Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Observations of the U.S.

I recently returned from a one-month visit to the United States.  My family and I slept in five different states and visited a couple of others.  Naturally, I was observing the differences between the US and Italy and between the US of today and what I remember from the last visit two years ago.

By far what stuck me most was the obesity. It's noticeably increased over the years.  It occurred to me it cannot be explained by the super-sizes of everything from water bottles to hamburgers. I had thought that was it, but now I wonder if even the decent food is contaminated with so much antibiotics and chemicals and genetically modified material that the poor people don't stand a chance.

It's sad.

The second most impressive thing I noticed was the almost total absence of guns. Every day I scanned the people for who might be carrying concealed. There were very few, which could be easily determined due to the summertime dress code. I realize some of those folks might have had a gun in the glove compartment of the car and certainly some had guns at home, but the overall impression was that gun ownership is not the commonplace way of life we often hear from the gun-rights crowd.

In the early days of my stay, which was the end of June, the Fast and Furious scandal was in the news.  That's when Holder was held in contempt.  In one of the reports, it was mentioned that the actual events took place under Bush. I was shocked.  I'd never heard that little factoid before, which makes sense since I had gotten almost all my information about the story on sites like The Truth About Guns and The Sipsey Street Irregulars. Reading those blogs, it was obvious to me they were attempting to distort the story into something more than a simple sting operation gone bad, but the fact that they'd so calculatedly avoided ever mentioning that the gun-running incidents actually predated the Obama reign confirms my opinion of their less-than-honest intentions.

One extremely enjoyable thing about my vacation was the almost total disconnect from e-mail and blogs that I arranged for myself. I checked in from time to time, but I really benefited from the restful and relaxing life style the disconnect allowed me during those weeks.  I feel rejuvenated.  I feel optimistic about the future of gun control. I had a chance to step back and see just how fringe-like and fanatical the gun-rights folks are.  One day I watched a 20-minute info-commercial starring Wayne La Pierre in which he hit all the talking points for which he's famous.  It was to drum up NRA memberships. I thought he's the one fighting a losing battle.  In spite of the apathy and lack of resources on the gun-control side, common sense and reason will prevail.


9 comments:

  1. We're winning.

    LaPierre and his terrorist organization are really declining as gun ownership declines and a belief that among gun owners that the 2A has been settled. Their only recourse is to try to fire up that ever-shrinking fringe of gunloons (most of whom have a financial stake in gunloonery) by ever weirder conspiracy theories.

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  2. The obesity in this country is unbelievable. My fatness aside, it is unreal the number of kids and adults that waddle down the aisles of an Appalachian WalMart. I used to think that it was just this area considering the decades that it has actually been in a recession with low employment and high government assistance. But no, seems to be most of America I'm afraid.

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  3. "We're winning."

    Glad to hear it. A federal judge just ended Maryland's state-permission-to-carry-scheme. In 14 days all licenses applied for will be shall issue. New York is next!

    http://www.marylandshallissue.org/share/order.stay.pdf

    Please keep winning, Jade!

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    1. Almost makes me want to move back to my ole stomping grounds and get my shall issue permit just so I can give Jade another reason to cry into his pillow every night.

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  4. You are right about the food. There is a Swedish Doctor who has a popular website in Sweden. The english version is www.dietdoctor.com. Look for his video Food Revolution, it has an eye opening graphic on obesity in the USA from 1984 onward.

    As for gun carry it depends on the state and a number of the newer guns are slim and small and can easily be concealed.

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  5. What reality are you people living in? US gun ownership is the highest its ever been.

    http://www.gallup.com/poll/150353/Self-Reported-Gun-Ownership-Highest-1993.aspx

    Of course, these statistics probably couldn't stand up to your scientific observation of very few concealed guns. Ever stop to consider why they call them concealed?

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  6. Interesting. What guns were you expecting? Many people carry a small revolver or semi-automatic pistol in their pocket.

    I find it interesting that "Jadegold" believes the NRA is comprised of most gun owners in the US. The vast majority of gun owners are not a member of any gun organization.

    As for "In spite of the apathy and lack of resources on the gun-control side, common sense and reason will prevail", this is completely silly. The people who want to ban guns have 44 state constitutional amendments and one Federal amendment to pass in order to repeal the right to keep and bear arms in this country. The remaining six states have variations on the right, usually in the form of "keeping, but not bearing, arms".

    You are sadly mistaken in believing that banning gun ownership in this country is going to lead to less bloodshed.

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    1. Who said ban gun ownership?

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    2. You did. Your (now publically stated) disdain for the 2a.

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