Guns and the environment
The disaster taking place in the Gulf of Mexico has got me thinking about the environment and the ways we destroy it. Last week I wrote about how some people are pro life and pro death. I stated that I try to take a common sense approach to issues that many see as divisive.
One group of folks who don’t seem to share my common sense approach are gun owners, specifically those that are hunters. Common sense dictates that these people should want to try to preserve the environment. Afterall, if you destroy an animals natural habitat and they are forced to move or worse, don’t you also destroy the ability to hunt that animal. If you look at their usual political positions, the same people who want to hunt seem to be the same people who’d clear cut every tree in sight if they could make a buck (as opposed to shooting one). I never quite understood those two political/societal stances on these issues. You’d think hunters would the first ones lining up to join the Sierra Club, the NRDC or other environmental groups but I don’t think they are because there extremist buddies see environmentalists as the enemy.
For those of you who are going to tell me I’m anti-gun and I’m anti-NRA and I’m a tree hugger, well I’m not (although I did hug my big backyard tree this weekend because it’s starting to show it’s age…but only on side). Yes, I do have issues with gun owners, the NRA and tree huggers but my common sense approach guides me to realize that these opposing sides don’t always make sense.
Why is it that it’s always those that take the extreme sides of an issue that you hear about the most? It’s always the crazy gun owners holed up in some backwoods cabin or the nutty tree guy chained and locked to a redwood. Hey crazy gun guy – do you really need an Uzi to hunt a deer? And you tree hugger – chaining yourself to a tree makes you look like a friggin’ idiot.
OK, so I think I may have strayed a bit from my original premise but you all get the picture. We are screwing up our planet but good and as they used to say in those old Chiffon Margarine commercials “It’s not nice to screw mother nature.” So I changed it a little. Deal with it!
Pro life & pro death
Pro life & pro death
I have always been fascinated by the contrasting views expressed by the same people in the name of politics. For instance, it seems to me that the same people who are “pro life” are also “pro death.”
Let me start by saying that I believe that the 2 party system is broken and would love to see a viable 3rd party emerge, if for no other reason than the utter chaos it would cause. The blog post possibilities are endless! I like the idea of the Common Sense Party but I guess one person’s common sense is another person’s nonsense.
OK, let’s get back to the whole pro life and pro death thing. If you look at the sharp contrast in the current political environment today, the very same people who are pro life at inception are also for the death penalty. In other words, they are also “pro death.” They also tend not to want to have anything to do with a person once that person enters the world. As far as they are concerned, you are on your own. What they are saying is we will do everything we can to make sure you are born but once you enter the world, we don’t want to know anything about you unless you screw up and if you do, off with your head.
Going back to my Common Sense Party idea, wouldn’t common sense dictate that if you are pro life you really shouldn’t be pro death penalty. But who am I kidding…common sense in American politics today? It will never happen and that’s the only sense I can make out of all of this.
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