The Definition of Hypocrisy

When the very people who defended their right to fly this flag, claiming that it represented their ancestors and their struggles, and not the ideals of slavery, etc.:

hate on this girl for wearing a patch of the Cuban flag she wears as acknowledgment of her father's Cuban roots, claiming that it means she supports the Communist government of that country:

Can they be more obvious in their beliefs that things only apply when it benefits them?

The world could learn from my escape room experience!

A couple of days ago, a handful of us from the dance studio participated in an escape room as part of a birthday celebration of one from our dance family. As we are going through the orientation for the room, we find out that the completion rate for this particular room is only 17%. We look at each other, but we still have some hope we can do this...and if we don't beat it, at least we had fun, right?

Now, this group of folks is probably as different as any group can be. We are not a typical mix of people who would choose to be friends off the street or in the workplace. Our ages are all over the place, different religious beliefs, different backgrounds, very different fields of work and hobbies. The ONE thing that connects us is dance, and the fact that we have been dancing together for years. We are a family!

When it came to the escape room, we ended up beating it, with 2 minutes and 11 seconds left on our time! After the rush was over, and I got to thinking about our amazing feat, I thought about how all of us contributed something to solving this room. We had to find combinations and codes that helped us open things to gain access to other codes or clues. Some of these codes came from other clues that were basically puzzles to solve. Others were a bit sneaky, where you had to be in the exact spot of a room to see them painted on the wall. Even another was in some "graffiti" that didn't come right out and give you the number, but each thing written was a clue to a number (i.e., it referenced a part of a song or something). I don't think any of us would have been able to find all of the clues ourselves, because there were so many different ways they were hidden, and if we were in there with like-minded people, we probably would not have seen them all due to thinking too much the same way. However, because of our diversity and the fact we all saw the world just a bit different, we were able to get all the clues...everyone had something to contribute! No one's clue was more important than another clue, because they were ALL needed to solve the larger puzzle! That means that no one person's view of things in the room was more important...because we all needed to see the room a bit different to ultimately succeed...and probably none of us would have been able to get through it alone.

This got me thinking about problems in our country...and in the world. If only the rest of the world could see how we worked together in that room...without fighting or arguing. We just stayed focused on the prize...which was beating the room. In the end, we celebrated each person's contribution, because they were all important. How the world would be a better place if we operated like we did in that room!! What if everyone acknowledged that everyone's skills...from the janitor to the scientist finding a cure for a disease...served a purpose and was important to the end goal? I mean...we need our trash picked up and things to be cleaned just as much as we need cures for sickness. There are also about a billion things we need in-between...people who make clothing or cars, people who keep the back end workings of our cell phones and streaming services going, people who help protect our communities and our homes. No one is cut out for all of the jobs! We tend to take jobs and do things based on our beliefs...religious our otherwise. Our brains are wired differently with some people being more analytical with others being more creative. Even our physical build can dictate what we have to contribute, with some people being naturally stronger than others, or the fact that some jobs require smaller people while others require larger. The things we can contribute are no more important than the next person! We need ALL of the pieces for the world to run...just like we needed the differences between us in that room to beat it! If only the world could learn to have respect for each other and be able to work together like we did in that room, it would be a much better place!

The NRA Strikes Again!

Read news this weekend that just as soon as Florida passed a bill increasing the age to buy ANY firearm in the state to 21, the NRA has swooped in with a lawsuit claiming that such is unconstitutional! Really? If a person under the age of 21 is deemed not old enough to consume alcohol, how can you say they are old enough to purchase any kind of firearm, which is even more dangerous?

Okay, no I know the argument by heart already. "Oh, they aren't old enough to buy a gun at 18, but they are old enough to die for YOUR freedom?" The answer is...NO! I know what the laws say, but I don't think an 18 year old is old enough to be sent into war do die for this country! Enlist? Okay, sure...but don't deploy until they are at least 21. There are too many young men and women being sent into war zones with only a few weeks of training, and they simply don't have the emotional or mental maturity yet to deal with what they will see or have to do over there! What happens is that so many come back...mentally screwed up for life...to a home where the mental health system is failing them! I'm not saying that 3 years is going to prevent it, but it is amazing what a difference just 3 years makes when it comes to mental and emotional maturity!

And would it really hurt to keep these young men and women back a couple or few years to give them additional training? So that maybe they can do more than carry a rifle and be cannon fodder? Train them to operate tanks or drones. Train them to be mechanics on Navy ships. Hell, even put them in the classroom to get a head start on their higher education! Give them time to mature, to learn, and maybe give them some skills so that when they do come back home, it is easier for them to integrate back into civilian life should they decide to not re-enlist!

But I digress in order to ask the question I get a billion times when I say that no person under the age of 21 should be allowed to buy a firearm! I will stick to that, as well as my opinion about sending our young men and women to be killed! Alas, the NRA strikes again! This will be a case to watch, as I am afraid that money and special interest will again prevail, and cripple the security of this country...just like it did when they won the ruling that caused our background check system to forever be broken! The NRA do no represent people...not even their 5 million members! They represent gun manufacturers...PERIOD! They will fight anything that would potentially mean fewer gun sales. We MUST stop giving lobbyists and special interests control of this country!

What about the kid with a bomb?!

There have been a lot of pro-gun activists this week pointing out that earlier in the week, a kid who was an ISIS sympathizer/supporter showed up to a Utah school with a bomb in his backpack. Now, because of a malfunction, his backpack started smoking, and he was caught before any damage was done.

Pro-gun activists are quick to jump on the fact that this has not gotten the kind of news coverage that the Parkland shootings did...claiming it is because it doesn't meet the narrative for gun control! What they fail to acknowledge is that incidents happen all the time that aren't reported on the national front. Why? Because no one is harmed! There have been many more than 12 cases of a someone with a gun on a school campus since January...but you only hear about the 12 where someone was actually injured or hurt. "But he had a bomb...proves that taking away guns won't solve the issue!" Again, MOST of us are not calling for the disarming of a nation...we are not out to take away your damn guns! What we want is for it to be harder for evil or unstable people to have access to guns! Guns are more common, because they are easier! There are many more cases of guns being used to hurt people than there are bombs, because bombs require more work! I've said this before. You have to gather the ingredients and parts. You have to find the instructions on the web. You have to construct the bomb without blowing yourself up! Most people are going to go to all that work.

Guns are used in far more intentional attacks on people than bombs or cars, but you can't tell the pro-gun activists that. They will point you to drunk drivers and general accidents due to reckless driving or what not, and point out that more people are killed by cars every year than guns. They will fail to also note that very, very few of those deaths are intentional. Hardly anyone says on a Friday night, "I'm going to go get drunk, and then I'm going to go kill someone with my car." No one says, "I'm going to leave the house today and go blasting through a red light and kill someone while playing on my cell phone." The difference is intent!

Of course, then they come at you with the medical stats, about how many people die every year by this and that...heart disease, stroke, whatever. Guess what, everyone dies at some point. When that is for each person, no one knows. If we don't die by the actions of another person, our bodies will eventually start breaking down...some sooner than others, based on genetics. A guy I dated back in my early 20's...his dad died in his 40's due to a severe heart attack. The guy I used to date? I found out a few years ago that he died just shy of age 50...due to a severe heart attack! Could it have been avoided? Maybe, but the point is, genetically, that is what he was already at risk for. There is no promise that anything he did in his life would have changed anything dramatically. There are plenty of people who have eaten healthy and exercised that still had heart attacks!  While diet and exercise, yes, reduce your risk, depending on your exact genetic markers, there is no guarantee. Just like I've known people who smoked all their lives, and still lived well into their 90's without a trace of cancer...because of their genetics! So, don't start throwing "natural causes" numbers at me with relation to a gun argument!

Actually, I'm rather surprised that not more of the media picked up the backpack story, because of the ISIS tie, I would have fully expected certain folks to jump on the "see this is why we need immigration reform" narrative again!

Why is an AR-15 more deadly?

I'm going to put this link here, and then give a very, very brief summary.

What an AR-15 Can Do to the Human Body

I've seen so many arguments out there about how the AR-15 isn't all that more deadly than a handgun or other rifle. But, this article makes a couple of points that you will rarely see addressed.

1) The bullet shot by an AR-15 leaves the barrel at 3x the speed of a bullet shot from a handgun (even semi-auto). While the bullet of a handgun could potentially get stopped by a larger bone in the body, or just lodge itself and not come out the other side, this high speed can cause it to ricochet round inside the body or go tearing out through the other side and into another person. The doctor in this article points out that a person surviving a handgun shot will more than likely only need one surgery to treat, the survivor of an AR-15 shot would need 3-10 surgeries!!  I mean, how is this for a description of what it can do:

"It has so much energy that it can disintegrate three inches of leg bone. 'It would just turn it to dust,' says Donald Jenkins, a trauma surgeon at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. If it hits the liver, 'the liver looks like a jello mold that’s been dropped on the floor.' And the exit wound can be a nasty, jagged hole the size of an orange."

"The bullet from an AR-15 might miss the femoral artery in the leg, but cavitation may burst the artery anyway, causing death by blood loss."

2) Unlike handguns and other rifles, the AR-15 doesn't have a whole lot of kick. The kick of the gun is what makes even a semi-auto handgun more difficult to rapid fire, because it takes the user a second to re-grip and what not. Because of the lack of kick in the AR-15, a shooter can just sit there and wail on that trigger as fast as they can. If they are really good, they can fire close to auto speeds, or if they install something called a "bump stock". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you can get shots off quicker, you can do more damage.

Don't let the pro-gun folks lie to you! They will say, "But I have a semi-auto handgun...should that be banned, too?" Or they will say, "A .308 caliber will do more damage." They will never address the real reasons why the AR-15 is such a dangerous weapon that needs to be taken off of the streets!

Break it down!

Today, I will be breaking down this graphic:

This is a graphic that some gun supporters are throwing around to try to show that there is not a need for any gun reform in this country. What they fail to point out is deaths done to one's self versus deaths by the hand of another.

Abortion: First of all, this number is subjective...depending on when one considers "life" actually begins. Notice that they don't have a separate category for miscarriages or still-births. One has to wonder....are these being clumped in with abortions to make a point? Also, how many of these abortions were due to the pregnancy being a danger to the woman's life, or after finding out that the fetus was not viable or wouldn't survive long after birth even if they were carried to term? They like to throw out that abortion number without any other details behind it, to make it look that there are all these women just using abortion as a means of birth control!

Tobacco: This is a very slow death, and for most of the people in this number, something they did to themselves knowing the risk they were taking smoking. Smoking in general...unless you are pregnant...doesn't cause death to another person due to your actions.

Obesity: Much like tobacco, this is a very slow death, and doesn't cause death to another person due to your actions.

Medical Error: While this is the result of a doctor making a medical error, and thus is someone causing death to another...true. However, so much can be said about this that would be it's own blog! You have nurses and doctors that are often required to work back to back shifts, and mistakes can be made due to lack of sleep. And what about issues that are related to not having all of the facts about a patient, because either they didn't share, or they didn't have full medical records? So many factors here.

Alcohol: Considering drunk driving has it's own category, I'm going to assume that we are talking the slow death that happens as the result of drinking over time. Again, just drinking by itself only shortens you own life, and doesn't cause death to another person.

Suicide: 100% does not cause death to another person! It doesn't also list the reasons a person may take their own life. Were they diagnosed with a terminal illness, and wanted to die on their own terms? Did they suffer from mental illness? Also, fails to break down how many of these suicides were by gun! Shouldn't these count in gun deaths.

Drunk Driving: Yes, again this is a case where your actions cause the death of another person, though this number fails to break down the number of victims who died due to a drunk driver versus the number of drunk drivers who met their own demise due to driving under the influence.

Poisoning: Though this is something that you can do to another person, more breakdown on this is needed. Are we talking accidental poisoning (like a child getting hold of a cleaning product)? Are we talking environmental poisoning?

ANY drug related death: This goes right up there with tobacco and alcohol. Though, not always a slow death, this is something someone inflicts on themselves, for various reasons. The mere use of drugs does not cause death to another person due to your actions.

Murder by gun: 100% the result of a person's actions causing the death of another! Also, while many of the other causes do not have an evil intention involved, so many shootings do! You point a gun at a person, you plan or want to do harm to that person! It has intent, while none of the ones above actually have intent to do harm to ANOTHER person! And this only addresses murder. What about accidental gun deaths, like maybe a hunting accident? Doesn't include that number, I bet!

And let's talk about intent, for a minute. No one smokes, overeats, or drinks with the intent of killing themselves! Suicide and maybe some drug related deaths (as I'm sure there are many overdoses that don't get classified as a suicide when they should be) are people who are hurting...physically and emotionally. Some have untreated mental illness (because we all know mental health services in this country sucks). Some are just tired of their body hurting. Some want deaths on their own terms. And I've already spelled it out for abortions. Quit throwing around numbers simply to try to support your point, without including the details behind them! I notice, they aren't listing some of the other many ways the pro-gun folks try to claim people will kill another person if guns were illegal. How many knife deaths? How many were beat to death by someone's bare hands or with a bat? How many died due to bombings? How many were purposely run down by cars this year so far? All of these other evil things...I bet would make those gun death's look high!