You will hear pundits quote polling that suggests a majority of citizens want tougher gun control laws, like you hear that a majority of citizens do not want abortion to be illegal. While that information might be true, it does not reflect how a bill becomes a law in the United States. In short, that polling information is really useless because laws are not passed the U.S. as a nation.

Every state has two senators, no matter how many citizens it has, and if not more than 60 Senators are willing to vote in favor of a law, the law will not be passed, even if it passes the House which more accurately reflects the population of the United States. So, the right polling should be per state.

We tend to obviscate by classifying states as red or blue, when in reality is you have states that are “pro no restraints on guns over loss of life” and other states that are “pro restraints on guns to prevent loss of life.” Citizens in these states who keep re-electing Senators over and over again have created the current situation.

So today, right now the question isn’t, what is the Unites States going to do. The real question is, what are the citizens of the state of Texas, who keep re-electing Ted Cruz over and over again, going to do? I am not optimistic.

Remember, no matter how much money the NRA gives Ted Cruz, the NRA is not casting votes for him, it’s the citizens in the state of Texas who cast those votes. Yes, the NRA bought all the past votes but that only works because Cruz is in office, and that only happens because more citizens of Texas vote for him than someone else who will vote for common sense gun laws.

If Texans are really angry over their children being murdered in school then Ted Cruz and John Cornyn will not be re-elected. The only way change is going to happen is in states like Texas that have Senators who refuse to pass gun control laws.

Every time another mass gun shooting takes place we direct our anger at lawmakers who refuse to pass gun control laws. Unfortunately, that anger is misplaced. How many times has citizens in the state of Kentucky re-elected Mitch McConnell after a shooting takes place? Truth is, the citizens in each state with Senators refusing to pass gun control laws that keep re-electing those Senators are the true people at fault. Citizens, you and I. Clearly, the citizens of Kentucky prefer the current situation as do far too many citizens in too many states, including the ones in which the shootings take place. Lawmakers do nothing because they know they do not have do anything, none of them are at risk of not being re-elected because they don’t pass gun control laws. End of story. It’s all on us, and that includes parents of children the same age as those killed yesterday.

In the addicted country that is the United States of America, Making America Great Again does not include eliminating gun violence and children dying in schools. Money is the drug of choice that prevents us from taking any action because to do so means someone is going to make less money. A Christian nation? Not by any definition provided by The Christ. A pro-life nation? You can’t be serious!

Taco Tuesday at the Taco Stop, Fort Collins, CO

Every hotel chain that targets “extended stay” and business travelers needs to check their in-room workspace furniture for ergonomics. I am working from a Residence Inn and the “office chair” is too low relative to the “desk” putting my wrists at a terrible angle, needing me to have the notebook on the lap for any extended typing to prevent the wrists from hurting. Real smart hotel chains that target travelers would put adjustable desks in each room, or at least certain rooms targeted at travelers.

Our flowering tree is at full bloom. Enjoying it before the inevitable wind and rain comes.

Spring might be here.

It is May 5 and the furnace is still on and running. Outdoor temperature still in the low 40s. So ready for warm weather to come and stay.

Dear Constitutional Fundamentalists, Supreme Court Justics and conservative Republicans. How do you reconcile the claim that the government cannot mandate vaccines on the basis of protecting the public good because of your right to decide what happens to your body, a right apparently not natural and not explicitly in the Constitiution according to SCOTUS, and your claim that the government can mandate that a pregnant woman give birth to a baby?

I mean, there is liikely going to be another pandemic in the future that could result in millions of dead people due to the inactions of others, either we, all genders, all races, all humans, being equal, have the right to privacy that provides us the right to decide what happens to and inside our bodies, or we do not. You cannot have it both ways.

Or is it that we are not all equal and thus do not deserve equal protection under the law?

May the fourth be with you

Looks like we need a Constitutional Amendment that guarantees the right to privacy.

Is recognizing rights of citizens in the United States a bad thing? My understanding of the United States Constitution is that its purpose is to prevent the Federal government from becoming tyrannical by narrowing its power to enumerated rights. The Constitution does not exist to define the rights of citizens and I am pretty sure Madison did not imagine that the Bill of Rights defined the only rights of U.S. citizens. Therefore it seems to me that the very act of removing rights from citizens through declaring that SCOTUS decisions granted rights not provided for in the Constitution is the exact opposite of an originalist understanding of the Constitution. Roe v. Wade restrains the Federal government from taking a women’s right of autonomy over their own body, a right by the way that many of been claiming is the reason why things like “mask mandates” and “vaccine mandates’ are not constitutional.

Striding down the Riverwalk wearing purple

Happy Friday!

Does free speech = trolling?

Update: Everything is back up. Some server components of the Scripting News hosting infrastructure are down, for example my Old School blog is not reachable. Browser shows an error message saying the server refused connection. Watching attempt to access with the browser console open shows a message about a deprecated package. The problem affects LittleOutliner.com and my.this.how, which is where I am hosting my now page.

I don’t personally use Twitter as much as other social media platforms, so I really don’t have a personal investment in what happens to it, but I am deeply suspicious of Elon Musk buying Twitter. I suspect he wants to buy Twitter to have a personal megaphone with no constraints. I am expecting Twitter to get worse under Musk.

I understand lots of journalism and media types use Twitter, but if it becomes a private social platform under the control of an oligarch, is that the right place to be doing journalism? Once private Twitter should cease to be a source for any news.

A day of warm sunshine does everyone and everything good.

Finally warm enough to put on shorts and go outside.

Finally some warm weather! Alpha tree is enjoying the sun too.

I think Abraham Lincoln would be mad that for what was sacrificed years ago is simply being tossed aside today.

A couple of Easter survivors. I don’t know wild turkies well, but I assume that this is a couple. The picture doesn’t do the beauty of the feathers shining in the sunlight of the front one justice.

Mother nature wishing me a happy birthday

Day 1 of lap 57 around the sun does not have as nice weather (it is snowing) as lap 56 but is a great day none the less.