Gun Control

What trait in our legislators personalities allows them to ignore the anguish of parents who lose their children in senseless, mass shootings?

Politicians share many of the traits needed to win approval from the masses to hold offices of varying degrees of power. The higher the office, higher the power in the hands of the person elected, or appointed.

We allot privileges to those we elect in the belief their promises to care and protect us are possible and well meaning. But, sometimes, something happens on the way to the forum; promises of protection are forgotten. By allowing the manufacture, sale and unlimited ownership of guns and ammunition, our children and innocent persons are always at risk of being killed by someone going berserk with a gun in another mass killing.

How many of these killings have to take place before legislators acknowledge the need to pass laws preventing such wide, wild use of guns? One would think the shooting of American presidents would have initiated a law of some kind. Stop talking of 'shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings', and pass a law that actually protects the public from unauthorized use of firearms.

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes—and ships—and sealing-wax—
Of cabbages—and kings—
And why the sea is boiling hot—
And whether pigs have wings."

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
Lewis Carroll (1871)

Rainbow Flowers

My son brings me lovely bouquets of cut flowers and its such a pleasure when glancing up from reading, knitting or working on the computer to see the beautiful colors of the blossoms. Preservative comes with the flowers and if adding it to the water in the vase, the flowers stay fresh for days. By refreshing the water as needed, the flowers continue looking bright and lovely, extending their vase life for an amazingly long time.


Colored Flowers

Sometimes a strange thing happens to the refreshed water in the vase; it becomes stained the same color as one of the flowers! The first time I had seen this phenomenon, the vase water took on the same intense pink color of the daisies in a bouquet of various flowers of different colors.

Researching the net with DuckDuckGo.com, I found that florists use food dye to enhance flower colors. White carnations or daisies can be changed into other colors as well as roses.

Its also a very easy thing to do at home.

To create a rainbow rose

1. Cut the bottom 2 inches of stem into three segments
2. Stick each segment into a different vase of water colored with food dye.
3. Mix the food dye colors to get additional colors orange, green or blue.

The longer the stem sits in the colored water the more intense the flower color will be.



Rainbow Roses

Current Reading

By the shores of Gitche Gumee
By the shining Big-Sea-Water
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis
Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis

The Song of Hiawatha
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

One of my birthday presents is a collector's book: The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, with Translations and Notes, published by Bell & Daldy, 1864 with 250 engravings.

Evangeline, and the Song of Hiawatha, two epics studied in high school, were delights to read again after these many years. I find the beauty of the poems enhanced by my maturity and travel experiences that was lacking in those school years. Reading the notes and explanations of the works is a fascinating read by itself.

Between the 728 pages of poems, songs, and sonnets in Longfellow's book, and the ebooks available for download to my digital reader, I'll have hours of reading pleasure.

Sweet Freedom

... sweet freedom, shine your light on me...

Of the different types of freedom, such as freedom from taxes, there is one freedom people will die to achieve and defend: Political Freedom. You can't see it, wear it or eat it, but you know when you have it.

Being born and living under the banner of political freedom, I always take great joy in celebrating the 4th of July with fireworks and the singing of patriotic songs.

Every year on the 4th of July, the TV broadcasts 'A Capital Forth', a program of patriotic music capped off by the National Symphony Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture ², enhanced by the live firing of cannons. Bursts of red, white and blue fireworks fill the sky with shooting stars and giant glistening flowers designed to last only a fraction of a moment. For how ever long the fireworks last, its a magic show that holds one spellbound, whether viewing live or on television.

Celebrating the 4th of July reminds us that political freedom came from fighting the American Revolutionary War. It was not a revolution of redistribution of power as in the Russian Revolution, but a revolution to achieve political independence. As a nation, we are very proud and quick to judge if a threat to this independence arises and we put great stock in the Constitution that guarantees the personal freedoms of citizens.

However well intentioned, the zeal to protect and defend has led to practices that infringe on these rights. The collection of metadata by the NSA ¹ has reached the point of absurdity and its time to re-evaluate the value of that practice in the light of Political Freedom.

Anything that chips away parts of our precious independence is a threat that can't be ignored.


[Editor's notes:

1: The National Security Agency (NSA) is one of 17 Security Agencies, along with other law enforcement and regional agencies, in the USA. The initials, NSA, have come to represent all the security services in the US by popular use. The initials can also refer to any security service in the world, although each has their own initials and titles like: GCHQ, BND.

Each of the world's security services, along with regional and local law enforcement agencies, harvests, collects and stores metadata regardless of national boundaries or citizenship of origin. The US NSA just does more of it than the others.

2: The 1812 Overture does not celebrate the American War of 1812, but the eventual victory of the Russians defending their country against the invading French under Napoleon. The Russians lost the battle but the cost to the French was the entire war and eventually their Emperor.]

Victory from the Heels of Defeat
How the invading Grande Armée of Napoleon won the battle but lost the war.

On 7 September 1812, at Borodino, 120 km (75 mi) west of Moscow, Napoleon's forces met those of General Mikhail Kutuzov in the only concerted stand made by Russia against the seemingly invincible French Army. The Battle of Borodino saw casualties estimated as high as 100,000 and resulted in a French tactical victory. It was, however, ultimately a Pyrrhic victory for the French invasion.

With resources depleted and supply lines overextended, Napoleon's weakened forces moved into Moscow, which they occupied with little resistance. Expecting capitulation from the displaced Tsar Alexander I, the French instead found themselves in a barren and desolate city, parts of which the retreating Russian Army had burned to the ground.

Deprived of winter stores, Napoleon had to retreat. Beginning on October 19 and lasting well into December, the French Army faced several overwhelming obstacles on its long retreat: famine, typhus, frigid temperatures, harassing cossacks and Russian forces barring the way out of the country. Abandoned by Napoleon in November, the Grande Armée was reduced to one-tenth of its original size by the time it reached Poland and relative safety.

Michael Hayden and the One Question by KimB

Retired 4 Star United States Air Force General Michael Hayden is one very smart man. Actually he's way beyond smart and probably well into the brilliant category. Anyone viewing a debate or interview that includes General Hayden would be well advised to keep on their toes while listening to him speak.

He's extraordinarily knowledgeable and eloquent in speaking. He had a lot of experience during his many year tenure at the NSA and CIA, and a stint at the DNI, not just in running the organizations but working with politicians from all political views and knows just about everything needed to give a good presentation.

His speaking skills excel far beyond many in the military who's sole answer to any question is a bazooka, but he's no less deadly than the ones who outweigh him physically or can flex more muscles or carry more gear ... the drones depend on him.

He's the ultimate “M” for the modern day USA.

There are loads of conspiracy theories in the world: Secret coalitions, Enemy Outside, Enemy Inside, Enemy Above, Enemy Below and many more categories with variations and permutations. While there are loads of conspiracy theories in the world, and some of them have turned out not to be theories at all but realities.

Historian Bruce Cumings said:

"But if conspiracies exist, they rarely move history; they make a difference at the margins from time to time, but with the unforeseen consequences of a logic outside the control of their authors: and this is what is wrong with 'conspiracy theory.' History is moved by the broad forces and large structures of human collectivities."

I don't think Bruce Cumings has met General Hayden.

What's most remarkable about General Hayden is that he's almost unremarkable; it's the perfect cover for the USA's top spy master. Someone you can underestimate but who will send a drone to your doorstep as a “thank you gift” with nary a qualm.

He's quick of wit and fast on his feet, unlike many of his successors who simply couldn't think up a good enough line at the time and ended up with testimony like the now infamous exchange between Ron Wyden, United States Senator for Oregon, Member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and James Clapper Director of National Intelligence on March 12, 2013, during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing,

Senator Wyden:

"Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?"

James Clapper Director of National Intelligence:

"No, sir."

Senator Wyden:

"It does not?"

James Clapper Director of National Intelligence:

"Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly."

One simply cannot imagine General Hayden landing in that uncomfortable spotlight. After all, his job is to stay out of the spotlight as much as possible while shining the same spotlight into every other aspect of our lives, including everyone on the planet no matter who they are or where they live.

One of General Hayden's greatest assets within the Security Complex of the USA and it's closest allies (and not so close allies), is the ability to re-define any word in the English language to mean whatever he wants it to mean. It's an extraordinary gift.

One of the many short comings of English is that the language is highly flexible. Words change meaning and context all the time. Sometimes a word carries one connotation and then morphs into something completely different like the word: bork.

But General Hayden's ability is far superior to others because he does not have to redefine the words himself. He is highly persuasive at getting others to do it for him. His skill with words is deadly and the victims of his encounters surrendered not only their own freedoms but those of all the people that depended on their independence and their adherence to “norms” of the English language and it's usage, but in the end it was quite easy. A triumph none the less.

• Relevant = everything
• Not Wittingly = without having to think about it, the machines do it
• Inadvertent = we collect it all
• Cell phones = warheads on foreheads
• Metadata = We kill people based on metadata
• iPhone apps = 400,000 attacks

  [General Hayden] and his wife were in an Apple store in Virginia ....
  
  A salesman approached and raved about the iPhone, saying that there were already "400,000 apps" for the device.
  
  Hayden, amused, turned to his wife and quietly asked: "This kid doesn't know who I am, does he? Four-hundred-thousand apps means 400,000 possibilities for attacks."
  
  Der Spiegel On Line September 09, 2013

No matter how hard people might resist to begin with, General Hayden will win. Some like Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, then presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and now a judge for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, lasted 2 visits before capitulating not only her judicial independence but the Constitution and all the freedoms of the American People.

He will always win.

General Hayden wins because he asks the one question that no one will answer any other way. As long as the answer remains the same he will win. His question controls the Congress, the President, the courts and the Supreme Court. It controls world leaders and policy makers everywhere. It controls how the world surveillance is setup and why it works. It controls business and affects everyone on the planet. He asks it whenever anyone questions him about the activities of the security services no matter what the circumstances.

How will you answer General Hayden's question?

If we halt what we are doing and there is another disaster like 9/11 (or even bigger than 9/11) and that disaster could have been stopped had we kept those programs, are you willing take responsibility for all the deaths and all the destruction.

Are you willing to put your name on the order that said “stop”?