Connecticut --> Guns [what else?]

I do not care if you decide all guns should be banned [although I certainly disagree]; but, if you reach that decision I want it to be based on truth and logic rather than conundrum, alarum and emotion.
 
 Here we go, still, in my relentless but probably unsuccessful campaign hopefully to educate or to help you educate others about the myths and illogicalities of gun control. I have waited a couple of days and here are a few things lumped together.  Yes, this is another of my typically long posts. Feel free to scan, to ignore, or to pursue the links it includes.

Yes, for many, if not most, of you I am preaching to the choir. Hopefully this information expands your available discussion skillset. If it is not old news for you, hopefully this information shall assist you in confirming your opinion.


An assault weapons ban was in place in Connecticut and did precisely nothing to stop Lanza from mowing down kindergarteners. Connecticut has heavy gun registration laws. Sandy Hook Elementary was a gun-free zone, just as virtually every major mass shooting location in recent memory has been. The real solutions here lie in better protection for schoolchildren, either from armed guards or trained administrators, not in more pie-in-the-sky legislation. Lanza broke at least five laws before he even began shooting. None of them stopped him.

A great op ed: “The same Department of Justice that allowed the illegal transfer of 2500 semi-automatic AK-47 assault rifles to ruthless Mexican cartels, which resulted in the murders of hundreds in Mexico (including children) and two U.S. federal agents, is going to be dictating and enforcing the prohibition of sane law abiding U.S. citizen's owning semi-automatic rifles. Fantastic."
Full piece


Media myths about assault weapons and semi-automatic firearms. Just like the TV ad where the girl says "They can't put it on the Internet if it isn't true. Here he comes now. He's a French model ... ", discussion is rampant with misinformation and myth.

“semiautomatic” mostly means “not automatic.” The use of the phrase semi-automatic when talking about guns is like using the phrase “gasoline cars.”

Even the M-16s the U.S. military buys today do not have the automatic option. AR-15s that are legal to buy do not have the three-shot burst that the military’s current M-16s have, the CIVILIAN AR-15 is incapable of automatic or burst fire. They don’t have the automatic-fire option that most people associate with the MILITARY M-16.

In the NY Times:
    semiautomatic weapons, including the AR-15, are increasingly being used in the killings of police officers, whose vests often provide little protection against such firearms.
                         Semi-automatic AR-15 style rifle, as in the Times article  

     Bushmaster MOE M-4                                                       





REAL M-4

 Yes, Virginia, this IS an assault weapon with all the available bells switches and whistles. It is designed for killing attacking enemy soldiers accurately at ranges up to 800 yards and can be changed in the field for different calibers of bullets, types of ordnance, grenades, sights, lights =  to your little old heart's content. It can fire 30 rounds as fast as you can blink your eye - that is what fully automatic means. It can hold a 100-shell magazine and even be fed by a belt of bullets, like the classic machine gun.

You do NOT go buy this at the corner WalMart, the pawn shop, or Mike's Gun Shoppe.

Assault pencil - collapsible stock, pistol grip, front                                                                 grip, tactical light, tactical sight

The No. 2 assault pencil fits Nancy Pelosi's definition of assault rifle as her words are currently written.

"AR-15s are not the only weapons used by rampaging shooters. Semiautomatic handguns are also frequently employed. In Newtown, in addition to the Bushmaster M-4 carbine, two handguns were found at the scene, a 10-millimeter Glock and a 9-millimeter Sig Sauer, although the rifle is what Mr. Lanza used, pumping up to 11 bullets into each victim’s body" [objective journalism, not sensationalism, right?]

Does this mean a higher proportion of police killings are done with semiauto weapons as opposed to single-action rifles and revolvers? What is it about being semiautomatic – again, a descriptor of the loading mechanism – that makes a gun more able to overcome the protection of a bullet-proof vest?

The referenced article uses the term “assault weapon” to describe the AR-15. But there’s no real definition of the term.

All guns can be used to assault someone – even a muzzle-loading black-powder rifle.
Congressional attempts to define this term were laughably ad hoc.
A rifle could cease being an assault weapon if you sawed off the flash suppressor.
It could become an assault weapon if you added a bayonet.
A 49-ounce handgun could be legal under this law, while an identical version that was one ounce heavier could be outlawed.

The law didn’t target guns used for murder. It targeted guns that look too military-like:

The Pentagon defines the term “assault rifle,” and David Kopel quotes that definition in an article in the Journal of Contemporary Law. He writes:
As the United States Defense Department’s Defense Intelligence Agency bookSmall Arms Identification and Operation Guide explains, “assault rifles” are “short, compact, selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between submachine gun and rifle cartridges.”[21] In other words, assault rifles are battlefield rifles which can fire automatically.[22]
Weapons capable of fully automatic fire, including assault rifles, have been regulated heavily in the United States since the National Firearms Act of 1934.[23] Taking possession of such weapons requires paying a $200 federal transfer tax and submitting to an FBI background check, including ten-print fingerprints.[24]

I will editorially add that the Class 3 license to buy and sell automatic weapons and even the "simple" application for the transfer tax take months to complete and require checks and balances at many levels of government.

(b) DEFINITION OF SEMIAUTOMATIC ASSAULT WEAPON- Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

`(30) The term `semiautomatic assault weapon’ means–

`(A) any of the firearms, or copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber, known as–

`(i) Norinco, Mitchell, and Poly Technologies Avtomat Kalashnikovs (all models);
`(ii) Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil;

 `(iii) Beretta Ar70 (SC-70);

`(iv) Colt AR-15;
`(v) Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR, and FNC;

`(vi) SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9, and M-12;
`(vii) Steyr AUG;

`(viii) INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22; and

`(ix) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as (or similar to) the Street Sweeper and Striker 12;

`(B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of–

`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
`(iii) a bayonet mount;
`(iv) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; and
`(v) a grenade launcher;

`(C) a semiautomatic pistol that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of–

`(i) an ammunition magazine that attaches to the pistol outside of the pistol grip;
`(ii) a threaded barrel capable of accepting a barrel extender, flash suppressor, forward handgrip, or silencer;
`(iii) a shroud that is attached to, or partially or completely encircles, the barrel and that permits the shooter to hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand without being burned;
`(iv) a manufactured weight of 50 ounces or more when the pistol is unloaded; and
`(v) a semiautomatic version of an automatic firearm; and

`(D) a semiautomatic shotgun that has at least 2 of–

`(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
`(ii) a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
`(iii) a fixed magazine capacity in excess of 5 rounds; and
`(iv) an ability to accept a detachable magazine.’.

Is it too much to ask that every person wanting to possess a firearm be subject to a battery of tests -- everything from intelligence and emotional quotient exams to a psychological evaluation and background check?
After all, for years we have said that guns do not kill people, people kill people. People who are incapable of driving are not allowed to drive. People who are incapable of performing brain surgery are not allowed to practice as a neurosurgeon. People who are incapable of properly handling firearms should not be allowed to handle them.

And, here is, unfortunately, an attempt to turn the whole issue into one of racism and sexism: link

Finally, a link discussing some obvious myths: Flash Suppressors Do Not Kill People,

These should keep you busy and thinking at least for a while.

Rape

Yes, I know this is a strange and different topic. But, the whole thing with sex today is way, way different than when I was a teenager, you know? And I saw what I thought to be an EXCELLENT article written by a woman but in a guy point of view:
http://christaramblesandwrites.blogspot.com/2012/12/on-being-dudeand-what-to-do-about-rape.html

I was at Red Rocks once for a concert in the early 1980's. I was old enough that I should have been willing to take a responsible male role - hey, I had a teenage daughter myself by then. If you have ever been at Red Rocks, you know there is quite an overhang for the seats - great place to put your backpack or dry clothes in a rain storm.

Well, as the night passed on and the bongs passed on this girl about 2 rows behind me got incredibly wasted. Some guy was hitting on her hard, and she had no idea what planet she was on, so as he dragged her under the seats and began to, ahem, disrobe her I thought gee, her friends are surely gonna come to her rescue.

All that happened was another girl reached down and took the car keys out of her pocket, then three girls left together leaving this young lady 'way beyond stoned in the "loving" clutches of three guys. When I look back at this, I know I should have at least said something, or found a baseball bat to use to discuss chivalry with these ignards, or whatever. But did I? No, I practiced what my dad, in his Chicago commuting days, called "the subway stare".

I should be ashamed to bring up this memory. Hey, I am ashamed to bring up this memory. It isn't the first stupid thing I did or didn't do, it wasn't the last stupid thing I ever did, and I probably still do stupid things on a regular basis. But, as a father, as a disciple of Jesus, heck, as a man of character and integrity I should have done something. Even if that was back in the days before AIDS and even before herpes or genital warts became widespread and rampant sex was a foregone conclusion in many a circle. It is like Christa says in the above-linked blog: if someone consents when they are sober and awake, and are later stoned or asleep, there is a BIG difference. What they choose to do willingly should not become what you do with the young lady unwitting.

So read this blog. It puts in words for guys as a guy might say them all of those thoughts that have haunted me for the 30 years that I keep remembering what I failed to do. Remember, We are the people. In our republic, the collective is responsible for protecting the individual, even if, perhaps particularly when, the individual is a "different" person. None of us is as strong as all of us, each of us can always use help. Just like Abe said in Bill and Ted's adventure: Be excellent in all things and one to another.

You who are on the road must have a code that you can live by,
and so become yourself because the past is just a goodbye.
Teach your children well: their father's hell will slowly go by and feed them on your dreams;
Tthe one they pick's the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry.
So, just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
        -- Graham Nash

The NRA?

No, NOT the National Rifle Association. Yes, I am a member of the National Rifle Association - that goes along with being a Southerner raised Baptist by a Marine veteran, as I have discussed many times. Today's NRA is the National Recovery Administration, established by the National Industrial Recovery Act. In case you have forgotten, or never had the opportunity due to lack of time in most curricula to cover the 20th century in history classes (always got lost in the Civil War, maybe got as far as the start of World War I), here is the Wikipedia link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Administration
{and, while you are at wikipedia, consider contributing for their support. What is for you a pittance through Paypal is their lifeblood}.

I was reminded of the NRA when I was on eBay looking at Shirley Temple dolls to see if any were actually selling (Peg wants to sell some of hers to make Christmas money, and I told her it probably was not worthwhile*). One of the dolls had a dress with an NRA tag, and the seller said they had no idea what that stood for:




The NRA was the fundamental basis of President FD Roosevelt's "New Deal". If you don't know about New Deal, you really DO need to go back and read a little history if not study it. Just as today, the nation was in need of economic and social recovery due to the depths of what was, then, The Great Depression. My folks talked about the Depression, and it was pretty ugly. They both made it through okay because my Grandfather Riddle was a country doctor and my Grandfather Moore was a very good farmer. Neither was in debt, neither was invested in stocks that crashed, neither one panicked. The neighbors all chipped in to help each other when and as they could - Mom used to talk about how their school had soup at lunch every day and everyone had to take their cup of soup and eat it, even if they brought their own lunch from home. For some kids that was their only meal, of course - kind of like free and reduced today, which has been carried on to the penultimate panacea of food stamps. :-\   My grandfather and uncle were directed by the NRA/government to grow potatoes. I suspect they may have been a bit subsidized, but I never really have known for sure. I know that things were bad enough that Grandpa paid for three refrigerated boxcars to carry his potatoes to Chicago, and then once they arrived there were no buyers and he had to pay for a day labor crew to unload the cars and throw the potatoes away.

That could have made a lot of potato soup, you know?

Anyway, back to the NRA. In principle it was great. Kind of like arbeit macht frei - sounds great, but what happens in the real world. Government control of unions and companies ... well, you can predict where that headed then, just as you can guess where it is heading now. In 1935 the Supreme Court found that the NIRA was unconstitutional in that it failed to maintain the separation of powers. The all powerful party in control managed to push through many of its provisos in the National Labor Relations Act, though (the legislation that "allows" auto makers to pay a cadre of replacement workers to be on site in case they are needed due to absence - $65 an hour to sit in the cafeteria and do nothing. Really. They are required to do nothing while waiting the full shift to see if they are needed. Anecdotally I heard that once they actually called for one of them to go to the line and could not find one skilled in the tasking they needed ... ).

Those who cannot remember the past (or never knew it) are destined to repeat it. As Leon Uris said of the Ireland-North Ireland conflict  in Trinity, there is no tomorrow, no today, just yesterday repeating itself over and over. One of the things my dad successfully taught me was that if something ain't broke, don't fix it; but, if something is broke, fix it and fix it right, once and for all.

We are broke as a country. We need to fix it right, once and for all. Pulling a play from the 80-yr-old playbook that didn't work and was illegal is hardly the way to fix it right.

They always say if you pick on some idea have a better suggestion. My suggestion is always free enterprise. The shortcoming is that it takes equally well informed producer and consumer groups, so our consumers have some waking up and some learning to do. Either that, or we are headed for idiocracy! Fiscal cliff? Bring it on. We will have to bite bullets eventually, and we had just as well do it now. Punt the NRA and its latter-day equivalent and go for full rebirth of the nation.

jim

* - Shirley Temple, Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Kids, collector plates of all types, doll series from Franklin and Danbury Mints, music boxes, medals, teacups; Precious Moments and Memories of Yesterday -- all are cute to beautiful and sold famously when they came out. We have more than our share around here. The thing is, anyone who was interested bought more than their share when these items first came out. The price was fixed by the distributor at a level that impressed the buyer as being a bit above junk, which may or may not have been true, but was still low enough for pa to buy ma one or two on birthday/anniversary/

Christmas/Valentine's Day. And he did. So everyone has relatively a similar stack in their basement or storage area, akin to ours. They have what they want, and more, and they are in no position to buy anything else due to the present economy AND due to the fact that they do not need or want any more Shirley Temple, Beanie Babies, Cabbage Patch Kids, collector plates...

Breakfast

"When the toast is burned and all the milk is turned
And Cap'n Crunch is wavin' farewell,
When the big one finds you may this song remind you
They don't serve breakfast in Hell..."

Yes, it is early in the morning, now that you ask, and thoughts of food are making their way through my brain. w00t! shirt today was Continental Breakfast:

That is actually a pretty healthy continental breakfast, I'd say. But what ran through my mind was:
PANCAKES.

I like blueberry pancakes, except if I watch "The Cry of the Owl" the night before. I didn't watch it last night, so I might throw blueberries in mine this morning. We have company, so I naturally thought of pancakes because it's a good dish to cover more than one person at a time.

Then I got started thinking: it has been my observation over the years that most people make pancakes harder than they need to be!! Aunt Jemima and Bisquick sell lots of boxes full of flour and chemicals every year to people who do not realize how simple the batter is and fail to recognize that most of their problem is not having the right thing to cook them on or to use the right heat.

A big skillet, preferable non-stick, will work for one or two at a time. Real pancake men/women use a griddle, either an electric one or a stovetop one, depending on how good they are with their stovetop. If you have a nice cast iron griddle and a gas stovetop that you use all the time, I am probably not telling you anything you do not already know. Otherwise, stick to an electric griddle. If you don't have one, buy your parents a new one for Christmas and take their old one - the old one will likely be a better, heavier griddle.

Temperature. In days of yore, the griddle was the right temperature when a drop of water would blithely dance around the surface like a woodland sprite, or some semblance thereof. I like to say 375-380 degrees F. Electric griddles like to tell you 425, because you get it that hot, throw the batter on and it cools down to around 380 while it cooks. I always stick mine a hair over 375 and have always been happy.

If your griddle is nonstick, wipe it off and go for it. There actually is enough oil/butter in your pancake mix to keep them from sticking once they are ready to turn or take up. They will stick if it is too early. Warning to tuck away for later.

But, that brings us to the batter. Easy as pie. Actually, easier than pie, or cake for that matter. Get a good sized pitcher, thrown in some milk - 3/4 to 1 cup or so, 2 tbl of cooking oil, and an egg and mix that around until it is consistent. Throw in a cup of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a tablespoon of sugar and a dash of salt, mix that all together and you're done. Glob out as much as you want on the griddle, and let it sit there past when little bubbles form and break, then flip them for a bit. The second side cooks a lot faster. Then you're done.

Variations - use some powdered buttermilk/water instead of milk. In that case, throw in a half teaspoon of baking soda. You don't need the baking powder, but I leave it in anyway. Add chocolate chips. Add blueberries. In either case, sprinkle the additives on after you put the batter on the griddle. Use melted butter or margarine instead of oil. Throw in a 1/2 tsp of vanilla.

Always use good syrup, too, with or without butter/margarine. Makes all the difference in the world.

Enjoy!