Passionate Gun Love, 2016

Things never really seem to change ...

But, I'm still puzzled about what happened to the Peace and Love Generation I knew in the 60's and early 70's - you know, the ones who thought Mad Magazine's spoof on gun ownership, 'Passionate Gun Love Magazine' (Mad #131, 1969), was hilarious and true.  When I look around now, it seems most of those people must have switched sides, or stopped caring, because all I'm hearing on the news and social media are calls for unlimited gun ownership, open carry, and for all I know the right to marry your gun.

Ok, gun ownership may be protected by the Second Amendment - if you read that document looking for a favorable interpretation in that direction, but its not an inalienable right.  Convicted felons can't own guns, for example, and if you misuse your firearm often enough your local constabulary will relieve you of it (or lock you up - without your gun).

Some people draw a comparison to the privilege of driving a car, and I think that's mostly correct, except that the founding fathers forgot to create an amendment guaranteeing our right to drive (or rather the then current equivalent of owning/riding horses). I'm glad they did leave it out, otherwise we'd have our hands full with people arguing against the vehicle registration process - and where would all those people who call numbers all day at the DMV (and look totally miserable while doing it) go?

Doesn't a well-regulated militia also require vehicles as well as firearms?  Those founding fathers really missed that nugget, 'eh?

My personal take on all of this is that I understand the ownership of guns for hunting, for sport (hitting a target you are aiming at is a visceral kind of enjoyment - deep, deep neanderthal stuff), and even for personal protection if your circumstances put you regularly and inescapably in harm's way. Or if you live way out in the Boonies far from reliable police protection.

What I don't understand is the absolute fear of so many people that reasonable background checks and registration of guns will somehow inevitably result in all guns being prohibited.  In fact I think the opposite is true - without reasonable registration and tracking of guns, and means of assuring they don't fall into the wrong hands, the public outcry in the face of increasing gun deaths may become so great there would be a real risk of an overreaction resulting in banning of guns.

I'm also unwilling to regress to an every-man-for-himself society where disputes are solved at gun point, rather than by discussion over a beer, intercession by the police, or at worst in court with drawn and pointed lawyers. It took us a good hundred years to build a society where most people, most of the time, don't need guns, and I would like to keep what we've built - if for no other reason than I'd be terrible at remembering to strap on my piece when I can barely remember to put on my watch.

But I think I'm wasting screenspace here.  All the evidence I have seen, heard, and read tell me that nobody on the 'free guns for everybody side' will ever embrace a world where registration and tracking is a reality.  In their heart of hearts they believe having a stash of weapons the government doesn't know they have is their best method of ensuring they can overthrow a government they don't like.  They see unlimited gun ownership as somehow their Constitutional and Patriotic Duty - as if they are the holy interpreters of the Constitution and blessed defenders of their interpretation.

So that's my opinion, but if any of you reading this deeply disagree with me, well, there's always a place for you in Texas, or any of the other States that have enacted open carry laws.  I'd personally choose Texas, though, since it seems most like the place I could live out my childhood Western Hero dreams, by strapping on my dual faux ivory-handled Roy Roger's six-shooters, sayin' 'Howdy, Mam' to all the ladies, and planting evil-doers on Boot Hill, then riding into the Sunset on my faithful Palomino (if I have to live in a World where everyone needs to carry a gun, I want my own Trigger).

Give Me a Break

I know I should be concerned for the future of our Country and our World, what with being a father and an Uncle and all the hopes and fears those roles bring.

But right now I just want to Catch a Break.

Like, just a few days ago I was seriously considering chucking in my pre-millenium VW Diesel, which although it gets 45 mpg religiously, has basically devolved into a disintegrating mass of metal and plastic and is now slightly embarrassing to be seen in. I mean, I lost the front cupholder 5 years ago and my kids destroyed the rear one sometime in the year '00.

So there I was looking at leasing or buying a new generation 'clean diesel' from the company that has come to mean diesel cars to me - Volkswagen.

Just as I was circling in on a decision of which model to haggle for, the news about VW's cheating on emissions testing came out.  On their diesel cars, it appears they installed software that could detect when testing was happening and lean out the motor to clean up the emissions, then revert back to normal operation at all other times, meaning the 'clean' diesel was actually significantly dirtier than testing showed, at least for some forms of emissions associated mainly with diesel motors.

Now, I know these diesels are not as clean in certain forms of pollutants as modern gas-engined cars, but they emit far less carbon dioxide and you'll never see one (that isn't seriously broken) coughing out black smoke, unlike the old days when following behind a diesel going uphill would give you a basic grounding in smoke-screening.

So, I wasn't deterred by the VW news.

But then they stop selling all diesels in the US. Gone, none, nada ...

Give Me a Break!

Who knows how long it will take to get these things fixed and back on the shop floor.  And when they are fixed how will they run if they have to operate all the time in the right mode for low emissions?

I guess I'll have to invest in my old diesel from the last millennium, then, but I priced those cupholders and they are $200 plus for a few bits of plastic and a spring.  (Give Me a Break)

Despite Change, The Same Lament

The more things change the more they stay the same.  An old saying, and one that seems shaky given the apparent pace of technological and social evolution, but nonetheless feels true in some fundamental aspects of our human civilization.

And this can surprise you.

The degree to which this country is still plagued by bigoted, even full-on racist, attitudes has certainly surprised and shocked me.

Having spent my childhood years in the South, I was  exposed to the 'separate but unequal' status quo of the fifties and early sixties, and that was indeed ugly and hateful, but I've seen so many positive changes over the intervening years I thought that old attitude was gone, an historical anachromism tied to our less educated, less aware days.  Living most of my adult life in larger cities among intelligent and progressive people, and not being a man of color, I guess I've been insulated against reality.

But the events of 2014-2015 have shown us all in ways we can't ignore that prejudice is alive in this land; weakened from its former self maybe, but like a half-dead rattler in the grass still capable of delivering a deadly strike.

From the string of fatal inflictions of police prejudice that began in Ferguson, to the lack of respect shown for our President that exceeds anything thrown at a sitting chief executive in living memory, we are awash in evidence.

If I am very lucky, I may have a little more than two decades left on this planet.  I am hoping that what I thought had happened but hasn't yet, finally does, and that before those twenty-odd years are done there will no longer be reason for this lament.

Quaking

The big quake in Nepal that has caused so much death, destruction, and disruption, is a potent reminder to those of us living on or near the 'Ring of Fire' that we are vulnerable.  What we see in faraway corners of the World reflected on our TV screens has meaning beyond the obvious human sympathy.

In the past week we've had a few 3-plus sized quakes in the 'Greater LA Area', and those little jolts are like pinpricks against our calloused sensibilities (we've had a long time since our last 'big one' to forget and grow dismissive of the danger.)

It is only a matter of time before either LA or San Francisco have our number come up on the wheel of misfortune that circles the world's big fault zones, and we have another Big Quake.  Chances are, thanks to higher standards of building codes, the damage here won't be as complete and devastating as seen in Nepal, or in Haiti before that.  And chances are also good that our big one will not be as BIG as that 9.5 Quake in Japan - and it had better not be because nothing is built here to withstand that large a jolt.

As a final ramble through my thoughts on this subject,  I'd like to ponder why we have such a fascination with these sorts of horrific happenings.  There have been a number of films made about earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and tornadoes - there is a new one called 'San Andreas' due out this Friday in fact.

I find this disturbing, especially since I feel the attraction of this kind of entertainment too, and that fact depresses me, but I guess what's happening is we are all 'Whistling Past The Graveyard' in hopes that wallowing in the worst case scenarios will magically prevent them.  Did the residents living near Fukushima fail to watch enough disaster flicks?

The Maybes of May

Its just about this time of year, when we are either well into Spring or fiscal Q2, depending on your ability to separate Life from Work, that some of us start second-thinking about the way the Year will go.  We start saying to ourselves ... "Maybe "

Maybe I should take that trip to the Isle of Man TT ...

Maybe I should change jobs ...

Maybe I ought to join a gym before summer ...

Maybe I should stop watching so much television, or cut back on the coffee, or alcohol, or all of those things at once.

Maybe I should read more, or blog more, or learn Spanish.

Maybe its time to move to another State, maybe another Country, preferably one where they speak Spanish.

These equivocations can go on and on, at least until the Summer is old and even the most optimistic of us are forced to admit 'it's too late this year', and the 'Maybes' get reconfigured as New Year's Resolutions.

And, as dependable as the ever so slowly diminishing rotation of the Earth about its axis, around this May-time next year we will start questioning those Resolutions and the Maybes will come out again.

It is my fervent but realistic hope that All of Us can make a Maybe or two come true this Year, if that is what we truly want.

OMG 2015

 By now I've stopped dating my checks '2014' by mistake,  so its about time to take a look at this year 2015 we find ourselves in...

... cue swirling intercut images of burning Jordanian pilots, terrorist attacks in France, Netanyahu 'addressing' Congress, and Jon Stewart breaking up with the Daily Show

Enough!  Can't we go back and stay a while in 2014?

What? Not possible? Okay then, can we fast forward to 2016?  Wait ... that's an election year and I'm not ready to go through THAT again, not yet.

Oh well, a slow hopeful plod through the remaining three quarters of 2015 then.  A year in which we must hope nothing worse (and maybe better) than what we've already seen comes our way:

No greater escalation of the Ukrainian War ...
Fewer and less lethal Terrorist Attacks ...
Calmer heads in Congress willing to compromise for the good of the populace ...
An Iran nuclear agreement that will prevent the 'Islamic Bomb' but gets Iran the e-power it needs...
Increasing mutual understanding and sympathy between Hamas and Israel (we can dream) ...
Respect for women in India, Pakistan, and other medieval places (its 2015, damn it) ...
A North Korea that can laugh at itself ...
- and - John Oliver seeing the light and ditching his great HBO show for an even greater gig as the new Daily Show host ...

If even one of those things could be said to be true of 2015 when we are sitting around in March 2016 and looking back, then maybe this year won't be such a disaster.

Unless that Big Space Rock finally hits ...
Or the Large Hadron Collider turns Earth into a New Big Bang...

The Goodness of Even-numbered Years ... Or Not

I have always believed the best years were those where the year number can be evenly divided by 2.  I have also believed the best years to be those in which my age could be divided by 2.

Sadly, those don't completely coincide.

Which could explain why my best times seem to be in even numbered years before my birthday, or in odd-numbered years after.  Since my birthday falls in the first quarter, the very best times should come during odd-numbered years beginning in Q2.

If any of that pure superstition rings true then 2015 beginning in April should be one of the good times.

And I will appreciate the break.  Not that things have been bad for me personally - the most I can claim is to being a little adrift of my goals, and to experiencing (for the first time really) that inevitable physical decline that comes with accumulated years hanging around Planet Earth.

No, not too bad for me personally, but by association I've suffered in sympathy with others the stream of body blows the people of the world have taken in 2014.  Although none have been Tyson-esque knockdowns like the Earthquake/Tsunami combination punches in 2004 and 2011, the 2014 pummeling has seemed relentless, and enough to have us drooping in the corner attended by a frowning and skeptical cut man.

And a few of the blows have been real brain-rattlers, bad enough to raise fears of dementia on a global, societal scale.  I'm thinking Ukraine and the public unveiling of Putin's New Russian Empire, the flare-up of long simmering suspicion and intransigent hatred in Palestine, ISIL/ISIS/IS in Syria and Iraq, the Ebola outbreak, and the ongoing economic malaise that threatens to undermine a livable life for so many.

Those and all the associated jabs and gut punches that accompanied mean we need a good 2015 - or at least a few rounds respite during the year.

So, may I wish anyone who stumbles across this writing if not a Happy, then at least a Happier New Year in 2015, with a chance to heal a bit and catch your breath; maybe even a chance to effect some repairs and to even improve a little after the rubble of 2014 is cleared away.

You Need the break, and You Deserve it.

Me? ... I'm counting on the final 3/4th's of 2015