First off, brownie points for anyone who guesses who first coined the phrase “nothing is true; everything is permitted” and what group he was famous for starting.

It’s almost my birthday. It’s also almost Samhain (Holloween for you non pagan types), which has always been a special day for me, regardless of religion. It’s a day for the dead, and I always feel alive, for a variety of reasons. It’s the day to let things go, and I think I am getting close to letting my marriage go. I don’t know if I will ever entirely let Jasmin go, but in time I think I might. The marriage however is ready to be buried; I have been mourning it for a year and I have done my time. I don’t have the papers back from her, but I figure they are on the way. I have been having dreams lately, about her, about our marriage. Some of them are replays of events, both good and bad. Others are scenes that seem familiar, but didn’t happen. The message is always the same though; it wasn’t meant to last. Nothing could have happened to change it. Either she would have left, or I would have left. I learned a lot. I grew a lot, despite what some people seem to believe. In long run, our relationship kept me going when I had little else, and taught me to what to look for in the next girl. We did have a lot of good times, and I am going to try and remember those forever. Those being said, on my birthday, I am going to get a bottle of mead, toast my dead relationship, and throw my ring into the water, and it will be done. Then its birthday party time.

"The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in governme

Let’s talk about guns. I should start out saying that I am fascinated by weapons. I like collecting them, I like practicing to use them, and over all, I think that some of mankind’s greatest achievements were in the field of weapons design and manufacturing. I mean really, take a part a well made handgun or rifle, and look at its workings. Swiss clocks are not made with the level of precision that an MP5 has. I feel fortunate that I live in a country that lets me pursue my fascination, with in the reasonable limit that I don’t use said weapons on other people without a good reason. Now I should pause a second and remind people that I am not a Republican. I don’t like Bush or Rush. I think Jesus was a pot smoking hippie who had a few good ideas, but mostly was an annoying twit who pissed of the Romans and the Jews in power (which was never a good idea back then). I am not even a member of the NRA; they have a few good ideas, but are a bit extreme at times. That all being said, I think the Second Amendment to the Constitution is possibly the great part of our legal frame work. It’s part of what makes America great and unique.

First to take a step back, and have little information on who gun control advocates can blame the Second Amendment on. The man responsible: King James the Second, the last Catholic King of England. One Jimmy took over, his country was mostly Protestant, and not entirely happy about him ruling. He shut down Parliament, and banned Protestants from owning weapons. Once he was ousted, the English Bill of Rights was passed in 1689, and one of said rights was that Protestants have the right to “have arms for their defence suitable to their conditions and as allowed by law”. So, much like many things in American law, we ripped off the Second Amendment from something the Brits did first.

Now, since not everyone knows exactly what the amendment says, here it is, as it appears on the original copy of the Bill of Rights
“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
It’s that damn comma that causes so many problems. I will admit it’s not the best piece of writing, but then, this wasn’t it original form…
“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed; a well armed and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country; but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service in person”
…that was. What does that all mean? Basically, anyone can pack a weapon, and not be involved in a regulated militia, but that said militias (now called the Nation Guard) are vital to a state’s security. All of this was put in to the Constitution to make sure that while the federal government will be strong, the States and the citizens will not be defenseless against it. Through a series of revisions, the defining and what was probably considered extra verbiage was dropped, and that comma is really more of a period. A State should have a militia. People have the right to be armed.

“But guns kill people! Wont somebody think of the children!” As much as I am loathing to use this cliché, guns don’t kill people; people kill people. You can be hit by a car, beaten, stabbed, poisoned, drowned, starved, and so on. And that’s assuming you are just killed. You can still be hurt, raped, and/or robbed. Some people of course like to point out that guns help commit crimes. True, a weapon helps commit crime; but it doesn’t matter what weapon it is. You are just as dead if I kick you to death as you are if I stab or shoot you. But, I know that logic is rarely enough, so let’s look at some numbers. Let’s take a gun free country, say England. It’s a beast to get a gun in England legally; rifles and shotguns are not even as common as they are here. Criminals of course, have guns, because they are criminals. According to the statistics provided by the British Home Office, there were 1,220,198 incidents of violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, and so on), in 2005, with a population of about 60,776,238. The US on the other hand had 6,367,589 incidents of violent crime (number provided by the Department of Justice) in 2005, with a population of round 300 million. Now, we have more crimes committed, no doubt about it. But when you look at the incident rates, there is one violent crime per 47.619 people in the US, compared to 1 per 49.808 in England. You are more likely to be beaten, robbed, raped, or killed in the UK than you are here in the US. Is this because we allow weapons? Maybe; but look at it this way, over there you can assume granny is a law abiding citizen and thus don’t worry about her packing heat. Over here, granny may be a life time NRA member and expert marksmen. Yes we have more gun deaths; that’s because people over there are getting stabbed when they would have been shot over here.
Now for a brief section on children: if a kid gets shot, an adult is to blame, and it’s likely the parent. You can blame society, the media, or whoever you want, but ultimately, barring being an accidental bystander being shot, a parent fucked up somewhere along the line. It’s not hard to lock a gun; it’s even less difficult to not load the damn things when they are just sitting around. Furthermore, it’s not hard to teach a kid how to properly act around firearms. Rule one: don’t touch them. Rule two: don’t be around other kids holding them. Rule three: if you see one unattended or another kid holding one, get an adult. End of the goddamn lesson. If you cannot or will not teach your kids how to be safe, it’s your fault if they get hurt, not Smith and Wesson’s.

The Founding Fathers wanted us to be able to defend ourselves, both from each other, and from our government. To take away some ones right to be armed is to effectively take away their ability to defend themselves, and hands total control of their life over to the government. The criminals will never go unarmed; where there is a will, there is a gun. Criminals will likely always have bigger and better guns too. That being said, one doesn’t become a criminal because one wants to work, or wants to do things the hard way. You become one to get something you want in the fastest, easiest way possible. Dodging bullets is never easy and getting shot sucks. Furthermore, once you have no ability to defend yourself, you are effectively owned by the government. It’s not likely that in a modern democracy the police would start large scale operations of just start snatching people off the street and making them disappear, but it can and does happen even now in small scale. It’s not likely that democracy will turn in to a full on fascist state, but it can and has happened. The one thing, the only thing, that stops the government from abusing its authority, from crushing the people, is the people. It up to me, to you the reader, and to the people near us to be ready to do what is needed to preserve our freedoms. That usually means filing suit against the government, protesting, and voting for the people we think will best serve us. However, there may come a day when we have to “vote from the roof tops”, whne we may have to take up arms and remind the powers that be that the power of this nation comes from its people, not the leaders. As long as the people in charge know that out there, spread all over the nation, are people who are willing to fight to hold on to their freedoms, they will never be able to take too much. Once a population is unarmed, there is nothing to stop the government any more.
“…what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”
-Thomas Jefferson

I love a good conspiracy. I really do. Being in them is the best. The whispers, the secret messages, most of which mean nothing, not to mention the secret handshakes and the knowledge that you are in the in crowd. You know something that most people don’t, and if they did, it would change their world. That being said, you cant always be a part of every conspiracy, and to an extent, I am glad. I often wonder what it would be like, if it turned out that there really was a shadow government running things behind the scenes, and I found hard, concrete proof. I don’t know what I would do. I mean on one hand, here I would be with evidence that would prove that life is not as we believed. Some may not want to believe it, but then, some might, and for those who do, they cannot go back. Every significant piece of information, once really understood, should and does change us. That being said, if you knew, and could prove, that for instance, crab people were really running the world, should you really tell people? This would be important, life changing. We would have to break out some serious amounts of butter and big pots of boiling water to wage war on our crustacean masters. But should you tell some one something like that? We would build our lives on how we perceive the world; if that perception is challenged, we resist, and if it is destroyed all together, our minds may well snap a bit. Is it really fair to do that to some one? To in essence destroy their world? Maybe conspiracies are secret for a reason; the people who should know, the people who can handle knowing, will find them. Maybe the knowledge is worth it; maybe its not. Maybe its worth just living life in ignorance, and being happy with our chosen reality.

So another school shooting has happened. Once again its being billed as a "tragedy", once again the media is falling all over themselves to paint the shooter as a Goth who liked Marilyn Manson (who was last popular around the time this kid was learning to write). Of course, there will be a few fingers pointed at the school, which totally failed both the dead, and the shooter. In this case, as in most if not all of the others, the school was aware of the fact that the shooter was being bullied on a regular basis, and like most schools, they probably punished the kid for reporting the abuse. No, the people most to blame, and who never get any of it, are the bullies themselves. This kid was not born a killer, he was made one.

When someone takes a dog, beats it regularly, and then is attacked by it one day when their guard is down, do we blame the dog, or do we blame the owner? True the dog attacked, but then, it also might have done so at least in part out of self defense. It didn't want to be hurt any more. I believe that most people can at least agree to that. Why is that we treat cases like this any differently? This shooter, this kid, was picked on nonstop, and at least according to modern psychology, verbal and emotional abuse is just as bad as physical abuse, which he also got. He was beaten up for being different, for expressing opinions. He wasn't too fond of Christianity, and in according the teachings of Jesus, a Christian kicked his ass. By all accounts, the school did nothing to stop this, even though they were made aware of it. So basically, this kid is in some respects being forced to go to an environment that was blatantly hostile, and yet we blame him for his actions. One could say that the bastards who were shot, teachers and students all, didn't do anything to deserve it, but then, what did they do to stop it? The Good German defense is hardly a moral position I would want to stand on. Sure, some of the victims were kids themselves, and maybe one could say that they shouldn't be blamed for being bullies; but if we are not going to hold them accountable for their actions, why blame the shooter?

I think far too much society teaches people that it's ok to be mean, rude, to abuse people, and then walk away and expect nothing to happen. I mean, sure, we may get some stares and maybe a few unkind words aimed our way, but that's all most people really seem to think will happen. We never really seem to stop and ask "what did the victim do to create this crime?" Why not blame the victim for what they did to contribute to the event? Society itself may or may not have a hand in the crime, but seeing as an awful lot of violent crimes are committed by someone who knows the victim, why not start looking at the victim?

Something different

Cranberry-orange oatmeal cookies.

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon orange extract
2 3/4 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350. Put the butter, salt, and sugar in a bowl, and hit it with an electric mixer till its all mixed, and the butter is light and fluffy. Then, add in the spices, and the eggs, and mix on low till totally incorporated. Then, add the baking soda, and the flour, and again mix on low till combined. Add in half the oats, mix on the low, then the other half. Finally, mix in the extract and the cranberries. Then, spoon on to a cookie sheet, or preferably, a silicone pad or parchment paper, and bake until golden brown, but still spongy (a tooth pick should come out of one wet and a bit sticky), which is about 12 to 15 minutes. Then put on a cooling rack.