I fell asleep for a minute on a couch in a Starbucks not long after my arrival last Wednesday while watching some Native American shaman or something of that sort doing something with an eagle feather for the Gabriella Giffords memorial service and knew I had to do some sort of blog about the whole gun thing in America. The story of how the whole shooting went down was the backdrop to my sleep through the entire California adventure.
I remember hearing North Carolina congressman and former NFL quarterback, not a very good one, btw, Heath Shuler talking about carrying a concealed firearm with him and thinking how stupid that is.
Just for perspective, the actual text of the 2nd Amendment in the Bill of Rights as added to the U.S. Constitution reads as follows, "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."
Along the way, all of that militia stuff and well-regulated bits have pretty much fallen by the wayside and it's generally accepted that anybody should be able to pack as much firepower as possible just for laughs.
The whack-job responsible for the attack on Gabriella Giffords, Jared Loughner, was in possession of a Glock with a 30+ round magazine and he was only stopped when he had to halt his slaughter to reload.
I guess the 2nd Amendment was a good deal for the early Americans and their muzzle-loaders; I don't think they could have envisioned the automatic rifle or assault weapons, or 30+ round clips. It doesn't really matter though. The money from the NRA has scared off any political discussion on the matter.
There are something like 9 guns for every 10 people in the U.S. That should tell you enough. We're number one in gun violence, non-military death by gun, etc.
All I really want to say on this matter is that, if Heath Shuler had been attacked, and he had his concealed weapon on him, he would have hit the ground with his concealed gun still in its holster. There wasn't any warning that Rep. Giffords was about to be shot. If Shuler had been a bystander and had been given the chance to pull his own gun and open fire odds are more innocent bystanders would have been shot by him as well.
If everybody had the right to carry concealed weapons, that just means I'd be more likely to try to get the drop on you or shoot you before you had the chance to get to it than it would be to deter me from attacking you in the first place.
Second on my hit list this week is people behind a cash register telling me to "have a blessed day". I'm not sure how common this is around the rest of the country but it's pretty big in the Bible Belt where I am. I'm not sure what motivates people to tell me this other than to let me know that they're Christian. I should ask them to save their wishes for nine year-old children who are the collateral victims of gun violence as I'm doing okay other than being pretty broke.
It feels to me like something of a challenge when people say this to me. I want to ask them "blessed by whom?" If it's God, I don't believe in that. I'm not sure if it should be a financial blessing but that would be pretty cool. It seems like it's just a sort of in your face Christianity thing though and it's wearing on my nerves. Being Buddhist, I'd feel pretty stupid telling somebody to "have a Buddhariffic day!" Firstly, it would seem to be a little invasive. Secondly it would sound like I would be assuming that the addressee would be Buddhist. Thirdly, it seems to take for granted that I care. How about a nice "thank you"? I'd rather you not take the opportunity to try to tell me about your religion while I'm buying crap from you.
Okay, and finally, the lamest thing to happen in the past week is Trent Reznor winning a freaking Golden Globe for his score to The Social Network. If you read my blog regarding that movie, I already explained how I felt about that effort. Not only was it not worthy of an award, it was distracting. Yet he beat out some amazing efforts from Carter Burwell (not even nominated), Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, and Alexandre Desplats.
Maybe time will tell why Hollywood and the national press are pushing this freaking movie so heavily. I can't even believe Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for a best actor award. I mean, really, if you've watched Jesse Eisenberg act in any movie he's done previously, you know he was acting like Jesse Eisenberg.
I've seen critics call The Social Network the best movie of the new millennium and it's seriously freaking me out! They're calling it the Great Gatsby of this generation. No, really. I haven't seen a critical rating for the movie of less than an A-. At my video store, the overwhelming rating has been "it was okay".
I've seen so many movies in the past decade that blew me away. I don't watch many movies twice but I'm tempted to watch this one again to see if I didn't miss something. It certainly didn't move me like Lost in Translation or The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, or The Royal Tenenbaums, and yes, I do love Wes Anderson. The Social Network, if I were to make a list, wouldn't be in the top ten. So, what did I miss? I'd really like somebody to explain to me why this film has so much gravity other than the success story of Facebook being a big deal.
I promised myself I'd stop following awards shows when Roberto Benigni's performance in Life is Beautiful beat out Tom Hanks' in Saving Private Ryan for the 1999 Academy Awards but it's always fun to watch what bit of zeitgeist comes out every year. It's obviously no longer about the movies themselves. It's moved into some kind of political area where you guess the winner based on unrelated factors like who the director is rather than how well they directed a movie or whether or not it's time for a woman or minority to win an award.
Sofia Coppola should have won for Lost in Translation in 2004, not Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2009 but that was a "make good" as they say in sports.
I don't know whose leg the Social Network people humped to get what they're getting but I want to hump it too.
And, if you don't know who Evelyn Champagne King is, here's a reminder/introduction. She was amazingly nice and still looks pretty young.
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