While I was birthing

What with a new baby and all I haven’t been following world events as closely as I might have liked. But fortunately, it seems like it was kinda a slow news week, despite the G8 summit and the weird Azerbaijani compromise. And was there a Republican presidential candidate debate? Wouldn’t matter, ’cause I’m not blogging about it until it’s an actual election year. And then in the UK, there’s a little kerfuffle over the matter of a few hundred million pounds in kick backs to a Saudi prince Bandar (and Bush buddy) in the mega, mega Al Yo-Mama arms deal. You couldn’t make it up (OK – I did a little, it was the Al-Yamamah arms deal)

But now that I’ve kinda lifted my head from the epidural haze – I can see that the big stories brewing have been:

1. The London 2012 Logo.

I hate to admit, London Mayor Red Ken is right. The people who came up with this logo should be loaded into a burlap sack, along with their logo and a live rooster and throwed into the Thames. Well, Ken Livingstone just suggested that the designers not be paid, but I really don’t think that’s good enough.

Do you?

2. Paris Hilton’s return to the slammer.

Regular readers will know I don’t usually spare much time for celebrity goss. But clearly, this is the story of the week.

It’s not the drunk driving or the probation violation that bothers me. Hey, we all make mistakes. It’s the being dragged screaming from the courtroom, I can’t stand.

No class.

Don’t take your guns to town, son

Oh the usual predictable reactions to the massacre at Virginia Tech.

We need more gun control.

I would tend to agree. But without a complete hand gun ban, which is probably way too late anyway, I’m not really sure how this particular tragedy could have been prevented. From what I’ve seen so far, the perpetrator didn’t have any particular form which would have raised a red flag.

We need more guns.

If only a student or a teacher had had a gun on campus, they might have stopped this madman.

Are you people CRAZY?? I really would rather not have attended university with a bunch of folks hopped up on NoDoze, cranky and dull from hangovers, raging with stress and hormones, lacking the wisdom and discretion of experience and carrying concealed weapons.

And the folks wanting a carry-on campus are generally the same ones who don’t really want any kind of training or control over who gets to have a carry permit or not. So any untrained dimwit can whip out his weapon and accidentally shoot himself or others.

OK if some brave soul had engaged in shootout, maybe just maybe this madness might have been stopped on this occasion (and maybe not). But how many more gun deaths would have occurred over the years in ones or twos? Sad to say, as a society we’ve become so used to single murders from gun shot wounds that scarcely a hair would turn. After all, the first shootings were seen as some kind of business-as-usual domestic +1 innconcent by-stander.

Are we somehow less concerned with overall loss of life than we are about experiencing the shock of one campus killing?

And since most of these shootings seem to happen in high schools rather than universities – are you people advocating guns in the K-12 years?

As an ambassador

I went to France when I was 15. Before I left, VolMom reminded me that everywhere I went I was an ambassador for my country, my culture and my family. (Just no diplomatic immunity).

Tomorrow, I’ll have a very unpleasant ambassadorial task.

Tomorrow, my British co-workers will ask me why.

Fox reports, I obey

The Vol-in-Law has Fox News on. I don’t know why. I guess because I’m hogging the laptop and this is his dirty protest. The story just on was “Make more babies, win the war on terror and save America.”

Fox reports. I obey.