....man's inhumanity toward man.

OK, here's the deal.

I respect your Second Amendment rights fight.  To me the Constitution is one of the most amazing documents humankind ever managed to put together.

But here's the thing.

Where were all the "you'll pry my gun from my cold dead hands" because it's my Constitutional right to have them! when the Patriot Act was passed which not only walked all over your Fourth Amendment rights but literally stomped them to shreds?

I noticed an astonishing silence then.  After all, we were protecting the country by passing that.

If you are bent out of shape thinking that the government is looking to single out gun owners by requiring background checks, I have news for you.  Every time you spend over a grand for something or move that amount of money or more, there's a record of that to the government.    If you've ever bought cold medicine and had to sign your name, the itty bitty fine print states that you are giving the government permission to go through whatever of your records they need to without contacting you.  So, that credit card purchase of a gun?  The government knows you have it.  Moved money around to do home repairs or got a car loan?  The government knows your stuff.

So strap your gun on your hip or over your shoulder, get out your NRA shirts and parade around in public claiming your Second Amendment rights.  But please don't claim to be protecting the Constitution unless you are willing to fight for the Fourth Amendment as well.

By the way, this is my congressman.  Doesn't he look tough?

I've been pondering this post for quite some time.  No matter how I write this, I am bound to offend one or more groups of individuals and their beliefs.

Not that such offenses will stop me.

So...here goes.

Wayne LaPierre, spokes-mouth of the NRA has put forth a multi-hundred page proposal for arming the school buildings of our nation. 

English teacher everywhere just sighed and said, "No, the buildings were not armed...the people were."  (Offense number 1)

In this proposal, the NRA would promote the training of individuals, paid or already working in the building, who would be armed to guard against the intruder who will blast his or her way into the building with intent to harm those inside.

While such incidents have happened, the number of such incidents is incrementally SMALL....if you take the number of incidents and compare them to the number of school buildings in this country, the chances of an outside intruder coming in and creating the kind of mayhem found at Newtown or Columbine are really, really small.

Individuals who firmly believe that armed intruders are not a question of IF but WHEN and now huffing mightily.  (Offense number 2)

I am not minimizing that these incidents have happened.  They have. With tragic results and innocent lives lost unnecessarily.

But I'm not running in a blind panic believing for a minute that there are armed armies, not unlike the zombie hordes that live in the imaginations of so many, who are just lying in wait to storm PS 101 and create a killing field.

Those who did not read carefully what was written and believe that I am being merely an innocent are now offended.  (Offense number 3)

I do not believe that we need armed forces in our buildings and I believe that promoting laws that require such armed forces are misguided.

Those who believe that guns are the only answer to the madness are now offended.  (Offense number 4)

Will there be more incidents of guns being  toted by the angry and the mad and will some of those guns find their way into school buildings?  Perhaps.  But I do not believe that such a scenario is as inevitable as the NRA and the panicked would have you believe.

Those who believe that I don't put the safety of kids first are now offended.  (Offense number 5)

No one has convinced me that introducing weapons into a school building will create a safer environment.  I work in a high school.  I've seen behaviors of the mentally ill, the suicidal and the goofballs who might think that getting a hold of a gun and waving it around would be a good idea.  Using the math, the more guns in a school, the MORE likely it is for there to be incidents, accidental or intentional, where guns go off and people are killed or injured.

Those who believe that we cannot train people to work with guns safely have now branded me a gun hater.  (Offense number 6)

Unless the NRA, who gains by more gun sales and interest in guns, is willing to put its money where its mouth is and actually fund these gun toting protectors of the schools, then those hired to patrol the schools will most likely be those hired at minimum wage and who cannot get better jobs.

Those who believe that I don't want to support the local economy are now offended.  (Offense number 7)

Former policemen and military personal may be available, but forgive me if I happen to believe that their training (great in weapons, seeing everyone else as a potential perpetrator) might not be the best group to have in a school building where kids often act in ways that may be construed by some as threatening when they are, in actuality, merely goofy.

Those who believe that I am anti military and anti police are now offended.  (Offense number 8)

Perhaps it is time to step back and take a deep breath about protecting our school buildings.  At the moment, our new normal includes having all doors locked and closed.  That, we have been told by the police, will keep armed intruders out and the school population safe.

But what if the intruder isn't an intruder after all?  What if the gun is in the room?  If the door is locked and no one can get out, then the locked room becomes a barrel in which to shoot the innocent.

I appreciate that the police are working with their training and mindset.  But the police prefer to work with their clientele kept in cuffs or behind bars.  Students are not that clientele.  Creating an armed encampment to keep them safe creates a mindset that this is how society should be kept.  If you can't see the problem with that, I pity you.

And now I have offended those who believe that whatever the police say we ought to do is what we must do.  Ever heard of a police state?  It is ironic that those who scream the most about the second amendment are the same folks who want a police state in our school buildings. 

And now I've offended the conservatives.  (Offense number 9)

Banning gun ownership is not the answer.  Barricading schools with armed guards is not either.  We need to step back, take a deep breath and institute some common sense protections into our schools without turning them into armed encampments.

Ok, that should just about wrap up offending everyone else.  (Offense number 10)

Isn't it ironic that ham is the official meat of Easter?  Talk about breaking the rules!

Now is the time of the Easter season where the faithful wait to observe the "middle day".  The day between the burial of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.  It's a time of waiting and hoping, even when you know the outcome.

How interesting it is, that a lot of Christians live their lives almost always in the middle day.  Waiting and hoping but not really inspired to DO much.  During the time of being buried, Jesus told his disciples that where he was going, they could not go.  But it did not mean that they could not do anything.

If we recall what Jesus has done for us, we need to move from the middle day into the everyday-where all the work, on ourselves and for others, waits to be done.

Easter completed the victory over death and sin.  Until we reach our resurrection, we have much to do.

Let's get to work, shall we?

Ever notice how the general public no longer seems to think that personal things are....well....personal anymore?

Our family did a serious bit of shopping yesterday in our local mall and it seemed like the personal lives of the folks in the mall were washing over us like breezes.  It was nothing to hear people discussing medical issues, digestive issues and family issues as though they were in the comfort and privacy of their own homes.

I kind of wish they had been.

It's not in me to be harsh on individuals who are sick or who are going through tough times.  Maybe it is selfish of me to not want to be bombarded by your troubles when a. I don't know you and b. you have not sought my input into your life.

Let me offer you a few examples:

1. Mother walking along with twin girls, about seven years of age.  Little girls were adorable, all yellow ringlets and cuteness.  Mom, not so much.  Red face, contorted and angry, she berated one of the girls for discussing (apparently with a stranger) about something that had been said at home.  The mother was pointing out that that conversation had been between the family's social worker and that the person the little girl had spoken with, was not to have this issue discussed.  This conversation was not held in a low voice but in a strident, angry, loud voice.  Now we all know that the family has a social worker in their lives.  If this is common behavior, it is easy to see why.

2.  Two older men walking along, one describing in great detail, the problems he was having with is prostate and the effect it was having on his sex life.  Really could have done without the images this brought to mind.  Way too much information, again not said in a soft voice but in a voice of someone who has hearing problems.

3.  Two young women (older than teenagers but younger than 25) who were discussing the results of their sexual adventures from the evening before.  Again, way, way too much information.  By now, I needed to wash my brain of the images.

4.  Two women discussing their medical issues.  Really, icky issues.  The kinds of things a person would not even share in the waiting room of their gynecologist.  Yeah, way too much information.  Even mentally going to my happy place could not wipe these images away.

5.  Two middle aged men, discussing their taxes and how they had managed to hide some of their income so that the IRS could not find it.  Nothing like discussing a crime you have committed in a public place.

So, what's up with us?  Why do we feel that every facet of our lives is fodder for public discussion? 

Maybe we have just gotten so used to cell phone use and all the conversations that go along with that and we have lost our idea of what is private and what is not.

Celebrities are no better.  Really, really do not care about what they ate, how they got their hair done, who may or may not have pooped their pants when in the White House (Al Roker, really????), and how big the latest baby bump has gotten.

Maybe those of us who do not wish to be a part of everyone's public forum of private matters should identify ourselves by wearing those hats that have the long, dangling ears and which cover our ears.  Or maybe just wear noise cancelling helmets.

Please, please do keep your private life private, OK?  I won't share mine if you won't share yours.

Let's do our part to keep the world a nicer place.

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Monday morning edit:

Nbcnews.com is reporting that Halle Berry sprays perfume between her thighs.

Has the world lost it's mind?????????

Still shaking my head at the world.

Jerry Sandusky is to appear (somehow) on the Today show.  The Today show used to stand for decent journalism.  Now with Lauer the Twit and company, it's become a joke.  Sandusky is just another example of how far in the toilet they are.

North Dakota has passed what amounts to a "person-hood" law that creates the legal standard that life begins at conception.  VIABLE life does not begin AT conception, it begins WITH conception.  A rather important biological fact.  What's amazing here is that no one seems to be thinking ahead to the possible ramifications of that legislation.  While the entire text of it was not read by yours truly, I have not seen anything in the synopsis of the legislation to address several important situations, namely:  1. What about a miscarriage?  Does that mean the woman is now going to be charged with murder or manslaughter for something that happens normally when the pregnancy is not VIABLE?  2.  What about in-vitro fertilization?  Is this now outlawed?  3.  If two cells are now a person, can they inherit?  Claim property rights?  Claim other rights that PERSONS have?  What about citizenship?  What happens if those two cells combine while mom and dad are in a foreign country?  Dual citizenship?  Could make a lot of otherwise illegal immigrants legal.....

People still care too much about Kim Kardashian and company.  Ugh.

A District Attorney in Ohio has put out an indictment of Punxy Phil for his majorly botched "early spring" forecast.  Says the rodent deserves the death penalty.  My, what an amazing waste of taxpayer's time and money.  But then, hanging your hat on the weather forcast of a pampered rodent is not the brightest thing in the world either.

Humans....geez!

The horrible weather has gifted me with not only a day off yesterday, but a two hour delay this morning.

Ah, the gift of a delay.

Normally, I wouldn't think of a delay as a gift.  You know that person who beeps at the slowpoke when the light turns green?  That's often me.  I am also not a real big fan of having to stand in line in stores that do not have tabloids at the ends of the checkouts to keep me amused.

But I digress.

A two hour delay (for an adult) means time to linger over another cup of coffee, time to leisurely watch the news, time to take a little more time in dressing, time to not have to do the daily hustle to get out the door.

It's an inexpensive gift but quite the welcome one.

It also gives me time to write a bit here and there.

So, here's my "here and there" for this morning.

As you can see, it's quite ....timely.

I'll be going now before the pun police stop by.....that could be rather....arresting.

Ok, ok....I'm going now.

Sometimes I get really behind in my reading.

I'm finally reading Doahsdeer's mysteries and I am very amused by them.  As someone who is caught up in cozy mysteries and who has spent way too much money buying them, I've tried to cut back a bit.

Well.  Sort of.

It took me awhile to remember my resolution to read Jeff Markowitz's books but in checking out the pictures of the folks reading his books, I sallied forth and bought them for my nook.

I must say, I should have cleared my calendar.

It's bad enough when a person like me is an addicted reader but when confronted with wildly entertaining books, the world must stop until I finish  them.

I won't be around today.  I'll be busy reading the It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Murder.

Shhhh!  I'm reading!

Rites of passage.

For teenagers, that often means partying with their friends, consuming alcohol and, sometimes things get out of hand.

In Steubenville, Ohio, just such a party took a tragic turn when several boys took advantage of a drunken girl, filmed her in a compromising position and bragged about it on social media.

In today's world, social media, means the whole world can find out.

After days of testimony, the judge found both boys guilty and sentenced them to a juvenile facility for a year.  The young girl just wants her life back.  I'm pretty sure those boys would like to have that night back as well.

So what happened here?

Teenagers have always opportunities to party.  Spaces seem to always open up for parties.  Adults find a way to get the alcohol to the kids.  It almost seems inevitable.  So too, do the tragedies which follow.

We all know that alcohol is a depressant-not so much of mood, but of inhibition.  Have a certain amount of it, and anyone can lose their sense of what is right or wrong, good and decent.

Hindsight is 20/20.  Parents have been quoted in this instance as saying, "Be their parent, not their friend."

Indeed.  Being the parent means setting guidelines and rules.  That's not always fun and, during the teenage years, can mean that, as a parent, the battle lines are drawn.

But being an adolescent means that the brain is not mature enough to make good decisions and to see the potential for trouble down the road.

Somebody needs to be the adult in families.  And it's not the kids.  We adults need to step up not step away from our responsibilities.