Friday’s Odds and Ends

First I’m going on the record to say I liked President Obama’s State of the Union Address Tuesday night. I think he challenged all of us to work harder for a unified nation, and only the media and certain politicians decided that Obama’s remarks were aimed at specific people. Although, we do need to call people out for their behavior. There are too many people in the public arena who are less than civil and it would be nice if they would learn how to behave. It is so disheartening to see and hear all the disparaging and disrespectful comments being aimed at others like throwing darts at a dartboard.

Now let’s just take a moment for relaxation.

Okay, that’s it. Wake up. Back to the serious stuff.

All of this rhetoric about President Obama’s efforts to curb gun violence and the protest that gun control is somehow a bad thing for the United States is getting ridiculous. Doing something to stem the proliferation of assault weapons that end up in the hands of criminals and people with mental health issues is not a threat to the Second Amendment.

Nobody is trying to take away my gun or the guns of any other responsible gun owner.

What has to happen, unless we are so foolish that we think it shouldn’t, is that safety should come first and we need stronger background checks. We need more discrimination when it comes to buying and selling weapons and deciding who can engage in that buying and selling. Too many people manage to bypass the background check process. We are faced with a lot of serious problems surrounding the issue of gun violence, and trying to do something about them does not impinge upon our right to own a weapon.

Last weekend, there were quite a few letters to the editor in the Dallas Morning News in response to the speech that President Obama gave regarding gun violence and one person said why don’t we just become a country where all of our citizens are armed because we are too afraid not to be.

Kind of sad when you think about it.

A Dallas physician, Golder Wilson, wrote a very tongue-in-cheek response. “I realized as an independent that I have been short-changing Republican attitudes towards guns after President Barack Obama’s speech. I’ve been rather narrow in my support of Americans who pass stringent background checks to own a gun when assault weapons and more, must have been the intention of musket-owning framers of the Second Amendment.”

He also wrote, “Having weapons everywhere was a tremendous life-saving deterrent at Fort Hood and Washington Navy Yard massacres, and as we approach January 18th, we can only wonder why the marchers at Selma left their rifles and rocket launchers behind. But my most grievous error in wanting bans on military weapons lies in not recognizing the Christianity of weapon ownership. We must always remember how Christ gave swords to his disciples and His golden rule of shooting others before they shoot you. Thank you, wise Republicans, for going from open arms to open carry.”

Lest you think I am anti-guns. I am not. I have several here at Grandma’s Ranch for shooting unwanted critters.

Friday’s Funnies

A man was looking for a person to paint her porch, so he hired a young lady and told her what to do. After about 30 minutes, the lady came to the door and said “I’m done.”

The man asked “how did you get done so fast?”

The lady said “it was hard at first, but it got easier towards the end. And by the way, it’s a Ferrarri not a Porsche.”

Two small boys, not yet old enough to be in school, were overheard talking at the zoo one day. “My name is Billy. What’s yours?” asked the first boy.

“Tommy,” replied the second.

“My Daddy’s an accountant. What does your Daddy do for a living?” asked Billy. Tommy replied, “My Daddy’s a lawyer.”

“Honest?” asked Billy.

“No, just the regular kind”, replied Tommy.

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That’s it for me folks. Do have a nice weekend. Feel free to leave a comment about the President’s speech or the gun violence issue, but remember to be civil.