Thoughts from the Mountain Top

I've been tossing this around in my head for quite some time.  Yes, I'm pretty liberal.  Yes, I believe in gun control.  I believe we should treat guns the same way we treat motor vehicles.  To own a gun, you should have to go through a safety course and pass a test to get a license to own and then every gun should be registered.   I also thing certain weapons and modifications should be illegal.   With the millions of guns already out there, this would not have an immediate impact, but perhaps 20-30 years down the road, things would be better.   Where I have a conflict is the background check.  To me, it's obvious we don't want people who have been convicted of a violent felony to own a gun legally.  Think of it as allowing a repeated drunk driver to have access to a motor vehicle.  There are certain times, once you've proven you cannot handle the responsibility that comes along with right of owning and operating a mot...

I grew up in a house where we commonly discussed politics at the kitchen table over dinner.  I can't say that my parents were die-hard Democrats.  The first election I remember was when I was 10 and in the 5th grade.  We followed the election at the time and I was enamored of Jimmy Carter.  I think he appealed to me in a Fred Rogers sort of way.  The next election, I can remember a discussion one night when my father announced he was voting for Reagan.  Both my mother and I were aghast.  I don't think we ever let him live it down.  He had his reasons, which at the time had largely to do with Iran.  My father did become a huge fan of Carter's after he left office and I do think he regretted that vote even without our continual harping on it. From a young age, I had empathy for those on the bottom.  I was always looking for those less fortunate and those who had been left behind, for whatever reason.  At the same time, I looked hard...

Last night I drove to my favorite theater to see Bohemian Rhapsody .  I'd heard about this film a while ago.  It was a somewhat troubled production with false starts and changes in cast and crew along the way. Bohemian Rhapsody is the story of the rock band Queen and their enigmatic front-man Freddie Mercury.  They rose to fame out of the progressive rock era of the 1970's creating an iconic sound that many tried and failed to duplicate. The film opens with scenes from the Live-Aid concert at Wembley Stadium which was one of the most memorable performances of the band.  It then cuts back to the final lineup coming together outside of a pub one night as Brian May and Roger Taylor lament the loss of their lead singer and bass player. Along comes Freddie Bulsara, who did not fit the image of a lead singer at the time, but had the voice to win them over.  The film charts their successes together and their troubled times as well, without dwelling on anything too...

I've long said that there are crazies on either end of the political spectrum.  My experience with those on the left have largely been that they don't live in the real world.  I can remember having a Dennis Kucinich supporter stay at the hotel one night during the 2008 primaries and him coming down for a discussion in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep.  When we got to the point in the discussion where we pretty much agreed I said, "That's fine but even if he were elected President, that still doesn't mean he gets his way."  The man looked at me like he didn't understand.  "A President isn't a dictator.  You have Congress, the Senate, and a whole bunch of other people who think differently." (Okay, keep in mind this was before Trump.)  His answer was "Well you make them." Today, though, I got to experience another like that, only worse.  It was on a mutual friend's page and I'm sorry I got baited into it.  ...