CatherineRhodes.com

I used to beg my dad to take me off his email blast, but now I see it for what it is — a window to the worldview of the extreme right. How else would I know about Rand Paul’s email newsletter where he points out that one million rifles were “banned by a stroke of Obama’s pen” — which my dad forwarded to his vast list of like-minded buddies, adding:

Friends and fellow Patriots:
Any bill sponsored to ban this gun and taking a law abiding citizen’s right to bear arms is legislation that has fallen into the wrong hands, not guns. “Outlaw guns and only criminals will have guns.”   I guess if all our guns are taken away then we will be forced to make a run on government with pitchforks.  Bruce

THE STATS DON’T LIE

I went back and forth with my dad on the issue of gun control. The reality is that it’s too late to control guns in America, that horse left the barn long ago. Even if the so-called”government” wanted to go door-to-door and collect them up it would be impossible. So my take is not about limiting firearms within society, but rather on the individual level — just because you can own a gun legally doesn’t mean you should.

From the completely non-political American Academy of Pediatrics, whose slogan is “dedicated to the health of all children,” come these facts:

More than 44 million Americans own firearms. Of the 192 million firearms owned in the United States, 65 million are handguns. Research shows guns in homes are a serious risk to families. A gun kept in the home is 43 times more likely to kill someone known to the family than to kill someone in self-defense.

43 times, people. 43 times. A gun owner is 43 times more likely to use his gun on a family member, a neighbor or himself than against an intruder. Better to get the iPhone Gun App. Completely safe and free to download.

My trophy wife upholds family values

Conservative radio blowhard Rush Limbaugh, 59, is taking a fourth stab at marriage with a weekend wedding to Kathryn Rogers, 33, an events coordinator 26 years his junior… and will presumably continue to crusade against gay marriage in defense of the sanctity of traditional marriage without even sensing the irony

Site of next Winter Olympics

One of my readers watched video from a former post where I referred to people as stupid when the proper word should have been ignorant. Sure there’s a semantic difference but in some ways the two are interchangeable. In my experience, people who are stupid don’t care that they’re ignorant. In fact, they’re gleeful about it, like the teabaggers who are proud to be anti-academic. People who are smart want to educate themselves and fill their brains with knowledge. Just as an athlete is compelled to move, a smart person is driven to feed her intellect, to express ideas.

As for people who are ignorant and/or stupid, the examples abound. Stuck in traffic, I flicked through the radio dials and came upon a major Los Angeles station doing a quiz show segment. The question was “What country has hosted the winter Olympics that is not in North America or Europe?” One of the disc jockeys rang his buzzer and said, “Canada.” That was obviously wrong. Then the guest participant, a listener, buzzed in. Her answer: Bangladesh. I am not making this up. (PS: The answer they were looking for was Japan.)