Yesterday morning there was frost on the cone. You might can see some exhaust mist too, and some frost on the ground. Believe it or not, it sometimes looked like this in early October back when I was driving my daughter to middle school, in the mid-'80s. Yesterday was December 14. Tomorrow it's predicted to be in the mid'60s here in Piedmont NC. Just sayin'. Our Rawleigh TV station reported that 4 out of 5 "NC Climate Change Doubters" (whatever that really means)now actually "believe" that there is "climate change." One can of course put "whatever that means" besides each word in quote marks. The goals of the energy industry have been met. Political efforts to some how some way respond to a global catastrophe have been pretty much stymied. Anyways, one of the other catastrophes has currently pushed the implications of Hurricane Sandy out of public consciousness.
Driftglass has a terrific post on the issue:
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/07/once-again.html
I'll quote the money shot here:
When then the day comes that being a member of the NRA triggers the same public gag reflex as being a member of the Klan, things will change.
That sounds harsh I know. On the other hand, one could reasonably ask whether being a member of the Klan matters much to one of our political parties--the so called moderates of whom just finagled a highly qualified public servant out of being able to serve our foreign policy at her most effective level--for all of us--for reasons so absurd that the fact of her blackness looms as the "real" reason behind all their absurd posturing. That and, of course, the blackness of our President.
There is certainly no logic to any of the arguments against some rational efforts to rein in the ocean of weapons in which our citizenry is awash. Indeed, the mixed metaphor is perhaps accurate--for who can rein in the tide. One must wonder why Mr. Lanza's mother bought those weapons. A kindergarden teacher? Was she afraid of her son? Was the endless rant all of us are subject to if we merely listen to the news or the radio driving to work each day enough to scare Mrs. Lanza into going to the gun store and stocking up.
As our Republican legislative leader said this week, when he spearheaded the successful override of our Democratic, outgoing Governor's veto of the repeal of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act, "we don't trust statisticians, we trust the district attorneys. Justice is individual."
Indeed. As are hurricanes, including ones that come on Christmas Day. As are maniacal young adult sons who for whatever "reasons" choose to murder the children their mother teaches, after first murdering her with her own machine pistol.
The frost was palpable on the cone. The cone did not shiver.
Also very good:
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/connecticut-shooting-and-we-the-people-121412
http://www.juancole.com/2012/12/questions-i-ask-myself-about-connecticut-school-shooting.html
in minnesota this week, a 4-year-old boy shot his 2-year-old brother and killed him, using a gun that their father kept under his pillow. and a 60-something-year-old small-town minister shot and nearly killed his granddaughter when he heard a noise outside on the patio and blasted away without checking to see who it was.
ReplyDeleteAs you can see from the Juan Cole piece, even the little bit of footing some sort of rational limitation on magazine size is likely beyond the current power of "our" (another need for scare quotes) government. Your examples are as far distant of solution as human footprints on Mars. The din of rationalization and justification began before the little bodies were even identified and removed. And while I certainly applaud and appreciate Mr. Obama's obvious empathy (something apparently totally lacking in most of the right wing), getting something done, anything at all, that will be another story entirely.
ReplyDelete