Don't Tread On Me

This is a guest post, written by my husband...


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                                                                                                            17 December 2012

Family, friends, and fellow Americans, there is no doubt the shootings of the last week in Oregon and Connecticut are horrific and evil.  They are a national tragedy and a wound to our nation that will be slow to heal.  For some, no healing will ever be possible.  I have the most profound sympathy for these who have suffered the greatest loss of all, their husbands, wives, children, and parents.  I pray for them and their families.  Certainly we all would do something to bring them back if we could!

Some of you will not like what I write here.  I mean no disrespect nor do I wish to minimize the events that have occurred for any of the victims involved but we must be thoughtful and deliberate when we start talking about taking rights from all current and future generations of Americans.  Over the last 250 years, many patriots and veterans paid the ultimate price for us, the average citizens, who have done little or nothing to earn our precious freedom.  We must honor those who won those freedoms for us by not just giving them away in an emotional moment.

There is much talk in the media and among the politicians about the weapons involved and the relevance of the 2^nd Amendment to the Constitution.  For those who have not recently read their personal copy of the Constitution, the 2^nd Amendment 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”. 

Those commas are in odd places but that is how the amendment was written. 

If you do not have your own copy of the Constitution, please let me know and I will make sure you get one as quickly as I can get it for you.  I am not kidding about this.  All Americans should have their own copy and know what it says.

With all the news hype and political rhetoric going on, it is easy for normally rational people to become emotional.  We feel anger, sorrow, and grief.  We feel that something must be done to right this terrible wrong.  If only it were that easy?

First of all, let’s get one thing out in the open right away.  AUTOMATIC WEAPONS ARE CURRENTLY ILLEGAL and have been since the 1934 National Firearms Act.  No one used an “automatic” weapon in any attack anyone is talking about on TV right now.

We must be aware that we are not getting the whole story on these matters.  There is a longstanding position of the “left” to desire the removal of many if not all firearms from the possession of the people who legally have them.  Today, these tragedies are being used as tools to manipulate us into making that irrational decision.  What! How could I level such an accusation?  Well, simply put, there are two facts that seem to be ignored when all the dramatic reporting is going on about these events.  First, with respect to the mall shooting in Oregon, here is a little reported fact, quoted from: http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/crime/item/13946-china-school-knife-massacre-why-no-media-coverage  (I strongly suggest you read the whole article)

Also largely unreported by the national press was a would-be massacre stopped in a Portland-area mall by an armed citizen with a concealed-carry permit. 22-year-old Nick Meli was carrying his Glock 22 at the Clackamas Town Center, a mall in a town outside of Portland, Oregon, on the same day as the Newtown massacre. The contrast between the unarmed victims in Newtown and the Clackamas shooting was stark. Meli, seeing suspect 22-year-old Jacob Tyler Roberts shooting random shoppers with his AR-15, pulled his gun as Roberts' gun jammed. Meli never even had to fire his gun to stop the shooting spree, which ended in the death of two innocents and the shooter himself. Meli held his fire because of the risk of shooting an innocent person. "As I was going down to pull, I saw someone in the back of the Charlotte move, and I knew if I fired and missed, I could hit them," Meli told the local television station. “I know that after he saw me,  I think that the last shot he fired was the one he used on himself.” (Thanks Bill for showing me this)

Do you hear NBC or the President talking about this?  Hell no!  We are being manipulated people…wake up!

Secondly, there has been much talk about the assault weapons in the school shooting.  What could have been done?  Well in fact, in 2011/2012, the Obama administration purposefully cut about $1 Billion (with a B) dollars from the federal budget that was targeted toward school safety.

Government officials told the Washington Guardian on Friday night that two Justice Department programs that had provided more than $200 million to schools for training, security equipment and police resources over the last decade weren't renewed in 2011 and 2012, and that a separate program that provided $800 million to put police officers inside the schools was ended a few years earlier. http://www.washingtonguardian.com/washingtons-school-security-failure (thanks Matt for pointing this out!)

Uh oh, I bet that little tidbit plays poorly if the mainstream gets ahold of it!

What would Jefferson say about these gun free school zones?  Good news, he actually made a relevant statement:  "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."-Thomas Jefferson, quoting Cesare Beccaria.  In other words, by declaring gun free zones, we have simply told the criminals where they will find the easiest targets.

If only there was a law that would prevent the shooter from obtaining the weapons to commit such a crime?  Utopia right?

Well guess what, the young man who did this shooting in Connecticut was in violation of numerous laws.  Let’s review a few of them:

·      He was under 21 and thus not a lawful possessor of a handgun

·      He murdered his own mother in cold blood

·      He took these weapons to a “gun free school zone” in violation of EXISTING federal law

·      He murdered 27 innocent men, women, and children.

I ask you, what additional law would have prevented this massacre?  How about a gun ban you say?  Ok maybe, but then my memories revert to the April 1995 and the Federal Building in Oklahoma City where Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh used a rented moving truck and a bunch of fertilizer to blow up the Federal building killing 168 including 19 children.  Was there any action taken outlawing moving trucks or fertilizer?  Would such action have been prudent?

For those of you who know me, I am a data driven person.  I like to look at facts and figures to help me make decisions with some sense of certainty and wisdom.  Lets look at some data.  Starting with the Columbine High School tragedy of April 20, 1999, there have been 31 “mass shootings”.  Certainly 1 is too many but we must look at them to understand what we are talking about here.

1.    April 20, 1999 – Columbine High School – 13 Killed, 21 Injured

2.    July 19, 1999 – Atlanta Day Trading Firm – 12 Killed

3.    September 15, 1999 – Wedgewood Baptist Church – 7 Killed, 7 Injured

4.    December 26, 2000 – Edgewater Technologies – 7 Killed

5.    July 8, 2003 – Lockheed Martin Plant in Meridian MS – 7 Killed, 7 Injured

6.    March 12, 2005 – Living Church of God Shooting – 9 Killed, 4 Injured

7.    March 21, 2005 – Red Lake Senior School – 11 Killed, 5 Injured

8.    March 25, 2006 – Capitol Hill – Seattle WA – 7 Killed, 2 Injured

9.    October 2, 2006 – Amish Schoolhouse – Lancaster, PA – 5 Killed, 6 Injured

10. February 12, 2007 – Salt Lake City Trolley Square Mall – 5 Killed, 4 Injured

11. April 16, 2007 – Virginia Tech Massacre – 32 Killed, 24 Injured

12. December 5, 2007 – Westroads Mall – Omaha, NE – 9 Killed, 4 Injured

13. February 7, 2008 – Kirkwood MO City Hall – 6 Killed, 2 Injured

14. February 14, 2008 – Northern Illinois University – 6 Killed, 21 Injured

15. March 29, 2009 – Pinelake Health and Rehab, Carthage, NC – 8 Killed

16. April 3, 2009 – Binghampton, NY Immigration Center – 13 Killed, 4 Injured

17. November 5, 2009 – Fort Hood Army Base Shooting – 13 Killed, 29 Injured

18. August 3, 2010 – Hartford Beer Distributor – Manchester,CT – 9 Killed, 2 Injured

19. January 8, 2011 – Gabriel Giffords Shot in Tucson, AZ – 6 Killed, 13 Injured

20. July 7, 2011 – Grand Rapids, MI – 7 Killed

21. September 6, 2011 – IHOP – Carson City, NV – 5 Killed, 7 Injured

22. October 14, 2011 – Salon Meritage - Seal Beach, CA – 8 Killed, 1 Injured

23. February 27, 2012 – Chadron High School - Chadron, OH – 3 Killed, 3 Injured

24. April 2, 2012 – Oikos University – Oakland, CA – 7 Killed

25. April 6 2012 – Tulsa Oklahoma – 5 blacks shot by 2 whites – 3 Killed, 2 Injured

26. May 29, 2012 – Café Racer Espresso – Seatle, WA – 5 Killed

27. July 20, 2012 – Aurora, CO Movie Theatre – 12 Killed, 58 Wounded

28. August 5, 2012 – Sikh Temple - Oak Creek, WI – 6 Killed, 4 Injured

29. September 27, 2012 – Signage Systems, Minneapolis, MN – 5 Killed

30. December 11, 2012 – Clackamas Town Center, Oregon – 2 Killed

31. December 14, 2012 – Sandy Hook School Shooting – 27 Killed

Each of these events is a tragedy for sure.  For the individuals involved no doubt these were final life events that will forever change the survivors and the towns they happened in.  I feel bad even saying it but I am going to have to for the greater good.  All total, if I added them correctly, these add up to 275 deaths and 249 wounded.  Again, each of these individuals is forever impacted by what has occurred and I do not mean any disrespect for their loss.  However, is the loss of 275 lives a reason to sacrifice one of our most basic freedoms?  Does the injury of another 249 and the potentially hundreds more who morn these victims?  If we estimated that each of these had a family that loved them, I would offer a total sacrifice made by about 3000 people.  Again, there were 275 deaths, each significant in their own right for sure.

However, when I contrast this to other issues in our society, I have to ask myself why we have all the “concern” about this one issue?  For example, consider the following facts:

·      As of 2001, about 550 people have died visiting the Grand Canyon

·      According to data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, 51 States reported a total of 1,537 fatalities. Based on these data, a nationally estimated 1,560 children died from abuse and neglect in 2010. (I have no idea where the 51^st state is but I assume the US territories are included in that number?)

·      In 2009, there were 33,808 total traffic fatalities in the US.  Of those, 10,591 were related to speeding

·      In 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that approximately 4,700 pedestrians were killed and another 70,000 injured due to pedestrian-vehicle crashes

·      In 2008 there were still 13,846 fatal alcohol related crashes

So I ask you, Are Guns really the most serious problem we need to solve today?  Do they really represent the grave danger to society that all the Liberals were on TV talking about this past weekend?

Maybe we could be facetious here just a moment….

Based on the logic of the left with respect to banning “Assault Style Weapons” we should also be banning trips to the Grand Canyon, Poor Parenting, Driving, Crossing the Street, and Alcohol, all of which are far greater threats to the population than these “Assault Style Weapons” 

In 2011, 368 people died crossing the border illegally from Mexico into the United States.  That is more than all of the mass shootings cited above.  Furthermore, the government is legally authorized and obligated to protect that border.  Doing so would not violate anyone’s constitutional rights.  Yet the administration appears to be going soft on illegal immigration, a problem approximately 10 times more deadly than mass shootings with “Assault Style Weapons”.

Also, please note that each of my counterpoint statistics is for individual years, not a sum total of years for 1999 to present.  By contrast the shooting related numbers are totaled over a 13-year period.

So again I ask you to be rational and ask yourself the question, do these events justify removing weapons of any kind from about 88 million law-abiding citizens?

These law-abiding citizens do not pose any threat to society but rather they simply provide a counterbalance to a potential future tyrannical government.  We must not be too quick to give away our freedom. 

What did I just say?  Tyrannical Government?  Not Here!  No way! 

Why do you think that is?  Could it be that the 2^nd Amendment is the major contributing factor to us not having an overly oppressive government in this country?  I am certain our founding fathers planned it this way.

To quote Thomas Jefferson: "Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." -Thomas Jefferson, Bill for the More General diffusion of Knowledge (1778). 

Benjamin Franklin rightly stated: "They that can give up liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

-Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania. 

It is my opinion that these statements reflect that the true purpose of the 2^nd amendment is allow the people to be properly armed so as to protect themselves from a future tyrannical central government.  After all, was this not what the American Revolution was all about?  When Paul Revere rode proclaiming, “The British are coming!” he was warning the colonials that the British were coming TO CONFISCATE THEIR GUNS!

I am disgusted that our President and his socialist cronies are using this terrible tragedy to advance their political purposes.  This is a tragedy and we should not use it to grossly manipulate public opinion to convince people to give up any portion of their right to bear arms based on the emotions of the moment.  What will be next?  Possibly Mayor Bloomberg’s “proactive police work”, which essentially amounts to illegal searches of “suspicious” looking African American males in New York City will catch on in all 50 states.  I can’t see how this doesn’t violate the 4^th amendment but somehow they keep doing it. 

For those of you with no constitution handy, the 4^th amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized

The second amendment is in part about self-defense but our founding fathers also wanted to be sure that citizens could protect themselves against a tyrannical government.  Should a ban be passed, all the pieces are then in place to subjugate the rights of the American Citizen and our Constitution.  Consider an assault weapons ban coupled with the Patriot Act and the National Defense Authorization Act.  (You can read about them at bordc.org).   Essentially, these laws allow the President to declare anyone a terrorist and suspend their constitutional rights.  Who knows, he may do it to me if this paper spreads far enough.  I sure hope not.  After all, there is another amendment, specifically, the 1^st Amendment, that addresses this issue.  I have the right to speak out, to dissent, and to attempt to convince others to join me!

You know I can’t resist!  For those of you who don’t have your own copy of the constitution yet, the first amendment states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

Will we become the next Weimar Republic?  Not if I can help it!

"To preserve liberty it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them..." -Richard Henry Lee writing in Letters from the Federal Farmer to the Republic (1787-1788).

DON’T TREAD ON ME!

Chris

Update Post (because you can never get enough of those)

So yeah, where the heck have I been?  Apparently not on here, updating all three of my followers who actually read this.  I will set that to rights immediately...

Master J:  Well, the child is his own worst enemy.  He's enjoying his new school and sixth grade immensely.  Homework however, is the bane of his existence.  If his grades were solely dependent on his test scores, he would be a straight A student.  Because they are at least 40% dependent on his homework, he has two Cs.  Which kind of sucks.  Because the kid is in 7th grade math and reads at a 12th grade level, but he struggles to get his homework turned in on time.  And the worst part?  It's not that he doesn't do the homework, it's that he doesn't remember to turn it in.  Yeah, my brilliant child can't pull it together long enough to turn in the homework he did so he takes a 25% deduction in the grade.  Part of the issue is he is visual like me, if he can't see it he doesn't think he has it.  So we're trying a new thing where instead of putting his completed homework into the "turn in" folder, we've paper clipped it to the outside of the folder.  Voila!  Friday's homework got turned in.  We'll see if it continues.

Mister C and I are trying to do a real estate deal with my parents.  We want to buy their home that sits on over an acre and sell them our home that's low maintenance and would be extremely cheap for them to live in once my dad retires in a few months.  It's a win-win for both of us, if it all works out (knock on wood.)

At this point we're just waiting for the appraisal to be returned in order to qualify for the loan.  I was really hoping to hear by Monday, but the lender sent Mister C an email yesterday saying she expects it around October 10th.  I'm not sure in what universe it requires a full three weeks to get an appraisal report back but that's her version of events. 

Our gardens from this most recent season worked out well in some respects, not so well in others.  I finally harvested the last of the cantaloupes and pulled the vines out.  It looks a lot bigger back there all of a sudden.  I got rid of the cucumbers a few weeks ago, they pretty much sucked.  I only got two cucumbers that were edible, the rest of them went huge and yellow almost from the moment they appeared.  The watermelons did well and produced quite a few melons, but the heat got to them and they started rotting on the vine before ripening.  I pulled them all out a few weeks ago, but one new plant has started coming back.  The cherry tomatoes did really well, and one of them even reseeded itself so we have a new plant growing.  The red and green peppers really took off once we removed the dying tomato plants.  So far we haven't had any harvest ready peppers but I'm hoping we will soon.  The strawberries got pretty well overwhelmed by the cantaloupe and stopped producing, but the plants themselves look good and are continuing to vine out and get stronger.  I'm hoping they'll start producing again soon.  Still no luck from the berry patch.  The blackberry plants look fantastic but they haven't produced but one actual berry.  The raspberry plants look less good, they've struggled the entire time they've been back there.  They did produce three rather sour berries that did not please Mister C.  The blueberry plants are mostly not robust.  I pulled one of them out and potted it in the hopes of saving it.  It seems to be surviving, but not thriving.  The two grape vines are growing like crazy, they're all the way up the trellis and starting to curve over the top of the pergola.  There are currently five tiny bunches of grapes on one of the vines.  They are so adorable I want to pinch them, but I suspect that will not be a good thing.  And finally, we went ahead and planted two apple trees and a peach tree.  They are too young yet to be producing anything but they seem strong and managed to survive our brutal summer so I have hope.

In anticipation of our next growing season down here, I have started a bunch of seeds in my kitchen.  I am highly disappointed with the green bean seeds I bought as they have yet to start growing.  Since it's been a few weeks, I'm pretty sure they're duds and I'm going to have to restart some different ones.  Having said that, everything else seems to be trying.  The peas are at least four inches tall and the spinach, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and onions are several inches high.  I have high hopes for a productive season.

The Jeep diet is still working, slowly but steadily.  I've now lost fourteen pounds and after sitting at a plateau for at least six weeks, I think I'm back on track.  I did a six week challenge of push ups, dips, squats and crunches that wrapped up about a month ago.  I was aiming to hit 100 push ups, 150 dips, 150 crunches and 200 squats.  The last day I did the challenge I managed 125 push ups, 175 dips, 175 crunches and 300 squats.  And then I went and whimpered about my hip hurting for the next two days.  I now try to incorporate a more moderate 25 of each exercise into at least three days a week.  And I've just started a couch to 5k running program.  It's ugly.  I suck at running big time, but I've found a walking trail that runs in the greenbelt and dead ends.  Nobody is ever on it because it doesn't go anywhere and all the houses that line it are one story.  So basically, nobody can see me dragging along and stumbling on air while I make my pathetic attempt at running (think zombie on meth and you have the general picture.)  I'm pretty sure the running will be a boost to my fitness quest, no matter how I look doing it.

I think that about wraps it up, I'm heading into get some breakfast. 

Jeep Diet, Update

Hey all.  Well, it's been about two months since I announced I was going on the Jeep Diet, and it's been six weeks since I started it in earnest. 

The first few weeks I spent logging everything I ate, but not changing anything*.  I did this to get a grip on what I was actually consuming on a daily basis so I could understand better what I needed to change.  As expected, my daily calorie intake wasn't substantially huge.  But my fat and sodium were higher than I'd like and my protein was sort of low.  Additionally, the number of minutes I was averaging daily with exercise was pretty pathetic.  It's not that I never exercised, just that I did it so inconsistently that the workouts I did were reduced in efficiency by the number of days in between them. 

In May, specifically on May 5th, I started in earnest trying to change my diet and exercise.  I started going to the gym or working out at home more consistently.  I made better choices in what I was eating.  I didn't give up any one particular or group of foods.  I just made a different choice sometimes (and greatly reduced the "white group" as previously discussed here ).  I continued to keep track of all of my numbers just to see what would happen.  At the end of May, I calculated out the average daily numbers for both April and May.

Here's how they looked in April (4/17-4/30):

Calories:  1634
Carbs:  147
Fat:  78
Protein:  81
Sodium:  2081
Exercise:  11 mins

Here's how they looked in May:

Calories:  1449
Carbs:  169
Fat:  51
Protein:  88
Sodium:  1560
Exercise:  24 mins

Obviously the average calories consumed didn't drop that much, but the fat was cut by 35% and the sodium by 25%.  Exercise was easily doubled.  The result so far is that I've lost ten pounds.

Here's how it looks so far in June (6/1-6/15):

Calories:  1452
Carbs:  150
Fat:  59
Protein:  81
Sodium:  1615
Exercise:  41 mins

So, looking at my numbers so far for June, I can see that while I'm doing fine on my calories, the fat is creeping up, as is the sodium.  It's not by much, but I think I need to adjust it right now in order to stay where I want to be.  The increased exercise is a good thing.  I'd like to see it hit a solid 45 minutes daily but since it's already almost quadrupled from April, I won't complain too loudly.  And while I know it will get harder as I get closer to my goal, I think with a few minor tweaks I will continue making progress.

*Keep in mind that while I wasn't making better choices consciously, I do believe that the mere act of writing down what I eat makes me subconsciously better behaved so my best guess is that the numbers are slightly skewed to the good.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is internationally recognized Holocaust Remembrance day. I don't think about the atrocities of that chapter in history too often but I was reading an article in our local paper the other day that triggered some thoughts. The article was talking about one of the original rail cars from Macedonia that had arrived locally to be displayed in the Holocaust and Tolerance Museum being built in Chandler. The story centered around the experiences of Helen Handler, a woman who had survived the camps after arriving there when she was fifteen. Seeing pictures of her today at eighty three reminded me of someone I knew.

When I was a young teen, I lived in a small town in Connecticut and used to babysit for several local families. One of those families happened to be a Jewish family that I babysat for over several years. Tom, the dad, was a gruff guy who scared the bejeebus out of me when I first met him until I eventually figured out that he was really just a big teddy bear. A highly intelligent, multi-multi-lingual, cranky teddy bear. But, I loved this family and was basically treated as a member of it. Suffice it to say that I know that matzo ball soup will kill you if you don't eat the stewed fruit.

Over the time that I was taking care of the kids and being a part of the family, I met quite a few of the extended family, included the grandparents. Tom's parents were this little (literally) old couple who spoke English with an accent. But I never made a connection until one day his dad reached for something and his shirt sleeve rode up. He quickly covered his arm back up but I had seen what he was hiding. A tattoo of a number. And I knew exactly what that meant. Even today, twenty five years later, I can still see that tattoo and the horror it signified. It broke my heart then and it does now, all these years later.

I'm glad this rail car is here and going to be displayed for people who are too young to have any connection to what it signifies. I will bring my son to the museum as soon as they open up. It won't be a "fun" trip, but it will be one worth doing.

From the Garden

I got the first food from our garden today. Unfortunately, the birds (or something) had gotten to the first strawberry before me so it doesn't look great and will be going to the chickens later today or tomorrow. However, the cherry tomato looks awesome and I suspect Mister C will eat that in about .005 seconds flat when he gets home today.

The cherry tomato came from this plant and it looks like there will be more tomatoes soon.



The grapevines are starting to look viable finally.

A few weeks ago they looked like this...



And today look like this...



Here's one of my raspberry plants starting to leaf out nicely...



My blackberries are as well. A few weeks ago this particular plant was just starting to leaf out.



It now looks like this...



Here's a couple of cantaloupe plants...



A few cucumbers...



Our strawberry patch...



And last but not least, here's something starting to push up through the soil in one of my pots. I'll be honest, I don't know what it is other than that it's not a fruit or vegetable. It's some kind of bulb that Mister C and I purchased through Master J's school last fall that I never got around to planting. There were two different kinds of bulbs and when I found them while cleaning out my pantry a few weeks ago I just threw them in the pot and have been watering them since. Should be interesting to see what we get.

Why I don't have a Twitter account

I've thought recently about starting up a Twitter account but decided it probably isn't for me. Mostly I just want to be able to read the tweets of some people out there who regularly tweet something amusing and as far as I can tell I can't follow their feed without my own account. I suspect if I had an account it would be filled with the following:

First cup of coffee of the day, thank god for caffeine.

Hubby removed the ads from my newspaper, now I can't read it at all. Fairly convinced the stories have all been compromised.

More coffee.

Dog just threw up rocks on the carpet. Again.

Third cup of coffee, finally starting to feel human.

If a terrorist ever tries disguising themselves as a suburban mom with a stroller, our dogs have us covered. Shut up already you idiots!

Where are my shoes?

Dropping the child off at school shouldn't be a contact sport. Just sayin'.

Blech! Mouthful of cold coffee!

No seriously, where are my shoes?

Deli ladies know me by name but still can't remember that I never want a sample. Thanks but I'm pretending that I eat nothing but health food while out in public.

Favorite part of the day, hanging out on the patio with my coffee. Ahhhhh! Blissful peace!

Huh, it's 4:00 and I forgot to thaw something for dinner. Again.

Who left the coffee pot with a tablespoon of coffee and some grounds in it? The hell?

Child is in bed and hubby is sleeping in his chair. Must be 8:00 pm.

9:00 pm. Time for one more cup of coffee and then setting up the coffee-maker to run first thing in the morning.

It's 2:30 in the morning and I've determined that I need to quit drinking so much coffee all day.

A post about everything and nothing at all

A couple of quick updates will have to suffice for today's post...

Master J woke me up at 3:00 this morning to let me know he was throwing up. Yay me! There's just nothing I look forward to more than doing laundry, cleaning toilets and scrubbing carpet in the middle of the night. Don't get me wrong, I feel awful when my kid is sick and I would never let on that I'd rather be sleeping at that time of night, but, seriously? Why does that stuff always happen in the middle of the night? How about a nice Tuesday afternoon when I'm not trying to sleep and I can see what I'm cleaning? Ah well, such is parenthood I guess. He stopped the vomiting part by 7:00am but then his fever skyrocketed up to 102.8 by the afternoon. With medication it was down to 100 by bedtime. We'll see how tonight goes.

The smoke shop killer from the other night was caught. A fifteen year old boy. A good kid. An honors student who loved science, was on the wrestling team and ROTC and who wanted to join the military after he graduated. All thrown away for $300. Three people were shot, two of them are dead. Three families devastated. This child will be tried as an adult. For a decision he probably made in about two minutes, he will most likely go to jail for the rest of his life. This whole situation makes me so sad.

Lastly, Mister C and I just watched "The End of America" with Naomi Wolf. Interesting show, probably worth watching.

Etta James

We lost one of the world's greatest blues singers today when Etta James lost her battle with leukemia. Etta was edgy and brash, an original who could make you stop in your tracks with her soulful singing. She made you feel every note she wrung out with that powerful voice. And that voice has now been silenced.

She said it best in her autobiography...

"Music was thunder and joy, lightning bolts of happiness and praise, foot-stomping, dance-shouting, good-feeling singing from the soul."

Yes it was Etta, yes it was.

Scarily close

Earlier today when Mamoo and I were returning from a trip to the library, we noticed three helicopters hovering really close to my neighborhood. As we got closer, it became apparent that they were focused on the street that's one street over from where I live and it looked like they had closed the street down completely. I figured there had to be a bad accident, mostly likely coming out of the library where some people like to make a brazen dash across all four lanes of traffic to go left. But I was wrong.

When I got home I did a quick search online to see if the accident was showing up. It wasn't, but a shooting was. At a nearby "smoke shop", some nut job had walked in shooting. One guy was shot as he bolted from the place in search of help. They knew there were others in the store, including the owner. The first reports were that the shooter was still in the store. The S.W.A.T. team had converged and were surrounding the place. It was a bad situation and people were warned to avoid the area, but it seemed like it was pretty much under control.

Move forward thirty minutes...I go to pick up Master J. Watching the kids pour out of the school and head down the street towards their homes, I think momentarily that it's good that they have the criminal contained in the store because besides my son's school, there is another elementary school and a high school within a two mile radius. I get Master J home and settled with his homework (as settled as much as he can be anyway.) Then I go back online to check on the progress of the barricaded criminal. Only he's not barricaded in the store. And he never was.

After finally making it inside the store, the S.W.A.T. team didn't find their gunman, they did find the two other victims. And at this point the gunman had been on the loose for over three hours. Starting at a location within a mile of my home. And as of right now, over seven hours later, there's still no indication that he's been apprehended. The helicopters have finally stopped hovering, flying past periodically instead. I can only assume they are doing some sort of ground search to try and find this guy before he does more damage.

I feel awful for the victims, I imagine it was just a situation of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for them. I feel bad for the families who lost them too. At some level, I suspect I'll feel some sadness for the criminal too. What could make someone do such a thing? Maybe not. Maybe I'll be pissed off angry by the time they catch him. But right now, I just wonder why.

So yeah, complete lock down at the old Mirth plantation.