Wednesday, March 3, 2010

#4 - Thank heavens for pets - mine keep me from shooting somebody - I think...

There are times when I get frustrated, oh, like when I hear people objecting to things that, in my infinite wisdom, would benefit them and everyone in the long-term, out of what I view as fear, or as FDR once said, the "fear of fear, itself...". I get, well, almost crazy and feel angst and anger and feel a need to say things like "How can you be so stoopid? And YES, I mean with 2 "o's"!"

For example, today, the discussion about the Supreme Court and the 2nd Amendment - "The Right to Bear Arms" (not the right to wear sleeveless shirts, the right to have a gun to defend oneself or others, which of course any reputable and respected legal scholar would readily acknowledge was originally intended by the Founding Fathers to provide for citizens' ability to join and participate in a local militia, NOT simply to have a gun to shoot an intruder) - the pompous and prolific protestations of Constitutional "purists" against gun-control legislation often make me so angry I almost want to go buy a gun so I can shoot 'em... Do they really want me to be able to do that?  As they say, "Be careful what you ask for...".  Yet, I must admit to having mixed feelings about this issue.

On the one hand, I feel it's ludicrous to think that a guy or gal (sorry feminists) could or should be able to carry a hand-gun into a bar, where the sale of alcohol is the primary business function of the establishment (Oh sure, let's just ask for trouble). The last time I looked, I do believe that Charlotte, NC was not and is not Dodge City in 1855... Equally ludicrous in my not-so humble opinion, is the idea that someone visiting a national park and messing with a bear or mountain lion should be able and allowed to pull a gun out of his or her holster and shoot the bear or mountain lion.  He or she is messing around in that animal's domain/domicile, and let's just remember who lives there - people are visitors (at least that's what my Visitor's pass says).  Personally, I think this is where Spencer's "Survival of the Fittest" theory should come into play...

On the other hand, if some angry idiot decided to break into my home, and out of some crazed mental dysfunction decided that it would be "fun" to shoot my little Chihuahua Petunia, I absolutely would prefer to have a gun to SHOOT THE S.O.B. RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES - you bet I would.

But... because I'm too lazy to go through a course on "How to Handle a Gun" (and as such would be more likely to shoot my favorite vase than the intruder), and secure enough in my particular neighborhood to feel that a violent break-in is highly unlikely to happen, I don't, and won't, have a gun in my home. That's my choice. But then again, I'm a guy not a gal, and can only speak from my perspective being a guy who generally doesn't have to worry about other such horrible things as being raped or accosted or hit on by a horned-up idiot or stalked by some estranged, spurned, "fatally attracted" paramour.  At least I don't think I do...

The bad news is that controversial topics such as this can set off random and crazy thoughts in my mind at times - I am human after all. The good news is that, often when these intense and frustrating thoughts are pommelling my psyche and raising my blood pressure and generally making me crazy, my little Chihuahua Petunia jaunts merrily and without care across the room and grabs her big stuffed dog or giraffe in her teeth and dog-handles it back into my lap, licks me on the nose and looks up at me with her cute little bug-eyes, asking me to play tug-of-war with her. And then I forget all those crazy nutso human thoughts, for a little while anyway...

Thank heavens for her...

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