Sparkling news

“All this time, while we patiently waited for you to do your jobs, someone has been raping this museum, piece by piece by piece.”

                                                                Claude Aubert… Director of Security


That's the epigraph for "The Body in the Tower."  Normally an epigraph comes from another writer, many times authors will take one from Shakespeare.  I choose not to do so mostly because I can never find anything which fits my work.  I'd rather let one of my characters provide the introduction.  What I don't provide is information about that character.  I don't tell you if Claude Aubert is one of the good guys, or one of the bad guys.
And, of course, yesterday we did get a lot of 'sparkling news!'

In the first poll of the 2020 presidential race Biden has a 6% lead over the Idiot Jerk.  He also raised $6.3 in campaign donations in the first 24 hours of his campaign.
The Idiot Jerk stood by his Charlottesville comments and once again chose not to blame White Supremacists.
Only 3 out of 10, that's 30% of registered voters, believe the Idiot Jerk was exonerated (let that sink in) and his approval rating seems to be solidly grounded at 39%.
The NRA is crashing in chaos.  Wayne LaPierre has been asked to resign by Ollie North.  Remember Ollie?  He's the one who had Fawn Hall sneak secret documents in her panties during the Iran-Contra Hearings.
Maria Butina, the Russkie who infiltrated the NRA was sentenced to 18 months in jail.
A man was arrested for throwing a phone on the stage at the NRA convention prior to the Idiot Jerk's entrance (that made me laugh).
And Bernie has signed and dated his Democratic Affirmation agreement: 

BERNIE SANDERS: The most important thing that has got to happen is that this dangerous president is defeated. I'm going to do everything I can to defeat him. I look forward to winning the Democratic nomination. And if I don't, I will support anybody else who's out there to defeat him. But this guy cannot win another term.

On a slightly amusing note, on the 24th Bernie also filed paperwork for his re-election campaign as a senator from New Hampshire.  I suspect Bernie realizes something his supporters don't.

The cost of Dirty Harry, celluloid phony

With Vice President Joe Biden looking at creating some form of gun legislation, the crazies are coming out of the woodwork.  Of course they've always been there, never being satisfied to be subtle presence.  They damn anyone and everyone who they think is threatening their second amendment rights.  What makes these people moronic is Harry Callahan.  There are at least two generations of Americans who know who he is or at least what he said.  Two of his most memorable phrases are "read my lips," and "make my day."  Wayne LaPierre, of NRA fame,  is actually old enough to have seen at least one of the Dirty Harry movies in the theater.  It is not too difficult for me to imagine him going deer hunting, sighting and aiming at his target, making the kill, and saying "make my day."  All you need to do is look at him and see how that image fits.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people like him, and all of them dumb as bricks.

Dirty Harry, celluloid phony

They don't seem to understand he is a fictional character, or that all of his words and actions were first written down in a script, or that the scene was short several times and a director chose the one he liked best, or even that a film editor cut and spliced the scene to achieve the desired effect.  For them, Dirty Harry and all of his words and actions are real.  How do I know this?  I listen to the people around me, those associates I work with, and now and then those boneheads on TV who want to be deemed voices of authority.  As one example I'll give you a large woman I work with me.  After the Aurora shootings I found her standing in the lunch room reading a comment by that horse's ass Louie Gohmert.  She actually said, "if I'd been there, I'd have taken out my gun, drawn a bead on him and put him down."  The trouble with this comment is that she didn't remember James Holmes was wearing body armor (big dumb shit duh).  When I pointed this out she replied "well, I would have gotten down behind the seats, lifted my gun and fired in the direction his shots were coming from."  When I pointed out she would not only have to contend with the volume of the movie, which was still playing, but with screams, and shrieking and wailing of 200 plus movie goers she looked at me blankly.  I also noted that the people in her row would run right over her, that she would  actually become a speed bump in their exit from the theater.  Even though you could see she was absolutely clueless about what that night must have really been like, she remained adamant, she would have taken out the shooter and been a heroine.

People don't understand.  They want to see themselves standing along in the Dirty Harry spotlight.  They want to say "make my day," and read my lips."  They need to learn that owning a gun and knowing how to use it does not make you wise.  It just means they have a lethal weapon in their possession, and in the wrong hands that weapon can unexpected kill a lot of people.  Until they have actually been in this type of situation, they need to keep their mouths shut.

 

The NRA wants to raise your taxes!

Now I know there are some few sitting out there saying, 'hey, wait, that's not true, the NRA is conservative, they back the Republicans and they will never raise taxes."  This is, of course, false.  Thanks to Wayne LaPierre there is a big debate raging over his idea of putting armed guards in schools.  There are those who are for it and those against it.  What nobody seems to be discussing is that if LaPierre gets his way, who is going to pay the cost?  We're talking salaries here, and they can't be minimum wage pay rates, and then there are uniforms to buy, and weapons, and ammunition and training.  Can you imagine how expensive the training is going to be?  I don't suspect there are many colleges offering a curricula in "School Armed Guard."  And face it, would you want someone with just a GED walking the hallways of your school with a loaded weapon?  Any person hired into this position would need to pass a battery of psychiatric screenings because no one wants a pervert prowling around outside the classrooms.  So, let's say the cost for two armed guards and all of the crap that comes with their hiring adds an additional 80 thousands dollars of expenses to the school district.  Of course, it would be the school district's responsibility because believe me, the NRA wouldn't even consider footing the bill.  Hhhmm, and yet they have no problem making the suggestion.  And how do you think the school district is going to handle this additional expense?  Why, they're going to raise your school taxes.  If you don't think this is how the cost is going to be taken care of, well, you're rather naive.

Do you think he really cares about your taxes?

If the monies don't come from the school district they'll be disbursed by the state.  Do the math.  Multiply the number of school districts  there in your state( 200, 2000, or ten thousand, maybe) by $80k per year.  Holy Mackerel!  That's a lot of moola!  If the NRA has their wish come true the additional taxes will slowly bleed you to death.  Why is it these groups have no problem spending your hard earned money?

 

Wayne LaPierre, loon at large

I could not let the chance to mention Wayne LaPierre slip away, even though so many others have already made their voices known.  My first reaction to hearing what he said at what he called the first Press Conference by the NRA after Newtown was to burst out laughing.  Someone should have gingerly pulled him aside prior to his making an asshole out of himself and told him he was going to sound like a jerk.  Evidently nobody did.  Let's be honest, Wayne just doesn't get it.  Guess what?  He never will.  He could have tried to be slightly human, maybe could have said "one of our own used some bad judgement and trained her mentally handicapped son how to use an assault rifle, and for that we are sorry."  Instead he advocated beginning a police state.  You know, start with armed men in schools, and after a while they could have armed men in office buildings, and post offices, and supermarkets.  I think this says it all:

You need to remember the New York Post is owned by that ultra-conservative Australian Rupert Murdoch.  What does this mean for the NRA?  First of all they need to learn that just because an individual is a member his political vote is his / hers, not theirs.  Secondly, they need to begin to learn the art of the soft sell if they're going to survive.  This relying on a dead Charlton Heston cold, dead hand threat just doesn't work well little children have been murdered.  I doubt very much if they will change their attitude or belief that more guns in America, means a better America.  However, I wouldn't be surprised if in the not to distant future we see a new spokesperson.