Ruminations

By Ron Dupuis
“Let’s Pretend.” You’re a police officer. You receive a call of a disturbance and there is no other information available. When you arrive you find a man whose home has been broken into for the third time this month. All his valuables have been stolen, T.V., stereo, jewelry, and even his brand new car. The victim is on the front porch screaming at his neighbors because of what he perceives as lack of interest or concern.
“Nobody cares.” he screams. “Not my neighbors, not the police, not the courts, and most of all, not the politicians’ downtown.”
“I’m going to shoot the next person I feel is going to rob me” he says as he reveals a holstered 9mm hand gun under his jacket. Further investigation reveals that the victim here is licensed to carry a concealed weapon.
What do you do?
If your answer is anything less than immediately confiscating that weapon, license or not, then you would be wrong.
The right to “keep and bear arms” is guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. I only wish our founding fathers had the foresight to have added the word “responsibly”
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“Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Ben Franklin

Profound words? Of course they are. For a period in our history when the entire population of the thirteen colonies was a mere two and a half million.
In today’s “real world” that many of our citizens lives could be snuffed out with one suitcase nuclear bomb or biological attack. Where Franklin alive today I’m sure he would rather us use on of his less famous quotes such as “Nothing bring more pain than too much pleasure; nothing brings more bondage than too much liberty.”
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I have some good news and I have some bad news. First the good news. Last week President Bush signed into law the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. While the original bill was well written and needed, a clause was added, somewhere along the line, that makes it against the law to send someone an annoying e-mail without using your real name.

(type http://news.com.com/Create+an+e-annoyance%2C+go+to+jail/2010-1028_3-6022491.html in your browser to read article)

The penalties range from fines to jail time.
Here at IMHO we have dedicated our lives annoying people, mostly Democrats. Fortunately we use our real names. Or do we?