Navy veteran and firearms instructor explains the desperate need for gun control in this country.

Courtesy of The Daily Beast:  

The fact is that thousands of deaths all across our country can be prevented with solid intelligence sharing and common sense regulation. Between 83% and 91% of the country supports background checks for all gun purchases and yet, somehow, this simple provision is consistently written out of proposed legislation. It is time that we make this a permanent policy priority rather than a set of talking points to be rolled out alongside the names of our next shooting victims. 

I love my guns, and I’m no hypocrite. But I love my son more. I love taking him to school, a movie, or simply around the block without fearing for his life. It is dangerous and shortsighted to require so little of our fellow gun owners, because—as 11-year-old Hunter’s case tragically shows—they hold the very lives of those around them in their hands. 

So what can we do? The best proposals are all about common sense and moderation—too often four-letter words in politics. Background checks and mental health evaluations for all gun owners, on a five-year verification cycle, would be a great first step. 

Requiring licenses and negligent discharge insurance would be part of common sense reform. Much like vehicles—which are also key pieces of personal property that can take lives when they are operated irresponsibly, firearms should require a license to own and operate. A tiered licensing system could apply to different types of weapons. Insurance could cover any damages caused by negligent discharge, and skyrocketing rates might prove discouraging for repeat offenders. 

Prudent limits need to be imposed. We should consider putting a cap on the number of firearms purchased for personal use. Allowances could be made for licensed gun dealers, but home protection and hunting require don’t require individuals to keep an arsenal. At the very least, misdemeanors such as DUIs, drug charges, and white-collar crimes should be added to the list of crimes that preclude offenders from owning firearms.

You know the funny thing is that all of this, ALL of this, seems likes a completely reasonable and appropriate way to deal with the senseless violence that we see every single day here in America. And yet there is no likelihood that any of it will be implemented.

At least not anytime soon.

Conservatives are always going on about "common sense" solutions. But when it comes to guns there is no way to even begin the conversation, much less agree on a reasonable solution, before they start waving the 2nd Amendment in our face and screaming about fascism.

And that is incredibly tragic.

It also makes you wonder if what happened at Sandy Hook is not enough to make people get serious about gun control, then just how many people have to die before Americans say enough is enough?

Alaska man feeds barbecue meat to bear. That's a mauling!

Come at me bro!

Courtesy of ADN:

A man was mauled by a bear near the Eklutna Lake Campground on Saturday after he threw barbecued meat at the animal, the Alaska State Troopers said Sunday. 

The man was at the lake, north of Anchorage, for a church picnic, said Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen. 

Sometime around 5 p.m. on Saturday he broke off from the picnic and decided to go for a bike ride, bringing some food from the barbecue along. 

He came across a black bear somewhere between a campground fee station and an ice cream stand near the park, Ipsen said. 

The man threw a piece of meat at the bear, which ate it, she said. Then he offered another piece, she said. 

“That’s when it kind of went ballistic,” she said. 

I am going to add this next part even though most of you re probably way ahead of me.

"He'd been drinking." 

Yeah no shit!

I swear some people are too stupid to live here!

Look if you re planning to visit Alaska, here are some things to keep in mind.

EVERYTHING up here wants to kill you.

The mudflats around Anchorage can and will kill you.

The rivers and lakes can and will kill you,.

The weather can and will kill you.

Bears can and will kill you.

Our moose can and will kill you.

And yes, if there are enough of them, even our mosquitoes can and will kill you.

But if you are smart and check out the visitor's guide and make some basic common sense choices you will have a great time.

Trust me, if a panty waist like Sarah Palin can survive here, so can you.

P.S By the way I am supposed to go camping at Eklutna some time this week.

I have decided to leave the barbecue sauce at home, because apparently bears HATE that crap!

Federal budgets are NOT like household budgets. Despite what Sarah Palin would have you believe

Earlier today Sarah Palin posted this misleading video on her ghostwritten Facebook page.

Underneath she had RAM write this out for her:

I say it IS time we furlough the political consultants, the permanent political class, and the politicos who've been part of the problem that got us into this mess. Politicians, listen to your mother... or at least listen to these moms... 

Now admittedly this idea of listening to our moms is something that sounds like it should be right, but of course, and we should know this simply because it is an idea Palin endorses, it is not right. 

This courtesy of the LA Times:  

Decisions about the federal budget are fundamentally different from those of individual households, because policymakers need to account for how their choices affect the economy as a whole. It is more appropriate to liken government budget deficits to prescription medicine. Just as medication can be helpful to a sick patient, deficits can aid a failing economy. 

The U.S. economy slumped largely because of a reduction in spending by households and businesses. For households, this was a reasonable response to declining property values, job losses and insecurity. Likewise, it made sense for firms to cut back on investment as their customers spent less. If the federal government were to act this way, though, it would reinforce the decline in economic activity, not alleviate it. 

To stabilize the economy, the federal government needs to counterbalance the swings in consumer and business expenditures by moving in the opposite direction. When consumers and firms cut back, government can help replace the lost economic activity through direct spending (on infrastructure projects, for example) and through indirect means, such as tax cuts, which increase households' disposable income. 

This idea of "counter-cyclical" policy was the basic principle behind the tax cuts and spending in the stimulus bill of early 2009, as well as the one-year payroll tax cut agreed to as part of the budget deal at the end of 2010. Though the stimulus proved inadequate in scale, it helped reduce the depth of the downturn. Without it, the unemployment rate in 2010 would have been between 0.7 and 1.7 percentage points higher, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. That is, the economy has been lousy, but it would have been considerably worse without government action.

The problem with these idiots talking about "common sense solutions" is that if the answers to these complicated issues were really attainable through "common sense"  they would be solved overnight, or never become a problem in the first place, and everybody would be in perfect agreement with how to handle them. Of course such is not the case.

However my REAL bitch about Palin and the other Right Wing nutjobs suddenly freaking out over debts, deficits, and budgets, is that they were completely silent during the Bush years, when the government was spending money hand over fist, while also cutting the taxes that helped fund the government, which of course created the situation that they are now lamenting.

It is impossible to take ANY of these people seriously if they stand idly by while the pyromaniac sets the house on fire and then scream and insult the firemen for not putting it out quickly enough.

By the way the producer of this video is an organization called Bankrupting America, and it is run by a woman named Gretchen Hamel. This is what FactCheck.org dug up about her and her organization:

Public Notice (Now Bankrupting America. Hmm why the name change do you think?)is a group headed by Gretchen Hamel, who has a long history of working for Republicans. She was a press assistant for former GOP Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma, then press secretary to GOP Rep. John Carter of Texas and later for the House Republican Conference. She was deputy assistant U.S. trade representative during the final years of the Bush administration. 

This group describes itself as "an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization." Hamel insists that the organization is "an education advocacy group" and not a "political group." Unlike some "super PACs" and overtly partisan groups, it does not attack specific candidates. But it does echo Republican campaign themes and attacks federal spending programs identified with Democrats. 

So this group is yet another thinly veiled Republican propaganda outlet dedicated to spreading misinformation in order to fool the low hanging fruit.

So of course Palin is working with them.

NOT Warren Buffet's plan to fix Congress.

I didn't write this.

This has been sent to my e-mail box at least three times now, so I thought I would share it with all of you.

I think you will find that is something that is definitely worth sharing.

_*Congressional Reform Act of 2011*_ 

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they're out of office. 

2. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose. 

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. 

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. 

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. 

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people. 

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 1/1/12. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congressmen/women made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS!

Well I don't know about all of you, but this certainly sounds like a winner to me!

Your thoughts?

Update: Hah! I just learned that this plan which has been forwarded to me numerous times by contributors to IM, is in fact a fake plan for a 28th Amendment that has been circulating since 2010 and has NOTHING to do with Warren Buffet.

His name was added based on this quote about ending the deficit:

"I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election Still I do like like some of its points.

You can learn more visiting Snopes.

I still have to admit that I agree with much of it, regardless of where it originated.

Update 2: It looks like the Occupy Wall Street folks were hoaxed by this e-mail as well.