Fraud and Deception

A friend of mine had input in this piece. Gives a great overview of the death of my proud profession. Many thanks to the flawed leadership of my profession, and the greed of the veterinary schools. These young doctors thought they were going to experience a life's dream, and they are now well and truly screwed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/business/high-debt-and-falling-demand-trap-new-veterinarians.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

2/16/13

This is what I get for contacting my elected representatives to discuss gun control. I get back letters telling me I should shut up and accept some common sense restrictions on my freedom. Common sense, from these people.

They say that one definition of insane would be when you keep trying the same thing,

over and over again, but you expect somehow that something different will happen. 

California by any definition is insane. Entertaining at times, amusing at others, frustrating most always, California stumbles on, experimenting with new things regardless of the consequences that are inevitable when you continue trying things that all the wise folk tell you will fail, and then taking those failures and doing them over and over again. California sets the pace and the rest of the country eventually follows, so we have already shown here that the rest of you folks are doomed. We’ve proven that by our own folly. Sorry about that.

One of the crazy weirdest things we ever did as Californians was to elect Jerry Brown as governor back in the 70’s. And of course, after watching him mess up every single thing possible, we re-elected him for a second term. Jerry’s father, who earlier had played governor without actually staying at a Holiday Inn Express, was also distinguished by a certain lack of competence and responsibility. Apparently, Brown the elder thought that the job of governor was to turn pretty much the entire state over to a few “public service” unions, and all would be well. Following in daddy’s footsteps, Jerry never met a union he didn’t like, and they in turn made sure he had a long career in public…uh…service.

After a brief hiatus, California has put Jerry the younger Brown back in the governor’s office. And the insanity continues, for nothing has changed. Brown and the teacher’s union have become the shortest distance between two points. Brown sees higher taxes as the solution to every problem. 

Thanks to Jerry, there now is a well-established straight line between our wallets and the teachers’ union pockets. So we all work for the benefit of others, via the power of the state to tax and spend.

The first time Jerry was governor, he thought he’d help make the world a better place by putting an end to that silly notion that we should discourage folks who wanted to kill people. I’ll give Jerry the benefit of the doubt here, for he had led a sheltered life, and he surrounded himself with people who had led sheltered lives, and the world was going well and why not be a nice, if delusional, guy and give those poor misunderstood folks who murder others a little sympathy, and maybe a second or third chance to turn into nice people, too? So Jerry put Rose Bird in as the Chief Justice of the state, and she overturned every death penalty case, more than sixty, that came before her. She also overturned the law that mandated prison sentences for crimes committed using guns.

So California put an end to capital punishment, and set up ways to let those poor misunderstood killers change their ways and return to society, eager to fulfill their role in enhancing the joy of mankind. And California legally encouraged its criminals to use guns in their crimes, and to do it over and over again. 

Coincidentally, about that same time California also began its war against the law abiding folks, with law after law passed to restrict the rights of the law abiding gun owners in the state.  And after setting this precedent, Jerry sailed off into the sunset, that sense of a job well done filling his heart. 

Since Jerry left the governor’s office, our fine state has staggered along, much like a bus careening down a winding mountain highway without a driver or brakes, and I’m here to tell you it’s been an E ticket ride. Nobody has been able to balance the budget, for the unions get first pick. And criminals have run amok, killing and annoying folks with little consequence, thanks to the legacy of good ole Jerry. Meanwhile, the nice people are faced with some of the most punitive firearm restrictions in the nation.

So I will be the first to admit that I laughed my ass off when our hero Jerry decided he wanted to be mayor of the city of Oakland. In case you missed it, the people living in Oakland decided many years ago that they’d rather live in a war zone than say, a nice city. They welcomed in drugs as a clear alternative to reality, and then encouraged their sons to join gangs to promote the product, expand the market, and do that pure capitalism thing with competition, and profit, and a little murder and mayhem. Jerry stepped in to fix this, figuring these misguided people would listen to him and see the light. They missed the memo.

After a particularly messy year with well over one hundred murders in the streets, somebody asked Jerry what he thought the problem might be. With a look of chagrin on his face, Jerry suggested that we have too many criminals in Oakland. And silly me, I thought the guy had finally seen the light. Jerry knew he had too many criminals to supervise because California continues the tradition Jerry started, and thus we turn our murderers loose after only a brief vacation spent socializing with other criminals and completing the mandatory continuing education required in this state. 

Yep, the doctors go to classes to learn how to be better doctors, and the criminals relax in prison and do the same thing.

I was hoping that Jerry would take the lesson he should have learned from watching the slaughter on the streets of Oakland, and once made governor again he would take the steps necessary to keep the murderers locked up where they belong. But I forgot this is California, and we are insane, and we continue to elect insane people to continue to do the same wrong things, over and over and over again.

So governor again Jerry Brown is still setting murderers loose from prison, early parole, dumping them back onto the streets to kill again. And he is doing this at a record setting pace.  Somebody should send him flowers as a thank you. You can find plenty on the graves.

Oh, and those rabid liberal judges that Jerry and his cronies over the decades have packed into our courtrooms to ensure that we are extra special nice to our criminals are living up to expectation. Noting that the poor imprisoned criminals don’t have health care on a par with our elected representatives, the judges decided California would be better off if we turned out thousands of prisoners, violent felons, rapists, murderers, thieves and litterbugs, unless the legislature came up with enough money to fix things nice for the prisoners. 

Problem was, the state is so broke after paying off the unions for making sure the politicians are constantly employed, that the prisons didn’t get fixed. So pretty soon, Oakland and a few other places, will soon have way too many criminals again.

Crime statistics tend to rise and fall over the years. No doubt, many things influence these trends. Roe v Wade led to the near universal legalization of abortion around our country. Many believe that the unwanted pregnancies ended following that sea change, those never born boys who would have been old enough to join the gangs beginning in the 90’s, might account for a large part of the drop in crime rates. Clearly, not being born is about the only consistent deterrent to a short violent life of crime and murder. 

But the only thing known that consistently reduces crime is the arrest, incarceration, and execution of criminals. Thanks largely to Jerry and Bird, crime skyrocketed in California in the 80’s.

The crack wars in the 80’s drove violent crime numbers up. The War on Drugs, like Prohibition back in the 20’s, was a boon to organized crime and later the gangs we’ve grown to know and love. Murder rates skyrocketed, particularly in those inner city neighborhoods peopled by people most likely to consume crack cocaine, and least inhibited when it comes to letting their own sons slaughter their own sons in the process. Nothing has changed in this regard, so the carnage on the streets continues.

With the prison doors already creaking open, thanks to the kindly judges, thousands of criminals will soon flow into this opportunity. Crime and murder inevitably will increase. And we must do something to stop it. This being California, we shall approach this dilemma with crazy. 

It’s already begun. Hot to solve the budget crisis so they can fix the prisons and appease the judges and keep some of the criminals locked away, California instead funds the unions even more….hot to fund the police so they can recapture the released criminals as they resume their life’s work, they forget to send the check….hot to do anything to stem the chaos…the California legislature is busy plotting new gun control laws aimed at you and me. The good guys.

They figure if they punish the honest citizens severely enough, maybe crime will be nice and go away. 

With the voracious and vicious Mexican drug cartels moving in to intensify the drug wars, and thousands of criminals returning to the streets, and a government that shows no interest whatsoever in fixing things, this makes perfect sense. 

Welcome to the future.

2/10/13

“Do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life.”----- Confucius

Confucius was a wise fellow 2500 years ago, back in the days when China was a great nation, a nation that was busy figuring out a bunch of stuff that those uppity folks in Europe wouldn’t ever discover if given a million typewriters and a million years. You know…stuff like macaroni and gunpowder. China had its affairs going so well that they could afford to have guys hang out simply to think of things. 

Apparently, Confucius did well at this thinking predilection, because if you do a search on the sayings attributed to the guy, you can stay busy for some considerable time, and you will feel like you haven’t really thought of anything first when you finish.

And you will be doing this many centuries later than Confucius. This guy did his thinking 25 centuries ago, but human nature being what it is, what he figured out so long ago still applies when applied to humans today. Confucius was real good at recognizing the good in the human condition and also spotting the bad. Not much has changed, in the human condition. We still have the good, and the bad. But unlike Confucius, we aren’t supposed to talk about it.

I was behind the clinic, airing the dogs, when I noticed the two guys behind the bushes. The little black dog barked at them.  It was about one in the afternoon, and my usual assortment of homeless folks didn’t generally show up until after dark, when the clinic was closed and I wasn’t around to hassle them. So I wandered over to discuss with them their situation. 

Ya see…I have a problem with the detritus left behind by the folks who indulge their addiction to alcohol on my property, for they have the annoying habit of leaving the dead soldiers lying about. I pointed this collection out to the two drinkers, and suggested they move on to sully someone else’s turf. 

The deal we eventually struck was that they would clean up the place if I’d look the other way while they enjoyed a beer each afternoon behind my bush. And surprisingly, I went with it. In the past I likely would not have.

I’ve talked with one of with these men on other occasions since that day, and found out that his wife won’t let him drink beer at home, so he indulges his hobby behind the bushes on my property most every afternoon, and from time to time he asks for a plastic garbage bag to clean up the mess to keep me happy. The guy loves drinking his beer. And apparently, he is free most afternoons.

As Confucius said, he does what he loves, and never works a day in his life.

I’m not sure this is what Confucius had in mind, but I’ve learned that when times change, you’re supposed to change with it. I guess.

So when I pulled into the parking lot of my clinic, again at about one in the afternoon on a weekday, and I found one of the usual homeless guys urinating on the front wall of my clinic, near the front door, in broad daylight, and right there where every client will walk their dog to get to my door, I mentioned my displeasure to him. 

Dude!! You’re pissing on my wall!!

Now, you have to realize that I’ve grown accustomed to men relieving themselves on that other wall of my clinic, the side opposite the doors, behind the bushes, where only I can know what they are doing onna counta the window in my office on that side of the building. That side of the building is apparently the designated outdoor toilet for the folks on foot in our city. That’s where I once caught a guy talking on his cell phone while wetting my bushes. Multi-tasking. I had planned on yelling at the guy, because I’m that kinda stubborn about my property, but I was so dumbfounded at his behavior that I simply stood there in amazement. And the guy yelled at me, for watching. I’m now a pecker peeper. Try saying that three times fast. He was angry with me because I caught him peeing on my property, and he thought I enjoyed the moment.

And I’ve grown accustomed to washing down the wall of the building after one of those guys uses the wall for a backrest when he, ah…poops. I know it’s always the same guy, even though he doesn’t sign his work, but I know him from the consistency of his, you know. It kinda runs down the wall, and what with the viral hepatitis and other concerns, I really enjoy pulling out the hose and cleaning up after him. But I can’t be calling out the hazmat folks for every streak of diarrhea I come across. There simply are too many.

But I have drawn the line, and that line doesn’t include pissing on the front of my clinic at one in the afternoon. So I yelled at the guy urinating on the front wall of my clinic. He looked at me as if I were a completely unreasonable person.

I guess I’m just not progressive enough, yet. But I should get partial credit, for I am working on it.

Ya see, I’ve relaxed my normal standards to accommodate people who live their lives somewhat differently than I. That’s what you are supposed to do as you go through life if you are progressive. That’s because just because you have been taught right from wrong, this doesn’t necessarily mean your right is the same as some other guy’s right. That apparently is no longer reasonable. I am learning live with that. 

But to be progressive these days, you are expected to expand your horizons a bit further. 

I’m now expected to welcome with open arms the homeless people nesting on my property, and accept the garbage, broken bottle, little wildflower tufts of toilet paper scattered about the land. I’m not to judge them harshly, simply because they have chosen a different path than I. I was taught right from wrong, but that was then, and this is now, and I guess there is/are no wrong…only different. So I leave em be.

OK, so I’m getting used to this. The inevitability of it all helps. I cannot stop them from nesting back there, lest I annoy them, or trample upon their rights. Such is no longer allowed if you wish to be progressive. So I shall get over it.

And I won’t use disparaging names, like wino or bum, for that throws these different people together into an artificial bag unfairly. They all have their reasons, and I should not be arrogant nor dismissive of their human variability.

We have learned to accept the frequent break-ins of our cars in the parking lot in broad daylight. Those poor unfortunates who break our windows to steal whatever they can find in the cars deserve accommodation, and understanding. For we don’t know just what in their lives drove them to such deeds. It’s not their fault. 

And I’m working real hard, now that it has been pointed out to me, to not judge the gang members in the various neighborhoods in cities around our flawed nation. It’s not their fault, you know. They’ve had it tough. Nothing besides food, housing, education, medical care (after they’ve been shot), has been handed to them.  They are completely abandoned, on their own, unlike the rest of us who work time and a half so we can afford our lavish lifestyles.

They are merely coping in their own way with the discriminations that life delivered at their doorstep. So if in desperation they start killing people when they are 13, and they don’t stop until they are killed at 22, it’s not their fault. Heck, it’s probably my fault, for I’ve had it easy at their expense…..somehow. Anyway, that’s what they tell me.

I should be more progressive. And I should get off their case. I should be less judgmental. I should be more understanding. And if for some demented reason, I object to this disruption of what used to be right or wrong, just what the heck is the matter with me?

An Old Column Revisited

"I hope, therefore, a bill of rights will be formed to guard the people against the Federal government." Thomas Jefferson, 1788

"The Declaration of rights is like all other human blessings alloyed with some inconveniences…But the good in this instance vastly outweighs the evil."

Jefferson, 1789

In the 18^th century, some believed that any powers not assigned to the government by the new Constitution would automatically stay with the citizens, and would never be abused by the government. Both Jefferson and a fellow named James Madison knew better, and  argued that a bill of rights should be added to the Constitution, because they correctly assumed that any government, by it's very nature, would grasp more and more power, and thus strip the citizens of their freedom.

Madison proposed 42 such rights. Then the government set to work restricting these. The House of Representatives discarded all but 27. The senate then stripped off 15 more. And the states lopped away 2 more. So we ended up with 10 rights protected within our Constitution as the first ten amendments. The Bill of Rights.

The 10^th Amendment came right out and said that any rights not spelled out in those first 9, or in the Constitution itself, automatically belonged with the individual states or the people. As predicted, the government has largely ignored this one.

The first nine list individual rights that must be protected from government abuse. And as Jefferson also predicted, citizen rights have been "alloyed with some inconveniences". Many have been abused by individuals. Mafia bosses taunt the 5^th whenever they go to trial. So do steroid modified professional athletes. Crooked lawyers make their careers off the 4^th. And all sorts of weirdness gets a pass under the protection of the 1^st amendment.

With rights comes responsibilities, and some people are responsibility challenged. But as Jefferson stated, the good of individual freedom still vastly outweighs the evil. This would be a far less comfortable country had we not preserved our individual rights in the Bill of Rights.

The government predictably continues to chip away at our rights. That's why we'll have to make sure they retire things like the Patriot Act if we can ever end the war waged upon us by certain religious zealots. And it's why we should insist that the Supreme Court overturn the illegal law in Washington, DC that turns good people into criminals, if they use firearms to defend their own homes from criminal attack.

"No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms (within his own lands or tenements)." T. Jefferson, 1776

I'm not surprised that the court debate over this ridiculous law in DC may well turn into a debate over the validity of the 2^nd Amendment. Those who would ban firearms often claim that the founding fathers never intended for the 2^nd Amendment to be about an individual right, but instead concerned government agencies like the National Guard. Which seems odd, since the Bill of Rights was written to protect citizens from their own government. And all of the other rights our forefathers spelled out in the Bill of Rights preserve individual freedom, not government agencies.

Wise men like Jefferson and Madison predicted this. We should listen to them.

02/02/13

OK, here’s today’s challenge, put forth by a good friend who is earnestly seeking an answer.

This all begins with a blog he presented: http://www.shakesville.com/2013/01/shirley-chambers-and-her-family.html   which talks about a TV news story from Chicago, my home town. I suggest you read the blog before reading this.

Chicago has a problem with violence and murder. Chicago has had this problem for some considerable time. Chicago has the highest murder numbers of any major city in this nation. They were host to over 500 murders last year. Which we call progress, because back in the early 90’s they were dropping 900 during the crack wars. Makes the 130 or so we endure in my neighboring war zone, Oakland, seem paltry by comparison. Appalling numbers by anyone’s definition. The bulk of these murders occur during gang warfare, drug enterprises, and related criminal activities.

Chicago reacted to this violence years ago by enacting by far the most stringent gun control in the nation, making it nearly impossible to legally possess a handgun. Not only is it illegal to own handguns except by jumping through incredibly restrictive hoops, but it is even more illegal to actually use a firearm, not only to commit a crime, but also to defend oneself against a crime. Chicago has done everything it could imagine to legislate an end to murder. They just haven’t had any success.

The blog tells of a woman who has seen four of her children killed on those mean streets of Chicago since 1995. Imagine the horror….four of your babies snatched away forever, innocents killed by murderers on the streets. Terrible. Heart breaking. Certainly sounds heartbreaking, as described in the blog. The last baby child, Ronnie, was only 34 when he was killed the other day. Four more people died on the streets that day, in un-related murders.

Not surprisingly, the author of the blog, a British journalist, thinks something should be done about “gun violence” in Chicago.

Today’s question becomes today’s challenge due to the restrictions demanded by the blog’s author, limiting what we can and cannot consider when discussing this mess.

For instance, we cannot blame the victims. We are seeking an end to “gun violence”, but we cannot consider any behaviors of the victims which may have contributed to their deaths.

The story implies that all four of these children were just hanging out and then they died in the usual hail of bullets that typifies the early evening in Chicago. And maybe this is true. The details of their dying weren’t forthcoming in the blog. Their mom has stated that they were all victims of circumstance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of the four, three apparently didn’t have criminal records. Ronnie’s wrong place was sitting in a parked car on the street in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods, and his wrong time was 2 AM.

Statistics are simply numbers, and so they may not apply here. The statistics tell us that something like 90% of the folks who murder in Chicago already have violent criminal records. And something like 60% of the folks murdered also have violent criminal records. Which of course means that a few of the people who kill don’t yet have a criminal record, and nearly half of the folks murdered don’t have a violent criminal record, so maybe this woman’s children really weren’t criminals caught up in the violence that accompanies criminal behavior. Maybe they were just out enjoying the evening weather when they were murdered. That would truly make this family tragedy worse than if the other applied.

Ronnie’s arrest record runs to 100 pages, and he had four felony convictions, but they say he was reformed from his days as a gang member. So we can give him that. And I’m sure it was pleasant out in Chicago at 2 AM in January.

And maybe they weren’t just good kids who made the innocent mistake of hanging around with, oh I don’t know, bad folks like gang members or drug dealers, ya know, when they were gunned down as collateral victims. Maybe they were out selling Girl Scout cookies or recruiting for their church. None of this information was part of the blog.

When he was murdered, Ronnie was promoting a Rap performer who calls himself, YK, for Yung Killa. No doubt a nice fellow just trying to cash in on the whole gang banger killer ain’t that a cool lifestyle kinda guy.

So, let’s assume these were good kids, who just happened to be out on the streets instead of home studying or working or singing in the choir. Well then it’s a darn shame they got killed, and I’m grieved by the carnage. So I guess I won’t be blaming the victims here.

According to the blog, we also cannot introduce mental illness into this discussion. So don’t blame any truly crazy people for the insane level of daily violence on those streets.

And we cannot offer anything discriminatory against poor urban black people. So forget all about acknowledging who is killing whom every single night deep in the heart of Chicago.

Don’t talk about the degradation of a great society where once such nastiness was not tolerated. That doesn’t matter here.

And we better have some empathy for the killers. Not their fault, how they turned out. They’ve had tough lives. Don’t lump them all into some bag labeled monsters.

Last but not least, we must confine this discussion to one more limitation… the statement in the blog that this evil all happens as a byproduct of some virtually unlimited right to own a gun. And lord knows we cannot use the presence of unrepentant random murderers as an excuse to arm ourselves in defense. Presumably, that means we can finally stop looking because the cause of all this violence is our Bill of Rights.

My friend, who presented this blog for our digestion, is asking for a reasoned discussion, presumably with the same limitations as the blog, to seek a solution to “gun violence”. He also has his limitations for the discussion. We must not clump all criminals together to condemn them, for they have so many reasons why they became multi-generational conscienceless killers. And don’t bring up “Assault Weapons” for he doesn’t wish to have this argument degenerate into a condemnation of a disinformation campaign instigated by politicians and media.

Anyway, the story about these four dead kids has some people stirred up. Victims all, these kids are just the latest example of the failure of our country to deal with “gun violence”.

Now, the premise, if not evident, of today’s challenge is to come up with a solution to “gun violence” without addressing any or all of the above. And so I shall offer up my take of what’s left.

The asking of the question essentially determines the answer, for the question doesn’t ask how to reduce violence. It’s only about “gun violence”. The asking of the question presupposes that the problem lies only with the guns. Maybe that is why the media always use the term “gun violence” to shift the blame off of the perpetrators of the violence, and transfer it to the tool these murderers used. And of course, any other conceivable discussion has already been excluded from this challenge by the blog rules.

There was a comment section following the blog, and lots of folks chimed in with comments, as is appropriate. Most would consider further gun control legislation, for that which already exists clearly didn’t help things much. The blog did suggest constructing higher barriers to handgun ownership, so I guess nearly impossible isn’t stringent enough.

And many volunteered that any notion that a constitutional right exists, or that firearms can be used as a positive to deter crime, was just a myth. And no, the notion that some people find use and pleasure with their firearms was simply obscene in the face of this carnage. Heck, honest citizens aren’t allowed bazookas, one suggested, and they do just fine. And the criminals thus do not have bazookas.

Which is true to the best of my knowledge. But I do recall the news blurb that appeared in my California newspaper several years ago. It involved the very grade school I once attended, good ole Vanderpool, on Chicago’s South Side. Seems somebody found several rocket powered grenades and a launcher hiding near the school dumpster. Maybe those bad folks didn’t actually have a bazooka, but they did have an RPG.

So, whatever shall we do to stop “gun violence”? It is against the rules of this challenge to do this next part, but I must. We need to know what doesn’t work if we are to look into what might. Even if it seems a bit nihilistic. So…what hasn’t worked?

Thou shall not kill has not helped. Supposedly God’s law, if you believe in God. If not, well never mind. We also have several man made laws prohibiting murder, manslaughter, homicide, as well as rape, robbery, drug dealing, drug possession, prostitution, truancy, car theft, and vagrancy. And since this is about “gun violence” we should consider all those many thousands of laws concerning the possession, acquisition, and misuse of firearms that were pretty much all written to keep firearms away from that subset of the population who either cannot, or will not, stop killing each other.

And apparently, if I read the blog correctly, we shall not even be allowed to consider whether this is a cannot or a will not question.

None of these laws stop the carnage.

The 13 year old kid who murdered one of this woman’s children broke several laws that night. Not the least of which was that it would be illegal for him to possess a handgun for the next 8 years of his life. Oh, and in Chicago he couldn’t possess that gun without the permit that takes major bribes or groveling in front of officials, 6 months of waiting, and a background check to acquire. Those felons who killed the woman’s other kids weren’t allowed to own firearms, either. And those folks who illegally obtained the firearms that they supplied to the felons who shouldn’t have had them in the first place broke countless other laws in the process.     

Still, that woman’s kids are dead, along with 500 others each year.

What use are laws to people who do not obey them? Clearly, despite the toughest gun control in the nation, criminals managed to acquire and use guns to kill those four kids. Those guns came from somewhere. And thus we arrive at the inevitable conclusion, given the rules of this challenge. We must dry up the source of guns that these criminals use.

We have to deny the criminals the guns with which they kill, and all those laws haven’t worked, for the criminals simply acquire and misuse guns outside the law. Which means that, given the rules of this challenge, to get anywhere with disarming the law breakers, we must make laws to remove the guns from the people who do obey laws. And if this feels weird to you, just remember…we who obey the laws are guilty for all of this killing, because we stand for arming these murderers, according to the author of this blog.

That is the only solution the challenge allows. Eliminate supply and then demand has no further meaning. No surprise here. Like I said, the question presupposes the answer. So, every gun must go.

But, why every gun in the country?

Ever clean a swimming pool? I used to. The bulk of the leaves, dirt, dead bugs, and turds in a public swimming pool mostly live in two parts of the pool. Like a cross section of our humanity, most of the dirt, turds, and dead bugs seem to hang with that thin veneer at the very top, and that larger lump at the bottom. Most of the middle of the pool is just water, with far less crap.

Now let’s say all that water in the swimming pool is the problem. Say the water is the guns in America. Three hundred million guns, plus or minus. Roughly one for every person. Lots of guns. And these guns, as established by the challenge, are the problem. The people at the bottom of the pool are committing violence with these guns. So how do you get the water out of the bottom of the pool?

Very good! You drain the pool. Of course, it matters not whether you take the water from the top of the pool or from the bottom. That last bit of water still remains in the bottom until the very end.

Oh, and even after you drain the pool, every time it rains, guess what? Ask the Brits how well draining the pool worked for them. Their pool bottom keeps refilling with guns, I mean water. And their "gun violence” is getting worse. Perhaps I’m wondering why the Brit who wrote a blog about violence in Chicago might be better served by…..

Maybe our pool will be different.

Sure, rather than disarm America, we could call an end to the War On Drugs, and thus put the drug gangs out of business. Just put an addendum on Obama Care and supply the heroin, crack, crank to the needy at taxpayer expense, and the gangs would have nothing to fight about any more. And boy would that make the folks in the hood happy. It’s better than free Obama cell phones. (I wonder; would that violate the rules of the blog?)

This would be so much better than when the “fascists” in the Regan administration supposedly introduced crack to the inner city to raise money for themselves and to keep them dark folks down. No, this would be OK onna counta Obama is on the side of the people, and if the people want drugs, the Obama government should supply them.

Some might have a problem with this, but heck, few would get shot over drugs anymore.

We are headed this way anyway, and I cannot say it won’t help, since illegal drugs have always caused more trouble than legal drugs.

But you still have to make every gun in the country go away, lest the guns wander over to those misanthropes who’d continue to steal and kill, and the hood will still be peopled with misanthropes. (Oops, sorry…can’t mention that) So, a universal gun ban becomes the order of the day. You must drain the pool. There is no alternative to this, if you are going to stop “gun violence”. If it is to be the guns’ fault, you have to lose all the guns.

If you stop and think about it, as the author of the blog would no doubt suggest, we will all feel better once we have discarded the Bill Of Rights, and our guns are all melted down for recycling. It was our fault all along, all that killing and mayhem down in Chicago. Once we own up to that, repent, and get with the program we should be all right.

Things will change over this, of course. It will simply ruin the pool for instance, and what if somebody actually falls into the empty pool and dies? Darned unintended consequences! But after the smoke clears, we will have a country free from “gun violence”.

Or not. For every time it rains…..

And unlike a swimming pool, that thin veneer on top of the people, the rich and powerful and those running government….they’d still have guns. They’ll see to that. The rules of the blog don’t prohibit this, for unlike all of us citizens who obey the laws, those people can be trusted.