My Facebook friend, Katherine Natasha Lott, has a story to tell.  A big story.  She has mapped out a five novel fantasy series and is ready to embark on this writing adventure.  As part of her preparation, she has been reading a variety of novels, not exclusively but mostly in the fantasy genre.  She recently asked for suggestions. 

I thought about the writers who had spurred my imagination and motivated me to write.  Tolkien, Rostand, Huxley, Potok, Lehrer, and all of the guys at Mad Magazine.  I suggested the first couple of the above.  

Katherine then mentioned the Pawn of Prophesy by David Eddings and I said, “Huh?”  And that’s when I realized how little time I have for pleasure reading. 

I do read.  A lot.  I start each day by reading the entire Plain Dealer.  My average day includes a visit to the Health and Human Services (HHS) website to review the newest rules and regulations.  And then I read the major analysis of those new rules and regs.  You have to read the analysis to know what the politicians will be saying in 3 to 5 days.  The rest of my daily reading time is usually reserved for politics and industry publications.  That leaves precious little time for much else. 

I have only read two books in the last year.  One was Game Change, a comprehensive, behind the scenes look at the 2008 election.  The other was 2030, Albert Brooks’ dystopic novel about the decline of American civilization due to weak, self-serving politicians and a shlub who finds the cure for cancer.  Even my reading has been about politics and health care.  Crap. 

The last year has been marked by the illnesses and deaths of several friends and clients, poisonous national politics, and the upheaval of how we pay for health care in this country.  And when it looked like we were about to relax for the holidays, we suffered the devastating slaughter at Sandy Hook.  This blog has reflected our times. 

I created a new recipe last week for my Type 2 and low carb readers.  It was Aglio Et Olio with chicken breast.  I dutifully recorded everything as I made the dish.  But posting the recipe seemed frivolous.  I couldn’t do it. 

There are people who bemoan our society’s apparent apathy.  I disagree.  I have talked to my friends.  I have read your blogs, your tweets, and your Facebook posts.  We care.  Hell, we may care too much.  And we are hurting. 

I need to stop and take a deep breath.  You might need to as well, but I can only speak for myself.  Sitting here at home, feet up, a totally irrelevant football game (for a Browns fan) on TV, I realize how little joy there seems to be nationally and how that is impacting me (us). 

So I am going to find something good to read.  I might revisit The Lord of The Rings.  I can almost hear Cyrano calling me.  Or maybe I’ll look up David Eddings.  Katherine seems to have enjoyed his book.

DAVE

The gun enthusiast thought that he was making his point.  He posted a picture of Adolph Hitler with two young children.  The caption was, “Take all of the bad guns from the people…to save the little children”.  The message was that restricting access to guns was necessary to protect children. 

Our Facebook buddy was trying to tell us that it is our patriotic duty to allow every American with an inferiority complex and a couple hundred dollars to own an arsenal. 

BULLSHIT 

Hitler’s German army walked through much of Europe, but a couple of tailors with pistols could have prevented the Holocaust?  This ignorance, and the people who propagate it, does not denigrate the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust.  The Six Million are beyond their reach.  No, the people who post this trash disgrace the memory of their fathers and grandfathers who served in the war and risked their lives to fight fascism. 

And isn’t that really one of the problems?  Do you really want some of these Yahoos to be armed?  G-d knows they are already dangerous. 

The National Rifle Association (NRA) would like to have the teachers packing heat.  I remember my junior high and high schools.  I can think of several teachers who might have jumped at the chance to carry a gun.  My children attended public school in both South Euclid and Shaker Heights.  I had to confront a bully, one teacher still working long past his sell-by date, and warn him to leave my kids alone.  He would be the first in line to carry a gun. 

Would our children be safer with more guns in schools?  I don’t think so.  An armed guard might deter some intruders, but certainly not someone on a suicide mission.  Do we hire rent-a-cops and let them carry service revolvers, or do we provide off duty policemen with assault rifles?  Do we limit our school buildings to only one door and eliminate all windows on the ground floor?  What do we need to do to keep our children safe while allowing just about anyone capable of fogging a mirror to possess unlimited firepower? 

And as I write this I know, I know, that there will be some people who will read the above and say, “Not Me.  I will be prepared”.  They might be licensed to carry a concealed weapon.  They might keep a gun in the car – just in case.  Or one in their bedroom.  And if we are lucky, no one will steal their guns.  And their kids won’t play with their guns.  And they won’t overreact and accidently shoot someone.  And they won’t feel threatened by an unarmed kid in a hoodie and shoot him.  And they won’t… 

The Supreme Court has determined that Americans have the right to keep a gun in their home for security. OK.  We all know people who hunt.  Again, not my thing, but I understand that hunting is part of the culture. 

I have no interest in eating a ham sandwich, but you having one has no impact on my life.  An assault rifle with a large magazine puts us all in danger. 

Last weekend we had the spectacle of Larry Ward, Chairman of Gun Appreciation Day, actually wonder if we would have had slavery “if the African-Americans had been given the right to bear arms”.  How do you respond to such ignorance? 

And it is many of those same people who are, at best, friends of convenience to both African-American and Jewish-American causes who would post this picture of Adolph Hitler with small children.  That picture of ignorance.

 

It is time to award the prizes.  Last December I posted the Everyone’s a Genius in Hindsight contest.  As usual, some of the loudest know-it-alls decided to forego the opportunity to prove their skills at predicting the future.  Fifteen of you did choose to take a chance at achieving Prognostication Nirvana.  

There was no cost to enter, but there were prizes.

1^st Prize – $50 Gift Card to Shuhei or the restaurant of your choice

2^nd Prize – Lunch with me 

Here are the ten questions with the correct answers.  My answer follows in (red). 

1. The Republican nominee will be Mitt Romney.  (Mitt Romney)
2. The winner of the 2012 Presidential election will be Barack Obama. (Barack Obama)
3. The winner of the 2012 Ohio Senate race will be Sherrod Brown. (Sherrod Brown)
4. The winner of the February 5, 2012 Super Bowl will be the New York Giants. (Green Bay Packers)
5. The Cleveland Indians will win 68 (88) regular season games.
6. The 2012 Cleveland Browns will win 5 (6) regular season games.
7. The 2012 Academy Award for best picture will go to The Artist (The Descendants).
8. The Dow Jones Industrial Average will close on December 28, 2012 at 12938 (12850).
9. There will be 9 (9) justices of the US Supreme Court on December 31, 2012.
10. A gallon of milk will be $2.99 (3.29) at Giant Eagle, Legacy village on June 30, 2012. 

Three of us had five correct answers.  Sally and I can’t win.  So this year’s genius in hindsight is Michael Saltzman.   Michael has chosen to receive a gift card from the Cedar Creek Grille in Beachwood.  Five people had four correct answers.  Through a complicated series of tie-breakers, Second Place goes to Tony Ramos. 

I would like to thank everyone who participated.  The 2014 mid-term elections may prove to be interesting.  I will host another contest next year

Esquire found me.  I received a free subscription about ten years ago.  The magazine just showed up in my mailbox.  And when my trial subscription ended, I quickly sent a check.  Fashion, art, and politics are all covered as well, if not better, by Esquire than by any other publication.  It was the writing that got my attention and earned my money.  And it was Esquire’s interest in bringing different voices to every discussion that made it unique. 

Wayne LaPierre, Executive of Vice-President of the National Rifle Association (NRA), delivered his promised useful contribution to the national debate during Friday’s press conference.  The Newtown shootings were not due to the easy access to semiautomatic weapons or high capacity ammunition magazines.  No.  No.  No.  The cause of this disaster was the combination of violent video games, violent movies, and a mental health system that fails to monitor (and if possible control) the mentally ill.  But guns?  We need more. 

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. 

Wayne LaPierre wants us to install an armed guard in every school in the country.  That’s it.  Problem solved.  Others have floated the idea of arming the teachers.  The same people who spent the last election cycle lambasting our public school teachers now want to arm them! 

Would it be a bad idea to have armed guards at our schools?  Probably not.  Many of our middle schools and high schools have armed security.  But as Columbine and Virginia Tech showed, armed security is not a deterrent.   

Some people feel safer with a gun.  I feel safest when there are no guns nearby.  These are feelings.  You don’t legislate based simply on feelings. 

The January 2013 issue of Esquire arrived a few days ago.  An ongoing series called What I’ve Learned includes an October 5, 2012 interview by Cal Fussman of Lieutenant Brian Murphy.  Police officer Murphy was the first responder to the August 5, 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple.  Six people were killed.  Could have been seven.  Officer Murphy was shot fifteen times. 

The interview was not available online.  Allow me to summarize.  Murphy served five years in the Marine Corps.  He was a veteran police officer about to earn his Master’s Degree.  In other words, he was a trained, intelligent, experienced former marine / current cop who had had the best possible training.  He was not a rent-a-cop with a cap gun. 

And what happened? 

“We have AR-15’s in the squad car.  But there was a mal-function with the switch that releases the AR-15.  That’s Murphy’s Law.  If I’d had that semiautomatic rifle…”

“There’s a ballistic shield in the back of the car.  I should’ve grabbed the shield.  But I wasn’t thinking that way.” 

“I turned to where I thought he was gonna come from, went to attack him, but he flanked me.  I shouldn’t have let that happen.  I kick myself in the ass for letting that happen.” 

I read the October 5^th interview twice.  This brave, experienced police lieutenant was out-gunned, out-flanked, and in the end, toyed with by a lone gunman.  Why did Wade Michael Page attack the Sikh temple?  We’ll never really know.  The second police officer to arrive on the scene shot and wounded Page.  The gunman then proceeded to shoot himself in the head. 

So what have I learned?  I learned that one guard, or one retired policeman, or one honorably discharged serviceman, will not guarantee a school’s safety. 

I learned that we may need guards, but that we also need to think about limiting access.  The guy who attached a crowded theater had a drum of ammo.  Does the Second Amendment guarantee that every American can amass an arsenal? 

We need to redraw the lines on the access to lethal weaponry. 

And I learned one more thing.  Pardeep Kalenka, the son of murdered Sikh temple president Satwant Singh Kalenka, taught Americathat “There’s no sanctuary in a temple on Sunday morning.  There’s no sanctuary at a Wendy’s you eat at with your family, at a grocery store, schools.  There’s just no sanctuary.” 

I hope we’re better than this.

I was in Las Vegas for my annual life insurance meeting.  I only go to Vegas for meetings. I‘m not much of a gambler, but I enjoy wandering through the casinos.  The art, the glitz, the dreamers lost in the potential to walk away rich while everyone around them is losing money – it is a people watcher’s bonanza.  And while you are watching, you are being watched.  There are cameras everywhere.  Some are in plain sight.  Some are hidden.  And there are the guys, the big guys, with earpieces patrolling the floor. 

I always feel safe when I’m in a casino. 

Nancy did everything she could to protect herself.  She had an extensive collection of guns and semi-automatic rifles.  And she knew how to use them.  Glock.  Sig Sauer,  Bushmaster.  Nancy had purchased all of them legally.  She was safe until she wasn’t.  She was killed with one of her instruments of protection. 

Adam inherited a cache of firearms that his mother no longer needed.  He loaded four of the weapons and drove to a near-by elementary school.  The school, Sandy Hook Elementary, was in session.  Students K – 4, teachers, and school employees – they were safe, until they weren’t.   

The school was locked.  He shot his way in.  He blew out a hole big enough to walk through.  Adam proceeded to murder the Principal, Dawn Hocksprung, who attempted to disarm him, five other adults, and twenty children.  The children, ages 6 and 7, were shot multiple times.  Early autopsy results reported that each child had been shot between 3 and 11 times with the high-powered rifle. 

And when he was done, Adam shot himself. 

Expressions of shock and condolences quickly appeared on Facebook and other social media sites.  Then the second guessing began. 

Gun control!  We need more gun control.  There are questions as to whether anyone really needs a Bushmaster .223 semi-automatic rifle.  Some call it an assault weapon.  Many Americans believe in background checks, waiting periods, and firearm registration.  These guns all passed those tests. 

What about metal detectors in all schools?  Adam shot his way into the school.  He wasn’t hiding anything. 

There is a picture of an Israeli teacher herding her young charges into a building, a rifle slung over her shoulder.  Why can’t we have guns in our schools?  For one, Israel has compulsory military service.  That teacher has been properly trained and she is protecting her students from a real threat, terrorists and suicide bombers who regularly target unarmed civilians.  For another, can we guarantee that a loaded weapon won’t find its way into the wrong hands?

 There were also the predictable calls for more religion in our public schools.  We would have healthier, happier, safer children if only THEIR version of G-d were taught in the schools.  We are supposed to forget all of the children who were ill-served and abused within the schools affiliated with one religion or another. 

Sometimes you just have to admit that there isn’t an easy answer.  Worse, there might not be any answer. 

Jessica worked for Vegas.com.  She wasn’t stuck in some cubicle.   She was stationed at the concierge desk in the Excalibur Hotel.  She was safe, until she wasn’t.  Last Friday, December 14^th, a man walked up to her desk and before the cameras, the big guys with the earpieces, his G-d, and his country, he pulled out a gun and murdered Jessica.  And then he shot himself. 

We are all safe, until we aren’t.

 

They can see the cliff. It is directly ahead of them. They have taken turns daring each other to take the plunge. They have each hinted at their willingness to go over the cliff without even hesitating.

But of course they are hesitating. This is a game of feints and bluffs. The stakes are so high that neither side dares to make a move that will later be regretted.

The looming fiscal cliff? That’s nothing! Sam and Frankie are staring at the emotional cliff that is at the beginning of a relationship.

He grabbed her hand and they jumped.

As a part of today’s Ohio Blogging Association‘s All State Blog Swap, I’m happy to introduce you to Gail Palmer, aka Pocket Gail from A Slammin Adventure. On this day, bloggers from around the great state of Ohio are guest posting on one another’s sites. For a full listing of blog swap participants, please visit Poise in Parma today.”

Hi. I’m Gail Palmer, aka Pocket Gail. My nickname was given to me by a group of amazing women when I lived in Alaska … but that’s a story for another day. I tell lots of stories on my blog – A Slammin’ Adventure – mostly sharing my rules (and tools) for adventuring through life with a happy heart. I’m a writer, designer, slam poet, event planner, wanna-be-chef, and part-time superhero. Oh … and I just moved to Cleveland.

Since I’m new to Ohio this statewide blog swap is giving me the opportunity to introduce myself to you – courtesy of a guy you already follow. Thanks Dave! 

What should I tell you about me?

Good luck picking up on my accent; I’m told I don’t have one. I was born in Florida, raised in North Carolina, spent a short time living in Belgium then breezed through 48 states as a theatrical tour manager before moving to Alaska eight years ago. 

A little over a year ago I left Alaska for a new love in New York. Now we live in Cleveland and it seems to be the perfect balance between her too-crowded-too-expensive-to-live and my too-remote-too-expensive-to-live. Now if we could just add Ohio to the list of states where same sex marriage is legal we might have a long-term winner.

Now let me invite you to visit A Slammin’ Adventure by suggesting a few choice posts: 

          Most Recent  →  Inspiration! Where do you find it?         

          Most Viral  →  Why I’m Moving to Cleveland         

          Most Favorite  →  Alaskan Vanity 

          Most Slammin’  →  What is A Slammin’ Adventure? 

Thanks for checking out my site and don’t forget to post some comments while you’re there so I can meet you too! 

Happy Monday and Happy Reading,

PocketGail

dk

Three Hundred Ninety-three.  Between 7:37 PM Saturday evening and 4 PM on Sunday, I received 393 emails.  I would like to tell you that these were emails from friends and clients.  I would like to tell you that I’m popular and that the emails I receive, even on weekends, are interesting and useful.

But you know better.

I am under attack.  Fifteen emails were from clients, friends, or alerts about legitimate comments posted to my blogs.  Fourteen were advertisements from Nordstrom and other companies that I have shopped in the past.  The rest, 364 invasions into my inbox, were either spam or notifications of spam comments onto my blogs.

It took almost forty-five minutes to plow through my emails, read and respond to the real ones, and delete the rest.  The painstaking task of removing over 300 (!) bogus comments from the pending section of my blogs was accomplished in about a half an hour.

So while you were watching the Browns almost win or later Sunday while you were watching the CAVS almost win, I was fending off spammers from around the world.  I fought them to a draw.  By the time you read this, I will have eliminated several hundred more unwanted comments.

What I want, what I really need is a defense system.  I would like to send a heat seeking missile, an email bomb, to the spammers.  Try to post a comment on my blog about cheap UGGS or knock-off designer purses, and I hit a reply button that would blow up their system.  BOOM!  Gone.

Think about it.  No more bogus selling systems.  No more fake charities.  No more crap.

Of course, a heat seeking missile, even an email version, is way too dangerous a weapon to be trusted to the general public.  Still, a boy can dream.

Sitting down with a group of Republicans, I asked what song they would use to sum up the recent election.

“Are you running with R.E.M.”, I asked.

“I like R.E.M.”, one guy answered.  “Which one”?

“For you guys, how about It’s The End of The World As We Know It”?

My friend Howard offered Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.

 Obladi, Oblada life goes on.

 Like Karl Rove, I wanted to wait till every vote was counted before I prepared this post mortem.  But Ohio’s provisional ballots are still a week or two away and there may still be some people standing in line to vote in Miami, so it is time for a few thoughts from me. 

I

California Governor Jerry Brown was quoted in the current Esquire:

I had a political-science teacher who wrote about power and how the essence of democracy is for the individual citizens to exercise power – that is, control over his or her life and the institutions that affect that person.

 The recent election proved the teacher’s point.

 I watched MSNBC and FOX on election night.  MSNBC provided joy and context.  FOX provided an insight to an alternate reality.  It was early in the evening when Megyn Kelly and her fellow anchor, Bret Baier, discussed exit polling as the initial states were called.  They were amazed to learn that a majority of those polled favored smaller government, but the Republicans were losing.

 Smaller government, on FOX, means limited business regulation, lower income taxes, and lots of intrusive social legislation.  It turns out that many Americans view smaller government as less government involvement in both our personal lives and our business lives.  The Republicans spent most of the last two years discussing how much they wanted to control our lives and institutions.  The conflict is obvious.

Even people who are only nominally pro-choice were shocked by questions of “legitimate” rape and the lack of concern about the life of the mother.  There are a number of Americans who believe that life begins at conception.  That would make abortion and even some forms of birth control problematic.  That belief could motivate attempts to change in the law.  But there are also people who believe that life, ANY LIFE, is a gift from G-d.  This is a gift that can not be returned or exchanged.  That belief can not be legislated.  And that is the GOP’s problem.  The Republicans have attempted to legislate a religious belief.

Whether we look at the U.S. House of Representatives or states such as Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, wherever the Republicans garnered a majority in 2010, we saw an avalanche of legislation designed to end abortion, unions, and voter access.  Even if you weren’t impacted by any of these new laws, you had every reason to wonder when you, too, would be in the Republican cross-hairs.

 II

Thanks to Nikki Ferrell of the Beachwood Patch, we now know that Mitt Romney lost nine of the ten Beachwood precincts.  Some people find that unsurprising.  After all, Beachwood is a highly educated, traditionally Democratic leaning city.  The shock was that Josh Mandel, a Beachwood High School alumnus, underperformed Governor Romney.  Not only didn’t Mandel carry any precincts, but his opponent, Sherrod Brown, actually received more votes than the President. It only took two reprehensible campaigns for Josh Mandel to wear out his welcome.  It will be interesting to see what kind of campaign he mounts two years from now. 

III

There were some people who truly loved Mitt Romney and were excited to vote for him.  Honest. There are still some people who view Barack Obama as a transformational figure.  It is my experience that most of us were underwhelmed by our choices up and down the ticket.  We would like to be forced to choose between two excellent public servants.  We can do better.  Until then, we will do the best with what we’re given.  I even voted for Mary Rose Oakar.

 Obladi, Oblada life goes on.

It is all over tomorrow. Maybe. Depending on lawsuits, recounts, and hurricanes, this could drag on till December or longer. But I am optimistic. I believe that we will have an answer Tuesday.

And, as a special bonus, this blog and others will be posting post-mortems later this week.

Spoiler Alert – we will all be proven correct.