I was mildly amused for a brief moment after reading a Yahoo News article concerning the 'sacrifices' that Arnold Schwarzenegger made as the governor of my former home state of California.
How his family was torn apart by the schedule he had to keep to live two lives in different cities.
How he lost an estimated 200 million dollars in income as a result of his accepting the job of governor.
I wish that I could feel something other than absolute outrage over this. He cares nothing for the damage his failure as governor caused to millions of Californians in the wake of his ego gratification.
His children had full stomachs and a nice home to shelter them. What of those Californians who were forced into their cars because two jobs would not pay for a home of their own, let alone rent? What of people who were born in California who had to pack up and leave their home state because it was far too expensive to live in?
Go back to Austria, Arnold! Take your movie residuals and your supportive family and get out of California! You and your supporters have ruined my home state. This is your legacy. I pray it hurts.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
And so history spirals once again
I betray my age somewhat here by saying I was alive when Robert Kennedy was murdered in Los Angeles in the late 1960's.
To this day, no one has managed to extract a valid or logical reason for that murder from the man who still rots in a prison cell for his crime.
And after this, and other outrages against politicians and social activists, the voices of the commons demanded laws.
Laws they felt would prevent further blood from being drawn. Laws that would end the flow of tools used to commit such mayhem.
And the violence continued.
For every effort to regulate morality by legislation against the wrong variable, the one variable that should have been reenforced and strengthened was our ability to prevent those predisposed to commit such crimes from gaining access to weapons.
After the outrage at Virginia Tech, where another mentally ill man killed so many, a list of such people was begun, yet never followed up on. The costs, it seems, was too overwhelming to the states. And the federal government had other priorities to pay for.
The press claims that over one million people are barred from buying guns of any kind, and that over another million mentally disturbed people should be listed.
Where is the outrage for this gaping failure on the part of our government? Why is it so much easier to pass laws that will never end the bloodshed? Where is our mental health community in this time of darkness?
Lost in the fight over defining who is mentally ill. A new set of medical rules governing diagnosis is about to be released. And many who should fit the mold for being prevented from gaining access to weapons will, most likely, never be diagnosed.
Forget the rhetoric that claims that gun laws have done any good. They have not. The proof is simple. Anyone who is determined to cause havoc will find the ways and means to execute their will. Timothy McVey was able to end the lives of hundreds with nothing more than fertilizer and diesel fuel.
The only end to violence does not lay in the weapons we ban. It lays in the hearts and minds of people who can see the logic to promote and enforce the use of science to divert men of violence to the help they need.
It is not enough to ban guns or turn violent or disturbed people away from your institutions and schools. They must be healed or corralled. We will all continue to wear targets as long as medical science refuses to use what tools they have now, and abandon their moral responsibility to their patients and the victims of the crimes their missing patients commit.
To this day, no one has managed to extract a valid or logical reason for that murder from the man who still rots in a prison cell for his crime.
And after this, and other outrages against politicians and social activists, the voices of the commons demanded laws.
Laws they felt would prevent further blood from being drawn. Laws that would end the flow of tools used to commit such mayhem.
And the violence continued.
For every effort to regulate morality by legislation against the wrong variable, the one variable that should have been reenforced and strengthened was our ability to prevent those predisposed to commit such crimes from gaining access to weapons.
After the outrage at Virginia Tech, where another mentally ill man killed so many, a list of such people was begun, yet never followed up on. The costs, it seems, was too overwhelming to the states. And the federal government had other priorities to pay for.
The press claims that over one million people are barred from buying guns of any kind, and that over another million mentally disturbed people should be listed.
Where is the outrage for this gaping failure on the part of our government? Why is it so much easier to pass laws that will never end the bloodshed? Where is our mental health community in this time of darkness?
Lost in the fight over defining who is mentally ill. A new set of medical rules governing diagnosis is about to be released. And many who should fit the mold for being prevented from gaining access to weapons will, most likely, never be diagnosed.
Forget the rhetoric that claims that gun laws have done any good. They have not. The proof is simple. Anyone who is determined to cause havoc will find the ways and means to execute their will. Timothy McVey was able to end the lives of hundreds with nothing more than fertilizer and diesel fuel.
The only end to violence does not lay in the weapons we ban. It lays in the hearts and minds of people who can see the logic to promote and enforce the use of science to divert men of violence to the help they need.
It is not enough to ban guns or turn violent or disturbed people away from your institutions and schools. They must be healed or corralled. We will all continue to wear targets as long as medical science refuses to use what tools they have now, and abandon their moral responsibility to their patients and the victims of the crimes their missing patients commit.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Guess I should post something
I see that Blogger finally supports lists of bloggers here I want to follow. Time to add Dr. Brin and Drew Carry!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Intro: Another damn weblog!
Don't I have enough of these things?
Oh well. Here's one more.
Hi. I'm Max.
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