More Gun-play on Parliament Hill

Paul Martin has decided to ban handguns. Whoopee. He's actually managed to get me to agree to a Stephen Harper sentiment: That we actually have a fairly stringent set of gun laws in this country and they seem to be working.

The few legally-held handguns in this country aren't bothering anyone. It's a flood of illegal guns, coupled with a certain type of lifestyle. I personally am getting tired of hearing of "south Asian male, 22, shot at nightclub, may have had gang connections".

Every race and nationality takes its turn in the ghetto. In the early 1900's the indolence, alcoholism and violence of the Irish made them undesirable neighbours. At the moment it seems as though the East Indian community is arising from this stage, with the related inter-gang homicides as the gangs are squeezed into smaller, less respectable spaces and fight for territory.

However, it's discouraging to see the nightclubs putting in metal detectors because "more people are carrying guns when they go out". If a bouncer catches someone trying to get through the metal-detector with a Smith & Wesson .45, what is he going to do about it? Bouncers aren't armed--it's illegal.

The solution will come when the communities from whom the gangsters are recruited start to participate in the enforcement process--like telling the police when they know a crime's been comitted. To do otherwise is collaboration.

In More Amusing News

If I were Anne Coulter's parents, I'd tell the press she was adopted. Crazy Annie flounced offstage to boos and catcalls at a the University of Connecticut, saying:

"I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am."

Anne, darling, you're really limiting yourself there. I can only think of three people, actually. But I'm told you, Mike Savage and Rush are competing for the shrinking audience of genuine loonies who believe Iraq has something to do with the War on Terrorism, and Mr. Bush is busy in his closet, rocking back and forth and chanting "There ain't no sich thang as Globalised Warming!" with his fingers stuck firmly in his ears.

On the Subject of Which

I approve of the Quioxte--ahem--Kyoto Protocols. We can't meet them, I mean we really can't. The targets are impossible without completely retooling our lives and economies worldwide, and only 95% impossible if we get started now. But I like them just the same--they're all we've got, the only attempt to address something which is real, and is happening now. Any other course of action at the moment seems to predicate itself on denial of that basic.

So it was good to see most of the world (except the one with the biggest economy) getting together on the idea. It is at least a statement that we believe that global warming is a fact, that it is a problem, and that it's a problem we need to address in our lifetime.

And Finally, A Personal Triumph

After three weeks of having to thread my way down the hallway I share with the SO betwixt piles of camping gear, old carpets, and assorted other crap, I completed the storeroom floor. Next, it's the main living spaces. The SO looks doubtful when I tell her we can do it with a minimum of fuss and inconvenience, and makes noises about hiring a "professional".

I ask you, is this any way to express her supreme confidence in me as to my fitness as a mate?