Most everyone loves to take sides in discussions and arguments, and I discovered something about them that no one else has spotted.
People assume there is one side or another, and that's where everyone stands.
King Solomon may have discovered something revealing about that, however.
There may be another side, one that may grab the topic by the ears and shake it, if only everyone saw it.
I have an example.
The second amendment refers to "... the right to bear arms...".
Take a breath, and think about that last word. "Arms."
Many discussions have taken place over what our founders meant by word choices and phrases in our founding documents.
"Arms", however, by all measures, means exactly what it meant back then.
Not "firearms", specifically, but any arms.
In their days, it may have been scythes or knives or whips or clubs.
To the Frankenstein monster, it was pitchforks and torches,
Nowadays, this may be pepper spray, laser pointers or Louisville Sluggers.
All along, it could refer to chairs, or the requisite weapon in corny murder mysteries: fireplace pokers.
Prisoners could be armed with broken glass, or even a ballpoint pen. Or, shoelace.
I saw a fairly recent police report referring to the weapon in a battery case as being a "shod foot". A foot with a shoe on it. The shoe may have been a Nike, or a Birkenstock, or one of those Crocs things. Scary or not, painful or not, a foot with a shoe on it just became an "arm". If nothing else, a foot as an arm is ironic.
An unarmed person has no arms whatever, nothing that could or could not fire a projectile. Certainly there are no guns at a knife fight, but there sure are arms at one.
Let that concept percolate, if you will, and keep that thought at the handy when you hear reference to "arms" "unarmed" and armament.
Also note that many objects can be considered tools or harmless accessories or arms, depending on their use or potential threat of use.
Just to kick the wheels in high gear: Do you think our founders meant something far larger when they wrote of "the right to bear arms"? Was their concern above and beyond the mere possession of only firearms?
Mulling that concept, I'm personally finding it impossible to imagine anyone being against the Second Amendment, when regarding defense against violent aggression.
I'm also disturbed by what their reason was for including this as any amendment, never mind the second one. Was this necessary to state as the second-most important amendment? If so, what was going on so that they felt they had to do this?
Maybe it was the second one they addressed, or it was raised at that time by one of them and the rest failed to argue that it perhaps was less important than others to follow? Was there a conscious pecking order to the amendments?
The factual story behind why the Second Amendment is as it is may be lost to history.
Most telling, however, is the fact that so many discussions of the Second Amendment get heated and political and wobbling off-track because those on both sides of the fray always assume "firearms".
We may have a brand-new argument going. Perhaps this will trigger a larger discussion regarding personal safety, crime prevention and punishment, outside the bounds of what the Second Amendment states, and encompassing arms of all types, the firing kind or not.
Therefore, those involved in the discussion may find more common ground and agreement, because now none of the argument can involve firearms as the sole subject of the Second Amendment.
The argument now will become: How can we all be safer and more secure and trust one another so we will all stay out of harm?
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Sunday, February 23, 2014
We Need To Dig Up Thomas Edison
We need to dig up Thomas Edison. We have a job for him. Looks like he's the only one who can do it.
Cutting to the chase: He did not invent the light bulb. He improved on it. Flip the switch, bulb is on and doing the job. Flip the switch off, done. Off/on/off/on/off/on/off.
The bulb is working, the moment we power it up, and it's rested and ready the moment we power it down.
Cars do this stuff, too.
But it's really too bad that we put up with sluggish performance with our high-falutin' productivity toys like desktop computers and laptops and tablets and phones.
I'll prove to you what a sheep you are.
I already know you have a computer or tablet or phone on (so you can read this). Go get another device, one that's powered down.
Ready? Turn it on.
Now, we're going to have a little discussion about all the performance problems you'd think we'd scream about and bully the manufacturers into fixing. But we don't, because we are growing wool.
Have a phone that rotates the screen or pauses it or reconfigures it just because you set the phone down or rotated the thing? For heaven's sake, WHY? Lightbulbs work in all configurations, the same exact way, in case you're unfamiliar with a flashlight.
Is the toy now powered up and ready to use, yet?
Didn't think so.
I'm typing this on a Chromebook, one of the few outliers in the toy department. Power on, work. Power off, all done.
I like "done". "Done" is the best part.
Done getting ready. Done working for me.
Notice I'm not a Luddite, but until a few so-called world-class big manufacturers stop making prank hardware for sheep who don't care, I won't purchase their products, and I'd really like to buy a riotous assortment of them. Most look potentially fun.
Okay, bazillions of people will buy them anyway.
Well, this is the electronic version of "The Emperor's New Clothes".
Ominous sound goes here:
(Click.)
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
The Dish On The Super Bowl, And Other Sporting Activities
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Anyone care to tell me what this crap-o-matic thing is in the middle of my text panel, and why some do-good meat-wad decided I have to have it? Why do people do this without leaving some info, such as, "My name is Homer Guelph, and I'm a 4th level tech with Google, and I thought you'd have some some kind of paroxysm of thrill if I just stuck this on your blog by surprise, and you can't possibly get rid of it. Aren't I just the most very special person on this planet since the unicorn?" No, you aren't. Google, quit deciding for me what I want and what I don't want for "improvements". Frankly, what I want--and I intend to get--is for Google to take a flying bite, dry up and blow away, and plunge into a catastrophic and unrecoverable business cycle, with corporate headquarters relocating to an unflushed toilet.
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