Here's that "well-regulated militia" the NRA is so worried about

 

And we don't want to stop this?

 

I say again, assault weapons are only good for cutting down large quantities of innocent Americans, first.

 

Second, they aren't good for hunting of any kind and finally, third, they have no place in an intelligent, civilized society.

 

They serve no good purpose, period.

 

We need an outright ban on that kind of lethality.

Let's get the money out of our politics and government

 

The fact is, as I've written here and elsewhere so many times, until we get the big, ugly, corrupting money of the wealthy and corporations out of our election system and so, our government, nothing will change. It will remain legislation and laws and so, that same government, of, by and for those same wealthy and corporations first and the rest of us, the rest of the country second, if at all.

To sign petition, go here:  http://www.wh.gov/P9j7

Great news for Missouri

 Did you see where one of Missouri's pristine rivers in the South of the state got a big honor this week?

Ozarks’ White River is nation’s second National Blueway

From the article:
 
The White River, with its 60-county watershed cutting through Missouri and Arkansas, has been named America’s second National Blueway.

This is actually quite a big honor, considering it's only the 2nd in the nation to get this distinction and that it "was nominated for this designation by 26 groups, including The Nature Conservancy, the Missouri Department of Conservation, Ducks Unlimited and the Arkansas Canoe Club.

My point in bringing this to anyone's attention is first, just to say it's quite an honor but second, in hopes that more people from the area would take advantage of this treasure and go and camp, canoe and hike the area. I'm convinced that the Ozarks are vastly overlooked by us. The hills, forest and rivers there are breathtaking.

I'd be nearly willing to bet that if a random group of Missourians or Kansans or Illinoisans nearby were polled, far too many of us would confess we didn't even know there's a national forest on our doorstep.

And that's a darn shame.

Go, enjoy, people.

Link:  Mark Twain National Forest

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/10/4003905/ozarks-white-river-designated.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/10/4003905/ozarks-white-river-designated.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/10/4003905/ozarks-white-river-designated.html#storylink=cpy

The two political parties, on weapons

Difference between Democrats and Republicans on gun regulations:

 Democrat:  I believe in sensible gun regulations that limit high-capacity magazines and some semi-automatic rifles. I believe that Americans have the right to own handguns for self-defense and rifles for hunting. However, I believe the sell of guns and their ammunition should be regulated with background checks to ensure the wrong... people can't simply walk into a gun show or their local Walmart and purchase these items. 
                                         


 Republican:   Socialist Democrats just want to turn law-abiding citizens into criminals. You know Hitler banned guns too, right? Bacon kills people every year, guess you people believe we should ban bacon? Obesity kills people every day, should we ban the spoons of which people use to eat? Guns don't kill people, people kill people. The only way to stop bad people with guns, are good people with guns. Our government fears an armed populous! You'll get my guns when you take them from my cold dead hands.

 Tell us if you see the difference...

We need to be able to speak to one another and, much more than that, we need to be able to address the problems and more, we need to be able to discuss solutions to our problems. Specifically, in this case, the problems of people taking assault weapons and mowing down large groups of innocent Americans.

It's insane. And it's crazy we can't talk it out and additionally crazy that we can't come to and enact solutions, far more quickly and easily than we are.

Link to original post: Right Off A Cliff

One more intelligent thing the US will never do

This from the New York Times this past December:

 

In Ireland, Carbon Taxes Pay Off

 

DUBLIN — Over the last three years, with its economy in tatters, Ireland embraced a novel strategy to help reduce its staggering deficit: charging households and businesses for the environmental damage they cause.

 

The government imposed taxes on most of the fossil fuels used by homes, offices, vehicles and farms, based on each fuel’s carbon dioxide emissions, a move that immediately drove up prices for oil, natural gas and kerosene. Household trash is weighed at the curb, and residents are billed for anything that is not being recycled.

      

The Irish now pay purchase taxes on new cars and yearly registration fees that rise steeply in proportion to the vehicle’s emissions.

      

Environmentally and economically, the new taxes have delivered results. Long one of Europe’s highest per-capita producers of greenhouse gases, with levels nearing those of the United States, Ireland has seen its emissions drop more than 15 percent since 2008.

      

Although much of that decline can be attributed to a recession, changes in behavior also played a major role, experts say, noting that the country’s emissions dropped 6.7 percent in 2011 even as the economy grew slightly.

 

But here in America?  And infringe on our "rights"?  No way. Not even if we'll reap benefits from it. It's far too "Gestapo" for us, isn't it?

 

It's the same reason why we have this broken, for-profit health care system that's killing so many of us.

 

And our guns, of course.  We must have lots and lots of guns and as little to no regulation of them at all. That's far better.

 

We're far too proud for all that smarty-pants stuff.

If this is true, the NRA, the Right and all the gun nuts are going to go ballistic

(Absolutely no pun intended).

Breaking, last evening:

Biden says Obama could use executive orders to restrict guns


(Reuters) - Vice President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the White House is determined to act quickly to curb gun violence and will explore all avenues - including executive orders that would not require approval by Congress - to try to prevent incidents like last month's massacre at a Connecticut school.

Kicking off a series of meetings on gun violence, Biden said the administration would work with gun-control advocates and gun-rights supporters to build a consensus on restrictions. But he made clear that President Barack Obama is prepared to act on his own if necessary.

Maybe it would have been a great idea, however, to not make this announcement the day before the Vice President was to meet with the NRA to discuss possible solutions to the repeated killings of Americans in large quantities in the country.

Recent stories on American health care

The Star ran this story yesterday:

KC explores extending a health care tax despite Obamacare

Obamacare’s promise of health care for the poor and uninsured may not be enough to relieve Kansas City taxpayers of their own health care bill.

Today a Kansas City Council committee is set to recommend an April vote on renewing part of a tax that now subsidizes health care for the indigent.

If voters say yes, a property tax described as “temporary” would yield at least $150 million — through 2023 — for Truman Medical Center, ambulance service and several neighborhood health centers. All provide free or low-cost services to the area’s poorest residents. I've written about this here before. It's just maddening that we have--bar none--the most expensive health care system in the world yet out population ranks far behind many, many other nations when it comes to overall health, quality of life and overall life spans.

So, with this article, locally, I just, coincidentally ran across this yesterday, too, from NPR:

 US Ranks Below 16 Other Rich Countries In Health Report  

It's no news that the U.S. has lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality than most high-income countries. But a magisterial new report says Americans are actually less healthy across their entire life spans than citizens of 16 other wealthy nations.

And the gap is steadily widening.

"What struck us — and it was quite sobering — was the recurring trend in which the U.S. seems to be slipping behind other high-income countries," the lead author of the report, Dr. Steven Woolf, tells Shots.

He says Americans of all ages up to 75 have shorter lives and more illness and injury. (An interactive graphic displaying the main results can be found here.)

Strikingly, even Americans who are white, insured, college-educated and upper-income are worse off than their counterparts around the world — a finding that no one quite understands.

"People with seemingly everything going for them still live shorter lives and have higher disease rates than people in other countries," Woolf says.

The 378-page report was completed under the auspices of the National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences. It grew out of an effort last year that concluded the U.S. has a large and widening "mortality gap" among adults over 50 compared with other high-income nations.

It's nearly insane. We shouldn't put up with this. We shouldn't tolerate this of ourselves in this nation. It's obscene.

Our health care system is not only broken, it's grossly immoral.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/01/08/4001137/kansas-city-explores-extending.html#storylink=cpy

Our weather

Check out that Friday:

 

 

One day of "Yeehaw!"

 

And some rain, to boot.

 

Fantastic.  Good for us.

Entertainment overnight

I'm so old...

I remember when there was a toll on the Broadway Bridge going into downtown Kansas City, Missouri.

THAT old.

Even as a kid I thought it a nuisance.

And no certainly no way to associate with the introduction to an otherwise fun place to visit.

Or live.

KC Police chase on video today going viral

Breaking today:

Wild Kansas City police chase caught on camera

We're hitting all the news--the national sources--with this. We're all over Yahoo! News, etc. 

People love "bang bang" of all sorts. 

Kansas City company all over the NY Times this week

I saw this a few days ago--huge stories on this Kansas City company and some of our town, to boot:

Drug-testing company tied to ncaa stirs criticism - New York Times

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A wall in one of the conference rooms at the National Center for Drug Free Sport displays magazine covers, each capturing a moment in the inglorious history of doping scandals in sports.