From My Cold Dead Fingers

With about ten days to go before the end of the Mayan calendar I began doing a countdown to the end of the world.

Naturally it was all in jest as I certainly don’t believe that 12-21-12 will be the date when the Earth blows up or anything remotely similar.
But for some people it will be the end of existence for them since people naturally, and even un-naturally, die every day.
With about 8 days left in the countdown the mass murder of 26 innocent people took place in a little town in CT, 20 of whom were children mostly 5 or 6 years of age.
A countdown even in jest seemed inappropriate for a few days and I’ve just sort of stopped it even after a few more passed.
Some people are really freaked out about this and some places have taken measures to make sure that floods of people don’t make their way into these places space to do bizarre end-of-the-world things.

So many others are far more articulate than I when debates begin about things like gun control and mental illness so it rarely makes sense to get in the middle of them when the debate gets heated. Even after when I read things that make sense that I could pass on to others it doesn’t make much sense because these things have made their way around the social media networks and I’m just parroting at that point. 

There are a couple of things that I read or noticed that I thought were interesting to note though and I will parrot them accordingly:
- Doctors accidentally kill more people in the US than guns purposely do. Yes, doctors save lives too, but so do guns when criminals know that potential victims have them.
- The flu killed 5 times as many people in the US as guns did in 2010 (50000 to 11000 - source CDC) Let's not get into heart disease and cancer stats.
- Alcohol induced deaths in 2010 were just over 25,000. We know what happened when alcohol was banned in this country.
- President Obama wants to tighten gun control but just sold 20 F-16 fighter jets to the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. You know, that group that basically wants to kill as many non-believers as possible.

- Heroin, Cocaine, Meth and all sorts of drugs are banned and illegal in our country yet there continues to be a growing problem with them in our country.
- 446 school-aged children have been shot in Chicago this year, which supposedly has the toughest gun laws in the country. On the day of the Newtown massacre, 10 teens were shot in Chicago, 4 of who were killed. Just another day; no headline news of note to read there.

- Since Australia’s gun ban, armed robberies are up 69%, assaults with guns up 28%, gun murder up 19%, and home invasions up 21%. That, my friends, is called evidence that gun bans are not working.

- In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control. From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- In 1911, Turkey established gun control. From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
- China established gun control in 1935. From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.
- Guatemala established gun control in 1964. From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated. (Seems that the end-of-the-world date was a little off for them.)
- Uganda established gun control in 1970. From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.
- Cambodia established gun control in 1956. From 1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

There is this other argument about assault rifles and semi and automatic weapons. My understanding of the whole debate about guns when the US Constitution was created is that the 2^nd amendment was written so that citizens could defend themselves against a government out of control. At that time the government didn’t have tanks and bazookas and grenades and chemical weapons and F-16 fighter jets. They had single-shot rifles. Citizens had the chance to fight on an even playing field.
It would be a bit extreme to suggest that citizens should be able to go out and buy tanks to defend themselves but its patently obvious that even with the ability to buy an automatic weapon that we are way overmatched if a battle ever came down to the citizenry and the US Government forces.

Here is the 2^nd Amendment to the US Constitution, for those who haven’t actually read it in a while, or ever.

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

I have heard some people read that sentence and state, emphatically, that to own a gun you have to be part of a militia.
I read it clearly as two different things – a militia and the people.
I am placing an “and” in there where the comma is but to me the comma is the “and.”

But let’s take the first part which says “militia.” What does that word conger up in your mind these days? Terrorist group, perhaps? That is what gets sold to us these days by the leftist media. American militia groups are on watch lists in this country but it seems to me that if they are well regulated they should be just fine. How do we end up categorizing a militia as a terrorist group today?

I have a deep concern about giving any government too much power. Just look at some of the above examples I posted about what has happened in countries where governments took away guns from people.
I feel the same way about taxation in this country. I consider money to be powerful. Take a dollar and consider that one unit of power. The more dollars that the government takes from us through taxation the more units of power that they have. When a government devalues that dollar by printing more of them, they are taking power from us. This is something to fear, in my opinion. I don’t care who is in office, Democrat or Republican, they do not get the power. Our Constitution was written to guard against that. Yet I still hear people talking about how it is out of date or is a “living and breathing” document that can be changed because society changes. (There is an amendment procedure to deal with that so in that sense it is living and breathing.) But who are the ones who always seem to want those changes? The ones who want us to pay more taxes and remove guns from our homes thus taking power out of our hands. Does that make sense at all? DOES THAT SINK INTO HEADS AT ALL?!?!?!?!

The end of the world isn’t coming Friday for most of us. I’m not worried about that. I am, however, certainly more worried about many other things that are related to what is written above here.

Please trust that I have only thought about this an hour or so today and only today. I have otherwise kept my vow of focusing on the positive during this Holiday season, which has been fantastic for me thus far. I am fully confident that Christmas will come and it, too, will be awesome. I wish all of my friends a healthy and happy holiday season and a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (just in case I don’t write again…and it won’t mean because my world has ended, it will only mean that I am busy having fun and enjoying myself.)

Done

When Reindeer Fly

It’s tough to build an audience writing once a month but it’s been busy. Now that everything will slow down for a bit perhaps I can catch up with whatever this is here.

Well the end of the world is coming on December 21^st. The official countdown begins. This is the 3^rd end-of-the-world countdown I am experiencing in the last year and a half.
The last two were lead by Harold Camping, a kook, who was merrily playing his Pied Piper role to a flock of sheep who really should have revolted after the first time the world continued to thrive, let alone the second time.

This one is the real thing though, according to those who believe that because the Mayan calendar ran out of space on the rock on which they carved a calendar that the Earth will get sucked up in to a black hole of nothingness, or something like that.

If the world does end on the 21^st, it will now officially be ok with me though. There was one thing that I wanted to do at least one more time before I died and I did it a few times this past week, so I’m good to go now. It was one of those things that seemed to be in the same category of “when pigs fly,” or “when hell freezes over.” So everyone buckle up for that launch into oblivion in 17 days.

So we are well into the holiday season here in the United States and wherever else on the planet that isn’t dominated by heathens and atheists.

Frankly, I’m not a religious man. But I did grow up in a predominantly Christian society so I do celebrate the Christian holidays such as Christmas and Easter. Both holidays I celebrate a little differently because of my beliefs or, you might even say, lack of them. But I do find people’s faith a very powerful thing and sometimes wish I could experience the same thing.
I have to settle for my own understanding of everything in that subject and am quite comfortable there.

I have had, in my life, a stack of real terrible things happen around Christmas time. For quite some time it soured me on the whole month. It was really a horrible way to live though; hating a whole month of the year and wishing it would just get over quickly.

There came a point when I found it necessary for my own sanity to rise out of the pit of misery from which I refused to remove myself for years.
The process of turning that part of my life around revolved around taking a brand new look at everything and simply coming to terms with my experiences on a whole new level. I focused only on the positive things that crossed my path refusing to allow negativity to breach the filter into my thoughts. This didn’t matter how little there may have been that was positive; I would only be grateful no matter what happened.

Sure enough, and soon enough, this time of the year became the most important to me. Mainly because it was evidence of a great power perhaps just in the fact that I could knowingly overcome adversity at any given moment I decided to do so, or perhaps…just perhaps…there is magic in Christmas after all.

Whatever it was, or is, I still refuse to allow myself to be anything but positive. Even though the last two Christmas seasons were pretty rough I still hung on to every little positive thing I could because I knew, from my new experiences, that I would pull through emotionally, if not in any other way. In the end, for me, I think that is probably the most important part.
That, maybe, is sort of similar to what those of faith experience in their journeys through life. So it is why I share a kindred spirit with them if not the exact same walk through our short period of time on Earth.

During this time of the year I prefer to do things that help me create special memories about which I can think through the year or around every Christmas season. Sure, it is a time for giving as well but I am pretty clearly someone who finds that buying presents doesn’t always quite fit into “giving” the way that I define it, or feel it.
Sometimes just the simplest gestures can have a very profound effect when it comes to giving and sharing.

Are you creating those moments for yourself or someone in your life? Ever just go to the mall and sit and admire the decorations that people spent a lot of time placing out? Ever just do some people watching at the same time? Ever drive around neighborhoods to see how people have decorated their homes? Make cookies together? Decorate your own tree, listen to Christmas music and hug and dance slowly together with someone special in the middle of it all? Take time to go see a Christmas show? How about an elementary school Christmas show where innocence and true spirit fills the air? How about accidentally attending a Guatemalan midnight Christmas mass given in a language you don’t speak? (One of my best experiences ever.)

The whole month goes too fast. It pains me to hear people wish for it all to be done. I always want more of it. The great thing for me is that I know I can carry that spirit with me right into the next year. Knowing I can do that simply makes life grand and spectacular for me. This season helps wash away negativity for me and there was a lot of it this year. But I can turn my frown upside down and sing Christmas songs; both clean and dirty of course, and become renewed again.

Can you?