…it would be that Right Turn on Red does NOT mean “it’s OK even if you have to peel out to jam yourself into a tiny space in the onrushing traffic.”
That’s mine for today…you got one?
Category That’s Life
This is how nothing gets done
OK…finally, I’m going to write; I don’t even know what’s been so important for the past week that I couldn’t find time to write, or even to start to write. But today is different: as soon as I let the dogs out I’ll be nailed to the keyboard—about time I wrote about this amazing revolution in Egypt and linked to those articles backgrounding the Muslim Brotherhood before Mubarak flees and a new government is already in power.
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That was weird: a broken fence slat. Looks like something on the other side of the fence, where they’re building the new road, slammed into the middle of that fence slat and broke it in two; hell, the big piece was knocked out into the garden. I’ll just get a hammer from the garage and nail it back in, and then hit the blog—maybe something about the deafening cognitive dissonance of all the talk about “high taxes” while today’s news reports that our tax burden is lower than it’s been since 1950!
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You’d think a grown man would be smart enough to, first, change out of his dress shoes before stepping into the garden, and second, be careful enough to avoid the dog poop obstacle course between the back door and the back fence. After I clean off my shoes and walk around to check out the other side of the fence, I’m back at the blog—gotta check on the reaction to the story that new government spending under Obama has been less than the tax cuts under Obama!
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Wow; I learned more about the neighbors in the last 20 minutes than I have in the whole nine years we’ve lived here. Dude just kept talking, changing from one subject to another, with no apparent destination in mind. I like the guy, but it was too cold for just standing there for a chat. Now, just let me get this mess on the desk cleared off and I’ll get to work…I should riff on David Frum’s post about how the crazy talk on the talk shows is getting even crazier as the ratings start to slide.
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I had a nagging feeling I’d forgotten something: well, now’s a good time to get that stack of papers off of the kitchen counter. Some think getting a new job is a pain in the neck, but I have a much lower opinion of it. Forms for new health insurance, and receipts, and registration info for the new 401(k). At least I can do that quickly on line, and then start writing…what’d I do with that article about the brain being wired to resist new science? That can mesh with the story about the people who insisted on believing—despite the absence of any evidence—that a terrorist attack was being plotted in a Port Arthur Ramada Inn conference room…15 years ago!
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OK then, I’m going to start with—was that the dryer?
Another reason Houston is better than Dallas:
Houston doesn’t run short of strippers. Not ever. And certainly not during Super Bowl week.
Bob in the Heights, you’re on the air
In the short happy life of HIPRB! nothing has generated more comments (and thank you all) than the discussion of political polarization and irresponsible news media reporting which arose from the Tucson shootings this month. 
What most of you couldn’t be expected to know is that the transfer of Gabrielle Giffords here to Houston for rehabilitation has created a “local” story which Houston’s Leading Information Source can’t leave alone—so much so that my old friend Bob Eddy, who used to regularly regale a favored few with his thoughtful and entertaining rants during the Shrub Administration (until the relentless idiocy just wore him down), has been inspired by this development to return to the keyboard. He’s given me permission to share with a wider circle.
Alright, please, enough with the teary Giffords coverage. The vigils, the minutiae, the outpouring of sentiment, the blah, blah, blah. It’s been over two weeks now and she’s still front page news — even more so here, after she recently flew into Houston’s medical center. When they ran out of anything substantial to say, the Chronicle ran stories on people that have survived “similar” brain injuries, or are even just patients at the same facility…Yaaaaawn…
Ouch, pretty cold there Bob…yes, but it’s not the congresswoman who pokes my ire, I surely wish her a full recovery and long life — being a Democrat. It’s the nature of the story. I’ve got two words — shit happens. That’s right, in a country where any deranged nut job can legally — and in Nevada without even a permit — walk up to a political event in a crowded supermarket parking lot packing an automatic handgun with a 30+ ammo clip, you get nothing out of me other than “shit happens.” Oh the shock, the horror, the humanity!!! You would have to have been Nostradamus to have seen this coming!! Let’s look at the math:
A state that even the local sheriff bravely characterized as “the wild wild west” (an opinion that got him absolutely reamed in the conservative media) + highly-charged political rhetoric fueled with blatant references to armed insurrection + everyday American sponge-brain = political vigilantism.
But you see, America loves a good story of triumph against adversity and tragedy. We would much rather talk endlessly about Congresswoman Giffords’ time in recovery and rehabilitation hell, the incremental medical milestones with her heroic astronaut husband by her side, than why things like this keep happening.
Yes, the desperate, flaccid Democrats did themselves no favor by latching onto the kneejerk Palin connection before we knew anything about this guy. And because they are a bunch of spineless weasels whose wallets get padded and arms twisted by the same NRA, they were powerless to take on the real nut of the issue and say “you know, after at least half a dozen similar horrific instances in the last 10 years, can we now at least all agree that America is full of nut-jobs ready to fulfill their fantasies and paranoias with a gun, and in such a volatile environment, is all the gun imagery and metaphors — sorry, used solely by the opposing party — acting in a responsible manner? Is it even remotely appropriate in a public forum?”
The other night Bill Maher brought up a thought-worthy point: Remember the pointy-brained tea bagger/gun nuts who showed up at all the town hall rallies during the 2008 campaign openly touting their side arms and rifles?
What if they had been black?
Ironically, poor Obama has become the best thing that ever happened to the gun market in the last 50 years. Sales have skyrocketed ever since he’s been in office, and after this last shooting people couldn’t get to their gun outlets fast enough to purchase their own Glock 36 “before Obama tries to outlaw them!”
Hey, Thelma Lu, believe me when I say this on my mother’s grave — Obama will propose weekly piñata parties on the White House lawn where all the scrappy immigrant kids get instant citizenship cards with every piece of candy bashed out of a hanging Ronald Reagan effigy before he even mentions in public the first syllable of the words “gun control.” He has waaaaaay too much other shit to stir up at the slightest provocation without tempting that bottom of the barrel wet dream.
Before closing I’d like to emphasize that what I refer to as sensible gun control has nothing to do with their abolishment, nor is it a slippery first step toward it. Just some common sense rules for a nation that kills more people by hand gun violence every day than most countries do in a year. Although Mexico is giving us a good run for the money…
You might not know, but Giffords’ astronaut husband Mark Kelly has a twin brother, Scott, who is currently commander aboard the space station. After hearing about it, his official downlinked message included the sentiment “We are better than this.” Really? I’m not so sure. Even as I type, there are states all over this country fighting for the right to openly carry arms into public parks, places of work, schools, restaurants and even bars. Many have already won. I haven’t heard churches mentioned yet, but my money says that can’t be far behind. In 2004 we quietly let the assault rifle ban expire without a ripple. Someone please explain to me why anyone in the 21st century should be able to legally possess an assault rifle, not to mention as many as he wants. When America pictured itself as a modern society, did anyone really envision one where 200 years later people are still carrying side arms out in public? Frontier justice…what does that say about us as rational, communal human beings? Shit happens.
And in closing, while we’re on guns, couldn’t someone please shoot Justin Bieber!?
What I learned this week
First off, I learned that I got off track on the way to making my point in Monday’s post. I was unhappy, but not surprised, that speculation about political influence as a motivation in the Tucson shootings was at the top of the agenda for every broadcast and cable network last weekend.
I think it is both natural and appropriate for us to wonder why someone would shoot 19 people in a grocery store parking lot, and it is a valuable service when journalists report what they’ve learned in their investigation. But it is irresponsible and inflammatory of you, Mr. Fourth Estate, to let us listen to your imagination while you work.
It is said that there are two things you don’t want to see being made: sausage and legislation; journalism makes it three things. If you don’t know something, say you don’t know—don’t then list all the speculative and unsubstantiated possibilities and rumors as if they all deserve equal and serious consideration…and certainly not at the point in time when you don’t even know the suspect’s name!
But, we need to say something to fill up the air time…no, you don’t. When you’re finished reporting what you know, stop talking—go to a commercial; go back to regular programming and break back in to recap or when you have something new to report. That need to fill time is one of the root causes of the decline in your standards and, as a result, the decline in the trust people put in you and your work.
Second, the capacity of the human body to withstand injury is just stunning. A bullet fired from close range forced its way through Gabrielle Giffords’ head from front to back, and although in critical condition a week later she is making a miraculous recovery—moving her extremities, responding to commands, and today the doctors removed her breathing tube.
Third, you can’t outsmart crazy. It seems clear that Jared Loughner didn’t open fire on the congresswoman and the crowd because of any perceived encouragement in the political speech of an elected official or candidate for office, or from radio or television entertainers; he’s mentally disturbed. We could debate whether Arizona’s gun control laws made it too easy for a mentally disturbed man to legally acquire a gun, or whether people who knew Loughner should have tried, or tried harder, to get him help for his mental illness, but people (crazy and otherwise) can get guns no matter what the law allows, and we don’t lock people up because of what we think they might do.
Last, we got off to a good start on a reasonably serious discussion about just what the hell it is that has people in this country so polarized about almost everything. I’ll pick it up there next time.
HEY, IT'S PAT RYAN'S BLOG! 