Seagull Century Canceled For First Time in 27 Years

The folks at Salisbury University do a great job running the Seagull Century and they canceled today's ride for the first time in 27 years.  It was the right call, but I am bummed that I am not riding with Jeff, Gork and Steve.  It is always a great time with them and this year we were spending the weekend at Ocean City, MD -- which would have been great.

Hopefully next year will work out!

Yet Another Shooting In A School - President Obama Is Right

The NRA has blood on its hands. Congress has blood on its hands. Anyone who states the BS line of "more guns make us safer" ALL have blood on their hands.

I am F*CK!NG sick of this BS that the chicken sh*t politicians and the NRA feed the idiot Americans who believe this crap!  As a father of a son who stood outside Norris Hall at VT on April 16th, 2007 when the gun shots first started in the worst massacre at a college campus in American history I am disgusted with our politicians and those who suck at the tit of the NRA. I was one of the lucky ones as my son was not killed that day.  But my son was very involved in this tragedy after the fact because he worked for (as a volunteer) Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times.  My sister (a BS, two Masters and a Ph.D.) was one of the first counselors to show up at VT to help those in need. So, this is very, very near and dear to my heart.  One of the many tragic stories I heard first hand was from John's roommate who was one of those who was there when the bodies of the students were being taken out and you could hear the cell phones ringing in those students pants or purses as their moms and dads were calling and praying they were ok.....

The logic of "more guns make us safer" is complete and utter CRAP!  It is the Archie Bunker logic.  Archie famously stated in the hit TV show All In The Family, to combat the hijackers on planes, they should pass out guns to every one who gets on a plane so when the bad guy pulls out his gun, the good guys will have theirs and can shoot him.  That is the same bassawkwards logic that we hear today.

IF guns make us safer, then why did we go through TWO metal detectors before I was able to visit the Senate?  IF guns make us safer than why do we have metal detectors before we get on planes? The logic is BS!!

Here is an experiment we can run in the House.  Since MOST of the politicians today believe MORE guns make us safer and we can RELY on having that person with the gun to take out the bad guy with the gun, let's do this:

In the Senate keep everything the same - no changes to safety protocols.  In the House, let's get rid of all the metal detectors, let's get rid of the protective services that each of the congress men and women have so anyone with a gun can walk right into the floor of the House and sit there with their gun no problem.  These Congress men and women should feel just as safe as the Senators according to their logic - right? This is the same logic that that all of these politicians are pushing when they relax all of the gun laws.

It reminds me when I saw Oliver Stone speak live at Foot Hill Community College in CA.  Mr. Stone was asked, "why did the Vietnam war go on for so long?"  He looked at the woman with disgust and said, "Do you REALLY NOT KNOW?"  The woman said sheepishly, "no".  Mr. Stone said, "Because politicians kids were not going to war and were not dying.  If they were, it would have been a short war."  The same logic applies here.
I have lots of friends who are police officers or Secret Service agents or detectives.  They all say the same thing, which is just because you can shoot a gun does NOT mean you are properly trained to use it in a real life situation.

It's interesting that most of my relatives all like to hunt. Which I think is perfectly fine.  BUT, NONE of them going hunting with an AK-47, M16 or any type of machine gun!

You have to have a license to get married, to go hunting, to fishing, to drive a car, to drive a commercial vehicle or hell EVEN to cut someone's hair in a barber shop, BUT you don't need a universal background check to buy a gun??????

Politicians LOVE to say, "well the American people have said...." Well guess what IDIOT politicians, look what Americans say about universal background checks for guns???

"Ninety-two percent of voters, including 92 percent of gun owners and 86 percent of Republicans, support background checks prior to all gun sales, according to a new poll from Quinnipiac University."


Don't tell me this crap response, "well, if we look at where the gun laws are the strictest that is where we have the most murders." Yeah, it really matters when DC has a tight gun law but freaking Virginia is the wild, wild west doesn't it?



Also, don't give me the BS response of, "well, what can you do, these things will just happen."  That is Homer Simpson logic when Bart tried something and failed Homer said, "Bart, you learned a very valuable lesson today, never, EVER try."


Frank Bruni writes a great article title Guns, Campuses and Madness in the NT Times when he states:

"This is madness. When it comes to guns, we have lost our bearings in this country, allowing misguided chest-thumping about a constitutional amendment penned in an entirely different epoch, under entirely different circumstances, to trump all prudence and decency.

President Obama had it right when he said on Thursday that Americans had “become numb to this,” as evidenced by our political paralysis — or, in the case of Texas, our sprint in the wrong direction. He noted that there was now “a gun for roughly every man, woman and child in America.”

“So how can you, with a straight face, make the argument that more guns will make us safer?” he added."

Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times "A New Way To Tackle Gun Deaths":

"First, we need to comprehend the scale of the problem: It’s not just occasional mass shootings like the one at an Oregon college on Thursday, but a continuous deluge of gun deaths, an average of 92 every day in America. Since 1970, more Americans have died from guns than died in all U.S. wars going back to the American Revolution.

When I reported a similar figure in the past, gun lobbyists insisted that it couldn’t possibly be true. But the numbers are unarguable: fewer than 1.4 million war deaths since 1775, more than half in the Civil War, versus about 1.45 million gun deaths since 1970 (including suicides, murders and accidents).

If that doesn’t make you flinch, consider this: In America, more preschoolers are shot dead each year (82 in 2013) than police officers are in the line of duty (27 in 2013), according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI."

Republicans like to say as stated so well by E.J. Dionne, Jr on October 4th titled "The Conservative Evasion On Guns"

"Politicians who go on about American greatness should be ashamed of saying that the United States is the one and only nation that can’t act effectively to solve a problem every other free and democratic country has contained."

Dionne nailed it! Don't tell me how great America is and "exceptional" when the Republicans are so afraid of the NRA that those politicians refuse to address this incredible problem!

I would be willing to be BIG MONEY that if a Senator or Congressman's child was killed on a college campus or at a school that they would have a "change of heart" and realize how f*cking crazy American's politicians have become in their absolute fear of the NRA!!!!

God Bless President Obama who has it EXACTLY right -- we have spent over $1 TRILLION on fighting terrorism, but that is a rounding error compared to gun deaths --  this CANNOT become routine and I am glad that he will not let it - if only the politicians had some courage.