Something I've noticed and am curious about, but first a short anecdote to sort of put it into perspective.

About twenty years ago I used to take part in local 5K races, and this one time the race was along a road that bordered a sheep farm. As soon as we started running, all the sheep on the other side of the fence started running with us. We were laughing so hard we could barely run.

So the question is, why are so many people (not lawmakers, but just everyday people) still hanging in there when it's so obvious his policies are crap? I can see a few things. One is anger: they're angry at something (Obama?) and are hanging in there mostly out of spite. Incidentally, I haven't noticed so much anger in this country... well... ever before. Maybe I missed it.

Or maybe it's arrogant ignorance: they refuse to learn the truth because they don't want to accept they made an error in judgment. I've worked with people like this, and the only solution I came up with was to ignore them.

Or, like with the sheep, it's "mob mentality."

Or maybe they're overly influenced by social media and bots (but don't want to admit there are bots).

Or, very likely, some combination of the above.

This leads to another question, but I'll ask in another post.

Anyway, what do you think? Why are so many DT supporters still hanging in there?

Not use if this is a weird thought, or an evil one, or a spot-on one, but here goes...

The media has reported that there were a number of reports about the shooter: to the FBI, the school, the Sheriff's Dept, and other local agencies. Nothing was done.

[edit] The shooter is white. I have to wonder if things had gone differently if he were black.

I just emailed this to Edward Bastian at Delta:

Dear Mr. Bastian,

First, thank you so much for having the integrity to do what you did. The goodwill Delta will receive from this will be huge.

But now that the Lt. Governor of Georgia has countered by indulging in a (probably illegal) attempt at extortion -- which is probably just a way to try to set a legal precedent anyway -- I'd like to share what I would do next if I were you. Not that you haven't (probably) thought about it already.

I would set up a media campaign explaining briefly why you cut ties with the NRA, but then go right into the Lt. Gov's threat and say right up front that innocent lives are worth more to your airline than the tax credits you may lose. In other words, push the idea of integrity. Besides the fact that you can write off the advertising campaign as a business expense, the goodwill, again, will be priceless. And I think it would carry far more weight if you personally delivered the message.

Again, thank you for showing the US that some corporations still care.

***

Unfortunately, for whatever reason, I then received an "Address not found" error message. So I don't know if they cut off his email or what. It's disappointing, but maybe some of you might want to follow up with a similar letter.

BTW, this has nothing to do with liking Delta or not.

Granted this is a few years old, but I just found it, a piece in HuffPost about gun companies that donate to the NRA. No surprise there, but at least it puts some names and numbers on the table.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/nra-receives-millions-fro_b_848727.html

And another piece, this one from Business Insider:

http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-industry-funds-nra-2013-1

Did I just read correctly? If you live in one of nine states, including Oklahoma, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Washington, you will need a passport because these states' driver ID process doth not please TSA. Apparently it starts soon.

The clip is from Esquire.

I just received a long email re: this tax -- an exact copy of the email circulating back in 2006, which was debunked several times. I have to wonder if this email has been bouncing around since then, or if it got resurrected just in time for the mid-terms.

Either way, it's pretty scary. It even asks you to re-send it to two people, but "a hundred is better." I guess "they" are hoping people will just read it and go ballistic, but not bother to verify it.

Fascinating reading: https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/detail.php?cmte=National+Rifle+Assn&cycle=2016

Including how much they spent AGAINST Democratic candidates.

Okay, I like coming here and venting too, but that and two bucks will get me a drink at Starbucks.

I'd say a good start would be to write or call companies that offer discounts to NRA members and tell them you're not doing any business with them until they stop. Tell your friends and relatives all over the country. A few people won't make any difference, but millions will.

The NRA has helpfully included several pages of these partner companies right on their web site: https://benefits.nra.org/

Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if they took that page down as soon as they found out...

Thinking about it yesterday, it struck me that parts of it are very appropriate right now in light of the recent massacre. Here's the whole thing for your consideration:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (Okay, "men" needs to change, but that's the way he wrote it)

"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

That last part, especially, "that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." really jumps out at me.

And the kicker... the GA was written by a Republican.

Okay, this is not about politics or the NRA or the Second Amendment or assault-tye weapons or any of that.

I'm curious as to whether anyone has done some kind of historical study (hopefully non-political) about why Americans are so into guns. Off the top, I can think of several possibilities:

1. The U.S was founded after an armed revolution so gun ownership goes back a long way.

2. Expansion into the West, which involved a lot of guns.

3. The Civil War - which might (?) explain why so many gun owners seem to live in the South.

4. Hollywood, John Wayne movies, gangster movies, cop movies, and so forth.

5. Hunting.

Other countries aren't into guns as much as we are (even Canada, which shared a lot of our expansion and wars). So, yeah, I'm curious. I think there's an interesting story there somewhere, and I don't think the Second Amendment, by itself, has anything to do with it.

So, anyone know of a good book on this?