*It's not unusual for various organizations to call my house in order to try and get me to donate to whatever cause it is that they are collecting for. The NIU alumni association called the other day, and just as an example of how hard up for cash they are, they tried to bargain me down to making a $6 donation. Yes you heard me right. $6. That may have been enough to keep the lights on in the call center for another couple of hours. But, I digress. Today, it was the NRA that was calling and looking for money. I'm fairly sure that's a first for me. Just glad they didn't show up on my doorstep. Anyway, according to them, the UN, in conjunction with Obama and Sen. Clinton, are going to outlaw any gun that fires a shot when you pull the trigger. No debate, no going through channels, no vote. They're just going to do it. And once it was done, it would be forever, like Prohibition, the Balanced Budget amendment, or being able to own slaves. Now, had I not gotten this call when I was trying to pay attention to an episode of "Lost", I think I would have been more inclined to go after their rather vague and conspiratorial claims. As it was, I was more interested in how Jack was going to respond to the latest encounter with The Others, so I let them slide with a polite, 'no, thanks'. But later on, I got to thinking and wondering what my position on gun control in general was. I came to the conclusion that I didn't really have one. Do I think your average citizen should have ready access to military grade hardware? Given the general level of ignorance in the population, I would first answer no. But on the other side, it could really serve as a useful means of population control. I can almost see it-entire neighborhoods wiped out by drone strikes because someone let their dog crap in the wrong person's yard. Halliburton would make even more money. Do you need armor piercing bullets or fully automatic weapons? I don't think so. I think our control over the government is still strong enough, and our military is spread around the world enough, that the idea of a government/military takeover of the entire country is rather unlikely right now. And if your neighborhood is that bad, you should stop spending money on guns and use it to move out instead. How many and what kinds of guns should you be allowed to have? I really have no idea. I still think a good percentage of the population should not be allowed to breed, so asking me what kinds of guns those same people should be allowed to have is not a good question for me to be answering.
*This Saturday, June 12, the Blue Moai Room will be open for cards and cocktails starting around 6:30 PM, should you be of a mind to drop in.
*At the moment, it doesn't look like we're going to be able to have Belita as a houseguest. There's just something that's a bit too unpredictable in the chemistry between the four of them for me to be comfortable leaving them alone together. Last thing I want to do is end up being responsible for someone's dog getting hurt.
*I recently heard a phrase that I realized made no sense. I was reading a news blurb in the paper about someone out in California who went nuts and tried to kill a bunch of people with a sword (I will be protesting in DC for stricter sword control laws later this month). He was described as an "adult film actor". That took a while to sink in. The part where they called him an "actor" that is, not the sword part. Odd that the vicious, violent, and tragic part of the story goes right by me and I get snagged by an interesting use of language. Anyway, "adult films" were what I always called "porn", and in any of the "adult films" I may have seen over the years, it would have been a stretch of the greatest proportion to call any of the people "actors". So then I got to thinking that if you don't call them "actors", what do you call them? In this specific case, "homicidal nutjob" would be appropriate, but doesn't seem to fit the overall category. The best thing I could come up with was "performer". And I would imagine there are cases where even that term is a bit of a stretch. Of course, if there is actual stretching involved, you might be able to get away with using "contortionist".
*As much as I like the garlic and parmesan Cheez-it crackers, that taste is something that really hangs with you. Not a pleasant thing to wake up to.
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