As our nation grieves (watching President Obama now at the memorial service) I just do not feel like ranting about Points Envy selling out. My initial reaction was of a complete letdown and I was getting ready to have a mega rant comparable only to my well known anti affiliate credit card pimping rants! I used to say Points Envy was my hero; well, no more! The originality and independence exhibited by Points Envy were remarkable. Well, not true anymore! For what? To reach a wider audience? To sacrifice your originality and independence and sign up to write for another blog that has (let’s face it) not endear itself to many in our hobby! You were on your way to become the top blog from your third and a half place blog. Now…you will be forever known as the blog that sold out. Extremely disappointing and disturbing. And I was born disturbed, remember!
QUESTION OF THE DAY? “Why people shoot people?”
I don’t know. Some people are screwed up. If we had less guns so easily available maybe we would not be going through the carnage we keep seeing in our society. Being a “gun enthusiast” is NOT cool for crying out loud. Teaching your children to shoot is NOT cool. I hope something gets done before we go through this again. And remember, guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people!
Two more points that sadly are not as popular in these grieving times: I wish the freaking media would not be all over this and talk so much about the shooter; in fact, I wish his name was only mentioned in passing. Putting up photos of him, interviewing people who knew him & family members surely encourages others with issues to do the same thing! And a huge heartfelt thanks for the first responders who had to come face to face with the gruesome scenes, we are with you, thank you so much for what you have done!
Ok, two more, obviously I have been affected by this like all of us. As President Obama, said, we MUST change!! And you NRA nuts, how you can stand up here and spew the same crap over and over after each mass shooting is beyond shameful, grow up!
Here is the text of the President’s speech yesterday at Newtown, CT. Regardless of your politics, I think this speech will go down as one of the best EVER! I hope it becomes a turning point for a less violent society! Or maybe I am a dreamer…
There, I feel better now!
BEST OF
An interesting post from Giddy for Points about Ways to Take Money out of Paypal after Reload
Just be careful with Pay Pal, they are ruthless in closing accounts if they see you taking the money back out soon afterwards!
The whole internet is awaiting the mother of all trip reports from Ben One Mile at a Time, a preview is here.
A fantastic video on 11 Amazing Things to do in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia I have visited twice, great memories!
NOT SO BEST OF
Points Envy Sells Out A day that will go down in infamy.
The introductory Billion Mile Secrets post by Points Envy in the MMS site. Funny but nowhere near as funny as before. Maybe I feel this way because it was not in the ORIGINAL site (hint)?
Perhaps prematurely here…Delta to release new reservation system as soon as today? Be afraid, be very afraid!
ODDZ & ENDZ
10 Powerful Things to Put on Your To-Do List Today I like Number 7 the most “Practice genuine kindness”
THE END
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Not sure anyone really becomes a ‘gun enthusiast’ or teaches their children how to safely and properly use a firearm to be “cool”.
I realize it’s easy to just talk about gun control, and I’m not saying that we don’t need to change our laws to make it harder for the more dangerous among us to procure weapons, but the reality is that guns aren’t going away in this country, so why don’t we figure out how to get people to not want to kill people in the first place?
I’m in total agreement about the whole “glorify the shooter” thing though. The media turns everything into a frenzy every time something like this happens, and then they wonder why a person who is troubled or struggles to find meaning in their life sees it as an easy way to become famous.
Some people posted that u can use cvs self checkout 2 buy VRs! I’m mystified!
@J. Trebuchet:
Thank you for your comments! Based on reports, the mother of the shooter only recently picked up the shooting hobby and a neighbor said “she got really into it”. Obviously my “cool” comment was a bit much…but I must think that if she did not find it cool she would not get into it as much?
I think we just need to make it harder to get weapons PERIOD! If not, weapons would fall into the wrong hands over and over again. My main point has been if guns were not so prevalent in our society, events like this would not happen as frequently as they have! I mean, look around the world and you see that the gun violence in the US totally overwhelms every single other country! Then it gets to the argument we have here that US was God’s gift to humanity, we are different, we are all about freedom and democracy yada yada yada. I just don’t want to see things like that. The mother sure could have picked up another hobby damnit!
I also realize guns are not going away. Can we get the Bushmasters and other machine guns off the markets first, that would be a great start!
Yeah, the freaking media makes things worse making this disturbed kid a household name:-(
For the record, I have never held a real gun in my hands. And I am no Grateful Dead kind of peace lover either!
Only in the gun debate are people proud to announce their ignorance and act as if this makes them better informed. Never held a gun, don’t know the stats on gun deaths, don’t know what guns are used in crimes, don’t know what laws exist now, don’t know whether new laws would make any difference. You’re a real pip, you don’t know shit and apparently that makes you a good person. Fuckwit.
@Kathy: Yes, some CVStores have self checkout lanes. One store downtown Ann Arbor has them but I have not tried them out myself. It appears there are several steps in the screen and could slow the lane way down. I have enough around me with friendly clerks so no need to try to be a hero and feel like “wow, self checking out points, this is too easy”:-)
Guns don’t kill people. People with guns kill people. Guns are merely a tool. Did you know CT has one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and yet this still happened? What we really need to be focusing on is how to help those with mental illness, or those who need counseling/ social skill help. Until we focus on those who need the help it won’t matter. Again, I don’t believe guns in of themselves are the problem. I believe it is the people. If you are going to say guns are the problem, then you need to take away forks in the cafeteria, knives in the cafeteria, you shouldn’t let people drive cars, because they can be used as a weapon. Where do you stop? If someone really wants to do something awful they will find a way to do so. The only thing you do by controlling guns is by taking guns away from law abiding citizens.
What about stories like this one http://www.theblaze.com/stories/92-year-old-wwii-vet-shoots-and-kills-home-intruder-as-soon-as-he-got-inside-it-was-all-over/
You don’t see this publicized on the news, but if the robber had killed him, then it would be the guns fault….two sides to every story. Think about this the average response time to a 911 call is 6 minutes….look at what damage can be done in 6 minutes in CT.
Sad, sad, sad. Always the same from anyone pro-gun in the US.
As I said before “Guns don’t kill people, people with guns kill people”. The same pro gun arguments are really getting old, we are all tired by them!!! The mother of the shooter knew her son was a bit off…and she still showed him how to shoot, took him to a gun range & she had two handguns and a Bushmaster or Bushwhacker or whatever the f*ck that killing machine was called. The only thing that instrument did was whack innocent children. It is AMAZING you think these devices are fine for protection when time and time again they get to the wrong hands with so deadly consequences (Columbin, VT, Newtown). WE MUST CHANGE…THAT INCLUDES YOU!!!!
Thank you for commenting. We must take some meaningful action, it is TIME!!!
“Time and time again”? Is this your grasp of statistics? Most gun deaths are suicides. Maybe time for you to buy one. Just an idea.
I will never buy a gun because I am a lover, not a fighter! And thank you for reading and taking the time to comment, I sure appreciate it!
No one gives a shit about your political views (they’re stupid and uninformed). Feeling outraged does not mean you have a clue (the correlation seems to be the reverse–people who are the most outraged are always the biggest fools). Your brand of half-wit rage is in very common currency these days, whether at a Tea Party or OWS rally or just among any group of partisan morons who think Obama or Romney was going to save our country and THIS ELECTION IS IMPORTANT! You’re rally, really, really silly and idiotic. There, that’s my rant, dingbat.
I think you voted for Ron Paul? I welcome all rants. Thank you for reading and for taking the time to comment!