant never owned slaves (which actually, by inheritance, he briefly did), but that did not stop him from supervising his wifes slaves until he came to the conclusion that he was not cut out for overseer work and moved into retail.
DeleteThat wasn't out of conscience...it was matter of that overseeing was much harder work than retailing.
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: "Perhaps the new legislature will recognize what ought to be obvious..."-LOL, good luck with that! The "new" legislature will be "meet the new boss, same as the old boss" except even more extreme.
LTE 2: DWI laws also cover under the influence of narcotics. There are THC test kits available which I'm sure will be available to the state patrols of WA and CO. I'm not sure if there will be any "Joint joints" spring up where people go to light up, or if people will remain at home as they do now. Although marijuana use is prevalent, there does not seem to be very many cases of DWI while under its influence. Whether or not NC or other states follow suit in relaxing marijuana laws will depend on how things go in these initial states.
LTE 3: Income has long been a discussed qualifier for SS. It would not surprise me to see an income phaseout for SS recepients enacted in the future. I'm not sure if I see a Medicare phaseout although it's in far worse shape than SS. Even a wealthy individual can be wiped out by a disease such as cancer without some form of insurance. It could be those above a certain income level will be required to have private insurance with Medicare reserved for the lower incomes.
LTE 4: "...have thrown in the towel in favor of electronics." - I don't know if Mr. Brown has been paying attention for the last 15 - 20 years or so, but everything is going the way of electronics. I imagine it won't be long before electronic signatures do replace written signatures. I already use an electronic signature for my tax forms. As for the "treasure troves of diaries and letters that have allowed us to know the personal thoughts and historic events", that was replaced by email, Facebook and texting years ago. Sorry Mr. Brown, but you are defending a horse and buggy practice that is rapidly becoming antiquated.
Ana with brother Isaiah
ReplyDeleteBy the way, RIP Senator Inouye. He had more courage in his thumbnail, than most of us could ever hope for.
ReplyDeleteA true American hero, who somehow endured our cheesy "hero of the day" society.
DeleteBrave man, indeed.
ReplyDelete