Gasoline-Powered Turtleneck Sweater?
Yesterday I received one of the oddest catalogues I've ever seen: Hammacher Schlemmer: Offering the Best, the Only and the Unexpected for 161 years. The stuff is neat, but pricey. They offer a contraption that allows you to burn CDs from your LPs and cassettes (from where they're presumably one short step away from your iPod), but the thing is $400. I have about 100 albums that I'd like to burn onto CD, but most of the albums are from the 70s/80s. I can go on Amazon and buy used CDs for all of them for about the same price.
But some of the stuff is actually neat and halfway affordable, like the voice interactive alarm clock. You can ask it "What time is it?" and it'll answer . . . a nifty feature for a terribly near-sided bat like me. I'm also intrigued by the stainless steel wallet. It's $90, but I assume it'll last forever (either for me or for the guy who steals it from me) and the metal detecting scandals (just $60). The thing I'm most intrigued with: the cool mist outdoor fan. I'd kill for one of those some July days. I'd be like Warren Sapp during a September football game in Tampa Bay.
I like to think I've done a pretty good job of heeding JPII's warnings about the consumerist culture, but this catalogue has me reaching for my wallet.
Gun Culture
I own one shotgun and one handgun. I've never fired either. I don't like guns, but I think I should have them around just in case, you know, some boy asks my daughter to prom.
Although I'm not a Second Amendment nut, I think the Second Amendmenters have the better argument than the gun-control folks. The gun-controllers like to point to the opening clause: "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State," and say "We've outgrown militias, so the Second Amendment doesn't apply." It's a legitimate argument, but the independent clause says, "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." It refers to "the right," not the "privilege," or the "personal option," or the "whimsy." It says it is a right. Consequently, I think it's a right, but not of the absolute sort or even on level with the First Amendment. Since the right is tied to outdated militias, it would seem to me that states can regulate guns to some extent, but they need to remember that the right still exists, with the result that the need for regulation must be balanced against the non-absolute right.
Those are my thoughts on the text, anyway. I haven't spent much time looking into the history behind the Second Amendment, though it's my understanding that there, too, the Second Amendmenters have the better argument.
Anywaaaaay, I clicked over to the Parade magazine (didn't know it was still published) yesterday and saw this poll: Should states loosen restrictions on guns? I voted "yes," then checked the results: 94% Yes, 6% No. I was stunned. Either Parade online appeals big to the trailer park population or Americans love their guns.
