Sons of Guns

Isn't it interesting how you may THINK you understand someone, but you really don't, and never will.

Before I got all soft and liberal, I was as far right as I am left now. I owned a sporting goods store, selling fishing tackle, archery gear, and guns. I carried a gun every day I was in that store. I used to be a serious hunter, with rifle, shotgun, handgun, and archery equipment. So it can't be a surprise that, even though I'm very liberal, I hold to a few of my old values.

I LOVE these gun-shop shows that are on. Sons Of Guns, and American Guns. I know what they're talking about, I know what they'e selling, I know what they're making, and I know why.

Now this has been a long intro to the theme song of Sons of Guns - Tab Benoit's cover of "Shelter Me Lord". He also does much of the music in the individual shows. The show is set in Louisiana, and surprise! Tab Benoit is from Louisiana. He's also one of my favorite blues artists, maybe one of my favorite artists working today. Listen to the tone he gets out of that old Fender.

Ohio Democratic lawmaker is proposing to drug-test elected officials

Ohio Democratic lawmaker is proposing to drug-test elected officials

The subject of drug testing people receiving public assistance really irks me. Here's a lawmaker turning the tables on his peers.

Rep. Robert Hagan's bill would require statewide officeholders, legislators, members of Gov. John Kasich's (KAY'-sik) jobs board and recipients of federal bailout money to pay for their testing for un-prescribed pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs and alcohol. Officials testing positive would have to undergo treatment or be booted from office.

You gotta love it. And I'll go a step further. Since drug use is very often a symptom of mental illness, why not screen the same officials for mental illness. Then require treatment, which of course would include psych meds. I think weed is probably the most used mood stabilizer by those with mental illness, so let's make sure the officials and lawmakers have their legal stabilizers if they screen positive for mental illness .

Compassionate Liberal Christian?

Is is possible to be a liberal, compassionate, left-of-center Christian? Conservatives think they have the corner on religion, but I'll bet there are more like me out there.

Obama - Carter Connection

It's not really time-appropriate for a political post, but I'm moved right now.

Back in the seventies, after Nixon then Ford, the nation was craving sincerity, passion, and compassion. They elected Jimmy Carter. A finer man may never have been born. But, not surprisingly, the man wasn't an effective president. I say "not surprisingly" as I don't think he was given an opportunity to exact the kind of change the country needed. But we'll never know.

Right now the country has an opportunity to bring about social change like we haven't seen in most of our lifetimes. Obama has the vision and courage to strive for those changes. I hope he's not cut off at the knees.

Election Day

This won't turn into a political blog, I promise. But being election day in the US, it brings this to mind.

The final nail in the coffin of the seventies was the election of Ronald Reagan. This is not meant as a commentary of Reagan as president. But the election of Reagan was the beginning of the current age of US conservatism. The mindset of the sixties and seventies was unceremoniously flushed in November of 1980.

It was inevitable, I voted for Reagan as I was ready for a change. I think we were all ready for a change at that time, I just didn't think that change would lead to where we are now.

1974 School Assembly

It was the fall of 1974, and they herded the entire school into the gym for an assembly. We had a big school, particularly for being in the middle of the US heartland. No freshmen at our school, grades 10 – 12 only. But of those 3 classes we had in the vicinity of 2000 students.

We had no idea why we were being pulled out of class, but anything was better than algebra so we were happy. Kind of. We had to sit through a speech by some southern governor. It held my attention for maybe 5 minutes. At that time, the political process couldn’t have interested me less. Not surprisingly I still remember the girl I was sitting next to, her name was Nancy and she had this exotic Brooklyn accent. But do you think I can remember ANYTHING the speaker said? A few years later I became interested in the political process, was a member of the “young republicans”, and a student volunteer for a few campaigns.

That speaker became President of the United States 2 short years later, beating out Gerald Ford, who was one of the candidates for whom I was volunteering. It was, of course, Jimmy Carter.

I now have a deep respect for President Carter. He wasn’t an effective president, but he is a compassionate person and a brilliant statesman, both are qualities hard to find in today’s politicians.

I wish I had paid attention that day.

Peace?

Back in the seventies, everyone wanted peace. Some supported the Nixon Administration, but virtually all wanted peace. And almost nobody under 30 was in favor of the Viet Nam war.

This is why I find the number of people supporting the war in Iraq mind boggling. I mean, how could people change so drastically? This is not a war about America's freedom, we weren't worrying that Saddam would lead ground troops into the US with a surprise landing in New Jersey. And Iraq never was a war about terrorism, no matter how badly you want to believe it is. The administration will NOT say this, they never have. Of course, they don't want people to stop believing it, either.

People say Iraq isn't Viet Nam, and I agree, it's not. But we're there for the same reasons, we can't extract ourselves in a reasonable manner without plunging the area into massive unrest. Of course, this eventually happened in Viet Nam, so why do we think we can do it better this time around? So far it's been every bit as massive a clusterfuck as Viet Nam ever was.

I was talking to a twenty-something co-worker the other day. He is a supporter of the Iraq war, and is a walking, talking, Dittohead. He accuses me of being an old hippy, and can't understand how I could oppose the war, as it makes so much sense to him. I asked him one question, would he let his son fight the war? What do you think he said? Uh-huh. No way would he allow his son to fight.

Before we undertake our next war, let's add a constitutional amendment. Now I'm a STRICT constitutionalist, but would support this amendment. With any war vote, congressmen need to give up the selective service registration information for their closest family member eligible to serve, and those kids will become soldiers.

Whatta you want to bet we would never fight another war?