(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the
least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing,
and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves
or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the
confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Sunday, December 23, 2012
How It Always Plays Out
1) Some mentally ill person completely ignores existing gun laws and shoots a bunch of people---unless one of those people also has a gun and knows how to use it, then it never makes the news.
2) The nation mourns the losses.
3) Demands are made for meaningful gun control legislation.
4) Firearms sales go through the roof.
End result---more guns in circulation. New laws enacted that only the law abiding folks pay attention to. Root problem of mental illness not even addressed. People who were already very well armed have more guns. That important margin of good people who might be present to step up, with the ability to properly administer lethal force, try to find some middle ground instead.
Guns are not the problem, just the method. As long as we as a society cheapen the value of life, and treat it as something individuals do not have a personal obligation to protect---be it a pregnant unwed teen, festering gang activity, drug and alcohol abuse, or groups of children protected by only unarmed adults, this sort of thing will increase in frequency.
A good friend works with the 'frequent flyer' 911 abusers. It's very clear that what's missing is proper mental health facilities. A great many of the homeless are simply incapable of fending for themselves, and use 911 as a way to easily get some level of intervention. What's needed is good profiling of citizens---citizens identified by parents, family, teachers, medical professionals, and law enforcement. Make these people feel like they matter, like their life has worth, and it will do far more to prevent these tragedies than banning some particular form of firearm or some capacity of magazine. Identifying the mentally ill people who actually pose a threat to society and taking custody of them is a reasonable infringement of liberty, but the groups that fight that are often the same groups that have no problem infringing upon responsible firearms owners.
2) The nation mourns the losses.
3) Demands are made for meaningful gun control legislation.
4) Firearms sales go through the roof.
End result---more guns in circulation. New laws enacted that only the law abiding folks pay attention to. Root problem of mental illness not even addressed. People who were already very well armed have more guns. That important margin of good people who might be present to step up, with the ability to properly administer lethal force, try to find some middle ground instead.
Guns are not the problem, just the method. As long as we as a society cheapen the value of life, and treat it as something individuals do not have a personal obligation to protect---be it a pregnant unwed teen, festering gang activity, drug and alcohol abuse, or groups of children protected by only unarmed adults, this sort of thing will increase in frequency.
A good friend works with the 'frequent flyer' 911 abusers. It's very clear that what's missing is proper mental health facilities. A great many of the homeless are simply incapable of fending for themselves, and use 911 as a way to easily get some level of intervention. What's needed is good profiling of citizens---citizens identified by parents, family, teachers, medical professionals, and law enforcement. Make these people feel like they matter, like their life has worth, and it will do far more to prevent these tragedies than banning some particular form of firearm or some capacity of magazine. Identifying the mentally ill people who actually pose a threat to society and taking custody of them is a reasonable infringement of liberty, but the groups that fight that are often the same groups that have no problem infringing upon responsible firearms owners.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Turning Around At The Summit
I'm in a sort of odd place. AnnaMarie picked up on it and asked if anything was wrong. There's a lot wrong, but there's a lot right, too.
Remember in Chariots Of Fire after he (spoiler alert) won? It's kind of like that. Now, I know many, many people have built houses, there's nothing history-making about it. But I just finished a four year project. I pulled out of AnnaMarie what her idea of the perfect cottage was. I went ot sleep thinking about how to accomplish the next task, balanced overtime at work so I could fund the project without debt, channelled resources, worked quite a few 16 hour days.
Now it's done.
Towards the end it was a real struggle to push through the last bit but I had to finish by November 13th---it marked 3 years from the time they issued the building permit. I was swearing this is the last major building project---I'd never go through all this again.
Did I say that last time too? I do remember feeling like this when the cabin was completed back in 2003. It was cured by the Cedar Fire ripping through our neighborhood; the sense of relief of having both our homes spared when most of those around us burned up put an end to foolish melancholy. I'd be OK with skipping that this time around though.
There's a big hole now in my time. Every spare moment was spent doing something towards getting the cottage built. Sure, there's tons of stuff needing attention now, and without a built in excuse I have to attend to them.
I'm going to miss the logistics and planning. I'm going to miss the feeling of looking at what got accomplished by days' end. I'm going to miss time spent building with the occaisonal helpers----Mike, Jim, especially Byron. Most of all I'm going to miss putting decisions in front of AnnaMarie, thrying to explain options without influencing her choices, then showing her the finished product. Things are turned around now that she's doing decorating---I get to see what she's created.
We've spent the night there once. Awesome. We were supposed to have date night in a Temecula hotel tomorrow too but we both decided we'd rather be at her cottage, so we're doing that instead. She really made my day while I was in DC---she wasn't feeling well and I couldn't be there. She made her way to the bedroom at her cottage and crawled into bed there.
I was in a meeting that went well past my 10 minute attention span. I caught myself sketching ideas for house plans....
Remember in Chariots Of Fire after he (spoiler alert) won? It's kind of like that. Now, I know many, many people have built houses, there's nothing history-making about it. But I just finished a four year project. I pulled out of AnnaMarie what her idea of the perfect cottage was. I went ot sleep thinking about how to accomplish the next task, balanced overtime at work so I could fund the project without debt, channelled resources, worked quite a few 16 hour days.
Now it's done.
Towards the end it was a real struggle to push through the last bit but I had to finish by November 13th---it marked 3 years from the time they issued the building permit. I was swearing this is the last major building project---I'd never go through all this again.
Did I say that last time too? I do remember feeling like this when the cabin was completed back in 2003. It was cured by the Cedar Fire ripping through our neighborhood; the sense of relief of having both our homes spared when most of those around us burned up put an end to foolish melancholy. I'd be OK with skipping that this time around though.
There's a big hole now in my time. Every spare moment was spent doing something towards getting the cottage built. Sure, there's tons of stuff needing attention now, and without a built in excuse I have to attend to them.
I'm going to miss the logistics and planning. I'm going to miss the feeling of looking at what got accomplished by days' end. I'm going to miss time spent building with the occaisonal helpers----Mike, Jim, especially Byron. Most of all I'm going to miss putting decisions in front of AnnaMarie, thrying to explain options without influencing her choices, then showing her the finished product. Things are turned around now that she's doing decorating---I get to see what she's created.
We've spent the night there once. Awesome. We were supposed to have date night in a Temecula hotel tomorrow too but we both decided we'd rather be at her cottage, so we're doing that instead. She really made my day while I was in DC---she wasn't feeling well and I couldn't be there. She made her way to the bedroom at her cottage and crawled into bed there.
I was in a meeting that went well past my 10 minute attention span. I caught myself sketching ideas for house plans....
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Is There A Workaround?
When people get things for free, we feel very put out when that free thing is taken away from us. Human nature I suppose, linking back to crying when we're getting weaned.
I can no longer post pictures here on my blog; I have axceeded my 1 gig of photo space. I have some awesome pictures.
Dear Blogger People---I love blogging, it's a great outlet---Also I'm a free market guy and understand you wanting to profit from my posts. However, to actually pay for for picture data space would be admitting I have a blogging problem. Like missing work to go drink. I'm not gonna cross that line.
So, why don't you sell some banner space on my blog. The people who read it will buy whatever they are selling. Then, let me post pics again---at least 15 people read this blog and they all are consumers.
I can no longer post pictures here on my blog; I have axceeded my 1 gig of photo space. I have some awesome pictures.
Dear Blogger People---I love blogging, it's a great outlet---Also I'm a free market guy and understand you wanting to profit from my posts. However, to actually pay for for picture data space would be admitting I have a blogging problem. Like missing work to go drink. I'm not gonna cross that line.
So, why don't you sell some banner space on my blog. The people who read it will buy whatever they are selling. Then, let me post pics again---at least 15 people read this blog and they all are consumers.
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