Dysfunction Junction

If one were to interpret the beliefs of what Republican and Conservative members of Congress think on two important issues in the news these days it might be that killing humans may only start after they have left the womb!

That provocative statement comes as a simple extrapolation of the arguments made by those groups and a juxtaposition of their talking points.

They claim that we must stop all abortions no matter what the circumstance but at the same time we must not infringe upon the rights of gun owners and in many cases mentally unstable individuals from obtaining weapons of mass murder.

In one case a woman has no choice but to bring a pregnancy to term even if she was brutally raped or was the victim of unconscionable incest.  She must even bring the future child into the world if it is medically evident the child will be severely deformed and may not live past a few agonizing and painful months.
And many of the less rational advocates of the far right support the murder of abortion providers in order to stop them!

That life begins at conception is the key to the ‘personhood’ movement, an attempted end run by the ‘right’ around the current law of the land known as Roe V Wade.

Attempts to change or at least parse the legal definition of birth back 9 months does not change the fact but rather points out the absurdity and contradictions of the right wing’s stance.

But on the other hand the uproar and outcry that came from the same groups over proposed gun control legislation aimed at making all Americans, including those brought to term after abortions, safer was deafening.

And what prompted this sudden defensive offensive move?

Obviously it was the massacre at the Newtown Elementary school.

It was merely the latest tragedy in our country involving such wanton destruction of life.

In fact so many of these types of massacres are occurring they soon may not even make the front page.

Words cannot fully express our
feelings for these beautiful children

But in Newtown so many beautiful innocent 6 six year olds and their caring brave teachers were viciously attacked and murdered for no apparent reason by the mentally deranged son of a strange now dead legal gun owning woman.

Leading the charge to continue allowing anyone interested in obtaining assault weapons the opportunity to kill more children and other Americans was the current ‘from my cold dead hands’ leader of the NRA Wayne LaPierre.

This major contributor to the coffers and pockets of our Congressmen hid behind the 2^nd Amendment of the U S Constitution, an amendment clearly in need of an update.

LaPierre seemed to argue that it would be a slippery slope to take away Americans’ God given rights to own guns of any kind.

I can't wait for his
cold dead hands
to relinquish control
of Congress!

The fact that Mr. LaPierre represents and is paid quite handsomely by gun and assault weapons manufacturers and not the average citizen who have no interest in carrying such things should make suspect any testimony he gives on the subject.

And speaking of his testimony, why does he get a seat in front of Congress?

I realize in America we wish to hear all sides of an issue in order to make a more rational decision but listening to his incredibly partisan paid for opinion is like asking a fox whether there should be more hens placed in house.

When you realize that the stance on the above issues comes from the same people it should make your head spin.

I do not think that the Republican Party wishes more fetuses to come to term so that they may be used as target practice but this sort of inconsistency undermines many of their arguments.

And when we add the fact that the Republican led House of Representatives voted over 40 times to overturn President Obama’s Affordable Care Act aimed at making healthcare more attainable for every American you clearly see their belief that life may begin at conception but no longer matters after birth!  That is unless you are born with a so-called silver spoon in your mouth and are a scion of the 1%.

If life is sacred, all life then why do they stop caring about it at birth?

The Republican Party has become as dysfunctional as their own words and the ideals they appear to espouse and it’s past time to let them know we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take it, or elect them anymore!

Syllogisms vs. Silly-Gisms

Logic tells us of many ‘if-then’ situations in life such as, “If you toss a bowling ball off the roof of a building on Earth it will fall to the ground as a result of gravity.”

Statements that sound logical but under further review are found to be flawed are known as syllogisms.

One of my favorites is, “The American buffalo is a vanishing animal. That animal is an American buffalo therefore it is vanishing!”

And while it is true that all dogs are animals and all cats are animals it is not true therefore that all dogs are cats!

If history is to be used to teach then it must also be used to learn.  And the best thing we can learn from history is that it can be contradictory.

We must learn from history lest we be doomed to repeat it.

But we must also understand that if it happened before it does not necessarily have to happen again.

But the most important lesson to learn is that logic and reason must be used at all times.

Saying that evil people use guns to kill others is true but it does not mean that anyone with a gun is evil.  And it should also be noted that anyone who kills while possibly evil does not need a gun to do so.
Knives can be quite useful in committing that heinous crime.  But of course knives have a few other useful uses as well and therefore should not necessarily be banned.  I do not need the knife manufacturers of America coming after me with samples!

New York Representative Carolyn McCarthy and others are re-introducing legislation aimed at limiting the firepower of guns and the capacity of bullets in their magazines.  Ms. McCarthy is cleverly taking her argument to the schools in an attempt to educate our children!
Her claim is that with fewer bullets in a gun at any given time there will be less shots made before the gun is empty.

This is logical and irrefutable.

But an argument being used against the ban on high capacity magazines is that if someone wants to kill people he or she will find a way to do so and therefore the legislation is ineffectual and a waste of time.

One such logic denier is Budd Schroeder, chairman of the New York Shooters Committee on Political Education who used a faulty syllogism as his proof.  He pointed to the actions of suicide bombers as well as Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and said that "the real proof is if somebody wants to get something to cause harm to somebody else, he is going to figure out a way to do it."

The argument is as silly as our original example and is a dangerous one at best.

Opponents of any gun control are very well funded and use their money freely to stop legislation.

They fund ‘testimonials’ about personal protection and rile the gullible public into believing their constitutional rights will be taken away if we allow gun control.

And from whom are we protecting ourselves with all those guns?

Obviously from other people with guns!

The opposition would rather have the entire country, every man woman and child armed with as many guns as possible.  What could possibly go wrong with that?

But if we allow this type of inane reasoning and flawed logic to rule our land then we should extrapolate the argument further.

Since any type of restriction on guns will be in and of itself ineffectual we should get rid of all constraints.

There should be no gun control laws because if anyone really wants to use one to kill he will be able to find a weapon and do the deed so why waste time writing and debating silly laws.

Obviously other items, such as knives may be used to commit violent crimes and there will be some who will use the silly argument that they too should therefore be banned.  But unlike knives guns have no other function than to shoot bullets!

And once we get that one out of the way we have to rid our legal system of all those other nasty restrictions on life as we know it such as driving while intoxicated or under the influence.  After all the law does not stop the vehicular manslaughter before it happens so what good is it?

And according to PT Barnum there truly is 'a sucker born every minute' so why waste time in Congress with laws against fraud?

Isn’t it clear that someone will always come up with a scam to dupe the gullible?

I could go on but the fact is without laws and amendments thereof our nation would cease to exist.  We would deteriorate into a world akin to “Thunder dome” or revert to the days of the Wild West with gunslingers roaming the land looking for and finding easy prey.

Religious people tell us that we are all flawed.  And within each of us is a struggle between good and evil.

In a civilized society we use laws to help us keep the evil side of our personality from gaining the upper hand.  But we must also realize that the dark side wants to be let out.  It will constantly look for an opening or a loophole in order to gain a foothold in our lives.  The best way to stop that from happening is to use logic against their silly arguments and force them into the light of day.

Guns may not actually kill people but people using them most certainly do! Limiting the access to those weapons will therefore lower the body count.  QED.

Simply logical!

One Armed - Not Dangerous

When you are forced to use only one hand, assuming you have two to begin with certain things are not easy to do.  In fact they become downright frustrating.
I just had wrist surgery to fix (hopefully) a painful problem on my left hand and for the time being I am forced to type one handed.
Using half of what we have and are used to using is so annoying and time consuming but at least I know it is only temporary.  And I am far better off than many others who have permanent damage or worse as a result of the latest tragedy dominating our news these days.
It's at times like these that the proverbial cream rises to the top.
But something else is in the mix and that has drifted further down into the muck & chaff.
I am speaking of two groups here:
The first is broad reaching and includes many members of the Tea Party and their "It's all about me" queen Sarah Palin.
The second group is the equally selfish money grubbing organization known as the National Rifle Ass.
One of the above is constantly in your face and never disappoints when you are expecting stupidity.  For the woman who failed at oh so many projects not the least of which was to finish her term of Governor of Alaska the shooting in Tucson could have been a way out into to the sunshine.  But instead she chose to remain in her bunker, firing salvos at anyone and everyone who dared to point a finger at her past rhetoric and inane web postings.
Americans love redemption.  Stars who enter and graduate from rehab are welcomed back with open arms.  Perhaps it's because we applaud them for admitting they had a problem and having the good sense to deal with it.
Ms. Palin could have admitted that she got carried away in the heat of the moment (the moment being two years and counting) and that she is sorry if her zeal for public service was misconstrued by an insane individual as a license to kill.
Then she could have quietly taken down all evidence of her "target" maps aimed at taking out Democrats with whom she disagreed and replaced them with a message of peace and hope.  Maybe even a memorial set up to the victims of the shooting.
But in fact she feels there was only one victim here and she is nothing if not consistent.
The media and the country should move on and away from useless egotists like this woman.  Let her whimper, fade and wallow in self pity while America heals and grows.  She's yesterday's news and deservedly so.
As for the NRA and it's war mongering attitude there is no such easy solution.
Congress enjoys the bribe money way too much to dismiss and control the product that sick bunch sells.
There is no way a hunter or recreational shooter (should that even be a term?) needs a weapon that fires hundreds of rounds of ammunition within seconds.  Frankly if you cannot kill a deer with two or three shots from one of your high powered rifles maybe you should stick to the penny arcades.
Assault rifles and 'cop killer' bullets and machine guns and AK47s and on and on should be outlawed.
At the very least tough regulations about owning them or carrying them should be enforced.  As for Arizona's allowing them to be concealed the only word that comes to mind is INSANE.
"From my cold dead hands" is a phrase made famous by the paranoid misguided gun-owners who think the country is out to get them.
They also mistakenly use the Second Amendment to justify carrying everything from a Saturday Night Special to purchasing a personal tank and possibly a nuclear device!
Arguments about how impossible it would be to rid the country completely of weapons fall short of productive conversation.  We do not have to remove every single fire arm, just regulate them and the magazines that fill them with multiple murder capability!
When someone says they carry a gun to protect themselves I ask from what?
From whom?
From the other guy carrying a gun to protect himself from you?
Possibly Bambi is packing!
The gun problem will not end here.
It will not go away.
This piece was hard to write with one hand tied behind my back (figuratively.)
Using only half of my fingers is tough but using only half a brain is worse!
We see that whenever Ms. Palin opens her mouth and we hear it whenever Congress takes up gun control.
The country is trying to heal and become whole again.
We must not go off half-cocked into the future.
The news has given us the ammunition we need to restart the fight.
Wouldn't now be a great time to use all of our brainpower and all of our resources and all of our will to head off the next tragedy?
I'm raising my hand to say yes!!!

Guns and Rosaries

Remember when Mae West chimed in with her famous (infamous) quip, “Is that a pistol in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”  She was far more prophetic than she might have believed.

Nowadays the gun lobby that owns a large portion of our government no longer worries about concealing their intentions.  If there is a gun in your pocket that’s cool, but if not then you are at a disadvantage.

The tipping point came when larger than life libertarian-like actor activist Charleton Heston aimed his chariot at gun control.  His rallying cry of, “From my cold head hands” became anthem and the movement has not looked back.

Recently Louisiana Governor and puppet of many corporate interests Bobbie Jindal signed into law House Bill 1272 which is affectionately known as the “Gun in Church” bill.  It effectively allows the carrying of concealed weapons into churches of any faith.

Hmmm.
Faith in what you may ask.
Certainly it would seem if you feel compelled to carry concealed killing weapons into the church of your choice then faith is not your utmost concern.

Bobby Jindal is no stranger to hypocrisy as he continues to demand the Federal Government clean up his coast line from the massive oil spill while fervently advocating the continuance of drilling in the same area without demanding implementation of proper safety measures.

All in all those two points are similar.  They are both concealed weapons of mass destruction and they are championed and funded by the totally for profit industries that also fund Mr. Jindal and his party.

The cold hard steel facts are guns do kill.
When children point their fingers and pull a make believe trigger nothing bad happens.  But if you place a gun in their hands they are suddenly spouting second amendment rights.

Unfortunately gun control would hurt many industries including ammunitions manufacturing and funeral parlors.  The unemployment numbers would rise.  Republicans would point to that as counterproductive.  Of course, as they have shown recently once those people were on unemployment they would automatically become lazy good for nothing drug addicts using public money to fornicate.

The bottom line is normal law abiding peace loving citizens of this country are in way over their heads in the fight against the piece loving Neanderthal gun lobby.

Their new slogan should be,
“Is that a gun in your pocket?  Then I’m happy to see you!”