Talking Tragedies and Gun Control

Hello Internet People.  I would like to begin this post by saying that my heart goes out to all those affected by all the horrendous tragedies that have taken too many innocent lives.  There are no words sufficient to express the pain and devastation wrought, not only to those directly affected, but to all of us, as human beings.  

What troubles me, is the instant reaction from so many people on both sides of the isle, to try to grab hold of guns and politicize these tragedies to further their own agendas.  I know there are many people who will try to argue the point with me, but guns are NOT the fucking problem.  And, unfortunately, gun laws are NOT going to solve the fucking problem.  I wish they would.  Fuck, that would be Awesome!  If we could just pass a law against people doing something and they would stop doing it then I would be 100% behind passing lots of fucking laws.  It does NOT work that way.  Never has, never will.

I am 45 years old.  For all but maybe a couple of years out of my life, I have lived in a house with at least one gun.  Most of them were not locked up, and many were kept loaded.  I, personally, have never owned a gun, I have never even fired one, but they have always been around me.  When I was a little kid I knew my Dad kept his rifles either under his bed or in his closet, it never would have occurred to me to touch them.  I was taught from a very young age that guns are dangerous and you do NOT play with them.  A little education tends to go a long way towards preventing problems, but only when that education is honest and based in reality.

I am not blind, ignorant, or naive.  I am certainly not saying that gun violence is not a problem in this country.  It is a big problem.  But gun violence is also a big problem in Mexico where they have very strict gun control laws.  I mean, it is already illegal for people to shot somebody, that doesn't seem to be stopping anybody.  I am not a fanatic, I am not opposed to reasonable, responsible, gun control legislation, but anything drafted in the wake of such tragedies is not going to be reasonable or responsible.  It is reactionary, and it is not even reacting to the real problems behind these tragedies.  The problem is not the accessibility of guns, the problem is the inaccessibility of, and the unwillingness to utilize, proper mental health care.  Guns didn't kill all those people, very sick people killed those people.  Sick people do not require guns to kill lots of people quickly.  There was not a single gun involved in the attacks of 9/11, and thousands of people died within a very short time.

Our country, our whole damn world, is broken.  Until we can learn to see beyond the easy, reactionary answers when tragedies occur, we will never stand a chance of stopping them.  No matter how many laws they write, no matter how many freedoms people willingly allow them to take from us, we will never really be safe.  Laws (as they are being written today) are about control, not safety.  And as someone much more important than I once said, "Those who are willing to sacrifice freedoms for safety, deserve neither." (Ben Franklin, I think)  And, they won't get either.

So, what is the answer?  How do we stop these horrendous events before they occur?  I hate to be the one to have to tell you all this, but, we can't.  As long as there are people on this planet there will be some among them who are sick in the head and they will create chaos and leave devastation in their wake.  We cannot stop that.  But we could do a lot to minimize it.  Starting with providing these sick people with the care that they require to prevent them from becoming such a threat to everyone else.  The one common theme that I see in all of the recent mass shootings in this country, is a bunch of young men whose families knew they were troubled, but were unwilling, or unable, to get them the treatment that they all desperately needed.  

If we want to prevent these tragedies in the future our investments should be into our people and their needs.  People who have hope for the future don't generally go around killing other people.  If this country put as much money into investing into the betterment of the people of this planet as they do in the killing of the people of this planet, maybe we could have a world where everyone could live in peace and harmony.  Just a thought.                          

                    

                            

"The 25 Days of Why I Hate Christmas" - Day 1

Hello there Internet People!  I know it has been a while since I have bitched about something over here, so I thought I might as well put this rant on this Blog.  It is a little more personal than my usual faire over here, but it speaks to the ills of our society as well, so I think it qualifies. 

I was thinking this morning that I should write a series of Blog posts: "The 25 Days of Why I Hate Christmas" and post one each day until the holiday.  I really don't want to be stuck trying to pull that one off, but I thought the idea was funny, and probably way too true for me (and probably a lot of other people as well).  I have a long standing Love/hate relationship with Christmas, and it has only tilted way more towards the hate end as I have gotten older. 

The whole concept of buying shit we don't need with money we don't have to celebrate the birth of someone I don't even believe ever actually existed is just fucking ludicrous.  And the hysteria over the buying of said crap?  I mean seriously, even I am not that fucking crazy!   

Now I do Love Christmas decorations!  The trees and the lights and the ornaments and knick knacks, yeah, I am a sucker for all of it.  The more the merrier, the gaudier the better.  Most years I spend "Black Friday" at home, decorating.  And It always takes more than one day to put up ALL the decorations.  But I would really rather just skip right over the rest of the whole fucking holiday season.

To me, Christmas is about crushed hopes and shattered dreams.  My own Dear Mother started that tradition when I was just a small child.  Every year she would hand me the Sears Toy Catalog and have me mark off all the things I wanted for Christmas.  And then she would make sure I did not get a single one of those things.  She did it to me every year.  I am still not sure what lesson she thought she was teaching me with that nifty trick, but I can pretty much guarantee it wasn't the one that I learned.

And don't even get me started on the whole Santa Claus thing, no one wants me to go there.  Trust me on this one.  

And now we have the wonderful addition of the "War on Christmas" to add to the innumerable joys of the holiday season.  We can't just let everyone be happy and celebrate the season however the hell they want, no, we couldn't do that.  We have to have one side fighting to force Christmas down everyone's throats while the other side is busy trying to rip Christmas out by the roots, and all the while the retail world is just fucking us all in the ass.  Yeah, Happy Fucking Holidays, and a Merry gawddamn Christmas to you too.

   

                     

                       

The Real "Bad" Language ...

Have you ever noticed that the people who seem to have the biggest issue with my use of "foul language" generally seem to be the same ones who would butcher our language for their own ends?  I noticed.  I am little sick and tired of the right wing of the language police acting all incensed over me typing the word "fuck" and then turning around and calling themselves "pro-life" or better yet, "freedom-loving Patriots".  Fuck you, you are neither.

At least when I use words I use them correctly.  I do not twist their meaning and distort reality by claiming words mean things they do not.  I have a great respect for language and the power of words, I just wish other people did as well.  Unfortunately most people today are too busy playing spell check and grammar Nazi to bother with trying to understand the messages being presented to them anyway.  We live in a world of "sound bites".  No one seems to want to be bothered with truth or accuracy in the message, that misspelled word is far too important to worry about all the other ones being used inaccurately.

I think it is time somebody sets the record straight on a few definitions, so I am going to start right here and now.  "Pro-life" - if you support going to war against another country, the death penalty in this country, or if you oppose the use of tax payer dollars to aid our own citizens in their time of need - you are no longer allowed to call yourself "Pro-life".  You are NOT "Pro-life" you are ONLY "Pro-control-over-other-people", possibly you can claim to be "pro-birth", but since you generally seem to oppose providing adequate medical care to pregnant women who can't afford it, you can't even claim that - so just sit down, shut up, and fuck off.

Another word you all are no longer allowed to abuse would be "entitlements".  The most "Entitled" people in this country are you racist religious nut jobs and the wealthy who think that because they have lots of money they are somehow "entitled" to being treated as superior to everyone else.  SO, again, I have to say, Fuck you!  I am sick and tired of you calling the Social programs designed to protect the most disadvantaged of our citizens "Entitlement" programs.  They are NOT "Entitlement" programs, they are Compassion and Decency fucking programs and you are sick asswipes if you cannot understand their value and their necessity.

There are also a couple of related terms that I am calling complete and total bullshit on and I am demanding that you quit abusing language in such offensive and foul ways.  The "War on Christianity" and the whole "Class Warfare" thing, yeah, those have to fucking STOP now!  Fuck you!  You started both those fucking wars against the rest of us, but if we fight back to defend ourselves from your tyranny, somehow we are the bad guys?  I don't fucking think so, Fuck You!  The ONLY reason we still have people living in poverty is because of the greed of a few ultra-rich people who don't believe that other people have any value at all other than what they can be used for.  And telling you to quit shoving your dark ages fucking mythical friend down my throat does NOT constitute me declaring War on you, YOU declared War on the rest of us, we are only defending ourselves and our children from your ignorance and your mental and moral defects.

And speaking of our children, QUIT using the term "Family Values" - you do NOT even have the slightest clue what either of those words fucking mean.  Family Values are LOVE, Peace, Acceptance, Tolerance, Forgiveness - they are NOT fucking Hate, and divisiveness, and bullying bigotry, Fuck You.  If those are your ideas of family values I feel so very sorry for your poor children.  I know what it is to grow up in that kind of family and I would not wish it on my worst enemy.  

I think it is way beyond time that people demand that these and the myriad of other abuses of our languages (they do this in every language - not just my American English one) be stopped.  I am sorry you cannot find positive words that accurately describe your message, maybe you should take a look at that message a little more closely and figure out why you have to be so fucking negative all the damn time.  Maybe, just maybe, if you all spent a little more time cleaning out your own damn closets you wouldn't have so much time to worry about what everybody else keeps (or doesn't keep) in theirs. 

My Last Minute Appeal to Voters

 As we approach what I believe will be another historic election in a couple of days I want to make one final plea for the future of our nation.  We have a clear choice on Tuesday, do we want to be a country where we look out for one another and treat each other with respect and dignity, or do we want to be an everyone for themselves, fuck the environment, screw over everyone for a buck kind of country?

That is the choice before you.  As much as I wanted to support a third party candidate for my own personal reasons, for the sake of my children, and yours, I had no real choice, I had to vote for Barack Obama, and I have to plead with my fellow Americans to do the same.  

I have listened to every single argument that there is on why we should vote against the President on Tuesday and the only one of them that is actually based in reality is his stance on medical marijuana, and if you think Romney is going to be any friendlier to it you are insane!  All the other arguments against the President are either based on ridiculous distortions or outright lies and I am really beyond sick of listening to them.

He was born in Hawaii, not Kenya, get over it!  Our debt problem was created by President Bush Jr., NOT Obama, get over it!  The crash of the GLOBAL economy was, in part, a result of President Bush Jr. and his policies, NOT Obama, get over it!  Of course there are more people on Food Stamps during his Presidency than during any other - we are still trying to recover from the damage of the worst Recession since the Great Depression - it would be better to let everyone starve?  What the hell is wrong with people?  What ever it is, get over it!

Obama is not perfect, you will never hear me claim that he is, but if you think anything in this country will get better with Mr. Romney in the White House, you have truly lost touch with reality.  The ultra rich might get richer, and I guarantee that Mitt Romney will get richer.  The rest of us, well, we're just fucked.  Our country will be gutted, our landscape ravaged, and our children, and our children's children will be paying for it in far more ways than money.

Obama is NOT a Socialist, a Communist, a Fascist, a Marxist, a Muslim, a Kenyan, a loser, an idiot, or any of the other insulting labels that the Republicans and Racists in this country have tried to attach to him.  He is a damn good man who has done his level best for the people of this nation, and the rest of the world, against astronomical odds and a treasonously obstructionistic opposition.  He has done more to move this nation in a positive direction than any President in more than a decade, that is for damn sure!  And I am pleading with my fellow Americans to Please give our nation a chance to move Forward into the 21st century, and vote for Barack Obama, because Romney is only going to take us Back to the Dark Ages. 

                              

The Arguments Against Gay Marriage Are Stupid

In my last post I addressed my Issue with the putrid garbage being hoisted upon the good people of my state by those who oppose the legalization of Gay marriage.  Today I would like to address some of the specific claims they are making to show how asininely ridiculous they all are.

#1 - Gay people already have Civil Unions in our State - they don't "need" marriage.

First off, who are you to decide what someone else does or does not need?  That is just rude.  Secondly, this sounds to me to be remarkably similar to the argument the same kind of people made 40 years ago about "separate but equal" education, and it is as disgusting now as it was then.

#2 - Schools will teach Gay marriage in the classroom and parents will be "not allowed" to talk to their own kids about it.

This is probably the most fucking ridiculous thing I have EVER heard in my life!  It ranks right up there with the cavemen living alongside the dinosaurs (and it probably comes from the same people!).  How is the school district going to prevent anyone from telling their kids whatever the hell they want to tell them?  What they teach my kids at school never had anything to do with what I taught them at home, the stupid "D.A.R.E." program comes to mind as an example.  So what they tell your kids while at school that there is nothing wrong with Gay marriage (because there is NOTHING wrong with it), that does not stop you from spreading your hate and ignorance to your children, it just gives them a better chance at growing up to be better people than you are.  I thought that was what every parent wanted for their child after all, for them to do better, to be better than we are.

#3 Marriage is about more than the commitment between two people - it was created to benefit the next generation.

What the fuck does that even mean?  So if you get married you HAVE to have kids?  And of course you could not possibly have kids if you are not married now could you?  Never mind the fact that I had two of my kids when I was not married, that's not relevant.  And by the way, in case you were wondering there are more studies showing that devoutly religious heterosexual couples are far more likely to raise serial killers than Gay people ever have been, so you might want to shut the fuck up now.  Okay?

These were the three worst lies and distortions I have been repeatedly assaulted with for the last month, and I am so freaking glad it is almost over!  If you can believe the "Polls" the Referendum should pass by a landslide and the religious right wing nut jobs can go off to the next state to spread their propaganda where I hope they will meet the same response.  Where ever they end up, I will still be right here, speaking out for what is decent and right, speaking out for Freedom and for Love, because that is what I was born to do.  I can't help it, I was born this way.

            

Vote to Approve Marriage Equality

Washington state made National news earlier this year when the state legislature passed a bill legalizing same sex marriage in the state.  The Governor signed the bill into law in June of 2012.  As I was personally celebrating my own joy at having a state government that is walking so boldly forward into the 21st century, a few people had a completely different reaction. And so, due to a very vocal minority of "residents", the state of Washington finds Referendum 74 on the ballot this November 6.

Referendum Measure No. 74

Ballot Title

Full Text

The legislature passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6239 concerning marriage for same-sex couples, modified domestic-partnership law, and religious freedom, and voters have filed a sufficient referendum petition on this bill.

This bill would allow same-sex couples to marry, preserve domestic partnerships only for seniors, and preserve the right of clergy or religious organizations to refuse to perform, recognize, or accommodate any marriage ceremony.

Should this bill be:
[  ] Approved
[  ] Rejected


 https://wei.sos.wa.gov/agency/osos/en/press_and_research/PreviousElections/2012/General-Election/Pages/Online-Voters-Guide.aspx


I copied the above text from the site linked there, part of Washington State's Voter Guide Online.  I wanted the exact verbiage they used so that everyone can see it for themselves.

If you have followed me for any length of time on any site, or paid even the slightest bit of attention over the course of the last year and a half that I have been speaking out publicly, you will know which way I voted on this issue.  But that is not really what I wanted to address with this post.  

This election season has brought to a head to the most egregious offense America has to offer her citizens.  Propaganda and misinformation!  It is just infuriating to turn on the TV and have lie after lie after distortion after lie shoved in my face continuously all day and all night.  It is bad enough that the giant corporations can get away with showing pictures of sandwiches that are so unlike what you will receive inside their restaurants that they might as well be showing you pictures of a filet Mignon.  But the blatant lies and obscene fear mongering used in these "political" ads are beyond insulting.  They are dangerous!  

The vast majority of my fellow citizens think they were educated by our public school system only to remain grievously ignorant, unable to differentiate between facts, and contrived and manufactured propaganda.  The potential consequences of combining these factors truly terrifies me.

The lies and distortions being propagated by the forces in opposition to Referendum 74 are just disgusting.  Every time their commercials come on the TV I find myself telling them off in the most colorful language I can come up with.  They make me so angry!  I cannot wait for the day my children will look back at these sick twisted fools and marvel at how ridiculously foul they and their beliefs truly are.  

Fortunately, for me, that day is already here.  My oldest son admitted to me the other day that he reacts to those vile commercials exactly the same way I do!  I am so proud.  

If there is one thing I would hope to see come from this extremely loathsome election season of fabrications and misrepresentations, above all else, it would be to institute some truth in advertising and accountability in "News" reporting laws!  It damn well should be a crime what these people are doing, and they certainly should not be getting away with spreading their propaganda and misinformation without being held accountable for it.  

It is time for some serious reform in this country.  Our politicians need to worry less about what individual citizens do or do not do with their own bodies and their lives, and start paying some damn attention to what the corporations and religious organizations are doing to us against our will and without our knowledge!  It is time that WE THE PEOPLE stand up and demand accountability from our government and our leaders!  It is time to GO VOTE!

Welcome to Mother Has Issues

Hello and Welcome to My home for ranting and raving about all that I see that is wrong with the world today.  And maybe, occasionally, a few things I see right about it.  It is not good to be all negative all the time, especially not for me.  

Who am I and why should anyone care what I have to say about anything?  I am a human being, no greater and no less than any other human being, smarter than many perhaps, poorer than more than a few, but no better or worse than anyone else.  

Why should you care what I think?  That I cannot answer for you, only you can decide that.  But if I can make you think, then I have served my purpose.  You do not have to agree with me, and I really do NOT need to hear about it if you don't, I am not here to debate the issues.  I am only here to speak my mind, I am not trying to change anyone else's.  I know I am right, and right does not require public consent or acceptance, it is just right.