Where do you want Government?

Give yourself to love

Yes indeed. this week we are celebrating love. 

All kinds of love really- compassionate love, parental love, family love, 

and the love of your partner. 

This week we celebrate 25 years of marital bliss. 

Ok, for the sake of this retrospective & segway- we've made it through this far &

we've been though a lot. A quarter century of living has encompassed vast arrays

of scenarios we've experienced, endured & embraced.

Don't know how I would live life without you. 

Ain't that a shot in the ass...

Gawker reports:

"A Nevada movie theater patron sustained a buttock injury last night when the handgun he was carrying in his pocket accidentally went off after falling to the floor.

The incident occurred last night during a screening of The Bourne Legacy at a Century 14 theater in downtown Sparks. No other injuries were reported, and no panic ensued.

"Witnesses inside the theater at the time the shot was fired stated that a (man) was adjusting himself in his seat when a gun he had on him discharged," Sgt. Pay Dyer said in a statement released to the press.

The 56-year-old, who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, proceeded to apologize to other moviegoers in his immediate vicinity and exit the theater. Police tracked him down to a Reno hospital; his injury was not considered life-threatening.

Police say they will hand off the case to the Sparks City Attorney's Office, which may decide to bring charges against the man."

With all the insane gun madness going on in this country (seriously are you able to keep track of even the last few weeks? The movie theater massacre, a Texas eviction shootout,  A Virginia man

opened fire on some D.C. conservative policy organization, openly discriminatory anti gay, anti abortion place.  Things are so bad here in the U.S.  some idiot shoots his own ass in a movie theater, are we ready to admit we have a gun problem?

No, maybe we see future movie theater instructions to please turn off your cell phones, use the cup holders, and that the ammo clip out of your gun. 

It looks like it will just be a matter of time before we will be seeing movie theaters advertising that they prescreen movie goers with airport style metal detectors. Will we have Homeland security, doing pat downs  @ elementary schools, College campuses, malls &  theaters?

Land of the free...

Blows hot air

Romney's Disaster

Mitt Romney has chosen his running mate. He was trolling for a running mate & now he has selected a Troll! Paul Ryan- a silver spoon-fed white rich guy who talks the talk, but fails to walk the walk.

Romney flubs the intro of Ryan

Ryan is of the ilk to cut medicare, in order to deal w the deficit... because after all, the rich have theirs, and those with less, who have paid into the system all their working lives, are not entitled to
the benefits they already prepaid. They want to work "budget magic" on the backs of the non wealthy. Even then, budget magic is really voodoo when you consider the following facts from MSNBC:

• In addition to Medicare, Ryan was one of the driving forces to partially privatize Social Security after George W. Bush’s rigged Diebold election tampering victory in the 2004 presidential election.
• There are also holes in Ryan’s budget-hawk armor: He voted for some of the biggest drivers of the deficit/debt -- the Bush tax cuts, the Iraq war, and the Medicare prescription-drug benefit, all of which weren’t paid for. Moreover, Ryan voted against the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles recommendations.
• Has never held statewide office and has no foreign-policy experience. Both could be  ARE liabilities.

Hopefully the lackluster, even negative choice may serve to enhance Romney's election run demise. 

The idea that Ryan as VP could potentially become President of the US by default, should be enough to inspire us to vote against this dreadful duo. 

In the end whatever lipstick they put on these pigs, I hope people have the sense to reject him for at least their own self preservation... because tampering with Medicare & Social Security, while giving the OK to war spending & tax cuts for the rich*-- are not OK. 

* One could argue that Obama preserved the Tax Cuts for the rich for 4 years as well, but he did fight to keep tax cuts for the Middle Class, and not in favor of huge changes to Medicare & or Social Security. 

Indeed, I will have to hold my nose this election, but as I was schooled many years ago, at least vote against those who would do more harm. 

Gun madness

We need to keep coming back to this gun control topic as long as the death toll keeps rising. This week, it was people in their place of worship, a Sikh temple lost six people who were there to pray, in peace.
There was a time when people were killed by guns who were involved in drugs or gang turf wars. It was still senseless, but we could console ourselves by saying they were mixed up in bad choices. Then the killing went beyond just those involved, and innocent bystanders were gunned down... only the bystanders were often children who happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
I do remember the Mother of a Columbine Colorado school shooting, whose daughter was shot & killed, saying how she felt when someone attending the funeral said, "she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time". The Mother could not accept that statement- and she is right.

How could a teen attending high school, going to classes be "in the wrong place at the wrong time", enough to be shot & killed? Looking back to recent mass shootings in the USA, high school, college, movie theater, and church have become random killing fields, that one not make it out alive?
Indeed one local man said sane gun owners prevail, and his only regret was that a sane gun owner was not armed & at the movie theater, so the massacre did not go on to the extent that it did.

Oh! And it is determined that the shooter is mentally unstable, and may suffer from mental illness.
Ya think?

But then you look back at the shoulda, coulda woulda.
Jered Lochner (the Arizona shooter who disagreed w the congresswoman & decided to open fire in a strip mall parking lot where the congresswoman Gabby Giffords was there to listen to constituents.
Prior to his killing spree, the Community College he attended, felt he was mentally unstable & told him a mental evaluation would be needed to continue to attend classes.

In retrospect, the latest Colorado shooter, Holmes was being seen for mental health issues, and the physician had concerns, enough to mention it to the greater board, but when he dropped out of school, they no longer had jurisdiction over his care.

Have we HIPPA'ed ourselves into a corner-- so many laws & rules about patient privacy that mental health care professionals have to take a hands off approach, even when all the red flag warning signs are there?
Of course we don;t want to go to the opposite extreme-- where anyone who seeks mental health care has the stigma of being judged-- but there have been these cases where writings & things being said are outside the scope of general mental health. They have crossed the line into extreme violent thoughts and perhaps even developing plans for how such violence might be carried out.

But the volatile link is that anyone with those thoughts can waltz into a K Mart, or Wal Mart, or go online & buy as much guns & ammo & body armor as they like. The ease with which any ordinary citizen can access firepower that exceed that of the average police officer is where we get into trouble.
It is too easy for the unstable mind fantasizing violence, to put it into motion.

No the answer is not to arm cops w military style assault rifles, or worse, having more ordinary citizens packing more volatile high powered, rapid fire weaponry. Upping the ante here is the wrong way to go.

I contend these innocent victims were in the right place- high school, college, movie theater or church, and the element that is wrong, is our society allowing too easy access to assault rifles, and dropping the ball on all the warning signs that were observed and either ignored, or prohibited from continued follow up with mental health care.

We wind up with "do nothing" politicians, who give speeches after the slaughter & that's it.
On Monday, I attended a Hiroshima Nagasaki memorial event where people worldwide lit floating lanterns in solidarity for peace. Whether it be nukes or assault rifles, this madness must stop.

Awesome

European Space Agency

                                        This image of the Earth taken by the European weather satellite MSG-3.

Never again

Today is the 67th anniversary of the world’s first atomic bomb attack by the USA in Japan. 
Take the time to reflect. 

This instrument is the Koto, played by Koto Master Mitsuki Dazai

A horse of course....

The elite Romney family spends more on their horse than almost double the average annual income of ordinary Americans.

EDITORIAL RANT

NRA has a seven-step plan

The National Rifle Association has the formula spelled out exactly:

1) Work hard to get high-powered weapons and unlimited amounts of ammunition into the hands of anyone who asks for it.

2) Encourage legislation to allow those weapons anywhere and everywhere in our society.

3) When the inevitable massacre happens, hunker down.

4) Release a prepared message saying the NRA is “praying” for the victims and their families.

5) Blitz the media with the message that now is not the time to discuss gun control, for to do so would be to politicize the tragedy.

6) Intimidate any politician who dares to speak against this madness.

7) Go to step one, repeat as necessary.

JIM SCHMIDT

Painfully, this editorial is all too accurate. 

They added flying flags at half mast to the routine... but so far  Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is the only politician stepping up to address the issue. 

The Chicago Trib reports:

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Illinois Governor Pat Quinn on Tuesday proposed a state ban on assault weapons in the aftermath of the July 20 movie theater massacre in Colorado in which a former graduate student is charged with killing 12 people with guns including a semi-automatic rifle.

Quinn, a Democrat, called himself a "strong supporter" of the constitutional right to bear arms, but said in a letter to state legislators that the proliferation of military-style assault weapons undermines public safety.