I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Blue, really, they don't represent us. They are merely the trash culture and right-wing media's darlings, and the people we love to gawk at - like a bad road accident.

Don't say the US doesn't entertain. But it is also great, vast, and endlessly interesting - even with itsa huge contradictions and weaknesses. 

This annoying rant-o-rama by gun touters is also one of the features of an open society. Everything is there for the viewing, including the NRA and its ridiculous commercials, and people with really, really strange punctuation !!!

Oh, I'm sure they do!

One of my favorite sayings about this crazy country was uttered by the Englishman in "It's a Wild, Wild, Wild Wild World,"

This only happens in America!

You know, I was talking to DH earlier after watching all the gun nuttery on the news (NBC Nightly and our local news) about people running to gun stores to buy more guns.  I am just barely old enough to recall the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s.  I was only little - not 10 yet -- but I vaguely remember my mother being very happy.  I don't remember vicious hysteria and hatred broadcast all over the airwaves, but it was a different time.  There was no internet, no Facebook, no chat rooms or discussion boards for every whackadoodle racist to spew forth hatred to a rapt audience of the same 60 people.  There was lots and lots and lots of hatred, I know.  Lynchings and cross burnings and beatings and murders and hatred aplenty -- I know.  And that still goes on.  I don't think this is much different -- it is just so in your face now because of the 24-hour news cycle (gotta "feed the beast") and the fact that censorship restrictions have been all but eliminated and the bounds of what would be reported in good taste have completely disappeared.  In other words -- it was ever thus.  It was probably worse then, but not so accessible to us then.

Remember, Blue -- the President WON the election with a majority of the popular vote. More than 50% TWICE, a feat last achieved by Dwight D. Eisenhower.  There are more of *us* than there are of *them* -- and they know it and they hate it.  And history and time are on *our* side.  The tide is turning ... it is getting better.  But there are still parts of this country I wouldn't go! 

L

I have to say that I still enjoy my trips south of the border.  Most people are pleasant and I have never seen a gun.  However, my son and his gf did a couple of years ago.  They were at a gas station and a car pulled up beside them and showed them their guns in an unsettling manner. Both of them were terrified.

Obama announced his gun policy today. He said, in part,

“This is our first task as a society,” Mr. Obama said. “Keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged. And their voices should compel us to change.”

A country capable of electing this president has to be great. Funny, we were the laughing stock of the world during the Bush years, then we shocked everyone (including ourselves) by doing something totally wise and civilized and choosing Obama. In return, we get a statesman who makes the above observation, one we haven't heard from an American head of state in a very, very long time.

The Reagan revolution is over, but not without some kicking and screaming.

There was an article somewhere - I think the new york times magazine - several years ago when there was a study of people who basically copied "natural" sleep time.  That is, they'd get into bed when it got dark and wake when it was light.  A very long night in the winter.  They didn't sleep all the time, a lot of dozing, and i remember some grumbling about it being boring, but there seemed to be some benefits of alertness during daylight hours.

Not something I can do - or really want to do - but interesting.

Ha ha - I know what you mean, E!

Anti-depressants (eg: Celexa/citalopram and its isomer Lexapro/escitalopram) and other meds can cause restless legs (and also akathesia). I sometimes just have to concentrate hard on trying to keep my leg muscles relaxed. If the situation is hard to control, a short-term fix for some people is cyclobenzeprene. It relaxes the muscles and also induces sleep. Ask your doctors if you can take it. It has knocked me out a good 12 hours at a time.

I'm sorry, but when your constitutionally-given (and that's up for debate) right to own an automatic weapon with a high capacity clip infringes on my UNALIENABLE right to life, your right is now a wrong that requires correction.

Belinda, LOVE your pics!

Just wondering...it is the 2nd ammendment, right?  So why can't there be another ammendment given the changes in weaponry and society?  The US was a new country and surely it has matured into something better and different than it was in those days.

Pip -

YES, and there can be.  Unfortunately, any sort of weapon-restricting amendment would never make it past the first riot, assassination, hostage situation, mass shooting, and generalized NRA/TeaParty-fueled hysteria among the partial second amendment-ers.  I say "partial" because they always, ALWAYS, disregard the "well-regulated militia" part.  

It's so fun living here among my paranoid and violent neighbors.  *sigh*

Insomnia update:

The two melatonin helped me sleep from about 10 to 4.  I guess that's a step in the right direction.