2nd Amendment: A Rant

To some the 2nd Amendment is above all others in the constitution, even above the 1st. I didn't think the order made any other more important than another. Those who would argue that the 2nd Amendment is sacred would argue the uselessness of the 14th. Some think that the right to bear arms is a natural right and therefore should not have any law that prohibits or regulates this right. I have given these thoughts before, on another post recently. Since then another 3 year old has shot herself in the head, and a brother of my son's friend was killed today, just 18 years old. The latter I knew as a very small child and can't imagine his death. I don't have any details. I do know that there are other reasons why using a gun and murder is commonplace, but I do think having guns is not a natural right and some restriction would save lives. I also think the machismo and uber patriotism that is enmeshed in the defense of the 2nd Amendment, is part of the American myth, which would make any other point of view, harder to prevail.

These same people talk about responsibility; if they don't think they owe a responsibility to society to regulate their gun sellers or have other restrictions that might actually reduce the number of weapons on the street, then I think they should all live as hermits outside the society. There is a responsibility as a member to make society as viable as possible. We do have restriction on speech in certain circumstance, so why is liberty at the greatest risk, with restrictions on gun purchase. This is going to be the next battle; Pennsylvania, NRA and the City of Philadelphia. I think these people live in the 19th century and think there is some kind of Code of the West. They think their children are more mature to handle weapons than to handle sex and other children are just born thugs. I think some think that the more the other children murder each other; that it would be good riddance. They think the other children have superior prowess, because they always say that if they didn't have a gun they would kill with a knife. That's possible, but let get real; the probability of an ordinary child, unskilled in knife fighting, killing someone is much lower than with a gun.

You know, those same people think their weapon would solve the violence. If they lived where guns were sold out a trunk two blocks from they lived, I think they would live in so much fear that they would probable kill pre-emptively; Not in self defense, as it is so often depicted in their fantasy laden scenarios.

Hathor's Evolutionary Theory 157

I have recently learned, that I have Diabetes. Yes, one more thing to deal with. I have been given oral medication, told to loose weight and to watch what I eat. The diet recommends that I eat whole grain breads, cereals and pasta.

Well, I bought a multi-grain loaf of bread. Since I had lost my partial, I don't have enough molars to properly eat the multi-grain bread. I'm thinking why is all this hard crap in the bread. Isn't one of the first things early man invented, was stone grinding? Humans do not have teeth like Moose or even a Gorilla's. I think those that think the bread I had was more natural, don't realize that one of things that differentiate man from other animals is that we have the ability to adapt. We have strove to make life better and livable and to extend our diet in order to survive. We ground our cereals and cooked and smoked meat. We did this many thousands of years ago, so why are we trying to live like man before he discovered fire?

An Evening Forty Years Ago

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. When I began to think about that night, I think of the failed effort of a group of us to gather with others to decide what to do. We were in an accident on our way to campus; our driver hit a pedestrian. The person, thankfully, wasn't badly hurt.

The anxiety from the accident and the inability to express anger and rage were most of my emotions, but no sorrow. Because King's death was not totally unexpected, there was an uneasy acceptance. Now was the time to act, mourning would be another day.

Tonight when I began to think about that night, I hear this music.

Adagio para cuerdas en G menor

Lives Undone by Words of Reconciliation

The words of Barack Obama in Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, his earlier biography, describing the double bind of racism and the conundrum that blacks find themselves when they express themselves as equal.

I had begun to see a new map of the world, one that was frightening in its simplicity, suffocating in its implications. We were always playing on the white man's court… by the white man's rules. If the principal, or the coach, or a teacher... wanted to spit in your face, he could, because he had power and you didn't. If he decided not to, if he treated you like a man or came to your defense, it was because he knew that the words you spoke, the clothes you wore, the books you read, your ambitions and desires, were already his. Whatever he decided to do, it was his decision to make, not yours, and because of that fundamental power he held over you, because it preceded and would outlast his individual motives and inclinations, any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning. In fact, you couldn't even be sure that everything you had assumed to be an expression of your black, unfettered self -- the humor, the song, the behind-the-back pass -- had been freely chosen by you. At best, these things were a refuge; at worst, a trap. Following this maddening logic, the only thing you could choose as your own was withdrawal into a smaller and smaller coil of rage, until being black meant only the knowledge of your own powerlessness, of your own defeat. And the final irony: Should you refuse this defeat and lash out at your captors, they would have a name for that, too, a name that could cage you just as good. Paranoid. Militant. Violent. Nigger. (85)

So after Senator Obama’s speech on race, where he thoughtfully brought up the topic, told people what he understood the issue of race to be, offered words to renew efforts of reconciliation and was not willing to demonize his church or his pastor; this was not enough. Even though he had tried to run as a candidate for all people, that was not acceptable to those who thought for him to run, he had to give up his blackness. They are enraged by the fact he didn’t. You could hear the words start to pour out of their mouths; militant, violent, fraud, racist, Islamist, nigger.

You still find many white people wanting to define how one must feel, think and merge into the world. If they say you are race baiting, it must be so, because they are not racist. It doesn't matter if you are not making the argument personal. They claim your experience and tell you that even if you have suffered at the hand of racism, you can not have any pain, because they are not racist. Are you not grateful for the changes, because they or their ancestors weren't slave owners or belonged to the KKK? They are talking to you as if you are inferior. They can not understand that the conversation, itself, is a result of biased thinking. They have defined all knowledge and their words of reconciliation; negate all of your complaints. This will sometimes enrage blacks, because the words also negate their existence. It put blacks outside the American experience and in some nether land of citizenry and humanity.

When it is acknowledges that rage wont work in a day to day life and blacks fold it up in the recesses of the mind. It seeps out when blacks rationally think that they can be themselves and give their experience of the world; then words of reconciliation call them paranoid, militant, racist, victim.

In case you haven't seen or heard the complete speech.

Roland Martin post both the text and youtube video on his blog. Whose speech? Why it is Barack Obama, speaking in Philadelphia, of course.

A Soldiers Soliloquy

President Bush Is A Liar And A Coward is a powerful post by a recent veteran, UCrawford, at The Liberty Papers.

Now

Here is a blogger who understands how the recent past impacts today's politics.

Say What?

Iraqi defense minister dubious on independent security soon

by Thom Shanker

FORT MONROE, Virginia: The Iraqi defense minister said that his nation would not be able to take full responsibility for its internal security until 2012, nor be able on to defend Iraq's borders from external threat until at least 2018.

Here's the story from the International Herald Tribune

It takes an American soldier 16 weeks; 8 weeks of basic training and 8 weeks of combat or specialized training. 16 weeks from taking an oath to deployment for many soldiers during our previous wars. We have been supposedly training soldiers and police officers for 5 years. I realize that this was in extraordinary circumstances, but 5 years and the defense minister wants 4 to 8 more? Now the US is working out a deal that might keep us there, even if the Iraqis get it together.

Shanker goes on to describe Iraq's defense minister Abdul Qadir al-Obaidi reason for his visit here; discussion of an agreement of the military responsibilities between the US and Iraq. The defense minister has a wish list too.

Qadir sketched out a shopping list that included ground vehicles and helicopters, as well as tanks, artillery and armored personnel carriers.

Those, he said, are needed as Iraq moves toward taking full responsibility for its security.

In the years after that, as his nation assumes full control over its defense against foreign threats, Iraq will need additional aircraft, including warplanes and reconnaissance vehicles, he said.

Did the US destroy all the equipment Iraq had and didn't they have a chance to rebuild its military after our first war? They managed to do it after the war with Iran. I'm puzzled. I am beginning to think that the present Iraqi government intends to play at democracy, so that it can suck at the teat of America's Military Industrial Complex.

Another Hustle

When the America Civil Rights Institute accomplish what they want, how will it have advanced the cause of liberty. Abolishing affirmative action wont do it, because there is more to equal justice under the law. It will not automatically change anything and is it not going to effect the justice system. Will just saying the words make it so or really wishing hard. Hiring lawyers to take cases for individuals who rights are being abused would advance the cause of liberty. It would seem that would be a better agenda that would serve America better, than to serve some rich white conservatives.

But I guess, then one couldn't be special.

Discombobulated American patriots.

Check out this Lil Sambo site.

My blog may not be blocked yet.

Update: I was informed by blogger that her blog had problems during the extreme weather in her area and this was the reason that her blog was inaccessible from other links.