Caught in the the crosshairs
Of my poison-dart, marauding rifle
But then what can a body do?
‘You’re not the man you used to be’
You say with certain relish
But then again you’re here with me
And though you surely cannot hide
You’ll try to run for certain
And I will follow where you go
As we perpetuate the dance
We’ve done through all the ages
Ours is much more than just a show
Bought my ticket
Took time off for
The drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tux, tails just for
The drama of life
Some choose their circumstances
With a dearth of careful thinking
Some can’t make any choice at all
But all the options must be weighed
Outcomes evaluated
And for some flavor add some salt
Take an intermission
Look at what you’re missing
It’s not a natural
Or a simple kind of undertaking
Half-heartedness won’t make it so
To rise above self-serving vanities
Makes all the difference
Sometimes that’s all you need to know
Other Ray Jozwiak Offerings
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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Caught in the crosshairs
of my poison-dart marauding rifle
Of course what can a body do
You’re not the man you used to be
You say with certain relish
But still you’re here with me today
And though you surely cannot hide
You’ll try to run for cover
And I will follow where you go
As we perpetuate the dance
We’ve done through all the ages
Ours is much more than just a show
Bought my ticket
Took time off for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tails, tux just for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Some choose their circumstances
With a dearth of careful thinking
Some can’t make any choice at all
But all the options must be weighed
Outcomes evaluated
And for the joy you must add salt
Bought my ticket
Took time off for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tails, tux just for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Take an intermission
Look at what you’re missing
It’s not a natural
Or a simple kind of understanding
Half-heartedness won’t make it so
To rise above self-serving
Vanities makes all the difference
Sometimes that’s all you need to know
Bought my ticket
Took time off for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
Front row orchestra
Tails, tux just for the
Drama of life
Drama of life
Drama of life
My latest solo offering, No Frills, is now available at - No Frills
(To Access all Ray Jozwiak - Gonzo Piano music you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/RayJozwiak)
(from http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/28/palin-waterboarding-is-how-we-baptize-terrorists/?hpt=hp_t3)
". . . Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told a capacity crowd at a National Rifle Association rally how she would baptize terrorists if she was an elected official.
“If I was in charge,” Palin said Saturday in Indianapolis, “they would know, waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists.”
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who ran against then Sen.-Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, with Palin as his running mate, has spoken out against waterboarding, calling it illegal and ineffective. During the Vietnam War, McCain endured years of torture and imprisonment as a prisoner of war under the North Vietnamese.
In her speech, Palin also said the Washington insiders who called the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood a case of workplace violence “don’t know what is right.” That shooting was carried out by Maj. Nidal Hassan.
“Not when that evil Muslim terrorist Major Hassan massacres his fellow military soldiers at Fort Hood,” she said.
Characterizing Hassan, “that devil” as a ‘disgruntled employee,’” is hypocritical, said Palin.
Palin called liberals hypocrites for their stance on issues varying from gun control to torture at the NRA event that was part of the organization’s 2014 convention.
But she backtracked later, saying, “Not all intolerant anti-freedom leftist liberals are hypocrites.”
OHO's
"Ocean City Ditty," the
CD single is now available at http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/oho4
(and, if
you're in town, at Trax On Wax on Frederick Rd. in Catonsville, MD)
My latest solo release, '2014', can be downloaded digitally at:
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Adolphus Busch IV, heir to the Busch family brewing fortune, resigned his lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association recently, writing in a letter to NRA President David Keene, "I fail to see how the NRA can disregard the overwhelming will of its members who see background checks as reasonable."
The resignation came a day after the Senate rejected a series of amendments to a gun control bill, including a bipartisan deal to expand background checks for gun sales. The NRA had vigorously opposed all those measures.
"The NRA I see today has undermined the values upon which it was established," wrote Busch. "Your current strategic focus clearly places priority on the needs of gun and ammunition manufacturers while disregarding the opinions of your 4 million individual members."
Busch joined the NRA in 1975 and has spoken before of his love of hunting. But the NRA has moved in a direction that Busch would not follow. "One only has to look at the makeup of the 75-member board of directors, dominated by manufacturing interests, to confirm my point. The NRA appears to have evolved into the lobby for gun and ammunition manufacturers rather than gun owners," he wrote.
Busch told Keene, "It disturbs me greatly to see this rigid new direction of the NRA." He singled out the gun lobby's reversal of its 1999 position in favor of universal background checks, as well as its opposition to an assault weapons ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines. "I am simply unable to comprehend how assault weapons and large capacity magazines have a role in your vision," he wrote.
"Was it not the NRA position to support background checks when Mr. LaPierre himself stated in 1999 that NRA saw checks as 'reasonable'?" Busch wrote, referring to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre's testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in the wake of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting.
At that time, LaPierre said the NRA believed that universal background checks were a "reasonable" choice. The group even took out ads in major newspapers that read, "We believe it's reasonable to provide for instant background checks at gun shows, just like gun stores and pawn shops."
One week after that hearing, LaPierre rolled out the same argument that he would use 14 years later to attack President Barack Obama's gun safety proposals -- namely, that until the government prosecutes more background check violations, there is no point in expanding them.
(from Michael O'Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News)
**". . .The National Rifle Association's Wayne LaPierre railed Friday against "elites," whom he accused of harboring a secret agenda of creating a registry of gun owners across the country. . .
**. . .He ridiculed proponents of stricter gun controls, and won repeated cheers from the conservative activists in the audience for his defense of Second Amendment rights And LaPierre used his speech to slam a proposal before Congress to require background checks for all firearms transactions, a law that has won some new support in the wake of the deadly December shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn.. . .
**. . . LaPierre said the background checks would set the stage for universal gun registration. . .
**. . ."It's the real goal they've been pushing for decades," he said. . .
**. . . And he stoked fears that universal background checks would lead to newspapers publishing the names and addresses of gun owners, so that "gangs and criminals" or the Mexican and Chinese governments could access them. . . "
(from Google)
**Wayne LaPierre Claims That Guns Prevent Rape
www.politicususa.com/wayne-lapierre-claims-guns-prevent-ra...
20 hours ago – LaPierre is now claiming that arming women will prevent rapes. LaPierre delivered his usual Obama is coming to take your guns conspiracy ...
**NRA's Wayne LaPierre Warns Chinese, Mexicans Coming for Our ...
www.usnews.com › Opinion › Robert SchlesingerShare
20 hours ago – NRA leader warns the Chinese want to know who has guns. ... If you listened to National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre at ... a tool for the U.S. government to come take your guns—you probably ... So newspapers can print those names and addresses for criminals and gangs to access?
**NRA's Wayne LaPierre: Our critics are crazy, not us | The Ticket ...
news.yahoo.com/.../nra-wayne-lapierre-critics-crazy-...Share
Chris Moody
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(from http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/15/16524425-nra-releases-practice-range-shooting-app-after-blaming-video-games-for-violence?lite)
". . .Just weeks after the National Rifle Association forcefully blamed violent video games for gun violence, a new shooter game is out that appears to be from the NRA. "NRA: Practice Range" was released Sunday in iTunes, the Apple-run site. It features a 3D-shooting range and offers users simulated target practice. It isn’t clear what connection the NRA has to the app, which is described as an "Official NRA Licensed Product" on iTunes. NBC News has reached out to the organization for comment but has yet to receive a response. The game's launch comes one month after the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., which touched off a national debate over how to limit gun violence. “Guns don’t kill people. Video games, the media and Obama’s budget kill people,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre said at a Dec. 21 press conference where he addressed the tragedy at Sandy Hook. "There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people, through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bulletstorm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Kombat’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’” The free app was initially recommended for ages 4 and up, according to the iTunes rating system, but later Monday was recommended for 12 and up. . . "
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(by David Horsey)
"It is not too much of a stretch to say the National Rifle Association profits from mass killings like the slaughter at the theater in Aurora, Colo., and the killings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. The NRA is, after all, a fundraising machine that runs on fear and a sense of crisis, even when the fear is false and the crisis manufactured.
A former Republican lawmaker has made public a four-page fundraising letter from the NRA's executive vice-president, Wayne LaPierre, that was sent out to gun enthusiasts just three days after a young man styling himself as the Joker turned a showing of the new Batman movie into a bloody massacre. The Republican whistleblower apparently found the timing of the solicitation just a bit unseemly. At the same time, he insisted on anonymity. Even an ex-officeholder does not want to end up on the NRA's hit list.
In the NRA's defense, such mailings for money generally take weeks to prepare, so it is highly unlikely the letter was sent in response to the Aurora incident. Still, it was convenient timing. In the days after the Joker went wild, sales of firearms and ammunition boomed. The gun-loving populace, it seems, has been convinced by years of NRA propaganda that any mass shooting will be used as an excuse for government agents to start confiscating firearms, so they rushed to stock up before the feds came to their door.
Mr. LaPierre's fundraising missive was yet another example of this fear mongering. In the letter, the NRA leader says President Barack Obama's re-election would lead to "confiscation of our firearms" and, potentially, a "ban on semi-automatic weapons."
Follow @BaltSunLetters for the latest reader letters to The Sun.
"The future of your Second Amendment rights will be at stake," writes Mr. LaPierre. "And nothing less than the future of our country and our freedom will be at stake."
The truth, of course, is that most Democrats have given up the fight to restrict guns, and Mr. Obama has shown no inclination whatsoever to renew that battle. Nevertheless, the NRA needs money, and the money will not come if gun owners do not think they need the lobbying power of the NRA to protect their right to keep and bear arms. In recent years, revenue from NRA membership dues has dropped, as has total income for the organization. So, increasingly, Mr. LaPierre and company have come to depend on contributions from freaked-out gun nuts.
One steady stream of NRA dollars comes from an interesting source. A 1986 law erased the ban on interstate sales of ammunition. Since then, consumers have been encouraged to add a little extra to the total when they buy their bullets online or by mail order. That tip goes to the NRA. Since 1992, these nifty gratuities have reportedly brought in $9.3 million to the organization. That means that every time there is a run on ammo in the wake of a mass shooting, Mr. LaPierre's budget gets a nice boost.
There is a sick symbiosis between the deranged acts of the lone gunmen and the revenue stream of the NRA. In no way can the NRA be blamed for the actions of the shooters, of course, but it sure would be nice to see Mr. LaPierre take a day off from stoking the fear and raising the dough, at least while families mourn the dead."
[Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner David Horsey is a political commentator for the Los Angeles Times. Go to latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/ to see more of his work]
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If, as the gun advocates say, we don't need more laws, we need to enforce the gun laws already on the books, then LET'S DO IT!!!!! . . . and not wait for something like this to happen again.
(from TimeNewsFeed)
"Early reports indicate that approximately 50 people were hurt and at least 14 were killed when a masked gunman opened fire during a midnight showing of the Dark Knight Rises at a mall in Aurora, Colo.
Police and witness reports indicate that a gunman fired into the audience 15 minutes into the midnight showing of the film. Police confirmed that the shooter — who entered theater number 9 wearing a gas mask and released a canister filled with gas — fired a rifle multiple times into the audience. Aurora police chief Dan Oates said that 10 died during the attack, and four more died in area hospitals.
One person is in police custody, and authorities are saying that it appears this suspect acted alone. Police, however, are still scouring the immediate area and other local movie theaters for any possible accomplices. A Colo. bomb squad was also called to check reports that an explosion occurred within the movie theater, and to investigate a suspicious vehicle parked outside of the cinema.
At an early morning press conference, Oates said his officers found the gunman with a mask, a rifle and a handgun by a car behind the theater — at least one more weapon was found within the man’s vehicle. The police chief added that the suspect told officers after being taken into custody that there may be explosives in his apartment. Oates told reporters that the authorities are currently securing a residence in North Aurora.
Witnesses say that the bullets went through the wall from the theater where the shooting took place and hit several victims in an adjacent Dark Knight midnight showing."
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