0019 - 02JAN2013 - "No brainer"...

Opinion. I told you I would find something to get a chuckle out of… Here it is. The subject is an artificially complex one, Gun Control, and some clowns are coming out with outrageous stuff… These are some ‘facts’ popping up all over Cyberspace as arguments to oppose even some fashion of gun control; read carefully:

• In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated
• In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
• China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated
• Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
• Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

The one sorely missing fact from the above (maybe an inconvenient truth?), is that none of those regimes was a democracy, of the people, for the people and by the people. Small detail but makes all the difference. All of them were one-sided dictatorships in regimes which did not have any checks and balances… So, no, gun control does not lead to genocide; that’s a fallacy!

Here is the second part of the argument:

• Switzerland issues every household a gun!
• Switzerland's government trains every adult they issue a rifle.
• Switzerland has the lowest gun related crime rate of any civilized country in the world!!!
• It's a no brainer!

These are true statements (except the ‘no brainer’ one); and here are some additional details (omitted from the above statements) which come with that ‘package’: Switzerland issues gun permits after a wait period of up to 30 days; they perform an extensive background check cross-referencing prison records, medical records, civil records, judicial records, military records; they require gun registration and tracking (like your car) during the life of the gun; and last, but not least, they require a mandatory gun training of several sessions with pass/fail test at the end... By the way, they also have Government Funded Universal Health Care as a constitutional right for every Swiss! It may be, after all, a no brainer!

And one last thing: to the brilliant minds that are saying “you fight fire with fire”, try to see if giving more alcohol to an alcoholic will really help… I wish they just would think twice before opening their traps!

Football. All my teams (Dolphins, Bucs, Lions and Giants) are out of the playoffs! Horror! Now I am left to watch the Bengals against the Texans, woo hoo! And what about bloody Monday, huh? Seven head coaches and five GMs were sent packing! I think that is the way it should be; you are being paid an obscene amount of money to win; you don’t win, then your tail is grass! And one more thing: I think there should be a rule like in the British Premier Football League: if you come in last, you are demoted to the minors (and your salaries are demoted too), and replaced by the team which came in first in the minors… We don’t have - in US Football - a set of major and minor leagues like in baseball, but I’m sure we would come up with something comparable (like 1/3 season suspension for the entire team) if we wanted to…

2013. For some of us, this was a year of extremes… Extreme pain, like the loss of Freddie and for a friend of mine the loss of his son at only 39, the Sandy tragedies (Hurricane Sandy and then the massacre at Sandy Hook, CT); extreme joy, like for me, the birth of my first grandbaby with everybody (including the mother - my first baby) coming out OK. And there are, for all of us, great/good and bad/painful episodes and instances throughout the year… The only things we are left with are the memories of 2012, and the commitment we must make to ourselves of making our lives – and the lives of those around us - better, even if it is just a little, in 2013!

Quote of the week…
“Beware of what you ask for, because you may get it!”

- Anonymous

So, think before speaking, my friends…