Well, I’ve grown past that for the most part. In all my time on this earth I have never once found myself in a position where I’d wished I had a gun. Yeah, I know, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Or is it?
How many kids die every year because they got hold of a parent’s weapon and accidently killed themselves or others? I read somewhere that in 2018 it was around seventy-five kids under 12. That statistic alone should spark a national conversation but here, in the good old USA, seventy-five dead kids means nothing. NOTHING.
According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute an average of thirteen youths between the ages of 10 and 24 are the victims of a gun homicide….PER DAY.
I could go on but we’ve heard all the statistics. In fact, we’ve heard them so often that we’ve become numb to them. So, I’m going to delve into some complicated analysis. Hang on. It’s earth shattering stuff. These concepts are the result of countless hours of deep thought and contemplation on my part. I have a headache.
1- If you throw a baited hook in the water, you might catch a fish. If you throw 500 baited hooks in the water your chances of catching a fish increase dramatically.
2- If I stand at mid-court and try to drain a jump shot my chances are not good. If I take 50 of them, chances are I’ll make a few.
3- Many years ago, I was told that if you walk up to 10 random women and ask them if they want to have sex, one will reply in the affirmative. I can’t confirm this unfortunately. I CAN confirm that if you do it four or five times you’ll get slapped at least once and six to seven attempts will conjure up an unseen boyfriend and his posse of friends who will gleefully kick your ass.
4- If we placed one gun…any gun…. a single shot .22 or a .50 caliber BAR (look it up) in the middle of the country, the odds of a child, or an adult, dying from a gunshot wound, are next to nothing (unless we put it in the home of a lunatic). If we arm every adult in the country the dead bodies will pile up pretty quickly.
It’s a simple numbers game. It’s not complicated. Like I said earlier, common sense. Now, some of you are thinking “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. You’re 100% correct. People kill people. So, I would like to put you in a room with me. The bad news is I’m going to try to kill you. The good news is you get to pick my weapon. You can pick a 9mm semi-automatic handgun with 15 in the clip and one in the chamber, a samurai sword, a bowie knife, a baseball bat, or a wrench. Did anything register yet? Good for you! Wrenches don’t kill people, people kill people… but not usually with a fucking wrench.
But what about the second amendment? It’s my constitutional right to own a gun! To you I pose the question, how many years need to pass before a document starts to become dated? Do you think the founding fathers were thinking in terms of that 9mm above? Really? Did you think the day would come when we would hold the accumulated knowledge of the human race in the palm of our hands? There’s more computing power in your cell phone that there was in the computers that helped us get to the MOON. You didn’t see that coming did you? Well, the founding fathers didn’t see the high capacity semi-automatics coming either.
But let’s leave the 2nd amendment in place. It says that we have a constitutional right to own guns (and I’ll ignore the well-regulated militia part). It does not say we have a constitutional right to buy them at 7-11. Why, would any sane individual protest the implementation of sensible screening for gun ownership? How does putting a waiting period of a few weeks or even a month, disadvantage us? Don’t YOU want to be sure your crazy uncle Eddie doesn’t have access to a gun? He tried to stab the dog with a steak knife last thanksgiving. You want him to have a gun?
Things we wait a month for:
1. New Years Eve on November 30th.
2. Your lawn mower if you wait until spring to bring it in for servicing.
3. An appointment with a specialist for that nagging pain in your knee.
4. The full benefit of Preparation-H if you use it as directed.
We live through all of these don’t we? If it saves one child’s life, or any life, wouldn’t it be worth it? No? What if it was YOUR child? Let’s stop the insanity. Conservatives are always throwing these ridiculous memes at us about Australia’s crime rate going up when they outlawed certain weapons or how the highest crime rates are in areas where gun control is the most restrictive. It’s all a bunch of bullshit. Here are some numbers (by the way, Australia’s gun violence went DOWN substantially when they implemented the mandatory buy back program).
In France there are around 15 guns for every 100 people. They experienced less than three gun related deaths per 100,000 people in 2012. Spain has around 10 guns per 100 people. They see around 1 gun related death per 200,000 people. In Germany, there are 20 guns per 100 people. There you’ll find a death rate of 1 per 100,000. Great Britain has about one death per 400,000 and their gun to person ratio is 3 per 100,000. Now, how about the good old USA. How do we stack up? We own a staggering 120 guns per 100 people (think about that) and around 20 in 100,000 die each year from gun related deaths. You don’t have to be a genius to see the math here. You do however need to be pretty dense to argue about it.
I’m not advocating a change to that gun to person ratio (although it would be nice and the time will come so start getting used to the concept). What I am advocating for is common sense screening and education for gun ownership. If it takes a month, tough shit. It probably took you longer than that to get your drivers license. If you have to wait until your 21, too bad. You can’t legally drink until then either. If it saves ONE life, it’s worth it. Stop the insanity. I’m sick and tired of people dying. And please don’t argue with the logic. I will only make you look stupid. No one is coming for your guns (yet). Keep up fighting it though and sooner or later the blow back will be huge. In the meantime, I’m hoping all of our kids, and all of you, remain safe.
Until next time.
Peace
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
The Gun Debate
In the wake of still more mass shootings, I feel compelled to comment on it all. When I was younger… OK, much younger… I was a gun toting Republican. No, it’s true. I even have one of those “I’ll give up my gun when they pry it from my cold dead fingers” belt buckles lying around somewhere. I thought I had all the answers when it came to the gun debate. I was even a card carrying member of the NRA (although in fairness, there was a time when the NRA hadn’t lost its mind and primarily promoted gun knowledge and gun safety). Besides, who wants to be caught unprepared when the apocalypse comes to fruition? You’ve all watched the Walking Dead right? Do you want to be swinging an axe or stabbing a knife into those zombie heads, getting that gooey, bloody, brain gunk all over you? Hell no! I want to blow their fucking heads off with a .45 or a .357! By the way I’ve attached a picture below to prove it. Damn, I was trim and good looking!
Well, I’ve grown past that for the most part. In all my time on this earth I have never once found myself in a position where I’d wished I had a gun. Yeah, I know, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Or is it?
How many kids die every year because they got hold of a parent’s weapon and accidently killed themselves or others? I read somewhere that in 2018 it was around seventy-five kids under 12. That statistic alone should spark a national conversation but here, in the good old USA, seventy-five dead kids means nothing. NOTHING.
According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute an average of thirteen youths between the ages of 10 and 24 are the victims of a gun homicide….PER DAY.
I could go on but we’ve heard all the statistics. In fact, we’ve heard them so often that we’ve become numb to them. So, I’m going to delve into some complicated analysis. Hang on. It’s earth shattering stuff. These concepts are the result of countless hours of deep thought and contemplation on my part. I have a headache.
1- If you throw a baited hook in the water, you might catch a fish. If you throw 500 baited hooks in the water your chances of catching a fish increase dramatically.
2- If I stand at mid-court and try to drain a jump shot my chances are not good. If I take 50 of them, chances are I’ll make a few.
3- Many years ago, I was told that if you walk up to 10 random women and ask them if they want to have sex, one will reply in the affirmative. I can’t confirm this unfortunately. I CAN confirm that if you do it four or five times you’ll get slapped at least once and six to seven attempts will conjure up an unseen boyfriend and his posse of friends who will gleefully kick your ass.
4- If we placed one gun…any gun…. a single shot .22 or a .50 caliber BAR (look it up) in the middle of the country, the odds of a child, or an adult, dying from a gunshot wound, are next to nothing (unless we put it in the home of a lunatic). If we arm every adult in the country the dead bodies will pile up pretty quickly.
It’s a simple numbers game. It’s not complicated. Like I said earlier, common sense. Now, some of you are thinking “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. You’re 100% correct. People kill people. So, I would like to put you in a room with me. The bad news is I’m going to try to kill you. The good news is you get to pick my weapon. You can pick a 9mm semi-automatic handgun with 15 in the clip and one in the chamber, a samurai sword, a bowie knife, a baseball bat, or a wrench. Did anything register yet? Good for you! Wrenches don’t kill people, people kill people… but not usually with a fucking wrench.
But what about the second amendment? It’s my constitutional right to own a gun! To you I pose the question, how many years need to pass before a document starts to become dated? Do you think the founding fathers were thinking in terms of that 9mm above? Really? Did you think the day would come when we would hold the accumulated knowledge of the human race in the palm of our hands? There’s more computing power in your cell phone that there was in the computers that helped us get to the MOON. You didn’t see that coming did you? Well, the founding fathers didn’t see the high capacity semi-automatics coming either.
But let’s leave the 2nd amendment in place. It says that we have a constitutional right to own guns (and I’ll ignore the well-regulated militia part). It does not say we have a constitutional right to buy them at 7-11. Why, would any sane individual protest the implementation of sensible screening for gun ownership? How does putting a waiting period of a few weeks or even a month, disadvantage us? Don’t YOU want to be sure your crazy uncle Eddie doesn’t have access to a gun? He tried to stab the dog with a steak knife last thanksgiving. You want him to have a gun?
Things we wait a month for:
1. New Years Eve on November 30th.
2. Your lawn mower if you wait until spring to bring it in for servicing.
3. An appointment with a specialist for that nagging pain in your knee.
4. The full benefit of Preparation-H if you use it as directed.
We live through all of these don’t we? If it saves one child’s life, or any life, wouldn’t it be worth it? No? What if it was YOUR child? Let’s stop the insanity. Conservatives are always throwing these ridiculous memes at us about Australia’s crime rate going up when they outlawed certain weapons or how the highest crime rates are in areas where gun control is the most restrictive. It’s all a bunch of bullshit. Here are some numbers (by the way, Australia’s gun violence went DOWN substantially when they implemented the mandatory buy back program).
In France there are around 15 guns for every 100 people. They experienced less than three gun related deaths per 100,000 people in 2012. Spain has around 10 guns per 100 people. They see around 1 gun related death per 200,000 people. In Germany, there are 20 guns per 100 people. There you’ll find a death rate of 1 per 100,000. Great Britain has about one death per 400,000 and their gun to person ratio is 3 per 100,000. Now, how about the good old USA. How do we stack up? We own a staggering 120 guns per 100 people (think about that) and around 20 in 100,000 die each year from gun related deaths. You don’t have to be a genius to see the math here. You do however need to be pretty dense to argue about it.
I’m not advocating a change to that gun to person ratio (although it would be nice and the time will come so start getting used to the concept). What I am advocating for is common sense screening and education for gun ownership. If it takes a month, tough shit. It probably took you longer than that to get your drivers license. If you have to wait until your 21, too bad. You can’t legally drink until then either. If it saves ONE life, it’s worth it. Stop the insanity. I’m sick and tired of people dying. And please don’t argue with the logic. I will only make you look stupid. No one is coming for your guns (yet). Keep up fighting it though and sooner or later the blow back will be huge. In the meantime, I’m hoping all of our kids, and all of you, remain safe.
Until next time.
Peace
Well, I’ve grown past that for the most part. In all my time on this earth I have never once found myself in a position where I’d wished I had a gun. Yeah, I know, it’s better to be safe than sorry. Or is it?
How many kids die every year because they got hold of a parent’s weapon and accidently killed themselves or others? I read somewhere that in 2018 it was around seventy-five kids under 12. That statistic alone should spark a national conversation but here, in the good old USA, seventy-five dead kids means nothing. NOTHING.
According to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute an average of thirteen youths between the ages of 10 and 24 are the victims of a gun homicide….PER DAY.
I could go on but we’ve heard all the statistics. In fact, we’ve heard them so often that we’ve become numb to them. So, I’m going to delve into some complicated analysis. Hang on. It’s earth shattering stuff. These concepts are the result of countless hours of deep thought and contemplation on my part. I have a headache.
1- If you throw a baited hook in the water, you might catch a fish. If you throw 500 baited hooks in the water your chances of catching a fish increase dramatically.
2- If I stand at mid-court and try to drain a jump shot my chances are not good. If I take 50 of them, chances are I’ll make a few.
3- Many years ago, I was told that if you walk up to 10 random women and ask them if they want to have sex, one will reply in the affirmative. I can’t confirm this unfortunately. I CAN confirm that if you do it four or five times you’ll get slapped at least once and six to seven attempts will conjure up an unseen boyfriend and his posse of friends who will gleefully kick your ass.
4- If we placed one gun…any gun…. a single shot .22 or a .50 caliber BAR (look it up) in the middle of the country, the odds of a child, or an adult, dying from a gunshot wound, are next to nothing (unless we put it in the home of a lunatic). If we arm every adult in the country the dead bodies will pile up pretty quickly.
It’s a simple numbers game. It’s not complicated. Like I said earlier, common sense. Now, some of you are thinking “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”. You’re 100% correct. People kill people. So, I would like to put you in a room with me. The bad news is I’m going to try to kill you. The good news is you get to pick my weapon. You can pick a 9mm semi-automatic handgun with 15 in the clip and one in the chamber, a samurai sword, a bowie knife, a baseball bat, or a wrench. Did anything register yet? Good for you! Wrenches don’t kill people, people kill people… but not usually with a fucking wrench.
But what about the second amendment? It’s my constitutional right to own a gun! To you I pose the question, how many years need to pass before a document starts to become dated? Do you think the founding fathers were thinking in terms of that 9mm above? Really? Did you think the day would come when we would hold the accumulated knowledge of the human race in the palm of our hands? There’s more computing power in your cell phone that there was in the computers that helped us get to the MOON. You didn’t see that coming did you? Well, the founding fathers didn’t see the high capacity semi-automatics coming either.
But let’s leave the 2nd amendment in place. It says that we have a constitutional right to own guns (and I’ll ignore the well-regulated militia part). It does not say we have a constitutional right to buy them at 7-11. Why, would any sane individual protest the implementation of sensible screening for gun ownership? How does putting a waiting period of a few weeks or even a month, disadvantage us? Don’t YOU want to be sure your crazy uncle Eddie doesn’t have access to a gun? He tried to stab the dog with a steak knife last thanksgiving. You want him to have a gun?
Things we wait a month for:
1. New Years Eve on November 30th.
2. Your lawn mower if you wait until spring to bring it in for servicing.
3. An appointment with a specialist for that nagging pain in your knee.
4. The full benefit of Preparation-H if you use it as directed.
We live through all of these don’t we? If it saves one child’s life, or any life, wouldn’t it be worth it? No? What if it was YOUR child? Let’s stop the insanity. Conservatives are always throwing these ridiculous memes at us about Australia’s crime rate going up when they outlawed certain weapons or how the highest crime rates are in areas where gun control is the most restrictive. It’s all a bunch of bullshit. Here are some numbers (by the way, Australia’s gun violence went DOWN substantially when they implemented the mandatory buy back program).
In France there are around 15 guns for every 100 people. They experienced less than three gun related deaths per 100,000 people in 2012. Spain has around 10 guns per 100 people. They see around 1 gun related death per 200,000 people. In Germany, there are 20 guns per 100 people. There you’ll find a death rate of 1 per 100,000. Great Britain has about one death per 400,000 and their gun to person ratio is 3 per 100,000. Now, how about the good old USA. How do we stack up? We own a staggering 120 guns per 100 people (think about that) and around 20 in 100,000 die each year from gun related deaths. You don’t have to be a genius to see the math here. You do however need to be pretty dense to argue about it.
I’m not advocating a change to that gun to person ratio (although it would be nice and the time will come so start getting used to the concept). What I am advocating for is common sense screening and education for gun ownership. If it takes a month, tough shit. It probably took you longer than that to get your drivers license. If you have to wait until your 21, too bad. You can’t legally drink until then either. If it saves ONE life, it’s worth it. Stop the insanity. I’m sick and tired of people dying. And please don’t argue with the logic. I will only make you look stupid. No one is coming for your guns (yet). Keep up fighting it though and sooner or later the blow back will be huge. In the meantime, I’m hoping all of our kids, and all of you, remain safe.
Until next time.
Peace
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Say Duh Bobo....
May 3, 2019
Who Supports The Dump?
I’m sure everyone who doesn’t support the current POTUS has spent some time ruminating on this question. I sure have. With some individuals it’s obvious but how otherwise seemingly intelligent, compassionate, people can sit back and insist that the guy is legit and doing a great job will go down as one of the greatest mysteries of the 21st century. I know a lot of people who, based on what I’ve observed about them, shouldn’t be willing to even consider the guy as the leader of the free world. But they do. What follows are some of my observations. There’s nothing earth shattering here. It’s all been spoken of before. I’ll probably lose a couple or friends over this but frankly, I don’t care anymore. The gloves came off a long time ago when it comes to this shit so, “whatever”.
Let’s start with the obvious but not spend to much time on it. It’s been discussed substantially and analyzed repeatedly over the course of the campaign and presidency, but I’d be remiss to not give it a nod here. Stupidity.
Not all conservatives are stupid, but most stupid people are conservative. Sorry stupid people but it’s true. Your ability to analyze, research, comprehend, think critically, formulate conclusions based on fact, are all sorely lacking. Your analogies flat out suck. This results in the ease with which you can be manipulated and made to believe what is neither true nor beneficial to you or our society.
Can anyone cite an example of when a liberal said walls are evil? Maybe someone has but I’ve never heard of it or understood that to be the issue. The issue has been that walls are expensive and ineffectual when stretched over 2000 miles and liberals don’t want to pay for them. Remember those drooling idiots who were orgasmic over the prospect that Mexico was going to pay for the wall? They were so tickled with glee that you could see their missing teeth. I don’t think any liberals would give a shit one way or the other about the wall if Mexico paid for it. Have at it.
And we don't abort newborns. A newborn is, by definition, BORN. You can’t abort what’s already been born. And if you can name one liberal that supports infanticide, have at it. Are you really SO misinformed that you believe that? You want to know what could be considered a form of infanticide? Not giving low income families the means to care for newborns. You yell and scream about abortion, then you yell and scream about delivered children whose parents need financial help to raise them. Make up your addled minds. Do you want to care for them or do you want to abort them? If you can’t make a decision, stay the fuck out of it. In fact, you should stay the fuck out of it anyway. It’s none of your business. P.S. If you haven’t adopted any unwanted or orphaned children, you have absolutely no right to play the pro-life card. I shall mock you incessantly.
Here’s another great example. There’s a meme out there with a picture of the conservative God of the Sun, Ronald Reagan. Alongside the picture is this quote attributed to him. “Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the people must be stopped, by force if necessary.”
As soon as I read this I knew it smelled funny. As a marginally intelligent person (not bragging, I’m not a genius and know a lot of people smarter than I am. Plus,for the purpose of this example the bar is pretty low.) I looked it up immediately. You guessed it. Not Reagan. Know who? Karl Marx that’s who. For a tribe of people who despise socialism and communism as passionately as these people do, they sure seem to embrace the Russians and their leaders. It begs the question, “why don’t these bone heads look this shit up for themselves?” No, really. Why don’t they? I’m asking you. What the fuck is wrong with these people? Then there’s this next one.
"No politician who supports gun control should get armed protection paid for by those he is trying to disarm."
Here, some dimwit tries to draw a twisted parallel between an attempt to keep guns out of the hands of those that shouldn’t have them, and the protection afforded by those who are highly trained and most certainly should have them. Is there a liberal politician out there lobbying for disarming the Secret Service? The police? The military? These people can’t think. And these are just o couple of examples taken from HUNDREDS.
I could go on and on about stupidity but instead I’ll share this link. It perfectly exhibits how incredibly easy it is to manipulate these people. This guy made up stories and the red hats bought them hook, line, and sinker.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fake-news-donald-trump-supporters-gullible-believe-anything-barack-obama-paedophile-hillary-clinton-a7623441.html
Next is hate. Hate has always been, and likely will always be. Early in our history we hated African Americans so much that we sold them as chattel and beat them if they didn’t perform to our liking. We hated Native Americans to the point of genocide. We hated the Chinese. We hated the Irish. We hated Italians. We hated the Jews. We hated the French after 9/11. We hate Mexicans and South Americans and REALLY hate Muslims. We hate the gay community and those that support them. As a society, we just seem to get off on hate. Of course this isn’t really true. It’s a specific segment of society we’re dealing with here. What causes all this hate? That’s right, stupidity.
For the most part, the haters are just exhibiting the stupidity already discussed. They believe people can be inferior based on skin color. They believe people can be murderers based on religion. They believe intelligence can be equated with wealth. They believe all sorts of shit that isn’t true. But I lied. It’s not just stupidity that drives the hate. It’s also fear. These people are dripping fear. For all the tough talk, they’re really just a passel of pussies. They need walls. They need guns. They need a military that could destroy the world ten times over. They’re afraid gay people will make their children gay. They’re afraid foreigners will hurt them. They’re afraid the liberals will turn the country into a haven for communists. They fear illegal aliens who will rape and plunder, deranged sexual perverts running naked through the streets with their sons and daughters. They fear the government will come and take their guns. They just live in constant fear. And they say we’re the snowflakes? But, I lied again.
All this fear is also based solely on their stupidity. None of that shit is anything to be afraid of. The things they fear have been misrepresented, misunderstood, or just plain made up! What these dolts should be afraid of is climate change.
Who is responsible for seeding the minds of these sheep? Those conservatives who are greedy money hungry pigs. They don’t give two shits about these poor lemmings. They just want to control them through the fear that will keep them voting against their own best interests. These are the same people who want you to believe “trickle down” is a thing. If they can keep their flock believing that sooner or later the money will reach them, they can keep them following orders. The dum-dums aren’t sharp enough to look at history and realize that shit doesn’t happen. When you increase wealth at the top, the top gets wealthier. That’s it. They buy nicer homes. They buy bigger boats. They send their kids away to expensive schools. And they stick together like glue! Wealthy conservatives might as well form a gang. They do all the things gangs do. They just do it metaphorically or utilize questionably legal methods to achieve the same results.
But, let’s look at those greedy little shits. What would happen if they weren’t so greedy? Consider for a moment how middle and lower class families would respond to a higher pay day and lower taxes? They’d spend a lot of it wouldn’t they? They would want nicer things. They would want things they never could afford before. They would spend more on goods and services and that money flows UP. That’s right. Trickle UP is a thing. Not only would they benefit, but those above them who control manufacturing, energy, services, etc., would benefit as well. I don’t have the time or the required skills to calculate how much of a benefit the big wigs would realize. I suspect it would be substantial and provide more than the tax breaks they currently realize. I do know this. I have gone back 60+ years or so and examined economic indicators and stock market performance. I can confidently state that with maybe one exception, the economy under Democrats has outperformed the economy under Republicans. Don’t take my word for it. Look it up. Who usually benefits under Democrats? Everybody, that’s who. So, an argument can be made that these rich, greedy, pricks are stupid too. If they just seeded the lower classes with some of those tax cuts they could watch the money trickle up to them.
Gee, they’re all stupid! That’s it. We don’t need to complicate it. Some of them have a better command of the English language and might be better at math but they’re stupid. If they weren’t, this orange piece of shit wouldn’t have gotten elected in the first place. It took a nation plagued with stupidity to get this guy in the Whitehouse and that is something truly frightening.
Peace
Common Sense
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
I'm BAAAAACK!
OK. I've been off the blogging bender for a long, long, time. Basically, I'm just reintroducing myself to the platform, the process, and the mechanics of getting in here and posting. It's been so long that it took me 15 minutes to find it! I finally referenced bikini barista bellevue, based on the fact that I knew I had posted about that before. What came up was an article from November 2009 which gave the name of the stand... Knotty Bodies. I googled that which led me to an article from France 24 in which my blog was quoted when trashing the news of it's closing. I have no idea why France 24 was reporting on the closure of a latte stand in Bellevue WA. but, I was excited as hell to be in a French publication! Thankfully, it actually provided a link to the blog and here I am! Hey, France 24! Let me reciprocate in kind! https://observers.france24.com/en/20091125-bikini-baristas-booed-bellevue-knotty-bodies-washington
So, now I've found it. The Voice of Reason. Boy do we ever need a voice of reason these days huh? I look forward to espressing (that's a joke, get it?) my opinions, sharing my observations, and releasing my pent up rage over the current condition in what used to be the #1 country in the world. Be advised... I can be crude, rude, and vulgar as hell. But I don't view it as vulgarity. I view it as punctuation.
I look forward to posting regularly. It's therapy....
Hugs,
Common Sense (You can call me Mr. Sense or The Other Common)
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