I suspect Jimmy Carter was the last honorable President the United States ever had. I do not hold he was great or poor but he was honorable. I think he might have been a bit out of his depth. But he really tried to do things to help the American people and he tried to set good examples. He put solar panels on the White House. It was mostly a show. There weren’t enough to run the whole building and the technology was in it’s infancy. But the gesture… It was awesome. It pointed America toward the future. And, coincidentally, apparently scared the heck out of the oil industry who understood the meaning behind the gesture immediately. Ronald Reagan had them removed as one of his very first acts as President. (The oil companies were happy. The US would NOT be moving forward any time soon. Thank the corporate gods…)

Carter also tried to convert America to the metric system. You know, just to join the rest of the world. Standardized, I believe is the word. That got as far as road signs with miles AND kilometers posted on them. That effort, too, was abandoned when he left office.

His administration was brought down by the Iran hostage crisis, in which a group of Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 American staff and citizens in the compound for months. Carter tried everything he could to end the stalemate and get the hostages free but the Iranians wouldn’t budge. As an interesting side note, there was, at the time, some evidence that, working behind the scenes with the students, the Reagan campaign had promised the Iranians weapons if they would hold the hostages until Carter was defeated.

The hostages were released literally about 1/2 hour after Reagan was inaugurated and you can read about how Reagan kept up his end of the bargain in a fancy little transaction that became the scandal known as Iran/Contra. Col. Oliver North fell on his sword and took the fall for that one. He got rich and became a darling of the right for his efforts so, I guess he’s happy. But I digress…

I’ll tell you this: I can’t say, for sure, whether or not Carter was a good President but there’s no doubt in my mind that Carter is a good man and it saddens me a bit to think he’ll be leaving us soon…

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I suppose stories like this were inevitable after the Roberts Kangaroo Court struck down Roe based on their personal ideology. There’s a couple in Florida who are being forced to deliver a child into this world even though everyone involved knows the child will die a miserable death shortly after being born. How lovely for everyone involved, most especially the ideologues who cheered the court’s arbitrary decision and don’t have to be anywhere near that suffering family as their baby dies.

The “no choice/no option” crowd really doesn’t seem to care about the realities involved. They just want what they want and so decided that late-term abortions were super easy to get (they aren’t) and that women regularly use that “option” simply because they randomly decided they didn’t want to be pregnant any more (they don’t). But, once you’re all-in on the faulty thinking, faulty “solutions” follow. And, since crowning seems to be the moment when the Anti-choice crowd stops caring, they can ignore all of the suffering they’re inflicting on people afterward. Sweet deal…for them…

But these parents get to watch their newborn suffocate within hours of delivery in a struggling, painful death…

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Biden had his regular physical the other day. HIS doctor, the guy who did the actual examination, said he’s in fine shape – presumably for a man his age. The right has gone nuts. Each and every one of them are certain that Biden’s doctor is covering up…well, everything, really. They started right in with the “questions.” Where, for example, is the mental acuity test? Apparently, he didn’t need one. Mental acuity tests are NOT part of a normal physical. Former Guy took one, a very simplified pre-screening, by choice. That doesn’t stop the right, though. Former’s old “doctor,” Ronny Jackson, the guy who once declared Former the very picture of perfect health, pretends to think the White House might be covering up.

The right, you see, has convinced itself that Biden is locked in full-blown dementia. He isn’t. Yes, he has some “senior moments.” That’s not dementia. That doesn’t matter, though. They’ve decided and don’t need no stinking proof. They know what they know and will now move forward with their preferred belief with or without evidence. I’ll tell you this: I can’t decide if that’s comforting or frustrating. On the one hand, they get to live in a world of their own creation. On the other hand, it seems contact with reality must be inevitable and that occasional contact must be frustrating when it doesn’t match the fever-dream.

They should probably put together a committee and launch and “investigation…”

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According to USA Today, there had been 71 mass shootings, including the Michigan State shooting, in the US in 2023. Now we get to add Mississippi, so…72 mass shootings in the US…so far this year. As of today, there have been 50 days in 2023. The headline I saw in the Guardian read “Biden pleads with Congress to pass gun control after six killed in Mississippi.” Pleads. Just like the vast majority of Americans. Please do something! “Sorry, no can do,” say the Gun Rights Advocates (GRAs). “The Second Amendment clearly says, ‘…shall not be denied.’ Nothing we can do!”

From time to time, I mention that I’ve re-written the US Constitution to correct some of it’s more egregious errors. It’s a fascinating exercise, even if it is a bit arrogant. When I did it, the question of the Second Amendment had to be addressed. I gave this one Amendment probably more thought than any of the rest of the work but, in the end, decided to leave it just as it had been written originally. The basis for that decision was that the Second, taken as a whole, says exactly what it should say. “Well regulated” is a key phrase. Just because a small, ideological minority are capable of misinterpreting the Second by reading only half of it – more than happy to, in fact, doesn’t mean the Amendment is wrong.

I no longer feel that way. In today’s edition of “Things We Could Fix and Should Fix – but Won’t Fix”? The gun question. This is not an easy fix but it is necessary. Philosophically, I have no problem with people owning guns. From a practical standpoint, though, gun ownership endangers all of society at all times and that, to me, seems to be the larger of the two problems. The minority’s right to own guns tramples the majority’s right to safety. Sure, the GRAs would argue that logic sets the truth on it’s ear but the facts are too clear to be denied unless one’s only goal is to deny them.

I have a proposed bill I’d would like to see introduced called the “Keep Your Gun Act.” As you can tell by the name, it requires gun owners to keep their guns but keep them safely – and assigns consequences for failure to do so. I came up with it because, again, I don’t really have a problem with people owning guns. But this whole thing has gotten out of control and we’re ALL in danger now based on one of the dumber pieces of ideology floating around in this world.

72 mass shootings in 50 days. (49, really. I write these pieces early in the morning and the nation hasn’t yet has it’s opportunity to come out blasting today.) There can be no question, in any rational person’s mind, that the gun problem is out of control. We all know that the tool being used by the GRAs to justify the ongoing carnage is the Second Amendment. When push comes to shove, that means the Second Amendment, as written, has to go.

I’d be okay with ‘Repeal and Replace,’ an ideology the right mentions a lot. (Sure, they mean health care but it’s still their own policy…) It could be simple. We could just add “…without due process of law” at the end. That, at least, would provide a mechanism to keep guns out of irresponsible hands. The problem is, one never knows when someone might “break.” A person could be normal and sound of mind but face daunting life-challenges that push them over the edge just long enough to murder a large number of people going about their day.

I’ll tell you this, though. I’m fed up with these day-after-day shootings and if the GRAs won’t let society manage the problem of guns because of the Second Amendment, it becomes the duty of that society to eliminate the Second Amendment…