Photo: A pile of confiscated guns in Kenya, soon to be set ablaze. From Wikipedia's "gun control" page. The caption with the photo is interesting:
"Pyre of smuggled weapons in Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi, Kenya. Original caption states, 'A cache of more than 5,000 smuggled guns ready to be set ablaze at Uhuru gardens (peace grounds) during the peace support effort between the warring countries surrunding kenya and the communities leaving on the porous boarders of Kenya. This was in an effort to bring peace and end killings in the Northern part of Kenya.'"
There's something very logical about burning confiscated guns (hopefully, with the bullets removed first). After several hundreds of years of doing this, perhaps America could finally start controlling its guns.
____________________
It's been awhile; you know how the holidays are--busy, busy, busy. I'm still going to get to the posts about the guys in office who've said impossible-to-believe things, but, first, a few quick hits:
--I hereby serve notice that I am done with people who shout first and think second--if at all. Relative, friend, co-worker--doesn't matter. Life is too short to deal with such people. Done. I do not use to jest, as Lord Capulet said.
--Another Pawn Stars pet-peeve moment, of a person with a very valuable item who sells it to Rick for a pittance because he was too lazy and/or impatient to sell the item at an auction (and in Vegas, there are tons of auction houses): a guy had some authentic George Washington inauguration coins and buttons, appraised by an expert, valued at $12,000 to $15,000. The guy sells them to Rick for $3,000. Even if Rick is right and auction houses take half of the net worth--which I doubt; I think it's more like 15% to 20%, not 50%, and it's probably negotiable in this lousy economy--then the guy still could have gotten $6,000 to $7,500. And this guy said he didn't need the money desperately, too.
--Maybe now, after the slaughter of the innocents, we can have a bit of gun control?
--And universal health care, specifically for the unstable who need it most?
--I read an article yesterday that said that The Shining is one of Stephen King's least-read books. Hard to believe. And that he was so dissatisfied with Kubrick's movie that he wanted the 1997 tv movie to air to show Jack Toarrance's true character arc.
--I have a few hours of wet-vacuuming of my pool cover to do. There's a small pond on it.
--You hate to speak ill of the dead, or to blame the victim, but if I'm a parent of a boy with a history of personality disorders and instability, I don't own an extensive gun collection, locked up or not. I'm not being a Monday-morning quarterback here, either. This really is common sense.
--The movie An American Haunting is The Crucible meets The Exorcist. Who would've thought to put those together? Great visuals, even if they defy logic. The movie really isn't about any of those other movie's themes, of course.
--Just watched the movie Ghost Story, a 1981 film based on Peter Straub's great book. (One of the best and scariest books ever, in my humble opinion. Roger Ebert, who 99% of the time writes things I agree with, said he could barely read the book. But it's nice to know a famous reviewer reads the book before he reviews the movie.) Anyway, the movie completely ignores the fact that the woman is a Shapeshifter. In the movie, she really is just a ghost. But how to explain that the woman, before she was put in the car, had not had a pulse, yet had not been dead? And that she'd had, ummm, physical union with men seventy years after she'd been put in the car? She still looked good, too.) Didn't know ghosts could do that. And it's odd to see Fred Astaire and John Houseman in a horror movie.
--Nothing good can ever come out of what happened in Newtown, but finally the media gave us something positive about teachers.
No comments:
Post a Comment