Random Musings

Sometimes all you need is a really good eye for detail.

Tell that to South Carolina's Rock Hill Herald newspaper, which placed an ad for Nichols Store gun shop right next to the story about last Friday's Newton school shooting. 

To be fair, the newspaper immediately issued an apology, explaining that the layout for the page was determined prior to the shooting, but, still, one wonders how no one noticed the two things before the paper went to press.

But then, maybe, considering the sharp rise in gun sales after the shootings, maybe it was a savvy marketing ploy?

Brian and Mary Lohse, of Iowa, recently won a $202 million Powerball lottery and decided to spend $3 million of their winnings to build a new football stadium for their son's high school team, The Blue Jays.

Nice, no?

Well, maybe not so much when you consider that included in their generous donation was the stipulation that the opponents' locker room must be pink, to, as Mary Lohse said of her scheme, inspired by the University of Iowa visitor’s locker room of the same color: "I was sort of half joking and half not I suppose, but they said they’d do it. It’s supposed to put them in a certain soft frame of mind … it will certainly give all the players something to talk about."

Pink.

Oh. Girly; like the other teams are girls?

Mary Lohse is kind of sexist I guess, except.....

Pink. Maybe a little gay.

You know, cuz The Gays don't play foot ball and if they did they couldn't beat a team of real men like the one Mary Lohse's son plays for.

Perhaps a few gay slurs on the walls are in order?

Fox "News" is still keeping up with all the important news of the day.

The Newtown shootings?

Hmmm, no.

The impending fiscal cliff?

Not so much.

Interviewing "Santa" so he can talk about the ALLEGED War On Christmas?

Indeed.

Fox & friends hosts Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy had a live interview with "Santa" who talked about the hardships of being Santa Claus these days:

"You know, I never had a problem being Santa Claus, but there was a time a few years back when suddenly I started showing up at Christmas parties and was told that they were having holiday parties. So therefore, they didn’t need a Santa anymore. And it was about that time, that was the time when I think the Surgeon General said Santa should lay off the cookies and start picking up more carrots and broccoli." 

Here's the deal: you wanna say Merry Christmas? Say it. Say Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Fesitivus or Happy Holidays. Say whatever you like.

But, what's the big deal of calling the party a "Holiday" party? That means it's inclusive of every religious, or non-religious belief, and since when is being inclusive a bad thing? And why do so many people want to inflict their religious beliefs on everyone else?

Not very Christ-like.

Me? I say Happy Holidays, and I say Merry Christmas to those who say it to me. I say Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends. But, if I don't know you, I might say have a nice holiday.

All right....touchy subject: Gun control.

Earlier this week, I posted about the Newtown shootings and my own personal beliefs about guns and gun control [see Unfathomable]. As I said, I don't like guns so I don't have any. But, also as I said, if you want guns, for hunting, or protection, then I would never tell you that you cannot have them.

But, I have a problem with assault weapons. How is an assault weapon good for sport? Firing off massive amounts of ammunition isn't sport. And it isn't right for hunting, either, as firing an assault weapon at a dear or a duck or, whatever it is you're hunting, only serves to basically obliterate your prey. Also, an intruder breaks into your house and you fire an assault weapon and blow out half your living room at the same time you are riddling the intruder with bullets.

That’s overkill. Kill. In my opinion. So, if someone can explain to me why anyone has a need--and I’m deliberately not saying "right"--to an assault weapon, and can do so without being a jackass, please explain. Also, someone commented on my post that "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."

Huh?

How many mass murders have we had in this country? There have been thirty-one, since Columbine in 1999. And yet we continue to say that arming people will stop this from happening.

It hasn't, so maybe try a new tactic?

There have been seventy people killed in mass shootings this year alone in the U.S., and some seventy-two people injured in those shooting as well. There were 47,500 murders from firearms in the U.S. between the years 2001-2005 alone – and nearly 8 in 10 of these murders involved a handgun.

What I’m saying is this: the idea that solving the problem of school/mall/street shootings by arming more people doesn't work, because if it did, we'd be seeing less of these horrific acts, not more, so why not look at a different solution? I know most people who have guns are responsible gun-owners, but we need to worry about those who aren't responsible; those who have arsenals, and for what reason they have them. Those who have assault weapons and why. Those who don't properly control their own guns, by keeping them locked up when not in use so they can't be taken by someone with a grudge or someone with a mental illness or someone who just thinks shooting guns at people is fun.

Continuing a rant brought on by the discussions on violence.....

It isn't TV that caused a young man to walk into a school and start shooting, because if that was the case, we'd be seeing this every single day, all day.

I love 'Dexter' and 'Homeland' so why am I not a serial killer-slash-terrorist?

It isn't violent video games and it isn't autism or Asperger Syndrome, because, again, we'd be seeing shootings every day.

It might be a combination of all of the above, coupled with the idea of the ease at which people can buy guns, the way some people handle their guns, by not keeping them locked up, but it isn't 'Dexter' or a video game or the new Tom Cruise movie.

Settle down.

Also, since this topic won't go away.....

Enough, media, enough.

Enough interviewing every Tom, Dick or Famewhore who wants to be on TV talking about the Newtown shootings and how and why it happened.

NBC ran in interview with a divorce lawyer who spoke about how the divorce of Adam Lanza's parents might have played a part in the shooting. This "lawyer" didn't represent either of the Lanza's in their divorce but, you know, he's a divorce lawyer so he knows all about it.

Stop interviewing babysitters and the people down the block and stop with the whole "he seemed like a nice kid, kind of a loner" reporting.

In this day and age with all of us on computers and iPads and iPhones and really not paying any attention to one another, we all seem like nice people, though maybe kind of like a loner.

That doesn't make us mass murderers either.

So, media, quit trying to turn every little iota of gossip into "news" about the tragedy.

It's enough.

Now, let's take a moment to remember those we lost, because that’s what matters. We lost twenty children, one of whom might have grown up and found the cure for cancer, or AIDS, or solved the issue of global warming, or been on TV and made us laugh or smile or think.

We lost the future last week, and we lost a number of teachers who work toward making the future happen.

That's what's important....