Daddy on the Edge of a New Year

The Mayans were wrong.

Cool, 'cuz Daddy had a full Saturday planned and a Friday end of the world would have really futzed thangs up, ya feel me?  But it's cool, because they were wrong.  We're still here.  Glad I didn't tell people what I really thought about them.  ;)

Still though, plenty of people bought into the whole Mayan calendar thing - We're a people that likes to buy into things, don'tcha think?  It's like we groove on the danger - "Y2K!!!  End of the world!!"  "Rapture coming 'cuz some Baptist Minister said so!   End of the world!!"  "Snookie's having a baby!!  End of the world!!!!!!!"  Any excuse for us to stock up on bibles, guns and canned goods - we're in.

And we play that damned REM song 'til it can't play no mo'.

You know the one.  I know the one.  I think even my mother knows the one I'm talking about, and my mother still thinks that Jim Nabors is a great contemporary artist.  The song is "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I feel Fine)" -

From Wiki - "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" is a song by the rock band R.E.M. which appeared on their 1987 album Document, the 1988 compilation Eponymous, and the 2006 compilation And I Feel Fine...The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987. It was released as a single in November 1987, reaching No. 69 US Billboard Hot 100 and later reaching No. 39 in the UK singles chart on its re-release in December 1991.

The song originated from a previously unreleased R.E.M. song called "PSA" ("Public Service Announcement"); the two songs are very similar in melody and tempo. "PSA" was itself later released as a single in 2003, under the title "Bad Day". In an interview with Guitar World magazine published in November 1996, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck agreed that "End of the World" was in the tradition of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues

The music video was directed by James Herbert, who worked with the band on several other videos in the late 1980s. It depicts a young skateboarder, Noah Ray, rifling through an abandoned, collapsing farmhouse and displaying the relics that he finds to the camera.

Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the song was placed on the list of post 9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel.

It's a fun song; I'm sure it's a favorite at karaoke bars, and it's probably the only reason you will hear entire rooms of adults shout out in unison, "LEONARD BERNSTEIN!!"  But I think there's a little more to it than that...

The lyric is, "It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine".  Prepositional phrases are such important things, don'tcha think?  The end of the world...as...we...know...it.  Did you know that the world as we know it ceases to be, completely and utterly, in the half of a half of a nanosecond after we've known it?  Human beings, the planet that we live on, the animals that share it with us and the atmosphere and the stratosphere and the universe - we are all in a constant state of regeneration.  Life in transition.  Life is transition. The atoms that make up your body once made up the body of Christ.  I didn't say that - Deepak Chopra did. We are ever changing, living in a universe that is never the exact same from one millisecond to the next - matter and energy ever changing, ever transitioning, ever Becoming.  That's the good news - we are always becoming something new, something different; often times, something wonderful.  But only if we allow it.

Y'see, the universe is simple, in a way.  It listens, and gives us what we want; kinda like a cosmic McDonald's counter person.  If we see ourselves as a standard hamburger, and believe ourselves to be a standard hamburger, then when the Cosmic Counter Person asks us what we would like, we confidently (and all too routinely) answer, "hamburger, please."

Yum.

And why wouldn't we?  It's what we've known; it's all we've known.  It's what our family and teachers and friends and work associates know us to be, so it must be true, and therefore must be continued.  But, what if we ignored our history, our daily adherence and belief in what we are, and all the evidence it provides to our senses that we are merely - the standard burger.  What if we allowed ourselves to dream for a moment, to go wild in our fantasizing, and imagine ourselves to be... the Number 1 Combo Meal - the Big Mac, large fries and your choice of an icy soft drink!  What if you ordered that from the Cosmic Counter Person?  Hell - why limit yourself to the McDonald's menu?  Why not order the Mascarpone Enriched Chestnut Agnolotti from Per Se?  Why not embody Del Posto's delightful Pumpkin Cappellacci with brown butter and biscotti?  Or Amber's Hokaiddo Diver Scallop with Jerusalem Artichokes, green apple, 56 month old Patanegrade bellota ham & white alba truffles (which I understand pairs magnificently with the 2003 Chateau Larrivet Haut-Brion Blanc,  Pessac-Leognan, Bordeaux) ??

Or a banana?

My point is; change is inevitable.  Why do we not take active control of that change, instead of leaving the choice of who we are to be made by the powers around us?  A rudderless ship will still be carried by the ocean's currents, and will find itself arriving at a destination that it had no say in choosing, or worse yet, may just become lost at sea, never finding it's home, it's true destination...it's destiny.

We have a rudder.  We have a wheel.  We have a choice.  The Status Quo was built and is powered by people and organizations that profit from The Status Quo remaining as it is - unchanged.  Since we have established that everything changes, then the only thing that maintains The Status Quo...is our belief in it.  Our belief that we are what they say we are, and that we are powerless to change it.  Such myths are the stuff of fairy tales.  We have had, and always will have, the power to change our worlds in an instant.  What we have lost is the desire to do so, and the belief that we are able.

Tonight marks the beginning of a new year. My wish is that it truly is a "New" Year for us all; unlike the old years of compliance, complacency and acceptance of the unacceptable.  In 2013, may we be unconventional in the face of conventional wisdom, may we rise up and challenge inane notions that we can be categorized by percentages, or antiquated belief systems; may we see the dronings and squawkings of Television News Puppets as the silly, nonsensical noise that they are and not for a second take them seriously; may we begin this day to become something completely new, something superior to what we have ever allowed ourselves to be before.  In 2013, may we be Magnificent.  It is the End of the World as We Know It...and I Do Feel Fine.  How 'bout you?




Happy New Year,

Daddy

Daddy on the Edge of Imagining...

Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do, 
 Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too, 
Imagine all the people, Living life in peace...




I was gonna spew some pompous shit here, but then I realized there was no need.  Just watch this guy...


    


Pretty fucking cool, right? Now watch these people -




How amazing is that?  Wanna see something even more amazing?  The Iranians responded (this is even more amazing because the Iranian government could show these people a world of hurt for participating in such a video) - watch -

And Ronny isn't done - now he wants to get the new message - "Not Ready to Die in Your War" - up on billboards in Tel Aviv.  Wanna help?  Check his indiegogo page - http://www.indiegogo.com/peacefactory and give what you can.  Or go to the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/israellovesiran or just share the videos above.  Can we tell the politicians to shut the hell up?  The people are speaking, and the people are calling for Peace.


What would happen if they threw a War and nobody came?

Imagine, 

Daddy

Daddy on the Edge of Chicken Shit

Sometimes Corporate America pisses me off.

Why?  Oh, so many reasons, but the first is that they screwed up my blog.  If you came looking for the last blog post, "Daddy on the Edge of a Musical Interlude", you may not have been able to view the second video that was featured, because the idjits at Vimeo put some stupid subscription lock on it.  So, screw Vimeo.  I went to YouTube and got a replacement which seems to be working fine, so if you tried to view the last post and were running into problems, please go back and see the whole thing as it was meant to be seen - there's really some amazing music there.  As for Vimeo, I know you were trying to gain subscribers, but instead you got me telling folks how much you suck, so job well done there  Maybe in the future, you won't put content out there as something good only to later turn around and change the rules...weenies.

Which brings me to This Asshole!  Yes, Dan Cathy, CEO of Chick-fil-A is back in

the news and back on Daddy's shit list.  As you may remember, Dan Cathy caught a lot of heat for funding anti-LGBT groups.  Protests, counter-protests, boycotting Chick-fil-A, Mike Huckabee calling for a day to support the chickenhawk or something like that - all the whack-jobs came out for that one...

It got nasty for the Chicken Head, because he wanted to build a new Chick-fil-A coop in Chicago, and Alderman Joe Moreno basically said that he wasn't gonna bend the zoning laws required to let Cathy's homophobic chickeny goodness come to Chicago's North side.  So, there was no joy in Mudville...until this story came out (credit to Yahoo News - written by Dylan Stableford)...  

Chick-fil-A agrees to stop funding antigay groups, Chicago alderman says

Chick-fil-A, the fast-food chain that sparked a firestorm earlier this year after its president made public comments against same-sex marriage, has agreed to stop funding antigay groups, a Chicago alderman says.

Joe Moreno, the alderman whose opposition of a proposed Chick-fil-A on Chicago's north side helped fuel the controversy, told the Chicago Tribune the company has pledged to include a statement of respect for all sexual orientations in a memo to staffers, and has promised that the WinShape Foundations, its not-for-profit arm, would no longer contribute money to groups that oppose gay marriage. Moreno said he will recommend that Chick-fil-A's construction plans be approved.

"Last week, I met with Chick-fil-A executives for the second time this month," Moreno said in a statement on Wednesday. "These meetings cap 10 months of negotiations with the company over concerns about fair and equal hiring and serving practices within the company. Before now, Chick-fil-A had no formal message as it related to the fair treatment of all citizens in our great democracy. Now, for the first time in the company's history, Chick-fil-A provided an official company document, which clarifies their new policies to ensure equality at Chick-fil-A facilities."

The memo, "Chick-fil-A: Who We Are," will be distributed to all corporate employees and restaurant operators, encouraging them to "treat every person with honor, dignity and respect—regardless of their beliefs, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender," Moreno said.

In a letter to the alderman, the company wrote that WinShape is "taking a much closer look at the organizations it considers helping, and in that process will remain true to its stated philosophy of not supporting organizations with political agendas."

Since 2003, the nonprofit has donated millions of dollars to groups that promote "traditional marriage," including Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage. According to the Civil Rights Agenda, a Chicago-based LGBT advocacy group that worked closely with Moreno, Chick-fil-A executives "clarified that they will no longer give to anti-gay organizations."

A Chick-fil-A spokeswoman declined to comment to Yahoo News but forwarded a statement the company made in July:

"The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect —regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender," the statement reads. "Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena."

Now, let me tell you - Daddy was frigging ecstatic to read that.  Giddy as a school girl I was, and I posted this story immediately on my Facebook page, praising the company for reversing their discriminatory stand.  Unfortunately, that was all too short lived.

Days after Dan Cathy himself said he wouldn't give any more money to anti-LGBT groups, he tweeted this - 

"WinShape Ride for the Family bikers locked and loaded for 200 mile ride to Wilmington out of Charleston."

This event was to raise funds for the Marriage and Family Foundation.  This is the exact group he promised not to support - y'know, the one he's proudly tweeting about supporting right here.

Before, I was pissed at Dan Cathy because he was cherry picking the Bible, and because he and his company were supporting charities that actively wage war against the LGBT community - that's doubly annoying because the idea of a hateful charity seems like an oxymoron to me.

But now, I have to wonder how stupid Dan Cathy thinks we are?  I have met some brilliant liars in my day and, while I don't believe that lying is a good thing, I can't help but appreciate watching a master of the craft weaving a tale of deception that, while being completely fictitious, rings with an undeniable sound of truth. Dan Cathy and others of his ilk are bush league liars; they don't do it well, and they don't even seem to care.  They bullshit for just as long as they have to to get what they want and then act like they never said any of that, that you imagined it, or misinterpreted their words, or the all too popular, "took my words out of context".

Well Dan, you lied.  Simple as that.  Now, I was about to hope that Joe Moreno rescinded his permission to let you build your new store, but the more I think about it, the more I think you should build that store.  Building that store will mean construction jobs, tax revenue, and salaries for your employees.  So build that store.  In fact, build two.

But know this - we're gonna keep reminding people to never eat at your Hate-Shack.  We're gonna keep up the campaign that lunch tastes better without homophobia. Until you stop funding your Anti-LGBT friends, we'll do our best to make sure that your employees always outnumber your customers.   "Eat Mor Chikin"?  How about "Keep the Hate Off My Plate"? That's a slogan I can get behind.

My thanks to Willam Belli, Detox and Vicky Vox for providing the following Chick-fil-A theme song...

 Chow Down, Cathy. 


 Daddy

Daddy on the Edge of a Musical Interlude

Wassup, potential voting populace?  Disclaimer - the picture above has very little to do with today's post - I just found it and couldn't resist.  I kinda like it, though - these guys might have a chance in Hell in Daddy's neighborhood if they were anything like this pic.

Anyway, there's been a lot of really, really, utterly, completely Stupid Shit coming out of political wordholes lately, and I am doing my very damnedest...to avoid talking about it.  Why?  Because rape is a serious, serious issue - it is a heinous act with devastating, long lasting consequences.  It can all too often be a destroyer of lives.  The last thing - the very LAST thing it should ever be is a prop in some misguided Republican's campaign.  Because it never ends there.  In RepublicanLand, if one of your brothers says something so completely fucking stupid that you check him for signs of severe head trauma, your reaction as a Republican brother MUST be to stand along side the idiot and not only defend him, but rationalize his behavior and question why the liberals are over reacting.  It's the Republican Double Down, and they've perfected it.  I used to think it could be countered; I used to think that if we yelled back just as loudly, that we could possibly change some minds.  But lately, I see more and more that those set in their way of thinking are not going to be changed by logic, or common sense, or facts.  Dave Ramsey has a favorite saying; "Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still".  And it's true.  It is my fervent belief that Barack Obama has been a good President during a very difficult time in our countries history; I further think that he could be a great President if he had a Congress with any motivation to do anything (aside from seeing him fail - they have gleeful amounts of motivation for that - weenies).  But no matter what I believe, no matter what I say, it will not change the right wing hatred of this President.  Why the hatred?  Two reasons;

1. Because they believe what they hear on FOX News.

and/or

2.  They're racist.

That's really it.  Seriously, let's stop sugar coating this - unemployment is down, housing starts are up, the DOW is at near record levels, the auto industry is back, banks have repaid TARP money with interest, and taxes are at their lowest rate since the 1950's  - I could go on, and on, and on - but that doesn't matter.  To the right wing, none of that matters because he's  a Secret Communist Socialist Muslim Kenyan Demon who wants to destroy the US and hates the military and hates America and hates our Freedom and blah, blah, blah - here, have some more Koolaid. It's your favorite flavor - "DumbFuck".

So anyway, Daddy's not gonna change their minds.  And I'm pretty much done trying, so I can just let this be plainly said;

Republicans, we're better than you.  

There.  I said it.  We're better than you.  We're smarter than you, we're more honest than you, we're kinder than you (to everyone, not just the other straight, white guys) we're definitely happier than you ('cause all that hate'll eat you alive - and y'all seem to hate just about EVERYBODY who ain't YOU!) and, most importantly for this post - we sing circles around your sorry asses!

Don't believe me?  Fine - presenting, for your approval (or not - I no longer give a shit), Exhibit A;

On August 21st, an organization called The Chicago Young Republicans (The CYR's) put out a YouTube parody video to "Call Me Maybe" - Check it -



So...yeah.  First of all, I just gotta say, if one more dumb ass tea-bagging bimbo says "Give me back my country" I'm gonna projectile vomit in her general direction.  Sweetheart, your country is still here; it's pretty much the same as it was under the last guy except we're out of Iraq, Osama is dead and there's better healthcare.  Did you want any of those things back the way they were?  Dumb as a box o' rocks, I swear.

But secondly, and far more importantly, I am offended as both a performer and as a professional parody writer by this video.  This was a crass, amateur, seemingly rushed attempt to push through a misguided, non-factual message with little to no thought of the proper execution of such an exercise (which actually sums up the current Republican Congress quite well, so if that was your point - then job well done!)

In contrast, I now present Exhibit B.  "One Term More" is a political parody written by Don DeMesquita to the music of "One Day More" from the musical "Les Miserables" - Check it -


No Contest.

Daddy

Daddy on the Edge of a Foodie...

As defined by the Wiki -

"Foodie is an informal term for a particular class of aficionado of food and drink. The word was coined in 1981 by Paul Levy and Ann Barr, who used it in the title of their 1984 book The Official Foodie Handbook.

Foodies differ from gourmets in that gourmets are epicures of refined taste, whereas foodies are amateurs who simply love food for consumption, study, preparation, and news. Gourmets simply want to eat the best food, whereas foodies want to learn everything about food, both the best and the ordinary, and about the science, industry, and personalities surrounding food."

Daddy...is not a Foodie.  Daddy is the homegrown result of a white bread, middle class family of six from Upstate New York - a homogenized distillation of umpteen generations of WASP cooking - our average menu was the culinary equivalent of low fat mayonnaise, but not quite as flavorful.  Oh, and there was no drinking in my house, either - and that included wine.  So...low fat mayo, and milk.

Since moving out of my parents house over two decades ago, I have certainly expanded my palate (and I've had an awful lot to drink), but I have never, and don't think I will ever be such a "fan" of food that the label of "Foodie" would ever apply to me.  Daddy can give you two shows a night of liberal politics, LGBT rights and a list of which members of Congress are weenies and whack-a-moles (don't worry Boehner - you're still Number 1!) - yeah, with that stuff, I'm here all week, you're a great audience...try the veal.

But if you want to know about the veal...really understand the veal...you don't talk to Daddy.

You go check out "Dinner and a..."

I met Vince Umbrino, Chief Correspondent  of "Dinner and a..." on the set of the web series, "Haywire".  (What?  You've never heard of this critically acclaimed web series featuring Daddy hisself??  Click HERE, and check it out!!)  Since learning about his blog during that initial filming session, I've been dropping  in from time to time when I need a break from my sanctimonious, socialist soapbox and there's always something entertaining to read.  The title of his very first post is,

"And I got six syrups on the table, I gotta use every one of them...otherwise why be there?  

Why be there?"

And that just tickled me.  That's a smile with a side of fries (and the boy's got a thing or twelve to say about fries - don't think he hasn't).   And so, our "Smile of the Week" (or week and a half, or month...I don't know - Smile of the Fortnight?  Let's stick with week, although that's not all together accurate) goes to the lovely and talented Vince Umbrino and "Dinner and a...".  Click the neon burger and check him out - I think you'll be glad you did.

Tell him Daddy sent you,

Daddy

Daddy on the Edge of a Smile

In the 1982 film "Diner" (which if you haven't seen you absolutely, positively HAVE TO SEE! - this, of course, has made me think about all the other films that you absolutely have to see, but I'll post that list another time. Trust me, though - you will not be disappointed).

Okay, I guess that was a stand alone sentence - let me try this again.  In the 1982 movie "Diner", Kevin Bacon has a catchphrase; you'll find him doing something that makes him happy, and he says; "It's a smile".  Not, "It makes me smile" but, "It's a smile" - activity and result have become one - cause and effect have merged.  I love that.

Daddy loves a good smile, and Daddy loves to share - so every once in a while, I'm gonna post a referral and ask you to visit, for a little while, someone that Daddy thinks is pretty cool; something that qualifies as "a smile" or, as Judy Jetson would say, is "the most ut".


Enter Jackson Pearce.

This woman is a smile.  Not because she's pretty (which she is); no, Daddy's got a whole house full of pretty ladies - you've gotta do a lot more than that to turn my head (especially since I've got this arthritic neck that makes it hard to turn my head - I really only do it on special occasions).  Jackson Pearce is funny, and witty; she knows her way around social commentary and is pretty darned handy with a screwdriver.

This is her formal bio (courtesy of http://jackson-pearce.com/ )

"Jackson Pearce lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with a slightly cross-eyed cat and a lot of secondhand furniture. She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and a minor in Philosophy. She auditioned for the circus once, but didn’t make it; other jobs she’s had include obituaries writer, biker bar waitress, and receptionist.


Jackson began writing when she got angry that the school librarian couldn’t tell her of a book that contained a smart girl, horses, baby animals, and magic. Her solution was to write the book herself when she was twelve. Her parents thought it was cute at first, but have grown steadily more concerned for her ever since.
Jackson is the author of a series of retold fairytales, including SISTERS RED,SWEETLY, and FATHOMLESS (Fall 2012), as well as two standalones, AS YOU WISH, and PURITY."

As you might have noticed from the bio, Jackson is not someone that would normally come across Daddy's radar (although I was nearly in the circus as well, but that is a story for another time).  So what brought me to her?  What made our stars align?

Chick-fil-A.

Yes, the home of waffle fries and a homophobic CEO.  I was thinking of commenting on the whole Chick-fil-A weirdness but luckily, Jackson Pearce beat me to it and said it better than Daddy could ever have imagined.

And so, without further ado, here is Jackson Pearce;





Thanks for being a smile,

Daddy



PS:  To Jackson - I love that your electrical panel is labelled as well as it is, but I would always caution against trusting those labels and recommend the use of a voltage tester before attacking a light switch.  That said, as a licensed Home Improvement Contractor, I can say with authority that you are 100% correct - you do not need a penis to make repairs around your home.  And I'll never look at a Philips head screwdriver the same way again.  Thanks for that.   ;)

Daddy on the Edge of Aurora

I'm sorry.

All my life, the movie house has been a special, reverent place - a place of magic and possibility, illusion blending with reality, a place that seemed to contain within its walls the stuff from which dreams were made, at least for me.

It was never supposed to become a living nightmare.  It was never supposed to destroy.  Reality was never supposed to raise it's ugly head and change lives forever in a moment of smoke and gunfire.  It was never supposed to happen.

And for that - for all of the victims of the tragedy in Aurora, I am truly sorry.

It's hard to know what to say - what to do in a time like this.  We can't really look to our elected leaders, since they're all up for re-election and no one wants to piss off the NRA.  I'm not sure why being against automatic weapons in a movie theater should piss off gun owners, but they seem to think that any speaking out against any type of guns is a direct assault on their Second Amendment rights.  Well, sorry guys - Daddy's not running for any office and I feel perfectly secure in using my First Amendment rights to call NRA leaders and lobbyists a bunch of fucking douche bags.  No one, aside from the military, needs to have semi-automatic weapons unless they intend to hurt a lot of people in a short amount of time.  These weapons were banned until you fuckheads got our pistol whipped government to roll over and repeal the ban.  Repealing that ban was truly a senseless act, and it begat another senseless act, in which many innocent lives were lost.  But hey - y'all get to play soldier with your M-16s now, right?  You fucking, fucking, fucktards.

Anyway, while we've had our share of villains in this story, we have also seen a hero or two.  Enter Batman.

Christian Bale and his wife Sibi Blazic visited Aurora, first laying flowers at the makeshift memorial for the victims, then heading to The Medical Center of Aurora where they spent over two hours meeting with doctors, first responders and seven of the wounded.




He was not sent there by Warner Brothers.  There was no press conference.  He asked that the media not be informed of his visit.  In a world seemingly owned and operated by ulterior motive, Christian Bale decided to just do the right thing.


Here he is at the bedside of Carey Rottman, who was quick to post this photo to his Facebook page.  Shortly after the shooting, a Facebook campaign had been launched imploring Bale to go meet with  the victims.  I don't know if that was the impetus for his visit, or if he just decided to go on his own.  I'd like to think it was the latter, but either way - this is what a stand up guy looks like.  Congress - take note.


Carey Rottman was lucky enough to be awake and alert when Batman showed up in his room; Caleb Medley was not as fortunate.

This is Caleb Medley.  Caleb was shot in the eye during Friday's shooting, and is currently in an induced coma.  His wife Katie, who was also at the theater but made it out uninjured, gave birth to their son Hugo in the same hospital on Tuesday.  Caleb has a tough road ahead of him, made tougher by the fact that his medical bills could run as high as $2 million...and he has no insurance.




From The Huffington Post;

"Medley’s story illustrates the dangers of remaining uninsured in America. The Affordable Care Act aims to help the ranks of that class, which has swelled for four straight years and is now approaching 50 million. The law, which the Supreme Court ruled constitutional last month, could extend health care coverage to up to 30 million uninsured Americans like Medley beginning in 2014.

As Medley's tragic story shows, going without health insurance can have stark consequences. About 26,000 Americans died prematurely in 2010 because they lacked health insurance, according to a recent report from Families USA.

In addition to lacking health insurance, rising costs have made it increasingly difficult for Americans to get access to health care. In 2010, Americans spent $2.6 trillion on medical care, a tenfold increase from 1980. That boost in cost pushed nearly 60 percent of Americans  put off or went without health care last year, according to a June report from the Kaiser Family foundation."

There's just so much wrong with this story, it's hard to imagine a happy ending - hard, but not impossible.

First off, if you want to donate to Caleb's medical bills, you can visit the donation website by clicking here .  I would ask - I would practically insist that if you are a card carrying member of the NRA, that you give verrrry generously.  It's the least you can do.

Second, let's talk about some rules and regs for a moment, shall we?  While discussing this subject, folks on the Facebook have trudged out the argument - if the killing had been done with a car, would we rush to outlaw driving?  At first, I argued that cars and guns are two very different things, but then I thought about it.  Perhaps we should treat them the same - as follows; 

Like a car, you must be licensed to operate your weapon.

Like a car, you must pass a test showing that you know how to properly operate your weapon.

Like a car, you must register every weapon you own.

Like a car, you must have all your weapons inspected on a regular basis.

Like a car, you must carry insurance for each of your weapons and their subsequent use.

None of this would infringe on anyone's Second Amendment Rights, but there's a decent chance that it would make gun owners a little more responsible.  Does this do anything about illegal firearms?  Nope, but the shooting in Aurora was done with weapons that were all purchased legally. Well, I'm sorry - but we have to make it just a little more difficult to kill people - it's gotten way too fucking easy.

If you agree with me, call your Reps.  Call your Senators.  Call the White House.  Share this blog entry.  Tell a friend.  Give to Caleb Medley.  Do something, right now, to make things better.  Be the good guy in this movie. Be the hero - 

Be Batman.

Daddy