Click
here to support the President's new gun safety proposals.
And thank you. =Lefty=
--------
Horizontally Asymptomatic
 Douglas
Adams, he of Hitchhiker's Guide fame, once wrote of
a fictional planet named Brontitall where, as a result
of a strange
set of circumstances, its entire economy became dependent
upon the production of shoes. When the market
for shoes collapsed, christened by Adams as "The
Shoe Event Horizon",
so did the whole of the Brontitallian civilization.
Sick of the whole mess the remaining citizens summarily
evolved into
birds and flew off to live inside
of a giant ear.
In my opinion this country now teeters on the edge
of its own event horizon,
this one involving
guns. Although
our
economy
is not
wholly
dependent upon their manufacture their presence casts
an oppressive shadow across almost everything we do.
There was a time when police officers didn't have to
make the calculation that every car it stopped or
every door it knocked on had a gun on the other side.
Small wonder our constables are a bit 'touchy' these
days.
There was a time when schools didn't have metal detectors
at the door. Now parents want schools to hired armed
guards. Eventually someone will insist that the students
themselves
be
armed. At
what point do you begin to suspect that the problem
isn't really the school?
There was time when we didn't need gun locks, but that
was before guns became so commonplace in the home that
they became treated like any other appliance. Like
the telephone or the remote control.
There was a time when you could walk the streets at
night,
or not worry that a bullet would come crashing down
on your head on New Year's Eve. We lock ourselves in,
not lock others out. There's a difference.
We shouldn't have to own guns to protect ourselves
from people who own guns. Where can that end?
Given its druthers the NRA would just as soon have
us all going about our day with a gun stashed somewhere
on our person, or near enough that no armed fiend would
dare try and get the drop on us.
Here's the simple truth: The NRA isn't about protecting
the sanctity of the Second Amendment. It's about the
huge amounts of money
that
can be made in the gun industry. Money that can be
spread around to lobbyists, special interest groups,
and
those particular congressmen who'll happily pass
laws that ensure that the money keeps flowing. Flowing
like
the
blood
of
our friends, our relatives, and our children.
-------------
 On
a somewhat more mercenary note... If you need to widen
your entertainment horizons (Hah! Did you see what
I did there?) go get a Roku. These damn things are
impressive hunks of technology!
I use
mine mainly for Netflix and,
with
Plex
installed,
I can
stream pirated videos from my local computers. You
can also add hundreds of channels of free media, even
porn, just don't tell your wife. Or boyfriend. Or,
whatever.
In a nutshell, the Roku is the AR-15 of
entertainment, except in this case no one gets hurt
except the cable companies. (Though someday they will
have
their
revenge and we'll all rue the day we streamed The
Adventures of Pluto Nash from a Chinese server.)
The point I'm trying to make here is that I can
save
you $5 on a new Roku, with free shipping, and all you
have to do is click
this bunch of red letters. I'd normally recommend
the Roku 2 XS because it has a thumb-drive-a-licious
USB port
plus
a rockin'
ethernet
port
(That means no wireless dropouts, Chachi!) but those
are the expensive ones, so fuck that. Stick with the
Roku
HD.
In case you're wondering, yeah, I get
something out of the deal, too, but it's just free
Amazon streamable movie rentals... which
I can watch on my Roku! Yay!
=Lefty=
|
