Gotta Gun ? An Up Date

After the recent horrific massacres in Aurora, Colorado and Oak Creek, Wisconsin to write that gun violence has become a part of our everyday experience is an understatement.  As a young boy I grew up watching Hopalong Cassidy  and Roy Rogers  and continued with 77 Sunset Strip,   and Gun Smoke  as an adolescent. Today gun story lines continue with television programs like Criminal Minds  and CSI.  Guns, stories with guns and gun violence have become a common and ever increasing part of our lives. Add to this the popularity of televised out of control behavior as seen on various reality programs and the glamorization of gun play and violence in popular alternative music and film and we have a  gun saturated environment. Unfortunately tragic events like the massacres in Colorado and Wisconsin have happened before and will no doubt happen again.

 The second amendment to our Constitution  states:  "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. "  These words by our Founding Fathers will continue to be interpreted and debated ad nauseum. Interestingly, one of the only other countries with a higher gun owner per capita rate  than the United States is Switzerland and the Swiss have virtually no gun crime. Of course those who believe in a well armed populace like to cite Switzerland as a shining example of a well armed populace.

However; countries like Switzerland with a homogenous, well educated population and an unemployment rate  under 4% are hardly  similar to the demographics of the United States. While our cultural, racial and ethnic diversity are viewed as a source of strength and vitality by many, for others this diversity is a source of fear, loathing and hostility. What some do not understand, tolerate or even accept, the second amendment guarantees a tangible  margin of safety ... a gun. Add to this scenario the perception that our justice system and various police agencies no longer have the ability to protect and serve; but have deteriorated to function merely as administrators and after the fact clean up specialists. It is not surprising that more and more Americans find it desirable and in some communities necessary to possess a gun in some shape or form.

In 1791, 221 years ago, when the second amendment was passed,  the Founding Fathers had in mind a "well regulated militia". Today after years of Supreme Court interpretations and rulings we may not have a "well regulated militia" but we do have a well armed population. Both law abiding citizens as well as this country's criminal element are armed and ready for action. Unfortunately the incidences of gun violence we have seen in this country seems to be increasing and these episodes have been getting increasingly more deadly.

Some believe that if we can't keep guns out of the hands of the criminal element then maybe it is time to more visibly arm the police and others. Of course we then run the risk of having characters like George Zimmerman playing vigilante with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol. At present the playing field is not level and it seems it is time for the criminal element to be as concerned and fearful of being shot as the rest of us. The current philosophy of gun control has failed and it may be time to consider alternative solutions ... if indeed there are solutions.

The NRA's 4.3 million members exert a powerful influence on this country's  political scene. To take a position for any level of gun control could spell the end for an elected official. In 1970 Democratic Sen. Joe Tydings of Maryland with a 3-1 advantage with registered Democrats was defeated by a Republican in his bid for re-election because he proposed firearms registration.  Today many members of Congress and the Senate avoid any and all discussion and debate on the proliferation of firearms in this country fearing voter backlash. Like with so many other pressing problems our elected representatives are more concerned with their own re-election and gun control is not a safe talking point.

Bottom line is that we will never remove guns from our society but we should be able to control who can own a gun and what type of gun can be owned. I am not interested in infringing on the rights of citizens to hunt, own and fire guns for sport or recreation and insure their own personal safety; but how does a semi-automatic rifle capable of firing 100 rounds in a minute fit in here? Does my right to be safe and secure walking the streets, sitting in a restaurant or movie theatre come in second after the right of others to own guns?

Our Declaration of Independence states: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."  A lone heavily armed gunman  in both Colorado and Wisconsin denied  innocent men, women and children of their right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" and for some this denial is permanent.

In the 1850's vigilantes were active in San Francisco as a result of the inability of the police to rid the city's streets of criminals. If our elected representatives and the criminal justice system continue to fail to protect all of us and see that we are not denied "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" we may see a return to a form of vigilantism as seen in San Francisco 150 years ago. It is time for the NRA, both houses of Congress and the President to "man up" and see that no one suffers or dies as a result of the current endorsement and interpretation of the second amendment.  It is time for those in charge to lead, follow or get out of the way.

RANDOM COMMENTS SUMMER 2012

THE FACEBOOK DEBACLE

The casino (Wall Street) opened for business. The gamblers (investors) placed their bets (purchased Facebook stock) and then watched the IPO price fall and fall. To add salt to their wounds it seems that the banks' high rollers (preferred investors) received inside info as to the real value of the Facebook stock price and consequently hedged their bets to avoid big losses. This story has the usual cast of questionable banking suspects and now we are in the finger pointing stage of events with lawsuits to follow. I appreciate consistent banking behavior. Remember the odds are always in favor of the house.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Sued Over Facebook Stock Sale

www.sfgate.com

PAKISTAN: FRIEND OR FOE

Is there any doubt that our alleged ally, Pakistan, was actively involved in providing sanctuary for bin Laden? It is time to say enough is enough and cut off the flow of ALL funds to Pakistan. Pakistan is not our ally but rather a stab you in the back, untrustworthy and deceitful foe. 

Doctor Who Helped Find Bin Laden Given Jail Term, Official Says

www.nytimes.com

A Pakistani doctor who helped the C.I.A. locate Osama Bin Laden with a fake vaccination campaign was convicted of treason and given 33 years in prison, a Pakistani official said. More radical Pakistani leaders are now calling for the doctor's death. And now we have Hawks like John McCain calling for our involvement in Syria. Remember the words of former President Gerald Ford. In a Time Magazine interview he said "And I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security."

MITT on TEACHERS' UNIONS

 

The Mitt is at it again. Exchanging his economic expertise hat for his mortar board & tassel. Mitt the mouth has identified teachers' unions as impediments to educational reform and labeled teachers' unions as special interest groups. I would agree that teachers' unions are indeed particularly and specifically interested in improving the quality of education for our public school students and in improving the working conditions for its members. However; I disagree that unions are impediments to improvements; but would offer that the wagon train of underfunded and non funded mandated programs, over emphasis on standardized testing, budget uncertainties, student behavior issues , poor attendance and a check list of other serious problems and concerns compromise the quality of our schools. The only thing different about Mitt's attack on public school teachers and public schools is that these attacks are usually made in September by pseudo power point experts. It is not September and the pseudo job creator is also a pseudo educational expert.

 MITT THE EXPERT ON CLASS SIZE

Mitt the job creator and self-appointed expert on the economy recently spoke in Philadelphia and shared his expertise on education. In a round table discussion with teachers and educational leaders, the likely Republican presidential nominee argued smaller classroom sizes do not lead to better learning in schools: "I came into office and talked to people and said, 'What can we do to improve our schools?' And a number of folks said well we need smaller classroom sizes, that'll make the biggest difference. So I gathered information, across our state. We had 351 cities and towns. I said let's compare the average classroom size from each school district with the performance of our students. Because we test our kids and we'll see if there's a relationship. And there was not. As a matter of fact, the school district with the smallest classrooms, Cambridge, had students performing at the bottom 10 percent. So just getting smaller classrooms didn't seem to be the key."

To the astonishment of those at the table with Mitt he added: "All other things being equal, smaller classes mean more teachers for the same pot of money, producing lower salaries and lower professional status. That may explain the paradox that, after primary school, there seems little or no relationship between class size and educational achievement." The man of business has spoken !!!

Mitt attended the exclusive Cranbrook School in Michigan where as we have recently learned he gave free haircuts to underclassman. This college prep school offers the following on its web site: "A 14-year-old student sits in a circle with fifteen other students. He discusses his interpretation of the book they are reading. Other students offer their insight. These students come from all over the world and throughout the country. We listen and learn. We talk and question. We understand and discover. This discussion is invaluable."

Seems the small class size that Mitt enjoyed is really not necessary or needed by the rest (the 99%) of us.

SCHOOL ATTENDANCE

Up to 15 Percent of Students Chronically Skip School, Johns Hopkins Finds

www.nytimes.com

A study by researchers at John Hopkins University found that as many as 15 percent of students miss at least one school day in 10, and have gone undetected because of the way attendance is measured.

Administrators may look at average daily attendance but classroom teachers who are responsible for taking daily attendance in their classes have known for years that we have far too many students on a three and four day week when we teach a 5 day week. Now let's discuss achievement, test scores, grades and graduation rates !!! And of course somewhere there is a pseudo education expert (along with Mitt Romney) with a power point presentation ready to blame teachers for this problem.This study is a wake up call.

EVERYONE'S FAVORITE BANK

The majority of JP Morgan Chase Bank's shareholder (gamblers?) voted to retain alleged financial genius Jamie Dimon as the banks CEO and Chair of the Board and granted him his $23 mil salary in spite of the bank's $2 billion+ recent loss. Of course we are told not to worry as the SEC is investigating. The SEC .... "In November 2011, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the United States District Court in Manhattan, threw out a settlement between the S.E.C. and Citigroup over a 2007 mortgage derivatives deal, saying that the S.E.C.’s policy of settling cases by allowing a company to neither admit nor deny the agency’s allegations did not satisfy the law." An appeals court subsequently threw out Rakoff's decision. The SEC, the agency with a growing reputation of being asleep at the wheel.

Mexico has its drug cartels and the US has its banking cartels and both do irreparable harm. The list of despicable US banking characters continues to grow. Late last year there was Jon Corzine the former CEO at Goldman Sachs and MF Global who lost one billion dollars of investors' money. When I write lost I mean lost ... he doesn't know where the hell the money is or went! Now we have that pompous prick Jamie Dimon who as CEO of JP Morgan Chase saw his bank lose two billion+ in bad trades in derivatives. Is there any doubt that Mr. Dimon should lose his seat on the NY Federal Reserve Banks Board of Directors?

WHAT'S GOING ON ?

Remember the song by Marvin Gaye "What's Going On?" It could be the theme song for this years political activities. We are still bogged down in the mid east and we pretend that Afghanistan and Pakistan are our friends ... very costly friends. We have economic problems from toxic mortgages to student loans and we worry about who can marry whom and birth control. The middle class continues to carry a disproportionate share of this country's financial burden and at the same time dealing with reduced services. Congress is and has been a bad joke and unfortunately the joke is on us. All the GOP can offer is Mitt the liar. Really, What the Hell is Going On ?????

BARACK OBAMA & THE DEMOCRATS

On far too many occasions when it was 4th down and one yards to go Obama punted rather than get down and dirty and gain the one yard and the first down. Obama needs to roll up his sleeves and risk getting dirty on occasions other than giving a speech. The GOP knows well the lessons of the Florida vote count and will replicate that fraud in more states in November. It is time for Obama to wake up his AG, Eric Holder, who seems to have been on vacation for the past three years and get the Justice Dept to work now before it is too late. We already know what the Supreme Court will do. Has the Obama campaign forgotten???

Dreaming of a Superhero

www.nytimes.com

As funnel clouds form over Washington, Obama still seems absorbed in his endless odyssey of self-discovery.

The voters of Wisconsin have spoken. They want to stay with Scott Walker even if he faces possible indictment. The DNC with its current laid back, don't worry about it attitude needs to re-evaluate its strategy. Its hands off policy led to the loss of Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in MA. and it happened again in Wisconsin where the DNC came in too late with too little. The GOP is serious about winning races on both the state and national level. When will the Democrats get serious ? November is just around the corner. The GOP's success in Florida in 2008 will more than likely be repeated in as many GOP controlled states as possible this year. If Obama, the Democrats and the DNC don't wake up are see the obvious writing on the wall then Mitt will be our next President, world leader and Commander-in-Chief. Now if that isn't a really scary thought then I don't know what is.

 The Democratic National Committee's Mascot --- Alfred E. Neuman "What me worry?"

                                                

HAPPY MEALS & HAPPY DAYS

The city of San Francisco, always on the cutting edge of ordinances and legislation that attempt to engineer the lives and life styles of its citizens, has produced yet another ground breaking ordinance. The City's Board of Supervisors recently passed a bill making the giveaway of kid's toys in meals like McDonald's Happy Meals illegal. Of course it didn't take the corporate attorneys at McDonalds long to figure out a way around this new law. McDonalds will simply charge  a fee for the inclusion of the toy in a Happy Meal.

No doubt there is growing concern about the escalating rate of childhood obesity and both the quality and quantity of what our children eat. Unfortunately that concern does not cover the amusement park fare that is served in most of our schools where the Feds consider pizza a vegetable, but that is another issue. The fact is parents make a choice to visit McDonalds and even with the availability of veggie bites and apple slices, parents make the decision to allow their kids to eat burgers and French fries. Whether or not a cracker jack like toy is offered probably makes no difference. For many Americans we are a fast food / junk food nation.

If the concern is really focused on the eating habits of our nation's kids and the growing number of obese children then let's take the blinders off and look at the big picture. In the last fifty years both our kid's eating habits and play habits have changed dramatically. In my Happy Days of childhood my brother and I were outside as much as possible -- rain, shine, hot , cold and even snow -- it didn't matter, we played outside. We grew up in a suburban Baltimore neighborhood, Dundalk, where almost every house on our street had kids. We played softball in a vacant lot and never had any trouble putting together teams of nine players. If we weren't playing softball we were playing marbles or riding our bikes. If there was a particularly nasty thunderstorm then we played board games inside.

Most summer days began with a bowl of cereal and milk. Some had surprise items in the box others didn't. We ate Cheerios, Corn Flakes and Frosted Flakes. Lunch was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a glass of milk. We occasionally were treated to a nickel Fudgsicle  when the Good Humor man made his rounds. We ate cheeseburgers and hot dogs when my Dad would cook them on the grill. I don't think I experienced pizza until I was a teenager. Fried chicken was my Mom's specialty and usually enjoyed on summer Sundays along with corn on the cob and potato salad. Our usual summer beverage was iced tea until our teenage years when Coca Cola was the beverage of choice. The only real fast food restaurant was the Circle Drive-In which was very popular with young adults and teenagers who had cars. In the early 1960's Baltimore saw the arrival of two fast restaurants opened by  well know Baltimore Colt football players, Alan Ameche and Gino Marchetti with McDonalds not far behind. Today one could eat at a fast food restaurant every night of the week for a month or more and not make any repeat visits.

 

If I was to identify the single most contributing factor to childhood obesity in addition to our love affair with anything deep fried it would have to be television and all that followed. As I said earlier my brother and I along with our neighborhood pals played outside during the long days of summer and until dark during the short days of winter. Today however for a host of reasons kids are now indoors and sedentary. Hours are spent each day and night in front of the television,  on the lap top or ipad. Whereas my childhood bedroom had a bed, dresser and desk today's kids enjoy their own flat screen TV, computer to surf the internet or play video games, ipod's for music and their own cell phone for instant communication.

It seems that in most suburban neighborhoods today there is very little spontaneous child initiated play. Today kids are enrolled in karate and gymnastic classes or play adult controlled baseball, soccer and football. I was allowed freedom to play and be about my childhood neighborhood to a far greater extent than I allowed my own kids. Neighborhoods are not the same and parenting skills and responsibilities are not the same. Today kids are allowed to spend too much time sitting on their butts lost in the void of their droids and other electronic gadgets. Coupled with a diet heavy in fat, carbohydrates and sugar  we have a growing epidemic of childhood obesity and all the health concerns that follow like diabetes.

According to environmental journalist, Dan Shapley, "Kids are putting in serious hours: before school, after school, while doing homework, instead of going outside to play ... They're watching television.  More than 28 hours every week." If you add the time spent on other  portable electronic devices like cell phones, computers, ipads  and video games the number jumps to 55 hours a week !!! Pogo said it best: "we have met the enemy and he is us."

So what's to be done? Actually it looks fairly obvious but not necessarily simple. We need to get "unplugged". Of course it would definitely help to eat healthier but spending less time in front of our TV, monitor, laptop, ipad, etc.  and a bit more time outdoors in the fresh air whether it is sunny and warm or crisp and cold would be a big step in the right direction.  So give it a try. Loose the remote and step outside and check out the great outdoors. What do we have to lose ... or possibly gain?