Recently I’ve been reading a lot about guns. First, there’s Andrew talking about how he’s really into guns now. Then there’s esr’s Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun about how guns are our ethical duty to own. Finally, there’s that Cho kid from Virginia Tech that everyone keeps talking about. So guns have been metaphorically waved in my face quite a bit recently.

All three events have made me think about why it is I don’t own a gun. There are myriad reasons. For starters, I would be highly annoyed (to put it mildly) if someone broke into my house and killed me with my own gun. I’m too lazy to do the research in this case because I think that gun control is like abortion - all the information out there is total BS. Each side claims to have irrefutable reasons as to why they are right. However, the anti-gun people always counter the pro-gun intruder defense by saying that the intruders kill people with their own guns. How often does this actually happen? No one knows. Second, I’m afraid that my kids (well, when I have some) will find it and kill themselves or someone else. Again, there are tons of stories about kids killing each other event if the parents told them they weren’t allowed to touch it or had the bullets somewhere else or both. I know someone near my family died this way, but I don’t remember who - it was my parents’ friend. Third, related to these two is the scenario where I kill my own kid because I think he/she is an intruder. I’ve only heard this in that stupid chain letter and I know chain letters are BS. However, I could totally see it happening - it’s why was always careful when I woke my dad up in the middle of the night. He had a machete by the bed. (It’s a Cuban redneck thing)

Reading a post from Miss Izzy is like watching a Simpsons episode. The beginning has nothing to do with the end, but serves only to set up the source of conflict. While reading Sunday Digression, she moved to a topic I feel pretty strongly about, the value of art in culture. She writes:

If you think about it, nearly all the most famous modern fiction work that is set in a world after a sort of semi-apocalypse has the burning of books and the confiscation of cultural capital as the fundemental conflict between the state and the people. 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Vertigo’s V for Vendetta, all of it have books being burned and the media under tight scrutiny. You’re kidding yourself if you think Art isn’t important and that I’m nothing but a cultural elitist.

life is still infinite. That may change today.