Warren Zevon famously sang lyrics to the effect of "bring lawyers, guns and money," Several individuals in the news today had too much or too little of the above.
I am, as are all good liberals, a believer in some type of gun control and not a fan of the wild west mentality. I understand that guns can be necessary to protect oneself and family, but I worry that they are so easy to get and to use that any idiot can (and often does) use them when anyone or anything makes them mad or gets in their way. The most obvious illustration of this is the trial we just went through with Richard Poplawski. Some people have too damn many guns and a state of mind that makes that fact very dangerous to the rest of us. Just today I read an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11194/1160036-59.stm about a gentleman Mr. Fromholz who shot another man over a television. He killed someone's husband/partner/father/brother over a damn television. Mr. Fromholz actually left the bar, retrieved his gun and then came back in to shoot the victim. Mr. Fromholz evidently had some type of major issue if he felt the need to exercise his second amendment right by shooting someone over something so inane. So, what do we as a society do to keep the weapons out of the hands of individuals like Poplawski and Fromholz? I think better screeening, education and taking a step back from the wild west mentality.
Now from the guns portion of our show to the stripper portion. On June 30, 2011, two young brothers died tragically in a fire at their apartment in North Versailles. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11194/1160107-100.stm A babysitter was blamed for leaving the two young boys home alone. Unfortunately it turns out that, just like in a deadly fire several years ago in Pittsburgh, there was no babysitter. Even though the mother in this case, Kiaira Pollard, pretended to call the babysitter when she arrived on the scene. It turns out that Ms. Pollard works evenings as a stripper and routinely left her two young boys home alone while she worked. While her duplicity at the scene of the incident is not very defendable, this case is the perfect illustration of why we as a society need affordable, available daycare/childcare for women who work, even for women who work non-traditional jobs. She had to make a living somehow. Rather than pass a Caylee's law, maybe we should make daycare affordable and available. Or help women like Ms. Pollard find better jobs where they can safely leave their children while they work. I'm not excusing Ms. Pollard, but I feel that this happens a lot more than most people realize, or want to realize.
Nightline did a story a few days ago regarding the "christian" clinic that Michelle Bachmann's husband runs that has a "cure the homos" program. Mr. Bachmann has also evidently referred to gays as barbarians that need to be educated and disciplined. http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/12/whats-going-on-at-the-bachmann-clinic/#more-167117
You know what, to crib a phrase from Lady Gaga, I was born this way and I'm not a barbarian that needs to be educated and disciplined (I should point out that he was talkng about GAY KIDS!! when he made this comment.) For those who are enamored of the so-called "populist tea-party movement, this is what is being pushed by one of their leading so-called Christian candidates and her husband. All I have to say is that the queers better get out of the bars and to the polling places come time to vote for President. Because even if Ms. Bachmann is a long shot, you can best believe there are a lot of people who feel the same way about our community, and this way of thinking might find its way into the mainstream GOP message. In fact, I would bet on it.
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