Politics of No & Guns (2 fine American traditions)

Dear James, Daniel and Emily

Thoughts on a wide range of topics today so be prepared, I will try to use subject headers so if there is one you don't care about you can just skip it.

Senate Filibusters & politics of No

So 1 man held up business in the Senate for 5 days over the last week. Which resulted in over 200,000 people being delayed in receiving unemployment benefits, plus a whole host of other things. In the grand scheme of things this may not seem like much, just 5 days right? Wrong, for some people that delayed check could mean the final missed house payment to avoid foreclosure, or delayed medical payment etc. This economy is no time to play games with people's welfare. And when it comes down to it, that's all this was, the Senator got the exact same thing that was offered to him last week. So it was all gamesmanship. This is just the highlight of a year in which the sore loser Party of No is doing everything in their power to keep the majority party from accomplishing what they were elected to do. Which is wrong by pretty much any measure.

I agree with the general structure of the House & Senate, and I do feel that there is a place for true filibusters. But what happened this week was not a filibuster, it was 1 man saying, "I don't want to vote on this" and that was it, no true filibuster. I think that if they don't get rid of the filibuster the Senate ought to at least get back to the old way of making Senators stand up on the floor and do a real filibuster. The current easy filibuster is just too easy to be abused, so you get what we saw this week.

Guns

So a bit of a perfect storm of sorts this week for me to think about guns. First, my old high school friend's trial start jury selection today. Second, the Supreme's begin consideration on another major handgun ban case. Third, a week after some spirited discussion last week on this issue.

First, while I personally see no reason or justificiation for the massive handgun industry and think it is partly responsible for the wide spread violence in our culture, I understand the counter argument about constitutional rights etc. And I don't want to get into repeating that discussion/argument.

What I want to know is why all of the 'responsible gun owners' refuse to accept stricter laws? Not bans, just stricter laws. Why is it easier to get a gun than drive a car? I don't buy the whole 'if we register our guns and make it harder to get them then the government will have an easier time rounding up gun owners'. That is liberatarian crap in my opinion, and is part of a fear of government pathology that has no place in reasonable discussions.

Stricter laws, with waiting periods, background checks etc. might have kept some of the terrible events and shootings that have happened from occurring. People worry about the government? I worry about a government that lets the gun lobby write it's gun laws.