Thursday, September 19, 2013

Doug Osborne at the Cinema Bar September 19, 2013 8:30 PM

Tonight at around 8:30 PM I will be performing a set of my songs at The Cinema Bar in Culver City, CA. Me and my acoustic guitar. If you're in the Los Angeles area, it would be great if you could show up and be enlightened or depressed, depending on the song.

8p Lindsey Jane Bullen
8:30p Doug Osborne Music
915p Rich McCulley
10p Punch-Drunks

Texas. Banning Books and Facts Since December 29, 1845

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2013/09/17/gun-rights-advocates-want-history-book-removed-from-texas-school/

Pretty much everyone owned a gun of some kind in 1787, and what a farmer owned to protect his livestock from predators was pretty much what government had, too. There was never any question then or now whether people had a gun.

What was under question as we formed a government?

Could the government confiscate your weapons? Of course, a truly Conservative government could (and did, in the case of the King). Ours was a Liberal democracy and we wanted to enumerate Human Rights in our Constitution.

Could the states form Militias and require that people bear arms? Of course, to protect the nascent Federal government lacking a standing army, and to protect wealthy interests (slaveowners - this was a way to insure that plantation owners in the south could protect their property, to keep them part of the fragile new nation).

Does this mean that we are born with the right which ensures that any person can own any weapon at any time. Of course not...that's a fantasy you've been fed by billionaires to keep you terrorized, poor, and ignorant.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

We are in debt because of....illegal immigrants?

-We are not at war with or within Mexico or Canada. I do crave Poutine, though.

-Who are you calling we? We don't give any immigrant a job, other than picking our food, washing our cars, wiping our babies' butts. Immigrants come here to work, support their families, make a better life.

-A driver's license is a state issue. A state is not a sovereign nation and doesn't have borders, citizens, etc., the way a nation does. If a state issues a licence without establishing immigration status, WE KNOW WHO THEY ARE, they buy insurance, they pay their fees like the rest of us, but a DMV employee is not an immigration officer, nor would you want them to be.

-No non-citizen gets food stamps...wait, nobody gets food stamps. The SNAP program doesn't use stamps. And the typical recipient is a rural white child, you know, the ones whos parents voted Republican for 30 years and now want to take their country back.

-Immigrants come here to get work and rent or buy a place to live. There are more homeless that are veterans, per capita, than undocumented immigrants. Although some of the homeless veterans are undocumented immigrants since the Army will take them, so they can fight and die for the U.S. When they rent or buy, they are enriching our economy.

-Undocumented immigrants get health care? From the same free health care the rest of us get? This is seriously a thing?

-Yes, all residents are guaranteed a free and appropriate education. The alternative, I suppose, would be children running around in the streets, poor, sick, and ignorant. That's a Great, Exceptional, America.

-Nobody but billionaires and incorporated entities (an immigrant can incorporate here, no citizenship papers needed) can operate businesses largely tax free because of the tax code we started breaking when we elected Reagan. It's you and me who pay for the socialized losses to the 1% can prosper.

We are in debt largely because of two off-the-books wars, tax cuts to billionaires, and Medicare Pt. D (a bribe for seniors' votes). Social insurance programs, etc., have little or nothing to do with our debt (we don't borrow to pay someone's Social Security, in fact we borrow FROM Social Security, which is the only reason why some say it's in trouble).

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Yes, It's Called Gun Control

Remember, a truly Conservative government would just confiscate your weapons (and conscript you, probably). If you call yourself a Conservative and oppose, oh, Government, or its regulations put into law by our elected representatives, you probably aren't really, truly a conservative.

We live in a nation of laws, and our government works, to some extent. Pretty much all of our problems are caused by the influence of money, and these can possibly be fixed within a few generations if we are determined to fix them. The problems of guns, and their terrible costs to us, and the world, are also largely a matter of outside money controlling government.

Gun ownership is a tricky thing. I don't think many people would think twice about most of us having a shotgun or a .22 if we live on a farm, or live 20 miles from our nearest neighbor or town, or in a cabin in the woods, or if we hunt for what we eat, or if there are bears or lions in our neighborhood, or if we are in law enforcement, National Guard (our Well Regulated Militia, now generally not serving to protect the interests of slaveowners), or the actual Army/Navy/AirForce/Marines/CoastGuard, etc.

200 years ago, for one or more of these reasons, many of our ancestors had a gun for one or more of these reasons. Now, few of our households have a gun, but most households with guns seem to have many. Most of these guns were legally purchased, which in many cases means you have a pulse, and somehow, some way, criminals keep getting more and more guns. Could it be that legally purchased guns are re-sold with no oversight, no regulation?

Even with criminals getting guns - and ammo - because we refuse to reasonably regulate their sale, violent crimes, committed with guns, have been decreasing as the number of households with guns have decreased (I'm not declaring cause-and-effect here, but it's a factor).

What has increased? Mass shootings have increased, and they have increased especially since we ended our Assault Weapons Ban. Murder by gun as the period on a sentence of domestic violence has increased, and suicide by gun has increased.

The bland reason is that guns of various kinds are far more effective for mass shootings, murdering your spouse or child, or killing yourself, than any other item. If you do not read this and understand that yes, guns do kill people...well, you're probably not reading this far anyway...

We need some simplicity on this issue:

-limit the quantity of guns anyone can buy
-limit the capacity of guns to shoot many bullets in sequence, and their ammo
-limit the sales and usage of guns to adults, like driving and drinking (exceptions for kids on farms, OK, maybe)
-background check every sale. Is it reasonable to expect that we don't sell to felons, those under treatment for mental illness, etc?
-tag every gun and bullet for subsequent identification

None of these reasonable regulations would in any way infringe on the right that you were born with to protect yourself, or the right enumerated in the Constitution to bear a musket in a well-regulated militia. If you feel they would, you probably get your facts from the wrong sources.

I have some other suggestions:

-teach your children that guns are not the answer, and lead by example
-if you do hunt for food, or shoot for target practice, or collect guns as examples of craft and art, keep your weapons with great care, as if the lives of your children depend on it, because they do
-hope that as we cease our obsession with guns, we will see less of them in movies, TV, songs, video games...art is a reflection on society, and the mirror doesn't always paint a pretty picture

What makes these common sense solutions difficult? Money, again. Money from billionaires and corporations are pooled. We, against any common sense, let them buy elections, write legislation, and enrich our legislators. In this case, we have a lobbying organization for arms merchants and those who buy their product (terrorists, the Military Industrial Complex, non-well-regulated militias intent on sedition, etc.) doing all of these at an astounding rate. The #NRA represents 2% of Americans (many of these are among the appx. 24% of households who own guns) yet control a vast percentage of Congress (as well as local and state politicians). Trust me, the NRA doesn't care for a minute about your constitutional rights, beyond what they need to keep the free flow of money from manufacturers of weapons of mass destruction to politicians).

Remove money from politics, and after some time the will of the People may once again be represented.

What the People want is, indeed, Gun Control, not people control.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Born With Saddles on Our Backs

"The Mass of Mankind Has Not Been Born with Saddles on Their Backs" -Thomas Jefferson

Our current economic divide has been initiated by the 1%, maybe, but voted in by the 99%. They were told that government was the problem, and that their social and religious agenda would be put in place if they voted a certain way.

Reagan Democrats, self-styled Libertarians, non-committal Independents...have voted against their self interest for 30 years, and our current situation is the result.

Fighting back will require that Americans understand this, and that they vote. The tools include removing money from elections, outlawing paid lobbyists, mandated and paid voting, reinstating majority rule in Congress, and smashing our tax code to rebuild it.

With these, perhaps in a generation or two, we may be able to rebuild a middle class.

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Inside the heart and mind of i.: Lovers - Part 2

Inside the heart and mind of i.: Lovers - Part 2: For the second episode, I think I'll get a little more personal.      Alright! Who's ready to read another dry, boring story about...