Easy. . .

. . . to verify. . .

After so much talk about guns, school shootings, deaths, children, the constitution, 2nd amendment, rights, militia, concealed carry, assault guns, automatic and semi-automatic, I've come to a conclusion.

Anyone who takes either side of the debate, but refuses to engage in meaningful discussion about, is clearly part of the problem.  They are part of the problem because they do not even want to begin to think about a solution.  (And if they do not think a problem exists. . . well, that's an entirely different story.)

This rant is honestly inspired by the existence of too many cutesy, Fox-news-y, tough-guy, on-line posts on social media regarding the issue.

Personally, I find gratification in facts.  Granted, one must always bear in mind the accuracy of the 'facts' they have received (in this on-line age this is all-too-easy) and verify same before actually BELIEVING them, let alone try to force them on all their social-networks 'friends.'

Want facts?  They're everywhere. . .
Hepburn, Lisa M. and David Hemenway. “Firearm availability and homicide: A review of the literature.” Aggression and Violent Behavior. Vol. 9, 2004: 417-440.
National Research Council of the National Academies, Committee on Law and Justice. “Firearms and Violence: A Critical Review.” The National Academies Press: Washington, D.C., 2004.
Average civilian ownership data for 178 countries: Small Arms Survey 2007, Chapter 2, Annexe 4.
UNODC Homicide Statistics. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Annual Firearms Manufacturers And Export Report. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Report years 1998-2011.
Total NCIS Background Checks, Nov. 30, 1998 to Nov. 30, 2012. Federal Bureau of Investigations. accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Hemenway, David. Director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 18 Dec 2012.
Wellford, Charles F. Professor, University of Maryland Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 18 Dec 2012.
Wintemute, Garen. Director of the Violence Prevention Research Program, University of California-Davis. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 18 Dec 2012.
Robertson, Lori. “Violent Crimes and Handgun Ownership.” FactCheck.org. 6 Mar 2008.
Face the Nation. Transcript. CBS News. 16 Dec 2012.
“Facts: Gun Violence.” Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Fatal Injury Reports, 1999-2010. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Undated accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Injury Mortality Reports, 1981-1998. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Undated accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Murder Victim, by Weapon. 2011 Uniform Crime Report. FBI. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Definitions for WISQARS Fatal. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Undated accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Murder Victim, by Weapon. 2006 Uniform Crime Report. FBI. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Table 15. Crime Trends: Additional Information About Selected Offenses. 2007 Uniform Crime Report. FBI. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Table 15. Crime Trends: Additional Information About Selected Offenses. 2009 Uniform Crime Report. FBI. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Table 15. Crime Trends: Additional Information About Selected Offenses. 2011 Uniform Crime Report. FBI. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Nonfatal Injury Reports, 1999-2011. National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Undated accessed 20 Dec 2012.
Nonfatal firearm-related violent crimes, 1993-2009. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Department of Justice. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.
This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Transcript. ABC News. 16 Dec 2012.
“Major School Shootings in the United States Since 1997.” Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. Undated, accessed 20 Dec 2012.

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Long. . .

 

. . . To Be Latin. . .


We spin on an axis as bold as love round a sun that’s alight with fire
It’s true our time is marked by the man in the moon
Don’t walk ahead, don’t walk behind, just be my friend and walk by my side
It's real, this life is by in the blink of an eye.

I live and I long to be Latin as beauty rebels against time
I live and I long to be Latin
The cardinal wish for the scent of the red summer rose.

We have walked the dream palace of yesterday
Where myth is truth and the proof’s hearsay
Memories disguised by the ways that we wish they could be
The drives and input are well defined
Lies rolling off dying tongues chill the soul
Chained in gold we walk a lifelong line.

I live and I long to be Latin.  I’m waiting to see my own eyes
I live and I long to be Latin
But what will I wear to the end of the world, my demise?

Upon the chipped dish the rich and pure fare of the love feast, kissing the sky
As we hold hands in a ring, the night to morning link
Contacts with the light

Be my friend, we can walk side by side
Don’t walk ahead you know I won’t walk behind
Though we stumble through our fears and tears
To the cadence and the tune of the spheres.

I live and I long to be Latin to live the fool and die the sage
I reach and intend to be Latin
To make vision real in the face of chance and circumstance
I live and I long to be Latin to take my stand against routine
I live and I long to be Latin
Where living at risk means I can see what others don’t see.


Long To Be Latin
by OHO (rehearsal recording March, 2013)
© Copyright - OHO Music, BMI / Oho Music




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More. . .

. . . happiness?. . . 

So I said
I've got a roof o'er my head
Some people can't even say the same thing
But it's still not a fact
I can take any comfort in
I want more to make up my legacy
I'm not poor but everybody's telling me

Money can't buy everything
You've heard it time again
No money can't buy happiness
When will you learn this fact of life my friend

So I said
I've got my very own bed
I don't give it much thought
When I lay down my head
But it's cold and it's lonely
In December on the street
Why do you tell me these kinds of things
I still crave the luxuries that wealth can bring

Money can't buy everything
You've heard it time again
No money can't buy happiness
When will you learn this fact of life my friend

I want to be a squire a king a country gentleman
If I can if I can
I want to get respect for what I have
And not for what I am
Just a man just a man

So I said
It's more than daily bread
That I'm talking about can you hear what I said
You see everyone tells me to accept my own fate
Why should I take what is handed me
Can't even try my way
It wasn't meant to be

Money can't buy everything
You've heard it time again
No money can't buy happiness
When will you learn this fact of life my friend


Money
(from Critic's Choice)
©1996, 2003 Raymond M. Jozwiak<




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Happiness. . .

(from http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200501/happy-hour by Carlin Flora)
". . . The things we expect will bring us lasting joy rarely do. Whether it's losing 25 pounds, getting a major promotion or watching a troupe of perennial losers finally win the big one, long-anticipated events give us a swell of glee... and then we settle back into being just about as happy as we've always been. Most of us have a happiness "set point," fixed by temperament and early life experience, which is very difficult to shift. Whether you win the lottery or wind up in a wheelchair, within a year or two you generally end up just about as happy (or unhappy) as you started out.

Yet the quest for happiness isn't futile. Psychologists now believe that many of us can turn the well-being thermostat up or down a few notches by changing how we think about anticipation, memory, and the present moment. Our sense of well-being is intimately tied into our perception of time. The problem is that we usually get it wrong. Memory tricks us—we don't remember our experiences properly, and that leaves us unable to accurately imagine the way we'll feel in the future. At the same time, expectations mislead us: We never learn to predict what will make us happy, or how to anticipate the impact of major life experiences. . . "

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Funny. . .

. . . but not for the timid. . . 

Hailey Boyle has been funny like a dude since 1979. A rising star on the New York comedy circuit after her transplant from Fairbanks Alaska to Manhattan in 2004, she was a regular at Caroline’s on Broadway before relocating to Los Angeles in 2010 and tours clubs and colleges all over the country. Hailey has been named one of New York’s Top Ten Funniest at The New York Comedy Festival, and has been featured in The New York Daily News and UK entertainment magazine The List. A hit at the Glasgow Comedy Festival, Hailey is planning her third Scottish comedy tour for spring  2014.

    Hailey was also honored to entertain American soldiers on active duty in Greenland, The Bahamas, and Central America this past spring and looks forward to performing anywhere our heroes are stationed until they all come home. Now, fresh off her first feature film (About Last Night starring Kevin Hart) Hailey also had her TV Stand-Up debut this year on the TV GUIDE Network's "'Stand Up In Stilettos". Her blend of down home humor and big city wit are earning Hailey Boyle acclaim across the nation and around the world!

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Memories. . .

. . . music. . . etc. . .

Pondering two aspects of music swirling around in my mind when I switched rails to the other and discovered a substantial distance between the two extremities.

The video "Thou Shalt Always Kill" by Scroobius Pip (see Pianogonzology, March 19, 2013) continues to fascinate, as does the artistry and person of the performer, David Peter Meads.  Hip-hop music done with an English accent (the hiphop-pronunciations in this dialect are another topic altogether), the Hasidim-style beard, baseball cap, thrift shop suit and twinkling eyes - not to mention truly clever lyrics - make the entire prospect unusual to me, although maybe not to young, British, hip-hop fans.  The result is a very enjoyable entertainment.

The other end of the spectrum that I was pondering? . . .

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Surprised? . . .

 . . . shouldn't be. . .

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.  As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”
-Abraham Lincoln


Adam Serwer recently summarized conservative objections to the nomination of Tom Perez (to the office of Labor Secretary):
"Since Perez took the helm, (as head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division) the division has blocked partisan voting schemes, cracked down on police brutality, protected gay and lesbian students from harassment, sued anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio for racial profiling, stood up against Islamophobia, and forced the two largest fair-housing settlements in history from banks that discriminated against minority homeowners."

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