Back in the Saddle Again

Yay!
Again I'm working in a bookstore!
Books A Million
120th & L in Omaha
Come on over and visit!

Ponder This

Firearms have been around for over 400 years, yet it is only in the last 20 years that people have begun shouting "gun control". Why then, only recently, has this become such an issue? Moreover, why are there more mass-murderers than at any other time in our known history? It is not because weapons are more powerful -- 200-year-old muzzle loaders have a much greater force-per-round than today's "assault rifles". It is not because weapons are semi- or fully-automatic -- rapid-fire weapons have been available for most of the last century. It is not due to a lack of laws -- we have more "gun control" laws than ever. It IS, however, because we have chosen to focus on "gun control" instead of crime control or "thug control." It IS because only recently has the public become complacent enough to accept, by inaction, the violence present in our society.
- Kevin Langston, Tuesday, 29 October, 1991

Pondering: Always Connected?

Recently this came to the fore when a friend of mine called to ask if I had seen her husband. He hadn't answered his cell phone. She was a little frantic. He had to work later than expected. His battery was dead.

Has anyone else noticed some people assume terrible things have happened when a different someone doesn't answer their cell phone? Death, accident, jail? Sometimes I just don't feel like talking to anyone. Usually when I'm reading.


Many years ago I called my pager an electronic leash. Occasionally I now think of my cell phone as an electronic ball & chain.


Forehead slap: A few years ago a buddy visited me at work and asked me to call him when I was finished with my shift. I told him I couldn't because the battery in my cell phone had died. He pointed at the land line five feet away.