Gun Control, and Why it's Pretty Important

     As a liberal I am generally not a fan of gung-ho, gun-slinging, conservatives shouting about "the guys with the guns make the rules" as the NRA has been quoted saying.  While I am pretty much always ready to get up on my soapbox and begin to speak about women's rights, when the topic of gun control comes up I usually make a few arguments about all the shootings that have happened as of late before going back to whatever I was previously doing.  However, recently I read an article that has made me realize that my soapbox is not just a place that stands to protect the rights of women, gays, and minorities.  Because gun control is a really big deal when you think about everything that's been going on currently.

     First you must understand that I am not some psychotic liberal who believes that all guns are bad, and that the military should be defending our country with plastic swords.  I am not ignorant, and I was not raised in a home where guns were looked at as mystical objects.  They were there, they were weapons, and they were used by the adult men.  And it is not as though there are not responsible adults who can be safe with a gun, and who can be trusted to use a gun maturely.  They are also irresponsible adults who shoot up gas stations and use guns like they think killing someone is no big deal, and this bad always outweighs the good.

     The problem with guns is that when a person carries a gun it gives them a power complex, a "holier than thou" feeling, that gives them more bravado and less brain, which is part of what leads to shootings such as Trayvon Martin's by George Zimmerman, and the recent one in which four teens were killed over "loud music."  But gun control will not also help stave off the enraged power-hungry, and racial-stereotyping who like to whip out a gun to prove themselves.  It is so much more than that.

     In places that are rife with street violence, getting some of the guns off the street would certainly cut down on the death rates.  Places like Oakland, Compton, and border towns that are struggling with poverty, gangs, and drugs, have some of the highest death and aggravated crime rates in the country, and although controlling the amount of weapons they have access to would by no means get all of the guns off the streets it would certainly limit the shootings that are an everyday occurrence in those areas.

A Letter to my Somewhat Beloved

Dear Baby,

     How are you darling?  I'm sorry I haven't been able to see you in a few days, and as a way to show my affection I am posting this letter so the whole world can see how much I truly do love you.  I'm also hoping you'll stumble across this, I know you said one time that you read my blog, but I couldn't tell if that was actually you talking, or if you were just being facetious.  Anyways, onto the actual "love letter" part of this "love letter."

    I know, I know.  Our relationship started out a bit rough, what with me thinking you were just a replacement for another guy that hadn't worked out.  But slowly, I started to like you.  You were nice, you were not-pushy or overbearing.  You quickly got to know my likes and dislikes, and were wonderful at suggesting movies to watch, which was good because I liked watching movies and you were okay with sitting quietly for hours at a time.  Of course at first we were long-distance, which made us strained and a bit unhappy in our relationship.  Then a wonderful thing happened, you moved closer, and we were together all of the time.  We spent almost all of our time in our own little world.  I felt as though I could have never been happier in life.  We spent entire days away from the world, in our little infinity.

So thank you Netflix, for making me happier than any human interaction ever has.

   

Three Sentence Book Reviews

As an avid reader and writer I have decided to expand this blog to something more than me talking about my life.  It has come to my awareness that my life is a rather boring affair, and need not be chronicled in a blog.  I have also been informed that I should expand the scope of this blog to responding to current events.  So in a compromise I will review books, both bestsellers and esoteric novels that are nearly off the radar.

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

This book encompasses love and loss in the story of a girl who has never been anything but terminal, Hazel Grace is a cancer patient who goes through the most unimaginable infinity possible in the numbered days and this best-selling young adult novel's movie will premiere in cinemas this summer.  This novel is beautifully written, impeccably worded, and is an emotion-wrenching novel that will have any reader in tears by the end.  It mixes sharp humor with poignant sadness to create the most dreadfully real cancer book I have ever read and is definitely worth reading.

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

J.D. Salinger's novel follows the story of Holden Caulfield, who rebels against the conformity of life as a teenager in New York City and his revelations as he grows older and reflects both on his life as a child, his younger sister Phoebe, and the girl who went away.  While there are some who critique this book as not crossing the generational gap well, with it's language now being antiquated and Holden's views old-fashioned in places, it still holds considerable value as a literary work in today's time.  The writing style is one that cannot be replicated, the diction is unique, and the language interspersed throughout is creative and gives true insight into the mind of any teenager.

Emergency Room by Caroline B. Cooney

A short book surrounding the events of a single evening at an underfunded inner-city emergency room which frequently also acts as a drunk-tank, homeless shelter, and teaching facility for medical students.  This reads in a highly unusual fashion as each chapter is told from a different perspective, ranging from an Emergency Medical Technician to a five-year-old girl at the emergency room with her younger siblings because they have nowhere else to go.  The work dives deep into the realities of what truly happens in an emergency room, covering all of the successes failures, lives and deaths, and shows the grit and raw emotion of hospitals.

The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo

DiCamillo's children's tale tells the story of Edward Tulane, a rabbit doll who has a little girl who loves him very much, but he only cares about himself; as he experiences a life he never has before had to live he loses his self-righteousness and gains the ability to love.  Although this is a story that was targeted towards children it is a book that everyone needs to read, as it is not only a beautifully written book with a both heartwarming and heartbreaking plot, but it also teaches some of the best life lessons one could learn.  The tale is beautifully crafted, the characters are perfectly built up, and the lessons will stick with you for a very long time.

Partials by Dan Wells

Kira and Samm's story is told in Manhattan, after nearly everyone else in the world is dead, due to a man-made apocalypse, which left the world in shambles and the few human survivors fighting for everything they had, mostly against the threat of "Partials" attack.  With a sea of apocalypse and dystopian future books flooding the market currently, it is rather difficult to know which ones are actually worth reading, but Wells is ones of them.  The writing is filled with humor, love, sarcasm, and loss; and the setting seems very realistic.

Reasons You Should Be Listening To "Welcome To Night Vale"

Welcome To Night Vale is a deadpan horror/comedy podcast that is produced bi-monthly for it's many listeners.  It is set in Night Vale "a small desert town where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass over the the town while the citizens pretend to sleep."  Now it is time for you to ask yourself: why am I not listening to "Welcome to Night Vale?"

1. Cecil Gershwin Palmer the radio announcer who will speak in his low, smooth radio voice.  Except when it comes to Carlos the Scientist.  And cats on the Internet and floating in the radio station bathroom about four feet off the ground.

2.  Oh, did we mention Carlos the Scientist?  We did, didn't we?  Well as the Vague, Yet Menacing Government Agency we must tell you that it is all okay.  As Cecil has said, Carlos the scientist has perfect hair, and is, in fact, a scientist.

3.  We should probably get back to the floating bathroom cat.  That's Khoshekh.  He's just a cat.  Nothing to see here.

4. Big Rico's Pizza.  It's a government mandate.  Everybody's loves government-mandated wheat and wheat-by product free pizza.


5.  The Public Library.  Ironically the biography section only has biographies of one person and there are no entrances or exits, meaning it is more of an unwilling abduction to go in or out.  Also you will probably die.

6.  The NRA.  Always changing it's slogan, some of them include: "Guns don't kill people, people kill guns" and "guns don't kill people, it's impossible to be killed by a gun, we're all invincible to bullets and it's a miracle."

7.  The Private Library.  Only available to one person, the town billionaire, who uses it solely for walking around nude and not reading a single book.

8.  Tamika Flynn.  Leader of the insurgent children, she's actually pretty terrifying.  She is taking on StrexCorp.

9.  Oh yeah, StrexCorp.  They're pretty awful.  They just showed up and started buying stuff.  Like, everything.  Pretty much the whole town.

10.  The Glow Cloud.  "All hail the glow cloud."

11.  The Auction.  Once a year the whole city auctions things, restaurant vouchers, radio announcers, the usual.

12.  Interns.  They never survive long but we kind of like them, and their inevitable doom.

13.  The Dog Park.  Full of hooded figures, doesn't allow dogs.  Holding intern Dana hostage.

14.  A super-cute relationship between Carlos and Cecil.  That is all.