Another Senseless Multiple Gun Murder
In the North East over Christmas, Michel Atherton apparently murdered three others and then killed himself with legally-held weapons.
For many years, the National Farmers Union has always felt that shotguns and other legally-held weapons, should be kept in a locked cabinet, with two separate keys, that must be held by two people.
Their reasons are mainly to do with preventing suicide amongst farmers and others in the countryside, who have fallen on hard times or are depressed.
Sensibly applied, these rules might well help to prevent tragedies. Especially, if the two key holders live in different dwellings.
An acquaintance of mine was murdered because a shot gun was easily available. If this rule had applied, he might still be alive.
Comparing Texas and the EU
I found this on the web in a piece talking about the Texan use of the death penalty.
Luckily we don’t live in Texas, where they own around 51 million guns (more than all of the European Union combined) and the Encyclopedia Britannica is banned because it contains a formula for making beer.
The population of Texas is incidentally 24.7 million and that of the EU is 501.3 million. As to the Encyclopedia Britannica, I haven’t seen one in years and don’t know anybody who has one.
I’d be interested to know how many people are killed accidentally by guns in Texas every year.
Those That Buy The Gun Live Will With The Consequences
The Times today has a story about one child of a couple in Alaska, who accidentally shot a sibling with a pistol, leaving the child a paraplegic. So they are doing what all good American’s do and reach for their lawyer and suing the manufacturer of the gun.
It would have been so much easier and less stressful, if they hadn’t bought the gun in the first place.
After all guns are designed to kill people and when they do, it’s more likely that the victim will be the owner of the gun or one of his friends or family.
Heroic Lesbians
A friend pointed me to this story entitled Heroic Lesbians; wherefore the silence, on a Luxembourg web site.
It describes how a married lesbian couple, got in their boat and rescued dozens of teenagers, who were swimming away from the guns of Anders Behring Breivik on the island of Utoya.
The article questions why the story has not been picked up by mainstream media.
My view is that it wasn’t because of their sexuality, as suggested in the story, but because the rescue was carried out by two women and that just doesn’t fit with those that run the average newspaper. One heroic woman is front page news, but two show up men in a bad light!
America Doesn’t Learn
America’s fight against crime and terrorism inside the country never seems to learn from its mistakes or build on things that have been proven in countries like the UK, Israel, Sweden, Germany and many others.
The worst home-grown example of terrorism in the United States was the bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma. It could be argued that if proper security precautions had been taken at the building, that things might have been different. In its piece on the bombing, Wikipedia contains this.
As a result of the bombing, the U.S. government passed legislation designed to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks. From 1995 to 2005, over 60 domestic terrorism plots were foiled due to preventive measures taken in response to the bombing.
So after various incidents in the years preceding the bombing, won’t these precautions taken.
Simple precautions, such as we’ve had on UK flights for years might have prevented some if not all of the perpetrators of the September 11th, 2001 attacks of even getting on the planes.
In the late twentieth century, I was always amazed at the lack of airline security in the United States. In the end the good people of New York and Washington paid the awful price.
And then there are guns! The United States has the highest rate of gun crime and murder of any f the so-called civilised countries. There are now reports that those with guns are so irresponsible that many of America’s mammals are disappearing.
So what does the United States do?
It discloses that Osama bin Laden was planning an attack on a train to mark the 10th anniversary of september 11th, 2001.
Surely this small fact is a challenge to all of those idiots out there, looking for their five minutes of fame.
Be vigilant of course, but don’t give them ideas!
America Puts Guns Before Fighting Crime and Terrorism
The story of Steven Greenoe is a classic farce and it shows how the United States love of the gun, gets in the way of fighting crime and terrorism around the world. Afer the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords, surely the country should do something to curb guns, which seem to be at the cause of much of the world’s troubles.
I recommend all United States politicians read my Abba Eban quote.
I Don’t Like Guns!
Basically, because they kill people, but I do realise that some people need to hold them. In a review on the Derrick Bird killings in Cumbria, changes are recommended to the gun laws.
I feel that we need just one change to the gun laws and that is to make sure that guns are always locked safely away, when they are not in use, under a dual-key system.
My reason is incidents such as those in which Derrick Bird was involved are not that common, but there have been quite a few suicides involving legally-held weapons. There have also been the odd accident, where children have been playing with weapons. Incidentally, in the United States, a lot of minors are killed accidentally by legally-held firearms.
So locking them up securely with two keys held by two responsible people may be a simple measure that could cut a lot of deaths. Imagine a ard-up farmer, who perhaps felt suicide was a good way to go, having to convince, say his wife, that he needed the guns, when he was not in a fit mental state.
I have actually heard the NFU saying that this is a sensible measure.
Cooking Rice Korean Style
I cooked one of my chili con carnes for myself ,my son and one of his friends today. As the friend is Korean, he cooked the rice and it was delicious. He cooked it from scratch and interestingly, the method he used was very similar to the one Waitrose put on their packet of organic long grain rice. He did wash the rice more thoroughly in a sieve than I would and I think he used more rice and a bit more water. But who cares? It worked!
So next time you want to cook rice, have a go and cook it properly, rather than using a microwave.
As the rice was so good, next time he comes, I’ll video a master in action! Would this be a first of a Korean cooking rice on an AGA?
Whilst on the subject of chili con carne, check out Wikipedia. There are some interesting and controversial ideas there. To me chili always has kidney beans, but that is not allowed by some. There is this statement.
Chili Appreciation Society International specified in 1999 that, among other things, cooks are forbidden to include beans, marinate any meats, or discharge firearms in the preparation of chili for official competition.
I’m certainly with them on firearms.
I also found that the chili was a good mouth freshener in the same way as the Waitrose Tiffin
Woody Allen Resigns From The NRA
I doubt that Woody Allen would ever want to join, just as I wouldn’t join any such violently pro-gun organisation as the NRA, but after seeing his latest film, Whatever Works, they certainly wouldn’t welcome him now.
Three of us went and saw the film in Cambridge, this afternoon and we all enjoyed it immensely.
I was very pleased with the film, but then does it fit my mood at present after the stroke? Many of the one-liners also hit the same targets that I like to attack. The reviews of the film were actually not very positive, but then I doubt many reviewers have the right experience of life to appeciate it. But this guy does think it a very good film.
The Anonymous Widower 