Gun culture? Doesn’t that require having guns?

So, on the cover of the crappy, trashy, gossip-filled The Sun newspaper (I say that as if most media here in the UK doesn’t fit that description) on Friday, 23-Feb, there was this picture of David Cameron and some kid pretending to shoot him from behind with the caption “I suppose a hug is out of the question?” (Back in July, Cameron gave a speech that has been dubbed the “hug a hoodie” speech where he claimed that hoodlums exist because they don’t receive enough love and understanding.) As if we haven’t seen this approach tried and failed in the US plenty of times before.

So, anyway, this happened when David Cameron was viewing a crime ridden neighbourhood, and trying to show how he would address “the gun culture” in the UK. I am sorry to have to say what appears blindingly obvious to me: How can there be a gun culture when guns are not readily available? I suppose it’s a reference to some romanticizing of the gun, or something. I mean, obviously, there are SOME guns, but come on.

A real gun culture is like Texas, where guns are common, everyone knows how to use and care for their weapon, and are less likely to be mishandled. People wear shoulder holsters externally so that you know they are armed. Also concealed carry laws exist throughout the state, which studies have shown that gun crime is significantly lowered where there are concealed carry laws because you are less likely to rob a bank when one of the customers could just shoot you.

Or, maybe the media here is referring to the glamorized, hip hop version of a gun culture… I keep thinking of that movie Galaxy Quest, how the aliens thought it was all a true documentary, not a made up fantasy story. Yeah, there is violence. Yeah, people get shot and beat up and killed. But, do you really think that every bit of it is true? Do you really think 10% of it is actually true?

Two other points:

One: There is the old NRA saying of, “If guns are outlawed then only outlaws have guns.” Well, the cops here don’t carry guns. And the “hoodies”, according to this kid, can get one that fires for as cheap as £50. While guns are not nearly as common or readily available here as in the US, it is still disconcerting to realize cops could get shot at and not be able to return fire.

Two: The 2^nd amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms to overthrow an unlawful government if necessary. (You’ve gotta love the fact that, by and large, who are yelling that Bush is unlawfully in office are the ones who dispute the second amendment!) This is because we, as Americans, are distrustful of an all-powerful government, and its part of the reason why we broke away from the crown in the first place. I know that this strongly colors my opinion and the whole tone of this rant...

News and stuff… Just the banal everyday stuff…

Well, things are going well. Ray has actually got the Volvo (he’s calling it his urban assault vehicle) running fairly well. All the cylinders fire, overdrive works, the mirror on the passenger side is now intact, and all of the headlights (and fog lights) work. Though, oil is still spewing out of the oil cap because Ray will actually have to purchase a new gasket for it rather than the one he tried to fabricate. Ray has put a lot of effort into it, and has done a great job of making it run.

Also, on the Ray side of things, he should be getting his international assignment next month, so he will get paid in £s and get British benes, so I won’t have to pay extra to carry him on mine.

That is something I don’t get, though. I have known several professional couples that do the really stupid thing of assuming that because they are married, they must share benefits. In IBM in the US, for example, it is far cheaper for Ray and I each to get our own insurance, no matter how you figure it. Even if, for example, I went with cheapest base coverage for both of us, the amount of money that would be returned to Ray for refusing coverage would not equal the amount that I would pay for covering him. Then, when you look at the different needs – that I am going to see a doctor more often than Ray and Ray is going to go to the emergency room with something broken more often than me – it doesn’t make sense for us to have the same policy. Now, if one of us worked for SAS it would be different. :-)

Anyway… My knees are both coming along really well. The left on is still bruised, as is the left ankle, but it isn’t doing too badly. Of course, Abbie rammed my bruised knee with her head yesterday. I think I came out on the worst side of that one. I swear the dogs are as clumsy as Ray and me. I guess they really belong in our family. :-)

That is all the news for now.

Explanation of last post....

Well, Ray and I were discussing this and he said I didn't put the previous post in context. It's not that I think the Zebrahead video was bad because of the mostly naked women, etc. I am not getting into the whole "exploitation of women" thing here. People make choices and decisions. If someone chooses to be a stripper to put themselves through college because they enjoy stripping, they don't feel demeaned by what I think is demeaning, if they get a kick out of being seen as just a piece of meat, then they aren't being exploited. Just because I wouldn't do it doesn't make it wrong for someone else to do it. Maybe it just means they have higher self esteem than I do and better view of themselves? And as for the argument that it encourages violence against women, rapists and perverts would exist without strippers, prostitutes or pornography.

Anyway. The problem I have with the bare breasted women in the video is the teen pregnancy rate here. According to NHS, "Teenage birth rates in the UK are the highest in Western Europe. One in every ten babies born in England is to a teenage mum." I can't count the number of prams I see pushed around by teenage girls. And, also according to NHS, 54.5% of conceptions to under 16s ended in legal abortion. Which means that slightly less than half of those girls actually gave birth and are "raising" these children!!! These are the screaming, whining little brats running around Pizza Hut throwing food at one another while their "mothers" (for there is almost never a male in this picture) talk to one another and make it a point to absolutely ignore their offspring. The problem, as far as I can tell, is that they seem to be teaching abstinence and ignoring contraception. One article, that I can't find again, said that the problem was that the age of consent is 16, therefore, they can't really teach 14 year olds about contraception. That seems like a really stupid idea to me to just ignore the reality of the situation. If you can't stop the kids from having sex (no, trust me on this one – you will not be able to stop that), then MAKE IT SAFER!!!

Also, there is a huge problem in this country with STDs. Because commitment seems to be a bit more shunned here, and infidelity seems to be a common thing, and people seem to have a larger number of sexual partners, seem to be more likely to have a one night stand, etc, there are large numbers of people walking around with STDs. The number I saw in the Metro the other day was like 1 in 3. (Note: I don't know that I actually believe that statistic, because the papers have a really bad habit of manipulating numbers to make things seem more dramatic than they actually are.) Regardless of the validity of that ratio, they supposedly have a terribly STD rate, especially for chlamydia. So, if this is the case, then, since it probably isn't possible to change the attitudes of an entire country, maybe the government needs to focus on awareness and disease prevention. Give away free condoms. Teach people that some STDs are passed through oral sex. Encourage people to visit the damn doctor if they think they have an STD!

Anyway, my whole point about the video was that I don't see 1 in 3 people in the UK with a cocaine problem (though maybe that many that have alcohol dependency issues), and yet the thing that was censored was the word cocaine. (I guess I will never hear that Clapton song here...) Do I think that censoring the women would actually help teen pregnancy or STD rates? Not at all. Do I really think that cocaine usage should be glorified? For obvious reasons, no, I have a lot of issues with people who use coke. I just think that the whole thing shows a bit of lack of thought…

Cultural oddities

So, last night Ray and I were watching/listening Scuzz, one of the music video channels here, while washing the dishes in the kitchen. They seem to tend more towards the type of stuff I listen to, though that is only based on my observations of seeing the station a couple of times. They were, of course with it being Valentine's Day, playing "love songs". Things such as Marylin Manson's version of "Tainted Love", Velvet Revolver's version of "Fall to Peices", that song with Seether and Amy (something) from Evenescense, "Foxtrot Uniform Charlie Kilo" from Bloodhound Gang, some emo crap from Papa Roach... You get the idea. Well, there was also a video by Zebrahead, something like about Playboys. (I am not a huge fan of Zebrahead - I don't hate them, I just am not very familiar with their music.) Anyway, the video is the typical teenage fantasy of scantily clad, bare breasted women dancing around in pools, hanging on the lead singer, etc... They showed the bared breasts and all. The next song was that old Guns and Roses song, "You Could Be Mine". In the chorus, they say, "With your bitch slap rappin'/And your cocaine tounge/You get nothin' done"... They bleeped out the word cocaine. Breasts ok. The word cocaine bad. I am confused.


You know... It helps to hit the "Publish" button instead of the "Save As Draft"

We went to see Spamalot at the Palace Theater on Saturday. (I meant to get a picture of the building, but none of them really looked okay 'cause I took them with my mobile.) Anyway, it was absolutely wonderful! It started with the Fish Slapping Dance and ended with the Bright Side of Life (the second time it was sung) and there were a bunch of funny Python-esque things in between. The lead female, playing the Lady of the Lake, was great! The Black Knight was there, as well as the Knights Who Say "Ni!" and the French castle guards throwing out the taunt of "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!". Though the it was the Rabbit with Big Pointy Teeth who was blown up with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. It was absolutely worth it and we will probably have to take Marcee to see it when she comes to visit. If any of my friends in the states get the chance to head up to NY, see the Broadway version of it!

It kind of started out as a bad day, though, so it was good that the show was so great. First, Abbie has decided that she is kind of unhappy about being here. So, she has taken to going on the carpet to tell us this. We've started crating her, though, Ray thought that Friday night, we should give her a chance to prove she was reformed. It turned out that she wasn't. That isn't that extraordinarily bad, in and of itself. Just annoying. But - it took a few minutes to clean up... Earlier in the week, we'd recieved a notice that power would be cut at 08:30 and turned back on at 15:30. Of course, we have a "power shower" which means that without power, there is no shower. (We also have a non-power handheld thing for the bathtub, and I used that.) So, the power gets cut while I am still washing my hair, and for whatever reason, there wasn't any actual hot water. Oh, well. Could be worse - Ray had to take a cold shower with the handheld thing.

Then, the train was delayed.... You know how there are recorded messages that play at train stations to let you know when there is a delay and why that delay occurred? It's usually something like, "I am sorry to announce that the [a train time] for [a destination] is [delayed or cancelled] due to [some excuse] at [some location]" Such as, "I am sorry to announce that the 17:37 for Epsom Downs is delayed due to a signalling failure at West Croydon." (This is a message I hear usually once a week). What was surprising yesterday was, while the train was stopped, hearing a recorded message at whatever station we were paused at, stating that the next train headed in the direction we just came from, would be experiencing delays "due to an earlier fatality at Thornton Heath". They have a RECORDED message for it! They anticipated enough deaths at rail stations that they actually have a recording for it.

So, we get off the train at Balham and then the Northern Line tube wasn't running everywhere it normally did. We had to do this silly thing where we jumped from line to line (we went Northern to Bakerloo to Picadilly) and they were all filled to the brim with people. But, we eventually got there, and we had a lot of fun, so it was really worth it!

Snow!

On Tuesday, the MetOffice issued an early warning that there would likely be heavy snow and there was a 70% chance of disruptions to travel networks for today, Thursday. Notice that this isn't a 70% chance of snow itself. Kind of odd, if you ask me, but hey. Anyway, we got snow:

From Assorted UK S...

Hopefully it clears up pretty soon - we have tickets to see Spamalot on Saturday. I really wish we'd had a chance to see it when Tim Curry was playing King Arthur, but, oh well.

I just found this really cool picture of our house from a postcard sent in 1930:




That is ours on the right, closest to the camera. Wow! Neat!

Crappy roads continued...

I didn't get a chance Friday to mention any of the good things about my bike wreck. Yeah, kind of funny to use good in the same sentence as the phrase "bike wreck".

Anyway, when I fell, many people were kind enough to stop and help. One guy kind of tried to block the road with his car until they dragged me off the tarmac. Another, older guy, was nice enough to find a phone and call 999. However, because I was bundled up against the cold, he couldn't actually see my face, and he apparently judged from the string of expletives that spewed forth immediately after my impact that I was a 25 year old male. At the time, I didn't understand the funny look he gave me when he came back and I'd gotten off my helmet, glasses and coat. :-) One lady felt bad that she couldn't wait with me to see the paramedics or even Ray get to me, because she had to catch the train I was trying to get to. The guy that blocked the road did stay until the paramedics arrived and tried to keep me as comfortable as possible, keep me from going into shock and all of those other things that are taught as emergency medical responses for folks who are first to see a victim of an accident. (Am I the victim of the accident if I am also the cause of the accident?) Also, there is a kid that we see around here a lot that rides a BMX bike. He was trying to fold up my bike and make sure it wasn't damaged and stuff. It was really cool - a lot of people stopped to make sure everything was okay. But, then again, this is the suburbs. I was kind of surprised, but maybe that is unfair of me to the folks around here.

Also, I must say that my first encounter with NHS was better than I'd expected. Granted, arriving in an ambulance probably gets you a higher priority. But, the paramedics and the EMTs (sorry - I can't remember their British titles) were competent and helpful. They were also friendly and reassuring, which can't be easy in that kind of job. The staff in the hospital was pretty good, even if kind of slow for it being empty other than a guy with a compound fracture in his tibia. Then again, I am sure that 8AM on a Friday morning is not going to be a time when you typically schedule an abundance of staff. All in all, it only took no longer for all of that than it did for my hospital visits in the US for dislocated shoulders (both mine and Ray's) or broken ribs (Ray's). Though, I don't think Naproxen Sodium is dispensed here at all. Which kind of sucks, because it works so much better than ibuprofen.

Last, I have to say, I am so glad I had a good helmet. I looked at it last night and there was a nice, big dent in the front where I hit. Plus several other dents, scrapes and chunks of stuff missing from where I rolled. Ray is going to try to find this cycling store that is, I think, in Epsom, to get me a new noggin protector.

Surprisingly, I am recovering very quickly. The guy at the hospital said I probably wouldn't be able to walk on it for at least a week, and I would have to use crutches, etc... I dumped the right crutch after an hour because of right wrist hurting. By the end of Friday, I'd given up on the other one because it requires more coordination than what I have. Yesterday, I woke up hungry and actually got myself down the stairs and got food. (Just bread because my wrist really wasn't up to me trying to cook.) This morning, I am able to bend each leg the same amount - both seem to be sore in the same spot on the outside of each leg, which I think it a ligament. But the torn up left knee is actually moving. I can almost make a fist with my right hand, and I can now straighten it completely. The rest of the pain is just bruises. I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, and I guess that has helped. But I think that the secret is ice. Keep the joint cold, keep the swelling down and *poof* it heals a lot quicker.

The roads here suck...

Just a quick note 'cause my sprained wrist really sucks... So, I am trying to get to the train station this morning on my little foldable, like usual, and as I go to turn the corner, my front wheel locks and the back went somewhere else and the next thing I knew I was 5 feet from the bike. Why? Well, there are many reasons, including the crappy, patched, bumpy roads. Plus, it was raining just a bit, so the road was slick. Also, because for hand signals you just point the direction you are going, I had to use my front brake, which is bad at 17 MPH, downhill.

Anyway, someone called an ambulance and I was taken to A&E (accident and emergency) and all of that. Nothing is broken, but my left knee is a mess, and I have a nice bruise on my chin. I didn't realize until a bit later, my right wrist is sprained, and as the day comes to an end, all kinds of bruises are starting to show themselves... Ah, well - It could have been worse. I have a bruise on my forehead from where my helmet impacted. If I wasn't intelligent enough to wear one, I would be a lot worse off.