Perp Walk / Slippery Slope

A Few Questions About ‘Gun Control’

15Dec12

This is written in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting. Noted here because if you read this a month or two later, things will likely not have changed and you’ll likely have gone about your lives without thinking much about dead children.

These are intended as rhetorical questions because I don’t pretend to have any solutions. Just a few observations in question form…

1. Is the argument in favor of gun control about one person shooting another, or about one person shooting many? Because the former has been happening for decades, while the latter gets big, shocked reactions.

2. Does it matter if the guns used in mass shootings were acquired legally or not? Because it seems that unlawfully acquired guns still exist and would continue to exist in a ‘gun control world’. Beyond the slogans about criminals owning guns, isn’t the only real way to enforce severe gun control a search-and-seizure type of approach towards all citizens? Is that really going to happen in a society that doesn’t require breathalyzers for all cars? (Driving is a privilege, not a right, yet you’ll find very few instances where driving is enforced as stringently as would be suggested for guns.)
(Cont’d)

Slippery Slope

A community under siege

15May12

Back in the 90′s, I used to have the occassional after-work margarita with an African-American friend/co-worker of mine. We would drink, eat nachos, flirt with our supercute waitress Blanca, and shoot-the-shit, as co-workers do. Ocassionally our conversations would touch upon racial issues, which was particularly compelling since we worked in the culturally-streamlined world of film and TV casting.

One evening the conversation turned to homosexuality and it’s mainstream acceptance. My co-worker, whose gay-friendly credentials were not in question, informed me about how overwhelmingly homophobic the black community is. (Or was, back in the late 90′s). I told my friend that I was surprised by this because I figured that people who had been discriminated against would be compassionate for, if not outright tolerant of, people in a similar position. To illustrate his point, my black friend quoted his grandmother’s comments about a gay man…”I ain’t got time for no f#ggotty man.”

The issue of black homophobia has been in the news lately as President Obama has vocalized his support for gay marriage. Pundits point out the overwhelming black support for North Carolina’s Amendment One, the newly-passed referrendum against gay marriage, and question whether black people will continue to support Obama in the upcoming presidential election.

The levels of irony are astouding.
(Cont’d)

Slippery Slope

Didn’t you know you were offended?

9May12

I stopped watching The Daily Show regularly during the health care debate a few years ago. As funny as they are, Jon Stewart and Co. were just too good at illuminating the ignorant Americans that were driving the public conversation. Watching The Daily Show was depressing for me. But I’ve seen clips on the internet from time to time, so I know that they continue to produce funny, insightful segments which speak intelligently about the issues without buying into the hype generated by the political parties and special interests.

Recently, it seems, they did a bit about the anti-abortion law that was pending in Virginia which would have required women seeking an abortion (which has been legal under Roe v. Wade for over 30 years) to first submit to an unnecessary, internal sonogram. Or, in other words, politicians who likely complain about big government “taking over” private medicine, were going to require their constituents to undergo an intrusive, gynelogical procedure. The Daily Show’s bit (which I still haven’t seen) apparently included a faux device called the Vagina Manger that would to “protect [women's] reproductive organs from unwanted medical intrusions.” Frankly, the Vagina Manger doesn’t sound funny to me, but I trust that Stewart delivered the premise in such a way that it was hilarious. Maybe he talked about the virgin birth and the subsequent hangups conservatives have with the female body.

In any case, the reliably offended Catholic League, and their fearless leader Bill Donohue, took up the cause and started demanding an apology. In the storm of near-constant fake outrage that surrounds us, the movement gained no perceivable coverage until this morning when Delta Airlines said they were pulling their advertising from the Daily Show. (Cont’d)

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