We Took Off Three Days
But finished the job in one (see rahirah's journal for pictures!). We put up a tile back splash in the kitchen, and due to State of the Art construction materials, we finished the entire job in about eight hours. Woot.
So today, instead of finishing up grouting, I Cleaned All The Things -- got the entire kitchen scrubbed and shined, including the dining room, vacuumed everything, and am now looking at the remarkable clutter on my kitchen counters and wondering where I could make room in the closets for some of it so the counters are a little less full. (Of course, the closets and cabinets are likewise full, so that's probably a pipe dream... but I'm still thinking of what I could do to be a little more organized.)
This is what it looks like all empty (more or less... plus the Supervisor) --
And this is what it looks like with all the stuff --
But I'm not sure if I could actually find a market for it, or if it is indeed good enough to sell; I've never tried to market an article before...
Why Guns?
There is a sickness in this country which seems to grip the mind and the spirit in a fierce, irrational paranoia, and it’s all wrapped around a device which was invented strictly to kill: the gun.
It’s been romanticized, storied, praised, given a personality far beyond its purpose and meaning; men and women alike hold onto these killing devices with a passion that should be reserved for close family members. These people are so passionate about this killing device they can and do rationalize every single one of the numerous shooting deaths which happen every day.
Any other device which kills or injures a child a year is yanked off the shelves immediately - from car seats to swing chairs, cribs to toys which pose a choking hazard, even items which are meant strictly for adults and are clearly marked “Not for Children” are recalled, remade, or driven completely out of business on the “it’s dangerous for children” hard line.
And yet children are killed by guns every day. Routinely. And not just by a disturbed individual walking into a school and mowing them down like ninepins; no, children are gunned down in city streets, in their backyards, and in their homes. They are victims of gang violence, of bullets fired blocks away by unknowing target shooters, or their own curiosity. Guns are in their homes, in their games, on their television, and they see people telling them that the “right” to own guns is far more important than human lives.
Many of these guns are legally bought, carefully maintained, and usually operated by responsible people. And yet, somehow, a device invented to kill people… kills people.
*Ahem* “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”
Well, perhaps, but if one disturbed individual has a knife instead of a gun, he won’t be killing more than one person at a time. And a knife won’t accidentally kill someone two blocks away who’s innocently standing in their back yard. And while a child might hurt themselves badly with a knife, it’s unlikely to kill him.
All of this leads back to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, very simply:
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Nothing in there actually says anything about guns. The right to keep and bear arms might well have referred to swords (or even clubs and daggers or farm implements, considering the times). Not every man was lucky enough to own a gun, especially one that worked well; a front-loading cap-and-ball musket was not always the most reliable of arms (consider that even the “Musketeers” tended to use their swords or lances more than their muskets).
But in the days after the Civil War, the southern men coming home from the front were terrified that the Union was going to strip them of their weaponry and leave them at the mercy of carpetbaggers and the newly freed blacks. This gave rise to the National Rifle Association and the extreme interpretation of the Second Amendment to mean that all Americans had the right to own guns - and not just a gun, for self-defense or hunting; no, it now means that Americans can (and should) own any gun, all guns, and have the right to own as many guns as he or she can afford. Any weapon at all, even the most deadly of military arms, is apparently our Constitutional-given right.
But what does anyone actually need with an automatic weapon which fires thirty rounds per second? Certainly it’s not for hunting - even the largest big game would be torn to pieces by such a weapon. And for self-defense? Well, certainly, if you’re facing a combat situation, a machine gun is a nice thing to have handy. But if you’re in your house trying to keep a burglar out? Wouldn’t your machine gun tear more holes in your house than the burglar made? It seems a simple rifle or six-shooter would be sufficient, and it wouldn’t need to fire thirty rounds a second.
The simple truth is that weapons like these have only one purpose, and that is to kill a large number of people in as rapid a manner as possible. They were created to kill the enemy. In the midst of all the shouting, I read a quote from a man stating he liked his automatic because it was “fun to shoot.”
My father taught pistol in the Army (World War II). He taught me how to handle a weapon. He taught me the correct way to load and unload, how to clean it and care for it, and he taught me that a weapon is for one thing only: To Kill. There is no other purpose. It is meant to kill. He taught my brother and me to never point a gun at anyone unless we meant to KILL them. We weren’t even allowed to have toy guns. My father didn’t ever once mention the Second Amendment, he just taught us the proper way to handle them, and the proper way to respect them. They were not “for fun.”
But then, one year after a car accident which had left him with brain damage, my father took that gun out of the drawer and shot himself in the head.
No one needs a gun unless you plan on killing yourself or others. There is no other reason to have them. And if you “need” one for home security, then you certainly don’t need a military issue weapon. That you simply want one is not your right. It’s your own selfish desire.
I have been rather bad this weekend and gained back a few of the pounds I lost.I'm getting closer to saying "I give up" and getting rid of all the size-8's.
So today, instead of finishing up grouting, I Cleaned All The Things -- got the entire kitchen scrubbed and shined, including the dining room, vacuumed everything, and am now looking at the remarkable clutter on my kitchen counters and wondering where I could make room in the closets for some of it so the counters are a little less full. (Of course, the closets and cabinets are likewise full, so that's probably a pipe dream... but I'm still thinking of what I could do to be a little more organized.)
This is what it looks like all empty (more or less... plus the Supervisor) --
And this is what it looks like with all the stuff --
But I'm not sure if I could actually find a market for it, or if it is indeed good enough to sell; I've never tried to market an article before...
Why Guns?
There is a sickness in this country which seems to grip the mind and the spirit in a fierce, irrational paranoia, and it’s all wrapped around a device which was invented strictly to kill: the gun.
It’s been romanticized, storied, praised, given a personality far beyond its purpose and meaning; men and women alike hold onto these killing devices with a passion that should be reserved for close family members. These people are so passionate about this killing device they can and do rationalize every single one of the numerous shooting deaths which happen every day.
Any other device which kills or injures a child a year is yanked off the shelves immediately - from car seats to swing chairs, cribs to toys which pose a choking hazard, even items which are meant strictly for adults and are clearly marked “Not for Children” are recalled, remade, or driven completely out of business on the “it’s dangerous for children” hard line.
And yet children are killed by guns every day. Routinely. And not just by a disturbed individual walking into a school and mowing them down like ninepins; no, children are gunned down in city streets, in their backyards, and in their homes. They are victims of gang violence, of bullets fired blocks away by unknowing target shooters, or their own curiosity. Guns are in their homes, in their games, on their television, and they see people telling them that the “right” to own guns is far more important than human lives.
Many of these guns are legally bought, carefully maintained, and usually operated by responsible people. And yet, somehow, a device invented to kill people… kills people.
*Ahem* “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”
Well, perhaps, but if one disturbed individual has a knife instead of a gun, he won’t be killing more than one person at a time. And a knife won’t accidentally kill someone two blocks away who’s innocently standing in their back yard. And while a child might hurt themselves badly with a knife, it’s unlikely to kill him.
All of this leads back to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which reads, very simply:
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Nothing in there actually says anything about guns. The right to keep and bear arms might well have referred to swords (or even clubs and daggers or farm implements, considering the times). Not every man was lucky enough to own a gun, especially one that worked well; a front-loading cap-and-ball musket was not always the most reliable of arms (consider that even the “Musketeers” tended to use their swords or lances more than their muskets).
But in the days after the Civil War, the southern men coming home from the front were terrified that the Union was going to strip them of their weaponry and leave them at the mercy of carpetbaggers and the newly freed blacks. This gave rise to the National Rifle Association and the extreme interpretation of the Second Amendment to mean that all Americans had the right to own guns - and not just a gun, for self-defense or hunting; no, it now means that Americans can (and should) own any gun, all guns, and have the right to own as many guns as he or she can afford. Any weapon at all, even the most deadly of military arms, is apparently our Constitutional-given right.
But what does anyone actually need with an automatic weapon which fires thirty rounds per second? Certainly it’s not for hunting - even the largest big game would be torn to pieces by such a weapon. And for self-defense? Well, certainly, if you’re facing a combat situation, a machine gun is a nice thing to have handy. But if you’re in your house trying to keep a burglar out? Wouldn’t your machine gun tear more holes in your house than the burglar made? It seems a simple rifle or six-shooter would be sufficient, and it wouldn’t need to fire thirty rounds a second.
The simple truth is that weapons like these have only one purpose, and that is to kill a large number of people in as rapid a manner as possible. They were created to kill the enemy. In the midst of all the shouting, I read a quote from a man stating he liked his automatic because it was “fun to shoot.”
My father taught pistol in the Army (World War II). He taught me how to handle a weapon. He taught me the correct way to load and unload, how to clean it and care for it, and he taught me that a weapon is for one thing only: To Kill. There is no other purpose. It is meant to kill. He taught my brother and me to never point a gun at anyone unless we meant to KILL them. We weren’t even allowed to have toy guns. My father didn’t ever once mention the Second Amendment, he just taught us the proper way to handle them, and the proper way to respect them. They were not “for fun.”
But then, one year after a car accident which had left him with brain damage, my father took that gun out of the drawer and shot himself in the head.
No one needs a gun unless you plan on killing yourself or others. There is no other reason to have them. And if you “need” one for home security, then you certainly don’t need a military issue weapon. That you simply want one is not your right. It’s your own selfish desire.
I have been rather bad this weekend and gained back a few of the pounds I lost.I'm getting closer to saying "I give up" and getting rid of all the size-8's.