Pistol Pistol

Yeah, so this was inevitable. As strongly as I felt about this subject, I didn't touch it because of how many people may have taken offense to it. I don't have any friends who go to Virginia Tech, so the simpathy I felt after the masacre was the same as after any tragedy. People die everyday, one way or another, this is a fact. I felt just as much simpathy for the Virginia Tech people and their families as I do for everyone else in the world. However, the subject frustrated and angered me more than it did others.

I do not want anyone to get the impression that I do not believe in the second ammendment of the Constitution. I don't think a revolution is going to happen in this country anytime soon, so it may be a little outdated. So my point right off the bat is that if Virginia's gun control policy was that of other stricter state's (New York, for example) Virginia Tech would have been less likely to happen. I'm not usually one to say "would have" "should have," but this is hard to ignore, it was simply a lot of other people's faults. With today's influence of mass media and corporate advertising there are sure to be dozens upon dozens of mentally unstable youth across the country. What in the world makes the people in charge think it's okay to give one of these people a pistol?

Perhaps others would blame the entire incident on something else (i.e., VT Security, etc.). Sure, that's what really angered me when it first happened. I just sat there watching the news wide-eyed, perplexed over why it went on for hours with as little as an EMAIL alert to the students. However, the security office or campus law enforcement will improve (often times it takes a really bad thing to happen for people to wake up).

And I just LOVE the argument that puts the blame on the campus' gun free "safe zone" policy. Because if the faculty and staff were carrying firearms they would have been able to stop the student's carnage. Violance upon violance, right? Not in my opinion, it doesn't make any sense. The constitution does not need to be challenged. All I ask is that proper background checks are done before pistols are given to mentally unstable kids.

'So, how do I get a pistol in Virginia. Dammitall, I can only get one every 30 days? shit that ruins my whole plan! How am I supposed to take a really cool photo of me holding two pistols like a Hollywood action movie star does and send it to the media? That's alright, I'll just wait the 30 days and get a second one. All in good time. Alright, on to the gun store. What do I need? Sweet! I have my proof of residence. That's seriously all I need? I'll be able to fuck a lot of people up now. Criminal background check is alright, no worries there. Oh, wait though... there is another background check to see if I'm mentally stable. What? there is a gap with the federal law and the Virginia State law which prohibits the sale of firearms to the mentally unstable? Sweet! I'm in luck again! I think I'll kill people with extra effort now. Thanks to that gap I wasn't reported to the National Instant Criminal Background Check system. God bless America, so happy to be here!'

Why does it take all this for people to wake up? Why do people only ask themselves questions when really bad things happen? I think my point is illustrated pretty well in the above paragraph. Maybe someday the world will be the way I want it to be.

I try not to copy everything from my favorite blogger, Frank Regan

But this article has a lot of important information. To the readers (the few, the unproud), read http://www.dec.ny.gov/environmentdec/35375.html

Another One On Energy

The other day a friend and I were sitting, having coffee and conversation. We were discussing normal things, a little bit about current events and the like. At one point Kodak was brought up. My friend was vexed because of something she heard, that a group, or a crowd rather, stood around watching and cheering the destruction of a building downtown owned by kodak. I, naturally, rolled by eyes at my silly friend. Didn't she know that these people were animal rights activists? If not she definitely did not know that skyscrapers kill over one billion birds every year. EVERY YEAR! Of course the people cheered. It is the most significant movement of our lives, to destroy all skyscrapers one by one to halt the diminishing bird population. People don't care about efficiency anymore. What the real plan should be is to get rid of all skysrapers, build flat, and give the birds back their habitat. The sky isn't limitless people, wake up! I sneered at my friend when she expressed her displeasure with the cheering people. I said, do some research and wake up to the truth.



I feel as thought another post of this nature is due. I posted a while ago some thoughts I had on "Cape Wind," a wind energy project to be lobbied for off the coast of Mass. I sent a generic message to Representative Markey to push for the project to pass. The whole idea was to get a wind farm going so that we can depend less on fossil fuels for energy.

Now a new article posted in City has sparked a lot of debate over the idea of wind energy. Two of my favorite blogs have already posted about them. Brad, posting on his Urban Sustainability Project blog site had some interesting things to say about it, all of which I completely agree with. A lot of what he had to say had to do with the nonsense the opposing argument offered. It is complete ludicrous to say it is an innefficient power source. Well, how much does it cost for the wind to blow? Frank Regan from rochesterenvironment.org says a lot of interesting things as well. He doesn't quite remember when people had a choice to vote on a dam going up in their area to halt a river, or when I had a goddam vote on the matter of a coal plant going up in my town. Why is it that people have a choice on wind turbines going up? Because this plan actually makes sense?



My opinion is, this debate is not over wild life. The people pushing against wind energy are not animal rights activists. They are fat, old, rich people who don't want beautiful views hindered by a wind mill. You know what I see when I try to view the skyline right next to the vinyards on Turk Hill? a not so clear picture of it probably due to smog and haze. In fact, there won't be a view at all if the rich people in control don't wake up. I love seeing signs in places that are "against" wind turbines because of the poor birds. I say that if birds could reason they would be laughing in your hypocritical faces and asking about all your other activities that destroy their habitat.

Write a letter to your congressman asking him to say yes to any sort of legislation for wind power.

Nothing should be the end of efforts.

Congradulations! you have done something good. Is that where you get off the ride? Althought most of us will be eternally thankful for any effort, sitting back and saying "Hey, I did one thing. It's enough so I can just sit back and hope everyone else follows in my steps," isn't exactly ideal.

Don't let changing the light bulbs be the last of your efforts. Do everything every day with the same conscience you had when changing the light bulbs. Peace.

APEC outlines action on climate

"If Bush, Chinese President Hu Jintao and the 19 other leaders accepted the draft statement, it would mark a victory for Australia and the U.S., which have sought to persuade China and other developing nations to commit to firmer goals for combatting global warming." From CNN.com, APEC outlines action on climate. http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/08/apec.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

Is this a surprise to me? Not really. World leaders love to talk about things. Actions are stronger, though, so we will see. The thing with China though, that sort of restores my confidence that they aren't going to completely destroy everything with their rapid development as an economic super-power.

The Habitat at Victor Days

Today was "Hang out at Victor Days." No real reason for me to go to something like this, except that my local community Habitat for Humanity was holding a tent. I guess there isn't too much to say about it. I spent about two hours in the tent helping the other volunteers hand out brochures and sell books and tote bags. It was fun and I got to meet some more people involved in the Ontario County chapter.

The next thing we're doing is fundraising for the Geneva build, scheduled to kick off in the Spring. The first thing I will probably be doing is a book sale toward the end of this month. Then after that we'll be holding a bake sale in November, which I want to get a group to come help out at. More details when time passes.

On a different note I have further taken advantage of the wonderful world of Google. I just learned how to use Google Reader and have subscribed to just about everything I read on the internet as far as news feeds and blogs, all on one page. This will make things ten times as efficient and there will probably be a lot more stuff to write about in here as a result.

There is a lecture happening at the Brighton Public Library, more like a paper presentation, given by an expert in the field of energy. It is open to the public so I'm hoping to be able to go. It is part of the Sierra Club's Global Warming and Energy Committee, the Rochester regional chapter. The lecture is on Sept 20th, which is a Thursday.

Critical Mass

Firday last week I participated in what is called the Critical Mass Bike Ride. Basically a bunch of hippies and other people with similar interest get together to ride their bikes celebrating utilitarian bike riding. I found out about it from the Indy Media rochester website, went to it on a wim. I wasn't planning on it, but I'm real glad I decided to. I enjoyed it a lot and met some real cool people who think along the same lines that I do.

There is no real purpose for it, only to annoy people driving through the city and bring attention to some pathetic issues. Like, why do we rely on cars to much? It's pretty pathetic, but that's just my opinion.

In other news, the latest I found interesting was something John Edwards was asked in a rally. The issue was if Americans would give up driving their SUV's. The responses were interesting. Most were possitive. One stood out which was hilarious. Something like, "I'll stop driving it when they pull my keys from my cold, dead fingers." 'Nuff said.

I'm still sketchy on who I will fully support in the race. It is very difficult for me to give attention to members of the Green or Libertarian party. Although members of both take stances on issues I mostly agree with, I must take a more populist point of view. In reality, the sad, true reality, not much attention is given to any candidates who aren't Dem or Rep because nobody gives them money for their campaign. The most I plan on doing is strongly supporting the one candidate, on either side who supports the issues I care most about. So far I like John Edwards and Bill Richardson. I like Edwards' stances on the environment and Richardson's idea of service and education. I feel like both could do some good things in the White House. We will see in the months to come.