Reflections on Gun Violance and Losing Face

In Japan losing face is major cause for social disgrace. Youth who lose face have been known to commit suicide and relatives whose behaviour reflects badly on the family have been murdered. North American Society is filled with symbols that serve to enhance male virility and macho.

On the lowest level are Apps that allow one to add friends and followers on social media sites lest we appear unpopular. Your spam filter probably catches scores of e-mail for male enhancement schemes. A little blue pill served to invent an imaginary syndrome of impotence the opposite of a teen's embarrassing boner. Camo has become wildly popular due to its association with macho Navy Seals. In my college years Army Surplus stores sold used clothing bullet holes and blood stains a bonus.

No phallic symbol matches the allure of a rifle, the more bullets it can shoot the better. In Peace River a rancher friend interrupted his dinner to pick up his rifle and shoot a coyote 3/4s of a mile distant because it threatened his herd. His was a sniper type single-shot rifle. In that context any dog that threatens your herd is fair game. Once again association with the military adds to the cachet of any weapon. Outside of the ranch setting and hunter/gatherer society guns serve no purpose beyond the status they infuse. Handguns serve only one purpose and one of the ten commandments apply.

I am diametrically opposed to anything that would make gun ownership in Canada easier to attain. I personally would not feel safer with a firearm in my home, in fact it would have the opposite effect. The urge to go out and kill something particularly when the only objective is a trophy seems a childish pursuit. Passing legislation will not be as effective as attempts to change attitudes. We need to teach males to define their self-worth in more fulfilling ways than in their ability to go out and kill something. The ethos attached to weapons in America to our south spills over into Canada through the culture attached to it in movies, ads, and social media. The absolute right to defend you castle and stand your ground should not be grounds to commit murder. Try that in Canada and you will be charged with the use of excessive force.

Americans learn with shock that they can't bring their guns into Canada. Deprived of that fire-power many feel anxiety. It is this false sense of security that gun ownership seems to enhance that needs to be fought. 

Just burning sawdust but does mixed martial arts and bodybuilding in its extreme forms fueled by steroids fall into a similar category?

Musings for a Spring Day

You need a licence to drive a car but any couple past puberty can conceive a child through premature ejaculation in the back seat of that car. No training is necessary for raising a child. The death by starvation of a child in Alberta causes an online media storm amid recriminations as to why the authorities did nothing. Take the social workers who man child care agencies. The average agent is poorly paid and has 40 to 50 clients spread over a 200-mile radius and is supposed to visit each at least once a month. If she exceeds her car allowance she'll probably be reprimanded. Obviously doctors and teachers let this one slide. The same parents would have reacted with righteous indignation had someone suggested they were abusing their child. Children's Aid meanwhile are branded child snatchers and need find foster parents for seized children and we've read plenty about that experience and loads of horror stories.

Eight winters spent touring the US and I still fail to understand American's fascination with guns. "People kill people, not guns." But if you have an assault rifle that will spew a thousand rounds a minute you can kill a lot more. Orlando will now forever be known for something more than theme parks and the Magic. There's an outpouring of emotion over the more than one hundred victims of this atrocity but NRA advocates will still say take this weapon out of my dead hands before I'll give it up. Am I the only one to see a double standard. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Hockey is in the news. With all the expansion teams these days the regular season means little as most teams make the playoffs which today stretch almost to Summer. The Penguins and a middle-aged Mario Lemieux celebrate their victory while honouring the memory of Mr. Hockey from Floral Saskatchewan who is elbowing his way into heaven.

Wal-Mart and VISA are having a spat over credit card fees. When elephants fight mice get hurt--in this case the customers. In related news Canadian Banks unsatisfied with Trillion-Dollar profits and overpaid executives are raising consumer fees yet again.

Read a microwave guide and they'll pretend it will cook anything. Ever produced a water geyser in a cup, watched butter erupt, or exploded an egg? BBQ Season is in full swing and a similar phenomenon applies. Seems you can grill anything: Corn, peppers, mushrooms, ice cream, bananas, peaches?

My favourite browser has finally undergone a major update. While it no longer crashes every time I attempt to clear the cache the context menus have changed and it's behaving differently in many ways. Ughhhhhhh!

Kobo, Chapter's/Indigo's E-book venue, seems to have borrowed their marketing strategy from the likes of K-mart and the Bay. Variations on 3 for the price of 2, Buy 2 get 1 free. Buy two over-priced items and try to find a lesser priced item you don't need to get for free. Alas Canada's book seller has become the purveyor of smelly candles and useless household items. Meanwhile independent booksellers hang on by their toenails in a struggle stacked against them.

The wind has finally eased granting us a calm day. The sky is almost cloudless and it's cooler. The bird feeding season having ended with the exhausting of my supplies I got out to take a scrub brush to my balcony. Birdies have a strange way of showing their thanks. The next rain will rinse my work, that way I won't be responsible for the drips below. I should get out for stroll this afternoon.

VISA vs Wal-Mart

When a customer swipes a credit card  the company they are paying incurs a fee for the use of that card which is a percentage of the sale. It becomes a part of the cost of doing business. That percentage ranges around 3% decreasing somewhat as the volume of sales increases. Hence gas stations pool billings to lessen the impact. A cutrate company such as Wal-Mart is feeling the pinch as the margin between pricing and costs for them is tight leaving them with few options:

1. Raise their prices to cover those costs which penalizes cash sales.
2. Institute a fee for credit card use--a movement that is catching on.
3. Refuse to accept VISA cards--an option at least one grocery chain has already embraced.

It has been announced that Wal-Mart stores are moving toward the latter option beginning in Thunderbay, ON. Will the banks blink? Will the move hurt both the credit card industry and Wal-Mart? Certainly customers will be inconvenienced.

June Wail

Have been doing some wash. I have a long-sleeved T with an Orange stain mid-chest. Perhaps rather than attempt to bleach it I should have tie-dyed it. 

Is it just me or have there been a lot of iconic people we grew up with popping off lately, and more disturbingly, a lot of them are younger.

Since I’ve been back home I’ve been looking through my cupboards. Back when I picked up a small container of Freeze-Dried Red Rose Tea that obviously didn’t catch on. It’s freshness date is 1993, it’s over 23 years old!

Just got a friend request on Facebook from an unknown female. Before I had a chance to check it out the profile had been taken down. Must have been another one of those come hither sirens trolling for victims.

In America the separation of church and state is supposedly enshrined in the constitution “In God We Trust” on coinage notwithstanding. In Ontario Separate (Catholic) Schools are supported by the province. In contention right here in Halton Region where I live is a conflict between provincial policy on gender identity and orientation and Catholic Church Dogma on Sexuality. 

The Donald: the Joker’s Wild. 

Senator Mike Duffy was found “Not Guilty” on all charges relating to his expense account spending. One suspects the original charges to have been politically motivated. Who is guilty of the greater crime, Senators for fudging their accounts or those who prompted the spending of millions on prosecuting these individuals to no result? Could not a less expensive means been found to tell politicians that business as usual was no longer acceptable? 

Just thought I was tuned into the wrong radio station when a jarring commercial aired and was about to switch stations when I suddenly recalled that CBC is now reduced to airing commercials. Add to this the fact that CBC 2 is reduced to airing only 4 or so hours of Classical Music weekdays. What is the world coming to?

Ah, the joys of transgender politics. Would you rather she hoiked up her skirts to use the urinal in the men’s or tinkled in the ladies’. Neither? In Quebec matters are far less circumspect. In most campgrounds I’ve stayed at everyone uses the same facility. The waterclosets and showers are behind locked doors and everyone uses a common washup area.