Locusts: Part One

First we made the dumb mistake of trying to go up to the mountains for part of Memorial Day weekend.

Lately Fort Collins has been getting to me. It's getting bigger, the traffic is much worse than it was even 12 years ago when we moved back after our stint in Arizona. It bothers me when I go out for walks in some places and cannot seem to have any space to myself- people are crawling everywhere. So I started having escape fantasies of going up to the mountains this summer, to our little piece of the earth near Trout Creek Pass overlooking South Park.

Bad idea.

I am really not as much of a misanthrope as it sounds. In the city is one thing, but don't mess with my peace and quiet.

I am thankful for the memories I have from the 1980s and 90s when things were still relatively quiet and you could go places without being overrun by these loud dust-making machines, and people were not as maniacal about their motorized toys and guns.

And the weather seems drier and the roads get dustier and there's more fire danger, we've had beetle infestations and people make a lot more impact on the forest when camping with these massive vehicles. Whatever happened to car camping with a tent?

I guess it's time to start looking for a different way to escape- a different place to escape.

We bought our little piece of peace 21 years ago. It doesn't feel peaceful anymore. It feels exposed, overrun with people who don't respect peace and quiet.

People suck.

 The place is crawling with them. They consume everything. Peace and quiet, for one. They are pigs. They leave their trash everywhere.

And noise. They love to make noise. They have no concept of respecting the creatures who live here in the forest.

They drive giant bus-sized RVs with all the luxuries of home and then some. They attach these huge trailers- horse trailer size- that have multiple dirt bikes inside them, or rickety, noisy flatbed trailers with 2 or 3 ATVs on them.

It’s actually quieter in the city because at least you don’t have people shooting guns or riding ATVs. But you have the lawnmowers, leaf blowers, which follow no reasonable schedule of operation, completely unpredictable. And occasionally you get the nutbag driving a testosterone-fueled mufflerless terror truck- usually some big burly white guy with a baseball cap on his head, in various orientations, with an American flag decal somewhere. And sometimes they have those coal-roller things that spew black smoke. 

There is nothing scarier than a white guy in a baseball cap driving aggressively in a big, loud pickup with an American flag decal on it, add a Christian symbol and it's even more fear-provoking. To me, that is the picture of white straight male Christian entitlement, and resentment of all of us who are not. 

It’s come to the point where there is no place to escape. It makes me very sad and I'm losing hope in humanity. We have a dying planet because people are completely disrespectful of its ability to sustain life. They strip the commodities along with the amenities for their own short term gain. Plundering the resources without giving a thought to the lives that might be affected by their assault. 

I'm so tired of the mentality that says we have the right to do whatever we want, it’s public land. 

But there should be places where you can go and shoot and places where I can go and have peace and quiet where they don’t interfere with each other. How about respect and dignity and safety without fear. 

Reminds me of the poem The Bloodless Sportsman by Sam Walter Foss. Click on the link to read it. Please do, you must, I insist.

Death By A Thousand Cuts

One year ago was the nailbiter election that ended in shock, disappointment and disbelief for many Americans. I can remember staying up past midnight and hearing the results, which set off a storm of depression, frustration, and anger with my fellow citizens who voted for him.

The narcissistic con man who openly flaunted his connection to Russia during the debates and boasted that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue in New York and shoot someone and not lose any voters.

The chickens have come home to roost.

Today is also an election day. One of the low turnout ones- seemingly minor issues and seats, such as school board elections, tend to receive little attention and people think they can just blow it off.

You can't. Right here in my town of Fort Collins we have a race between two school board candidates, one who cares about her community, has demonstrated her commitment to her community and the schools, wants all children to get an education and have opportunities, and wants transparency in the school board. She is running against a Betsy Devos-type clone who has already had a career in politics, with less demonstrated commitment to the schools than his commitment to the oil and gas industry.

These off-year elections can't be ignored. We are losing our democracy by apathy, our failure to hold our elected leaders accountable to us as citizens, and we can't afford to do this anymore.

The NRA has held our safety and mental health hostage for too long. So has Citizens United. I am calling every politician who has taken money from the NRA a complicit terrorist. Just like the many terrorists who have shot up schools, churches, concerts, restaurants, like in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, and in all the forthcoming shootings, because we know they are going to happen.

There is some talk about the preponderance of white men committing these mass murders. It's worth a look. I'm no forensics expert but it seems like when it comes to bizarre antisocial behavior and gun violence, these mass shootings are perpetrated by a lot of white men. What is driving this? Entitlement? Frustration? Fear of losing their privilege, control and power?

I have always been a little afraid of white men in pickups with NRA stickers, gunracks, and such. Even the display of the American flag on a vehicle gives me a little uncomfortable feeling, ever since the post-9/11 jingoistic craze. That's sad, because it's my flag too. But I see people using it in a way that I read as, "There's only one way to be an American, MY way!"

The symbol feels tainted, they've hijacked something that belongs to all of us and made it symbolic of something ugly. That's how it feels to me. Like being forced to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, or being forced to put your hand over your heart and stand during the National Anthem, or say one nation under God with liberty and justice for all like they did in public school, when you know in your heart it's not true.

The sexual assault and harassment talk is also blowing up the news- more crimes committed, mostly by men in positions of power and privilege. A lot of white men. I don't even need to go there right now, I've written about this before. It's long past time we took on this issue, but we need to keep in mind that we elected a known sexual predator!!!

Every single day we hear news about these horrible violent acts, and every day it feels like another stab in the gut. I don't want to read the news anymore, but I have to, I feel I need to know what's going on in the world, to be informed and aware. But it hurts, and it hurts worse every day, and it's cumulative, and it feels like the day after Donald Trump was elected and I felt cut down to the floor, punched in the stomach and kicked in the head. And every time I hear about these scoundrels in Washington doing things to undermine our democracy and getting away with crimes that should have taken any of them down before they ever got close to Washington DC, I get that feeling again.

I'm trying to figure out ways to cope, so that it doesn't kill me, so I don't have health consequences from this, but it's that heavy feeling, like when you take a deep breath in, it hurts deep in your gut, to open up your lungs, like you've been pummeled in the ribs and sternum and belly. It's an actual physical ache I can feel, like I'm destroyed and hopeless, at my lowest point ever, after a huge setback, loss, or disappointment.

I just keep hoping something happens, soon, to turn things around, because I don't know how much more of this I can take. Maybe a lot. Maybe not much.

I need to say this stuff. Don't feel bad for me, I know I'm not alone and I know I'm not the only one who resists this crap. Do me a favor, if you're feeling bad at all after reading this, go to your local polling place and cast your ballot. Responsibly. Just go, exercise your rights as a citizen, while we still have the right to vote. It's the least you can do.

Back Up...Unloading!

Yeah, that's me. I have a lot to say. I've been hiding out, buried under piles of work. I needed to breathe, so I'm indulging myself in a little creative writing and unloading today.

It's been nearly a month since I've posted here! I don't like that, I try to be consistent, but I thank my readers and followers for sticking with me.

First, feast your eyes on South Park and the Arkansas River Valley near Buena Vista. Last weekend we went up to the shed, on our property overlooking Pikes Peak and South Park.

The reason for the long break is, as usual, work. I've been extra busy because I picked up a small project on the side in order to bring in a little income and that helped. Starting a business requires constant investment and re-investment, and when there isn't anything coming in at the beginning, it depletes your reserves quickly.

But that's okay because I am doing what is important to me.

So first, a few minor orders of business. I finally, after 8 1/2 years, bought the domain alenegonebad.com so now you can find me without having to type in the extra blogspot stuff. Takes you right back here. No change.

I haven't been running much. This morning I did run for an hour and a half. It finally got hot, in the 90s, and might hit 100 by the end of the week. I guess that's what it takes to motivate me to run?

I am planning on running/walking an event over Labor Day. My friend Marissa is putting on her 12 hour fatass "There Goes the Sun" on September 3, and I'm "training". That means I am getting out and walking with a little running mixed in. Shooting for being able to stay upright and moving forward for the entire 12 hours.

The weekend before last I went running/hiking Round Mountain with my friend Emma and we encountered two unhappy snakes, one bull snake, one rattlesnake. Got a good closeup of the rattler.

You know where this is going...Orlando, of course. And I am so disgusted, but something feels like this was a turning point. It's disgusting to see the party of homophobia suddenly saying all these platitudes (because you know they are only posturing in an election year)about the LGBTQ community. Just last month they wanted birth certificates to go to the bathroom, and so on.

The gun thing is finally shifting too. #NRASTFU is what I say. The refusal of the gun lobby to have a mature, intelligent conversation about reality, and their endless excuses as if the second amendment is some sort of divine ruling from the heavens. They freaking worship guns, and the second amendment is their god.There is no reason why any group should have so much power, that they can even prevent research into gun (safety) violence as a public health issue. That is insane. And we continue to have all these shootings and gun deaths day after day. Like little boys throwing a temper tantrum. There are some girls in there, too, but the leadership is mostly men. That's part of the problem with everything in this country, and it looks like it's about to change in a big way.

And I'm sure those misogynistic pasty old white dudes explaining righteously(M-POWDERs) will be just as obstructionistic toward Hillary Clinton as they were toward Barack Obama. Except they might lose their majority after all the nonsense and putting their clown lineup on display, to show the pathetic lack of substance and outright denial of the real issues facing the people of this country. A breath of fresh air, that would be, if the whole damn Republican party imploded. And let's clearcut and burn the Democratic party too. Start over. With real people, who look like the ones in the general population, not a bunch of POWDERS! We could finally make some forward progress.

Okay, back to earth. What's real. Good news first.

A Twinkle in the Eye...

After searching for several months, we found an Australian Shepherd breeder we like in Nebraska, just 5 hours from here, and we decided to splurge and put a deposit down on two puppies, to arrive either late this year or early next. They are not even a twinkle in the eye of some Aussie dude yet, but we are expecting.

We plan to get two girls again, at least one black tri, maybe one black and one red. We are looking forward to puppy-proofing the house and some of the work we will do this summer involves checking out garage sales for things like baby gates, agility equipment and toys for the girls. We'll have to puppy-proof parts of the house and the garden.

We miss Iris and Isabelle so much, every single day. We were going to take their ashes to the place we planned, but we weren't ready. We're not ready for pups yet, but we are moving closer. I miss having my buddies around!

Life & Death

Three of my running friends have been diagnosed with cancer in the past few months. It's been tough seeing them go through their separate situations. One of them, an ultra buddy of mine, is fortunate to have had an early diagnosis, and I hope the outcome will be as good as it can be. The other two have quite advanced cancer. One is young, the other is older but not old. Also, one of my neighbors, in his 80s, also received bad news about his own advanced cancer. He's been active, walked everyday and we had many occasions to walk together and talk. He always was a friend to Iris and Isabelle. He's a fascinating person, and he is the most spiritually healthy person I know.

I'm going to miss him and my other, older friend who is being treated to manage symptoms. She has prepared herself too, and I am proud of her for taking the steps to do what no one wants to do.

Death runs in the family. It does in mine, anyway, I don't know if your relatives are immortal. I certainly wouldn't have wanted some of mine to stick around forever. I definitely don't want to. We're all going to die. Let's confront it, accept it, and plan for it, before we find out the end is closer than we expected, so we can have a good death as the end to a good life.

I wish that more people would examine their own mortality and face it, because it makes things so much less chaotic, it's better for everyone around them to know that they've thought through it, decided what they want, and are okay with it. But we have a long way to go in this country. Our collective immaturity has deemed us the world's teenager. Impulsive, without a fully developed frontal lobe. Thinking only of ourselves and not of the person next to us, or how our own actions, or lack thereof, affect them.

Clinical Trials and Boob Smashing

Speaking of life and family and cancer, I just enrolled in a clinical trial, because of my extensive family history of cancer, especially leukemias. The trial was looking for people over 50, never diagnosed with cancer, with a strong family history of it. It involves genetic testing and looking for early cancer markers. I'll find out the results, too. I realize that I might find out something I'd rather not know about or have to deal with, but knowledge is power.

I'll be getting my blood drawn next week for that. I'm excited to be a lab rat. It's so hard to get subjects for clinical trials, and they are absolutely necessary for us to advance our state of knowledge about cancer and how to treat it. So if you have the opportunity, please participate in one. You never know who, down the road, might benefit or even have their life saved by your participation.

Since we're on the subject, I decided to also splurge on a 3D mammogram when I go in next month. Breast Tomosynthesis is the name of the screening. It gives a 3D picture, actually about 11 different images from different angles. Also I heard they don't smash your boob as hard, which is good news for me, because that hurts! It's a good way to get a better image especially in people with dense breast tissue, like me. I'm dense. I'll have a report on it here, of course.

I have some other topics to touch on. Mental health is another one. And I have more, much more to say about healthcare, as you know it's one of my favorite rant topics. But I'll get to that later. I'll be back, I've missed blogging and I am starting to miss running. I wish I had more than a few days a week where I felt motivated to take running steps rather than walking. But I still feel fine when I run most of the way in a 10 mile outing, like I did today.

Scroll down and enjoy the rest of the photos from last weekend. Most are from our property but many are from the Colorado Trail and areas nearby. So great to live here, and to hang out in the shadow of the Buffalo Peaks and looking out across lower South Park at Pikes Peak.

When I have those difficult days, I just need to remember I am surrounded by so much good. Working alone, feeling like it's a forever uphill climb, and feeling like the world wants to duct tape your mouth so your voice is muffled, and they pretend they don't understand you, but really, they do, but it's just too hard for them to gather the courage to climb out of the box.

I'll keep being myself, even if I'm a lone voice (which I know I'm not) and at a distinct disadvantage because of power and resources (which I will not allow to stop me) and I'm just going to keep getting louder.

Thanks for reading!

Windy & Unstable: Don't Waste Any Time, 2016!

We're just 4 days into the new year and all kinds of stuff is already happening. On the home front, I have been consistent with my workouts other than running for nearly a month now, so I overcame that resistance, whatever was preventing me from being motivated to do the important work of resistance training and flexibility. I already can reach my mouth with the toes on my right foot. Progress.

I've been busy getting things set up to move forward on my new business website and bringing all the players together, attorneys, marketing people, graphic designers, website developers, and the nurses, patient advocates, and cancer survivors who are editing and scrutinizing my work to get it ready to go. It will be a whirlwind of activity the next few months.

Wackos and more wackos...

And, of late...the primary election that is now being held in Oregon. Who cares about Iowa or New Hampshire? With the Bundy standoff against the federal government, the Republican presidential candidate wannabes are showing their true colors. Business as usual, in the ever crazier Murica.

Let's see if we can bump up the insanity another notch. If you want to be President and you don't even respect the laws of the country you think you want to run, then we have a problem. It's not okay to take over a federal building with an armed militia. That's sort of like this other group we know...called ISIS... but guns are sacred. The American mascot is no longer the bald eagle. It's a bald gunman. And while we're at it, let's save the fetuses so we can shoot 'em in the streets when they grow up. Like the columbine design Colorado license plate says, "Respect life".

The rest of the world, that once mocked and laughed at our stupidity and self-centered arrogance, is now scared because they see the danger of what could happen should one of these fanatical demagogues land in the White House. I laughed when I saw that most of these bozos took the bait and used the opportunity to diss Obama and puff their chests to fan the flames of their willfully ignorant followers, instead of taking a stance that clearly showed they have SOME common sense, as Rubio and Bush did.

Which is pretty scary to me, as I fear the presence of either of those two in the White House, but evidently they aren't quite in the same "loco league" as the others in the lineup of suspects we see in every debate.

I hope that this election is the beginning of the permanent decline of these punks desperate to return the country to the repressed American state of the 1950s and the social sentiments of that era and before. They've been trying to do away with science and facts long enough, and Texas is already censoring the schoolbooks. Let's keep growing the ignorance, that'll help our standing in the world. Talk about economic growth...an ignorant, uneducated, uncritically thinking underclass is just what the top 1% needs.

Pistol-whipped and whining...

I did have a good laugh when I read the new story about White Republicans being the angriest. What are the demographics of the NRA, by the way? Check it out. What do you expect. You can only blame yourselves, you all voted against your own best interest because you were pistol-whipped, and you put all these morons in Congress who have done nothing but dismantle the underpinnings of the economy and the laws that make us a civilized society, they are doing everything they can to reverse progress on economic, education, social and civil rights matters, resisting attempts to deal with racism and social inequality and symbols thereof, and are trying to guarantee that every generation since the baby boomers heads into a future with no economic or social safety nets.

I am not thrilled with Hillary Clinton because she is too entrenched in the corrupt politics of Washington but at least I know she won't be going the way of the nutcases. And Bernie Sanders, I still feel he's a long shot even though his politics are most aligned with mine.

Worse yet, I cannot believe we've been hearing about the clown lineup of these delusional characters for so many months and we still have nearly a year to go until we pick the next occupant of the White House.

Hey Murica, WTFU!

Obesification Again...

I saw this article today on Modern Healthcare and it pissed me off, and even more so in the context of what's been happening in the headlines recently.

It’s long past time for American politicians to grow up. What a bunch of immature privileged frat boys we have in Washington.

Defending the gun lobby and preservation of a hateful symbol endorsed by state governments. Refusing to tell the truth about what’s going on with the proliferation of mass shootings and racially motivated violence. Lining their pockets from the even wealthier sociopaths and narcissists writing them checks.

But immature, spoiled little boys need more than a slap on the wrist. They need responsible adults to hold them accountable and take away their toys until they clean up their act.

Here’s a laughable thought…what if we could make a scale that was super cheap, purchased at Walmart, where you plug in your height and it calculates your BMI, showing you where you fall in the green, yellow or red or danger zones, corresponding to healthy, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese, since people can’t “see” body mass index.

If only it were that simple.

We’re not educating people about health, physical activity, and the consequences of what they put into their mouths while not moving their bodies.

We’re not teaching kids habits of taking care of their health from an early age, we’re not funding PE and sensible health education in schools.

We’re not building safe communities that encourage parents to let their kids play outside and safe streets for people to walk and commute by bike, not promoting healthy lifestyle habits, reasonable work hours, a chance to get enough activity during the workday, short commutes, healthy foods instead of fast food garbage.

Not only should we curtail the marketing of junk food and unhealthy activities on TV, we should curtail sedentary TV watching. We’ve been irresponsible in allowing corporate lobbyists from junk food industry to influence education, entertainment, and communities. Not only have we failed to invest in our infrastructure, we’ve failed to see that our infrastructure consists of the health of our people.

We've given science a back seat while putting money in the driver's seat. Except money doesn't have brakes.

When are we going to wake up? We have a political problem, and it’s intimately related to our 75% overweight and obese population, our dwindling life expectancy, our number 37 rank in the world on health care, our growing numbers of those impoverished and struggling economically.

We hear about the lack of investment in infrastructure- the things used by the little people- roads, bridges, communities, or the basic things a civilized society needs- public education, a future with promise, not debt and enslavement by a culture expecting people to pledge allegiance to the corporate states holding a noose around their necks.

Killing us with insurance premiums that keep expanding in the name of healthcare, you look down at us from your luxury C-suite seating. While the insurance companies, hospital industries, and pharmaceutical giants keep growing their profit margins, people’s waistlines are expanding just as fast as quality and length of life are declining.

We are headed into another election cycle with a larger than usual assortment of boy clowns with even larger gonads to deny and defend as needed the policies that keep the few and rich safe and secure while ensuring the continued decline of the American quality of life.

These boys continue to lie as their lapel flags disappear into their ever-growing bulk.

Because they know they will get away with it until American adults wake up from our sugar-fueled coma and roll our supersized bodies off the couch…

Power!

This is the view from the bottom of the Power Trail where it hits Trilby Road, looking at Longs Peak. I've been spending a lot of time on it lately, because of the ice on the streets. But we lucked out with a streak of warmer weather this week. I actually ran in a t-shirt today, for part of my afternoon run.

I don't know what happened to the weather forecast but we were supposed to have a warm day, nearly 70 degrees on Wednesday. It never got there, not even close. But maybe I missed it because I took a long nap in the afternoon.

Wednesday I started out by running 5+ miles with the girls and after that I could no longer function. Laundry and dishes were the limits of my cognitive abilities. And Wheaties Boy was unfortunately sidetracked last night for our tempo. So I went out after my nap and put in another 11 miles but didn't run hard. I ran easy, did a lot of thinking and obsessing about silly and not-so silly things.

It was probably good for me to take it easy. I've been busy with a lot of things. Work has been kind of snarly lately. Morale isn't all that good. One thing they sprung on us at our staff meeting on Wednesday morning, that really irritated me, along with everyone else, was that they are going to limit vacations in May, June, and July this year. It wasn't so bad at first when they told us that would be the case for the month of July this year. So then everyone made their plans to do things in May and June.

But because we are switching over to a new computer system, and they need to do the training in May and June, it will take extra hours off the unit. So then they need to be able to staff for that in the unit, and that will require us to work extra to fill in for the people who are training. So now people are PISSED.

I'm sorta pissed too, because back in November I put in for time off at the beginning of May to go run Cornbelt. I don't know when I'll find out if I can have it off. I'll wait to sign up until I hear. But a lot of people put in for real vacations too. May and June are full of family events, weddings, school graduations, etc. Like I said, people are pissed. Plus I already know that going out to Badwater might be a problem this summer, too, with the no vacation rule.

There have been so many changes, and they are asking us to do so much more with less, and people don't deal with change very well anyway, so it's really hard to be at work these days with so much griping. I try not to add to it at work, I just think of it as surfing, riding the waves, but sometimes you start to feel taken advantage of. Especially nurses.

So, I was pissed about that and processed it through my head as I was running last night, and then I was also thinking about this article I read in the paper, that Felix posted to my Facebook page. Yesterday I touched on the gun arguments in my blogpost and I never read the paper until late in the day but what a coincidence when I discovered this.

You know, it can be pretty scary to walk through Walmart with Spongebob lurking around every corner. If someone has a concealed weapon I won't know about it. But walking around with a visible rifle? That's dumb. I was thinking about that while running.

So my mood had not improved much last evening. I came home after the run, went to bed, and woke up too early today.

This morning I took the girls out for 2 1/2 miles around 9:00 and again I was worthless. I wanted to do hills, but I couldn't function. So at 10:00 I went back to bed and then woke up around 12:45 and went out for my run. I did 18 1/2 miles of short rolling hills, on the Power Trail and south of town on the way to Loveland.

I pushed hard on all the uphills, and after 13 miles I was hurting. I kept going, and pushing the hills, but those last 5 miles at the top of every hill I'd get a little past the crest and then I'd have to stop and catch my breath while my legs burned until I recovered some. I'd be doubled over, trying to breathe, and my legs were on fire.

It took me just a little over 3 hours to do that run. It gave me 21 miles for the day. I followed the run up with picking up freshly thawed dog poop in the yard. Gotta stay ahead of it when we have the thaw, otherwise we'll be buried in dog poop by spring.

That's my life this week. Sorta feels soft but cold, like freshly thawed dog poop. I hope it's just the hormones.

Work Hangover Wednesday: Bite Me!

Go ahead, make my day!

I'm in an extraordinarily foul mood today. I have a brutal work hangover and I need a nap, bad. The world needs me to take a nap.

After two long, busy, exhausting days topped off by a patient who tried several times to bite me, and other miscellaneous circus-like activity at work, I was ready to blow holes in the roof when I got home last night at 8:50 pm. Plus I had to be back in the morning for a 2 hour staff (antibiotic resistant staph) meeting that started at 7 am.

So I barely got enough sleep to open my eyes this morning, and I stumbled out of bed at 6 to get my butt out the door to the meeting. Two hours in a meeting makes me want to bang my head against the desk until I pass out.

Do not mess with this mom of Buffaloes.

When I got home from the staph meeting it was daylight and I saw the community mailbox in our front yard. Some dimwit tagged it overnight. We don't see too much of this in our neighborhood but every so often some dumbass will do this to a fence or the sidewalks. This time they got it on the mailbox that happens to sit in our front yard. If I catch the little motherfucker in my front yard I'll blow him away with an AK47. GO AHEAD, MAKE MY DAY.

Before you think I'm serious, I probably wouldn't be able to figure out how to shoot the damn thing. I will never own a gun and I have no use for one. I have never shot anything other than a water gun or a cap gun since I was a kid playing with my brother's toys. Personally, I hate guns. I tolerate their existence as possessions of other people, is all. If it were up to me, there would be no guns. Ever.

Actually here's another good reason NOT to allow guns. If they get in the wrong hands, like a RPB like myself today, they could do a lot of damage. I haven't even gone into the gun issue on this blog and really had planned to avoid it. Actually I think my bare hands could do more damage than a gun if I ran into this little booger with the spray paint can today.

But since we're talking about guns, I'll just say that I think the display of paranoia by a small percentage of the population regarding the gun issue, namely those who are comparing Obama to Hitler, Stalin and such, like the Wayne LaPierres of the world, is a good reason why THOSE exact people, the assault weapon and gun proliferation advocates themselves, SHOULD NOT be allowed to have guns in their possession. They are delusional and just plain bat shit crazy.

If we've come to the point where we need guns in schools, it's time for a nuclear flattening of the planet and let some other life form with far greater intelligence than humans start over in a galaxy far, far away.

Unless, of course, those crazies were willing to turn those guns on themselves, which would allow them to be Darwin Award recipients, and remove themselves from the gene pool, greatly improving the future prospects of this country.

And that's all I have to say about that.