Guns Don't Kill People... okay guns kill people
Now it shouldn't come as any surprise to long time readers that I am an anti-gun kind of person. I think the assertion that "guns don't kill people...people do" is one of the stupidest catch phrases of all time. And the fact that it is repeated mantra-like by the folks over at the NRA only serves as proof to me of a mental deficiency amongst its members. I mean you've got to admit... guns certainly help.
Without guns would be killers would be forced to throw stones or carry pointed sticks. Names of course will still never hurt me.
I guess I don't understand the necessity of every citizen to have access to automatic weapons or cop-killer bullets or laser guided long range rifles. I think a more apt catchphrase would be "If guns were outlawed, only outlaws would accidentally shoot their children."
Case in point
young child killed at gunshow.
Any attempt to legislate guns is seen as the next step being somebody showing up at the door with a big trash bag and demanding they hand over their weapons. "It's the camel's nose in the tent." I've heard that phrase a lot too. Well sometimes the camel is trying to warn you that the tent is on fire.
If the system ain't broke, don't fix it.
But it is broke. Not only is it broken but it's coughing up blood. And all too often that blood is the blood of innocents. How can anyone look at a country where a Columbine occurs. Where metal detectors are
necessary in elementary schools. Where someone can walk into an airport and shoot up a ticket counter because their particular stripe of political fervor believes that its necessary to kill other people and not say to themselves "something has gone horribly wrong here".
At a time when the country is "at war" against terrorism you would think that people would be willing to ease up a little bit on the guns. We're quick to throw away our free speech. Our rights to privacy. Our right to due process but hang onto that gun!
The government is cracking down on tanker trucks. On crop duster airplanes. On helicopters. Presumably because they are weapons that might be used by a terrorist to kill somebody else. Guns? Don't be silly How would a terrorist ever use one of them to hurt American citizens? If we have to wait a week to get that semi-automatic, that's unconstitutional.
Look... it's silly. Nobody needs a gun that quickly. Right now. If somebody comes stomping into a gun store looking to buy a weapon the best thing for them is probably a seven day waiting period to cool off. Who knows it may save somebody's life.
But we wouldn't want that would we? Bad camel!! Bad!!
Myth or plot by atheistic scientists to deny the power of God? 
As if there wasn't enough war going on in Jerusalem.The latest round of violence in the city has nothing to do with the Palestinian penchance for blowing themselves up in public places and everything to do with a chair. Left out Christian monks said "Hey! Look at us!" and sent notice yesterday that they can be violent too. 11 monks were taken to hospital after clerics from rival sects that jealously share the courtyard on the roof of the Jerusalem shrine marking the spot believed to be the site of the crucifixion threw rocks, metal rods and chairs at each other all over the placement of a chair. It seems that a monk from the Egyptian Coptic sect moved his chair out of the sun and into some shade. All well and good if the shade had not been in the area claimed by the Ethiopians who took the move as a declaration of war.
The success of the Lahaye/Jenkins literary monstrosity known as the 'Left Behind' series is endemic of a problem among North American readers. By and large the majority of readers are idiots. Readers want pablum. They need to be spoonfed. If Oprah doesn't give it a big thumbs up, they're not really interested and they couldn't spell Siddhartha to save their lives let alone Hermann Hesse.
These fish can walk after a fashion on little nubbin fins that double as legs. They slither, flop and lurch from water source to water source and can survive on land for up to three days. Adults eat fish, frogs, aquatic birds and small mammals, while juvenile snakehead fish prey on earthworms, water bugs, tadpoles, dragonfly larvae and other organisms. With sharp teeth and powerful jaws, big snakeheads can bite other fish in half.
I admit... I'd be pretty useless in outer space. I'm no longer in great shape. As I've gotten older my waist has gotten thicker. I'd be frightened by the toilet and have too much fun shouting "Look at me! I'm a bird!" . I'd want to install buttons marked 'death ray' and pester everybody with my Marvin the Martian impersonation which is actually pretty bad. I'd be about as useful in an emergency as a member of a boy band... hey... wait a minute... Anybody have 10 million dollars that they can lend me?
Hamas 
The House ethics committee unanimously recommended Thursday that Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, should be expelled from the House for ethics violations relating to his bribery, racketeering and tax evasion convictions. "It wasn't the tax evasion" explained one member of the committee. "It was the getting caught. A lot of us have done some pretty stupid things but we managed to cover them up."
Provided for your simple stealing pleasure... in case you have the larcenous urge to plagerize the piece for yourself and produce "30 seconds of Silence". Here's the musical score. 
No really. The police officer charged with assaulting Donovan Jackson while the youth was handcuffed has claimed self defense saying that Jackson had hold of his testicles and refused to let go. Jackson had his hands handcuffed behind his back and was bent over the hood of a police car at the time. That would logically place Donovan's hands straight up in the air. In order to reach the policeman's testicles they would have to be pretty darned big! So... is this a case of self defense or bragging?
If 'cruising' were not bad enough... since becoming mobile (with ever increasing speed) Rachel has proven to us that there is no such thing as a 'baby proofed' home. We try but she always manages to find something that we missed. No matter how thoroughly I think I have vacuumed, there she is trying to stick somethingin her mouth. Bits of plastic. A snatch of paper. With industrial strength saliva she can reduce the sturdiest cardboard to brown sludge in seconds. Even the television remote control now has little teeth marks edging the buttons.
Arguing that Bush wasn't talking about him because he wasn't mentioned by name in the President's speech, Arafat asserted that he intended to remain in power. "No, actually no, officially no. He didn't mention my name at all." Obviously Bush was talking about all those other Palestinian Authority figures and not Arafat after all.
Starting next fall you'll be able to catch Jon Stewart and a special 'Global Edition' of the Daily Show on CNN. The new show will piece together bits from the previous week and tie it altogether around the relevent issues of the day. Read 
Momentarily confused as to what he was supposed to be speaking about, President Bush was grateful for the helpful backdrop behind him. Choking back his instinctive snort of derisive laughter and a muffled "yeah right" he launched into his speech on Wall Street and ended with "Hey! Can I ring that bell thingee?"
Surprised by the opening question "Okay... who here has made millions on the backs of employees paid barely a minimum wage?" the CEO's automatically raised their hands. Their council quickly cried foul play and the proceedings had to be restarted. Now hip to Congress' wily tricks they all plead their fifth amendment right not to incriminate themselves joining such notables as the esteemable Kenneth Lay.
Pride is supposed to be one of the seven deadly sins but I suspect it was slipped into the mix by authority figures looking to take credit for the works of those beneath them. Quiet little monk. Pride is sinful. Why yes, your Holiness it was I who found those scrolls... Pride, true pride, acknowledges weaknesses and imperfections while celebrating the wonderful and the amazing. And there is a lot about each of us that deserves to be recognized and celebrated.
President Bush on Tuesday urged the Democratic-led Senate to pass a bill making it easier for faith-based groups to get federal funds to offer social services to ease "despair and worry and hopelessness." The president went on to add 'because God knows the government sure isn't doing it'.
